Funny, engaging, risqué,slightly vulgar, insightful, touching and most of all real.
Those are all words that could describe Mike Tyson’s broadway show the “undisputed truth.”
Tyson was in top form and showed that while he may not be an actor by nature he still has the showmanship and charisma that he carried in the ring when he was on the top of the boxing world.
He opened his performance to an excited crowd and talked about what the night would bring, his ups and downs the good and the bad, he reminded the crowd the he was guy that “used to knock mother fu$@ers out” to which the crowd gave a well deserved applause.
The first hour consisted of Tyson taking the audience down memory lane, from his birth to a mother he barley knew to a father that may or may not have been his actual father. The large video screen Tyson stood in front of would be the backdrop for pictures and moments in his life he would talk about.
Tyson talked about his childhood, how we was arrested over 30 times by the age of twelve, how his first fight came out of anger due to the fact of an older man tearing the head off a pigeon and splattering blood on the young Tyson.
Tyson spoke about his mentor Cus D’Amato a man that who by size may have not been tall but his words were powerful- So powerful that Tyson spoke how D’Amato talked to a young Tyson about not being intimidated, but while D’Amato was talking about not being intimidated Tyson was being intimidated by the words D’Amato was saying, it was a touching story of a young Tyson, who was on the cusp of being something great yet learning how to become a man and much less the baddest man on the planet. The pictures provided the backdrop of Tyson as a teen, how he was a man-child. While he may have been physically gifted and mature in body, he was still very much a kid.
Tyson touched on how he and Teddy Atlas were not too fond of one another and how after some young kids playfulness turned ugly when a 15 year old Tyson grabbed the behind of the niece of Atlas and how Atlas put a gun to the ear of Tyson and then pulled the trigger.
He reminisced about his ex-wife Robin Givens and spoke in lengths of her being a “rotten bitch” and how even after they were getting a divorce he was still having “relations” with her. He had a pretty funny story about Givens and Brad Pitt back in the day as well.
In the final hour of his show he talked about his life after his loss to Buster Douglas. How in the 8th round of the Douglas fight it seemed that he ref had a long 10 count for Douglas which allowed him to continue and comeback and knockout Tyson. He touched on Don King and let his feelings out on the “only in America” can Don King charge Tyson $8000 for towels among other things.
In the end he wrapped up his stops in rehab and how he has came full circle, from his rape charge to drug use and rehab stints to losing his 4 year old daughter.
It was heartfelt; losing a 4 year old little girl and in the unfortunate way she passed, a way he still admits he can’t understand. It was powerful and touching and simply real.
It was a sad note but in the end he opened his heart up to the audience and to his children probably in away he may never had if such a tragedy had not occurred. While he admitted no one wants to be part of losing a child club he also knows that Exodus Tyson is an angel watching over him now. She is probably the reason and strength he is able to go up on a stage on Broadway and talk about his life. The good, the bad and the ugly.
Tyson.
A man who was once known as the baddest man on the planet isn’t half bad as a man on broadway either.
And then…
Happiness and Success to the Doak family, my God bless you and your family.