The semi-autobiographical "Freak," developed with director David Bar Katz, made its Broadway debut at the Cort Theatre on Jan. 20, 1998. The book is a 1997 draft adapted for reading. The HBO show, filmed by Spike Lee, garnered for Leguizamo a "Best Performance" Emmy in a variety or music program. "Freak" follows two other Leguizamo stage shows, "Mambo Mouth" (1991) and "Spic-O-Rama" (1992).

The book renders a highly suspect, obscenely comical portrayal of Leguizamo's family and friends during his growing years. Describing his birth, Leguizamo says, "My first view of the world was upside down and between my mom's legs. And they wonder why I have problems." One of my favorite scenes from the book was when Nuyorican (New York Puerto Rican) Leguizamo meets up with his first "militant orthodox feminist vegan radical Latino separatist," in other words, a West Coast Chicano.

The book's design is highly complementary to the text. On the front cover, a big-mouth drawing of Leguizamo is pasted over a vibrating hot magenta and aqua striped background. A bright yellow, boldly lettered "FREAK" emerges from behind Leguizamo's head. Inside the book, the beginning of each scene triggers a repeated, visually stimulating opening sequence. The scene's title is set in an 84-pt. gray fringe typeface boxed by a 1-pt. white border on an all-black background, followed by a second page at the center of which is a cropped circle of Leguizamo's mischief-filled smiling face. The opening lines of the scene spiral outward, gradually increasing in size, from the face. On the third page are the opening lines repeated again (in case you skipped reading the text spiral). Thereafter, the rest of the text follows. Other quirky design details infiltrate the book. I'd keep this book in my library for its design as much as its content.

John Said Himself That This Was Based On His Life And How He Really Exaggerated It For The Play And Then To The Book.I Have Seen Part Of The One-Man Show On HBO And I Thought It Was Really Funny.The Book Contains Some Pretty Funny And Weird Subject Matter.I Think That The Elaberation Of The "Characters" In The Book Were Really Funny And Had Some Cool Dialoge.One Part I Thought Was Grose-Out Funny Was His Father's Way Of Trying To Get The KFC Lady To Help John Became A Man.It Is Certinaly Not For Delicate Ears And Open For Open Minds.Hope You Like My Review...Feel Free To Look At My Others.Bye,Bye Now.....Have A Good Day

Buy this book,go see the show,try to find a copy of the show on video tape.It's great.