MAMBO MOUTH {JOHN LEGUIZAMO} (TV)
Summary
This comedy program features a one-man performance by stand-up comedian John Leguizamo. Five sketches are presented in which Leguizamo portrays a variety of characters ranging from a self-assured prostitute to an eager pubescent boy. In the first sketch, Leguizamo plays the egotistical host of a public access television program, "Agamemnon's Naked Personalities," centered around the host's prowess as a playboy lover. During the course of the television program, Agamemnon reads letters from women around the world who want him to love them; he gives advice to male viewers having problems with their women; and he reenacts a scene from an unsuccessful film titled "Nocturnal Emissions," in which he portrays a suave Cuban cabana boy who seduces an older woman in order to get his green card. In the next sketch, Leguizamo plays Loco, a teenager from New York who has just had his first sexual encounter. In between dancing to the music from his boom box and cracking jokes about other neighborhood kids, Loco gives his friend a detailed account of his traumatic experiences with a prostitute named Nilda. The next sketch is about a Mexican man named Pepe who has been trapped by the INS and is on the verge of being deported. From behind bars, Pepe alternately begs and rails at the guards. At first he tries to convince the guards that he is anything but Mexican. When that tactic fails, he expresses resentment toward Americans who call immigrants the parasites of American society, yet take advantage of immigrant labor. Then Leguizamo portrays a feisty streetwalker, Manny the Fanny, who graces all who pass by with her acerbic wit. The only time she pauses is when she encounters a girlfriend whose lover has badly beaten her. Moved by her friend's suffering, Manny recalls her own experience bringing an abusive relationship to a satisfying end. The final sketch is a "crossover seminar" for Latinos, led by a reformed Latino who has given up his own culture and personality in exchange for a conservative Japanese identity, in order to succeed in the corporate world. In this seminar, the character dresses in an expensive business suit and adopts a fake Japanese accent, and he explains how he transformed himself. He then presents a slide show illustrating the stereotypical Latino traits which must be erased. However, in the middle of his speech, the self-designated "crossover king" suffers a breakdown and starts wildly cursing in Spanish and dancing the mambo.
(This program contains adult-oriented language.)
Details
- NETWORK: HBO
- DATE: October 28, 1991 10:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:55:20
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: T:56267
- GENRE: Comedy
- SUBJECT HEADING: Alien labor - Comedy; Hispanic Americans - Ethnic identity - Comedy; Sex - Comedy; Stereotype (Psychology)
- SERIES RUN: HBO - TV, 1991
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Michael Scott Bregman … Executive Producer
- Jeff Ross … Producer
- Thomas Schlamme … Director
- Kate O'Neill … Associate Producer
- John Leguizamo … Writer, Performer