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| John Leguizamo prepares for his show Tales From a Ghetto Klown. Photo courtesy of Ben DeJesus |
“It was one
of the most rewarding experience of my life,” said Ben DeJesus on working with
John Leguizamo on the documentary, “John Leguizamo’s Tales From a Ghetto
Klown,” which chronicles the actor’s return to Broadway with his one-man show.
Premiering
in March 2011, Tales From a Ghetto Klown
marked Leguizamo’s first show on Broadway since 2002. The documentary shows the
rehearsal and preparation for Leguizamo’s show, from Broadway to Colombia.
A fan of
Leguizamo’s since a student at Rutgers University, DeJesus’ opportunity to work
with him was a bit of a chance encounter.
“David
Chipel brought me in to do viral videos and that’s when I met John. We hit it
off right away. A few months later, John began writing and rehearsing his show.
“I would come in and bring my
camera and start shooting to get some B-roll. Then I asked, ‘Hey, can I come
back tomorrow?’ and then the next day, ‘Can I come back tomorrow?’” Eventually,
it turned into a full-blown project.
Production
on the documentary occurred off and on for two years starting in 2010, and was slated
to end on the show’s last night on Broadway.
“We had over
100 hours of footage, and the doc was going to go until closing night. We took
it another eight months when going to Colombia.”
Funding for
the project came from a grant through Latino Public Broadcasting, beating out
hundreds of other projects for the prize.
The project was then brought to Donald Thoms’ attention, director of
arts programming at PBS. In January,
Thoms’ decided to speed up the production process to have the documentary play
as part of their summer arts festival.
“John
Leguizamo’s Tales From a Ghetto Klown” marks the first full-length documentary
for DeJesus, whose previous credits include music videos for notable Latino
acts Chino y Nacho and Don Omar.
DeJesus got
his start in TV production with an internship at MTV. Starting out as a
production assistant, DeJesus worked his way up to writer on the show “Cribs.” With
TV and music videos being short productions, the transition to documentary
features is more of a labor of love.
“I came
from television. That style has a quicker gratification, then you’re on to the
next one. With documentaries, you’re really sculpting something much bigger. I
wanted to take my time and to make it as best as possible. You can’t rush that
in documentary.”
The final
product shows how much DeJesus really cared about the project. From buying
tickets to his Broadway shows and then waiting by the back door of the theater
to shake his hand, it’s safe to say that his first documentary was a dream come
true.
For now,
DeJesus is continuing to work in television, and is looking for his next documentary.
“It’s a
labor of love and I have room for more.”
“John
Leguizamo’s Tales From a Ghetto Klown” premieres on PBS July 13 at 9 p.m. A DVD
of the film is available for purchase on PBS’s website.
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