Freak is John's Broadway One-Man show. He refers to it as A Semi-Demi-Quasi-Pseudo Autobiography.
This is what reads on the inside flaps of the cover. This should sum up what the book is about.
FREAK: A SEMI-DEMI-QUASI-PSEUDO AUTOBIOGRAPHY is John Leguizamo's hilarious coming-of-age story. Set in various neighborhoods of Queens, New York, in the ersa of disco and break-dancing, Freak recounts the turmoil and eccentricities within a Latino family struggling to make it. A domineering father, frustrated by his rocky quest for the American dream; a mother who find feminism and the club scene when she tires of Pop's tight control; a pudgy, eager-to-please, easily manipulated younger brother; and John - who doesn't spare himself in telling in the gory details of his teen years.
He describes his parents' arrival in the United States; his father's desire to be a tenement king; his family's stint as the Leguizamobergs in the Catskills; his brushes with the Irish and Italian bullies of his neighborhood; exhilarating theater outings with his flamboyant Uncle Sanny; and his adolescent obsession with the wonders of his penis, in scenes that are laugh-out-loud funny.
FREAK is the book adaptation of Leguizamo's comical and critically acclaimed one-man Broadway show. But FREAK, the book, contains narrative that had to be cut from the show because of time restraints. It's a great read not only for those addicted to Leguizamo's award winning theater successes MAMBO MOUTH and SPIC-O-RAMA, but also for the legions of fans who have seen him on the big screen Romeo & Juliet, To Wong Foo, and Carlito's Way, and on television in the ground-breaking Fox show House of Buggin'.
HBO interview
Freak article
Martin's Guide to New York Theatre - Freak
Buy the book!
Article on Freak
JOHN LEGUIZAMO: The 1 and Only