Before talking of boxing and entertaining, Mike Tyson spoke of tennis and his daughter.
“I just got back from taking Milan to tennis lessons,” Tyson said with a slight laugh this morning during a phone conversation. “You should see her play. She’s getting so good. I watch her play, and I’m just filled with gratitude for everything I have.”
Tyson’s introspection, talking of being a husband and parent, has always belied his glowering image as one of the storied heavyweights in boxing history. It is that quality that has made his autobiographical one-man show, “Undisputed Truth,” a hit in Las Vegas, on Broadway and around the world.
Tyson is back onstage at one of the hotels that made him an international sports icon, MGM Grand. His “Undisputed Truth” production returns to a somewhat unlikely venue — the funhouse that is Brad Garrett’s Comedy Club at MGM’s Underground entertainment and retail corridor.
The show premieres at 10 p.m. March 3 and runs Thursdays through Sundays through June 26, with select dark dates to account for Tyson’s tightly packed travel schedule. Tickets start at $54.95 (not including fees) and can be purchased starting 1 p.m. Friday at any MGM Grand box office, by phone at (702) 531-3826 and (866) 740-7711 and at MGMGrand.com and Ticketmaster.com.
VIP packages are available for $249.95 (minus fees), which offer a meet-and-greet and photograph with Tyson after the show.
The show is a partnership with Tyson and Adam Steck’s SPI Entertainment of Las Vegas. Steck produced and co-created the original version of the show, which debuted in March 2012 at the then-Hollywood Theater (now David Copperfield Theater) and served as a launching point for a Broadway run at Longacre Theater in August 2012.
The production in New York was directed by Spike Lee, and represented the first production conceived and premiered in Las Vegas to have a run on Broadway. That led to a 36-show national tour and special on HBO in November 2013.
For this run, Steck is a tenant of Garrett and the hotel, leasing the venue from the comic, who in turn is renting from the resort company. The room seats a cozy 250.
“I love that the stage is a lot smaller and people are right there in front of me,” Tyson said. “I’ll be embedded in the crowd. I’ll really be able to interact with them.”
Tyson says there will be a boost in the video component of the show and stories he’s yet to tell onstage. But there will be no band or singer, which were used at Hollywood Theater in 2012.
"We had like an eight-piece band before, but for this, we just want Mike," Steck said today in a phone conversation. "Being close to him is a powerful experience."
Tyson’s wife, Kiki, who helped assemble the deal with Steck and Garrett, also wrote much of the script and has again been involved in the latest written adaptation of Tyson’s life and career.
Most recently, Tyson made news in Las Vegas with a purchase of a new 8,149-square-foot, $2.5 million home in Seven Hills and today refers to the city as his hometown.
Onstage, Tyson will again use a chronological arc in rolling out that remarkable biography, beginning with his youth in the Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn through his training with Cus D’Amato to worldwide fame as the youngest heavyweight champ in history.
“It’s a script, but I’ll be doing a lot of ad-libbing,” Tyson said. “Scripted freestyle, that’s what it is. Can you do that? We’ll do that. I’ve been getting used to coming off the script and talking from the heart. After four years, I need to keep it fresh.”
Steck said the deal was reignited in October. “I kept running into Kiki in the most random places, like at the airport and the grocery store, and one morning she called and said she and Mike wanted to partner again and continue what we started four years ago.
“We all agree that Mike needs to be onstage, and this is the place to do it. This will be an intimate, in-your-face, super-potent experience.”
By now, Tyson is an expert stage performer who nonetheless "finds comfort in being uncomfortable." Facing new audiences has kept him energized.
“We’ve always had a great reception, in Paris, Australia, Monaco, Canada, all around the country,” Tyson said. “We just did a show in Reno (at the Silver Legacy) last weekend, and it was crazy. One of our best shows ever.”
In a text message late Tuesday, Garrett said, “I jumped at the opportunity to make this deal simply because who wouldn’t? I saw Mike’s Broadway version of the same show he’s bringing to my club and was blown away by the humor and honesty surrounding this man’s amazing life and career.”
It helps that the comedy club venue has a bit of a boxing club vibe.
“He liked the intimacy of the room, and it felt like the perfect fit all the way around,” Garrett said. Then, bowing to the funny, he added, “Plus, I’ll make a fortune on ear protectors.”
It is possible that the show could extend beyond its listed June 26 closing date. “It absolutely can,” Steck said, “but the good and bad of this is Mike is hotter than ever with endorsement deals, film offers, TV, personal appearances. … The schedule for the show changed four to five times, but he needs to be onstage and in front of people.”
Tyson recently appeared in the martial-arts film “Ip Man 3,” the latest in a series of biographical action films centered on the life of Wing Chung grandmaster Yip Man. His animated series, “Mike Tyson Mysteries,” is still airing on Adult Swim, and he’s hosting regular memorabilia signing events in Las Vegas.
On Friday, he’s at Field of Dreams at the Forum Shops at Caesars Palace; on Saturday, it’s Field of Dreams at the Venetian. He also is co-hosting a new podcast with Peter Rosenberg of the Hot 97 Morning Show in New York.
Even today, when Tyson walks into a public place, whether it’s a restaurant or MGM Grand Garden Arena for a title fight, the room electrifies.
How’s that feel?
“I just look at that as just being grateful,” he said. “I’m not always sure I deserve that, but I have gratitude for everyone who has stuck by me and helped me stay on the proper track.” Forever a boxer, Tyson just keeps swinging. It's a strategy that works in the ring, or even on the tennis court.
Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at Twitter.com/JohnnyKats. Also, follow “Kats With the Dish” at Twitter.com/KatsWiththeDish.
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