John Leguizamo may be best known for as the lisping voice behind "Ice Age's" Sid the sloth, but his heart lies in stand-up comedy — particularly his insightful one-man shows. And as his latest, "Ghetto Klown," gets set to premiere on HBO, the comedian visited TODAY Thursday to talk about how he used comedy to escape his rough Queens, NY childhood.
"Comedy was the thing that saved me through my whole entire life," he said. "When we moved into our neighborhood it was like white flight. We were like the first Latin family, so we were like pioneers, and I had to be funny all the time."
But he had a small army of mentors and teachers who encouraged his humor, while his best pal Ray Ray introduced the young Leguizamo to his first stage: New York City's subway.
"He took me to the IRT No. 7 train, and that's where I did my first performance, on the subway," said Leguizamo. "I got arrested, so it was like my first bad review."
He's moved on from those early days, appearing in dozens of movies and TV shows, and taken his lumps along the way. Sometimes literally. In 1989's "Casualties of War," he recounted how Sean Penn had to slap him multiple times over multiple takes, which made his face swell up. "And then they cut the scene out of the movie!" he said.
These days, he'll do whatever it takes to get his audience thinking ... or laughing, including dancing with TODAY's Natalie Morales at the end of his interview.
"It's like the chicken dance," Morales commented as they shimmied opposite one another.
But Leguizamo didn't seem to mind, and just kept shakin' his groove thing.
"Ghetto Klown" premieres on HBO on Saturday, March 22 at 10 p.m.