Mike Tyson’s one-man stage show that ended up in Broadway is now a documentary. Also directed by Spike Lee, it will be shown in HBO.

It’s quite a shock to hear Mike Tyson has a one-man stage show in Broadway. It actually started in Las Vegas—Tyson’s old stomping grounds when bigger heavyweight fighters were like trees and he was wielding a chainsaw. Now Spike Lee has converted it into a documentary. Deadline covered Tyson’s introduction at a Television Critics Association event:

“In Vegas, it was a much different project, Tyson told the TCA gathering this afternoon.
It originally had him backed by a rock band, Tyson noted, before Lee got involved and moved the show to Broadway for two weeks of shows last summer.

“Spike changed it to just me, though I liked it with the band a lot too.” The show — is about the long-troubled and controversial fighter recounting his life’s highs and lows, from his boxing career to his time in prison.

Tyson’s introduction: "I know many of you are probably wondering what the hell Mike Tyson is doing up on stage tonight.”

While a clip shown from the special made it appear that Tyson was speaking extemporaneously, in fact he’s following a script that was crafted by his wife. It was shot during two of the Broadway performances. While Tyson has had plenty of experience performing in entertainment projects, mostly in cameos, the boxer said today that doing his one-man show “felt like second nature.”

Tyson also said he found parallels between emoting onstage and throwing his fists in the ring: “I didn’t know how I was going to be able to do it. The only difference is I don’t have to go to the hospital after I perform,” he deadpanned. In both cases “it’s like being in a war.”
For his part, Lee played up what a professional production this was, shot with 11 cameras from every conceivable angle. And while this was a live one-man show, he said that directing is directing whether fiction or non-fiction.

Spike Lee shares: “I don’t make a distinction. It’s all storytelling. Mike Tyson is the most honest human being I’ve ever met in my life. When you see this, he’s out there on the stage naked, displaying his dark parts and his demons to the world. It’s the most courageous thing I’ve ever seen in my life.”