Mike Tyson on His One-Man Show: National Tour, Death Threats, Stage-Diving

The boxing legend has big plans for his autobiographical stage show

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Mike Tyson takes part in a curtain call following his "Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth" Broadway Opening Night at Longacre Theatre in New York City, Aug. 2, 2012.

For Mike Tyson fans who may have missed his one-man, autobiographical stage show Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth, the boxer brings good news: his show is going on the road. The show moved from Las Vegas to Broadway in July and gained Spike Lee as a director; now, starting with a February 12, 2013, gig in Indianapolis, followed by Chicago, San Francisco, Anaheim, Calif., in March and then on to dates across the U.S. leading to two nights in Washington, D.C., in April, Iron Mike’s truth will be all over the place.

(MOREMike Tyson Bringing His Truth to Broadway)

In a conference call with reporters this week, Tyson promised that audiences in Detroit or Durham would get the same content seen by New Yorkers—well, probably.

You never know with a Mike Tyson show: the boxer recalled that his Broadway run included both a death threat and a shooting threat from audience members, and that a speaking gig in Australia recently included the arrest of a person who tried to jump on stage from the balcony. And after the national tour, Tyson said he hopes to bring the show abroad, even to “places where they don’t speak our language, and we could have interpreters”—although Tyson has not had the easiest time gaining entry to foreign countries recently. (He’s completely sober now, he says, after admitting that he was high while filming his cameo in The Hangover: ““My fans get me high. That’s the high I was looking for when I was doing drugs, but I could never receive it,” he said. “Now it’s back.”)

(MOREMike Tyson Grudgingly Granted Entry to Australia, But Not Yet New Zealand)

“I realized that I am an interesting guy. I want to entertain people and I don’t know where that comes from,” said Tyson, observing that he feels the same high and the same doubts before he goes on stage that he did before he stepped into the ring as a boxer. “The only thing that’s different,” he said, “is I don’t have to go to the hospital afterwards.”