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MIAMI LIVING 99 studying. "I guess I peaked in high school 'cause I was popular. I was having a blast. Then college, not so much, but it was alright. I was on a mission now," John says. His latest one-man show, Latin History for Dummies --two years in the making-- is being performed in comedy clubs across the country. The pressure is on as comedy clubs are a new arena for John, who is more accustomed to sketch comedy performance spaces and improv clubs. At comedy clubs the audience expects to laugh at everything, he explains, and his act is not typical for this venue. His show is an hour-and-forty-minute-play, which he is reading, loaded with history and lessons. "People don't know what to make of me," he laughs. "But they're loving it and we're both getting used to each other." From the comedy club scene, he'll take the show to Broad- way/Off Broadway, HBO then to public schools and jails. "And they have no attention span whatsoever," he says of the latter, "so the comedy club is getting me there." From John's shows we are given fragments of his childhood. In Sexaholix…A Love Story, he recollects the Christmas his father went outside to save suicidal Santa from the roof, but Santa jumped, which meant no Christmas. John's consolation prize? He could read the encyclopedias! (I'm not doing the story justice --you have to watch it yourself.) There are a myriad of memories John shares that show the type of father his was, I was interested in knowing what kind of father he is to his daughter, Allegra, 15, and son, Lucas (Ryder Lee), 14. "Ya know, I'm pretty great, I gotta say. I'm the dad I wanted to have. I mean, I'm still going to mess them up somehow, because you can't help it." As you might expect, John confirms that he is the fun-loving, jokester kind of dad, who doesn't take anything seriously --to the point that his kids often tell him to be serious. It's not all fun and games though; he has high expectations of them, which, he tells me, they're living up to. While living under his roof they have to be on a team, read a lot, and play two musical instruments each (John doesn't play any, his parents let him quit). This December, the Leguizamo household will be filled with music. They celebrate both Christmas and Hanukkah (John is Catholic and Justine is Jewish), so they'll be spinning the dreidel, lighting the menorah, and singing Christmas songs. "My cousin has them [songs] all printed and we all sing by the piano. My daughter is playing [the piano] so great now. We get the whole family together --a lot of dancing for Christmas, the Jewish end and the Latin Catholic, all together. Latin people dance a lot longer. We just keep that going," he says with a smile. It sounds like John has created the warm and loving household he sought as a child. Next year, John has six movies coming out, including The Nest with Tiny Fey and Amy Poehler written by Saturday Night Live's Paula Pell. In it he plays Tina Fey's "first" and basically becomes her stalker after. "It's going to be funny as hell. Amy and Tiny are two sisters, one was the goodie-goodie, one was the bad, naughty girl and now they're trying to switch up later in their lives." This was his first time working with the SNL-ers. "They're the funniest ladies I've ever worked with in my entire life.