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It's Pikesville, Maryland, 1979 - a middle to upper-class Jewish suburb of Baltimore where boys grow up and become doctors or lawyers, buy a house close to their parents, and produce a family to repeat the cycle. But 10- year old Cleetus Friedman is different. His parents are divorced. He listens to different music. He has black friends. He watches black TV. His sister doesn't get him. His mother is in denial. After being exposed to comedy he thinks he wants to be a comedian. And then he hears rap music and wants to become a rapper.

White Like Me is a hip-hop autobiography told by Cleetus Friedman with musical accompaniment by DJ Sapien. In this unique performance, Friedman weaves together character sketches, monologues and narrative raps to tell his own sometimes hilarious, sometimes heartbreaking story. It's a modern coming of age story about finding yourself, finding the beat, and following your dreams, even when you're born "White Like Me."

"(Friedman) is a very capable writer…The best aspects of "White Like Me are the parts dealing with Friedman's family. The child of divorce, he talks frankly and cogently about the effect of his parents' split on his young inner psyche. And when he opens up about his pain and the complexities of his identity, the show has a lot that's useful to say..."
- Chris Jones, The Chicago Tribune

"Genuinely Witty"
- Kerry Reid, The Chicago Reader

2001

Cracker, written and performed by Cleetus Friedman and featuring DJ Savage, is a unique form of performance called Hip-Hop Theatre.” Combining original raps and hip-hop based characters with other comedic and dramatic monologues, Cracker features original songs such as "Here Comes the Cracker" and "Gotta Go." Using diverse characters such as "D.L. Dan" – a twenty something stoner infatuated with the drummer for Def Leppard and "Goldie" – a Jewish drag queen telling the story of how he came out to his family during Passover dinner gives the show the pacing and variety that defines “Hip-Hop Theatre.” Each song or character is transitioned through a live hip-hop DJ who acts like a narrator, helping to pace the show through the art of spinning records and working his DJ skills.

Jenn Goddu of The Chicago Reader raves, "Cracker is "innovative, laugh-out-loud funny, thought provoking and hilarious."		 2000
With his sophmore effort In Full Effect, Cleetus experimented with more characters and more original songs. Catching rave reviews, In Full Effect proved that Cleetus was breaking new comedic ground, succeeding in fusing the forms of hip-hop and comedy. "When it comes to hip-hop fandom, Friedman is about as hard-core as they get. In both of his one-man performances he's made it his personal mission to spread the gospel of hip-hop--and if there's one thing he's entirely successful at, it's making his appreciation of the music and culture burn brightly throughout his shows. Like last year's Don't Burn My House!, Friedman's latest solo effort takes an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink approach: raps and short character studies are interspersed with longer sketches."		 1999

Don’t Burn My House!, Cleetus’ first one-man show, was a great success in 1999 at the Sweetcorn Playhouse. The show received rave reviews. “One of the most impressive aspects of Cleetus Friedman’s one-man show is his recognition of the value of hip-hop in story telling. Already relating personal experiences with charm and candor, Friedman will develop into a truly sophisticated perfromer,” says Nick Green of the Chicago Reader.