Name: Michael Nesmith on Letterman, January 13, 1983
Uploaded: 2021-12-10T18:14:24.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Michael Nesmith on Letterman, January 13, 1983' from Don Giller on Comedy Buff. Published 2021-12-10. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Michael Nesmith on Letterman, January 13, 1983' from Don Giller on Comedy Buff. Published 2021-12-10. Transcript available.

My next guest first became famous as the monkey in the wool cap and since then
he has established a reputation as a pioneer in the field of video. His first
full-length film, Time Writer, is about to be released. Please welcome Mr.
Michael Nesmith.
Thank you. You're looking dapper, very executive-like.
Well, I tell you, I agonized over what to wear. How do I look?
You look great. Yeah, it turned out fine.
I kept getting asked for directions in the airport and people would come up and
ask me for their car and stuff.
No, this suit screams success.
Thank you.
Let me ask you about this. When you talk about pioneered in the area of video
production and you won the first-ever Grammy awarded for video, what exactly
does this mean? What kind of video production are we talking about?
Well, I don't know what it means, David. I just did it. It was like the first
one and it won the video Grammy. They didn't put it on the air when they did
the Grammy.
Yeah.
And I didn't know I was nominated for a long time. And then I only knew I won
because I went.
Now, what won? What did you do that won?
Well, I made this thing called Elephant Parts, which is a video record which is
designed to be played on videocassette.
And, you know, you take it home, you put it and just look at it. And what my
notion was, was that I'll put it on videocassette and that'll be the place that
people will look at it.
Now, is this a short little thing like we see for singles and popular rock
music?
No. No, it's an hour long.
An hour long.
Yeah.
Video and music.
Yeah.
All right. Now, we have examples of this, I believe.
Oh, I'm so glad.
Okay. Let's, to better clarify the topic at hand, let's take a look here at
some work from Mr. Michael Nesmith's Elephant Parts.
Elephant Parts.
Okay. At home, use the TV for this.
"Her name was Rodin, and she lived in the ocean of Japan."
This is part of the cassette people would get. You said it's about an hour long?
You go down by it. It's a little box. It says elephant parts across the top.
All right, and we have another little example, I believe, just coughing on
through here any second.
Oh, my gosh. It's a business festival.
It should be. Yeah. And here it is. You're looking at it now and enjoying it
more than you can believe.
Here it is.
There's something you can't deny. It's only a pin to go from the town.
Just fly down to Rio tonight. I probably won't fly down to Rio.
But then again, I just fly.
Oh, Reno.
Oh, Reno.
Not Reno, Johnny.
Rio. Rio de Janeiro.
Very nice. Now, do people go in to buy this thing? It's like an hour long, and
they bring it home and they watch it.
I think you can rent it.
I think you can rent it. You know, video stores. You've seen the video stores
around.
Yes, sir.
There's a bunch of video players. People have the players and they go buy it or
rent it or whatever.
Do you also release a record of this, an audio record?
I haven't. I sort of just decided I wasn't going to make any more audio records,
audio only records, just video discs and stuff.
So this will be it for you now?
Well, I, I, I get, yeah.
Any music you write and perform will be included in something like this?
Yeah, that's what I'm planning anyway. I mean, I don't know, knock wood.
Well, continued success along those lines is very nice stuff.
Let me ask you a couple of questions about, uh, when you were a monkey.
Uh, yes, let's get to that.
Uh, uh, were, were you constantly besieged?
Now, I want to ask you a question.
Sure.
Let me ask, just ask you.
Is this, this is, this is really your kind of plan to re, re, reunite the
monkeys.
And I know you had Peter on here.
Peter Tork was here, yes, sir.
Right, and then, then you have a, you have a one quarter reunion with me.
Mm-hmm.
And Mickey comes on, and David, you put the whole thing together and put it out
as a special.
Is that the plan?
In about a year and a half, we, uh, will be releasing, um, I don't know if it'll
be a feature-linked film.
I'm just checking. It's okay with me. I just, it's, I'm just checking.
Peter Tork was on here, I don't know, about six months ago.
Very nice gentleman, and we enjoyed talking with him.
We had it, fixed him up with a date, uh, the way they used to do in the fan
magazines, I guess.
And when, when you were a part of all of that, would, would these people
interview you, uh, and then accurately report what you said, or just put
anything in the magazine?
No, they, well, no, it was pretty accurate.
You know, Michael goes to the grocery store.
I mean, you know, fan magazines are not, you're not talking major stuff here.
Yeah.
I mean, of course, they would come, and they'd have interviews, you know, what
do you think of the war?
Yeah.
And what do you think, gee, you know, it's really interesting having the, the
pulpit of, of, of, of, of pop culture here, and doing a little television show,
and people are really interested in what you think.
And so I tell them what I thought of the war, I tell them what, politics,
theoretical physics, anything that happened to come up.
Michael Nesmith's dog is named Spot.
Yeah.
Michael's favorite color is green.
I mean, this is what they would print, so.
That must have been very frustrating after all.
Not a bit.
Not at all.
It was funny.
Also, another, part of the deal.
Another fact about your life, uh, that I was fascinated to hear about.
Your mother invented something that probably, uh, this country, the sun would
not rise without it daily.
What is that?
Liquid paper.
Did you know that?
People are gasping, even if you were swooning up there, liquid paper.
She sure did.
My mother invented liquid paper, rest her soul.
She's, she died a couple of years ago, but, uh, she started it off.
She had, had this idea in Texas, single woman, built, yeah, you're a single
woman from Texas, right?
And she, she had a, um, um, vision.
She, you know, she had a lot of help.
She married again and, and had a, um, had some help with some capable execs.
But she built it into a big multimillion dollar international corporation and,
and saved the life of a lot of secretaries.
Did she do a lot of typing herself?
I guess so, obviously.
Yeah, but I think basically it came from the fact she was a commercial artist.
Uh-huh.
And do you know what was in the original, uh, mixture?
I sure do.
Yeah?
Is there anything you can share with us?
Not a bit.
No, I'm not about to tell you.
Uh, what, uh, what can you tell us?
I, I don't know what's in Coca-Cola, but I know what's in liquid paper.
Oh, I see.
Well, yeah, and we shouldn't confuse them.
One is a soft drink and one is a soft drink.
And I have tried to correct something with Coca-Cola.
It just won't work.
It does not work.
It makes a paper mistake.
And the other way around is just nearly murder and drinking the liquid paper.
It's just, um.
This is a very bad idea.
Uh, tell me about the, the motion picture.
Time, is it time writer?
Time writer, yeah.
Well, it's, I just did, I just did a motion picture last year with one of my,
uh, cohorts,
a fellow named Bill Deere, who directed it.
And we were standing in the, in the line of the movies one time.
And I, by the time we got to the popcorn, we sort of thought it up.
And I said, well, you know, I can, we can do this.
I can paper.
Let's do this.
Yeah.
Let's make this movie.
So we went out and made it.
And this will be, is it in release now?
January 21st.
I don't know.
When do we air?
Just.
We're on tonight.
Okay.
Well, it's not, not out now.
Wait.
But it's, uh, 20, January 21st.
Yeah.
Well, it was a pleasure talking with you, Mr. Nesmith.
And we'll look forward to that, uh, monkey reunion.
Michael Nesmith, ladies and gentlemen.
Thank you very much, sir.
We'll be back with, uh, Elaine Busley.