Name: Ken Kesey on Letterman, November 8, 1983
Uploaded: 2016-07-20T05:01:44.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Ken Kesey on Letterman, November 8, 1983' from Don Giller on Comedy Buff. Published 2016-07-20. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Ken Kesey on Letterman, November 8, 1983' from Don Giller on Comedy Buff. Published 2016-07-20. Transcript available.

My next guest published his first novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, which
is now in its 63rd printing, having sold over 7 million copies.
He is in New York to attend the festivities celebrating the 50th anniversary of
Esquire magazine, and we're delighted to have him here with us tonight.
Please welcome Ken Kesey.
How are you doing?
Ken, nice to see you.
Good to see you.
Boy, oh boy.
You make a great entrance.
You look terrific.
What, uh, you want to, you want to talk about this, uh, first or you want to
get to that later?
Let's, let's talk about my hat.
Okay, tell me about the hat.
Check that hat, the, where it's from.
Deflex, non-spot, rain-resistant, im, imported, Milan, is that right?
Yeah.
Milan.
Now, the last word.
Hemp.
Show it inside of this hat.
Now, this is a hemp hat, folks.
This here ball of string is a ball of baling twine that I've been collecting
over the last, uh, oh, many years.
The stuff on the outside is sisal, but you see this nice stuff inside there?
Yeah.
That's hemp.
Uh-huh.
Hemp's an important product.
If we can get...
I had, uh, a hemp suit.
The hemp suit that I was going to wear.
While I'm wearing the suit, this is left over from the Esquire party last night.
My hemp suit looks about like the hat.
Ha, ha, ha.
I sent it out to be pressed and it hasn't shown back up.
No, probably not.
Now, do you travel with the ball of hemp wherever you go?
No, I brought it here specifically because, uh, usually when you come on this
show, you have to have something to publicize, uh, a movie, a book, or
something.
And you're just out pushing hemp.
Yeah, I didn't, I didn't have any, uh, hot sauce.
Now, you know, uh, last night, Dinah Shore was here mentioning, uh, she cooked
and also, as, uh, she said that you were her, uh, all-time favorite.
Now, have you ever met the woman?
Did you, yeah, I did.
I met her, uh, at, uh, Jerry Brown's office when he was governor.
Mm-hmm.
What was the festivity or the occasion?
I think she was cooking for him or something.
Uh, but she was, as she left, both he and I looked at each other and I said, my
God, this is the most beautiful woman I've ever seen.
He said, yeah.
I said, why didn't we tell her this?
And, uh, it's one of those things with beautiful women, sometimes you get
tongue-tied.
Yeah, you're in awe, so you wait till they leave and they open up.
Now, tell me about the festivity last night.
This was, uh, in honor of Esquire's 50th anniversary.
Right.
And, uh, they featured the 50, um, uh, 50 people who have changed life in this
country.
Or was it just worldwide?
Right.
Or worldwide.
Yeah, United States.
Yeah.
Uh, 50 who made the difference, the thing is called.
It's, uh, and they picked 50 people to write about these people.
Um, Mailer does Jackie Onassis.
Um, let's see, uh, Dr. Carl, uh, Dr. Lewis does, uh,
uh, uh, Watson, the guy that discovered DNA.
Um, they, they're doing Disney.
Uh, Ray Blunt does Presley.
Yeah.
I do Carolette.
This was, uh, quite a gathering last night, huh?
It started yesterday morning at, uh, 7:30 at the mayor's.
Mayor...
Kutch.
Kutch.
Yeah.
Kutch, okay.
Uh, uh, we went in there, where there was just press everywhere.
Who there really impressed you, really took you aback, really knocked you out?
Oh, Muhammad Ali, man.
Yeah, this is, uh, Muhammad Ali is, uh, like a little angel.
I mean, a big angel, but, uh, he's, he's, uh, sweet as eyes are merry.
He's a wonderful man, and I felt, I was sitting between, uh, Ali and Elaine,
you know, from
Elaine's restaurant.
Yeah.
The literary woman.
Yeah.
I felt, uh, privileged.
Uh, how's Ali doing?
You hear a lot of reports of people say, oh, he's, uh, he's suffering years of
being in
the ring.
Uh, what did he seem like to you?
Well, he's bored.
He'd like to have something to do, you know, he's like, uh, Red Fox, you know,
he's, maybe
he in prime time, but he's still hot stuff and knows it.
And somebody said to him, he said, uh, you're kind of slurring your speech, Ali,
and he
says, uh, he says, people have been hitting me upside the head for 25 years.
He says, let me hit you upside the head once and see how you talk.
In, in this, uh, issue of Esquire, you, as you mentioned, you wrote about, uh,
Kerouac,
and in the article, you say that, uh, there's argument for him to be canonized.
Why is that?
What do you mean by that?
Well, I, I judge art by, uh, how it makes you feel.
Um, you go to a movie, and if you don't feel better about people when you come
out of the
movie, then, you know, uh, art, if it doesn't lift you up as a human being, and
Kerouac,
everything you ever read by Kerouac, he doesn't, I mean, puts himself down, but
it left everybody
that read on the road feeling a lot better about the American, uh, scene, the
American people.
Um, everybody who read that book for the first time got in the car immediately,
headed off
across the country, got loaded, and loved everybody, and that's, uh, canonization
business, you
know, he's as good as, uh, Mother Teresa in his own league.
Did you get to know him at all?
Oh, we met a time or two.
Uh, by then, he was defensive, you know, there were kids coming up at him with
on-the-road
t-shirts and wanting to, uh, get loaded with him.
Yeah, he was gun-shy.
Yeah, he was.
How old a man was he when you finally met him?
Oh, he was, uh, 40, going on 60 or so, something like that.
He was, uh, he was getting some brown around the edges.
Yeah.
And, uh, in, yeah, not, not so good a shape, or?
Well, he was in good shape, it's just that, uh, everybody in the world was
taking shots at
him.
Um, he, he was a vulnerable guy.
Yeah.
You know, when you stand up like that and, and lay yourself open like that,
people come
around and walk in your noodles, uh, uh, we, we have to pause here for a
commercial.
When we come back, I know there's a little bit of a story about your tuxedo.
Oh, okay.
Yeah, all right.
Uh, well, we'll think of it.
We'll be back.
They're okay.
Uh, now, the, the tuxedo.
Is that Steppenwolf?
Is that, are they, they didn't?
Yeah.
Yeah, this is, this is the original Steppenwolf.
I thought so.
They held up now.
Yeah, they're doing all right.
The tuxedo.
All right.
Okay.
Uh, 20 years ago, just dark, almost to the day, I was here, um, for the opening
of Cuckoo's
Nest.
And we were supposed to go to the Four Seasons.
It, it's the sort of thing that make me believe in God and angels and, and
elves and stuff.
Um, and they had booked me into a place I, I was supposed to get a tuxedo
measured.
And, I hadn't thought about this.
My wife and I haven't been back here in 20 years.
We're coming up out of Grand Central Station.
We see a tuxedo shop.
And I'm up there getting measured for this tuxedo.
And this guy says, I remember you.
You were here, uh, 20 years ago being measured for a tuxedo.
Uh, I says, right, right.
And went to Cuckoo's Nest, took peyote all the way across the country while the
president
was being killed.
So I'm not going to drive across the country this time.
Uh, so now, now, but you, you mentioned that there are other coincidences in
your life
that reinforce that feeling.
One, uh, the, uh, the Chet Helms story.
Can you tell that?
Explain that?
Oh, Lordy.
Oh, well, this guy came in.
This was just after John Lennon was killed.
And his name was John the Groupie.
He showed up.
It was really cold.
He'd been standing around, uh, outside.
He hitchhiked all the way from, uh, uh, Venice West up there in a,
uh, little short-sleeved shirt and, uh, torn-up sneakers.
And I gave him all sorts of craps.
And, what are you doing up here?
You don't know me.
Because I just wanted to come up with it.
He says, I got something that I know that you'd like to have.
Is this up in Oregon?
He comes up?
Yeah, he comes up and shows up up there.
I said, no, I don't want it.
He said, listen, I've got Chet Helms', uh, phone number.
Uh, Chet Helms used to be, he was, he was almost Bill Graham.
He was running a thing in San Francisco called the Family Dog.
He was a big-time promoter.
And I said, no, I don't, I've never needed Chet Helms' phone.
He said, this is not his answering services.
This is his real phone number.
I said, I don't have any need for Chet Helms' phone number.
I've never needed it.
Uh, he said, okay.
He put it back in his pocket.
And that night, we were watching, uh, the Patriots, I think, play the Chargers.
Going for a big-time playoff berth.
And Howard Cosell interrupts the, uh, show to say, uh,
but we must remember it is just a football game.
Which I thought was a very un-Howard Cosell-like thing to say.
And then later on, he's, during this play-action fake that's going down,
he says that John Lennon has been shot and killed in the streets of New York.
And this guy and I turned and looked at each other.
And, you know, suddenly, he wasn't just an old hippie anymore.
And I wasn't, uh, a landowner.
We were buddies, and we were hurt.
And the next day, I took him to the freeway and gave him some clothes
and gave him some money and put him back on the freeway hitchhiking back south.
And I got home, and the phone was ringing.
And this guy was asking, um, me to help him.
He said, I'd like some help.
They're going to do a John Lennon memorial service in Golden Gate Park.
And I thought he was asking me to come down and, um, do a eulogy.
And I told him, no, we got Christmas programs coming up,
and I got to fix the fence, and I got to wind my bailiff drink.
Now, this is a different guy on the phone, not the guy who had visited you.
He was just a promoter.
And he said, no, no, that's not what I wanted.
He said, I'm calling to ask if, uh, you happen to have Chet Helms' phone number.
I need some help putting this show together.
And, uh, but I missed it.
It was one of those things which makes you understand when, uh, you're living
in Reagan's time.
It's hard to remember what it was like in Kennedy's time.
Well, yeah, you start, you start thinking, well, maybe things are pretty well
figured out here.
Now, you mentioned, uh, Cuckoo's Nest.
You came in for the play.
Yeah.
Now, but you have not yet seen the film.
I swear to God, I don't see the movie.
Now, why won't you go see, if you go to see the play, why won't you go see the
film?
Do you ever know any Hollywood lawyers?
Oh, yeah.
I sure have.
I, uh, sued those suckers, uh, because they weren't paying me nickel one,
and I sued them and finally fought it out in depositions day after day,
them asking me all sorts of awful questions.
And talking about how I really, uh, uh, would like to be in Hollywood, that I'm
jealous.
And they said, I'm going to be the first one in line out there to see this
movie.
And I said, I swear to God, I will never see your cheesy piece of stuff in my
life.
I swear to God, I won't see it.
And so when it opened, it premiered in my hometown.
And they called and all the press wanted me down there to see it.
I said, that's like calling and saying, hey, uh, the Hells Angels are raping
your daughter in the parking lot.
Would you like to watch?
Ooh, ooh, my, oh, my.
Uh, but, so, so you didn't, you didn't make much money off the deal?
You made no money off the, the film rights?
Oh, no, we settled and I got some money.
Got some money, but you still haven't seen it.
Yeah, that's amazing.
We gotta go away again, Ken.
We'll be right back, folks.
Thank you, Paul.
Ken, very nice to meet you.
Thank you for your time, sir.
It was a pleasure to have you here.
Take care.
Have a good trip back to Oregon.
Also, thanks to Red Fox and David Copeland.