From: EP.LLD@forsythe.stanford.edu (Lara)
Subject: ken kesey at santa cruz 10/01
Organization: Stanford University, California, USA
Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1992 16:46:16 GMT

Ken Kesey at Santa Cruz Civic Center
7:30 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 1, 1992

they took our tickets and didn't give us stubs!!

seeing kesey was terrific.  the man hasn't seemed to age in the last
decade at least (he went bald ages ago, right?).

the venue was not the great america music hall, so there was no
elaborate scrollwork to describe, just your usual civic center with
hardwood floors, a stage at one end, and theatre-type seats angling
up three walls.  a nice red flag stating Question Authority hung
inside the hall above the entry.

the mayor of santa cruz, waxing nostalgic over all the time that
kesey, the pranksters, and further had spent in santa cruz and
the nearby mountains, after reading a proclamation, stated that
yesterday, October 1, 1992, was ken kesey day in santa cruz.

kesey's set was fantastic: a huge tlingit mask-type backdrop, with
only the (stage) left eye fully drawn in; split into four tapestries,
characters came and went as if magically between the panels.  when
kesey appeared he was wearing a bird mask and banging a drum, in a
huge, hulking costume.  one small child started screaming, and was a
little difficult to hear over for the next 10 minutes or so :>.  then
SURPRISE!, he turned around and the bird mask had been on the BACK
of his head (actually, you could tell, but the kids were probably
amazed).  he proceeded to tell the story of the sea lion, and it was
a very good story, but it probably was best for older kids, because
there are some grim visual images, although the story is a very good
one all together.

where the right eye of the 'mask' would have been (stage right, that
is) was projected a constant video of images that fit in with the
part of the story as he went along; images of surf pounding, and sea
lions jumping and native peoples doing things; it was very
entertaining.  he later said that his son put together the video,
his wife fay ran the projector, and gretchen (yes, fetchen) had
painted the tlingit backdrop; also dropping the fact during the q&a
later, that all the pranksters live pretty close up there together,
and have remained good friends, working together.

this story was concluded after about an hour, and then he took off
his costume and was in his tuxedo w/tophat & tails for the telling
of little tricker the squirrel and big double the bear (originally
found in demon box, but told to him by his grandma when he was 5).
about 5 minutes into his reading he said, 'ooops, better close my
fly,' and proceeded to.  didn't get that on film, damn. everyone was
quite entertained by both readings, and gathered close round for
signing afterwards.

other points of interest
After the readings, kesey tossed out the 'askit ball' to get
things rolling (ba dum DUM) ... someone we all know and love
handed it to me very early on, and i choked and couldn't
think of a THING to say (can i plead child distraction?),
and passed it on.  of course, i could think of HUNDREDS
of things to say, standing there later, but oh well ... you're
supposed to speak into the nice hairy ear on the ball :/-

the following comments are partly transcribed from there,
partly remembered & jotted down later.  either way, they
are KESEY QUOTES. keep in mind that once a prankster,
always a prankster, but these are HIS words, not mine ...

he says he doesn't really enjoy writing very much any
more; he's into beading and says it can make you crazy,
but he enjoys it.

when asked "what do you do now," he replied "i'm a
farmer.  the farm i own was owned by my brother before
me, and my dad before him."

how many kids: "three.  i had four, but one was killed in a
wrestling bus accident [hard to hear, but i'm pretty sure
this is what he said]."

most recently written book: "the sea lion, this one.  i wrote
sailor's song before that [which sea lion derives from], but
i'm still not sure what it means yet.  i'm working on that."

when someone asked "when will you next appear with the
dead?" he replied something i didn't get, and then said
[reread disclaimer above if necessary] "scumball, he had no
right to blow his liver like that; what right did he have to
scare us all?" [presumably referring to jerry, but i think
he's got the wrong organ.] then more muttering, then "get
the dead to play behind, get those aging old crackpots
down in the orchestra pit where they belong.  let's stop
having concerts and start in with the Wagner."  I swear.

Cuckoo's nest: after earlier repeating that much of it was
written while he was working for menlo veteran's hospital.
he said that while they were doing those 'experiments' in
the '60s, he'd look out during one of his 'tests' and see the
looneys on the ward, and think that they were probably
saner than him at that moment.

then a little later to "why did one flew over the cuckoo's
nest have a native theme?"  he responded "because i ate 16
peyote buttons and that's the way it came out."

he also related that at one point a guy, who said that he
was Chief, began writing to him, telling him he'd moved
to canada, etc.  this correspondence went on for 3 or 4
years, and he says he never figured out if the guy really
believed that he was chief broom, or whether he was being
pranked, or what.

on hunter thompson: "now HE's a warrior.  where Tom
Wolfe is a great author, and all, hunter is a warrior.  he's
out there doing it every night.  he still wakes me in the
middle of the night with his crazed faxes."  later Kesey
stated that he preferred concentrating on being a warrior to
writing.

when asked what his favorite recent prank was, or one that
he was planning, he replied: hunter wanted me to send
him, uh, something (giggle), and i, uh, TAPED it to a
piece of paper, and faxed it to him (more giggles)."

as i was walking out with a sleeping kid over one shoulder
and another very tired one lagging behind, i heard him say,
on j.d. salinger: "it's recently been discovered that we
think JD salinger is Carlos Casteneda; and that they're both
possibly Thomas Pynchon."

he has a truly childlike demeanor, and he must have
mellowed considerably with age, because it's kind of hard
to imagine this grey, balding, pudgy OLD man being so
out there; yet, his lively spirit shines through.  they say
that after 50 you have the face you deserve, and it's
certainly a benign demeanor.  it was a grate evening.

review by my kids at the time: caroline (6) went to sleep
about 1/2way thru the sea lion & never woke up until i carried
her out to the car. joey (3 1/2) was up for the whole thing
(literally) and hung for quite a while, waiting for mom's two books
to be signed (Further inquiry & demon box), but after sitting
on my shoulders for 45 minutes in the press, he began to plead,
mom, let's go home, so i split without getting any signatures :/
well, to be accurate, i did buy copies of sea lion & little tricker
and those were already signed, but i sure wanted MINE signed.
this morning when asked how they liked the reading, caroline said
'what reading.' i said, 'the guy that read those stories, in the
costumes.' and she said, 'oh.  it was long.'  joey said 'there was
bad stuff; he had bad things in it and i didn't like it.'
[i agree that in sea lion there are some graphic descriptive
images that little kids may not like: in little tricker,
the kids laughed a lot more; you see which one stuck most
in his memory, tho'],  oh, well, MOM had fun :)

thanks for letting me share that :)

lara
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