Ken Kesey interview on "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" (1992)

[@ManufacturingIntellect]

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[@Tomcaatt]

Manufacturing Intellect I dream of beaver ( whilst dressed like the skipper,

[@ShanOakley]

I'm an Oregonian who was lucky enough to meet Ken Kesey a few times. He always greeted with a big smile and a firm handshake, followed by some good sense he would say.

[@joeyvino8878]

You are lucky person

[@JJWilson-ex6km]

Met Kesey in Skagway, Alaska. He was a writer on theMovie "Never Cry Wolf" and was there for the summer. As it turned out I was going to play MacMurphey at a good theater IN Juneau< AK by the name of Perseverance Theater. I actually hung out with Kesey for part of the summer and found him to be one of the most generous people I've ever met.

[@keseymchenry3487]

I am very honored to be named after a phenomenal human being and writer. : )

[@joeyvino8878]

Fucking genius

[@culting]

My last name is Kesey!

[@danbushnell8043]

Lucky

[@JoshuaRoss2]

much better name than kenneth!

[@keving9233]

Good on ya, Kesey, for the homage.

[@rlevanony1]

2:40 "I feel like everybody is creative if they just pay attention to how they set the coffee cup on the table, or how they arrange the flowers in a vase." I feel like there's something so deep about this quote that I haven't fully understood yet.

[@joeyvino8878]

How futuristic.. regarding Jerry Garcia

[@joeyvino8878]

Pregonistic

[@brulindavin]

That's how I became an architect.

[@ConioPendeho]

AMEN , I agree

[@garetcrossman6626]

Pity he can't pronounce vase.

[@jazzmanchgo]

I love Kesey, but I can't agree with him that electronic media are as intellectually and aesthetically rich as the printed word. There's something about an art form that compels us to create images -- entire realities -- in our imagination, and then enhances our ability to do so -- thus nurturing and deepening our sense of wonder while cultivating our ability to manifest it -- which simply cannot be replaced by art forms that do that creative work for us. When we read good writing, we hear the voices and see the faces and feel, smell, and experience the textures in our minds' eyes/ears/noses/mouths, on our minds' skin . . . it's irreplaceable, and it's the gift that literature provides.

[@HoldenNY22]

I basically agree

[@not2tees]

Well said, and you're right as well!

[@joeinreallife6293]

Considering novels (i.e. long prose narrative describing fictional characters and events) have been around about two-thousand years longer, (earliest known (complete) examples being Callirhoe and Apulieus -- with many traces of likely precursors laying around as well) I'd say this isn't at all a fair comparison, (especially when knowing the overwhelming academic consensus is that the long-form novel wasn't fully realized until 'Tale of Genji' in the 11th century, and some 600 years later in the West in 'Don Quixote'). If any/everything else is any indication, this can only mean we've barely scratched the surface of what electronic/AV media will be able to do.

[@joeinreallife6293]

@ShRed Vines It's still in its infancy. Your comment would be like talking about the merits and infancy of the novel in the year 220 A.D.

[@ninagray4441]

You're a cultural snob, it's not to medium, though the content that matters.

[@janicejohnson6438]

Kelsey is so affable, so honest, brilliant and yet humble.

[@a5dr3]

Opposite of Charlie Rose.

[@huyivant5190]

Excellent interview, great to see he had kind words for Hunter S Thompson

[@whistledawg7206]

Kesey has a great presence

[@marconi451]

A great American writer.

[@alonzomosley7]

What an amazing guy . a dairy farmer background and went so far with writing. Inspirational and humble

[@stephenanderson4276]

Sometimes a great notion is more than a masterpiece it's an almost perfect snapshot of a parallel universe.

[@martitinkovich4489]

Interesting view. To me the book lives as scripture. Although novel reading is now no longer within my realm, since the mad road of this existence led me to the world of Don Juan.

[@HoldenNY22]

@@martitinkovich4489 - Are you talking about Carlos Castenadas? Or are you talking about Don JUan the great Lover?

[@martitinkovich4489]

@@HoldenNY22 Who the f*ck you think i'm talking about?

[@PatrickCSheehy]

TOTAL HUMBLE GENIUS!

[@markochasteeni7560]

I don't like to tell people what to do , and what not to do, that's it in a nutshell, great human being.

[@jerinaraguin1639]

Mr.Kesey’s One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest is one of my favourites. I first was introduced to it in my early twenties, and loved it! Then I watched the film.❤. Thank you kindly Sir For Your Contribution.. Great American Novelist. From Canada with love.🇨🇦.

[@StormLaker]

Ken Kesey is one of my favorites, along with Kerouac, and Hunter S. Thompson.

[@darylcumming7119]

RIP. Cuckoo's nest is an all time classic.

[@andrewptob]

"I Dream of Beaver." Fantastic joke

[@reefslayer21]

AOB leave it to Jeannie

[@keving9233]

What healthy man doesn’t?

[@gr8flone]

I had the privilege of seeing a Dead Show in Veneta @Kelsey’s Creamery. Life changing experience in soooo many ways.

[@christinefischer6394]

me too, still got my T shirt

[@tomallen5837]

"Just say thanks". Thank you Ken! ....thank you. Sometimes a Great Notion is one of my top books read.

[@mikeluke9404]

Thank you Mr kesey, for your masterpiece. The world is a better place for it.bravo

[@eduardocalderon8864]

Great way to start my morning Merry trips!

[@KJ-xc6qs]

Interesting he mentioned one of my favorite writers, Eudora Welty.

[@rogerdennison8154]

Just stumbled onto this- can’t actually recall seeing/hearing Kesey interviewed. 🤔 Read Cuckoo’s Nest in the 70’s, an all time favorite. I can’t remember when he died but you can tell from this interview that he’s short of breath. Ironically, he mentioned Jerry Garcia and how he was “hammering his liver”…😢

[@Amity907]

When Charlie finally asks about the Dead, that comment about Jerry getting clean was heartbreaking. Not long before he ended up hammering the liver a little too hard I guess Ken had already seen the writing on the wall. I lost my best friend to addiction a few years ago, and I can hear the pain in his voice, all the way from 1992 to now.

[@jeremybarriga9266]

The greatest writer of the last 100 years

[@mipsimips5627]

What a great interview.

[@Chris-oj2jr]

The little guy beating the big guy!!!! That definitely makes for a great story because it appeals to almost everyone ❤

[@patrickc3419]

Kesey had a cool speaking voice. One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest is one of my favorite books. Sometimes a Great Notion was pretty good, had a great visual feel, but was hard to follow at times. I’ve got to give it another try someday.

[@KhalDrogo76]

one of my favorite humans who's ever lived

[@recoverybeer8165]

Thank you Al. 🤘⚘

[@coconuciferanuts339]

Yeah,Somehow,Sometimes a great notion was a picture.You know like a Van Gogh. He didn't really elaborate.He sketched an outline which left it to the reader to fill in the dots.That's a masterpiece.I use my own imagination to experience the Stamper family,chopping down trees & resenting the new timber factory across the river.Eh,thanks Ken & interviewer.

[@nathanfreeman7362]

All the acid this man did, and he's not burned out in the slightest.

[@kyle-style]

Nathan Freeman It makes you wonder how his mind sees things 🤔 really interesting

[@Piecesrestonthabed]

cause he was on the purest

[@robertraymond3681]

You're only wasted if you've wasted time.

[@Claytone-Records]

I think acid burn out is a dea myth.

[@przybyla420]

Acid will effect your mind in a negative way, but only if you are genetically predisposed to certain types of mental illness, take very very large doses, or take it too often (five weekends in a row, or two days in a row, that sort of thing). Everyone else is more mature and more intelligent for taking it, as far as I can see.

[@dorian3260]

Of all of the novels written by the great American authors, I think Sometimes a Great Notion is the best written. He wrote the way the mind thinks.

[@Frisbieinstein]

The only other choice would be Catch 22.

[@JohnGeorgeHill]

Read "Sometimes a Great Notion" and "Demon Box," a collection of short stories. They are both excellent.

[@sls140]

Thank you, I will 👍

[@JiveDadson]

Afterwards, DiNero started recycling characters, and even parodying himself. And Garcia did not stop hammering on his liver.

[@happy543210]

i dream of beaver too......every single day. sometimes twice a day!

[@2earache]

happy543210……I’ve never had to dream of beaver! Throughout my life, I’ve forever had access to terrific beaver as many times as I’ve wanted, day and night!!

[@malbuff]

I met him and Babbs at Cody's Books in Berkeley on the signing tour for The Further Inquiry.

[@deanbhall3]

What's with the fish on the table?

[@mullcrumthesage6303]

I feel like I'm cutting and pasting my way through life.

[@keving9233]

Kesey’s dead. But even dead and decomposed he is more alive than that thing selected current potus.

[@hoaninhmanh3918]

thank you. i like One flew over the cuckoo's nest in both novel and film. love from Việt Nam :)

[@mortonyakimadetectingthepa9015]

Cuckoos nest always has been and always will be my favorite movie.

[@not2tees]

Be sure to read the book, though - there are much bigger issues at risk there than in the movie.

[@mortonyakimadetectingthepa9015]

@@not2tees Absolutly...read it twice.

[@andreiferrera9981]

Kesey refused to ever see the movie. Book way better

[@KenMasters.]

@@not2tees It actually would've been better to see the book version of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest come to life on the big screen rather than seeing Hollywood adapt it and water it down with redeeming qualities of perfect acting performances. But it's hard to find actors and actresses who look exactly like the characters from the book. The only f'd up thing about the book version is that it was too pornographic.

[@johnnyrottenpiss]

@@KenMasters. I think the movie did a great job of telling the story, though there were glaring differences, notably Cheswick's suicide...but he was such a great character in the movie. Cheswick is that person that secretly roots for you while undermining you because he/she is afraid of authority, and so terribly insecure, that he/she is so uncomfortable in their own skin feeling that it's their duty to unquestioningly behave. In the cinematic version the Cheswick character, in my opinion, drove a lot of the environmental story of what McMurphy was facing.

[@AdrielMorelli]

I wonder what he was going to suggest Rose do if Thompson was on the show

[@poppadrift4618]

Charlie Rose was in way over his depth on this interview

[@martitinkovich4489]

you got that right!

[@JohnMcGovern-s5c]

He was always a less than great interviewer...never liked him...

[@stephenquail3168]

Interesting.

[@863Monster]

A boat named "Deeper" that sunk 3 times 🤣🤣

[@anthonystephenson323]

Wow! I didnt know Wendel Barry was one of his college profs.

[@charleswinokoor6023]

What the hell was Charlie Rose laughing at? That always seems to be my question when I go back and watch one of his interviews. I liked the book version of “Sometimes a Great Notion” more than the movie, but the drowning scene in the movie with Paul Newman and Richard Jaeckel was unbelievably harrowing.

[@Paralelalamb]

He's laughing cuz Kesey is so mentally tuned normal.stuff to Kesey makes.others laugh

[@Paralelalamb]

People do it to.me.all the time. Its.so.weird

[@johnm3152]

Demon Box floored me & it was a fun ride

[@banjomarla4091]

A great hero of mine, wonderful stuff.

[@martitinkovich4489]

Chuck rose is an un natural occurance in our time wave.

[@chuckhurlocker2180]

I enjoyed that.

[@prettypurple7175]

KEN KESEY///

[@not2tees]

Nancy Reagan: Just say No. Ken Kesey: Just say Thanks!

[@timriley4648]

I didnt see anything in this interview I didn't disagree with in the least. Kesey for President 2020! or whatever year this is. :)

[@alexallan-musicaaovivo500]

Without Charlie Rose, our memories of great interviews would be the freaks in the Jerry Springer show.

[@newschoolcommunitydayschoo8763]

Hey Old Dudes!

[@oleklukas1405]

It's nuts hat ! My favourite movie ! I can't believe ! WTF ! Who is this old man ?

[@blanebryant6742]

"if that darn Garcia doesn't quit hammering on his liver, we may come to the end of our ways"

[@lastnamefirst4035]

Yet it was ironic that kesey died from liver cancer

[@przybyla420]

What’s that even mean? Are opiates and cocaine hard on the liver? Didn’t know Jerry was a drinker

[@jeremynicholas2055]

​@@przybyla420 opiates are processed by the liver

[@thomasward7262]

How about Bo Goldman, who wrote the brilliant screenplay for the movie !

[@thaddeusroberts2393]

11:21 Ken Kesey: Soothsayer

[@stevenmorrison8639]

Is it True Ken Kesey never saw the movie ? I saw the late night interview. He was definitely pissed 😮

[@KenMasters.]

What Ken Kesey should've done: Write and direct his own book-accurate Cuckoo's Nest adaptation, with the film being an adult-animated masterpiece that's drawn-out by Ralph Bakshi for hire. (Because there are no a-list actors who look like the original characters) Miloš Forman's movie is fine, but Kesey doesn't have to like it, he could've just adapt his stories his own way as a response to Forman.

[@georgestevens1502]

Prophetic about Jerry Garcia and the environment.

[@Superfuntimejazz]

How does he do it? Rose talks to anyone as if he's known them his whole life. God I miss the show

[@coolworx]

_I dream of Beaver_ Hilarious.

[@asalane20]

Telling that Rose doesn’t give af what his mother did.

[@chrisbutler7386]

What did he mean about "that damn Garcia doesn't stop hammering on his liver"?

[@notabot3375]

Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead. He was pretty deep in heroin and alot of other stuff at the time still, and most of the still alive rest of the Pranksters had largely given the hard stuff up. Garcia died in a rehab clinic in 1995, three years after this interview. Kesey died in 2001. Kind of ironic- Kesey died from complications after a surgery to remove a tumor from his liver.

[@j.louisv.123]

Ken is hot.

[@melg2063]

This dude had this Andy Dufresne's vibe.

[@MegaKillerwatt]

I've recently revisited "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" as an adult with my 50ish year old male mind and my opinion of nurse Ratched has completely changed. This is an incredible movie and powerful story.. I thought she was a horrible person when I was twenty but I now realize she was a victim of the legal system. The character of Randle Mcmurphy is a wolf psychopath that is released into a field of sheep and should never have been placed in a mental ward. Nurse Ratched was to keep her patients calm and safe with systems that were in place for a variety of mentally ill people. McMurphy destroyed the systems and put everyone at risk.

[@Knightgil]

The system was, is, the problem. They were not calm and safe. They were subdued.

[@c.a.savage5689]

Agreed. Milo's Forman's interview on KZbin describes in detail his instantaneous recognition of the parallel between living under communism in Czechosolvakia and Kesey's book.

[@georgestevens1502]

Not in the book. The movie made substantive changes not in the book. Read the book and see.

[@MegaKillerwatt]

I have not read the book....yet.@@georgestevens1502

[@unnim]

Truest line.. Dont give me this hen house shit.

[@recoverybeer8165]

The new bus.

[@NewportBox100s]

This shit just went on and on. And went nowhere. 🤔

[@Claytone-Records]

Damn, what the hell was Charlie Rose on?

[@lastnamefirst4035]

A tad aminated and a little too lively

[@chuckhurlocker2180]

Do ya think Charlie just said thanks to Kesey?

[@Claytone-Records]

Chuck Hurlocker, Charlie was still Dreaming of Beaver.

[@lastnamefirst4035]

@@Claytone-Records what? Thats some low life thinkin' lol

[@Claytone-Records]

Sammy Scotch : )

[@juKeboYjiM]

Towards the end a talk at University of Virginia Kesey says "we are losers...we don't have enough to win an election and we never will." But Kesey greatly underestimates his and the 60's generation's influence. The children of the 60's took full control of education at every level decades ago. Of course this simple fact alone has had immeasurable influence. The movement to legalize all drugs succeeded in Oregon and is quickly spreading. The idea of any inherited tradition or norms is anathema to today's youth. But where is it leading? Any student of history knows that Romantic movements such as the one that began with the beatniks and spread world-wide are nothing new and are far more likely to lead to the guillotine than the utopian fantasy they envision. Kesey in his various talks defends drug use and talks about his love of pot, nitrous oxide and Southern Comfort. Just look around in 2023 with drug addicts littering the streets of our cities. The 60's generation's solution is seemingly to honor their journey and give them what they need in that moment. This is really only indifference disguised as charity and compassion. Kesey's career itself is a warning against the dangers of drugs. In some of his talks Kesey introduces a “shit that floats; cream that rises” binary. He refers to Eddie Murphy and Tom Wolfe as "shit that floats" (as opposed to cream that rises). He labels Eddie Murphy as shit and opposes Richard Pryor as the cream. Pryor did some great standup and made a few great films but just like Kesey's friend Jerry Garcia, he died way too young from his excesses. Moderation, self-restraint, sober assessment: these weren't qualities the 60's generation valued. They, like the 18th century Jacobins in France followed a utopian fantasy; the 60's kids wanted freedom from obligations; they wanted an endless party and they invariably ended up producing less of lesser quality unable to transcend their drug-inspired "insights" or free themselves from their many vices. Neal Cassidy is lauded as one of the seminal characters of Kesey's group, but take a minute and read the interview of his son John titled "Son of a Gun" in the online site Please Kill Me. It's the sad depressing story of a lost soul who neglected his family and drank himself to death. He truly "followed his bliss" and look where it led. I recently talked with a UO graduate who was at Oregon the same time as Kesey. He had a great story of Kesey entertaining a crowd at Hayward field in what must have been the mid 1950's. Kesey at his best was an entertainer and storyteller in the vaudeville tradition. I wonder if he ever witnessed a show of that type traveling through Eugene/Springfield as a kid? But these types of entertainers are just that: entertainers; and there is always a bit of a con going on. I prefer to see Kesey this way: a raconteur, and at his best a pretty good one! Kesey often takes an understandable jab at Tom Wolfe. Wolfe had similarities to Kesey: both were athletes, writers and social critics. I can imagine there was a bit of rivalry and suspicion when Wolfe was hanging out with the Pranksters. Wolfe wore a white suit and was the founder of the school of "New Journalism". He would have seemed on the surface to be a Prankster ally, or at least sympathetic. But his image was a put-on just to gain access and confidence in his subjects, and Wolfe was something entirely different. Wolfe was a famously disciplined and hard-working writer. His non-fiction was full of insight and his fiction, not even attempted until he was in his 50's, is some of the best. He wrote as a literary naturalist in the firm tradition of Sinclair Lewis and others. It's easy to see why Kesey wasn't able to repeat the success of Cuckoo's Nest, which was written under the inspiration of LSD. Kesey was too avant-garde and free-floating. The list of his failed projects is long. Where Wolfe could reach to naturalism as a solid foundation for his fiction, Kesey needed to continually reinvent the wheel and drugs, while sometimes offering limited insight, quickly lead to diminishing returns. So while Kesey had some talent, was a great family man, and seemed to have his heart in the right place, he never seemed to outgrow the limited and often mistaken drug-fueled pieties of the late 1960's. It's surely a time for a sober reassessment of the legacy of the Woodstock generation.

[@meowzic]

Kesey seems very bored with Charlie Rose lol

[@lizminogue5604]

This video is really Ken Kesey on his life since OFOCN and the publication of Sailor Song. Not much at all about OFOCN.

[@robingagan6288]

Very handsome

[@thomascarr7580]

I rather be a lightning rod than a seismograph-Ha Ha Ha that Kesey.

[@jhbraucht]

I dream of beaver 😆

[@doreekaplan2589]

Age is best in adventure story writing as we draw on life ecperiences no one has early on. "People may love being read to" but I dislike it.

[@wilesmith]

furthur and deeper

[@krisscanlon4051]

To live a life on an psychedelic drug's seems unrealistic furthermore shouldn't we learn how to lose so we know how to win? Up/downs...naturally becoming spiritual growing past adverse times...eastern philosophy changed me.

[@lgoler]

Philip Roth got better and better as he got older.

[@KenMcMunn-bp5xv]

He's a nice guy that people have had bad trips on LSD. I like him but he should have a little conversation with art Linkletter. At least Timothy Leary wanted LSG taken in a controlled environment.Ken Kesey wanted to throw it in all the water supplies.

[@TheDamageinc81]

25mcG / session keeps the doctor away

[@recoverybeer8165]

After some of the biggest bullshit, one of my buddies hits me up. He was homeless and then picked up by a couple of Oregonians in Buckeye Arizona. The kids were eccentric enough to keep my mind off my problems. The chances. I take off. I moved in with a wild fire kid. Zane Jenkins. The son of Al. Al was a very close friend of the Keseys. Prankster. Best friend of Ken's son enough to name his own boy, after his best bud; Zane Kesey. who lured me out of Buckeye. I touched both Furthers, lingered in the barn where The Grateful Dead played their most rewarding shows, and bowed my head at the grave of Ken. Of all people I shouldn't have tasted that. Thanks Al. Thanks Zane. I don't take your kindness for granted. Btw, 🥃🥃🥃🥃🍷🍺. P.S. ⚘⚘🤘

[@tomasotreasaigh111]

Ya what now?

[@keving9233]

Hahah, Tomás Ó Treasaigh! I second that.

[@jerry-st7rc]

Reminds me of Marlon brando

[@c.a.savage5689]

I am really confused. Kesey was there to promote his last book. Charlie Rose seems to only want to talk about Kesey's past drug experiences and Tom Woolf's "Electric Acid Kool-aid Test" about Kesey, the Merry Pranksters and the Grateful Dead. Yet the book is never mentioned and the interview seems to float everywhere, goes nowhere and ends with Rose cutting off Kesey as he was about to tell a story. Am l missing something?

[@danfuller478]

No. Not missing anything. He mentioned the name of the book and even held it up for a close up. Fair enough. The rest was Charlie trying to ask about things he thought his viewers would be interested in. All good- didn't appreciate the story being cut off at the end either. Charlie should have booked him for the whole hour, imo.

[@mrjones9894]

Paul Theroux gets better as he gets older

[@arthurjackson6395]

What is that thing on his face?! I can't stop looking at it... Man, I think I'd rather just listen to audio.

[@johnm3152]

Chet Helms sez howdy

[@lastnamefirst4035]

Chet helms not heard that name in awhile

[@BushyHairedStranger]

“Stegner one time accused me of being anti-intellectual, what he really didn’t appreciate was that I was illiterate...practically” Ken Kesey Vulnerability in drag? Nah! I appreciate his response there especially to where he stood at Stanford and he was no lightweight. RIP Ken

[@dramaskrybe]

Okay, so Tolstoy is out of bounds . . . but how is Yeats American?

[@Ruffwun]

Yeats didn't die at 84 either lol

[@natalyawoop4263]

He's talking about Richard Yates. Was definitely confusing though.

[@isagenix4u]

How did he manage to get into Stanford, either financially or otherwise?

[@barneyronnie]

Wrestling scholarship...

[@rm-ih1ns]

wtf ChuK:!!! what was ken about 2 "hunter Q???" ge'e'e'ZuzHaitCHKe'eRist awre'ady maaaaaan sfuCharlie

[@tomasotreasaigh111]

That interviewer is REALLY annoying!

[@danrode104]

he praises the media then condemns it for ruining American writing, or writers. they fail to improve later on in life. confusing?

[@The-Portland-Daily-Blink]

Writing is NOT a young person’s game. What a joke. Couldn’t disagree more. I’m a better writer today than I was 10 years ago. Naturally I’m not well known. Because I’ve never had much luck. He’s wrong though. Young people are not the best writers. Not by a long shot. 🤣

[@struttingbirdlofi]

True. Bukowski comes to mind

[@rev.jimjonesandthekool-aid4488]

I would pay you to interview me and write a auto biography about me.

[@notabot3375]

He means great writers, including himself. Not being offensive, it's just what he is talking about.

[@danfuller478]

Understood. We're all better writers now than we were when younger. But that's not what he was talking about. He was talking about something far more specific- writing novels, and the demands of that form. Novels are a whole other deal.

[@brianwilson8983]

@brianwilson8983 I enjoyed the festivities of the Oregon country fair on Ken Kesey’s land many times. Thanks Ken and rest in peace