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John Cassady & Brian Hassett Present Cassady & Kerouac Live

November 28th, 2018 · 7 Comments · Kerouac and The Beats, Real-life Adventure Tales

You Tell Me

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We were talkin’ about gettin’ together, ol’ John Cassady and me.  Seen each other off and on, and he even stepped up to the mic at one of the George Walker & Brian shows last year, but we hadn’t really shared any serious duetting theatrics in some 17 years.  (There’s that number again!)

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George & I’d been bringing John’s dad to life on stage along with his Uncle Jack for the past year, and John & I thought maybe we should give it a try. 

We got booked into the world’s premier annual Beat festival, Lowell Celebrates Kerouac (LCK) in Jack’s old hometown — and on Saturday night in prime time to boot!  All of a sudden — BOOM!  It’s showtime!

Mind you, there were a few who had their doubts — including the two of us!  We loved tellin’ stories and shootin’ the shit and draining some adult bevies, but “rehearsing” and “pacing” were not two of our strongest “ings.”

We’d tried video chatting coast-to-coast before getting together, but it rather quickly deteriorated into ketchup and relishing the connection.

John’s family & friends were rooting for us, as was all our distant pals & relatives in Beatlandia, but it had been a long time since ol’ Johnny & I headlined a show, and between our aging eyes, ears and knees we weren’t exactly the starting line on The A Team.

People flew in from the west coast, the south coast, the north coast, you name it.  We did a little warm-up show the Friday night before the Saturday, and boy it was a good thing as Johnny got a serious case of stomach rebellion just before showtime.  Poor guy barely made it.  But make it he did!

Then we miraculously pulled off a bona fide run-thru in the afternoon, and after Friday’s challenge, Saturday night rocked royally.  I have a vivid image of show producer Mike Flynn rushing up when I stepped off for John’s solo encore with two thumbs-up to his shoulders and a blazing beam!

But the folks back home would never know or believe us!  😀 

“You know,” I said to Johnny when it was over, “When anybody asks ‘How did it go?’ just tell them to watch that video Caroline shot, and say ‘You tell me,'” and we both laughed.

In fact, that became our catch-phrase about the rest of the weekend ’til I dropped him off at the Boston airport a couple days later.

“How did those Lowell shows go?”

“You tell me.”  😉  🙂

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Here’s where you can get the new book — On The Road with Cassadys.

Here’s where you can get The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Jack Kerouac.

Here’s where you can get How The Beats Begat The Pranksters.

Here’s a bunch more live videos.

Here’s a bunch of interviews and news pieces.

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by Brian Hassett  —  karmacoupon@gmail.com   —  BrianHassett.com

Or here’s my Facebook account if you wanna join in there — https://www.facebook.com/Brian.Hassett.Canada

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7 responses so far ↓

  • 1 Mike Flynn // Nov 28, 2018 at 11:32 AM

    Just watched it, fantastic! Awesome work. Thank you so much Caroline!

  • 2 Dawn E Hagen // Nov 28, 2018 at 12:11 PM

    That’s SUCH a great video of ya’all!!!! Love you!

  • 3 Andy Fitzmorris // Nov 28, 2018 at 12:52 PM

    This was such a great show.

  • 4 Thomas Kauertz // Nov 28, 2018 at 2:19 PM

    Great! How I wished I could be there!! I will do everything I can to be there next year.

  • 5 Nancy Jones Cook // Nov 28, 2018 at 2:22 PM

    I loved it. Watched it twice. Thank you Brian. Lowell is very friendly.

  • 6 Jonathan Collins // Nov 28, 2018 at 5:15 PM

    Cool! Well done. 🙂

  • 7 Mrs. Tr Rex // Nov 28, 2018 at 8:28 PM

    Mister and I enjoyed this very much.

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