Court years installed on his own Supreme Court and royal beheadings, if only for sport. He craved the occasional royal procession and gas, the eventual royal succession. Trumpty dumpty its his way, unless the public has something to say. If we let him have all of his favorite things, the divine right of kings. Hello, everyone and welcome to todays Virtual Program at the Commonwealth Club of california. My name is linda mendoza, a senior partner in there does of Mckinsey Company a member of the Commonwealth Club board of directors. Today i will be moderating the program. We would like to thank our members, donors and supporters from making this and all of the programs available. We are grateful for your support and hope others will follow their example to support the club particularly during these uncertain times. Today im particularly pleased to be joined by john lithgow, an awardwinning actor and author of a new book, Trumpty Dumpty wanted a crown verses for a despotic age. He is best known as im sure you all know or his contributions in the theater, television and Film Industries throughout the years, with roles and things have been read as the crown, my personal favorite, the world according to garp. After receiving degrees in history and literature from harvard, john wood on to study the performing arts at the London Academy of music and dramatic art on a fulbright scholarship. From there he went on to become a notable awardwinning act with two tonys, two Golden Globes and six in these under his belt. In recent years john is taken a public stance on political commentary and is known for his critiques of the Trump Administration or satirical art. Trumpty dumpty wanted a crown uses the traditional childrens rhyme to criticize president ial decisions made in the last year and covers recent events such as trumps impeachment, the covid19 pandemic, the black lives matter protests, and much more. We will be discussing about in the next hour and a want ask your questions as well. If youre watching along with us please put your questions in the text chat on youtube and we will be getting them a little bit later in the program. Thank you, john lithgow, for joining us tonight. A pleasure to see you. I nice to meet you. Really nice to talk to you. We are especially happy to have you right after your newest book came out, and was at this week in. I had the pleasure reading it. Also had the pleasure of watching you on Stephen Colbert last night. Did i sufficiently make a fool of myself . It was fantastic. Appreciate you joining us here today and talking a little bit about the book and more of a chance to get a feeling for it including what we just saw to kick off the program with your reading of one of the poems. But before we get into that cau just tell us a little bit about why poetry . We all know you as an amazing actor and all kinds of wonderful things as i mentioned earlier, and this recent, relatively recent foray into poetry and art. What made you do that . I sort of back into it. I certainly didnt set out to write political satire in verse. I have always written first, just occasional verse. Ive written funny poems that include everybodys name in the cast of a play on closing night. I have actually done two commencement speeches at private schools for small graduating classes in which i used the names of every single one of the graduates in poems, completely to their surprise. Finding out, talking to the dean of the school about all the scandals that have been involved in within the last couple of weeks. Little things like that. Been around about the late 1990s, ive been doing a lot of entertaining of children, concerts with orchestras. Even one with the San Francisco symphony, and doing videos for kids and albums for kids. I began writing rhyming verse stories and picture books, and i wrote nine of them. Some of them times bestselling picture books. But in all of that i was never serious about it. I am still not serious about it but im at least viewing very serious subjects now. What happened was another one of these occasional poetry events i rewrote the third verse of gilbert and sullivan i am the very model of a modern Major General for new york Public Theatre gala outdoors in central park a couple of years ago, and it was just after mike flynn had been charged and apprehended and fired. He was very much in the news, and i sing the entire gilbert and sullivan song in the character of michael flynn. When i unleashed my own verse, when president obama made me head of all things and he realized he brought to life by governmental frankenstein, but then i made a killing in the case of public hillary by shouting locker up, et cetera. When i told my literary agent about this, it was like, it was like the sun coming up. He immediately saw a book. We had gotten together to discuss, youve got to write something, john. What are you going to write . Suddenly he knew exactly what i was going to write and he said i could sell this book tomorrow. That was two years ago. I set off to write my first book called simply dump tea, the trump of the age of trump infers that there was such a smash hit covering the first of his administration, that my pleasure, chronicle prison come right there is some for cisco, they begged me to write another one. I said i just cant. So hard thinking about all those meters and rhymes. And besides which im working. Im working on that. I just will time to do it. Once again my agent, they guy who thought of the first book, david, a fantastic literary agent, said you have got to do this. Theres going to be an election in november. If you get this book out before that election, you can discharge your political duties. And he was absolutely right. So i i said yes, and i thoughtm never going to be able to do this. Along comes to all of our grief the pandemic and sheltering in place and lockdown with nothing to do, except i had something to do. Thats when they wrote all those poems. I had these extraordinary subjects. I had impeachment, the coronavirus pandemic, trumps incredibly inept handling of all that, and then the black lives matter movement. I was even, that was just about at the deadline but even got to address that. Why verse . I dont know. You dont come to me for political punditry. You come to me for entertainment, thats what you expect. And so i thought what better use of my entertainment skills than to skewer this man and to express my own anger and rage and pessimism and fear through lighthearted and very funny, witty poems. Inevitably they became, just as happy with the first book, the poems get more savage as the book goes along. Because you are dealing with some very, very dark subjects. But theres something fascinating about that. I love eating with dark subjects in a in a lighthearted manner. The irony of that, thomas nast and jonathan swift, great satirists, and so im not a great satirists. Im a total beginner at this, but it has struck a chord and im just delighted. That fantastic. Talk about the illustrations. Just the same as i dont really consider myself a professional poet or a professional humorist, im not a professional illustrator either. But my original ambition was to be an artist. I grew up in a theater family. Ive no intention to be an actor. I didnt want to go into the family business. Besides, for as long as i can remember ive had a certain facility with art. At age seven and eight years old people asked it what it wanted to be when i grew up. It was an artist. I was very serious about it, but being in a theater family, by osmosis i was becoming a very experienced actor. I acted, my father produced shakespeare festivals and i peered in about 20 shakespeare plays on the time i was 20, and arrived at college as a fully formed actor and became a campus star, and that was that. I mean, if you get a big enough response as an actor, you are doomed. Youre not going to do anything else with your life. Wonderful. You know, the wonderful thing about doing the poems is i would imagine the illustrations, even as i wrote them. Okay. By the time we finished, i will be reciting a poem, Joe Mccarthys lullaby, and i knew exactly the drawing i was going to make of that, joe mccarthy, you know, toddling a little baby donald trump and his lap in a rocking chair. Its wonderful to find a a visl joke to go along with a verbal joke. As all of us of been doing this under predark time, a serious topic and you through covert on top of it and youve got people come in many cases not very happy about the world. Is this cathartic for you . Does this feel part of your own release for dealing with these times . Does this just work or what is it for you . Thats a very good question. Im not sure that catharsis this is the exact word but its pretty close. There is a certain elation come welcome its to create a process. I can look at Something Like that, little video, i remember the moment when i the thought f every single one of those rhymes, to think of it as a kind of mini orgasm. Thats a fairly rude way of describing it. Like oh, yes. Its very, very hard work. Its a dogged drudgery because you sit, i sit in complete silence. I cant be if a pickup truck backs up and makes that little beep beep beep sound three blocks away, i go into a fit. You have to go into this trancelike state, which is why, why i was hesitant to do it again. Its just too darn hard. But boy, when you think of the last line of the last stanza of a poem, its just, well, its cathartic. Sure enough. And also the poems are very savage. I really take a few people completely to pieces, like erik prince, john machen t, elaine chao, people who really deserve it. But i myself am not the kind of person who would get on msnbc and hold force with my own anger and wrath like steve schmidt, a man who buy just absolutely love listening to what i couldnt do that. But i can be very perverse and subversive and get nothing in my own way. Which is with satire. Youve had a chance to both two readings of your poem and have full actors and actresses and friends read them as well. How did that come about for other engagement . What does it feel like . I was just so thrilled with that. Because it was covid, you couldnt do a proper book tour. When i was releasing the first book, dumpty, just a year ago i was right there in San Francisco at your city arts lecture being interviewed for an audience of a thousand people, maybe some of your listeners with her in the audience and they had a fantastic time doing book readings and book signings everywhere. I went to three different cities, all that was out this time. We arranged things like this, a lot of virtual interviews and appearances. The couple of months ago i thought, wait a minute, lets get creative about this. Why do i because ive been asked to do all sorts of things, just talking to my iphone and texting it to someone putting it on dropbox. I made a list of my favorite people and favorite actors and i mixed in some politicians and journalists and even an epidemiologist. And i asked them if they would be willing to simply record themselves in their own reading a few of my poems. I got in touch with a fabulous director, a good friend of mine. We working on perry mason at the time and i said what about this . What about making videos of my poems as a way of selling the book . He said yes immediately. He was a big thomas nast fame fd he loved what i was doing. I contacted my pals. They also just, and this is meryl streep, annette bening, glenn close, Whoopi Goldberg, sam jackson, on and on and on, mixing and steve schmidt, James Carville, laurie garrett, thats the epidemiologist, and they did a wonderful job. Jim works with these three delightful young men who have a Company Called tick tick studios and they and this but altogether. We have now released eight. We created our own Youtube Channel. It went up just the beginning of this week. Eight of them will always been posted but there will be another 15, 16 of them right up until election eve. So thats how and you see they made use of my illustrations. They managed to animate the way you saw in that first come into a very simple way. I was just completely marvel. Ive lived in anything like that but you just have to get creative. Thats a wonderful way to bring something to life when you can get everybody around this thing a person, and you said it is on youtube. So i can people get you get on Youtube Channel, youtube, and look up our Youtube Channel which is called the Trumpty Dumpty cycle and there they are. We are going to about rolling them out. You can see eight of them. Have you gotten any reaction from the negative reaction or just ribbing from the right, from the administration at all . That have probably been some very critical things thrown up on the internet but it dont see them in any of the comment sections added dont work for them anyway. I am an actor. Most actors are scared to death of bad reviews come about who they come from. But secretly i think everybody was hoping we would get trumps goat and elicit a couple of the tweets from it. Hasnt happened yet but god, who is doing everything else. Hes a total lunatic these days, so im ready. Did you watch the debate . Yes, i did. Unbelievable. Unbelievable spectacle. Who would have dreamed that our politics would be so debased . Only thing that kind of threw me about it, not what was happening. While it was happening i wanted to vomit. As soon as it was over and i saw all the commentary, which was completely appalled by donald trump, i began to feel a certain elation as if we just watched him politically immolate himself. Weve been doing that for three or four years thinking hes done it now, theres no way he can recover from this, and we always been wrong. But i dont know, i remain optimistic. Good. Its almost as if he is doing our work for us. He is certainly give you a lot of material for the next poems. Not just that. Way back in december and january of last year when we were deciding, talking about what this book should be at how it should be different from the last one, i said this is bad. This book is got to be really tough and really dark. Hes now behaving like a king. Why dont i make up an opening poem, Trumpty Dumpty wanted a crown and make that the title of the book . Lookout prescient that was. Not to congratulate myself, but thats exactly how hes operating more now than ever. I wrote that lighthearted poem back in january. Its taken on such dark meanings when i say, for example, installed in his own Supreme Court and royal beheadings, if only for sport. Thats a much better line now than it was eight months ago. Well, i think it also, youre going to read another poem for us . Can you remember which both eyes going to read . Fake news. I urge you all to go to the Youtube Channel. I was talking about because i have this, i will read it all right but i will read as follows my friends Whoopi Goldberg and sam jackson. They are just completely wonderful. Taking the a moment. Im not sure where it is in my own book. You see, this is, explains why my career is faltered. Lets see now, fake news, fake news. Yes, its one of the first. Page 15. Ill show you the illustration for it just for the fun of it. You had the illustration. Thats our clever little tech people. Nick by name. Its called fake news and this by the way is herodotus. Trump as herodotus on his pedestal. People say that heretofore i cant black tenants from my door using legal trickery. But fake news doesnt bother me. They say that falsifying fact is how i scolded all my taxes. People call it larceny, but fake news doesnt bother me. Constantly im found at fault charged with sexual assault, harassment and adultery, but fake news doesnt bother me. Starving students, people say, have their futures ripped away by dumpty university, fake news doesnt bother me. They spend me with the vile things like payoffs for my casual things from the campaign treasury, but fake news doesnt bother me. People say i am monetized. All my president ial ties boosting my prosperity, but fake news doesnt bother me. They say my meddling in ukraine left an ignominious stain tantamount to treachery, but fake news doesnt bother me. They say in days coronavirus i propelled our downward spiral to my imbecility, but fake news doesnt bother me. Not withstanding crimes like these, i will continue as i please. Fake news doesnt bother me. I will just rewrite history. Thats fantastic. If we had a Live Audience who would be lot of flaws going on. Right here. Very fun. And prescient as well. Had you seen his income taxes . No. Thats what i mean. I wrote that early on, again come in january. It was one of the first ones i wrote. Coronavirus had never even been heard of but i but i was able k that last stands in, about days coronavirus. By the way, it was a wonderful event that i can tell you about. I had written three or four of these poems, one about roger stone, one about fake news of course. It was one called twinkle twinkle caniff Kenneth Starr al the defense team in the impeachment trial. I was invited by senator Debbie Stabenow from michigan to be the after dinner entertainment at a retreat of the Democratic Senate caucus in baltimore in the Johns Hopkins rare books library. I flew to baltimore, and i read my first four poems from this book. It was the first time i had ever read them aloud for anybody, and i was reading down to United States democratic senators. [laughing] and they laughed and applauded. They gave me a standing ovation. It was just one of those, for me, personally it was just a historic night. Thats fantastic. That wouldve been great after dinner entertainment. Unfortunately we didnt have Kamala Harris or Dianne Feinstein switch another california speed is im sure look up the book on youtube. Ive already sent the book to all my democratic friends. Great. So in the course of writing this, obviously theres a lot going on in everyday in the news and the president doing something else, but what prompts you, this is something i want to write about or hear something they gave me an idea . Is it just pick up the paper or turn on the tv or look at twitter and find something, or how would you find something you want to write about . Things become very selfevident. I do remember with both books i sat down and wrote a kind of database of 40 great subjects or great characters. These characters are simply amazing. As an actor you will go through life looking at people who, they behave so crazy, its always very liberating as a character actor i always feel what a a relief, theres no way anybody can tell me i am overdoing it. These people are nuts, and theyre fantastic subjects for comity. When they hired john mcafee to be the head of the hiring and firing in the White House Personnel Office at age 29, this young jurek who had not done anything. Its like a perfect subject for a poem. And, of course, any number of the others i would dig deep into my research and just when everything i could about someone like secular oh or elaine chao and collect all the stuff, a lot of it that people, escaped peoples notice or their forgotten about it. I would we all those little factoids into the text of the poems. An interesting thing happened which i described in the introduction to the book, when my first book came out, many of the people i had written about, their moment had come eight, nine, ten months before. People early in the Trump Administration, tom price, scott pruitt, harold borenstein, anthony scaramucci. Those with the subjects of the poem in the first book but the early on poems i would, peoples response would be my god, i forgot all about those people. I began to realize, well, thats what are you doing with these books. Im writing an offbeat kind of history, but it is a history book, and history books are there to remind you about what happened. You may have forgotten this but it was important. And in my mind its even more memorable if its told in ryan. Rhyme. Something about rhymes hitting at the end of the sentence in perfect meter that just come little firecracker goes off in your brain when you read that and you just remember. I did an entire monoline in the first book, which means every single line ends with the same rhyme and it was on the subject of scott pruitt. Everything rhymed with pruitt but you did here into the very last line. You dont forget scott pruitt after that. I will say as i was reading the book in the introduction and then read the book, it did remind me about, if this were a film you would say theres too many characters in this. Thats right, yeah. Three months ago and have already forgotten since event 50 news cycle. I know. They all happened like slowdown come slow down, i can handle all of this which of course is what everybody is feeling in this administration. And somehow or other these two books, volume one and volume two, god help me, i hope there will not be a volume three, just putting all these stories together, all these people together, just compacting them into two, 100 page books of poems has an incredible impact just how grotesquely bad this presidency was in this administration. Jared kushner, and that little creek stephen miller, theyre the only ones who are still around. And how grotesque is itthat those are the people who are basically running our country . So what are you as youre out having these virtual conversations , what do you like to have people take away from in addition to obviously reading the book and reacting . What do you want them to feel after this you ask such great questions. You know, the entertainer in me wants them to be delighted at once them to have a wonderful time. Ironically enough, a wonderful timecontemplating a really terrible time. There are all sorts, i feel ambivalent in many ways about the whole process. Because i know im preaching to the converted. I know that the only people who are enjoying this book are people who agree with me and are saying yes, thank god youve written this. The people who dont agree with me, they hate this book if they know about it at all. I dont expect that you. I always say i hope to sell lots of copies to liberals and lots of copies trumps people to because the only want to burn it but if they burn they have to buy itfirst. Now, that would be our last line we this was a city arts lecture last year. It would be a very dark laugh and those are the best times. So. Im going to have a couple serious questions about, were doing this kind of discussion that youre doing other ones like it to help engage an audience when you cant doperforming arts. You cant have a Live Audience. Are you worried about whats going to happen to the arts or obviously were in a respite now but interms of whats going to come out of this . Well, im deeply worried of course and its been an economic catastrophe formost artists. I dont think i know any actor whos been paid for the last 10 months. I go back to work in 2 weeks on a tv series that was suspended last february and im one of the very lucky actors. Its been a catastrophe. Again, the optimist in me says well, it may take a long time but the arts will be back. People are desperate for them. Theyre desperate to somehow or other with this experience on anemotional level through the arts. But its very hard because you cant convey the arts without being with people, without connecting with people and communicating with people. Thats the saddest part about this whole experience is then how lonely we all are. Were just not use to being soisolated. Thank god i have a wife who was, i would rather be with her than anybody else so in fact sheltering in place has been a very very sweet experience, a rare experience but its been very melancholy and of course the news is so disturbing every day. It, we will recover from this. My own grandfather passed away when my dad was four years old in the spanish flu epidemic. In 19 1918. And its, during the depths of that epidemic it must have felt like the world was coming to an end but we did recover from it and we will recover from this but its hard to hang on to that hope and the awful thing is this terrible political anxiety that sort of sickens us atthe same time. Its really really a tough thing to live through but were all living through it together. When i was growing up my parents generation , they would all tell their rueful funny stories aboutthe depression. Starting in new york, being starving actors in new york. My dad was a new yorkactor in the 1930s , just never worked. In fact, my mother was a waitress at stouffers on fifth avenue. Which was a great job and because of that, they fed everybody in their little apartment inthe village. And they tell those stories as if it was the most exciting time of their lives. So maybe willlook back on this and tell people how we survived. And i hope we will in one way or another. How are you able to do, restarting your again in a couple of weeks and given the environment were in, how has that been enabled . I guess eggs are slowly coming to life in the Film Industry in la area theyre taking us through all sorts of protocols. A lot of which im noteven aware of yet, i havent been through it. But i dont know. Ive beengoing to Recording Studios. There are only, its based on only one or maybe two people there and were all very careful. To do little odds and ends of jobs. I dont know, somehow will just sort of creep back into action, just the way sports have. But its a recall thing. And they keep canceling Football Games and asking all games and entire conference seasons. Just because of two or three infections. So i dont know, its going tobe a little thought. I do hope youre right and i sort of feel like there is a pent up interest in people wanting to both get out personally but if theycant get out , at least engage and watch and enjoy something that takes their mind away from the daytoday so i would assume as soon as youre able to producing again and filling an act out, and an audience, just thirsting for its. Because were not seeing anything new and anything has been produced inthe last eight months. So in addition to being able to spend more time with your wife then you might have expected, how are you keeping yourself sane sides writing poetry . Thats been a big part of it. I wrote a book. I illustrated a book. And i coproduced these 21 euros, something ive never done in my life. Ive been reading novels, as i havent given myself the chance to ina long time. But mainly its been the book. And thats been pretty special. Ive had a wonderful time with this one. Lenny, let me ask you a question. Im sitting in my wifes studio and has wonderful light until the sun goes down. Andi very very dark . Should i go and turn some lights on . Youre fine. Its getting kind of gloomy and it strikes me, i startedtalking about some very dark things. Lets give you a chance to lighten this up a little bit or at least change that tone a little bit if you want to. Youre fine so i think wehave another video to watch. Civilians, 300 million. And anxious nation with misinformation, take what other leaders tried and set aside. Please defeat these sovereign states on separate plates, so this confusion anddistrust. Insist onsycophantic praise. Turn the pot for all to seeon live tv. Simmer low. How to inflate common snake, then prophetic, [inaudible] pass the buck. Our suppliers aarriving late . Lame the state. Shock all sciencebased advice, purce twice. If the stock careens, boil your greens. Push your ignorance and mike pence. Use yoursoninlaw for the slop. thefunds for who, need the dough. As some spiced withtabasco. Once you learn can kill, come in guilt, when 100,000 died, make your pie. When atlast the horror is done ,claimant you lost. Take no time at all the master, match no disaster. [laughter] that is fantastic. About that. I love that. The poem was terrific, the illustrations were fantastic and having that ra of voices be able to bring it to life has been really fulfilling. And just to make sure i give everybody credit that was will be goldberg, sam jackson, Joseph Gordon levitt, and stephen root and Kristin Chenoweth and margaret cho. What a gay. And you had James Carville in the next. And that was laurie garrett, one of the worlds greatepidemiologists. And senator john tester who became my great friend that night in baltimore as i just told you about. That would be a fun conversation. Again, from at least my view of that and i remember reading that before knowing you were going to do it as part of this discussionthat was one of my favorite ones. Its a very challenging topic obviously written in a way that reminds you of what happened to this entire disaster that were talking about and how much the lack of response at the leadership level isresponsible at least in part for how bad it is. But i saw that as an allegory along the lines of nero fiddling while rome burned. And yes, that is by far the darkest and toughest poem but we were talking about the coronavirus. That, when i wrote it, there wereonly about 80,000 people dead. And now theres more than 200,000. And our president talks about it as if it hasnt even happened. Or as if its all over, its far from over. So as you were working through this book during this time, a lot of events that occurred after occurred in the forefront of our minds as this president has continued to be in the media about whats happening. Are there things that you wrote about four things you considered writing about that you think people didnt pay as much or have not paid as much attention to that youcan bring some like to . You mentioned elaine chao as one example, the things that we all know about covid but there are some of the poems that to me were illustrating through the way you described both first and arts. Who may not know as muchabout or remember as much. Certainly i wrote about jim jordan, the ohio congressman. And is, the charges against him. Of countenancing sexual harassment. I wrote about eric prince and his special ops. A lot of them are poems that we did not do videos about the cause they are just, they really are grim area john and he was an easy one to tease. I was astonished when i did the research on elainechao. This sort of very sweet apparently sweet woman who is truly one of the most corrupt figures in the Trump Administration. And theres a whole long poem , i call it a pandemic is a terrible thing to waste about how trump has managed to fire five Inspector General and i do a little stance oneach one of them. Called christie, grimm and i cant remember their names now which is the whole point. Steve winick at state. It was appalling how methodically mark and trump have gone about defining the entire Inspector General process. And its quite specifically to make sure that trump and barr are not implicatedin it. Thats the kind of thing that speaks under the radar and the whole idea of a pandemic is a terror in a terrible thing to waste is when theres a terrible crisis like that things happen late on friday night at the very nadir of the news cycle. You have to Pay Attention to what this administration does on friday night because it is so extralegal and they so count on people not quite noticing it. There again you can learna lot from the poem because its all true. The thing we chose to do quite earlyon, they are the poems. And they are outrageous because the behavior is outrageous and the people are outrageous. But they are accompanied by completely factual, completely deadpan little reminders of what the actual fact of the matter are. Becausethese poems are all based on the truth. So you as im sure our viewers know have one of your more recent films was to play roger ailes andbombshell. How did that compare in terms of trying to get into that character with trying to communicate through poetry and what was it like to play someone that bigger than life. It was a wonderful experience. Very very complex men. I mean, you know, every time i play a villain and i play just as many villains as i have heroes and fools, i always say my stock intrade our scoundrels and fools. The scoundrels, when you play a villain its fascinating to really really work on finding out what his redemptive about that person or what is remorseful aboutthat person. Thats how i approached roger ailes. A man who sort of had his compulsions but surely he wishes he didnt and got no satisfaction from them and in a way its is a very pitiable creature. I took the ingenious move if i say so myself, i tracked down an old friend of mine who had been roger ailes producing partner. In the 1970s when ailes was trying his hand at theater producing innew york. In fact he produced the first production of Lanford Wilsons audio baltimore. Amazing facts, roger ailes and my friend Steve Rosenfeld who was his producing partner described him, he said he was very upset. He was very appalled by his ailes behavior late in life. But he found it very upsetting nobody was telling the story of what Great Company he was. What a great sense of humor he had. How he could make your laugh for 42nd street. Very interesting, completely different roger ailes and the conventional wisdom. I found much or interesting playing the part once i tracked steve down and heard all those stories. You certainly brought him to life effectively and i very muchenjoyed. So we had a question, from the audience that when you get to do a movie about the Trump Administration, have we frozen up lenny west and mark. When they do a movie about which im sure therewill be a dozen of them or more , the Trump Administration, each character would you want to be . This guy caputo who just emerge for a moment and has now been gone forever, thats the part for me. I even look like him and he is, i mean these people are soinsane. But there are several. There are several. All this sort of fat, bald white men of over 70 years old. There already looking for me to play those parts. Actually ive already been asked to play donald trump a couple of times it just too soon for me. I did play him, we did a Live Streaming of the molar report last june. Fascinating, it was a fascinating experience with a whole bunch of kind of like the way i assembled the cast for my book. They just put us all together on youtube and we played out all those scenes a lot of them, second half of the molar report is writtenin dialogue. Can you describe a little bit more the videos that go along with this book . People just were, in their homes recording. Like were doing. They were in their homes. I have a fun opportunity that i created a little grid. I picked 21 poems i thought would be really playable. And ive asked people, most people read three or four colons. Theres a big section of limericks, you will remember. I told them out to absolutely everybody. Andthey all read the entire poem. And then these wonderfulguys , they cut them together so that like in the case of the news, the video you just saw you see the whole ensemble taking turns. And we had great fun and i got involved late, they would edit it and then i would revisit and say you know what would work much better is to put edie falco up here. And i injected myself. I deliberately had kept my distance, wanted to open it and close it but then i decided no, they need me here on thisone. Because i didnt want to read them again. I didnt want to ask them to do it again. Ill tell you one wonderful little side note. We got permission from sag aftra, our union for all these people to perform and for it to air on television, used it as a clip likeweve done tonight. All the actors agreed but we had to make sure the union approved it on condition we pay each of them a nominal fee and that nominal fee was 15 so i just love the fact that i paid glenn close and sam jackson and meryl streep 15 a pop. Alan alda, i said spend it wisely. Im sure they needed the work and were grateful forthe 15 area. They all had a wonderful time and i was really delighted. They all did it completely on their own read i wasnt there to say doit faster or do it funnier. They just all did a great job and if they didnt, we just with some shoot somebody else in for thatparticular stanza. I look forward to going to the Youtube Channel to watch those shortly. And now James Carville and say hes acted with meryl streep. So were getting close to the end here and i want to make sure i ask some of the questions that came in but what can you doabout upcoming, i mentioned this. Tomorrow morning i start a really interesting project for audible. Im doing a radio play that was commissioned by audible or in any case written as a radio play by james patterson. A kind of murder mystery, five episode radio play. And i think thats one of the products of the pandemic is bringing just sound that, things for people to simply listen to because you can record something so low in the Recording Studio in a way you cant perform it with other people. Thats one thing and the other thing is im resuming, the series im resuming is kind of International Spy series with jeff bridges called the old man. And were too old cia special agents who did something 30 years ago during the soviet era in afghanistanthat was way out of bounds. Wellintentioned, but we broke a lot of rules and that event has come back to haunt us in the present day. And it really kind of cool and i get to work with james, with jeff whom ive never worked with before. We were supposed to go to morocco just as the coronavirus hit. Now were doing scenes set in morocco butwere doing them in southern california. God knows how thats going to work. But it was 90 nights to have a job. What network will that beyondquestion marks. Fx, its an fx series. Were just about at the end of the time here and wanted to just ask aclosing question and ask you to read a final poem. So as you would expect in an audience like the Commonwealth Club youve got a group of people who are both big fans of you, excited to read the book and also serious about the topics that you are addressing through your poetry andthrough your art. So do you have any closing advice for people in this time that we were in as they have had a chance to read and listen to you and want to be part of ensuring that we have aterrific country going forward, what would you encourage people. Both of course. I think its incredibly important that there be a landslide electoral victory for joe biden. And Kamala Harris and dont lose hope, there is the possibility that this nightmare continues but who knew we would ever be able to survive 4 years of this . I remember vividly what it felt like the night ellery clinton lost and i felt such despair. Well, its been really bad and these last couple of months have been the worst of all. But we have survived. Chances are, things will change and things will get better and i stay optimistic. And at the very least, stay creative. Thats wonderful advice and i appreciate you staying creative and using this medium to share it with us but i want to give you a chance to read another one of your poems to close it out and i talked about you reading Joe Mccarthys lullaby. Im not going to readit, im going to sing it. Ill show you, i think ive described but i get to show it to you now. Theres joe mccarthy and you can see baby trump. Mewling and puking in his arms, thats in the background of course is roy m cohen. This is Joe Mccarthys lullaby, a poem i imagine, i thought of it as i was taking a shower at about 8 30 in the morning and by 11 am i had already written a poemand down the illustrations. This was the only one that came easy. Maybe its because it was a lullaby and since its nighttime and where wrapping this up, this is my life for you. Hush little dumpy, dont you cry. Youll be in dreamland by and by. Harken back many years ago to the time of your uncle joe. If youre feeling all alone, give a thought to roy m cohen. If youre cranky, be like me. Copy my demagoguery. Still the nations schism, by attacking socialism area craft on legal jurisdiction by rescinding lynns conviction. If you like the chinese connection, youll squeak by in the next election. If youre pulls are getting low, simply take joe scarborough. If you cant win every crucial state, by invoking obama gate. If youre badly trailing biden, played blame claim you knoweverything hes hiding. If they call you deeply flawed, keep invoking voter fraud. If coronavirus spreads, put it all on the governorsheads. If they claim you reacted slow, place the blame on the who. If resistance grows too large, float a bogus deep state charge. If the public seems chagrined , count hydroxychloroquine. If last your voted down, youll still be the sweetest little dumpy in town. So hush little dumpy, dont you cry. Your out of office by and by. By and by, by and by. Thats Joe Mccarthys lullaby. That is wonderful and if we could see if of the applause would be deafening right now. But i can think of no better way to end an evening with john lithgow and having him read Joe Mccarthys lullaby. Thank you very much area. Thank you, you do this so well. It was really a pleasure to talk to you. Again, our thanks to john lithgow, author of the book which i encourage all of those who registered at the Commonwealth Club for this event, we will be getting a copy and for those of you watching on youtube or listening on the radio, id encourage you to get the book called trump he dumped he wanted a crown , verses four and 58 and thank you for joining us today we also like to thank our audience for watching and participating life. If you like to watch more programs or support the commonwealthclubs efforts in making Virtual Programming, please visit Commonwealth Club. Org , online. Again, im Lenny Mendoza thank you and stay safe everyone area thank you again john. Now on book tv, or television for serious readers. We bring a former White House Press secretary and medications director sean spicer, a lifelong republican. His role in reshaping the Republican National committees pr strategy the party revealed after losses in 2012