A Sproul Plaza stalwart on 30-plus years in the free speech biz.
A rite of passage for every Cal freshman is traipsing through Sproul Plaza and witnessing—in many cases for the first time—a little raw free speech, a tradition started in the early 1960s by the late Mario Savio. The current undisputed heavyweight motormouth of Sproul is none other than Stoney Burke. Unlike Savio, a forthright civil rights activist, Burke is more in the Mort Sahl vein as he riffs on current events with newspaper in hand (but no V-necked sweater, Burke’s a little more casual: Think ’70s Robin Williams style). A semi-regular presence on campus since the mid-’70s, it’s tempting to dismiss Burke as just another random Berkeley lunatic, but that would be a mistake. The guy’s acted in major motion pictures (Matrix Reloaded, Bartleby, among others), has had a day named in his honor (notably in San Francisco, not Berkeley) and has just self-published a new book, Weapon: Mouth, the Stoney Burke Story. He’s even earned his Screen Actors Guild card, for chrissakes. When not calling out the emperor, Burke toils as a cabbie in San Francisco, where I met up with him recently. To put the street performer at ease we had our little chat on the sidewalk as Powell Street shoppers and tourists paraded by. We didn’t draw a crowd, but then again, we didn’t get arrested either.
Paul Kilduff: Why Sproul? I mean there is obviously the tradition of Mario Savio, and this being the home of free speech. Was that it or was there something else?
Stoney Burke: Well, at the time—we’re talking like ’75 through ’77 when the Vietnam War was just getting over—so you had a lot of really radical people out there. I was doing like whiteface mime and people were going, “Oh no, no. This is Berkeley. Get a newspaper. Put it in your hand and you talk about the news.” I just tell the kids, “In your future, you won’t remember anything about Cal except me.” Sunny day, trying to escape your class and there’s Stoney out there, unscheduled, throwing it down, paper in his hand. Generally he has the right message and the lowest admission in the world, right? Free.
PK: Shields and Yarnell, that’s not happening.
SB: To make a long story short, you start talking and pretty soon the cops are hassling you and the people are hassling the cops and you’re caught up in this beautiful milieu of Berkeley, California.
PK: Have you ever been offered a faculty position at Cal?
SB: I have a faculty position.
PK: What is that?
SB: Office of Offense.
PK: Is it all ad lib? Do you have any show notes before you go in? It looks like it’s just all stream-of-consciousness.
SB: To me, that’s the exciting part—I don’t know what’s going to happen out there. How can you plan anything when you’re playing in those streets? You can’t. There’s so much to trip on. That’s the excitement.
PK: This is like right now, as you can see, we’re standing here on Powell Street in front of the Walgreens. It’s pretty exciting.
SB: It’s the flow.
PK: We’re making a lot of these people’s lives better right now, I think. Look at these people.
SB: Please move along. The celebrity scene is over now. Next group, please. Next group.
PK: This is going to come out in November. That’s when the state of California will decide once and for all if we’re going to legalize marijuana. What do you think?
SB: Well, that’s good. I’d still advocate people to grow their own in their backyard and bring the price down so low. I mean, they should have done it, of course, 30 or 40 years ago, right? We wouldn’t have drug cartels up in the national forest with trip wires and people getting hurt and stuff like that, right?
PK: But what about the whole idea of what Oakland is doing, on a mass scale, and taxing it and all that?
SB: Yeah, that’s okay as long as it’s local people. I don’t want conglomerates. I don’t want the same people that gave us Marlboro to give us joints and [start] putting the same chemicals in them because the production value would be a little lower or something like that.
PK: The cigarette companies have already copyrighted names for pot. What do you think some of these names are going to be?
SB: “Smoke more, you’ll remember less.” It’s a little sad and sacrilegious. As one of the last parts of being a rebel and outside society, you could go around the back and smoke a joint. Is the whole commercial thing going to make it just so I could go into 7-Eleven and buy a joint? Where’s the special-ness, the thing that drew us together? That’s why pot has been illegal for so long because it makes you think.
PK: If corporate America does take control of marijuana, then they’re going to have to do focus groups, they’re going to have to smoke that marijuana to test it. Then they’re going to get so spaced out, they’ll forget about their motivation to sell it and they’ll get out of the business.
SB: I hope so! And give it back to us.
PK: It kills your motivation to be a capitalist, doesn’t it, smoking weed? And therefore, it wouldn’t really work for corporate America.
SB: I think anything works for corporate America.
PK: What about our dismal choices for governor?
SB: It’s like you want to ask for another menu.
PK: Exactly.
SB: Yeah. Haven’t we seen this one before? And Whitman, I mean, come on. What? We’re going to turn the whole country into an eBay auction?
PK: Do you think Jerry Brown’s going to win?
SB: Yeah, I think he’s going to win.
PK: Governor Jerry Brown, Part 2. What’s he going to do that’s going to be different?
SB: Well, [But] he’s going to have to change his whole stance on marijuana, that’s for sure. He was never in favor of that. I remember asking him in person at the University of Michigan, this was like 20 years ago. I said, “How about legalizing marijuana?” He said, “No, if you want to get high, I think you should meditate.” I bet he’s going to be meditating on some of those tax dollars coming in.
PK: They don’t have Plymouths anymore. Maybe he’ll get a Dodge and live in a dumpy little apartment. You think he’ll do that?
SB: You know, whatever he does, it’s still a scam. I suppose if I have to vote for McDonald’s, I’ll vote for him but it’s still a scam that he’s running and all the politicians are running.
PK: I just don’t really see anything changing with him being governor, I don’t know.
SB: I don’t either. I mean they’re all afraid of the deficit, they’re all afraid of the economy. They don’t want to take responsibility for it.
PK: Maybe that’s why it’s so hard to attract quality dynamic leadership because it seems like such an impossible job.
SB: Exactly. I mean what? Would you rather be in show business or mayor of Oakland? I mean, come on. Schwarzenegger’s got the best of both worlds probably, right? He gets to pretend he’s an action star but he still has a bigger deficit than Davis ever had.
PK: Who would you like to see as governor of California, Stoney?
SB: Stoney Burke.
PK: Stoney Burke.
SB: That’s right. I pump my own thing.
PK: Write in Stoney Burke.
SB: Write it in. Don’t write me out. You never know until you try it. Wait until they legalize pot, then vote for Stoney Burke. Vote for Stoney, he lives in the stony state. Stay stony with Stoney. You know, I’ve never been busted for marijuana at all even though my name is Stoney and I talk about it.
PK: Are you stoned right now?
SB: Absolutely not.
PK: This guy’s not stoned.
SB: Not stoned.
PK: And his name is Stoney.
SB: That’s right.
PK: Good news.
SB: I’ve only smoked once. I just never exhaled. That was some damn good pot!
PK: Whoopi Goldberg opened for this man right here, Stoney Burke.
SB: I can’t believe it. Yes, she was in the first film I was ever in, Citizen by Bill Farley but yeah, we did some shows, comedy shows, together, played over at S.F. State.
PK: Wow.
SB: She opened up for me.
PK: Are you in touch with her at all?
SB: No, not at all.
PK: So you have not been invited on The View?
SB: No. Someday, you never know.
PK: Do you think that that could ever happen?
SB: Yes.
PK: Would she remember you?
SB: Yes, in fact, I’ll tell you a story. She was doing Made in America over in Berkeley. She was the big star, [with] Ted Danson, and I was an extra. I’m walking around and she goes, “Stop! Stop the action! Stoney! Stoney! It’s so good to see you!” She gives me a hug. We went to her trailer afterwards. I’ve never seen that on a set!
PK: When I think of you, I think of Michael Moore. Although I agree with a lot of things that he says, I’m also like, you’re part of the establishment big time now. Quit trying to act like you’re some little guy. What a bunch of crap.
SB: Well, I know Michael Moore. I’m from Michigan. I’m a big Michael Moore supporter. He’s influenced me and some people have said I’ve kind of influenced him—you know, the whole guerrilla thing he does? I mean, I was doing that many years before that. We have friends in common. He’s reviewed the tapes and it’s all part of the milieu, but I’m a big Michael Moore supporter. He’s just a big guy from Michigan making films. He’s not my worry. He’s one of my idiots. On my side. And Glenn Beck?
PK: Yeah.
SB: Now these people are dangerous. Somebody’s going to die because Glenn Beck shut his stupid mind off. I don’t think people are going to die when Michael Moore sits on a chair or something, I don’t know.
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For more Kilduff, go to thekilduff-file.blogspot.com.
Age: 57
Birthplace: Romeo, Mich.
Astrological sign: Capricorn
What are you going to be when you grow up? Half the size of Michael Moore and twice as rich.
Who is your American idol? I’d say George Carlin. Maybe my father.
Performance schedule:
Tuesdays, 1 p.m., Sproul Plaza
Website: stoneyspeaks.com
