The Smiley Smile Message Board

I seem to recall reading somewhere once that Dean Torrence stood in for Mike during a tour in the 70's when Mike was off somewhere learning to levitate (!!??). Anyone know anything about this?

Mike nominated Dean as his sub in 1977 if the band played any shows when he was away. Turns out, they didn't. Mike flew to Switzerland on 1/21/77, reportedly for six months. The next show the band played was the 7/30/77 private CBS gig in London. The next public show was 8/19.

Andy Kaufman went on that Switzerland levitation caper as well, Bob Zmuda has a fun bit about it in his book:

"Look, I know you don't believe this, but it's true, I'll be able to levitate when I get back. You'll eat your words, Zmuda. I'm serious, I guarantee it." He continued, "I'm going to ask the Maharishi for permission to use levitation at the Huntington Show."

"You're going to levitate? What, over the audience?" I asked.

"Yeah, exactly. That is, if the Maharishi lets me. It would be the first commercial application of levitation ever. It would be great for the TM movement."

[...]

"Well, can you?" I persisted.

"No," he said, avoiding eye contact.

"See," I exploded, "It was a bunch of bullshit!"

"No, it really isn't," he said calmly.

"Andy, Andy, Andy, why the hell do you give those people your money?"

"Bob, listen, it's not bullshit. It's true, people can really levitate. I could levitate. I could levitate, really I could, but I choose not. It's that simple. [...] The thing is, I could do it, but the process requires you to purify yourself for a year. I choose not to purify myself in that way for a year. That's all."

"Purify yourself? How?"

"They told me that to purify myself I'd have to be celibate for a year."

I broke into hysterics. "Celibate!?" When I caught my breath I said, "Kaufman, you are the most gullible son of a bitch I've ever met! Celibate for a year? I can't believe that sh*t! That's hilarious!"

Andy shrugged, not finding the humor. "Well, it's true," he said, like a hurt little kid who needed the last word. "I just choose not to."

(http://i.ytimg.com/vi/_47Xl4A98OU/hqdefault.jpg)

And so now we know why Mike didn't!

Wow.... I've never heard a Maharishi story that DIDN'T boil down to him being full of sh*t. :-P

I'm curious about the Beach Boys/Maharishi tour in 1968. I'd like to hear from someone who witnessed it firsthand. What was the format? Did the BB play a set and then the Maharishi gave a lecture to the audience? Or how that work exactly?

That looks like Mike's 70's stage outfits. Maybe the Maharishi told them to dress like that!

Well ; I don't know if this counts , but I was at the Singer Bowl in NY where right before showtime , the concert was cancelled; I had great seats all the way in the front; The Beach Boys gear was all set up, but there was nobody there ; then the announcement came that they pulled the plug. 

The format was to be that the Maha-ha-rishi would come out and give his pitch , then the BB's would play , at least that is my recollection. I was there for the Beach Boys , not this other nonsense; I was with a date and I was seriously pissed off.

I utilized my inner TM when I levitated over to the box office to get my tickets refunded.  Eye-nay-mah !

  you didn't take a full refund, did ya?  after all, you'd already seen their equipment; that should count for something

I should have kept the tickets .....maybe they would be worth something now on Ebay to a completist collector

what do you think Andy has been doing since he faked his death?? learning to levitate of course... :lol

I saw Gerry Beckley stand in for Mike.

yeah!  That's kinda what I was thinking...   It appears from Ian and Jon's book that the BBs actually came on first
Can't remember what I paid for my ticket on Ebay and it has a line marked thru; guess it was a comp/press ticket (  why it was saved? ) 
Have to figure they destroyed most if not all of the tickets for the cancelled dates. Of course there were 5 actual concerts, so maybe ....   

    (http://i61.tinypic.com/16780vn.jpg)

I must buy that book !

I cannot imagine how fast the arena would empty after the BB's finished their set, and then they trot out the maharishi ???  I would have been out of there so fast the suction would have taken the paint off the walls !

$3.00 is way too much to pay for the maharishi .

 More like $2.99 for the BBs and a penny for sexy sadie

Only 3 bucks for a Beach Boys show in 1968?! Were things really that bad or was that typical concert ticket prices in those days? Seems unbelievable considering the success that they had experienced in the previous 5 or so years, and being named the #1 group over The Beatles just a couple years before.

Typical pricing

Wow, concert tickets have inflated in price more than gas. Crazy.

Back in 2000, I saw Mike & Bruce AND the turtles for about $12. Great show, great price!

$3.00 in 1968 = $20.52 in 2014

*U.S. Dept of Labor

Tickets to Woodstock in 1969 were $6.50 for one day or $18.00 for all three days.  Of course, the festival ended up being free for most folks.  How would the Beach Boys have gone over at Woodstock?  Sha Na Na was on just before Jimi Hendrix.