For the first time the Monkees’ silent “leader” reveals clues into his super-fab personality. It leaves little doubt that Mike is his own man!
Mike Nesmith has two truly outstanding qualities: he’s cool AND he’s very intelligent, and these qualities largely determine what turns him off and what turns him on.
For instance, Mike considers it both uncool and unintelligent for people to ask him why he wears sunglasses at night. He feels that the reason ought to be obvious to anyone who would take the time to think about it.
Mike has to work constantly with batteries of brilliant lights—day after day in the studio. These lights burn his eyes and there’s little chance for him to get away from them. Obviously, he wears sunglasses whenever he can—even at night—to protect his eyes!
Distinctive things Permalink
One thing that turns Mike on is things that are distinctive. He likes to be an individual, and if this means going to Hamburger Hamlet in his limousine with smoked-glass windows, he will. It doesn’t matter to Mike that no one has ever done that particular thing before.
He often asks David Price or one of his other friends to bring him some hamburgers which he eats in the back seat. By the same token he would think nothing of going into the ritziest restaurant in the world and ordering crackers and milk—if that was what he really wanted!
Big turn-off Permalink
Another thing that turns Mike off is questions he considers dumb. This means questions that just anybody could and would ask him. Sometimes, questions that other people might consider to be dumb Mike will find fascinating and very intelligent because he can see things in them that no one else is able to see.
So, if you should need to know whether Mike would consider your questions cool or uncool, it’s important to look at the questions from his exact position of perceptiveness and intelligence.
Deep thinker Permalink
Mike loves thinking about serious subjects and when someone asks him something pertaining to a subject to which he’s given a lot of thought, he’s eager to talk about it.
For instance, Mike has thought a lot about the name he and Phyllis will give their new baby. Because he is a musician and a song writer he gets turned-on by the sounds of different words and names. He’s now decided on the perfect name for their new baby—Igor! He’s decided that Igor fits all the requirements for a super-groovy name. It’s poetic to say, it’s distinctive, and it’s cool. Mike’s even secretly hoping that the new baby will be a girl because he thinks that Igor for a girls’ name would be totally outasite!
Big turn-on Permalink
Mike is turned-on by playing games of intelligence with people he talks to. He believes that too often conversations are nothing more than dull question and answer routines and he maintains that conversation can and should be much more than this. So quite often he’ll say unexpected things or perhaps say nothing at all just to keep the other end of the conversation sharp and stimulating.
You might think because of these things that Mike is a very complicated person. This isn’t really true, because once you find out what turns him off and what turns him on you’re easily able to figure out the exact sort of person Mike is. The answer? A totally unique individual who turns on the most by being a Monkee!
