It's a long poem.
I'll give you guys a choice.
You can choose between "Sonic Personality," which
is the famous moonwalk night.
Michael is so mad at his father that night
that he does the famous moonwalk at the Motown 25
to [INAUDIBLE] he wears his mother's jacket on stage to get
back at his dad So if you go to YouTube
and you watch the video, he's wearing a black sequined jacket
that's short, and he wants to take-- he says,
I'm taking candy up there with me.
That's how he talked-- taking candy up there.
So you can choose "Sonic Personality"
or you can choose "Wacko Jacko."
Now "Wacko Jacko" begins with a Naomi Campbell quote,
because they work together in one of those videos.
Naomi Campbell says, "He's a very sweet, down-to-earth
person, a lot like me."
[LAUGHTER] Choose [INAUDIBLE]
Sounds like the Sonics won it.
At one point-- at some point in this poem,
I'm to say the word "klawnoom," and klawnoom is just
moonwalk spelled backwards.
And I couldn't write moonwalk.
I ate too much to dance for you.
I thought I would do it.
[LAUGHTER]
"Billie Jean" is-- the nickname for "Billie Jean"
while they were in the studio was "Sonic Personality."
They didn't have a title for it.
So Quincy Jones and Michael, they were calling it that,
"Sonic Personality."
And they were calling that because the beginning of it
was just so distinct.
And Michael called this--
[TAPPING],, that, when he's waiting standing,
he called that--
don't ask me.
This is all stuff I ask people.
He called that the jelly.
He would always say in the studio, give me the jelly.
[LAUGHTER]
And another thing he did in the studio while making Thriller--
he had them build a phone booth, a wooden box,
and he put a little hole in the box, so you couldn't see him
perform.
So he performed the songs and like a little telephone box--
like a telephone booth.
And he could be free.
No one could see him, and he'd have a hole in the microphone,
and he would just be in there losing it.
So when you hear those songs, he's in a box.
What else do you need to know?
His brothers teased him and called him "Big Nose,"
and Quincy Jones called him "Smelly."
And that was his nickname, [INAUDIBLE] Michael.
Because Michael was so ashamed of the size of his nose
still at this point that every time he talked to Quincy,
he did like-- he covered his nose,
and Quincy would always say, what's wrong, Smelly?
What's wrong Smelly?
So that's just some of what you need to know.
That's all.
The bass player on "Billie Jean" is
Louis Johnson, who played for a band called Brothers Johnson.
And his nickname was "Thunder Thumbs."
OK, that's all.
I know I shouldn't tell you that stuff,
but then it's pop culture stuff.
"Sonic Personality."
"Alone in the magic.
Thunder Thumbs to heart, mummified heart.
Heart to hand, glittering hand.
Hand to crotch, accused crotch.
More kick and stuff.
Pose, fedora on.
Drama-pelvis.
Kick and leave leg up to tap it.
Arm-jujitsu, turn.
Kick and leave leg up to tap it.
Quick cat in a cat stance, vogue-crisp.
Fedora-off, pose.
Stare at it a grand second, tossed fabulous.
Clap.
Open triangle, big masculine hands around the defendant.
Click.
Pretend to comb.
Click, click.
Switch sides to comb.
Flow.
Pocket imaginary comb.
Mic grab, smack.
Mic grab, choke.
Smelly's mad at it."
At the performance of Motown 24, they
didn't tell Michael they weren't turning the mic on.
The mic was off, and he got so--
the great thing about "Billie Jean,"
it's Michael's angry song.
Up to that point, he was a nice Michael Jackson, that person
He didn't do bad stuff.
And he just lost it after this whole incident, not the mic
but some woman keeps telling him.
But-- so he's pissed in that performance.
You need to know that.
Yes.
"Mic grab choke Smelly's mad at it
for not being on Smelly's trying to hide the size of it
with his hands, but Big Nose ain't having it.
Smelly counters with a new look, a Jheri curl, rhinestones,
and surgery, plastic.
First a favor the old songs, 'I love those songs.
Those were magic moments with all of my brothers,
including Jermaine.'"
He actually says this on stage, because he performed with them
first.
He's like, including Jermaine.
"Run from or rush through the medley of family just one more.
'Those were good songs.
I like those songs a lot, but I especially like--
[RHYTHMIC THUMPING]
Alone in the jelly.
Lyricon denial to reverb, defiant reverb.
Reverb to hiccup, womanized hiccup."
Remember, Michael the womanized hiccup a big thing in music.
"Hiccup to crotch, angry crotch.
A gnawing bass.
[VOCALIZING RHYTHMIC BASS], hee!
[VOCALIZING RHYTHMIC BASS],, Woo!"
[LAUGHTER]
Sorry.
I mean, you know, the tradition of Marcel Marceau and Fred
Astaire, all those people were in Michael that night.
I mean, you know--
"Mime a throw, look both ways, spin.
Pull pulled-up pants up, show-off socks, sock-tease."
Fred Astaire told Michael Jackson
that if you wear white socks and you show off your ankles,
you pull your pants up, they'll look like your feet
are moving faster.
He told him that.
"Pull pulled-up pants up, show-off socks, sock-tease.
Again, again-a-look, again-both-ways, famous pause.
Show the microphone.
Ready to glide backwards, klawnoom!"
[LAUGHTER]
I don't know. "--drag ball to heel.
Gravity's avi replaced by feet.
Three seconds of air, lunar spin, toe-stop.
A real photograph, a real letter and a real gun,
not a visual trick like wearing white socks
to highlight your feet, but real mental illness like baby hair,
frozen in a webbed slide on the sides of a grown man's face.
Baby oil, not grease, is the word.
Mixing a nervous breakdown 91 times
can't hide your real snake, not Muscles, the one
that eats more than interviewers."
Michael had a snake named Muscles.
"Yet, such loyalty deserves extra royalties.
Astaire, an admirer.
Dates with Brooke, dates with Tatum.
Liza, a weird friend.
Liz, a weirder white mother.
[LAUGHTER]
A public appearance and an intimate photo
with a Black woman other than Diana Ross might help.
The moment you do, in a video, you turn into your middle name.
You get Joseph's eyes."
Michael is Michael Joseph Jackson.
(SINGING) "Be careful what you do.
Jump-kick with a twist.
The shaky hand gestures no.
Right leg possessed, fist in the glove, fist, twist, open fist.
A fury that sparkles.
A fury that stands the mic, grabs.
A mercy weakening, body lowers, body rises.
Spin-a-versary to the edge, insistence.
Ankle action, four forward motions in search of reverse.
Lastly, a bow, point down, point up, but first,
stomp the ground.
Alone in Katherine's jacket.
Door-to-door to paradise, the kingdom's paradise.
Paradise to truth, awake the truth.
Truth the witness, Jehovah's Witness.
Applause, a Paris burning."
I think I'll stop right there.
Thank you guys very much.
[APPLAUSE]