Editing Ken Kesey (section)

=== Final years ===
Kesey was diagnosed with [[diabetes]] in 1992. In 1994, he toured with members of the Merry Pranksters, performing a musical play he wrote about the millennium called ''Twister: A Ritual Reality''. Many old and new friends and family showed up to support the Pranksters on this tour, which took them from Seattle's [[Bumbershoot]] all along the West Coast, including a sold-out two-night run at [[The Fillmore]] in [[San Francisco, California|San Francisco]] to [[Boulder, Colorado]], where they coaxed the Beat Generation poet [[Allen Ginsberg]] into performing with them.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Leighton |first=Ken |date=July 8, 1994 |title=Merry pranksters Jambay trip back to San Diego beach |pages=62 |work=The Californian |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/57545363/merry-pranksters-jambay-trip-back-to/ |access-date=August 17, 2020 |quote=On Sunday "Twister" played in Boulder, Colorado. The night was especially groovy for proto-and neo-hippys, as Allan Ginsberg celebrated his 70th birthday by appearing in the play with Kesey, the Pranksters and Jambay.}}</ref>

Kesey mainly kept to his home life in [[Pleasant Hill, Oregon|Pleasant Hill]], preferring to make artistic contributions on the Internet<ref>{{Cite web |date=May 15, 2001 |title=Intrepid Trips |url=http://intrepidtrips.com/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010515234032/http://intrepidtrips.com:80/ |archive-date=May 15, 2001 |access-date=August 17, 2020 |website=intrepidtrips.com}}</ref> or holding ritualistic revivals in the spirit of the Acid Test. In the Grateful Dead DVD ''The Closing of Winterland'' (2003) documenting the New Year's 1978/1979 concert at the [[Winterland]] Arena in San Francisco, Kesey is featured in a between-set interview.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.shoutfactory.com/product/the-closing-of-winterland?product_id=2227 |title=The Closing Of Winterland |format=DVD |website=Shout! Factory |access-date=January 30, 2018}}</ref>

On August 14, 1997, Kesey and his Pranksters attended a [[Phish]] concert in [[Six Flags Darien Lake|Darien Lake]], New York. Kesey and the Pranksters appeared onstage with the band and performed a dance-trance-jam session involving several characters from ''The Wizard of Oz'' and ''Frankenstein''.<ref>{{cite web |title=August 1997 |url=http://phish.com/band/august-1997/ |website=Phish.com |publisher=Phish |access-date=November 4, 2016}}</ref>

In June 2001, Kesey was the keynote speaker at [[The Evergreen State College]]'s commencement ceremony.<ref>{{Citation |last=JC Haywire |title=Ken Kesey Commencement Address, The Evergreen State College |date=December 2, 2012 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gw_2fJH9GNA | archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/gw_2fJH9GNA| archive-date=2021-12-11 | url-status=live|access-date=July 16, 2017}}{{cbignore}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://archives.evergreen.edu/1972/1972-04/CommencementHome.html |title=Evergreen State College Archives: Student Affairs: Enrollment Services: Commencement Exercise : Commencement Speeches 1972– |website=archives.evergreen.edu |access-date=July 16, 2017}}</ref> His last major work was an essay for ''[[Rolling Stone]]'' magazine calling for peace in the aftermath of the [[September 11 attacks]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Ken Kesey On Misconceptions Of Counterculture |date=August 12, 2011 |publisher=[[NPR]] |url=https://www.npr.org/2011/08/12/139259106/ken-kesey-on-misconceptions-of-counterculture |access-date=August 4, 2017}}</ref>