LINCOLN, Neb.—Funny man and former talk show host Dick Cavett came home to Nebraska on Thursday to talk about depression, what he called “the worst agony devised for man.”
The 71-year-old Cavett, who was born in Gibbon and grew up in Lincoln, struggled with depression for years, even when he was one of the most well-known figures in television.
He spoke on Thursday at NET Television Studios to a group of mental health professionals participating in a statewide summit on depression. He is also back in Nebraska to participate in the first Great American Comedy Festival, which is being held this week in Norfolk.
The cerebral comedian sprinkled jokes into his talk about depression.
“Pharmaceuticals, electroconvulsive therapy—and old Danny Kaye movies,” Cavett said when asked how he treated his depression.
“I hate Danny Kaye movies,” Cavett added. “Why’d I say that?”
Cavett’s first pangs of depression came during his freshman year at Yale University when, during a mild, three-week bout, he considered coming home to Nebraska even though he was enjoying his Ivy League experiences.
The condition worsened. Life became lifeless, the simplest daily actions excruciating. He had trouble getting out of bed and eventually was hospitalized under an assumed name.
“The horrendous chore it is to get out of bed—’Leave me alone,'” Cavett said. “Like a moaning, ill dog.”
Driving to Long Island, N.Y. one day he considered ending it all.
“I remember thinking that if I pull into an oncoming car … I’ll feel better,” Cavett said.
Cavett said he then told himself, “‘There’s something wrong in this thought.'”
Doing his shows became a punishing exercise. At times he was sure he was a disaster, saying the wrong things at the wrong time and looking like a crazy man who had no business being on stage.
After doing a show with actor Laurence Olivier that Cavett was convinced went particularly badly, he visited actor Marlon Brando. Cavett told Brando about the show and Brando asked, “Have you ever looked at the show?”
Cavett later did.
“I looked absolutely fine,” Cavett recalled. He thought to himself, “‘You’re not coming off as horribly as you think you are.'”
He panned the old-school depression remedy of simply staying active with an expletive referring to cow manure, and he took a shot at actor Tom Cruise. He facetiously called Cruise a genius.
In 2005 Cruise publicly criticized Brooke Shields’ use of antidepressants after the birth of her first daughter. Cruise said during a television appearance that depression could be treated with exercise and vitamins rather than drugs.
In recent years Cavett, who now has a blog on The New York Times web site, has tried to remove the stigma of depression by speaking openly about his struggle.
“People would say to me things like, ‘You saved my dad’s life,'” Cavett said. “If Dick Cavett has it, it’s not a shame for me to have it.”
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