> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Prose and Kahn: Lives redeemed - URL: https://www.smdp.com/prose-and-kahn-lives-redeemed/ - Published: 2006-11-06T16:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-23T22:02:43.000Z - Author: Guest Author - Tags: Education, Montana, #archive-import, Homeless *Power of the pen* *By AMY KAUFMAN Special to the Daily Press* MONTANA AVE. — If Santa Claus were like other celebrities and try to lay low in Santa Monica, he might look a lot like Kenny Kahn. With frosty white hair and hearty laughter that can fill a room, Kahn is the kind of guy who likes to spread cheer wherever he goes, telling jokes and teasing others about life’s travails. But things weren’t always so cheery for the criminal defense attorney, who was raised on the gang-patrolled streets of East Los Angeles, near his family’s home in the dilapidated housing projects. By day, Kahn’s parents were traveling carnival thieves. By night, they were Kahn avoided trouble by virtue of education, ending up at the University of California, Los Angeles and later Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California-Berkeley. During his career, Kahn has represented such clients as Hustler Magazine founder Larry Flynt. One of his more high-profile cases was depicted in the film “The Falcon and the Snowman,” starring Sean Penn. Last year, Kahn published his memoir, “The Carny Kid: Survival of a Young Thief.” Now a resident of an exceedingly safer Santa Monica, Kahn is using his clout to give back to kids who hail from environments similar to his own. He recently created “Word Power,” a program which allows juvenile offenders in California detention camps to express themselves through writing and receive cash prizes for their winning efforts. Kahn uses what may appear to be chump change to some to motivate kids from low-income backgrounds, forcing them to propel themselves out of destitution. No wimp he, Kahn recently took time out to speak with the Daily Press about “Pinkos,” acid trails, being picky with attorneys, and helping kids by planting the seeds and showing patience. Where did you grow up? “I was born in 1941 and raised on a traveling carnival. Both of my folks were smalltime carnival thieves. We went from town to town setting up games that were rigged, making it so people couldn’t win. They taught me how to set the games up and shortchange customers. We’d rig the games so that nobody could ever win. People called ‘shills’who work for the carnival would go there and pretend to win, and my dad would say, ‘Whoa, here’s another big winner!’ Then he’d give him a big ol’ prize and the shill would walk around the midway and put it back underneath the tent. So by the time I was 12 years old, I knew 50 different ways to steal a dollar.” How did you stay out of trouble? “I went to the library and lived there as much as possible. I joined all the clubs — Spanish club, chess club, went out for baseball and football. Education was the only key that I could see that would enable me to get out of this mess. I didn’t see a lot of people with master’s degrees or doctorate’s getting food stamps.” Did you find the transition from the projects to elite universities difficult? “When I was at Berkeley, everybody presumed that I was from a professional background and my parents were lawyers and we had a beautiful home with servants, because everybody there was from a privileged background. There wasn’t anybody who was living in the projects off welfare. I wanted to see what life was like at the top. So I hid everything about my past to fit in. Now I know, in retrospect, nobody gave a damn and I was the only one who cared. But at the time, I was very immature and I was afraid of being judged. “Still, Berkeley in the ’60s was wonderful. I went there as a Barry Goldwater Republican, and I came out as a Commie- Pinko-Jew-Rat with a grenade in one hand ready to blow up society.” What did you do after you got out of law school? “My life changed after Berkeley. I had never done any kind of mind-altering substance in my life. First three months I’m outta school, my brother gives me a tab of acid, which is legal in 1965\. When I did it, it changed me forever. I had been totally intent on being a success, on having enough money to have a good home and live in a great neighborhood and drive a nice car. After I dropped acid, all I wanted to do was smell flowers and feel the very essence of love and peace on the universe. I did a total 180\. I went from being a completely materialistic person to being an idealistic, loving flower child. Grew my hair and beard. I was a full-on hippie. I’d spent my whole life in California. What did the world look like? I’d seen my history books and I saw people walking with camels and wearing robes, and I said, are these real or just pictures in my book? I had to know.” So did you take off to travel the world? “During the course of my practice, I dropped out three different times for a year. I spent a year in Spain and Morocco, after I got married right out of law school. We bought a couple of motor scooters and trekked around. Came back, dumped the wife, spent five years saving up, got another girlfriend and we took off and went to Amsterdam and bought a Volkswagen Bus and drove it to India. Spent 14 months living in the van. And then I came back and worked for another 10 years, had another girlfriend and this time we took off the other direction. I had taken three entire years out of my life to travel.” Back in reality, what kind of cases were you working on as a criminal defense attorney? “Anything for which you can go to jail, I do. I have a couple of cases they made into movies, like ‘The Falcon and the Snowman.’ That was my first experience with the media, where I was out there and reporters and TV cameras who were yelling, ‘Mr. Kahn, Mr. Kahn,’ and I’m going ‘yeah, this is fun.’” Have you ever defended someone you knew to be guilty? “Everyone’s guilty. The people in prison are just as guilty as people on the streets, they just haven’t gotten caught. Just suppose there’s a couple and they’re home in bed one night. The husband is feeling really bad and he asks the wife, ‘do we have some aspirin in the house?’ She says ‘no, we don’t have any, but I have some codeine left over that the dentist gave me for my teeth, and it’s a pretty good painkiller.’ She has just committed a major crime and so has he. He’s been in possession of narcotic substance which was not prescribed to him, she has dealt it to him and provided with the narcotic substance. He can go to jail for three years and she can go for six for what they did in the bedroom that night.” > “There would be guys nodded out in the living room. I’d be walking over bodies with my school books to go to my room to do my homework.” > “I would be a wimp, you know? If I wasn’t challenged, I wouldn’t be who I am today.” — strung out at home, shooting heroin. Kahn remembered. Kahn asked, reflecting on his own background > “I often think, what if I came from an upper-middle class or upper-class background, or what if I went to good schools or had attentive parents? What if I never had to deal with any of the intimidation and fear?” > “My home became a shooting gallery for the junkies,” Have you had any scary interactions with your criminal clientele? “I had a client once with a major psychological disorder. He was fine when he took his medication, but when he didn’t, he was a freakin’ maniac. Well, the jury found him guilty of a crime. Afterwards, I get the probation report and I’m going through it with him. We get to this one part that says, ‘this man could be extremely violent under the wrong conditions.’ He explodes. He says ‘that’s ridiculous!’ and punches me in the stomach. And I go, ‘what’d you do that for, man?’ I look down and there’s, like, this little red spot and I realize, that’s blood. I back off and he’s holding an ice pick, with the handle and a blade about eight inches long which he plunged into my chest.” Wow. Were you seriously injured? “The pick had missed my lung by about two inches, so I was very lucky. He was going for my heart, but everybody knows that in the lawyer, a heart is a small, hard thing and he’d had to have tried at least a dozen times to get it. The funniest part was that in the hospital, a friend left a message to see how I was doing, and it reads, ‘Kenny, tell your client that’s no good way to pick an attorney.’ What do you say to motivate young juvenile offenders? “I tell them where I came from. I say, if your parents don’t give a damn about you or your schooling and tell you to quit and work because the family needs money, if your brother is in a gang, if you have health issues in the family... none of that matters. You’re responsible for how your life turns out. No one’s gonna give you anything. Period. And if you wind up sleeping under a bridge and eating out of a trash can, nobody cares. So what do you want? You’re young now and there’s nobody here who can’t get through college. If you think you’ve gotta be smart to get through college, you’re wrong. I say, my story’s right here in the book. I’m giving you a book. I’m contributing this to you, I’m inviting you to write a two-to three-page essay on the theme of success through struggle.” What are the essays about? “They’re very well done. I tell them we do not grade them on punctuation or grammar, we want your story that comes from your gut. And these kids spill their guts.” Why is writing helpful for these kids? “It teaches them that they can write, which a lot of them never even thought of that possibility before. And they can write and make money from it, too.” Do you spread your messages to all kids? “Not to kids who are going to upscale high schools, because they don’t give a damn about $200 or $300\. They probably get that every week from their parents. That’s nothing to them. But for kids who are living in the barrio and the ghetto, it’s like, ‘yeah, man, I can dig that!’ In America, nothing is as motivational as cash.” What do you like most about Santa Monica? “Name me one better place to live in L.A. I like riding my bike along the ocean, that’s like the highlight of my life. To be able to see as far as you can, nature and something that man hasn’t messed up.” Any Santa Monica gripes? “We have homeless people everywhere you go. People who are young and healthy and homeless, they don’t bother me. But people who are obviously mentally disturbed and who are pushing shopping carts … it breaks my heart.” You’ve done lots of stand-up comedy at locales such as The Comedy Store and the Improv in L.A. Why do you like making others laugh? “There is nothing in the world that is more gratifying than bringing laughter into the world. Laughter is a rare gift. No other species has it. What is it for? We can live without it. What’s it’s function? Why does a joke make us laugh? Nobody knows.” Tell me a joke. “A man is driving down the road and sees a red light come on in the rearview mirror. He pulls over and the cop pulls up to him and he takes off. Cop takes off and pulls him over again. The guy takes off a second time. Third time, the cop catches up to him and he’s pissed. The cop says, ‘What the hell do you think you’re doing?’ And the guy says, ‘’Well, officer, it’s a long story, and I’m not sure you’d understand.’And the cop says,‘Yeah, well, you tell me something I haven’t heard before and I’ll let you go.’ And the guy says ‘Well, officer, seems like about a week ago, my wife ran off with a cop and I was afraid that might have been you trying to return her.’” What’s up next for you? “We’re gonna get these kids out of their lethargy and out of thinking that they have nothing in store for them but the ghetto. I’m gonna kick their ass. It’s what I’m about. I tell the kids there are three things they need to remember: the first is never give up. The second is never give up. And the third is never give up. I really get them fired up. How do you get them fired up? “I tell ‘em stories. When I was in southeast Asia, I learned how the farmers grew bamboo. A farmer prepares the land and plants the seeds, waters them every week, keeps it clear and rakes it, but for a year nothing happens. Another year, nothing happens. For five years, nothing happens. On the sixth year, a bud shows up. And once it shows up, bamboo is the fastest growing plant in the world. Bamboo trees have been known to grow three feet in a year. But you have to have the faith and you have to tend to those seeds and nurture and care for them and know that the results aren’t gonna show up. Is your life worth as much as a bamboo seed? Are you willing to put in five years of education and not see the results and just know in your heart that the roots will come? I want these kids to invest in themselves like the farmers do in the bamboo seeds.” *Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on November 6, 2006.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/110606.pdf?ref=smdp.com)