Wavy Gravy creates a world of magic at Camp Winnarainbow

Wavy Gravy, court jester of the counter culture, holy house of the cosmos, the bulb nosed teacher with the technicolor teeth who presides over the school of soft knocks, is, as they say, having some fun now.

It's the cool of the evening here at Camp Winnarainbow. Wavy's performing arts summer camp near the town of Laytonville north of San Francisco on Highway 101. A wonderful supper of paella and black beans (cooked by the chef, a nonstop smiling elf named Dolphin, to celebrate the first day of the Mayan calendar- when the sun moves into the house of truth and justice) is over and rehearsal time has begun, transforming this enchanted patch of meadow and woodsy hills into a vision resembling a fairy-tale circus.

Over there by the circus tent a gaggle of young stiltwalkers is trampling around getting their chops down, and there by the outdoor theater the jugglers have about a million things up in the air at once. A wild band of unicyclists are wobbling crazily around everywhere looking like the Keystone Kops out of control.

A couple of little girls in gauzy harem costumes skitter past as music from a dance rehearsal drifts across the meadow. Giggles erupt from a conclave where a skit is being rehearsed, and backstage a couple of magicians are perfecting a vanishing act.

Tonight is the night of the "Tornado of Talent," an in-house cabaret extravaganza that takes place at Winnarainbow toward the end of each summer term to provide a show case for the skills learned by the campers. The big show "Coyote Capers" will go on later in the week when all of the parents and friends are here.

Wavy smiles as his delirious clown smile. Here is a man who has been drunk on life for more than 50 years and has yet to suffer a hangover. He's the guy Paul Krassner once described as "the illegitimate son of Harpo Marx and Mother Teresa, conceived one starry night on a spiritual whoopee cushion."

Wavy Gravy, nee Hugh Romney, embarked on his most singular path back in the 60's when he became the official jester for Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters, and he's been goofing on the forces of oppression, repression and negativity without surcease ever since.

But why the clown persona? It can't b easy waking up most days to put on whiteface, paste on the bulb nose and pull on size 19 blue circus shoes. It can't be easy being the guy everybody calls when there's a good cause and they need a funny m.c. It can't be easy spending time in terminal cancer wards trying to cheer up dying kids.

Wavy laughs. "Hey it was a very simple decision to make. After having to have a spinal infusion from getting beat up at an anti-war demonstrations, I found the cops wouldn't go after a clown. I got tired of having to be lifted through the window of a bus an a body cast just so I could take part in things."

Camp Winnarainbow is simply magic, a place where good people are so obviously doing the right thing - and getting visible results- that you wonder how the world got so screwed up in the first place.

There's no grandiose philosophy behind the place beyond the simple idea that doing a little is better than doing nothing. The people who run the camp know they won't change the world by providing a positive, loving atmosphere in which handful of kids, both privileged and disadvantaged, can develop creative and social skills, but they hope they can make a discernible difference in a few lives, plant a few beautiful seeds in hopes that someday a garden will grow.

"What actually can you teach a child?" Wavy asks rhetorically. "Timing, balance, and that's where the edge is, that's about it. That and caring and cooperation."

Not easy work, but Wavy and a crew figure somebody has to do it, why not them?

"What you get out of it, of course, is helping to create something that is truly magical," says Romney. "And the delight comes in being able to offer this experience to kids not only who couldn't afford it, but whose cultural background is such that they would have never have heard of us. We go out and seek the kids who never wouldn't even find us. We work with social workers we know from the peace movement and through the Grateful dead to find the kids in real distress situations."

This was raw earth when Winnarainbow moved here in 1983, and, as Wavy Gravy says, it took an incredible amount of volunteer work to make it the beautiful facility it is now. Scores of people worked the land into a usable area, and a woman from the Hog Farm made the gorgeous teepees the campers live in. Wavy's dad designed the beautiful small kitchen and mess hall area. Marine World recently donated a section of its water slide, which will be erected at the pristine little man-made lake.

Camp regimen is a kid's dream, none of the materialistic stuff you find at many summer camps. The day starts when a conch horn blows, and after cocoa, a warm-up and singing session takes place. After breakfast classes begin and the kid head off to learn stiltwalking, tightrope, juggling, dance, and movement, maskmaking, acting, and improv, and other performance-related skills.

Lots of the campers have recognizable names from the music and entertainment world, but ego-tripping is discouraged. And the ambiance is such that no one is intimidated by the sometimes spectacular talents of the other campers.

"We're just trying to have these kids' creativity validated, get them out of shyness and fear," says Romney. "Everyone can shine here."

You can imagine that a pretty marvelous mix results when you take ghetto kids, Asian refugees, road hippie offspring outcasts, and middle-class suburban white children and throw them into a pot like Winnarainbow. You can also imagine the potential for disruptiveness, chaos, and violence, but it just doesn't happen here.

"One of the best things is the philosophy here, which is to de-emphasize violence, and emphasize appreciation of everything you can do," says Cass Brown, a 19-year-old high school student from Petaluma who works as a counselor.

Brown and his partner, Jeff Martz, also from Petaluma, form a star juggling act at Winnarainbow. They are bright winning teenagers, and they're crazy about working with the kids here.

"This place brings out your talent, it makes better people," says Jeff. "It's neat seeing kids taking home these talents and skills. If you can stand up in front of 100 people and perform, you can do a whole lot better dealing one on one."

"The strokes are the main thing, positive reinforcement," says Brown. "There are a lot more strokes than strikes here."

Kacy Gordon, a 14-year old from Portland, Ore., is back for her fifth year. "I love the performing part, acting and juggling, but you also learn how to live with a bunch of people, and not only the ones you want to be with. Everything I do during the year, I'm always thinking of camp, how long till camp starts."

"You come here and you see people juggling with eight balls, with five clubs, it inspires you," says Dan O'Connor of Fort Bragg. "It helped me out a lot."

At Winnarainbow everything revolves around the rainbow-arched open-air theater where every camper's skills are displayed. If a performer stumbles or falters, he or she gets a lot of encouragement before the hook appears. Nobody is ever told to shut up or speak up; it's always "Focus up!" or "Project!" This is a place where failure can only leas to the next success.

Or, as Wavy Gravy is fond of saying, "You, too can be sucked up in the tornado of talent."