BUCKING THE TREND : While Most Parks Cut Back on Live Shows Knott’s Berry Farm Sees a Bumper Crop

The rap group Snap was going through a last-minute sound check; rapper Turbo B shouted directions to the sound booth as two

shirtless male dancers practiced their routines on a wooden stage laid over solid ice where, scant hours earlier, characters from Peanuts had been skating.

When the theater doors finally opened, the first of 2,000 mostly teen-age fans sprinted past the ushers to the best seats. The curtain rose to a blasting pubescent scream that went up in pitch and volume with every pelvic thrust and crotch grab; meanwhile, families just outside strolled through a rosy fantasy vision of ‘20s America or queued up for a trip past robotic dinosaurs.

What might at first glance read like a step into the Twilight Zone was actually a recent scene at Knott’s Berry Farm. Is this a park with an identity crisis? By day it’s Camp Snoopy and ice shows, by night it’s the playful sexual tease of Mellow Man Ace’s “Mentirosa.”

It’s all part of a plan, park officials say. At a time when other Southland amusement parks are cutting back on live entertainment, Knott’s is offering an expanded summer menu ranging from rap to country. “By keeping our entertainment fresh, we have a new ‘product’ we can market every week,” explained Joe Meck, vice president of entertainment and operations at Knott’s.

In addition to beefing up the musical offerings for adults and teens, the park is also launching a series of special performances and other activities for children ages 3 to 11 in Camp Snoopy (see Page 13).

Knott’s move to serve up an expanded series of pop entertainment acts with its famous chicken dinners bucks a five-year downward trend of presenting live music at Southern California theme parks. A total of 19 acts appearing in 58 shows are booked this summer, as many as were booked at Knott’s in all of 1988.

And for the first time, rap performers such as Mellow Man Ace and Snap are performing at the theme park, expanding the county’s tiny list of rap venues. Young M. C. appears Aug. 30.

The fans at last week’s two sold-out shows by Snap and Mellow Man Ace appreciated the move. At the front of the line, Kim Stevens and Cammeron Spires had been waiting six hours for their chance at a front row seat. Spires, who had been in Arizona just two days before, cut her vacation short just to see the concert.

“Mellow Man Ace is our favorite singer,” chirped Julie Rocha as she waited for the show. Julie Gutierrez nodded in agreement and held up a plaque with “Mellow Man” in cutout wooden letters, followed by a wooden ace of spades. She had paid to have it made in the park and hoped to give it to the Los Angeles-based rapper.

Miraculously, the two Julies got their gift to the Mellow Man, and he even acknowledged it from the stage. “Oh God, we almost fainted,” Gutierrez said as she and Rocha waited by the stage entrance after the show. “We just want him to know we sent it.”

Last year, more than 30 million people passed through the turnstiles in Southland theme parks, but this year attendance has, for the most part, either lagged or remained flat. While live music and comedy has always helped to boost attendance, two of three theme parks booking live entertainment now report a cutback.

Six Flags Magic Mountain has shaved its lineup of Top 40 acts by a third over the past five years to “offer quality, not quantity.” In the face of increasing competition for live-music concert-goers, Disneyland has all but eliminated live pop, rock, and country music during this period.

Mike Davis, director of entertainment at Disneyland, is feeling the pinch in the Orange County concert market. “It wasn’t really a policy change as much as it was a business decision,” said Davis. “The amount of talent we’re doing now compared to 10 years ago has a lot to do with the growth of the area and the number of concert venues that have opened up, like Irvine Meadows and Pacific Amphitheatre.”

Knott’s, meanwhile, has attracted crowds to its shows (which are free with admission to the park) by booking name talent. Director of public relations Stuart Zanville estimates that Jerry Lee Lewis, who played four shows last month, drew about 20,000 customers. Comedian Gallagher, who followed Lewis, attracted about 50,000 spectators over a 10-show, five-night run as part of the park’s “contemporary series,” which features well-known rock, pop, country, and comedy acts.

Both shows by Mellow Man Ace and Snap sold out by 8 p.m., with 4,000 concert-goers paying a $3 service charge beyond the normal park admission charge.

Limited seating and limited budgets put constraints on all the parks in determining who will play, but Meck said security also figures into which artist gets to appear at Knott’s.

“The acts draw well-behaved crowds, which is something we foresee beforehand--we keep that in mind when booking the acts,” Meck said. “The bottom line is that we take every precaution with regards to security, and we won’t book any kind of act that would cause a problem or wouldn’t draw a well-behaved crowd.”

Rap artists are new to the park, and a departure from the typical types of acts that play there, but Meck feels comfortable presenting rap artists at Knott’s; Mellow Man Ace and Snap “look very clean,” he said. He also cited Young M. C.’s positive, pro-Establishment message as a plus.

“You hear so much about 2 Live Crew,” said Meck, referring to the controversial Miami rap group, “and they look like the complete opposite of Young M. C. (He) doesn’t beat up on society, he doesn’t degrade society. He promotes society.” Coincidentally, 2 Live Crew was scheduled to perform at Anaheim’s Celebrity Theatre--the county’s only regular rap venue--the same night as Mellow Man Ace before the show was canceled.

Chuck Berry, who was charged last week by Missouri authorities with marijuana possession and child abuse, was dropped from his scheduled Aug. 11 and 12 dates at Knott’s. Zanville, responding to questions about the charges being linked to the cancellation, said: “You can read that into it.”

Magic Mountain’s concerts, like the teen series at Knott’s, showcases groups vying for Top 40 success; some perform with one or two hits under their belts. “Four or five years ago we had anywhere from 18 to 22 dates a year, but we’ve scaled it considerably down from there to 12 to 15,” said Courtney Simmons, public relations manager. “We’re booking more opportunistically now, with who we want instead of who is available on a set date.”

Meanwhile, at Disneyland, name talent is now only done on certain occasions, such as “Grad Night” parties for departing high school seniors, New Year’s Eve, and occasional promotions to attract locals.

The park’s largest concert venue now plays host to a musical stage show and a Dick Tracy stage show that manager of publicity Bob Roth said has been “doing phenomenally well.” The park, however, books name-talent big band jazz acts for weeklong runs through September in its Plaza Gardens.

The Knott’s contemporary series continues with Expose on Aug. 4 and 5, the Smothers Brothers on Aug. 17 and 18, Larry Gatlin and the Gatlin Brothers on Aug. 25 and 26, Johnny Cash on Sept. 1 and 3, and Juice Newton on Sept. 2. The Knott’s teen series continues with Tyler Collins and Shalamar on Aug. 3, Paris By Air and Alisha on Aug. 10, and Young M. C. on Aug. 30.

The Magic Mountain concert series continues with Glenn Medeiros on Aug. 3.

The Disneyland Plaza Gardens series continues with the New Xavier Cugat Orchestra through Aug. 4, Myron Floren and his Orchestra Aug. 5-11, Lionel Hampton and his Big Band Aug. 12-18, Mickey Finn and his Orchestra Aug. 19-25, Ray McKinley and his Orchestra Aug. 26 to Sept. 1, and Louie Bellson and his Big Band Explosion Sept. 2 to Sept. 9.