ENTERTAINMENT : The Right Foote : The zany Canadian singer-songwriter- puppeteer-comedian will bring his wackiness to Ventura County this weekend.

If you’re searching for quality children’s entertainment, you’re in luck this week. Three opportunities await you, and all of them promise to be tolerable, if not downright fun, for parents.

First, wacky, unpredictable Norman Foote, a gifted singer and songwriter, puppeteer, and funny man. Just imagine Robin Williams playing to kids.

Foote will be performing Friday at 7 p.m., at Ventura High School in a show sponsored by the Ventura County Children’s Festival, now in its sixth year.

Foote starts his shows with a bang. He’s been known for such zany entrances as being propelled onto the stage by what looks like Big Foot. In reality, it is a gag that involves a burlap bag, a fake arm and lots of hair.

“Maybe I never grew up,” Foote, 36, said during a telephone interview from his Vancouver home. He’s a believer in slapstick, and he idolizes Danny Kaye.

His songs are a mixed bag, definitely not the warm and fuzzy variety that many kid entertainers serve up. He parodies nursery rhymes in “Living in a Pumpkin Shell,” which has Peter’s wife lamenting: “I’m living in a pumpkin shell, but oh what the heck, it’s not that bad, I’ve got a sister who lives in a shoe.”

He puts a modern twist on other nursery rhymes. When Old Mother Hubbard finds the cupboard bare, she sends out for Chinese food. Jack Sprat and his wife, of fat and lean fame, become vegetarians.

Or, in “Fancy Dinner,” the hazards of eating one of mother’s experimental gourmet delights is seen through the eyes and stomachs of children: “I wouldn’t mind this cauliflower custard, but what’s the deal with all this mustard.” And for dessert, caramel broccoli?

Foote croons a tender tongue-in-cheek ballad, “His Majesty, the Baby,” that will hit home to new parents: “So, hush! Be quiet, won’t you please be quiet? We live at his command, and kiss the gentle hand of his majesty, the baby.”

Foote, who says his music is influenced as much by Irving Berlin as by the Beatles, is well known in Canada. He recently signed with Walt Disney Records, which is issuing his album “Foote Prints.”

His music appeals to adults as well as school-age children. It stands the test of 50 repetitions without provoking parental insanity in a way that “Three Blind Mice” cannot.

“I’m not interested in doing ‘The Bear Went Over the Mountain,’ ” he said. “I’m interested in being original.” A Raffi he’s not.

He mimics other entertainers impersonating other entertainers. As Lawrence Welk doing James Brown: “Ah one, ah two, ah three. I feel good, like I knew I would.”

Kids go nuts over his puppets, he said. He places one--Talking Head--on the head of a kid in the audience and then manipulates it with cables.

“It’s the most hysterical thing,” he said. “I don’t know why, but the interplay is incredible.”

If you can’t make Foote’s show in Ventura, you can catch him at the seventh annual Theatre Arts Festival for Youth this weekend at the Peter Strauss Ranch, 30000 Mulholland Highway, Agoura.

The festival, which began last weekend, is a family-oriented affair that has a little bit of everything--music, theater, dance, puppetry, mime and arts and crafts. It runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

In addition to Foote, other performers this weekend include Janet and Judy, J.P. Nightingale, the Parachute Express, Jim Gamble Marionettes, and San Andreas Brass.

Plan to spend most of the day at the festival because there is a lot going on. The Puddledumplin Players, storybook inhabitants of an imaginary Victorian hamlet, will be on hand. Children can make puppets and string beads. Nurses from Children’s Hospital will tend ailing stuffed animals. Budding artists can paint the inside of a giant balloon.

Prepare yourself for possible sellout crowds. Last year’s two-day event drew more than 6,500 children and parents, prompting festival organizers to schedule the event over two weekends this year.

If you’re looking for something educational yet fun, the Imagination Company, a Los Angeles children’s theater group, will perform “Columbus to the Colonies” Oct. 24 in two Ventura County locations.

The program is billed as a humorous re-enactment of Christopher Columbus’ accidental discovery of America and the arrival of the pilgrims in New England.

The Imagination Company, formed in 1984, consists of seasoned adult performers.

The show, sponsored by the Friends of the Thousand Oaks Library, will be presented at 4 p.m. at the Newbury Park branch library and 7 p.m. at the main library. Tickets are free, but you must have one. They are available at either library.

* WHERE AND WHEN

Children’s entertainer Norman Foote will perform Friday, 7 p.m., at Ventura High School, 2155 E. Main St. Advance tickets are $4.50 for kids, $6.50 for adults, $1 more at the door. For information, 650-9688, or 646-6997.

The Theatre Arts Festival for Youth finishes up Saturday and Sunday at the Peter Strauss Ranch, 30000 Mulholland Highway, Agoura. Take Kanan Road exit off the Ventura Freeway. Festival runs 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tickets at the door, $10 for adults, $9 for children ages 3 through 12, free for younger children. For information, (800) 99TAFFY.

“Columbus to the Colonies” will be performed by the Imagination Company Oct. 24, 4 p.m. at the Newbury Park branch library and 7 p.m. at the main Thousand Oaks library. Tickets are free, but required. Available at either library.