FOR THE KIDS : It’s Show Time : The Children’s Goodtime Theatre in Ventura joins other local efforts to provide entertainment for young audiences.

Have you taken your kid to a show lately? No, not a movie. We’re talking about live, right-up-there-on-the-stage, entertainment.

Live concerts used to be strictly adult fare, but not anymore. Children’s entertainment--even for kids barely past toddler age--is hot now, here in Ventura County and elsewhere.

Brian Bemel’s Ventura Children’s Festival is bringing in acts from across the country. And at the Dorill B. Wright Cultural Center in Port Hueneme, a series of kid shows has been launched.

So, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to hear that the Ventura Concert Theatre--venue for a mixed bag of adult music--is getting into the children’s market. The downtown theater has announced it will offer a once-a-month children’s fair of sorts, beginning Saturday, that will feature a concert and some children’s activities.

It’s called the Children’s Goodtime Theatre, and Jimmy D and his “U.B. You!” show will take the stage for the first one. It all begins at 1 p.m., with games and arts and craft-type activities, kiddie aerobics and face painting going on before and after the show, according to Tom Welton, the theater’s general manager. The theater will be decorated and food will be on sale. Tickets are $7.

“It’ll be a theater version of Chuck E Cheese’s,” Welton said. A different entertainer will perform each month. For the January show, he has lined up “Mr. Bullhorn and Friends,” who does a mix of songs, comedy, juggling and magic.

The theater seats 850 people and Welton thinks he can fill it. “I feel comfortable about this,” he said. And he is donating $1 from each ticket sale to the Ventura Unified School District.

Jimmy D, actually Jimmy Dellemonico, is a familiar face to a lot of Ventura County kids. During the past two years, he has performed more than 200 show, including gigs at local schools, the Ventura County Fair and Theatre by the Sea at the Ventura Harbor.

His show, for kids 2 years and older, is a little different in that he encourages kids from the audience to come up on stage. They get some encouragement from Pinky, a ridiculous-looking hippopotamus in ballet attire who gives hippo kisses to the children.

Jimmy D, 40, lives in Simi Valley with his wife, Annette, who doubles as Pinky, and his four children, ages 8 to eight months. He performs his own songs, which promote the usual feel-good-about-yourself message, mixing in environmental and anti-drug themes. He plays guitar and has back-up on the keyboard.

Other kids doings

* If your kid still hasn’t found a holiday gift for Mom or Dad, Gull Wings Children’s Museum, 418 W. 4th St., Oxnard is offering a craft class Saturday at 1 p.m. for kids to make a gift. Call 483-3005 for information.

* You can take in two parades, of sorts, on Saturday. Boats at Ventura Harbor will be decked out for the annual Parade of Lights beginning at 6 p.m. Then you can hustle over to Channel Island Harbor for its parade beginning at 7 p.m.

* The Carnegie Art Museum has a series of inexpensive Saturday family art workshops each month when kids, 6 years old and older, work with a family member. The next one is Jan. 23. They run 10:30 a.m. to noon at the museum, 424 South C St. Reservations are required. Cost is $3 per person. The museum also is starting up a six-week series of classes for kids in January. Call 385-8157 for information.

* WHERE AND WHEN

The Children’s Goodtime Theatre, featuring Jimmy D and his U.B. You! Show, kicks off Saturday, 1 p.m., at Ventura Concert Theatre, 26 S. Chestnut St., Ventura. Tickets are $7. For information, call 648-1888.