‘Deadhead’ Vigil Makes for Colorful Day in Bohemia

Peace and love got a little out of hand Saturday at Venice Beach.

At least, that’s how it seemed to Chad Taylor, world-famous chain-saw juggler and a budding entertainment entrepreneur.

For months, Taylor painstakingly worked to put together the “Acts of Venice Beach,” a show at the boardwalk pavilion to honor the comics, fire-eaters, limbo artists and offbeat musicians who have entertained the tourists and regulars for years along one of the wackiest strips of oceanfront in the world.

His coup de grace : Having the show’s headliner--comedian and actor Michael Colyar--become the first Venice street performer to become immortalized by putting his footprints in cement, a la Mann Chinese Theater in Hollywood.

But what Taylor got Saturday was, well, vintage Venice Beach unpredictability. Before Taylor could get his show under way, more than 400 Grateful Dead fans showed up to mourn their fallen idol, lead guitarist Jerry Garcia, creating a tie-dyed frenzy of chanting, hypnotic dancing and drum playing that threatened to put a crimp in Taylor’s plans.

“That’s Venice,” Taylor said philosophically, but only half-convincingly. “Any time you do anything in Venice, when you do a street show, you have to fight with a bongo player next to you.”

Fight? At times, it looked more like an escalating counterculture war.

When the “Deadheads” first began to assemble Saturday morning outside the graffiti-scarred pavilion, there was talk about maintaining positive energy and the promise of a peaceful coexistence.

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Then, things got a little tense. When the organizer of the Garcia rally asked Taylor to play a “Jerry song” on the pavilion loudspeakers, one of the show’s workers said he quickly agreed so he could “get them [Deadheads] out of our hair” and the street performers’ revue could proceed without competition. But for some unknown reason, the rest of the technical crew refused.

In turn, the organizer then declined to ask his fellow Deadheads to stop playing their bongos and chanting “No, our love won’t fade away” when it came time for Taylor’s show to start at 2 p.m.

“There’s a conflict,” said Los Angeles Police Sgt. John Pasquariello. “This guy [Taylor] has been working to put this show on for months and months. And unfortunately, Jerry Garcia passed away and there’s this improvised tribute to him.

“The Deadheads want to use the stage but the promoter has the permit,” he said. “Obviously, you have a lot of people in support of the Jerry Garcia issue.”

The rivalry was unfortunate, he said, but the Deadheads were peaceful and broke no laws, so police had no reason to intervene.

While the escalating tribute to Garcia threatened to overshadow his event, that wasn’t Taylor’s biggest problem. He planned to tape the street performers and market the videos to help recoup the $30,000 he spent on the event, and he worried that the drums and chanting would interfere with the sound.

Bothered but undaunted, Taylor went ahead with his plans, drawing several television camera crews and a circle of 60 people to witness Colyar plant his feet and trademark plastic “money-grabber” into the cement block.

The block will not be inserted into the boardwalk until its $6.5-million renovation is under way, so Taylor said he has made provisions to store the footprints in a friend’s garage. Mark Ryavec, executive director of the Venice Boardwalk Assn., said Saturday the ceremony honoring Colyar was a “trial run to see how the community feels” about the prospect of other Venice street performers being immortalized with footprints in cement.

Colyar says he is writing a movie script based on his rise from drug addiction to performing in Venice. He retired last year after nine years on the boardwalk; he now acts on television and performs in stand-up comedy shows.

Colyar said that while he felt honored to be the first Venice street performer to have his footprints preserved, he wouldn’t relish a return to regular performances on the boardwalk.

The reason: “Towards the end, 80% of it was crowd control.”