Kazoo U.

Just hours after entertaining an early morning gathering at Heisler Park in his adopted hometown of Laguna Beach, Washboard Willy, aka Larry Hiskett, is on the road again.

The one-man band stows his gear in an aging RV and drives off to Salty Sea Days in Everett, Wash., the first stop on a summer-long tour of fairs and festivals.

So far this summer, the 48-year-old former landscape architect has performed at fairs in Medford, Ore., San Joaquin, Lake Tahoe and Los Alamitos. By summer’s end, Hiskett will have unpacked his drum kit, kazoo and homemade washboard at more than a dozen fairgrounds throughout the west.

“My hobby has become my passion,” says Hiskett, a longtime rock and country drummer. “It’s been an incredible journey--although, on the business side, it’s been a big roller-coaster ride. I sometimes pray that someone will take my hand and make me famous.”

Traveling entertainers say there is gold to be found on the summertime fair circuit. But just as with the real commodity, mother lodes--in the form of good-paying gigs that will last for more than a weekend--are hard to find.

Fair operators understandably reserve the big bucks for headliners such as Pat Boone, Tammy Wynette and Little Richard, who can pack the grandstands--and bolster gate receipts with their glitzy, main-stage performances.

It’s a different story for lesser-known entertainers who perform on free stages--or simply wander through the fairgrounds. Most of the second- and third-tier performers scramble to build reputations on the fair circuit--and success often is linked to talent agents who have cultivated relationships with fairground officers who book talent.

“It can be very political,” says Susan Rosen, a 39-year-old Mission Viejo hypnotist who has spent four years on California’s summer fair circuit. “Sometimes it’s not how good you are, but who you know. And there can be plenty of back-stabbing.”

Performers compete fiercely for better bookings--including the Orange County Fair, the Los Angeles County Fair and the State Fair--that feature fatter entertainment budgets and offer itinerant entertainers a chance to stay in one place for more than a weekend.

Salaries vary, but entertainers say they can pull down anywhere from $250 to more than $1,000 per day. Because fairgrounds are crowded around the clock, it’s not uncommon for some acts to play six or more times daily.

Traveling entertainers have their fair share of problems endemic to any small business.

Booking conflicts snarl the best-laid plans, vehicles break down between destinations and performers can see a summer’s earnings eaten up by unexpected cancellations or capital expenses.

While big-name stars who pull down five- and six-figure salaries for a single performance can afford to fly their entourages in for a single performance, cost-conscious “fairies” often cut expenses by driving RVs that serve as home, office and prop room for the fair season that stretches from early spring until late fall.

Some performers complain that they’re relegated to hot, dusty areas in fairgrounds where it’s difficult to keep an audience involved. Others say it can be difficult to perform when twentysomethings who have had a few beers want to get in on the act.

And in a world increasingly dominated by marketing might, even an old-fashioned one-man band now must include Web sites, promotional videos and cell phones in his instrument case.

Life on the road also can wreak havoc with personal relationships.

“I’d just about given up on finding a partner to share my life,” Hiskett says. “I can understand why someone wouldn’t want to trade their life for the road.”

Hiskett says he recently found his “soul mate” during a brief visit to his hometown in Iowa. The woman, who he’d met four years ago, has agreed to quit her full-time job and, along with her 9-year-old son, join Hiskett on the road.

Hiskett hints that his partner might force a change in his format: “She plays violin, and she’s very good. Maybe it’s time to make it a two-man band.”

The pitfalls associated with travel aren’t enough to keep entertainers such as Rosen--who performs as “Susan, the Mistress of Mesmerism”--from spending summers on the road: “I love it, and I can make a living at it. And the day I don’t have fun on stage is the day I will quit.”

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Performers say word-of-mouth is the most powerful marketing tool. Entertainers work hard to cultivate friends in fair management offices, and flood booking agents with audiotapes and newspaper clippings.

A thick booklet published annually by the Sacramento-based Western Fairs Assn. serves as the bible for many fair entertainers. The publication, which is also available on the association’s Web site, provides a cornucopia of information for upcoming fairs--including dates, locations and contacts.

The association’s annual meetings--which alternate each winter between Anaheim and Palm Springs--also have served as a springboard for some fair performers.

“The WFA has been invaluable to me,” says Hiskett, who stumbled across the organization in 1994. “I’d been performing at children’s hospitals, Alzheimer’s clinics, libraries and schools. And I went to the library to search out other ways to track down business.”

Hiskett applied for membership in the WFA and was invited to perform during the group’s January 1995 convention.

“That got me into the best audience in the world--the people who book fair acts,” Hiskett says. “Now, fairs are vying for me, and there are so many festivals on the calendar there are opportunities every weekend.”

Fair entertainers have their pick of more than 80 fairs in California alone--not counting the hundreds of agricultural and cultural festivals that have sprung up around the state.

Some entertainers travel only during the busy summer months. Rosen, for example, limits her traveling to months when her daughters--ages 10 through 15--can accompany her on the road. When they’re in school, she works in her family’s construction company.

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Talented and ambitious entertainers can make a year-round business out of fair-hopping because counties in Florida and Texas stage fairs year-round. But veterans say that paychecks suffer during the winter months as a surplus of hungry entertainers flock to warm-weather states looking for work.

Karen and Charlie Cook, who live outside Sacramento in a small town called Galp, now spend upward of 300 days on the road, pulling a trailer filled with racing pigs behind their mobile home.

“I can promise you that this isn’t what I wanted to be when I was growing up,” laughs Karen Cook, 34, who previously worked as an insurance agent. “And you can be sure the pigs have it better than us--they have air conditioning in their trailer.”

Cook and her husband, Charlie, 36, began racing pigs on occasional weekends, largely as a hobby.

“My husband’s family had raised pigs forever, and a guy at the state fair asked if they could train pigs to race,” Cook says. “So my mother-in-law trained them, and we started going to a few fairs.”

For the record: Cook says it takes very little training to turn a porker into a sprinter. Pigs learn quickly because ice cream treats await at the end of each race. But the calorie-heavy training regime takes its toll. Pigs gain weight quickly and after a few months, pigs that weigh too much are retired to the butcher shop.

Cook maintains her insurance sales license and her husband stays current in his former job as a fire sprinkler fitter. “We know we can find jobs if we have to go back to what we quaintly call ‘the real world,’ ” Cook says. “And I won’t become a millionaire by doing this, but it’s what we’ve decided to do.”

Rick Crowder, who lives near Sacramento, is another musician who, like Hiskett, evolved into a fair entertainer. He developed his stage persona--Sourdough Slim The Yodeling Cowboy--during countless nights on the road singing with country and western bands.

He still plays occasional gigs with other musicians, but his stage persona has evolved into his meal ticket. When he’s on stage, Crowder’s alter ego feeds audiences a Will Rogers-like diet of yodeling, cowboy songs, rope tricks and corny jokes.

“If you’re looking to support a family and need something that’s the main source of your income, then fairs are a pretty good way to go,” Crowder says. “There’s been an revival of interest in western culture in the past 10 years, so for me, it was a case of being in the right place at the right time.”

Crowder acknowledges that he made more money when he was a UPS driver: “But it’s one of those things. People who love to do something are driven to do it. And if you’re doing something you enjoy, it’s the right line of work.”

Traveling entertainers say fair-goers are a unique kind of audience.

“You’ve got hundreds of people out there who want to be entertained,” Rosen says. “So, rather than simply bringing a couple of volunteers up on stage, I prefer mass induction--I want to hypnotize everybody.

“I especially love the look on kids’ faces,” Rosen says. “That’s one of the big reasons I love the entertainment business.”

Hiskett says that simply being a good musician or performer isn’t enough because audiences--which are dominated by families--want authentic personalities who can deliver a solid helping of entertainment mixed with down-home humor that plays well in a fairground setting.

Hiskett, who quit his landscape architecture job in 1988 to concentrate on performing, also caters his act to kids in the audience. He’ll hand out bells, whistles, drum sticks and percussion instruments to audience members who, more often than not, end up joining him on stage.

“Fairs have their economic problems,” Hiskett says, “but after a few weeks on the road you really get the feeling that the heart of America is still alive out there.”