REVIEW: “St. Misbehavin’: The Wavy Gravy Movie” tells story of basic human needs
EDITOR’S NOTE: A more in depth interview with Wavy Gravy and director Michelle Esrick will soon follow this review.
By Michael Knox, mknox@modernfilmzine.com
When Hugh Romney joined up with Ken Kesey and the rest of the Merry Pranksters who formed the Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test team, Romney knew it was an adventure he had to go on.
“It was a chance to sign up on a space ship,” Romney said during one sequence of a documentary based on his adventures, “St. Misbehavin’: The Wavy Gravy Movie.”
Romney, who has been known as the clown, Wavy Gravy, ever since blues star B.B. King coined the name, has lived a life that’s included being a jester with the Merry Pranksters, building a friendship with the Grateful Dead and traveling the world in an effort to help cure blindness in poor countries.
The film played out to a crowded audience during the Full Frame Film Festival in Durham, N.C. Prior to the movie a crowd of people lined up outside, twisting around the building.
“Good lord, how long does this line go on,?” one person blurted out before finding the end of the line to see the movie. No surprise though, because as one person said, this is a movie that plays to the counterculture crowd and the Dead Heads.
But the movie is more than that. It gives hope for a better bit of humanity, with footage of people pulling together to take care of their extended family, and more importantly try to take care of complete strangers. The movie starts talking about that with a poem by Wavy Gravy about basic human needs and trying to feed an help everyone else.
“Throughout the making of this film, Wavy has been described to me as a town crier, pied piper, jester, cultural phenomenon, holy clown, living treasure, revolutionary, and Saint,” director Michelle Esrick stated on her Web site. “All I know is, to be around Wavy is to see the best part of ourselves, to feel hopeful, to feel inspired to be just a little more loving, forgiving and helpful in the world we live in, and to have fun doing it. It is my honor to introduce the real Wavy Gravy to the world. Personally, I think we need the ‘fool’ now more than ever!”
Weaving humor with helping out the world, the documentary starts off with Gravy going out to get food for the Hog Farm, a commune run by Gravy. Wavy Gravy has become such a character in the community that his name was used for a brand of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, allowing him to get as much Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, whenever he wants. During the first bit of the movie he stops off at a Ben & Jerry’s long enough to pick up ice cream for the commune.
“He just bought $50 worth of ice cream for free,” the cashier says with a laugh as Gravy walks out, adding, “He does that a lot.”
The footage cuts between Gravy’s life on the Hog Farm and him praying to a series of individuals and religions that range from civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. to the comedian Lenny Bruce.
Before long the movie begins to go into the broad strokes of Gravy’s life. It’s not entirely focused on Gravy’s life, so much as uses his life as a springboard to talk about how Gravy and his followers help out people across the world.
Gravy, still known as Romney, began his career as a poet at a jazz club where he got to know people such as Bob Dylan. Gravy admitted to the fun he and others would have before going on stage.
“Where we would get delightfully altered and creative,” Gravy said.
The club, The Gas Light, was where Gravy also began to start with comedy, after one person kept hearing Gravy’s stories about his day, and convincing him to talk about his life.
The formula had an almost Lenny Bruce edge to it and eventually lead him to opening up for the likes of John Coltrane and Thelonious Monk. He even met up with a business manager until he realized how hardcore the man was. There were barracuda in the fish tanks of the lobby, which deterred Gravy from really wanting to work with the manager, he said during the film.
From there the movie talks about how Gravy connected with Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters and how the busload of people came to his cabin. With 45 people in a one bedroom cabin, the landlord was irritated and tossed Gravy out. It was a bit of serendipity that allowed Gravy to go to a hog farm and live, as long as his people took care of the farm. The bit of luck lead to the creation of the Hog Farm commune.
It didn’t take long for the commune to go on the road to spread their declaration of peace and love. The Hog Farm mentality eventually grew to be a common headline in the newspapers to the point that the commune crew set up shop at Woodstock. They were there after a huge rainstorm that could have made people have a meltdown. But Gravy and his crew helped out, serving food and such.
“What we have … is breakfast in bed for 400,000 people,” Gravy said in some historical footage used in the documentary.
The movie also shows the impact of Gravy’s life on his family, including his son, now known as Jordan Romney. He was originally known as Howdy Do-Good Gravy, until he found out that he could legally change his name when he turned 13 years old.
“I spent my 13th birthday in court,” Jordan Romney said in the film.
He also talked about how he lived on the commune and how that affected him.
“I had 30 dads,” he said. “There was no one person responsible for shaping me into who I am today.”
The film covers a wide area of Gravy’s life including his work with Woodstock and the Merry Pranksters, to his Camp Winnarainbow, where children can come learn to juggle, be a clown, walk a tightrope and just learn to be themselves. It’s the scenes of Gravy at the camp that you also see his particular brand of humor.
Dressed as en elephant during one sequence Gravy says, “I’m Smartbo, Dumbo’s intelligent brother.”
One child at the camp talked about how accepting everybody was everyone and how freeing that was to just be yourself and be able to fit in.
“There’s even a kid in a teepee who’s a Republican,” the child said during the documentary. The line drew huge laughs from the crowd who filled the auditorium during the Full Frame screening.
All in all the movie has a great vibe and lets people know about Gravy’s dreams of spreading peace and love, including his work with the organization Seva. Seva-supported eye care programs in Asia and Africa have helped nearly three million blind people to see again by providing affordable cataract surgeries, according to the organization’s Web site.
The film also covers Gravy’s protests against the Vietnam War and how he went from wearing a court jester’s outfit to dressing up as a clown.
When dressed as a clown, cops didn’t want to hit Gravy because of the bad image it gave police, Gravy said. “And they didn’t want to be caught clubbing Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny,” Gravy said.
Gravy talked about how the clown outfit was not just a defense, but a tool to talk to people and help spread his philosophies.
“When you laugh at something your defenses go down,” he said.
One of Gravy’s friends, country star Bonnie Raitt, talked about Gravy’s ability to help, but just being connected to humanity.
“He’s able to bring people together,” she said. “He’s our pied piper.”
The movie travels from the hills of California to the Himalayan Mountains to detail Gravy’s adventures and features Bob Weir, Mickey Hart, Phil Lesh, Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, Maria Muldaur, Steve Earle, Dr. John, Ramblin’ Jack Elliot, Odetta, Buffy Sainte Marie, Michael Franti, his wife Jahanara Romney, Dr. Larry Brilliant, Patch Adams, Lisa Law, Denise Kaufman, Tom Law, and Steven Ben Israel.
Beginning with Woodstock ‘99, director Michelle Esrick has spent ten years documenting the life of Wavy Gravy, according to the film’s Web site. “Saint Misbehavin’” journeys from the hills of California to the Himalayan Mountains to reveal the life of this one of a kind servant to humanity.
The film blends Wavy’s own words with magical stories from an extraordinary array of fellow travelers both cultural and counter-cultural, revealing the man behind the clown’s grin and the fool’s clothing, the Web site states.
In “Saint Misbehavin’” Wavy is revealed more than the tie-dyed entertainer and ice-cream flavor namesake that often defines him in the popular imagination.
Wavy’s life is his message, serving as deeply needed inspiration that we can change the world and have fun doing it, the Web site states. Satirist Paul Krasner describes Wavy as “The illegitimate son of Harpo Marx and Mother Theresa, conceived one starry night on a spiritual whoopie cushion,” to which Wavy has replied, “Some people tell me I’m a saint, I tell them I’m Saint Misbehavin’.”
For more information about the movie visit http://www.rippleeffectfilms.com/wavyweb2.html
To help out with SEVA, one of Wavy Gravy’s causes, visit http://www.seva.org/site/PageServer
To learn more about Wavy Gravy’s circus and performing arts camp visit http://www.campwinnarainbow.org/
