American Prankster

American Prankster is a deep dive with the iconic Wavy Gravy, unfolding his fascinating,historic and hilarious lifestory as an original Beatnik, comedy pioneer, hippie icon and pioneering activist who uses humor as a weapon. Sharing stories that even he’d forgotten with producer/host, Rainbow Valentine, of Disorganized Crime: Smuggler’s Daughter, Wavy gets down to the very nit of the grit and reminds us what it means to be human...

Step inside the psychedelic mind of original Beatnik-Hippie Icon-Comedy Pioneer and Pioneering Activist Wavy Gravy as Producer Rainbow Valentine continues bringing curated Wavy to your ears with non-chronological stories of Wavy’s rainbow chompers, the origin of his ektar and Jell-O with the High Times magazine founder. Plus Wavy breaks down the Architecture of Comedy, gushes about Gilda Radner, SNL, Mr. Rogers and gets into his Simpsons moment of glory...

Who is Wavy Gravy? Episode 1 introduces listeners to the hippie icon who introduced hippies to granola and provides an overview of his inspiring, historic and hilarious life using humor as a weapon to change the world for the better...

Episode 2 dives into Wavy’s childhood, youth and teen years with stories of his parents, brothers, childhood BFF & neighbor, Albert Einstein. Wavy tells us about his obsession with bebop, jazz, radio comedy and how they influenced his life...

Following his blackballed university theater teachers, Hugh Romney moves to New York City in the early 1960’s where he blossoms into a Beatnik poet comedian in Greenwich Village at the Gaslight Café when his career takes off beside chums like Bob Dylan, Peter, Paul & Mary, Tiny Tim and fans like Lenny Bruce and Marlene Dietrich...

Comedy and psychedelic history converge in 1964 when Hugh Romney moves to San Francisco to join The Committee Improv Theater in North Beach, where Wavy’s performance meat suit precluded Lady Gaga’s by 45 years...

Hollywood and Psychedelic history collide when comedian Hugh Romney, moves to LA where Lenny Bruce becomes his manager, improv icon Del Close becomes his roommate and writer-LSD-enthusiast Ken Kesey, becomes his fan! Wavy tells stories of Lenny’s tragic demise plus theatrical psychedelic shows and shenanigans with Del introducing history’s early laser light displays...

40 psychedelic houseguests in Hugh and Bonnie Jean’s 1 bedroom apartment leads to eviction, propelling Wavy and the Merry Pranksters to a literal hog farm as they morph from Beatniks into a new subculture the media calls “Hippies”. Starting with Hugh and Bonnie Jean’s 1966 wedding and honeymoon, Wavy unfolds origin stories of the Hog Farm commune and their groundbreaking theatrical parties, which attract attention from the media, movie stars and murderers...

Why do hippies eat granola and wear tie dye? Because of the Woodstock Peace and Music Festival in 1969, when Hugh Romney became a global symbol for Peace, Love and Rock’n’Roll! After Wavy and the Hog Farm commune are hired to work at the iconic music festival, American’s opinions of hippies shift, along with the ethos of festival-partying...

This episode unfolds Wavy’s pivot from Hollywood Beatnik Comedian to Rock’n’Roll Humanitarian Hippie Clown, providing basic human needs at festivals, saving the planet and more. We dig into the Texas Pop Fest ’69, Altamont and the Medicine Ball Caravan documentary, which aimed to recreate Woodstock in rural towns across America before depositing Wavy and friends in Europe, setting the stage for their international hippie bus caravan to the Himalayas...