Street Performers

Auditions for street performers will be held March 7 at the Irvine Spectrum Center, from 1 to 5 p.m. "This program is designed to give talented people of all ages the chance to audition in front of a panel of judges, who will select the most talented acts to perform at Irvine Spectrum Center throughout the year," center spokeswoman Elizabeth Weaver said. Categories include magicians, mimes, unicyclists, jugglers, clowns, fire-eaters, stilt-walkers, singers, musicians and dancers.

The Michael Jackson dance-alike toiled for three hours to prepare for his performance: arching his eyebrows, reshaping his nose with tape, airbrushing his skin to King of Pop perfection. He wriggled into a black military jacket and black floodwater pants that mirrored the singer's style, down to the bunched white socks. He headed to his usual haunt on Las Vegas Boulevard: outside gilded Planet Hollywood, near the busy crosswalk to fountain-fronted Bellagio. Atop a stool, he balanced a black fedora and a single glittering glove.

Katrina is not a happy clown. Accustomed to having free run of the Third Street Promenade, Katrina will soon be tethered in a performance zone, with a $120 license affixed to her baggy clown suit. She will only be able to work the movie lines with the forbearance of the enforcers of a new law aimed at imposing order on the chaotic street-performer scene at the Promenade. "This is not good for me," Katrina, whose civilian name is Kathryn Mara, told the Santa Monica City Council Tuesday night.

EVENTS Los Angeles Antiques Show Spanning centuries and crisscrossing the globe with its wares, the 16th annual Los Angeles Antiques Show offers French and Continental furniture alongside 20th century design objects and African tribal artwork. Barker Hangar, 3021 Airport Ave., Santa Monica. 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Sat., 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Sun. $20. (708) 366-2710. http://www.losangelesantiqueshow.com. Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach The rubber meets the road at the 37th Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, which takes over 2 miles of seaside streets.

After listening to views of more than 40 street performers and merchants, the City Council is scheduled to resume discussion next week on a controversial ordinance regulating street performers. "Street performers are the heart and soul of the [Third Street] Promenade," said Mayor Pam O'Connor. "They're what sets it apart from a shopping mall. They lure people here." The proposed ordinance calls for limits on performers' noise levels and on where they can set up.

Protesters registered their anger with City Hall on Tuesday by sending officials a 1,300-foot-long roll of butcher paper that carried messages condemning a new law that regulates city street performers and vendors. The new ordinance requires performers and vendors on the Third Street Promenade and the Santa Monica Pier to move to a new spot every two hours or face a $250 fine.

A visitor to Horton Plaza this weekend can expect crowds, shops still under construction and enough activities to be entertained at every turn. The plaza will offer music, comedy and dance, a chance to meet Mrs. Fields of cookie fame and, for some lucky shopper, a trip to Paris, London or Geneva. During the grand opening weekend, there will be flamenco dancing, vaudeville, Dixieland jazz and mariachis, and tours of the shopping center by members of the Lamb's Players Theatre.

At dusk on Sunday, a crowd of about 200 stood transfixed in the center court of the Santa Monica Promenade as a tall man in a black tuxedo performed magic tricks and juggled while riding a unicycle. A few doors south, a small group of onlookers gathered around a Latin rhythm combo. In the other direction, a man played his three-octave chimes. And from somewhere on the three-block stretch, the haunting sound of a saxophone traveled through the chilly air.

Already in Laguna Beach, it's illegal to yell, shout, hoot, whistle or sing in public between the hours of 11 p.m. and 7 a.m.--or any other time if it aggravates somebody. Now, the City Council will rule whether playing a musical instrument on city streets should be added to the list of nocturnal nonos. Merchants and hoteliers say street musicians who sometimes strum, drum or blow until 3 in the morning are bad for business, said Police Chief Neil J. Purcell Jr.

Writing, you know, is not the most stable of professions. What you need is a backup. Something to do if the ol' inkwell runs dry. Something creative. Something versatile. Like street performance. Why not? It's a centuries-old tradition, one of the few forms of entertainment not remotely threatened by the Internet. So when you see that Universal CityWalk's street performers are holding instructional sessions called "Tricks of the Trade," you make sure to be there. First stop: the Puppet Guy.

A few days ago at Hollywood & Highland, a smooth-scalped man in a black leather jacket, jeans and sneakers got a red-carpet treatment that royalty might envy. Not one, but two, L.A. City Council members took turns gushing over him. His fellow countryman, the director James Cameron, praised the honoree as a theatrical magus who conjures "living dreams," populated with aerialists, acrobats and clowns that are actually amusing. Then, as a beaming Hollywood Chamber of Commerce representative looked on, Guy Laliberté, the press-shy billionaire founder and CEO of Cirque du Soleil, stepped forward to unveil his and Cirque's shiny new star, the 2,424th on the Walk of Fame.

Crustacean connoisseurs have a full weekend to consider the lobster — as well as live music, dancing, street performers, pirates and shopping — at the annual Port of Los Angeles Lobster Festival. A meal with fresh lobster flown in from Maine and all the fixings runs $18. Featured musical acts include Saint Motel, Dengue Fever, plus John Doe and Exene Cervenka of the band X. Ports O' Call Village, 1190 Nagoya Way, San Pedro. 5-11 p.m. Fri., 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Sat., 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Sun. $9 for adults, free for children younger than 12. (310)

A city in England said Friday that two buskers, or street performers, who plagued a suburb by repeating the same two songs have been banned from performing for two years. The Birmingham City Council said the men angered residents with late-night and out-of-tune renditions of two tracks: "Wonderwall" by Oasis and "Faith" by George Michael.

Just in time for the summer tourist throngs, mimes, musicians and balloon-animal shapers have been newly empowered to bring their entertainments and tip jars to public parks. In a ruling with potentially wide implications for street artists throughout the West, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday struck down curbs imposed by Seattle on those performing at the popular Seattle Center, home of the landmark Space Needle.

Holy Hollywood ending, Batman! Maybe this is a job for Superman! That's what Robin was probably thinking after the superhero sidekick was attacked and pummeled as he strolled in his mask, cape and tights among tourists on Hollywood's Walk of Fame. A series of assaults near Grauman's Chinese Theatre has led to a plea for a city licensing system that costumed characters who pose for visitors' photos hope will protect them.

NEW YORK -- He's an urban curiosity -- a poet of passersby, a vendor of verse. With his manual typewriter outside a downtown Manhattan supermarket, William Chrome creates poems on the spot from bystanders' requests, sentiments and dares. He does it for the creative challenge, plus the donations. In his carbon-copied pages is a mental panorama of New York, or anywhere. Write me a poem to honor Jesus. Eulogize my dog. Celebrate my grandmother's birthday. Win back my girlfriend.

To earn his living, Rich Smith totes out a white upright piano in a '79 Chevy van that shakes and rattles at every bump. Arriving at his most frequent venue, Santa Monica's Third Street Promenade, he pulls out two planks he stores on the floor and wheels his upright onto the street. Often he spends more time toting and tuning the piano than actually playing it. But when he plays, even in a noisy venue filled with competing performers, the effect is often electric.

These crime fighters aren't in uniform and don't carry weapons or badges. They wield guitars, Hula-Hoops, washboards, paintbrushes, and will hopefully have the ability to draw a crowd. Last week, Seattle parks began paying street performers -- mostly musicians, but also a few visual artists and some vaudevillians -- to entertain in five downtown parks in hopes that with more people around, a park will be less hospitable to illegal activity.