No, Wavy Gravy isn’t some psyche delic blend to go with holiday tur key. It is the name of a hippie icon who had a Ben & Jerry’s flavor named after him. (The honor entitles him to a lifetime worth of free ice cream.)
Born Hugh Romney in 1936, he started out telling jokes at the Gaslight Cafe on MacDougal Street in 1958, and went on to his 15 minutes of fame as emcee of the Woodstock festival, a political activist (he’s proud of all the times he was beaten by cops) and clown (his signature outfit).
Today, we learn in the fawning documentary “Saint Misbehavin’: The Wavy Gravy Movie,” he still runs the Hog Farm, a California commune to which he has devoted a good part of his life.
Director Michelle Esrick, who followed Wavy around for 10 years, journeys from Manhattan to Woodstock to Nepal to the hills of California to tell Wavy’s story. The journey is entertaining, whether you witnessed the 1960s firsthand or heard about it from your grandparents.
But the film ignores Wavy’s childhood — surely his early years had an impact on what he became in later life. And there isn’t a single negative comment. Are we to believe that this wild-haired, in-your-face LSD disciple is Mr. Perfect? I doubt it.