[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/143658717″ params=”visual=true&liking=false&sharing=false&auto_play=false&show_comments=false&continuous_play=false&origin=tumblr” width=”100%” height=”500″ iframe=”true” /]

Episode Eleven: Another Planet

Clyde Casey was a street performer in the 1980s who would often perform in the parking lot of L.A.’s Wallenboyd, the experimental theater space where John Cusak, Tim Robbins, and many others got their start. One night the theater’s security guard didn’t show up, so they asked Casey if he could keep an eye on their patrons’ cars before and during the plays. He agreed, but only if he could stay in character—festooned with toys and musical instruments and homemade chrome-painted sculpture, he metamorphosed himself into a surrealist crime fighter, keeping Skid Row safe using only the powers of art: that night, Clyde Casey became The Avant Guardian.

But this is only where Casey’s story begins: he soon commandeered an abandoned gas station  across the street from the Wallenboyd and converted it into a remarkable unprecedented (and unrepeated) project called Another Planet, a place beloved and fondly remembered by the hundreds of homeless men and women who frequented it, along with high-ranking city officials, movie stars, and artists.

For over twenty years, no one in L.A. knew what happened to Casey. Producer David Weinberg finally tracked him down, and the Organist is thrilled to present his incredible story on our season-two premiere.