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2008 Ventura County Fair

Find out what is happening today at the Ventura County Fair.
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Photo by Dana Rene Bowler

Staff writer Tom Kisken, right, gets instructions on procedures before taking on the role of security guard at the Beach Boys concert Monday.

Photo by Dana Rene Bowler

One of Star staff writer Tom Kisken's duties as security guard at the Beach Boys concert was to keep the aisles clear. "Mostly you have to be a good listener," a security official told him. "You're here to help."

Security guards talk about command presence.

It means that when there's only a handful of you and thousands of them, they'll still stop dancing in the aisles even after a few cups of Miller Lite. It means being a problem solver who helps the kid who can't see and points people to the port-a-potties.

It means never showing fear.

That last challenge might be difficult at an arena packed with fans over-amped by the music, moshing, beverages and the resulting desire to rebel. This, however, was a Beach Boys concert at the Ventura County Fair.

I was at the Grandstand Arena on Monday night to be a guard. A two-way radio was clipped on my belt, hand-held receiver slung across a shoulder. I was decked out in the yellow T-shirt that marked me as event staff, as security, as the man.

But the estimated 12,500 people around me didn't seem to need that much securing. They ranged from the woman in the low-cut top who kept sauntering up the aisle, once blowing kisses at the musicians, to the group in the front who rolled their eyes at her act. If she was in her early 20s, they were twice her age and then some. One carried a cane.

They came to sway to "Surfin' USA," shout out "Help, help me, Rhonda" and raise their cell phones like lighters in a salute to the band.

The other guys wearing the yellow shirts told me our job is to help people have a good time, more customer service than security. They told me to be polite but firm when I asked people lingering in the aisles to find their seats.

"Mostly you have to be a good listener," said Travis McKenna, head of security for the Grandstand Arena. "You're here to help."

McKenna stands 6-foot-3, weighs 440 pounds, owns a third-degree black belt and, according to his wife, has the patience of Job.

He started learning about security the hard way on his 18th birthday, some 30 years ago. He walked into a bar in Maryland and ended up getting thrown out twice, once through a plate-glass window and the second time through plywood.

"I went back in and made sure I wasn't thrown out again," he said, noting the bar offered him a job that night as a bouncer.

I asked for advice. He said security guards spend almost all of their time in a helpful frame of mind. But they have to know when to change to removal mode.

"We change that mode when they change," he said of the crowd.

The guy with the shaggy hair, shorts and the Hawaiian shirt didn't understand modes. Not too long after the Beach Boys launched into "California Girl," he sauntered to the front of the arena, faced the crowd and gestured like a conductor with special privileges. Then he did it again, standing in the off-limits strip of an island that separates the stage from the crowd.

Jason Horton, the 23-year-old security supervisor who was sitting with me, told him he couldn't stay there. The fan responded by flipping up a finger — yep, that one. He aimed one at Horton and another that I think was pointed at me.

In Horton's mind, it was removal time. He placed the man's arm behind his back in low-key position, meaning no pain but a firmness that means the show is over. They walked out of the grandstand to a fairgrounds exit.

I sat with the rest of the guys at the edge of the island, our backs to the band. My job was to make sure my aisle stayed clear, helping the ushers point people to seats or to the back of the arena. Someone tossed a beach ball at me. I tossed it back.

My biggest mistake came when I was interviewing a fairgoer who said she was 40. "Really?" I said with enough disbelief to get into trouble.

When the band started in on "Surfer Girl," I moved with the rest of the guards so the crowd could finally spill into the aisles and into the area in front of the seats, just below the stage.

McKenna said the Beach Boys complained earlier in the show that the guards were being too heavy-handed. They wanted the aisles and the front area opened up early.

"You've got to find a balance," he said, noting the most important person at the show insisted the aisles be kept clear as long as possible for public safety reasons. "The (state) fire marshal was happy."

I stood behind a metal barrier watching the fans enjoy their time warp. Their numbers made me wonder what could happen if they weren't so mellow, if they had decided several songs earlier to rush the stage.

It made me think fear is part of being a security guard. McKenna has never felt threatened at the fair, but in his 30 years working in security he's been shot, stabbed and knocked into a half-dozen concussions. You can be afraid. You just can't show it.

"In the immortal words of John Wayne, being a man is being afraid and still having the courage to saddle up,'" McKenna said.

If you go

What: Ventura County Fair.

When: Today through Sunday, beginning at 11 a.m. weekdays and 10 a.m. weekends.

Where: Ventura County Fairgrounds, 10 W. Harbor Blvd., Ventura.

Admission: $9 for adults, $6 for seniors (62 and older) and children 6 to 12, free for children 5 and younger and those 100 and older.

Special admission/theme days:

Today: Dollar Days, $1 admission until 3 p.m.

Thursday: Military Appreciation Day, free admission with current valid military ID.

Thursday: Carnival Wristband Days; wristbands good for unlimited carnival rides until 7 p.m. will be sold from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. for $25.

Parking: $5 at the fairgrounds and at San Buenaventura State Beach, where there is a free shuttle pickup.

Free parking is available at the following locations, with free shuttles leaving every 20 minutes:

Ventura County Government Center, Lots E and F, 800 S. Victoria Ave., Ventura.

Ventura High School, off Poli Street, Ventura.

Schooner Drive and Harbor Boulevard, near the Sheraton Four Points Hotel at Ventura Harbor.

Pacific View mall, off Telegraph Road near South Mills Road, Ventura.

Oxnard Performing Arts Center, 800 Hobson Way.

Trains: Amtrak's Pacific Surfliner stops at the Ventura train station near the fairgrounds seven days a week. For exact schedules and fares, call 800-USA-RAIL or visit http://www.amtrak.com. Metrolink trains will run from Chatsworth to Ventura on Saturday and Sunday. Information is available at http://www.venturacountyfair.org.

Buses: VISTA buses on Highway 101 and Highway 126 routes that normally stop at the Ventura Pier on weekends will stop at the Ventura County Fairgrounds across from the Amtrak station this weekend. Information is available at http://www.venturacountyfair.org or by calling the Ventura County Transportation Commission at 642-1591.