Hollywood Portrait: The South African Protester

Neil Barnett was holding court on Hollywood Boulevard, sitting in the early evening dark drinking coffee and complaining about the Occupy Wall Street protests downtown. "They need to take action," he said. "They need to make a statement." Asking what he knew about protests, I was quickly educated on the unlikely path that led him to Hollywood from South Africa via Moscow. It all started with a protest. 

Name: Neil Barnett

Age: 60

Original Hometown: I grew up in South Africa. Went to jail there and was deported to the Soviet Union and then I came here. One of the agreements was that if I behaved myself and agreed not to go back to South Africa, that they would deport me and let me leave. So I left.

Why were you in jail in South Africa? It was called the Suppression of Communism Act. They thought I was a threat to the national security of Apartheid. I was.

Because you were protesting there? We were doing more than protesting. We were blowing up pylons and things and railway lines and garbage cans. Whatever else.

What year was this? I left in 1980.

How long were you in jail? Only 18 months.

Only eighteen months? You say that like it’s nothing— It was no big deal.

No? The jails there are not bad? Well, they were okay if you were white and you were a student. It wasn’t that bad.

Why did they deport you to Russia? Because the Soviets agreed to take me.

To Moscow? Yeah. I love Moscow. The Russians are the greatest people. They knew how to have a party, you know? Vodka and water are the same word in Russian. And my family is Russian. They came from Odessa and a little town in Poland. It lasted about 10 minutes after the war started, and then it was gone.

What did you do in Russia? I taught for awhile at the university.

What did you teach? African Socialism. [Laughs] They invented a subject for me.

How long? Only for six months. Then they originally said I could go to Cuba. I told them I didn’t want to go to Cuba, I wanted to go to America. So they sent me here.

To Hollywood? Yes, Hollywood. I love it here. Done lots of stuff here. Worked in television, worked for Jerry Springer, Montel Williams. Anything about the streets of Hollywood. Did a whole show on homelessness with Jerry Springer.

What do you think of Hollywood? I love it here. If you’re innovative, you can think of some new idea, this is a great place to be. Anything crazy. Like I got this idea. People like to be hyper. There’s this powder kids like to eat that turns their lips to blue and then it changes colors. And I thought if you put caffeine in it, it would make people hyper and they’d like it. It’s called Panic Powder.

Instead of doing Occupy L.A., we’ll come to a place like here and have a 10 hour party in the street, and then leave. We’re not gonna occupy anything, we’ll call it a panic party.  Just come and panic and have a big party. People like that because they like to go home and sleep in their bed before you go to another party, you know? And we’ll just keep partying like it’s 1969! Which is my website: www.partylikeits1969.com.

Is it always blue powder? It can be any color. As long as it’s not white, it’s okay. White is a dangerous color for powder.

Do you live in Hollywood? Yeah, I live around here.

How did you get involved with TV projects? I started an organization called Youth Escaping The Streets. I helped kids get off the street and got them jobs.

We started doing shows to help feed all the street kids. And then I got noticed by television and they asked me to put a show together on homeless kids in Hollywood. The editors were slowing down the frames of the video to make the kids look sad. And I said, “Why are you doing that? They’re not sad. They’re happy.” So they let me do the editing. Next thing I know I was getting calls from Montel Williams. I took him down Hollywood Boulevard. And I got a call from the Jerry Springer show. And I put a show together for him. He was really good, Jerry Springer. We had 500 homeless kids, took them all out to dinner, had a town meeting. That show was really, really good.

How many years have you been in Hollywood? 30.

So you’ve seen it change quite a lot. What do you think of the changes? Well, they try to gentrify it, but it doesn’t work. They built this big mall [Hollywood Highland] but I don’t know if it makes any money.

When you were growing up in South Africa, did you have an idea of what Hollywood was like? Yeah. I had this vague idea of Hollywood where anything could happen and you’d come here and all your dreams can come true.

When you came here, was it anything like you thought it would be? It was pretty similar. All your dreams can come true.

But here’s what I think. They should open casinos here. I know that Vegas would be against it. But why not open casinos here in Hollywood? Why not turn it into Las Vegas, or better than Vegas?

These hotels would come here and have casinos. People would come from all over the world. Famous people would be gambling and losing money and people would see them.

Also, they should take West Hollywood and Hollywood and North Hollywood and make it all one city, and leave L.A.  Make it one big city. With casinos. It would be great.