A Nutty Procession Takes the Stage : Show business: Aspiring performers try out for a snack company’s commercials. They were encoraged to be zany . . . but Elvis as a peanut?

There are limits, presumably, to what people will do to get on television. There must be a line drawn, somewhere, between lust for fame and common human dignity.

Reggie Bowles saw that line and toed it. Then he hurtled across.

Standing on a stage at Universal Studios on Tuesday, before judges and a small audience, the 34-year-old Santa Monica man dropped to all fours and pretended to be a buffalo, snorting and butting a chair with his head. All this in hopes of getting on a television commercial for peanuts.

“I have no shame,” said Bowles, looking otherwise ordinary in slacks and a Windbreaker.

Almost 50 people took turns at such tomfoolery during the day at an open audition for Planters Peanuts. The snack company is mounting an advertising campaign entitled “Everybody Loves a Nut” and invited “fun-filled adults” to perform 30 seconds of zaniness.

The top three acts would be considered for a spot on a nationally televised ad.

Comics and ventriloquists showed up. A dwarf came dressed as a peanut. A deaf man addressed a can of mixed nuts in sign language. There were tap dancers and rap singers, a Sinatra sing-alike and an Elvis impersonator, who billed himself Elvis Peanut.

“I’m an older, overweight Elvis,” said Jeff Zandberg, of Los Angeles, who wore long sideburns and a cardboard peanut costume. “I think I got my message across.”

Bill Adams of Playa del Rey brought a sheltie named Tequila. The dog wrestled with a radio-controlled toy car.

Greg Ray of Los Angeles wrestled with himself, flipping and flopping across the stage.

These and the other acts were judged on humor, originality, lovability and adaptability to television. Contestants were warned away from profanity, excessive props and dangerous stunts.

“We didn’t know what to expect,” said Roger Adams, who identified himself as the Director of Nuts for Planters Lifesavers Co. “We’re pleased with what we saw.”

Planters will hold similar auditions this month in New York and Chicago. The company is also accepting videotapes from those who prefer to act foolish in private. At least one winner, and perhaps more, will be chosen by October.

“We’re trying to make this a grass-roots effort,” Adams said. “People who have special acts, or play the harmonica through their nose . . . things like that.”

A number of Tuesday’s contestants described themselves as aspiring actors and saw the audition as a chance at their big break.

Others came on a whim.

“We were just sitting around, drinking beers,” said Jeff Miller, a 26-year-old Los Angeles attorney.

He and friends Pete Cunningham and Bill Molinski stripped to the waist to reveal Mr. Peanut figures painted on their stomachs. They hummed a tune and wiggled about.

Said Molinski, of the act’s beery inspiration: “We said to ourselves, ‘Let’s be creative for a minute.’ ”

Kimberly Martinez, 26, of Pasadena, was persuaded to audition by a friend. Coming on stage near the end, she stood at the microphone and recounted a dream of giving birth to peanuts. This tale left the judges and audience silent, apparently stunned.

“I really did dream that. About three weeks ago,” Martinez said later. “They said, ‘Hi mama.’ ”