Firesign Theatre and the 40th Anniversary of Nick Danger

Full indecent disclosure.

I cannot be impartial in describing the Firesign Theatre. I cannot be definitive. And I am not responsible, for those familiar with these four owners of vast tracts of comedic surreal estate in recordings, video, film, and the stage would agree: Phil Proctor, Peter Bergman, Phil Austin and David Ossman are conceptually in another world while inhabiting this one. To celebrate the 40th anniversary of one of their most popular pieces, the far noir "Nick Danger, Third Eye," Firesign shall run laughshod Oct. 14-17, in an increasingly rare live performance at Hollywood's Barnsdall Gallery Theatre.

My first headlong dive face forward into the Firesign past came at San Francisco State, where a group of actors, as an assignment, recreated the Nick Danger segment from their album, How Can You Be in Two Places at Once when You're Not Anywhere At All. Its success led to my creating a comedy group called the Burlingame Philharmonic Orchestra. By the time the '80s rolled around, I met my friend Alex Adams, who had a comedy radio show on low-powered and undernourished NPR affiliate KALW in San Francisco. I insisted we interview Firesign every year they came up to do Halloween shows in the Bay Area.

And so, how can I be journalistically objective, when their material has so impacted me, when their lives and mine have satirically smacked foreheads over lo these many years? I remember Bergman walking me outside a San Francisco club, after an interview and before a show, only to see a long line of Firesign fans waiting to get in.

"All you people in line for the Firesign Theatre," he bellowed, making them whip their collective heads in our direction, "forget them. They're not any good! You should go see James Taylor tonight at the Oakland Coliseum!"

I recall Ossman, directing my radio adaptation of Ray Bradbury's story "The One Who Waits," at the Midwest Radio Theatre Workshop in Missouri, showing me a piece of equipment that amazingly made the lead actress' voice sound like droplets of water inside a well.

I still see my first live Firesign show in my mind, at UC Berkeley's Zellerbach Auditorium, and the four Crazee Guys improvising like mad, after the scripted show, leading to Austin remarking on the lack of parking in Berkeley, "Hey, is the name of this place Severe Tire Damage University?"

Or Proctor and his wife Melinda, simultaneously kissing me on each cheek while buying an armful of my theatrical disasters compendium, Stop the Show!, (which they contributed to) at a book launch party.

I may not be objective but I can say that the world's trippiest troupe has shown stunning innovation in the way they stage their work and their recorded comedy is more layered and imaginative than a dozen James Joyces on peyote.

Rabid Firesign fans tend to yell out familiar phrases they've memorized, during a concert. I never have. It's hard for me to make everyone in the house hear lines like this from the time-shifting trial scene in "High School Madness:" "The accursed will be advised of the absence of his rights under the Secret Military Code of Toughness and will act accordingly!"

 

 

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Comments

[Aramingo]

"Roll up your sleeve and bend over" is a direct quote from "How can you be in two places at once...". Why was it deleted?

[chroma601]

Hello, humanlings and earthloids! You are now embarked upon a journey that will most certainly change the way you think forever!

Phil Proctor has a very active website: http://www.planetproctor.com/index2.html

[movielady]

"We've been here since before the beginning.­"

I use that line all the time.

[bgrebow]

and there was hamburger all over the highway in Mystic, Connecticut

[drifely]

Regnad Kcin forever!

[nick danger]

....must be this time warp!

[wagadog]

but but but... Real Gas Music From Jupiter!!

[RevBookburn]

Great to read this about the trippiest troupe ever. Rev. Bookburn - Radio Volta

[Charles Ruhe]

"Malcom X John Lennon? Come on in and dig your mother..."
--Returned for Regrooving, Waiting for the Electrician (or someone like him)

Always the best, most creative comedy ever planted directly between your ears. Happy anniversary, Firesign!

[Jill Kennedy]

Congrats from Manka Bros. Studios - the World's Largest Media Company -

http://www.mankabros.com

We do what we do because of you. Except the whole success thing.

[NHBill]

I never got stoned enough to find Firesign Theatre funny!

[RogerOThornhill]

Yeah, I understand ;-)
In latter years I've listened and it just fell flat.
An alternative might be listening while focusing and still being relaxed; maybe that way you can pick up on all the references and it'll click. Or maybe not...

They're still brilliant, but *highly* underrated due to the whole "Take 2 mushrooms and listen all night" thing ;-)

um, that was not supposed to be a pun...

[MoeJava]

How Can You Be in Two Places at Once when You're Not Anywhere At All...
.
even after all these years, i hear new layered madness every time it's played.
.
thank you firesign theatre! the gift that keeps on giving.
.
.

[nuced]

They are the only rock and roll Mar although band that never needed music,although "Marching to Shibboleth" was always a killer. Rock Roccoco, Rod Flash and all the students at More Science High are still the best. hey are the American "Pythons" only More American edgy. I still listen to them a lot because they are as relevant now as they always were. Classic, classical, and timeless. They painted masterpieces with sounds and the lazer focused third eye cut right through the morass of American culture. "Shoes for industry!" And Food for thought!

[jl4141]

Your reference to "the American Pythons" jarred these thoughts:

In 1979, Monty Python's Life of Brian was released. It included a scene where some people were so far from the Sermon on the Mount that they couldn't quite hear what Jesus was saying -- "Blessed are the Cheesemakers" was how one person heard it.

But a year earlier, in 1978, Proctor & Bergman put out an album entitled "Give Us A Break." It included a very similar sketch called "What Did That Man Say?," where various people couldn't quite hear what Jesus was saying at the Sermon on the Mount. "Blessed are the Meek for They Shall Inherit the Earth" became, in one example, "Things are looking bleak -- they're questioning my birth."

A foreshadowing of Orly Taitz!!!!

[duncansdad]

Shoes for Industry! Shoes for the Dead!

[Citizen54]

Thanks for the memories.

One of the best album covers of all time: All Hail Marx and Lennon!, with photos of Groucho and John L. on the front.

The album was called something else but is pretty much known by the exhortation on the cover.

And who could forget Peorgie Tirebiter?

[elayneriggs]

For those who can't get enough of Firesign, their website www.firesigntheatre.comm) has a webchat every Thursday evening starting at 9 PM Eastern. You never know when one of the 4or5 will show! Tons of fun, and technical stimulation! And it's free. That's right, a fair for all, and no fare to anybody...