Who am us anyways?
“The Beatles of Comedy”
The Firesign Theatre, 1969
Origins
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The Firesign Theatre (also known as The Firesigns) was an American surreal comedy group who first performed live on November 17, 1966 on the Los Angeles radio program Radio Free Oz, first on station KPFK FM, then on KRLA 1110 AM, then on KMET FM through February 1969. They produced fourteen record albums and a 45 rpm single under contract to Columbia Records from 1968 through 1976, and had three nationally syndicated radio programs: The Firesign Theatre Radio Hour Hour in 1970 on KPPC-FM; and Dear Friends (1970–1971) and Let's Eat! (1971-1972) on KPFK. They also appeared in front of live audiences, and continued to write, perform, and record on other labels through 2012, occasionally taking sabbaticals during which they wrote or performed solo or in smaller groups.
Firesign Theatre material was conceived, written, and performed by its members Phil Austin, Peter Bergman, David Ossman, and Philip Proctor. The group's name stems from astrology, because all four were born under the three "fire signs": Aries (Austin), Leo (Proctor), and Sagittarius (Bergman and Ossman). Their popularity peaked in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and ebbed in the Reagan Era. They experienced a revival and second wave of popularity in the 1990s during the presidency of Bill Clinton and continued to write, record and perform until Bergman's death in 2012.
In 1997, Entertainment Weekly ranked the Firesign Theatre among the "Thirty Greatest Comedy Acts of All Time". The group received Grammy Award nominations for Best Comedy Album for three of their albums: The Three Faces of Al (1984), Give Me Immortality or Give Me Death (1998), and Bride of Firesign (2001). In 2005, the US Library of Congress added one of the group's most popular early albums, the 1970 Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers, to the National Recording Registry and called the group "the Beatles of comedy."
-Wikipedia
Legacy
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WORDS & PICTURES! RADIO & STAGE! MOVIES!
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MARCHING TO SHIBBOLETH – The Big Big Book of Plays, with a forward by Greil Marcus. All the words to seven of Firesign’s best-selling classic Columbia records, plus dozens of photos and many pages of additional material. (350 pages overall, reproduced in high-Seventies style! Re-Edited by Taylor Jessen.) The Grail. Only from www.fireigntheatre.com.
THE FIRESIGN THEATRE LIVE AT THE MAGIC MUSHROOM - The eleven Winter 1967 KRLA comedies, plus most of the first night’s broadcast, with intros by Ossman and Proctor, pages of memorabilia, and illustrations by Victor Melendez. Beautiful book and 7 hours of comedy on disc. Produced by Taylor Jessen.
From www.firesigntheatre.com.
EXORCISM IN YOUR DAILY LIFE – The Psychedelic Firesign Theatre at the Magic Mushroom, 1967. Scripts for the first dozen Radio Free Oz half-hour live broadcasts on KRLA. Styled after the BBC’s “Goon Show,” these comedies launched the group’s performance career from a no-alcohol Valley rock club on Sunday nights. Several went on to become stage plays and the beginnings of albums like “The Giant Rat of Sumatra” and even “Boom Dot Bust.” Edited by David Ossman.
From bearmanormedia.com.
PROFILES IN BARBEQUE SAUCE – The Psychedelic Firesign Theatre on LP and Stage 1967-72. From the first Love-In - Radical politics, television satire, the drug generation, Native American history, Side One of “Waiting For The Electrician,” - to the entire 90-minute “Martian Space Party” broadcast, all preserved in polished scripts from the Firesign Archive, now in the Library of Congress. Edited by David Ossman. From bearmanormedia.com.
BEFORE THEY CHANGED THE WATER – Live 1969-1971 is a collection of never-before-released live performances by the Firesign Theatre from the period of the heavy last hurrah of the psychedelic Sixties. The album download, produced by Taylor Jessen, includes a 93-page PDF with vintage photos, handbills, ads, programs, print interviews, weird ephemera, and the original Columbia sales convention put-on slide show featuring 24 of Phil Proctor’s photocollages. Most scripts available in Profiles in Barbeque Sauce. www.firesigntheatre/bandcamp.com
FIRESIGN THEATRE DROP-INS – 46 short cuts, radio ready, perfect to introduce the group. Assembled by Taylor Jessen. It’s FREE on Bandcamp.
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EVERYTHING YOU KNOW IS WRONG – The Declassified Firesign Theatre 1969-1975. This two-DVD set includes the title movie done to the soundtrack of the album; “The Martian Space Party” a memorable live performance (1972); a typical college show from 1975; a bizarre TV interview and sketch (1970); hours of home movies, including “Zachariah” locations and the creation of “Don’t Crush That Dwarf,” (both 1970); a group-made “Giant Rat” movie (1973), historic L. A. locations, and more! Bill Stout illustrated package! Many Surprise Extras! Produced by Taylor Jessen. Only from www.firesigntheatre.com.
DUKE OF MADNESS MOTORS – The Complete Radio Era.
Over 80 hours of restored broadcasts 1970-72 included on MP3 in a lavishly illustrated, historically detailed 108-page booklet by Taylor Jessen. The hipification of improvised comedy broadcasting!
DOPE HUMOR OF THE 70S – A Double LP set! 46 never-before released tracks (2 hours 24 minutes worth) from the three historic FM series, The Firesign Theatre Radio Hour Hour, Dear Friends and Let’s Eat. A digital booklet includes scans of original radio scripts and other period materials. Produced by Taylor Jessen. The first LPs from Firesign in 35 years!
ANYTHYNGE YOU WANT TO – Shakespeare’s Lost Comedie. Preserving every iambic double-entendre and silly soliloquy from Firesign’s five-act entertainment, plus comprehensive incomprehensible notes by notable scholarly types and the vast comic mythology that underlies and links all of Firesign’s work together. Firesign’s longest work-in-progress, 1968-2010, with Peter Bergman’s and Phil Austin’s final comedy contributions. Edited by David Ossman. From bearmanormedia.com. CD of the 1980 Public Radio production from firesigntheatre.com.
*THE JACK POET RECORD – Another first – a 45rpm single with the original 1968 Jack Poet Volkswagen ads and a code to a 65-minute download for all of Firesign’s “real” commercials for Instant Breakfast, A-1 Slacks, IHOP and many more! Produced by Taylor Jessen.
*THE NEXT WORLD QUARTET - Four sci-fi tales by Austin, Ossman, Proctor and Bergman. Roller Maidens From Outer Space, How Time Flys, TV Or Not TV and In The Next World, You’re On Your Own. The LPs were released in 1973 and 1974.
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FIGHTING CLOWNS OF HOLLYWOOD – David Ossman’s on-the-spot account of Firesign’s 1980 fling into the movies, along with their creation of three original stage shows for the Roxy, including a musical revue. Complete Firesign scripts include two album previews, “Joey’s House” and “Fighting Clowns,” three new Nick Danger capers, and “The History of the Art of Radio.” (http://www.bearmanormedia.com.)
FIGHTING CLOWNS OF HOLLYWOOD Live - 1979-1981
Firesign Theatre’s audio download includes seven hours of live performances, the soundtrack for Ossman’s book, most cuts never-before-released, with an 80-page supplemental PDF, produced by Taylor Jessen. Only from https://firesigntheatre.bandcamp.com/
GEORGE LEROY TIREBITER – The Complete Collection! Six “Old Radio” shows, a chatty career-spanning broadcast, and more from “radio’s wunderkid”. Featured performances by Phil Austin and Phil Proctor. Re-assembled by Taylor Jessen. From Bandcamp.
*ULYSSES VS. THE CANNIBAL TACOS FROM OUTER SPACE! A giant new book, collecting Firesign’s 1980 feature, “Odyssey,” and their original 1970 “Zachariah” filmscript together with the 1981 feature “Saucer!” and two other screen treatments by Austin and Ossman. Ossman has provided introductions and memories throughout. Introduction by the legendary Spider Robinson. From Bear Manor Books.
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*THE BEST OF FOOLS! Firesign live on the XM satellite in 2001-2002. Join the boys on camera as they broadcast the first monthly edition of their 21st century voyage into the future of radio. Ten broadcasts, each about 70 minutes, will follow monthly in 2021. All on YouTube, for you, the viewer. Also audio-only downloads.
*WE’RE DOOMED! Firesign’s final studio-recorded Grammy-nominated trilogy, “Give Me Immortality or Give Me Death,” “Boom Dot Bust,” and “Bride of Firesign.” Produced to celebrate and satirize America some thirty years after their earliest albums, these fables present the Millennium as a Big News Day on AM radio, gleefully predict the impending financial tornado, and gather Firesign’s favorite characters together for a last future-world bow. The albums, plus loads of additional comedy material, including Peter Bergman’s final Firesign script - all in another giant download of classic performances, with an introduction by Penn Jillette.
*IN PERSON, IN PERFORMANCE 2009-2011. In their last years together Firesign reapproached Nick Danger, Don’t Crush That Dwarf, Bozos and Anythynge You Want To, presenting the classic works with new ideas, twists, and laughs. Several takes, plus their last radio show together.
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www.bearmanormedia.com
TALES OF THE OLD DETECTIVE AND OTHER BIG FAT LIES, the strange and surreal collected short stories by Phil Austin, illustrated by Bruce Litz.
TROLLING THE WOE – The Illustrated Commentary, Comedy and Couplets from Radio Free Oz, 2010-2011 by Peter Bergman with David Ossman, illustrated by Phil Fountain.
DR. FIRESIGN’S FOLLIES – RADIO, COMEDY, MYSTERY, HISTORY – David Ossman’s memoir combines insights on the Art of Radio and the creation of the Firesign audio oeuvre, with his tumultuous year as Surrealist Party candidate for Vice President and his favorite radio scripts and characters – George Tirebiter, Ben Bland, Peggy Koolzip, Max Morgan and Mark Time.
THE GEORGE TIEBITER MYSTERIES – “THE RONALD REAGAN MURDER CASE,” set in 1945 at CBS in Golden Age Hollywood, David Ossman’s richly period comic mystery stars actor and screenwriter George Tirebiter at the peak of his radio network career, solving a real murder during a live broadcast.
“THE FLYING SAUCER MURDER CASE,” set in the very noir LA of 1953, stars Tirebiter, now a blacklisted screenwriter and owner of a bungalow court where sudden death strikes. Lenny Bruce puts in an appearance, and the Church of Science Fiction tries an alien takeover. Drugs are involved.
POWER: LIFE ON THE EDGE IN L.A. – Phil Proctor and Peter Bergman’s “insiders” radio serial lampooning the culture of Hollywood, as heard on NPR’s Peabody-winning “Heat with John Hockenberry” (1990).
AMERICATHON – THE STORY BEHIND THE SCREENPLAY – Proctor and Bergman created the original script as a two-man comedy show. The story from there to the feature starring John Ritter is a classic Hollywood saga.
FROM OTHER PUBLISHERS
WHERE’S MY FORTUNE COOKIE? – a profusely illustrated autobiography (“My Psychic, Psurrealistic Pstory”) by Phil Proctor with Brad Schreiber. Follow along with Proctor’s crazy career on stage and screen before, with and without Firesign.
THEATRICAL ADAPTATIONS OF FIRESIGN – “Waiting For The Electrician,” “Temporarily Humbolt County,” “Don’t Crush That Dwarf” and “Nick Danger, Third Eye.” Scripts and production rights from Broadway Play Publishing Inc.
THE SULLEN ART – Recording the Revolution in American Poetry –
David Ossman’s interviews from 1960-61, including the first with Allen Ginsberg. An essential Beat Period collection. From the University of Toledo Press.