Wednesday, February 25, 2004
Those Four or Five Crazy Guys
I'm talking to YOU! Yes, its those loveable, madcap guys, the Firesign Theatre. What, you've never heard of them? Well, think of them as sub, stealthy, and not wealthy. Can't picture that? Well, they are sub because there is an entire subculture built around their characters. Still fuzzy?
Back in 1966, a long, long time ago, on a radio station in California named KPFK, the group of guys named Phil Proctor, Dave Ossman, Peter Bergman and Phil Austin took to the airwaves in a partly scripted radio show, in the reminiscent style of the radio programs of the 30s and 40s. But, given the time, the subject matter was irreverent, off the wall, and hilariously funny. By 1970, they had their own radio program, the Firesign Theatre Radio Hour, and in 1971, their program took to syndication and was heard on many college and alternative stations around the country as Dear Friends!
Columbia Records picked up the Firesign Theatre and began issuing record albums, with titles such as "Waiting For The Electrician Or Someone Like Him," and "Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me The Pliers." Their popularity grew, and the situations and characters began to infiltrate life, not normal people's lives, but geek life.
The skit from "How Can You Be In Two Places At Once When You're Not Anywhere At All," (and believe me, Firesign aficionados will be able to sing that title,) a send up of those Raymond Chandler mysteries called "Nick Danger, Third Eye," had the character Rocky Roccoco speaking to Nick Danger. (Rocky is the bad guy.) Rocky was trying to tell Nick about a woman in their past who seemed to have a lot of different names. "Not to Melanie Haber! You may remember her as Audrey Farber! Or Susan Underhill! What about Betty Jo Bialowski!? (sound of rising organ sting.) I knew her as Nancy."
Now for the geek stuff. Those characters, as well as the lines from Firesign's many audio skits have been incorporated into tech documentation in the oddest places. My first run in with this was with a Frecom Fax board I bought back in 1994. The sample address book had the names "Audrey Farber, Melanie Haber, etc." Even today, a search on any of these names are found on sites such as Audrey on Sun's documentation site and a whole list of them at InformIT.com's site. In an interesting twist, a real Susan Underhill works for HP. And, I also saw a restaurant in Texas named "Rocky Rococos."
The humor was subtle at times, slapstick at others. Here's a few lines from "Nick Danger," Betty Jo/Nancy talking to Nick Danger: "I can't, I can't, I'm so confused." Nick: "Well, why don't you hold your thumb next to your lines, see like this. This way I don't get confused, I never lose my place." Nancy: "I-I feel faint, the whole world is spinning." Nick: "Why that's lucky for us, if it were flat, all the Chinese would fall off."
They parodied themselves, making reference to other skits, and even their own records: "Wait a minute, didn't I say that line on the other side of the record? I'd better check." (sound effect of record played backwards.) Nick: "It's ok, they're speaking Chinese."
In a twist of reality, some Firesign Theatre bits have become "reality". Weird.
So the next time you hear about Second City, Saturday Night Live, National Lampoon or another comedy troupe of the seventies, remember it all started with The Firesign Theatre.
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Back in 1966, a long, long time ago, on a radio station in California named KPFK, the group of guys named Phil Proctor, Dave Ossman, Peter Bergman and Phil Austin took to the airwaves in a partly scripted radio show, in the reminiscent style of the radio programs of the 30s and 40s. But, given the time, the subject matter was irreverent, off the wall, and hilariously funny. By 1970, they had their own radio program, the Firesign Theatre Radio Hour, and in 1971, their program took to syndication and was heard on many college and alternative stations around the country as Dear Friends!
Columbia Records picked up the Firesign Theatre and began issuing record albums, with titles such as "Waiting For The Electrician Or Someone Like Him," and "Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me The Pliers." Their popularity grew, and the situations and characters began to infiltrate life, not normal people's lives, but geek life.
The skit from "How Can You Be In Two Places At Once When You're Not Anywhere At All," (and believe me, Firesign aficionados will be able to sing that title,) a send up of those Raymond Chandler mysteries called "Nick Danger, Third Eye," had the character Rocky Roccoco speaking to Nick Danger. (Rocky is the bad guy.) Rocky was trying to tell Nick about a woman in their past who seemed to have a lot of different names. "Not to Melanie Haber! You may remember her as Audrey Farber! Or Susan Underhill! What about Betty Jo Bialowski!? (sound of rising organ sting.) I knew her as Nancy."
Now for the geek stuff. Those characters, as well as the lines from Firesign's many audio skits have been incorporated into tech documentation in the oddest places. My first run in with this was with a Frecom Fax board I bought back in 1994. The sample address book had the names "Audrey Farber, Melanie Haber, etc." Even today, a search on any of these names are found on sites such as Audrey on Sun's documentation site and a whole list of them at InformIT.com's site. In an interesting twist, a real Susan Underhill works for HP. And, I also saw a restaurant in Texas named "Rocky Rococos."
The humor was subtle at times, slapstick at others. Here's a few lines from "Nick Danger," Betty Jo/Nancy talking to Nick Danger: "I can't, I can't, I'm so confused." Nick: "Well, why don't you hold your thumb next to your lines, see like this. This way I don't get confused, I never lose my place." Nancy: "I-I feel faint, the whole world is spinning." Nick: "Why that's lucky for us, if it were flat, all the Chinese would fall off."
They parodied themselves, making reference to other skits, and even their own records: "Wait a minute, didn't I say that line on the other side of the record? I'd better check." (sound effect of record played backwards.) Nick: "It's ok, they're speaking Chinese."
In a twist of reality, some Firesign Theatre bits have become "reality". Weird.
So the next time you hear about Second City, Saturday Night Live, National Lampoon or another comedy troupe of the seventies, remember it all started with The Firesign Theatre.
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