Anyone else remember Firesign Theater?

[Tracy Riddle]

[Tracy Riddle]

One of my favorite comedy groups. Sort of an American version of Monty Python.

[Peter Lemkin]

I can still quote verbatim huge long [20 min+] portions of the Firesign Theatre and have all of their albums as audio files..... They greatly affected me and my views during the late 60's/and 70's. It was political and social criticism with an absurdest touch - also more than a touch of psychedelia. I miss that time...there was a movement and there was hope. Both have been decimated.

[Peter Lemkin]

INDIAN 1: Well, I think it's about time . . . the way the corn's been growing for the last two or three generations . . .
INDIAN 2: Look at that herd of Buffalo. They're ready.
INDIAN 1: Everything's living the Great Spirit's way. In harmony.
INDIAN 2: He'll be here soon.
INDIAN 1: The true white brother's coming home. Remember what the Great Spirit said? If we did what we were supposed to do and lived according to the plan? White brother would finish his work in the East and come back to us.
INDIAN 2: It'll be nice to have the family together again.
CONQUISTADOR 1: Buenos Dios, amigos!
INDIAN 1: Hello! You must be the true white brother.
CONQUISTADOR 1: Sure! You must be the Indians!
INDIAN 1: Yes.
INDIAN 2: Welcome home!
CONQUISTADOR 1: Welcome to New Spain! This is your new father, Father Corona.
FATHER CORONA [with thick Irish brogue]: [Mutters in Latin.] Down on your knees now! Do you recognize what I'm holding over your heads, lads?
INDIAN 1: It's a cross: the symbol of the quartering of the universe into active and passive principles.
FATHER CORONA: God have mercy on their heathen souls.
CONQUISTADOR 1: What the Father means . . . is what is the cross made of? Gold! Have you got any?
INDIAN 1: No.
CONQUISTADOR 1: What about the seven cities of gold? Phoenix, Tucson, Las Vegas?
INDIAN 2: Uh, this is gold.
CONQUISTADOR 1: What's that?
INDIAN 1: Corn.
CONQUISTADOR 2: Hey, corn! Now we can make tortillas!
CONQUISTADOR 3: We've been waiting for this for hundreds of years.
CONQUISTADOR 4: I've just invented tacos.
CONQUISTADOR 1: So this is all you've got?
INDIAN 1: Yes . . . but aren't you the true white brother who's supposed to come live with us in peace?
CONQUISTADOR 1: Sure, therefore I claim this rich world of pasture land in the name of the Empire of Spain!
CONQUISTADOR 2: Hey hey hey capitano! The rain . . . she's-a stoppa to fall . . . and the corn . . . she's all-a dead!
CONQUISTADOR 1: Shut up-pa, Vespucc'! I claim this stinking desert in the name of the Empire of Spain forever. Let's go!
CONQUISTADORES (all sing): God bless Vespucciland . . . .
FATHER CORONA: By the way, domini domini domini you're all Catholics now. God bless you . . . and good luck.
CONQUISTADOR 1: Come on, Father. Nobody in their right minds would live in this stinking desert.
CONQUISTADOR 4: Come on, Cisco.

[Peter Lemkin]

Announcer: Los Angeles. He walks again by night! Out of the fog. Into the smog (cough cough). Relentlessly. Ruthlessly ("I wonder where Ruth is"). Doggedly (dogs bark) Toward his weekly meeting with . . . the unknown. At 4th and Drucker he turns left, at Drucker and 4th he turns right, he crosses McArthur Park & walks into a great sandstone building! ("Oh my nose!") Groping for the door, he steps inside, and climbs the 13 steps to his office. He walks in. He's ready for mystery. He's ready for excitement. He's ready for anything. He's…
Nick Danger (picking up ringing phone): Nick Danger, third eye!
Phone Voice: Yes. I want to order a pizza to go, and no anchovies.

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[TD]The Firesign writing partners and voice artists, now in their forty-third year of working together, are Phil Austin, Peter Bergman, David Ossman and Phil Proctor. They have collaborated on over twenty-five "movies for the mind," including the early audiophonic worlds of "Nick Danger", "Porgie and Mudhead", "Beat The Reaper", "I Think We're All Bozos on This Bus", and "Everything You Know Is Wrong".

Their 21st century CD Trilogy, "We're Doomed," received Grammy nominations for "Give Me Immortality or Give Me Death" and "Bride of Firesign". The Library of Congress added"Don't Crush That Dwarf" to their highly selective recorded archives. Firesign's many hours of live radio broadcasts and rare movies are now carefully restored collector's items. The group has recently been profiled in two coffee-table books on The Sixties when, according to LIFE magazine, Firesign were "The favorite comics of the Rock Age."

They are, in fact, creators of what Stereo Review's critic Eric Salzman called "contemporary, relevant, multi-level non-linear theater -- a kind of verbal electronic opera." The quartet presents the work in the authentic voice of its author-improvisers of whom Rolling Stone said, "The very least they should get is an Academy Award."

Comedians such as George Carlin, Robin Williams, and John Goodman are big Firesign fans and contributed their comments and compliments to Firesign's live DVD "Weirdly Cool".

In addition to the hours of radio shows they've broadcast (in the mid & late 1960s on "Radio Free Oz", 1970 through 1972 in various incarnations, and in 2001 & 2002 on many record albums they have written and recorded to date, they continue to tour and perform live.

Working on a simple stage with no props or costumes and utilizing only their unlimited character voices, Firesign is now able to give their classic scripts a brand-new performance.

This year (2011) celebrates the fortieth anniversary of the work: We're All Bozos on This Bus.

From the Firesign Theatre page on Wikipedia.org:The group's name stems in part from astrology in that all four members are "fire signs": Austin is an Aries, Proctor's sign is Leo, Bergman and Ossman are both Saggitarius.

The group's name also references an early television series called Fireside Theatre, which ran on NBC from 1949 to 1958, as well as to the Fireside Chats radio broadcasts of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (a parody of which can be heard in one of the Theatre's Nick Danger adventures.

The Firesign Theatre employs a stream of consciousness style that includes direct references to movies, radio, TV, political figures, and other cultural sources, intermingled with sound effects and bits of music. The resulting stories - including the theft of a high school, a fair of clowns and holograms and aliens who use hemp smoking to turn people into crows - border on psychedelia, an effect intensified by the frequent appearance of mock "advertisements" satirizing real products.

While their stream of consciousness style has the feel of improvisational comedy, most of the material is actually tightly scripted and memorized. The group's writing method demands the consent of all four members before a line can be included. Much of their work has been copyrighted under the name "4 or 5 Crazee Guys."[/TD]
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[Marlene Zenker]

Sister Mary Elephant ::willynilly:: As a Catholic School kid I loved this routine. Whoops that was Cheech and Chong.