{"id":2265,"date":"2009-05-03T16:28:51","date_gmt":"2009-05-03T20:28:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/?p=2265"},"modified":"2018-05-18T13:47:20","modified_gmt":"2018-05-18T17:47:20","slug":"4-or-5-crazee-guys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2009\/05\/4-or-5-crazee-guys\/","title":{"rendered":"4 or 5 Crazee Guys*"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Album<\/p>\nI<\/span>‘ve resisted. Oh, how I’ve resisted.<\/p>\n

Really — it’s been, like, Thou shalt not…<\/em> and Stay thy hand…<\/em> and all the rest of those Biblical-sounding injunctions. I’ve been strong. I’ve cared<\/em>. Ultimately, alas, although I wrestled with the angel, s\/he has overcome me. It was never easy.<\/p>\n

And in the end, it was not even possible.<\/p>\n

Yes. It’s time I mentioned The Firesign Theatre.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\nI<\/span>f you’re not a regular reader of RAMH<\/em> and reading this post, you’ve probably landed here because, like me, you already know who they are. You’re just looking for more<\/em>. You might want to skip through this post.<\/p>\n

If you don’t know who they are, here’s how Wikipedia starts its article:<\/p>\n

The Firesign Theatre is an American comedy troupe consisting of Phil Austin, Peter Bergman, David Ossman, and Philip Proctor…<\/p>\n

The Firesign Theater employ a stream of consciousness style that links direct references to movies, radio, TV, political figures, and other cultural sources, intermingled with sound effects and bits of music. The resulting “stories” are quite bizarre, including the theft of a high school, a fair full of clowns and holograms, and aliens who use hemp smoking to turn people into crows. The stories are often interrupted by commercials that may be a “send-up” of a real product…<\/p>\n

The die-hard fans of Firesign Theater tend to rehash and rehearse the scripts, quoting them randomly to each other… the stories on the first side of many of the albums ran together into one long zany diatribe.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n[Note variant\u00a0 spellings of Theatre<\/em>. The -re<\/em> is right.]\n

Aside:<\/strong> Before proceeding further, note the phrases “die-hard fans,” “rehash and rehearse the scripts,” and “quoting them randomly.” Just as with certain movies, like The Wizard of Oz<\/em>, This Is Spinal Tap<\/em>, and 300<\/em>, the work of Firesign Theatre can seem most appealing to those who’ve experienced it enough to quote from it verbatim. This leads to much long-suffering eye-rolling among spouses and other family members, friends, and often complete strangers who, alas, recognize the symptoms but have never themselves been infected. All of which explains both why I resisted confessing the Firesign obsession, and why I eventually have found myself succumbing.<\/p>\n

Anyway, right out of the gate, you know much of what you need to know to decide if you might actually, like, laugh<\/em> at a Firesign bit. Comedy. Free-wheeling and somewhat amorphous, despite the routines’ basis in actual, tightly-controlled and well-rehearsed scripts. Cross-referential, to various elements in pop culture (even, as it happens, to other Firesign works).<\/p>\n

A couple other factoids might be useful:<\/p>\n