Forward into the Past
On Friday, April 24th, there were no bozos on the buses because they had all converged on Monterey’s exquisitely restored movie house, The Golden State (fittingly located on Alvarado Street), for the Firesign’s 40th reunion. They came from all over the United States…. even as far as New Jersey. They were there with LPs from the 60s, CDs from the 80s, and anything else that they wanted the Fab Firesign Four’s signatures on.
But first, the packed crowd had the pleasure of reliving their favorite moments from decades of hair-brained and slightly off-kilter comedy recorded by The Firesign in a program modestly entitled, Forward into the Past. The centerpiece, of course, was an entire episode of “Nick Danger, Third Eye,” a creation starring Phil Austen as Nick Danger with Peter Bergman as Nancy, David Ossman as the Butler, and Phil Proctor as everyone else.
It was obvious that the four were having a great time as they dove into their oldies-but-goody bag to perform the first three sketches in just four minutes. What was unusual for this reunion, though, was its bare-bones presentation. Since the recordings themselves are heavily overdubbed and meticulously produced, one might suspect that, like Milli-Vanilli, these audio-radiance artists might suffer without pre-recording sound effects. The strength of the material, however, carried the day; the familiar word-play tumbling, one sketch after another, starting with “Veterans Tap-dance Administration,” all the way through “Paranoid Pictures” to “Shoes for Industry.” And the audience didn’t forget Ossman’s “Brew-ha-ha” as they chimed in “ha-ha-ha” right on cue.
Still chillingly prescient, but retrofitted for today’s headlines is the Firesign’s adventures in a nightmarish fun house of adventure, as a bewildered tourist is cajoled with the words, “Follow in your books and repeat after me as we learn the first three words in…. Turkish.” Crowd pleasers were the game show, “Beat the Reaper, “ and Rocci Roccoco in “Giant Rat of Sumatra.” Bergman’s impersonation of Franklin D. Roosevelt giving his “Day of Infamy” speech with the content altered only-so-slightly to indicate that the United States had surrendered, still resonated. And what event featuring the Firesign would be complete without Ralph Spoilsport selling cars from the City of Emphysema?
The biggest treat, though, concluded the evening, as the four, sitting down around a note-littered table, riffed on current material–some full blown, and others “in progress.” The Firesign’s humor has become so ubiquitous that notable personalities have picked up some of their patois, and we get some bellyaching about that. But, as the Firesign concludes, “We’ve never sold out. But then, nobody’s buying.”
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Theater: The Firesign Theatre
Web Site: http://www.firesigntheatre.com/