Weekly Firesign Chat Cheese Log

A Firesign Chat
09/11/2025

Archive

||||||||| Catherwood re-enters the Waiting Room and explains "This is the main discussion room which is logged each night."
||||||||| Catherwood announces, "The time is 4:32 AM - I now declare Thursday's chat log for September 11, 2025 officially open!"... and then, he retires back to the vestibule...
||||||||| Catherwood leads Tweeny inside, makes a note of the time (8:00 PM), then fades off into the distance going on about the waiting room or the sitting room or something.
||||||||| New notice: '** WE'RE GLAD YOU MADE IT!! **
The Firesign Chat & Show starts at 7pm Eastern/6pm Central/5pm Mountain/4pm Pacific
Tonight: Proctor & Bergman's CLARK WINTERGREEN
https://www.firezine.net/issue5/fz5_09.htm
plus part two of Cat's new collage "Tom Bomb"
and from the JACK POET LOVES YOU collection "Firesign Theatre Hype Machine Demo"
https://firesigntheatre.bandcamp.com/album/jack-poet-loves-you
Listen to the 256k stream at: http://listen.ehhh.us:8000/rfd2 or the 16k stream at: http://listen.ehhh.us:8000/rfd1
This show is archived at www.kurtericson.net/firesign | Cat’s collage archive is at www.kurtericson.net/cat'
||||||||| Tweeny departs at 8:00 PM, singing "Toad away, toad away; toad away, toad away! Where do you go when you're toad away?"
||||||||| Catherwood strides in with a trumpet, plays a fanfare, and proclaims "Nine PM on Thursday, September 11, 2025 - I now declare alt.comedy.firesgn-thtre's chat officially open!" -- then he looks around at the empty room, looks at his watch, and mumbles "...am I early?"
||||||||| 8:00 PM: Tweeny jumps out of the hall closet saying "I've been listening to all of you talking about me for the past hour!"
||||||||| "8:00 PM? 8:00 PM!!" says Catherwood, "itcouldbeclark should be here by now...oh, THERE you are!" as itcouldbeclark enters and sits on the divan.
||||||||| Catherwood walks up and intones "Presenting 'Deputy Dang', just granted probation at 8:00 PM", then leaves hurriedly.
||||||||| At 8:00 PM, Deputy Dang vanishes mysteriously -- just as Nino the Mind Boggler predicted!
||||||||| Deputy Dang enters at 8:00 PM as Catherwood takes their hat and goat and runs off to the Chapeau Manger.
||||||||| Catherwood enters the room, strikes a gong, and bellows "THE TIME IN NEW YORK IS 11 O'CLOCK", then silently exits.
||||||||| llanwydd steals in around 8:00 PM, trying to avoid Catherwood because of last month's "unpleasant incident."
||||||||| Catherwood steals into the room, and pipes up "Announcing 'cease', also known as 'Nancy' -- the time is 8:00 PM" -- then he slowly retires back into the Aviary...
llanwydd: good evening
cease: Hi all
Tweeny: Good Evening Dear Friends
itcouldbeclark: Shoes for industry!
Deputy Dang: Howdy, Tweeny! Howdy, cease!
cease: bare feet for the living!
Deputy Dang: Howdy, llanwydd!
Tweeny: That Firezine link at the top of the page is Peter Bergman's commentary about Proctor & Bergman, including Clark Wintergreen.
cease: When I first visited Phil in 1995, he told me this was the highlight of Proctor and Bergman's productions.
||||||||| Catherwood walks up and announces "Presenting 'S’Mutt', just granted probation at 8:00 PM", then leaves hurriedly.
Tweeny: He says as much in the above-listed article.
Tweeny: Hi Smutt
cease: Come on in, smut
S’Mutt: That’sMr. Smutt to yinz bozos! XD
itcouldbeclark: I've been waitin' for this for hundreds of years!
S’Mutt: I just had totrillas!
S’Mutt: Tortillas
cease: Haitt Hitker Hotel
S’Mutt: You vill like your room … or else.
||||||||| Catherwood enters with MarkTime close behind, mumbles something about disrupting his 8:00 PM tree-stunting plans, and hurries off to the vestibule.
MarkTime: nice to see you all Crew!
Tweeny: Hello. Mark...
S’Mutt: Gosh, Mr. Time! Welcome back!
cease: Mr Time
cease: Time has come today
S’Mutt: I didn’t have the time time.
MarkTime: back and beautiful....
cease: ugly would be unwelcome
S’Mutt: There is beauty in ugliness. Sogh.
S’Mutt: Sigh
S’Mutt: All is one
cease: i think i've got a wife and a kid in this town
cease: i havew no idea who lance tremelfulo is
cease: do you all know this piece?
S’Mutt: I have the cd Freditor offered through Firezine years ago.
cease: this is it. do you have all the Firezine CDs?
S’Mutt: Haven’t listened to it in years so not sure
S’Mutt: I have a bunch
cease: i think i bought them all.
S’Mutt: I know I missed a few but only near the end
llanwydd: I do not know this piece at all
||||||||| Catherwood interjects: "Swell pizza!"
S’Mutt: Fred called it Clark Wintergreen, Clark Wintergreen
llanwydd: I remember clark cable but not wintergreen
S’Mutt: Please, my name is Candy Clark!
cease: yeah, that's why i compared it to Mary Hartrman, Mary Hartman on my promo for ths show today on the Facebook groups
llanwydd: lol
S’Mutt: Ah. Never though o dat. Nice one!
S’Mutt: I have all the Fernwood and America Tonight shows with Mull and Willard
cease: harry shearer was a writer on those, right?
S’Mutt: Yup. Completely surreal show.
cease: you still here, it could be?
S’Mutt: Lol
cease: i was in and out of north america in those days, so only saw some of them
S’Mutt: Played very straight and Willard and Mull were pitch perfect
cease: when did you get into firesign, smtt?
||||||||| Catherwood interjects: "Inferior people should not be employed."
S’Mutt: 1974
cease: high school friends turned me onto rfo on krla when that oz iteration happened in april, 67.
cease: vastly inpressed by the mushroom plays
S’Mutt: I was five going on six in 67. I was 12 when I was lead by almighty Grid to Dwarf.
Tweeny: and Cat recorded many of their radio shows which would have otherwise been lost to history
cease: shared a joint with the lads before they went on stage at the ashgrove new year's eve show, 1969,
cease: true, tween
Tweeny: the radio station apparently didn't keep copies
cease: i had a radio show in ottawa, 69-70 and played the mushroom plays on it
Tweeny: or there was a fire at the station, or something?
S’Mutt: I am fully aware of Mr. I’s role in preserving history. He strides across the land like a giant!
cease: tween, the radio and tv museum had the shows, but someone stole the middle hours where the plays were
cease: lol, smut
Tweeny: ah, OK
cease: glad i still had some original recordings.
S’Mutt: Truth, sir
cease: i am astonished and depressed that so few people in LA recorded the shows.
cease: in LA in those days, a lot of peolpe had tape recorders.
S’Mutt: It matters not. You did.
||||||||| Catherwood interjects: "What's it all about, Mr. and Mrs. John Q. Smith from Anytown, USA?"
S’Mutt: And WE would have never known these
cease: one place i really fucked up, whenthe 1968 KPFK shows were broadacasrt, I only recxorded the jack poet ads from that show.
cease: they have been endlessly available, but the actual 68 shows dissappeared
cease: as a dj in those days when we thought we were changing the world, naturally i loaned out tapes of firesign to fellow djs and didnt always get them back, alas
||||||||| Catherwood interjects: "Heavy on the 30 weight."
S’Mutt: But there would be much more if not for your efforts.
S’Mutt: And then you shared. You shared it all
cease: i have done a lot, and continue to record whenver proctor announces his appearances
S’Mutt )
cease: that was the ethic of the era, smutt.
S’Mutt: Not always.
cease: donj't bogart that tape, my friend. pass it over to me.
S’Mutt: Ok. Now we’re in Tween territory. Tweeny? Thoughts?
cease: it could be? or not to be?
cease: you still here, dang?
cease: how's it marking, mr time?
S’Mutt: Catherwood, whaddaya say?
||||||||| Catherwood steps over to S’Mutt and says "Something I can help with?"
cease: do y'all realize this chat is 30 years old?
cease: Elayne started it in 1995
cease: hunting cars is a riff from Steppenwolfe, if y'all know the ref.
Deputy Dang: I'm still here but am not at the computer, so kinda/mostly not in the chat.
||||||||| Catherwood interjects: "Mister policeman, what makes America great?"
cease: i guess clark has drifted into the gray zone
||||||||| Catherwood interjects: "A stiff idiot is the worst kind."
itcouldbeclark: sorry,I'm not keeping up here.
cease: when did youi get into firesign, clark?
itcouldbeclark: I'd say about 1971 when I decided to listen to these two albums my parents had.
itcouldbeclark: Bozos ... and I was hooked.
cease: you were young?
itcouldbeclark: Yes, 11 then.
itcouldbeclark: The first album I ever bought with my own money was Don't Crush That Dwarf not long after.
||||||||| Catherwood interjects: "Let's stand him on his head!"
cease: i was teaching english in hamamatsu, japan when a friend sent me the album when it came out.
cease: i was living with my boss's family then, so recorded it from disc to cassette and then listened to iit in park next to zoo closed for the season
cease: monkey were frolicing abvout the car as we listened to it. very surreal
Tweeny: A friend in high school introduced me in 1972. His dad reviewed albums for the NYT, and he got all sorts of promotional materials including FST albums
itcouldbeclark: cease, that sounds life-changing.
cease: wow, tween
S’Mutt: Cool Tween!
||||||||| Catherwood interjects: "They never come up into the hills."
itcouldbeclark: enviable, tween.
Tweeny: Yeah, he had quite a collection
cease: ok, i had been writing stage plays since 59 and when i heard the Mushroom plays, i realized they were in higher realm than i was. my immediate goal was to coonectr wirth them and do stuff together.
cease: it actulaly happened 30 years. with their encouragement, i began writing radio plays, starring them, in the mid 90s
cease: 30 years later
Tweeny: that's wonderful, Cat
cease: so That was life changing.
Tweeny: so great that they encouraged you
S’Mutt: To me they were mystical comic geniuses who supposedly lived in the same country I did. Never thought I’d meet or see them and was wrong on both counts
cease: they are like thart, tween
||||||||| Catherwood walks in wearing his pyjamas, yawns, and mumbles "It's midnight here in New York city"...then he falls over and starts snoring loudly..
cease: they culivate their audience
Tweeny: We should go through your plays with FST in the coming shows
itcouldbeclark: I saw P&B in 1975 & 77. Great stuff.
S’Mutt: Good idea Tween
Tweeny: haven't done that in a while
S’Mutt: I would have loved to see P&B!
Tweeny: I only saw FST live once in D.C. back around 72-73
S’Mutt: It never worked out :(
Tweeny: I think it was around the time of Not Insane
cease: but they have all these recordings. in my considerable experience, i'd say they are best listened to
cease: notr insane sucked so bad, it almost sucked their career down the drain.
S’Mutt: I was at the Ronald Reagan Assassination Show in 81 and the 93 show at the Warner in D.C.
itcouldbeclark: I wouldn't say Not Insane sucked, but it was not nearly as accessible as their previous stuff.
Tweeny: I was pretty stoned at the concert, but I remember them performing the Anythynge bits
S’Mutt: Not Insane was a GREAT record to get lit and listen to
S’Mutt: As was Just Folks
cease: glad you like it, smut
S’Mutt: Well, I didn’t exactly say that ;)
cease: on is rfo show in 67, bergman said of dylan songs you don't like, wait a while and later you will
cease: lol
S’Mutt: It just has its uses
cease: trees give us lumber, paper, and toilet paper
S’Mutt: Yes, please.
S’Mutt: And happy belated birthday to old man Llan XD
cease: every time Insane is referenced to a Firesign member, they say, without exceptkion, that it was a failed proeject.
cease: are you now officially old, llan?
S’Mutt: Only in his minddddddd ….
S’Mutt: We are the same age, I think
cease: the worst thing about it getting old is it takes you increasingly longre and lnoger to recover from the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.
S’Mutt: Very true. It sucks.
itcouldbeclark: Ay, there's the rub.
S’Mutt: A little to the left, please
cease: am in less pain now then i was last thurs, but that's a week ago. recovering occurs at an increasinglyu slower pace, alas
S’Mutt: Did you get that d-ray, young man?!
S’Mutt: X-ray
cease: it must be really slowed for proc and dave, but they keep busyh
itcouldbeclark: I haven't heard Clark Wintergreen since I saw them live almost 50 years ago. I needed that.
cease: muscle rather than bone, doc gave me some ointment and i take handfulls of Robax but i think healing is more natural than mediccally helped
S’Mutt: ICBC - where did you see P&B?
cease: good for you, clark
||||||||| Catherwood interjects: "Ha ha ha - that's very logical."
itcouldbeclark: Detroit and then Royal Oak, MI
cease: never say P and B
S’Mutt: Excellent
S’Mutt: Good to hear, Cease
itcouldbeclark: Good night, dear friends.
cease: it's delightful to feel less pain.
S’Mutt: I didn’t say it, officer. I wrote it.
cease: bye, clark
S’Mutt: See ya maybe clark!
S’Mutt: That’s an understatement, I am sure
Tweeny: Good to see ya here, clark :)
S’Mutt: Anyone know anything about this? https://www.discogs.com/release/31598983-The-Firesign-Theatre-Bob-One-For-A-1
||||||||| "8:00 PM? 8:00 PM!!" says Catherwood, "StratoDanno should be here by now...oh, THERE you are!" as StratoDanno enters and sits in front of the fireplace.
cease: all of the firesign real ads are collected on the Jakc Poet love you album.
cease: HI SD
cease: Friesigns made ads for years.
S’Mutt: Buenos noches, SD
S’Mutt: Thanks, cease
StratoDanno: Hello all. Haven't been here for quite some time.
cease: i thikn they aspired to what stan ffreburg did, introduce surealism into the commercial world
cease: welcome bsck, danno
Tweeny: Book 'em, Danno...
S’Mutt: Is Javk Poet available on cd or vinyl?
StratoDanno: Murder One
S’Mutt: Ok, Steve!
cease: jusrt read a great book called Irrationality. I think the Firesigns would have enjoyed it
Tweeny: S'Mutt: Is Javk Poet available on cd or vinyl? << I only know of what's avilable from the link at the top of the page
Tweeny: It's probably digital download only, but I can't say for sure
S’Mutt: Think you are right, Tween Thanks.
cease: only, tween. though i think they released Dope Humour as an actual album
S’Mutt: Yes. They did.
Tweeny: Yeah, I recall that Dope Humor is available on vinyl
MarkTime: thanks for filling the ethers Tween....I think I will be turning in. Nice to see all of you this evening. Everyone have a great week. 'nite
cease: The problem wiht buying things, atr my age, is who will you give them to when you die? The garbage can?
S’Mutt: Nite Mark!
Tweeny: later, Mark...
cease: you too, mark
||||||||| Catherwood interjects: "They had to come from small towns with strange names."
||||||||| At 8:00 PM, MarkTime hurries out the door saying "Hey, mister ice-cream man, I've got a nickel, wait for meeeee..."
Tweeny: cease: The problem wiht buying things, atr my age, is who will you give them to when you die? << Make sure your will gives all your FST material to Taylor or the Firesigns
cease: he's in my will, yes, tween
cease: he's cool with that
S’Mutt: Just downloaded Jack Poet. Will get to it tomorrow :)
cease: my firesign collection is vast. and it's all wondrous
Tweeny: cool, S'Mutt :)
cease: this is one of the most beautiful things i've ever heard
S’Mutt: Odds are I have something like it somewhere from Fred but where it is in the pile I don’t know. The download was easy and not expensive
cease: i have all my live aspired to create the greasted beauty i could and even now, i know i have never done anything as beautiful as thart last bergman poem, called Ecolition
cease: smut, their stuff is not expensive generally. their new books of scripts are raftrher expensive, thoough
S’Mutt: Yeah. I just meant I was to damned lazy to go look for it and downloaded it instead. Worth $8 just not to have to convert it from a cd anyway XD
cease: true, smut
cease: bergman talks alot about beer.
S’Mutt: He do, don’t he?
cease: i'll tell y'all a funny story about ossman and proctor and me and my wife and loganberry beer, 1997
cease: we drove down from north van to see ossman's plays Radio Days and New Mexican Overdirve. I recorded Radio. Then we went to a bar accros from the WICA theartre where Ossman was oblged to do a radio show to pay for the producitions.
cease: My wife and I chatted with DO and PP and Melinda wihle Judith recorded, as I recall, long ago, ejh
S’Mutt: It’s the suspense that gets me
cease: anyway, i ordered loganberry beer and the lads drank cocktails, but maybe not very good,because they kept drinking my beer
cease: just did a collage about peter wolf's autobiography where he tlalks about drinking dylan's wine, while his basck was turned at the bar
S’Mutt: Hope they bought you a round
S’Mutt: Catherwood, bring Cease a round
||||||||| Catherwood brings cease a round.
cease: i dont' thinkk the fireswign theatre members have ever been a situation where they could buy anybody rounds
cease: at least, the guys i hung out with (minus bergman) were endlessly complainigng about their poverty, almost proud of that
S’Mutt: Wow
cease: ok, bermgna too. hey, buy us drinks, we're geniuses. they're not wrong.
StratoDanno: I need to stop by more often. I'll try to get back here next week for the full show.
||||||||| At 8:00 PM, StratoDanno vanishes mysteriously -- just as Nino the Mind Boggler predicted!
cease: bergfman taught econoics in jail and died in debt because of unfileed income tax, etc. very surreal
S’Mutt: See ya Danno!
cease: byt strato
S’Mutt: Idiocy has no educational limits
cease: smut, i was really luck,y to be part of the sputnik generation. i was in 1st grade when sputnik went up. in 2nds grade we werfe exposed to science flicks. in 3r5d grade we were doing experiments.
||||||||| Catherwood interjects: "Let's stand him on his head!"
S’Mutt: Pryor did a great routine about not paying his taxes.
cease: it was a magical era in us educartion. it is far in the past, alas
S’Mutt: I got the tailemd of that in the late 60s
cease: you have to be as rich as epstein to not pay our taxss
S’Mutt: Only the little people pay taxes
S’Mutt: Leona Helmsley?
cease: i had my first hamburger at Bob's Big Boy in Van Nuys, maybe 62or 63
||||||||| Catherwood interjects: "And you can believe me - because I never lie, and I'm always right."
S’Mutt: I pay what I owe and am generally good with what I get back, locally.
cease: it was delicous.
cease: family was veg till the cuban missilbe crisis. i was 11. it sure was good.
S’Mutt: I bet it was
cease: non-mean meat is as good now
cease: meat
S’Mutt: Tween is utterly bored at this point XD
S’Mutt: I enhjoy an abolute burger
S’Mutt: Absolute
cease: even then, very good veggie dogs. loma linda. better than any meat dogs
S’Mutt: Great off the grill
cease: off we drift.
S’Mutt: Works better in dogs, I think
Deputy Dang: Excellent! I enjoyed the collage, and there was a lot of FST I hadn't heard before!
cease: mofre proc berg stuff next week
S’Mutt: Yay!
Tweeny: Thanks for listening, everybody :)
cease: we aim to please, dang. and so does louise
Deputy Dang: Good night all! See ya next week!
||||||||| "8:00 PM? I'm late!" exclaims Deputy Dang, who then runs out through the french doors and down through the bushes.
cease: i
S’Mutt: Thanks Tween and Cease. Great as always!
S’Mutt: Nite Beet!
cease: i'm always here. like air and death
S’Mutt: Nite DD!
||||||||| S’Mutt departs at 8:00 PM, singing "Toad away, toad away; toad away, toad away! Where do you go when you're toad away?"
||||||||| At 8:00 PM, the lights go out! Rocky Rococo's voice pierces the inky darkness: "I've got you now, cease!" Shattering glass is heard, and then the lights come back on...
||||||||| Catherwood enters the room, strikes a gong, and bellows "THE TIME IN NEW YORK IS 1 O'CLOCK", then silently exits.
Tweeny: Until last time, again...
||||||||| Tweeny leaves at 8:00 PM, singing "Oh, I'm just a little fishy, floating in the sea, and there ain't no hook that's smart enough to catch the likes of me..."
||||||||| It's 1:15 AM, and that means it's time to play BEAT THE REAPER! And here's how our contestants did:
||||||||| llanwydd - dead from jaundice
||||||||| Better luck next time! And now, back to our chatroom, which is already in progress...
||||||||| It's 1:30 AM, and that means it's time to play BEAT THE REAPER! And here's how our contestants did:
||||||||| itcouldbeclark - dead from pneumonia
||||||||| Better luck next time! And now, back to our chatroom, which is already in progress...
||||||||| llanwydd enters at 8:00 PM as Catherwood takes their hat and goat and hurries off to the Hat Pack Annex.
||||||||| At 8:00 PM, llanwydd hurries out the door saying "Hey, mister ice-cream man, I've got a nickel, wait for meeeee..."
||||||||| Catherwood escorts Johbo81 inside, makes a note of the time (8:00 PM), then fades off into the distance going on about the waiting room or the sitting room or something.
||||||||| Catherwood enters the room, strikes a gong, and bellows "THE TIME IN NEW YORK IS 3 O'CLOCK", then silently exits.
||||||||| It's 3:00 AM, and that means it's time to play BEAT THE REAPER! And here's how our contestants did:
||||||||| Johbo81 - dead from Covid 19
||||||||| Better luck next time! And now, back to our chatroom, which is already in progress...
||||||||| Catherwood enters, and announces to all and sundry "It's 4:31 AM, time to change the log file and clean out unused rooms; please exit the chat room for a minute or two. Thank you for your patience."

The Evening's Participants:
cease
Deputy Dang
itcouldbeclark
llanwydd
MarkTime
S’Mutt
StratoDanno
Tweeny

URL References:
http://listen.ehhh.us:8000/rfd1
http://listen.ehhh.us:8000/rfd2
www.kurtericson.net/cat
www.kurtericson.net/firesign
https://firesigntheatre.bandcamp.com/album/jack-poet-loves-you
https://www.discogs.com/release/31598983-The-Firesign-Theatre-Bob-One-For-A-1
https://www.firezine.net/issue5/fz5_09.htm