All Things Firesign (2003)
Review from amazon.com
* * * * * Who'd A Thunk, March 18, 2003
Reviewer: a_bozo_alas from Newtown, PA United States
On one night last summer, there was a unique glimmer of humor and -- what is the word -- rebellion that seemed to sneak its way onto NPR's All Things Considered. It was, alas, the long forgotten but never forgotten Firesign Theatre.
And then, a bit later, they were there again...and again...again.
And for a brief moment we had the chance to laugh again. Really laugh. Not at some bodily function or foible of another, but at something this both clever and funny. No, wait, trust me here. When was the last time that something was both funny and clever?
Over time, without warning, the Firesign Theatre reappeared.
But there was an unforeseen trend -- AHA -- Holidays!
They celebrate holidays - be it the Fourth of Julee, Labor Day, Halloween, Christmas or New Years. Is this a new trend for the boys who once led Nick Danger down a snowy (or corn-starched) street in Santa Monica?
And now, the glib passages of holidays past, collected in a single tome, offer more. They connect. Beat Street Jack tells us the history and the irony of the second half of the past year. Undermutter (of CNN No Evil News) connects us with what passed and what is past and what is soon to pass. And Nick, he appears and vanishes and returns to save the day, or the hour, or the moment.
If you listened to Firesign on NPR, you still need to listen to then in a consecutive stream.
If you missed the Theatre on NPR, you deserve better.
One would assume that they began knowing where they would end. But one might better understand that they knew they were not beginning....and they are not ending.
The genius is in the language -- and in the continuity. "Hellos and Goodbyes" in "Surreal 2002" is the sweetest, most poignant, more sincere, yet funniest thing I have heard in years.
I am tempted to quote them, but in print it does no justice.
This is the Firesign Theatre. There is no other.
Enjoy them.
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