Firesign Theatre celebrates 40 years of comedy

STAYING POWER—The Firesign Theatre is comprised of, from left, David Ossman, Peter Bergman, Phillip Proctor and Phillip Austin. Ossman and Proctor have performed at Borders in Thousand Oaks for the KCLU radio show “Buddy Shell; Metaphysical Private Investigator.”

Comic foursome The Firesign Theatre, creators of more than 30 albums and a 2005 inductee into the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry, celebrated its 40th anniversary this year.

Founding members Philip Austin, Peter Bergman, David Ossman and Philip Proctor were a group of aspiring actors/writers when they met at the studios of Pacifica Network station KPFK-FM in Los Angeles in 1966.

In the decade that followed, they wrote and performed 13 albums for Columbia Records, including “How Can You Be In Two Places At Once When You’re Not Anywhere At All,” “Everything You Know Is Wrong,” and “I Think We’re All Bozos On This Bus.”

Firesign’s first performance was on Peter Bergman’s talk show “Radio Free Oz” on KPFK. On Nov. 17, 1966, Bergman invited three friends—Austin, the show’s producer; Ossman, the station’s former dramatic director; and Proctor, an actor—to join him and pretend to be the panel of an imaginary “Oz Film Festival.”

Following that night’s improvisation, Bergman christened the group “The Oz Firesign Theatre,” since the quartet were all “fire” signs of the zodiac. There is no known recording of their debut performance.

Firesign soon landed a contract with Columbia Records. During the following decade the group revolutionized the idea of what comedy albums could be, and sold well over a million LPs.

Between 1966 and 1972, Firesign Theatre also had a series of regular weekly shows on various Los Angeles radio stations.

Proctor and Ossman also performed in Ventura County with the cast of locally-produced radio show, “Buddy Shell: Metaphysical Private Investigator,” in 1997 at Borders of Thousand Oaks, in a show for KCLU radio.

“Buddy Shell” co-creators Steve Carlson and Terry Miles, both of Moorpark, were invited to participate on the Firesign CD “Give Me Immortality or Give Me Death,” which was later nominated for a Grammy award.

Firesign Theatre’s albums for Columbia are available on CD from www.laugh.com and www. lodestone-media.com. Most of the albums for Rhino and other labels remain in print and much of the radio material survives.

Firesign invites its fans to donate home tapes, either of Firesign’s radio broadcasts or television appearances, that might help fill in the gaps in the group’s archive. Fans who believe they have vintage unreleased material can email the group’s Los Angeles archivist, Taylor Jessen, at ironybread@earthlink.net. The group may be willing to offer an honorarium, depending on quality and scarcity.

For more information, visit www.firesigntheatre.com.