Firesign Theatre is "four or five crazee guys" (that is, Phil Austin, Peter Bergman, David Ossman, and Phil Proctor) who work their magic on an unsuspecting society.  Through satire and parody, music, and mild insanity, Firesign Theatre manages to be a most long-lived comic troupe.  The four men (who are all Fire signs in terms of astrology) began performing together in the '60's.

Originally "live" on radio (remember when radio was important?  Of course not.  You aren't that old, and it's been a long time, hasn't it?) they have successfully migrated to LP, Cassette, CD, TV, DVD; and now, I'm informed, they even had a show on XM (satellite) radio in 2001--2002. (Thanks, t.rob) as well as printed material.  Most of their work is audio-only, although there have been a number of audio/video performances.  And, of course, there have been side projects done by one or more members of the group.

Performances recorded on CD include, but are not limited to:
Waiting For The Electrician Or Someone Like Him (C 1968, Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab # MFCD 762, also reissued by Laugh.com LGH 1071.2)
How Can You Be In Two Places At Once When You're Not Anywhere At All  (C 1969, # MFCD 834, also reissued by Laugh.com LGH 1070.2)
Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me The Pliers (C 1970 # MFCD 880, also reissued by Laugh.com LGH 1072.2)
I Think We're All Bozos On This Bus (C 1971 # MFCD 785, also reissued by Laugh.com LGH 1073.2)
Dear Friends--The Firesign Theatre  (C 1972 # MFCD 758, also reissued by Laugh.com LGH 1074.2)
the Best of The Firesign Theatre/Shoes for Industry! (a "best of" collection using material yanked from other albums)  If you buy this, you won't have any of the material "in context" of the rest of the album it was swiped from.  But maybe that's good.  You decide.  All the "obvious" humor is good, it's the in-jokes and continuing characters that seem to be missing.  (various copyright dates, Columbia Legacy # C2K 52736)
Pappoon For President (C 1972   Laugh.com # LGH 1130)
Not Insane (C 1972 Laugh.com LGH 1075.2)
The Tale Of The Giant Rat Of Sumatra  (C 1973  Laugh.com # LGH 1076)
Firesign Theatre Sez: Everything You Know Is Wrong (C 1974 Laugh.com LGH 1077.2)
In The Next World, You're On Your Own (C 1975 Laugh.com # LGH 1078.2)
"Fighting Clowns" (C 1980 # MFCD 748)
Give Me Immortality Or Give Me Death (C 1998 Rhino # R2 75509)
Boom Dot Bust   (C 1999   Rhino # R2 75983)
The Bride Of Firesign  (C 2001 Rhino # R2 74390)
All Things Firesign (C 2003  Artemis Records  # 751167-2)
What This Country Needs (Proctor and Bergman side project)(C ? LGH 1164)
TV or Not TV (Proctor and Bergman side project)(C 1973 LGH 1152.2)
True Confessions of the Real World (Bergman side project)(LGH 1128.2)
Roller Maidens From Outer Space (Austin side project) (LGH 1151.2)
How Time Flys (Ossman side project) (LGH 1149.2)

Items on DVD include, but are not limited to:
Weirdly Cool
J-Men Forever (Bergman and Proctor side project)
Back From The Shadows

Books include, but are not limited to:
The Firesign Theatre--Backwards Into The Future:  The Recorded History of the Firesign Theatre (Paperback)
Big Book of Plays
Big Mystery Joke Book

Please note that the FST fan club has offered some "limited production" stuff that shows up on eBay from time to time. 

You will never know what to expect from an album of theirs until you listen to it.  And listen carefully, because not all the humor is obvious.  There's plenty buried where you won't find it the first three times you listen to the album.  It's delightful to find "new" meanings and "inside" jokes--and therefore laughs--hidden in the subtleties even after a dozen playings.  You will certainly find political humor, drug humor, military humor, stealing-land-from-the-Indians humor,  money-grubbing capitalist humor, veiled-references-to-Disneyland humor, UFO humor, classic movie parody humor, generally-stabbing-society-in-the-heart humor, with occasional song and implied dance to match.  Unlike other humor artists, Firesign Theatre is not "big" on out-and-out vulgarity--although it sometimes creeps in.  Instead, they work hard for their laughs, rather than taking the route of cheap "shock value"  but...well...it's not suitable for playing to your church friends primarily due to drug references.  J-Men Forever in particular is one feature-length drug reference.  These guys deliver prescriptions without a prescription after ten o'clock in Sector R.

Don't let the '60's and '70's copyrights scare you--IT'S STILL FUNNY because Broken Presidents, scummy evangelists, Bozos, singing vegetables, crooked used car salesmen, and Sanitary Napkin Rings are as current as the day is long.  The easiest stuff to begin with is their parodies of Olde Tyme Radio--a skit based on a 1940's Detective radio series (Nick Danger Private (third) Eye) included in the second half of "How Can You Be... is one of my favorites; another is a lampoon of a Sherlock Holmes (Hemlock Stones) episode on The Tale Of The Giant Rat...  Those are not in the style of most of the material, which is modeled on shorter skits that eventually can--and does--go anywhere.  In general, after the parodies of the radio skits, start "at the beginning" with "Waiting For The Electrician..." and go from there.  I must say that Fighting Clowns may not have been one of their finest performances.

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