Humor is Hard
September 23, 2012
Firesign Theater, the Beatles of Comedy, is my
all-time favorite comedy troupe. They were based in LA and grew out of
radio--grew out of it rather quickly. The San Francisco-based echoes of
that phenomenon, back in the 60s, when people still made comedy albums,
were different, and never as popular (and even Firesign waned after the
four seminal Columbia albums). Personally, I love Ducks' Breath Mystery
Theater, so much so that I played their skits in the car for my
daughters all the time they were growing up. (They were from the
midwest, but they were in SF by the time they were recording). When the
opportunity presented itself, I hired Duck member Ian Shoales/Merle
Kessler to do audio commentary for a website I was editing. He did 40
of them. I still enjoy listening to them. And, last week, I was
informed of a two-man duo called Congress of Wonders. The jury is still
out on this group. They have a Firesign sensibility, but not Firesign
production values (their albums sound like something assembled by two
guys who worked in radio, which is what they were). Maybe they'll grow
on me.