The Firesign Theatre's All-Day Matinee: Martian Space Party and The Yolks of Oxnard

Rating:
Summary: DVD wha? I have the Video Tapes
Review: So, I exaggerated. I have not seen the All Day Matinee as a DVD, but don't shoot me just yet, because I HAVE seen both of these video productions, Martian Space Party and The Case of the Missing Yolks, on VHS. They are extremely humorous and differ from the video Everything You Know Is Wrong, because these are more than lip synced videos dubbed to the album soundtrack. Not that the alien invasion epic aforementioned is ruined because of it, it is just that here, in Martian Space Party, the video version of Not Insane Not Responsible, we get a real sense of live performance right before our very eyes and pointy ears. Nick Danger and the Yolks of Oxnard, the Case of the Missing Yolks, IS an actual Firesign Theatre situation comedy movie, not feature length, but album length, with in drag performances by Proctor as the matronly yet out of this world Ma Yolk who gets a dream home of the future as a reward in a sweepstakes and finds out that being a simple American may be the life for her after all because well to do people always have evil villains like Rocky Rococo, also Proctor, in a Fez and goatee, trying to steal their hoity toity lives from them. And most of it, except for a few artsy craftsy visits to Nick Danger and his world of detective story telling is in technicolor. Martian Space Party may seem amateurish at first especially after years of listening to the audio version Not Insane, but that is because of the use of shoulder mounted camera work and the filming of the album as a live experience as if you are attending a beatnik happening that was the result of hiding out in a fail safe bomb shelter after world war three and just as you are about to go totally nuts with claustrophobia and radiation poisoning someone yells, "Hey you freaks, let's put on a show until the all clear lets us out of here". No one ever escapes from Monster Island or the wrath of Glutamoto except for President George Pappoon who blasts off for Mars with the ugly lizard, portrayed as a Craker Jack toy in a sandbox filled with doll houses and train set filling stations, clinging tightly to the President's rocket as he escapes the world of the doomed, the Spider Caucus, the Pets For Pappoon, the Friends of the Martian Space Party and all who entered the hole in the ever widening pyramid to the center of the earth in later albums dug by the big comet. Here's what happened, The Firesign Theatre gathered for a recording one day and found that their producer, who had scheduled open auditions for a cast of hundreds to take part in the album, couldn't be there due to Hurricane Camille or some storm delaying his air travel to the gig, but he did say over the phone, "This is Cyrus, your friend, nothing has happened to my nose, but I do have some dandy grapes. If you record anything out there today or night, you better have some video of the event, the recording, to prove it is you, and your writer, Walter, where ever he is. I'll be there in a couple of days, or I'll see you in Woodstock New York, at the usual studio. Bring proof of your comedy effort there. Keep the crowd of auditioners entertained. I'm sorry I can't be there, but just inform them that I am not responsible for the postponement and not insane enough to fly through a hurricane to get there." So they did. The Firesign Theatre quickly set up cameras and the National Surrealist Party Convention became a beatnik happening. Good thing they had teleprompters, because it is a difficult show to memorise, almost a cult show, rather than an occult show, although a Martian might recognise the magic that was hullabalooing along the San Andreas fault line. You will too. The album was vinyl and finally released in 1972. The videos had to wait until VCRs were perfected, but there could be a rare laser disc, out there, or down there in the hole big whole the comet dug some where on a later album, if you know maybe you don't, but, until you search, Everything You Know Is Wrong. I guess that album will be available on DVD some day too. What ever happened to eight track, Walter? The lizard is licking for that tooo darlin.