Features:
Description:
As an audiovisual chronicle of the Firesign Theater's 25th anniversary reunion tour in 1993, this DVD is a guaranteed treat for Firesign fans, although it's really the out-of-print reunion CD on DVD, with an hour of visuals devoted to "Who Am Us, Anyway," a delightful documentary in which the Firesign founders (Phil Proctor, Peter Bergman, Phil Austin, David Ossman) reminisce about their formative years, the group's rise to fame as a countercultural force to be reckoned with in the early 1970s, and the "quiet years" prior to their successful '93 reunion tour. While the interviews provide a privileged glimpse of the individual personalities that make the Firesign quartet so unique, the audio-only portion of the DVD is essentially a "greatest hits" compilation of reunion performances, tweaking such classic recordings as "Nick Danger" and "Don't Crush That Dwarf (Hand Me the Pliers)" with updated one-liners and relevant political references. For the most part, however, the favorite bits remain intact, allowing the live audience to shout out their favorite lines with the same appreciative fervor you'd find at a screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. The clear highlight is "High School Madness" (arguably Firesign's best-loved routine), in which the audience interaction is almost as funny as the group itself. The Firesign Theater was very much of its time, and the seasoned comedians wisely avoid attempts to capture lightning in a bottle. Instead, they demonstrate, with great affection for their audience and their material, that the Firesign Theater was, and still is, a singular phenomenon in comedy, greater than the sum of its parts, and blazing a path that few if any comedy acts have ever tried to follow. --Jeff Shannon
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