
Shark's Comedy Links
The two polar extremes, Gravity and its opposite, Comedy, are explored here. For those of you who haven't spent your time at Shark's digging around for the adult links, you may have come here with a burning need to be amused and reminded (once again) that life is too damn short to take anything too seriously.
In that spirit, we'll take you on a self-guided tour of some of the things that have kept us Not Insane all these years...
The Firesign Theatre
The Firesign Theatre, a troupe of Four or Five Crazee Guys, began their careers prodding the collective consciousness of the expectant masses many millenia ago (back before they changed the water). They have appeared throughout history in various guises and have never ceased to astound, amaze and (in some cases) befuddle their audiences.
In their current incarnation, they began rattling the windows of the insane asylum before many of you sprouts had set your roots; if you're lucky, you might find their work at your local used book & record stores in the the vinyl section marked "Dope Humor of the 70s," although they pre-date the Nixxon Era by many years.
It's not uncommon, even in these daze of Millenium Madness, to be cornered in an unpleasant situation and hear from an opposite corner of your life (there goes that gravity/comedy dichotomy again...), a tentative voice shout out, "Hey-ya, Joe! Who-a wonna second-a world-a war, you so smaat?" (The proper response is a defensive, "Not responsible!" which is followed by the counter-code, "Park and lock it!)
Thus do Fireheads clone.
Onward through the fog, then, to some of the pre-eminent purveyors of Firesignia:
- The first stop on the Terminal Bus Tour has to be the Premier Primer site, Niles Ritter's
Firesign Theatre Home Page. Here you will find a brief introduction to the 4 or 5 as well as a repository of FAQ files for your lucidation. Be sure to check his Firesign Theatre
HyperLexicon for a full tour!
You'd better check this page out soon - seems they'll be cleaning it soon (just like the Palace) and Niles will have to go back to the Shadows, again...
- For another collection of links, a metric boatload of Firesign .WAV files and (especially) the full four-part Firesign Theatre Quiz, take the ol' Antelope Freeway ("less traffic!") to Richard Arnold's Home Page. Pay particular attention to Quiz Three. :)
- The online version of Elayne Wechsler-Chaput's Four-Alarm FIRESIGNal (commonly referred to as "FAlaFal") can be perused at your leisure at Jamie Strumpf's Home Page.
- Jamie also has an ftp access folder where you can obtain the entire FAlaFal archives as well as some FAQs and other tasty bits.
- The current FAlaFal is also available by gopher from
The Well, which is located in the Low Desert Area of California.
- An almost-complete Firesign discography can be found
here. The first four on the list are commonly referred to as "the canon" and should be the first ones a neophyte should immerse themselves in. This
CD discography is cross-referenced by piece and includes scans of the cover art.
- There are bozos everywhere. A collection of Firesign FAQs can even be found tucked away at
Oxford University. And you thought the Brits didn't have a sense of humour...
- Speaking of the humor-impaired, who says Minnesotans are? Drop by Jerry Stearns'
Firesign Theatre Page and have a look around. There's a nifty Nick Danger .gif as well as a photo of Stearns with George Leroy Tirebiter and Ralph Spoilsport.
- Aliens! Don't miss David Ossman's Martian Space Party Diary, A Chronicle of The Firesign Theatre at Steve Gillmor's Inside Technology site. Poke around a bit and you'll stumble over a Philip Proctor RealAudio clip as well.
...and more to come RSN!
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