The Chronological History of the Negro in America

Bergman, Peter

Harper&Row

More than just a rousing send-up of Shakespeare, Anythynge You Want To: Shakespeare's Lost Comedy is a full-length theatrical entertainment, written and rewritten continually throughout The Firesign Theatre's long performing career. This volume collects every iambic double entendre and silly soliloquy into a surreal comedy opus, complete with Firesign's "scholarly" Introduction, tongue-in-cheek Footnotes, diagrams, and even recipes! The Firesign Theatre has infused the classic Shakespearian scenes of hurricanes at sea, witches capering about a cooking pot, apparitions on the battlements, graveyard passion, and mortal combat with their notoriously twisted political and social humor. A devastating oil spill, alchemical terrorism, sleezy politics, and Hollywood shenanigans are all part of the laughs. As The Firesign Theatre tells it, the legendary writing/acting quartet has been writing and performing plays since 1600 when they collaborated with the Bard on Anythynge before taking their act on the road to the New World. Reborn in the Old West as Dr. Firesign's Theatre of the Plains, these fighting clowns have since worn many disguises and had countless high adventures on stage, in movies, and over the radio. The tales told here fill in the comic mythology of The Firesign Theatre's most popular recorded worlds, connecting Nick Danger and George Tirebiter to Hemlock Stones, The Electrician, and "Everything You Know is Wrong." Bonus scripts include 1967's radio saga The Armenian's Paw and an early club-act favorite, Waiting for The Mount of County Crisco. Filled with photographs from performances, along with graphics by Bruce Litz, Anythynge You Want To is truly The Firesign Theatre's major work of high comedy.

Anythynge You Want To: Shakespeare's Lost Comedie

Literature & Fiction

Ossman, David

Austin, Philip

Dramas & Plays

BearManor Media

In the summer of 1990, National Public Radio broadcast the nightly two-hour program Heat – with John Hockenberry, devoted to the arts, politics and culture. The producer, Ted Bonnitt, contracted Peter and me to create a weekly five-minute comic serial lampooning the culture of Hollywood, and these are the original audio scripts, as pertinent now as ever. PHIL PROCTOR is one of two surviving members of The Firesign Theatre, once described as “The Beatles of Comedy,” “America’s Monty Python” and cited by Rolling Stone magazine as “one of the best 100 top comedy acts of all time,” further honored by having an album inducted into the Library of Congress’ Historical Recordings. Philip, who has an independent career as a writer, singer, actor, director and voice-over artist, toured the U.S. and Canada with his partner Peter for about a decade as Proctor &amp; Bergman, and during that time, they produced three records, several other syndicated radio series and a short film.

Power

Proctor, Phil

Humor & Satire

Phil Proctor, co-founder of the legendary, surrealist comedy group, the thrice Grammy-nominated Firesign Theatre, in cahoots with Peter Bergman, Phil Austin and David Ossman, helped to create the most revolutionary comedy recordings ever made. Over a 50-year career, starting in the ‘60s and ending with them all in their 70s, they predicted reality TV, hackers, computer viruses, virtual reality, the fall of the Soviet Union, 9/11 and much more still to come. But during a breather in the Firesign career, Phil joined up with Pete to launch Proctor & Bergman on a crazy ride that took them on the road through the hip back pockets of the U.S. including Hawaii and even Canada with their own brand of surreal silliness, resulting in radio series, three records: TV or Not TV, Give Us a Break and What This Country Needs, and films including the cult hit J-Men Forever, and the topic of this story: Americathon. It started as Gothamathon, a cabaret skit that soon evolved into The Americathon, hosted by Bergman as the manic Jerry Jerry, and me as everyone else, designed to raise money to pay off the national debt. When Director Neal Israel, on the road to promote his hit, Tunnelvision (in which I have a fun role), caught our act in Boston – well, you’ll have to buy the book to learn “the rest of the story.” I’m sure you’ll enjoy it, and only wish that Peter was still here to relive these crazy daze. I dedicate this book to him.

Americathon: The Skits Behind the Screenplay

Humor & Entertainment

Humor

Phil Proctor, co-founder of the legendary, surrealist comedy group, the thrice Grammy-nominated Firesign Theatre, in cahoots with Peter Bergman, Phil Austin and David Ossman, helped to create the most revolutionary comedy recordings ever made. Over a 50-year career, starting in the '60s and ending with them all in their 70s, they predicted reality TV, hackers, computer viruses, virtual reality, the fall of the Soviet Union, 9/11 and much more still to come. But during a breather in the Firesign career, Phil joined up with Pete to launch Proctor & Bergman on a crazy ride that took them on the road through the hip back pockets of the U.S. including Hawaii and even Canada with their own brand of surreal silliness, resulting in radio series, three records: TV or Not TV, Give Us a Break and What This Country Needs, and films including the cult hit J-Men Forever, and the topic of this story: Americathon. It started as Gothamathon, a cabaret skit that soon evolved into The Americathon, hosted by Bergman as the manic Jerry Jerry, and me as everyone else, designed to raise money to pay off the national debt. When Director Neal Israel, on the road to promote his hit, Tunnelvision (in which I have a fun role), caught our act in Boston - well, you'll have to buy the book to learn "the rest of the story." I'm sure you'll enjoy it, and only wish that Peter was still here to relive these crazy daze. I dedicate this book to him.

Americathon: The Skits Behind the Screenplay (hardback)

Proctor, Mr. Phil

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Bergman, Peter. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Bergman, Peter