Customer Reviews

Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers!

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1 star:		(3)

 

 

The closest analogy I can think of with listening to Firesign Theatre is catching a radio broadcast from a parallel universe. Their weird, layered tales of sound and fury project the feeling of being allowed a glimpse into another world, another culture, a warped version of our own with people that operate under alien logic and a completely different perception. This is a world where everything is normal to the inhabitants but foreign and nearly incomprehensible to an external eavesdropper - sort of like a shipwrecked Englishman trying to comprehend the language and rituals of the tribesmen on the south pacific island he's been stranded on.

Firesign Theatre often goes beyond simple satire or parody and into a state difficult to define. A brilliantly constructed alternate reality is the best way I can describe it. And it is brilliant. The universe may be stranger than we CAN imagine, but if anyone can imagine that strangeness, it's the people behind Don't Crush that Dwarf - thinking this original doesn't need any revelatory insights into the human condition attached to it - though you may stumble upon a few anyway. Don't listen to this while attempting to derive philosophical truths on a level of profundity equal with Shakespeare's plays. Just sit back and enjoy the mind-bending ride. This stuff is better than acid.

The magic that was and is the Firesign Theatre really came into its own in a very public way with this, their third studio production. Now that it's available on CD for the first time since 1987, perhaps the time has come for a new generation of humor potential.

"Don't Crush That Dwarf" is unusual for comedy, in that, rather than focusing on live monologues or studio gags, it's a unified concept album that encompasses the full space of an album (both sides of the original vinyl) and comes together more like a novel than a joke. The story that unifies the piece features George Leroy Tirebiter, who is handed some food physically THROUGH his TV and finds himself involved in an unfolding story of a life in hell.

Fans disagree on what the story means. Firesign aficionado Fred Wiebel insists Tirebiter has sold his soul to the media and now has to live a life of constant sellouts just to keep his head up. Others have suggested that Tirebiter is watching his own wasted life flash before his eyes, or that Tirebiter is an old actor who has to watch his painful old movies time and again. Not surprisingly, the boys themselves have remained largely silent on the issue.

The album features a non-linear story in which we observe our hero as an idealistic youth, an embittered soldier, a middle-aged bachelor, and an old recluse, all out of sequence. The chosen format allows us to see how each part of his past plays into his current identity. More than mere comedy, this album becomes an incisive examination of what makes a human being, and what damns him in the end.

But don't take this to mean the album isn't funny. Its deadpan delivery and biting wit give it a depth and breadth of humor unmatched in most of modern comedy. The Firesign Theatre themselves were doomed never again to create something of this caliber, but the insights and groundbreaking unity of the album are an unmistakable influence on a well-known rival troupe who were first finding their legs about the time this album came out, Monty Python.

I usually refrain from using superlatives because of the risk of contradiction. Who says something is the best? What scale? When? But I have to where it comes to this album. Truly seminal in late Twentieth Century humor, groundbreaking in its use of media, shockingly literary in its humor, "Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers" is easily the best recorded comedy ever. Don't hesitate-get this album NOW, before you spend another minute in unwilling ignorance.

A few millenia ago, when I was a college freshman, my roommate would mumble to himself something about "Eat it Raw....Raw, raw, raw, that's the spirits..." Then, later in that year, I heard this album, then an LP. It caught me instantly. So I got all the other Firesign albums, thinking they'd gone a little downhill with "We're All Bozos..." which I also now have on CD...

(Just an aside: a comedy act that followed Firesign Theatre consisted of two guys with their constant adolescent reference to drugs. As Amazon.com probably has their stuff on CD too I won't specify here who they are. But they led to a virtual generation gap about two years after these Firesign albums were released: the 18 year olds thinking this duo was superior. To the 20 year olds--among them me at the time--Firesign was obviously superior! Hail (Groucho) Marx and (John) Lennon!)

Amazing is that when one rarely encounters a Firesign fan, we can spout off quotes from largely this CD--as if we'd just heard them five minutes ago. I was at the Firesign show in Washington in the 90s, a birthday gift from my wife who wasn't familiar with Firesign--and she was amazed by how much the audience shouted out Firesign's lines before they did!

What does one call this humor? Someone called it "layered." Yeah, I guess that'll do. Whatever, it's spectacular. I suspect while lying on my deathbed some day, I'll be chuckling and spouting lines from here..."Right, Jack. So far a complete broken set of kellet bars for Mrs. P's new home..." And on, and on, and on. Oh, and, even after all these years, people point out the sometime esoteric sources for the lines Firesign uses. Amazing.

Like "Star Trek" and "The Outer Limits," I have a weakness for the originals (despite, in the case of those series, their inferior effects and sets.) Same goes with Firesign. I try to get into their newer stuff--have several on CD as I couldn't resist. But the earlier displays of their talent are overwhelming with this still the best. The script goes from one "subject" to the next with extremely limited connections between them. But, despite seeming incongruities, somehow it all makes "sense," as much sense as can be made of it all.

(I tried to put this one on a few minutes ago. But my wife, who's working on taxes, was distracted. I guess I'll have to go for a ride to listen to this in the car. Then I can distract her with more quotes....)

Firesign Theatre? They're irresistible. And this is one of the funniest CDs ever produced.

Ths is quintessential Firesign Theater! The wordplays are here - "The Department of Redundancy Department", "The Natural Guard", Ersatz Brothers Coffee - "More coffee, warden?" and then "More coffins, warden?", and being sworn in "Do you promise to covet property, propriety, and not hurt that State? Say what." "What?" "Take your stand." And much more.

The underlying commentary is there on (Pick one) (a) our consumer society ("Eat, Eat, Eat ..." and "It's good to eat a friend, my friend"), (b) advertising [same thing?] ("Well you can believe me because I am always right and I never lie"), (c) religious fundamentalism ("Where can I find a good upbringing in a Christian environment?" "HERE, friends, right Here! [Pull the curtain, Fred]"), (d) our dependence on drugs ("Anguidrene" and "The chief himself's been on them for a week and he's a changed person"), as well as more.

Then there is the big picture - What is happening in the recording? Someone is watching TV, and then running off to an Ice Cream truck (while being transformed into a child (again?). At the end, we find out that _he_ is George Tirebiter when he gets a phone call from his answering service and says 'I've been watching myself on TV all night', and then receives messages that all kinds of old film stars have left. But while George Tirebiter, who is named for the mythical University of Southern California dog/mascot, is the one who is said to have received the Good Sport Award on TV (while he is watching it, competing in the game show 'Stab from the Past'), he is also somehow related to Porgy Tirebiter in the 'Howl of the Wolf Movie' called High School Madness. On TV - Fred/Adolph is Porgies ... stepfather(?) but is running for office as George Tirebiter later. And 'Lieutenant' Tirebiter is in a movie on TV. Could this be a commentary on being self-absorbed? As Porgie sums it up "But, Gee, Dad - I still don't understand how you can be the Peoples Prosecutor and my defense lawyer at the same time..." "Easy, son. That way I can see that you are persecuted to the fullest extent of the law." "That's my Dad!"

Another of the Firesign's essential masterpieces of audio theatre. Densely packed with jokes and parodies, this album stands up to repeated listenings without losing its charm. Unlike most comedy albums (where once you've heard the joke or routine, you've got it) this album will reveal new layers of meaning, reference and humor each time you listen to it.

What at first seems to be an almost haphazard collection of parodies of television evangelists, old war movies, TV sit-coms, game shows, B-movies, and commercials commercials commercials gradually reveals a coherent story behind all the channel-changing. Like all of the troup's best work, this story is open to multiple interpretations, but themes that clealy play a role are selling out, conformity, obedience to authority, pacifism and commercialism. This is a dense yet fast-paced send-up of middle-brow American culture.

In the tradition of the best American humor, this is hilariously funny while also asking some pointed questions. Even better, the Firesigns are less interested in providing pat answers than in simply posing the questions for you to ponder on your own. A marvelous album that will make you laugh and make you think (and think about laughing and laugh about thinking).

One quibble: There is no banding other than "Part 1" "Part 2" It would be nice to be able to skip to a favorite section (and would allow DJs to insert the fake commercials into a radio show - thus promoting the album - duh!).

Some argue it is, it's certainly up there, an amazing journey in a surrealistic future experienced via the tv of one George Tirebiter, who can't get any groatclusters in his sector, as they never come up into the hills. It's dense and amazing, hard to describe well, and a must listen.
'We've been shooting reds and yellows all day'
'Boy I'm sleepy'

"Dwarf" is probably the most celebrated of the Firesign Theatre's albums (along with "How Can You Be In Two Places..."). It certainly presents the foursome (David Ossman, Phil Austin, Peter Bergman, & Phil Proctor) at their peak creatively and remains a hilarious listening experience. It follows a faded movie star, George LeRoy Tirebiter (Ossman), on a journey through an evening of television where, after consuming sustenance offered to him (literally) right through his TV by televangelist Rev. E. L. Mouse (Austin), he is able to view himself in various incarnations. He is, at various times, the star of the old, '30s & '40s juvenile (& fictitious) "Peorgie & Mudhead" comedies, as the star of the WWII drama "Parallel Hell," and as an aging showbiz vet looking back on his career. Throughout it all, he tries to figure out the exact time that he "sold out." Indeed, selling things and selling out are the major themes on this album, and the various TV ads presented ("Napalmolive," "Erstatz Bros. Coffee") are among the CD's highlights. It also presents switching TV channels as being our nation's fundamental aesthetic (and, really, it is). This CD was previously out-of-print for nearly 10 yrs., so grab one now and treasure it. Also, head over to laugh.com for the balance of re-releases of the Firesign's classic albums (i.e., "Everything You Know Is Wrong," "The Tale of the Giant Rat of Sumatra").

Being their third release, and the first three albums being their tightest work, Dwarf is often misunderstood. Disjointed snippets? Not in the slightest! Dwarf is the story of an aging George Leroy Tirebiter sitting in front of the television, flipping through the channels only to find each station is showing a story about different phases of his life (complete with commercials). I'm uncertain if George was about to die and this is how his life flashed before his eyes. Regardless, this fine piece of work is often quoted. Some material has dated better than other, but still an album that bears repeated listening in order to "catch" half of the jokes, puns, and one-liners that are woven into the text of the album. Buy this album, it is a requirement of the (aptly named) Department of Redundancy Department.

If you have time for only one Firesign album before you die, make sure it's this one. A prescient, strangely psychedelic (no drugs involved) dissection of America & life in general that will leave you awake all night wondering about who or what's really in charge of this whole peculiar shebang anyway? But of course all their albums are like that. Must be those Canadian writers. The Firesign Theater is the closest thing America ever had to Monty Python, and we owe them a LOT for holding up an unflinching mirror to our loony culture.

Simply the most innovative thing done under the "comedy" heading since the advent of television. Firesign Theatre applied the same studio tools to their comedy as those used by the rock'n'roll artists of the time, creating here a richly-textured tapestry that continues to entertain after hundreds of hearings. A few of their other albums reach for these heights - this one is the most fully-realized.