Subject: Firesign Theatre: Frequently Asked Questions, Part 1/3
Supersedes: <fs_faq1_821835643@tazboy.jpl.nasa.gov>
Date: 14 Feb 1996 23:10:42 GMT
Summary: This posting contains a list of Frequently Asked
        Questions (and their answers) about the Firesign Theatre 
        comedy group, and should be read by anyone who wishes
        to post to the alt.comedy.firesgn-thtre newsgroup.


Archive-name:  firesign-theatre/faq/part1
Last-modified: 1995/3/23
Version:       2.1

About This Archive
------------------

This archive is posted monthly to alt.comedy.firesgn-thtre,
alt.fan.firesign-theatre, alt.answers, and news.answers. It is
also available via anonymous ftp to rtfm.mit.edu in the
directory /pub/usenet/alt.answers/firesign-theatre/faq/*, or by
sending e-mail to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu with the message
"send usenet/alt.answers/firesign-theatre/faq/*". Include the line
"help" in the message for more information on the server.

Changes:

    1. File split into <32K pieces!
   Side 2)  Firesign Theatre: Frequently Asked questions
   =====================================================


    Contents:

     2.0) I've just Discovered the F.T! How should I get started?
     2.1) How Can I Get Copies of these FAQs?
     2.2) How can I contact the NewsGroup with E-mail?
     2.3) Who Did Which Roles?
     2.4) Any Reunions going on ?
     2.5) Where can I get F.T. (Videos, CD's ,etc...)
     2.6) Where are they now ?
     2.7) Common FT Phrases
     2.8) Who is Doctor Memory?
     2.9) Is it "Back T0 the Shadows" or "..FROM the Shadows" ?
     2.10) FT Questions posed to the Usenet Oracle



2.0) I've just Discovered the F.T! How should I get started?

"Yeah, it sure is strange to read where people would or have started. You 
start at the very beginning, a very good place to start. When you learn to 
read  you learn a-b-c, when you learn to sing you learn Toad Away...."
  -- John Scialli

The four classic albums are:

      Waiting For the {Electrician} or Somebody Like Him.
      How Can You Be in {Two Places} at Once, When You're Not
           Anywhere At All?
      Dont Crush that {DWARF}, Hand Me the Pliers
      I Think We're All {BOZO}'s On This Bus

These albums are high on most bozos lists, and are available on CD;
See the "Intro" file for sources. The four albums have the logical
order listed above, as they all have been conceived as a single
episodic journey of an {EVERYMAN}, whose name changes from album
to album. See the {EVERYMAN} entry in the Lexicon.

Of the above four, the {DWARF} albums seems to have the most universal
appeal, followed closely by {BOZO}s and {TWO PLACES}.

Many people also recommend David Ossman's "How Time Flys", as well as
"Everything You Know is Wrong" and "Eat or Be Eaten". The 
"Hemlock Stones" album is good for rapid-fire puns and is well-written.

The "Dear Friends" CD's contain transcripts from their early live
radio work at KPFK, Radio Free Oz (here's where they sing "Toad Away").
[I love the Chinchilla Show on this album, as well as "Freezing Mr.
Foster"]

The "Shoes for Industry" is a 2-CD set containing little snippets from
their most popular albums, but for many these excerpts are all teasers
with none of the depth of listening to the complete albums.

See item 2.5 for commercial sources of Firesign theatre CD's videos,
etc.

2.1) How Can I Get Copies of this FAQ?

There are many paths:

Via UseNet:
  Posted monthly to alt.comedy.firesgn-thtre,
  alt.fan.firesign-theatre, alt.answers, and news.answers.
  If your local news-server does not have a.c.f-t, campaign with
  your sysop to get it. If s/he's still reluctant, try using
  the NNTP feed at news.fu-berlin.de, (port 119) which supports
  the F.T. newsgroup very well. 

Via FTP:
  As mentioned in the top of this file, you may access the files
  via anonymous ftp to rtfm.mit.edu, in the directory
  /pub/usenet/alt.answers/firesign-theatre, there are four directories
  called intro, faq, lyrics and lexicon.

Via E-MAIL: 
  The host rtfm.mit.edu runs a mail-server for those without
  ftp. Send e-mail to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu, with the message:

  send usenet/alt.answers/firesign-theatre/intro/*
  send usenet/alt.answers/firesign-theatre/faq/*
  send usenet/alt.answers/firesign-theatre/lexicon/*
  send usenet/alt.answers/firesign-theatre/lyrics/*

For more information on this server also add the line "help".


Via WWW (World-Wide Web): Use the Firesign-Theatre Home Page
at the URL:

   http://mtritter.jpl.nasa.gov/firesign.html

Note: There is also hypertext-based UseNet FAQ list at 

   http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/FAQ-List.html.

which also has the FT stuff.


2.2) How can I contact the NewsGroup with just E-mail?

POSTING:
--------
There is a general service for posting notes to the UseNet newsgroups. To
post to alt.comedy.firesgn-theatre, for example, send your message to

   alt.comedy.firesgn.thtre.usenet@decwrl.dec.com         (USA)

or

   alt.comedy.firesgn.thtre.usenet@news.demon.co.uk        (UK)

or

        alt-comedy-firesgn-thtre@cs.utexas.edu

Note that the dots in the newsgroup name have been changed to hyphens!

The "Internet Services List" contains dozens of other nifty things you
can do with just e-mail access, and may be obtained by sending e-mail to
mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu, with the message:

        send usenet/news.answers/internet-services/*


READING:
--------

1. The Gomail Servers

In order to READ other people's postings, you may now use the e-mail
gopher gateway to the UseNet newsgroup: To use it send e-mail to
gopher@calvin.edu with the body of the message reading one of
the following sets of four lines (try the first set first):

Type=1
Path=nntp LS alt.comedy.firesgn-thtre
Port=4324
Host=gopher-gw.micro.umn.edu

Type=1
Path=exec:alt.comedy.firesgn-thtre:/bin/gus2_group_threads
Port=70
Host=sun4.bham.ac.uk

NOTE: Be sure this is *EXACTLY* what you enter; do not put any spaces
around the "=" sign, and make "Type=1" The first line of your message.

You will receive back an e-mail response with a list of all of the 
current postings on alt.comedy.firesgn-thtre. If you then mail this
file back to gopher@calvin.edu it will mail you each of the articles
in a separate posting. If you only want to receive a few of the articles,
put an "X" in the file before the ones that you want, and send the 
modified file back. For more information on the e-mail gopher server,
send the message "help" to gopher@calvin.edu.

The server gomail@myc.ncc.go.jp also works as a gopher-mail server
if calvin seems grumpy.

3. Subscription Service

% mail netnews@db.stanford.edu
Subject: anything
help

WWW and Gopher Pages referencing Firesign Theatre:

http://www.clark.net/pub/rarnold/homepage.html
http://mtritter.jpl.nasa.gov/firesign.html
http://www.clark.net:80/pub/moncomm/
http://www.wam.umd.edu/~ljason/www/firesign.html
gopher://gopher.well.sf.ca.us:70/00/Publications/online_zines/FAlaFal
http://166.104.36.75/jargon/E.html
http://www.primenet.com/~pdg/dave-h.html

Newsgroup Web-Gopher interface (if you dont have news): use the URL:

GOPHER://gopher-gw.micro.umn.edu:4324/1nntp%20ls%20alt.comedy.firesgn-thtre
GOPHER://sun4.bham.ac.uk:70/1exec:alt.comedy.firesgn-thtre:/bin/gus2_group_threads

Firesign MUSH:

http://www.voicenet.com:80/1/voicenet/homepages/SirWill1/index.html


2.3) Who Did Which Roles?

This stuff is excerpted from the BBOP book (more to follow):


                LIEUTENANT BRADSHAW'S SECRET IDENTITY ROSTER:
                ---------------------------------------------

IN DON'T CRUSH THAT DWARF, HAND ME THE PLIERS:
----------------------------------------------

David Ossman      Phil Austin         Philip Proctor      Peter Bergman
------------      -------------       --------------      -------------
George Tirebiter  Janitor,Rev.X       Pastor Rod Flash    Leroy, Arnie
News Announcer    Rev. Mouse          Felix Papparazzi    Bohunk,Newscaster
Kathy Koffee      Surrogate Gen'l     K'en, Doc, Mom,     Bob Baseline,
Peorgie, Lt.      Klein, Jerry Yarrow Principal Poop,     Warden, Porcelin,
Tirebiter, Mrs.   Staff Announcer,    Pico,Bottles,Sailor Mudhead, Joe
Arlene Yukamoto,  Dad,Alvarado,       Bill,Private,       Beets, Dr. Math,
Cop, Danny Dollar Hugh, Another       Silverberg,         Patty, Sgt.
                  Private, Father,    Loudspkr Voice,     Mudheadski, Son,
                  Commercial          Sgt. Schvincter,    Madge, Commercial
                  Voice-over,         Sarge, Bailiff,Mrs  Announcer.
                  Darlene,Bob Hind,   Caroline Presky,
                  Bob, Major,         General Klein,
                  Announcer 13.       Judge Poop, Girl
                                      Announcer.

ALSO: Annalee (Austin) as the Operator.



