Nick Danger (The Firesign Theatre)

Created by The Firesign Theatre

“Well, now, the gum’s on the other shoe.”
— Nick Danger, on a sudden plot shift,
in The Case of the Missing Yolks
.Even more than the literature, the classic radio eyes of the forties and fifties thrived on first person. And they did it in present tense, as in ” I’m talking to you as this happens!” Pretty funny, if you think about it. Walking down the street, shouting narration like a mad man, trying to tail a suspect.

So the smart asses in Firesign Theatre had a lot of fun in their off-the-wall sketches featuring NICK DANGER, THIRD EYE (“when two aren’t enough”). Nick made his debut on their second comedy LP How Can You Be in Two Places at Once When You’re Not Anywhere at All? There we meet Nick, old girlfriend Betty Jo Bialaski (but everyone knew her as Nancy) and diminutive Rocky Rococo.

All of Nicks’s appearances on air, on record, and later, on film, spoof the conventions of those old detective radio shows–not just the narration, but the special effects, the sponsors, the on-air host, the convoluted plots and just about anything else that wasn’t nailed down, past, present or future, including TV shows, fast food, television commercials, soap operas and lawyers.

Nick proved to be quite popular, and has appeared often in firesign’s long career. He showed up on vinyl a few times “The Case of the Missing Shoe” (1979) and “The Three Faces of Al” (1984) and he even had his own movie, 1983’s Nick Danger in The Case of The Missing Yolks. Set in the future, the film (executive-produced by former-Monkee and Liquid Paper-heir Michael Nesmith) features Nick on the hunt for the missing children of the Yolk family. Some of the highlights along the way include Rat-in-a-Box, Lawyer’s Hospital, Boobie Chew, Duck-Flavored Coffee (“it’s the real decoy!”), Ol’ Faithful Scotch (it comes back upon you every hour), etc. This one scores high on the Chuckle-O-Meter.

Anyone interested in other send-ups of old-time radio eyes should check out Garrison Keillor’s Guy Noir.”

UNDER OATH

• I got “How Can You be in Two Places at Once When You Aren’t Anywhere at All” when it came out in 1969. Still love it! Hard to believe, some people simply, according to their posts on some site, do not understand it! (Me laughing…)”
  — David Goodmen

EVIDENCE

• Rocky Ricoco lights Nick’s script on fire, then makes a scathing comment.
  Nick’s reply? “That’s easy for you to say…you have a script.”
  —suggested by Thomas A. Scamfer
• “It had been snowing ever since the top of the page, and I had to shake the cornstarch off my mukluks.”
  — Nick Danger
• “My nostrils flared at the scent of his perfume: Pyramid Patchouli. There was only one joker in L.A. sensitive enough to wear *that* scent…and I had to find out who he was!”
  — Nick hot on the scent of Rocky Rococo

RADIO

• FIRESIGN THEATRE
  Various skits featuring Nick Danger
  Writers: Phil Austin, Peter Bergman, Phil Proctor, David Ossman
  Starring Phil Austin as NICK DANGER
  Also starring Peter Bergman, Phil Proctor, David Ossman

SOME OF THE NICK DANGER ADVENTURES

These were performed on the radio, or live, or incorporated into movies, usually mutating along the way… I have no idea where they first appeared.

• “The Further Adventures of Nick Danger”
• “Young Guy Motor Detective”
• “School For Actors”
• “The Case of the Missing Shoe”
• “The Case of the Missing General”
• “Nick Danger Meets E.T.”
• “The Three Faces of Al”
• “Shack Out On the Alien Highway”
• “The Three Faces of Al”
• “Lucky Liability”
• “A St. Nick Dangerous Christmas Eve”
• “Snakehead Symphony”
• “Scaled Down Danger”
• “The Case of the Missing Yolks”
• “Nick Danger’s ‘L-O-S-T G-A-L-S’”

RECORDINGS

• HOW CAN YOU BE IN TWO PLACES AT ONCE WHEN YOU’RE NOT ANYWHERE AT ALL? | Buy the CD
  (1969, Columbia)
  Firesign Theatre’s second LP, featuring Nick’s debut,  “The Adventures of Nick Danger, Third Eye.”
• THE CASE OF THE MISSING SHOE: A TWELVE-MINUTE MYSTERY DRAMA | Buy the vinyl
  (1979, Rhino)
  A series of five short (2:24) skits, currently out of print.
• THE THREE FACES OF AL | Buy the vinyl
  (1984, Rhino)
  Currently out of print.
• NICK DANGER: THE DAILY FEED TAPES | Buy this CD
  (2000, LodeStone Media)
  53 episodes written and performed entirely by Phil Austin in 1988-90 for the nationally syndicated radio show, The Daily Feed.
• THE FIRESIGN THEATRE’S BOX OF DANGER | Buy this CD
  (2008, Shout! Factory)
  A four-CD boxed set of most of the Nick Danger recordings.

FILMS

• NICK DANGER IN THE CASE OF THE MISSING YOLKS | Buy this video
  (1983, Nesmith Enterprises)
  Various skits featuring Nick
  Written by: Phil Austin, Peter Bergman, Phil Proctor
  Directed by: William Dear
  Produced by: Kevin McCormick
  Executive Producer: Michael Nesmith
  Presented by The Firesign Theatre
  Starring Phil Austin as NICK DANGER
  With Peter Bergman, Phil Proctor, David Ossman, Bob Lesser, Wendy Cutler, Christie Kaatz, Don Gibb, Ken Greenwald

FURTHER INVESTIGATION

• firesigntheatre.com
  The official web site. Let’s see someone swipe this URL!

Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.