Peter Bergman, 1939–2012

Peter Bergman discovered his calling as a comedian on the air at his high school radio station. He announced to his fellow pupils that Chinese communists had taken over the school, and that “a mandatory voluntary assembly was to take place immediately.” Bergman’s prank ended his job as an announcer, but kicked off a lifelong career in surrealist broadcast comedy.

Born in Cleveland, Bergman studied economics and playwriting at Yale before moving to Los Angeles with dreams of becoming a writer, said The New York Times. He began hosting a radio show, Radio Free Oz, in 1966 and asked friends David Ossman, Phil Austin, and Phil Proctor to join him on air for a fake movie festival. “People were offended that we were showing a dirty movie on the radio,” recalled Proctor. “That’s when we said, ‘I think we’re onto something.’”

The quartet branded itself Firesign Theatre and quickly gained a countercultural following for its “zany, pun-loaded skits and absurdist political satire,” said The Washington Post. The group recorded several comedy albums, including the hit Don’t Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers, and attracted a devoted fan base of “Fireheads” who could recite long passages from memory. During the Vietnam War, the quartet gave “disillusioned throngs of bell-bottomed students…something to laugh about.”

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Bergman later compared the quartet’s semi-improvised comedy riffs to jazz. “It was creative anarchy right from the start,” he said. “But we’re not snobs. Everything from body jokes to puns is grist for the mill. We’ll do anything.”