The Firesign Theatre - Back from the Shadows
As an audiovisual chronicle of the Firesign Theater's 25th anniversary  reunion tour in 1993, this DVD is a guaranteed treat for Firesign fans, although  it's really the out-of-print reunion CD on DVD, with an hour of visuals devoted  to "Who Am Us, Anyway," a delightful documentary in which the Firesign founders  (Phil Proctor, Peter Bergman, Phil Austin, David Ossman) reminisce about their  formative years, the group's rise to fame as a countercultural force to be  reckoned with in the early 1970s, and the "quiet years" prior to their  successful '93 reunion tour. While the interviews provide a privileged glimpse  of the individual personalities that make the Firesign quartet so unique, the  audio-only portion of the DVD is essentially a "greatest hits" compilation of  reunion performances, tweaking such classic recordings as "Nick Danger" and  "Don't Crush That Dwarf (Hand Me the Pliers)" with updated one-liners and  relevant political references.For the most part, however, the favorite bits remain intact, allowing the live  audience to shout out their favorite lines with the same appreciative fervor  you'd find at a screening ofThe Rocky Horror Picture Show. The clear  highlight is "High School Madness" (arguably Firesign's best-loved routine), in  which the audience interaction is almost as funny as the group itself. The  Firesign Theater was very much of its time, and the seasoned comedians wisely  avoid attempts to capture lightning in a bottle. Instead, they demonstrate, with  great affection for their audience and their material, that the Firesign Theater  was, and still is, a singular phenomenon in comedy, greater than the sum of its  parts, and blazing a path that few if any comedy acts have ever tried to follow.--Jeff Shannon