Boots for Industry bundles together in one too-large book the first complete yet utterly futile biography, discography, and history of those past, present, and future masters of American satire, the comics behind The Firesign Theatre.
Excerpt from a review in Filmfax: ""BearManor Media, one of the more engaging publishers of entertainment related books, commemorates Firesign Theatre with this collection of four meaty interviews--one with each of the group's principals--assembled from discussions and follow-up emails and letters dating from 1994 to 2001. The combined transcriptions were polished to avoid redundancy, and vetted by Firesign Theatre.
"The interviews, conducted by Frederick Wiebel Jr. and others are substantial in both length and thought. Questions are framed succinctly and smartly, and exhibit that gift that escapes so many interviewers: an ability to listen, and to encourage the subjects to elaborate on previous responses.
"The book has useful appendices that include a select discography covering FT, duets and solo work; discography photos (sleeves and labels); and a photo chronology that reveals FT in the recording studio and on stage. Ad pages direct the interested reader to sources for FT CDs and other items."
Excerpt from a review by Brad Schrieber in Entertainment Today: "L.A.'s surreally funny foursome are as hard to categorize as they are to historicize but this compendium has interviews and archival photos, with discography, photo chronology and delightful bits of brilliantly silly symbology all along the way. Wiebel, who is the Grand Poobah of Firesigniana, having documented them hysterically and historically through his Firezine publication, has now put it all between two covers and allows us to eat it raw. Ken Kesey's back cover comment that 'these people are revolutionaries' is most apt, for Phil Proctor, Peter Bergman, David Ossman and Phil Austin have predicted so much of where we have gone. Firesign is the quantum mechanics of comedy. They cover space and time simultaneously and despite our delight, we cannot explain where they are at any given moment."
