The Firesign Theatre's Box of Danger
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Nick Danger is a fictional character featured in several of the albums produced by the comedy group The Firesign Theatre: How Can You Be in Two Places at Once When You're Not Anywhere at All (1969), Nick Danger: The Case of the Missing Shoe (1979), The Three Faces of Al (1984) and The Bride of Firesign (2001).
Voiced by Phil Austin, he is a film noir style "hard-boiled" detective who gets into wacky, mysterious adventures, frequently involving mistaken identity, betrayal, and femme fatales. His nemesis is Police Lt. Bradshaw (voiced by Peter Bergman), and he is also frequently menaced by a slimy little man called Rocky Rococo (voiced by Phil Proctor) who is based on Dashiell Hammett's Joel Cairo from The Maltese Falcon. The love of his life, Betty Jo Bialosky, (AKA Melanie Haber, Audrey Farber, and Susan Underhill), but Nick says "everyone knew her as Nancy."
At the very end of How Can You Be in Two Places at Once When You're Not Anywhere at All, a brief snippet from an imagined crime drama is heard, in which we learn that Nick Danger is a former policeman who became disheartened with the corruption in the force and turned in his badge.
The character also features in the Firesign-produced film Nick Danger in The Case of the Missing Yolk [1]
A stage production of "Nick Danger, Third Eye" premiered February 8, 2012 at the Powell Crosley Mansion in Sarasota, Florida. This was the first professional theatrical performance of "Nick Danger" and starred Keith Chrismon as Nick Danger, Joelle Davis as Nancy, and John Forsyth, Marty Fugate and Karle Murdock as multiple characters. Larry Barrett produced and directed the production; Steve Patmagrian was its associate producer. A student production of "Nick Danger, Third Eye" was staged in the Fisher Theater Workshop At Phillips Exeter Academy in 1978.
References
- ^ cinefan (30 June 1983). "Nick Danger in The Case of the Missing Yolk (Video 1983)". IMDb.