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Aired Tuesday, 5 December 2017, 5:00 PM ESTDefying Gravity: How the Power of Levity Can Uplift Us in Unfunny TimesA Conversation With Firesign Theatre Co-Founder Phil ProctorWe must all laugh together, or else we will cry separately. — Swami BeyondanandaIt was the summer of 1969, and I found myself in Berkeley visiting a friend. I had just smoked some particularly strong California weed, and that put me in an altered state. What happened next would alter my state even more …As I walked into her house, I heard a strange radio show playing, a quiz show called “Beat the Reaper”… it sounded so real, and yet the premise was entirely bizarre: The contestant was injected with some deadly disease, and if he or she guessed the disease in time, they’d be given the antidote. After a while it became apparent I was listening to some dark parody, kind of Bob & Ray meet the Twilight Zone. I soon discovered I was listening to the Firesign Theatre, and from that moment on I was hooked.Don’t Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the P