Harmon e. Phrayser is still trapped in the Global Village, a place where all the the bad DJs get sent as a kind of punishment (or something like that).
Concerned by Harmon’s inability to organise an escape plot, Harmon is forced to attend iprov / storytelling evening, in which the residents exchange strange stories around a camp fire.
I’m having a devil of a time getting info on the creators of Harmon E. Phraisyar, Epistaxis Show, and Hellebore Show (at least I know the name of the last, one Dan Wilson).
I’m mainly wondering about Harmon E. Phraisyar, though the Epistaxis Show has provoked a morbid curiousity as well. But to focus on Harmon, is it the product of a single writer? Is it the person who voices the Harmon character? Who is it? What else have they done? The comedy portions of the show are top notch, some of the best audio comedy I’ve heard, right up there with such deities as Fireside Theatre and Monty Python.
In fact, my only complaint is that the show is not all comedy, minus the musical interludes. Not that the music is bad – on the contrary, it’s quite good. But good music is a relatively abundant commodity online, whereas good audio comedy, especially of the sketch variety, is very rare and precious (good standup comedy is much more common).
So my call is for more readily available info on Harmon E. Phraisyar, and more sketch comedy from the creator of same. Please! And thank you.
Oh, and any recommendations for other good comedy podcasts, especially sketch comedy, would also be most appreciated.
Hm, I guess there’s no way to edit a comment once it’s posted. I wanted to correct a small detail in my previous comment — where I said “Fireside Theatre”, of course I actually meant “Firesign Theatre”. My apologies for any confusion, distress, physical or emotional harm, or loss of life that my error may have produced.
Dont worry; I knew exactly what you mean.
There is an enormous amount of information about Dan Wilson (Epistaxis, Hellebore), just get on to google and search away. You can even buy his excellent record “Tongue under a ton of Nine Volters”.
Harmon e. Phraysier is another matter; I know very about him.
Do you listen to Hooting Yard?
Likewise, I’m interested to know a little more about yon Harmon. Nice to have a bit of mystery though. Right now though I’m more concerned that the latest two podcasts from Harmon don’t seem to be full shows. Is it me or is there only about 11 mins and 5 mins of them?
Harmon E. Phraisyar is better known as enigmatic musician and sound artist Xentos Jones (AKA Xentos “Fray” Bentos, AKA Amos, AKA L. Voag, AKA Jim Whelton) of punk band The Homosexuals, then Milk From Cheltenham and now Die Trip Computer Die.
Ray: both podcasts played in full for me.
The internet is a wing ding thing if you want to find out anyhting, there was a film made about Harmon AKA Xentos “Fray†Bentos, AKA Amos, AKA L. Voag. http://www.inati2004.org/wayout.html
Well, OK, I’ve done some more web searching using some of the info above, and a picture of the mysterious entity behind Harmon E. Phraisyar (the spelling of the last name varies among the Resonance site entries for the show) is emerging. Definitely first early burst of “fame”, such as it is for an artist who delights in subverting the notion of fame and artistic identity in general, was with the group The Homosexuals, in the late 70’s & early 80’s. At that time the monikers “L. Voag” or “L’Voag” and “Amos” seemed to be favoured. Lately the artist’s chief alias seems to “Xentos ‘Fray’ Bentos”. He seems to have been quite active in the London underground music scene from the late 70’s to the present, which would put his age likely somewhere in his early 50’s. Lots of collaborations, but one of his more fixed musical associations at present is with the group Die Trip Computer Die, which I believe is a trio and in fact may be the same people who made up The Homosexuals… Sorry for the uncertainty but I’m summarizing impressions of skimming a couple dozen sites that came up from putting the following search string into Google:
“Xentos Jones” OR “Xentos Fray Bentos” OR “L. Voag” OR “Jim Whelton”
You can do your own explorations using the same string. Or for a shortcut, just use his currently favoured alias “xentos fray bentos” — more directly relevant hits than the longer string, but fewer obscure and weird (tho’ still relevant) hits, so it’s a tradeoff.
Whatever, I just want to reiterate the brilliance of the comic sequences in the current Harmon E. Phraisyar show — in fact I’d say the *increasing* brilliance. Seems like the writer is really hitting his groove with the show, it just keeps getting better. The last couple shows, particularly the surreal yarns spun by the cowboy character, are truly inspired. More comedy, Harmon! Again, the music is actually quite cool, but even just with *legal* music downloads I’ve got so much new music from the web I need to sprout new ears to get through it. But twisted manic sketch comedy of high quality is in extremely short supply, and so obeying the iron fist of the laws of the market, I must demand more, and logically, if the supply dwindles, my demands will grow more and more hysterical and strident.
P.S. For some amusing non-linear web-clicking fun, check out the user-unfriendly obscurantismo of Die Trip Computer Die’s website:
http://www.dietripcomputerdie.com/
Could the non-rodent character in the “Suspension of the Day” video on that site be the mysteriouis Xentos “Fray” Bentos AKA Harmon E. Phraisyar?