Duck's Breath Mystery Theatre is a comedy team best known for its live performances and radio sketches broadcast on

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

. The group was formed in 1975 by

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized into 12 col ...

students Bill Allard, Dan Coffey, Merle Kessler, Leon Martell, and Jim Turner. In 1976, the comedians moved to

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

. In 1980, they released an LP titled ''Out of Season'', and began performing short sketches on NPR's ''

All Things Considered ''All Things Considered'' (''ATC'') is the flagship news program on the American network National Public Radio (NPR). It was the first news program on NPR, premiering on May 3, 1971. It is broadcast live on NPR affiliated stations in the United ...

''. The sketches became nationally popular, and three of the recurring characters – Dr. Science (Coffey), Ian Shoales (Kessler), and Randee of the Redwoods (Turner) – became better known than the group. Pundit Ian Shoales appeared frequently on ABC's ''Nightline'' with Ted Koppel, pioneering the comic genre more recently associated with Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. Aging hippie burnout 'Randee' – "with 2 'e's, like the river," was MTV's candidate for president in 1988. A 'Dr. Science' TV show ran on the Fox network for one season in 1987, with the rest of the troupe in the cast. The Ducks toured throughout the United States during the 1980s, doing live shows at colleges and similar venues, in addition to their radio work. In 1986 they released an LP on Rounder Records titled ''Born To Be Tiled''. In 1989, the group released a feature film, '' Zadar! Cow From Hell''. Unfortunately, the film failed to capture the humor of the group's stage shows and radio sketches, and was not well received by audiences or critics. This disappointment, among other things, led to the group members turning to separate projects after 1990. Duck's Breath held their first reunion show in San Francisco 2005. They had their last show at the Freight and Salvage in Berkeley on August 29, 2015.

References

External links

*
Ian Shoales

Ask Dr. Science
American comedy troupes Comedy collectives 1970s in comedy 1980s in comedy {{comedy-stub