There’s no business like show business,especially if you’ve been in it for

50 years.

In celebration of that milestone, poet, dramatist and comic actor David Ossman, famously known for his radio work with the Firesign Theatre, will present an evening of performance entitled “David Ossman and The Black Box Drama Quartet” at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 21 at Whidbey Children’s Theater.

The quartet — Tom Harris, baritone, Max Cole-Takanikos, tenor, Sommer Harris, soprano and George Tirebiter, all-around dashing celebrity — will join Ossman, in perhaps its only appearance together, in scenes from “Anythynge You Want To,” and the notorious “Lost Comedie” attributed to “Wm. Shakespeare,” as adapted and annotated by The Firesign Theatre. Also on the program are extended scenes from

Ossman’s scripts for “Gulliver’s Travels,” “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” and e.e. cummings’ “Love is a Place.”

Ossman called it “a unique evening of comedie, historie and parodie.” The show

will be presented on the Martha Murphy Mainstage of the Whidbey Children’s Theater in Langley, and some audience participation will be invited.

Ossman most recently appeared in his own productions of “Seven Keys to Baldpate,” which he also directed, “A Firesign Theatre Double Bill,” and Lew Carlino’s “School for Scandal,” all at Whidbey Island Center for the Arts. He adapted and directed “Through the Looking Glass” for Whidbey Children’s Theater and is the adapter and director of a Mary Higgins Clark/Ray Bradbury Double Bill, one of eight performances from the International Mystery Writers Festival 2008, recently issued on CD and produced by Judith Walcutt.

Continuing the celebration of this banner year, Ossman and the rest of the Firesign Theatre crew is celebrating character Nick Danger’s 40th birthday with an upcoming performance in Monterey, Calif. on March 28 and a new four CD set, “Box of Danger,” a complete collection of the radio detective’s weirdly cool cases.

Ossman is also busy editing Firesign’s new book, “Anythynge You Want To,” a complete and annotated edition of their classic lampoon of theatre and scholarship.

Ossman’s own books include “Dr. Firesign’s Follies” and “The Ronald Reagan Murder Case,” and both will be available at the performance. He also has an exclusive artist’s T-shirt at Eddy’s in Langley.

A second live performance, an evening of poetry and music, will be scheduled for late spring.

Tickets for “David Ossman and The Black Box Drama Quartet” cost $15 and are available in Freeland at Catherine deWitt Framing and 1504 Coffee Bar and in Langley at Eddy’s and Moonraker Books. Tickets can also be reserved by calling

331-2813. Seating is limited.