C isn't a good first language - it's a bit too unforgiving - but it is definitely a very good second or third one. Everyone should learn C at some point, just for the lower-level understanding of computing it gives you. These days, learning assembly isn't really feasible any more, so C is a good second choice for learning how a machine works. Besides, pretty much everything you actually use is written in C or C++.

For a first language, I'd agree that an interpreted one might be a good choice. The best would be a interpreted one with an interactive mode, but those are few and far between these days. Depending on your mindset, Perl might be very good or completely awful. An easily overlooked alternative, however, is Javascript. Javascript is syntactically very simple and elegant, it lets you do things that are actually somewhat fun, and it is available on pretty much every machine by default. The downside is that it requires some familiarity with HTML before you can really use it.