Capt. Mondo's World o' Mondo-ness

"I'm Missing Page 4!" (Third Frantics Show)
Last night we went to see the latest Frantics show at the Tim Sims theatre. It was a very different show from the previous two as this show was being recorded, with the intention of releasing the material on CD sometime soon. So this time the normally bare stage sprouted four sets of mikes. Everyone was let in relatively early, so that people could order their food and drinks to last the duration of the show. Don M. and an associate from KL Group/Sitraka/Quest Software joined us at our table, and one of my students from my last Information Architecture class also turned up, interested in seeing Paul Chato when he is not talking about how Content Management Systems work. It was a packed house - each show seems to be attracting more and more people. Probably this article from eye magazine also had something to do with it.

Rick Green came out about 15 minutes before things started to announce that this was going to be a different type of show, as they would be reading from scripts and that if they flubbed their lines they would back up and and do a re-take. The show was fun, but some of the best laughs came from some of the flubbed lines, and when they went off-script -- things which will never make to the eventual CD. Consequently the show didn't come off as fresh as the previous couple of shows for me, but my sides were still aching from laughter by the end of the night.

This time they had visible set-lists taped to the floor and to the wall (which I managed to get a shot of after the show) and I was surprised by the amount of wholly new or heavily reworked material in the show. The show started off with a classic "Duncan, Michael, Ted and Jeff Show", an ersatz talk show where the four hosts did a staccato delivery, this time on the topic of same sex marriage. Good material, but stymied by several mistakes, which was easy enough to do given the blazingly fast pace in which the pseudo-opinions were delivered. A rocky start, but things did get better.

One of the most bizarre pieces had to be "Horse Race Odds", where two announcers (Rick and Dan) come out to call the race between an unlikely selection of horses, including a polar bear, a horse named Tripod who was missing a leg, and the billion-to-one shot horse who turned out to be dead. Their delivery was right on the money, and this track is bound to make it to the CD. Rick was arguably in his best form, especially when he did the "Instant Buddhism" skit, where master Tang Po returned from his first outing in the previous show advertising his instant karma solution. Another new classic.

The skit called "I Want" was the most telling skit of the night in terms of how the troupe's humour has matured over the years. A great monologue featuring Peter where he begins to tell off his child for not cleaning up his/her room and then launches into a stream-of-consciousness rant that ends up with the parent only wanting the best for their kid. At the end of it Erika turned and said to me "Uh oh, that's us". Made all the better by the fact that Peter's own kids were in the audience. Sharp, obliquely-aimed family-situation comedy that has an edge and yet one that any parent will recognize.

Other highlights of the show for me included the "Hotel Porno" skit, which featured Rick as a very confused man on a phone calling Paul at the front desk who was explaining why his movie choice was less than was expected; the re-worked "Give a Man a Fish" skit from their radio days which sees several seeming philosophers discuss how the economics of helping people to help themselves must ultimately result in annihilation; and the "American Jesus" skit, where three American film execs in the wake of the success of "The Passion of The Christ" discuss the potential of a new Jesus film featuring a reworked lead who delivers a righteous ass-kicking. Great stuff, easily on par with some of their best material -- smart, side-splittingly funny and leaving you wanting more.

The flubs that were sprinkled throughout the show had the crowd in stitches. At one point Paul came up to Dan and made a gesture that looked like he was pulling a long stray hair from his chin, but was meant to tell him to move closer to the mike. This of course threw off Dan, and everybody was waiting for the inevitable retaliation when Paul took his turn at mike -- and when he did the result had everybody on the floor with laughter. In a slightly reworked version of "Now You Tell Us", Peter's grumpy old widower shouted out (in character) in the middle of the skit "I've lost page four!" which had the friendly audience howling in sympathy. The best in-character flub had to be the "Naughty Aliens" skit, when Paul jumped a line ahead and Dan's alien character "I didn't say that yet" - which could have been the guilty alien talking about why enjoyed probing humans so much, and knowing that the next line was coming. Safe to say that none of the flubs are likely ever to make it to eventual CD release, but this show probably comes closest to the radio shows they recorded back in the 80s.

Afterwards we stuck around for a bit and chatted. Paul came around and told us that their plan for the CD is to combine pieces from this show along with bits they plan to record in studio. There are also apparently some TV plans now in the works, though he wouldn't get more specific. I also got the chance to say hello to Rick for the first time in person, and I mentioned that I had been at his History Bites show at the ROM. Apparently it was such a success that the ROM is planning on doing three more such lectures/shows, which will fall into various themes still to be chosen.

Since this show was recorded, Erika took an interest in meeting the sound recordist, who happened to be the same fellow who recorded the shows for the Frantics during their radio days, along with their "Boot to the Head" album. Turns out the world of stage recording and film recording are very different, with little overlap in the recording equipment used -- film sound is inherently more mobile-oriented for a start. While the recordist and my wife traded some war stories of life in the biz, I managed to put on the headphones and listen to part of the recording. To my untrained ear the recording had better dynamic range than I expected, and came across with a lot of presence -- more than I thought likely, considering that the members of the troupe were constantly moving off mike as they reacted to one another. Turns out that there were a couple of microphones placed in back of and behind the audience, which may explain the depth of the sound. Erika assured me later that the recordist has a lot of post-production work to do in order to make the final version sound as good as possible. I wonder if my laughter will come through on the eventual CD? ;-)

A fun show, though ultimately not at their critical best due to the many flubs and stumbles. Should make for an interesting CD though. (And I can't help but think that maybe using some radio mikes might capture the more spontaneous nature evident in their previous shows).

Next show? Paul mentioned that they weren't sure when that was going to be, given that most of the cast members are going on vacation at various times over the summer.