The tapings for the Frantics shows were held in the Blue Orchid Room, which was just down the stairs inside the front entrance of the Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD), just a little north of what is now the CityTV building in downtown Toronto. It was a large, dark room -- or at least was kept dark for the show. A large open space with small tables with chairs. A small bar at the back sold drinks. At the other side in the back was where all the recording equipment was located, along with an associated technician or two. At the front was the stage, which is where the Frantics themselves performed.
The audience atmosphere was very intimate. I don't recall what the seating capacity and attendance was like. I'd place it from a minimum of 20 people in the audience to as many as 50, but it couldn't have been higher than that on a good night. They never really spoke with the audience members unless they needed participation, but they definitely loved to perform and were happy to have people watch and react. It was like a large one-night family gathering. They would record two shows at each recording, with an intermission in between. Sometimes sketches were clipped, or rearranged, or put into shows later on, but to me it seemed that most of them went as is to radio.
On the stage there were usually three or four stand-up mikes. Often there'd be one mike off to one side that had been fiddled with so that when they spoke into it, it sounded like they were on a telephone. Off to the left-hand side was the sound effects technician who had a table with everything prepared for the show, such as shoes to make clomping noises, a small door for opening and closing, drills and other weird noisemakers, plus various sound recordings that were played on cue. When the opening and closing music would play, they really blasted it through the speakers, the whole room would reverberate. Peter had a particularly dramatic way he would stand while reading the credits at the end of the show.
I don't recall much about their onstage antics specifically, although they did do some. They all read off of scripts. I rarely, rarely saw them do a second take -- they had either rehearsed everything well beforehand, or they were very good on their feet. Peter would sit while playing the guitar. During the taping of the "Last Will and Temperament" sketch, everyone would tilt their heads sideways whenever the boot sound effect happened. For sketches like "Reach for the Top", they'd divide the audience in half so each side would applaud the different contestants
Some neat performance trivia though: for Mr. Canoehead sketches, Paul Chato would hook a bucket around his neck by the handle and then speak into it. Moo Moo Bunnylips' voice was done by speaking through a really long, huge cardboard mailing tube.
