What the fuck is up everyone. All you unconventional conventions. Welcome back to Rocky Talkie Rocky Horror Podcast where we talk about anything and everything. Rocky Horror. I'm John now, I'm Aaron. I'm what is up Aaron and Nicky? What do you all do this weekend? This weekend? This week? What y'all do this week? Oh, I had a very busy but very fun week, John. Uh I was sitting in Adobe premiere for most of the week doing video editing. We uh had our community preshow night this weekend, which was fantastic. Loved that, but had to had to edit some videos for that. And then just uh just earlier today, actually spoiler we're talking about this on Monday. We dropped our first pop up video uh with shock treatment, uh facts and info in it. So I was spending some time doing some editing on that. So I know we aren't supposed to talk about Rocky right now, but you know, all I did this week was Rocky. It was awesome. I hate you. What about you, Nicky? I feel horrible right now. I really do. I spent most of my week in Adobe premiere making slide shows for my Rocky cast. That's reopening. Oh my God. But actually on, on like the grander scheme of things um outside of my show reopening my job actually also reopened this week. So now I'm able to go back to work and make money and I feel so great. I feel so rejuvenated and I feel like a person again. Like I'm just so pumped. I love my job. I love, love working and I'm really excited for this summer. Well, I'm proud of both of you. So this week I have finally come into the idea that I'm going to be 29 in a couple of months because I ordered some stuff and one of those things made me like inordinately happy. I purchased a Brita filter and I cannot tell you how excited I was that this came in and that I got to like set up the filter inside the big canister. I had to like fill it up and then empty it out and fill it up again. Uh It was so invigorating. I'm gonna be 30 soon. Adulting be like that man. You just get excited for dumb shit. And it's like nice. Yeah, it was the British filter was really nice. I got like these terry cloth wash rags so that when I like dry dishes and stuff like the, the water doesn't just like sit on it. It just gets absorbed immediately, you know. Uh just wow, I'm, I'm so hot. You really are sweetie. Open a window, man, guys, we have to fucking acknowledge this. Do you know what today is? Uh March 29th, 7 18 PM. It's a Monday. It's Rocky talkie's 21st birthday. Uh No. Yes, we've only been doing this for like a few months. Nicky. Yeah. 21 weeks to be precise. Oh shit. So Nikki, are you implying that like when, if you have a child you're going to allow them to drink at 21 weeks old, John? What does it feel like to be devoid of joy? Great. Actually, you should try it some time. Happy 21st birthday, Rocky Talkie. This one's on me. Thank you to everyone who got us this far. I can't wait to take Rocky Talkie to the bar. That was my poem. Let's get drunk. OK. Shot, shot, shot, shot, shot, shot you talking. It's our musical episode. And with that, how about we get started with our first segment of the uh of the podcast. What's a podcast? I don't know. I think it's a ship. Oh OK. Yeah, I have a boat. Let's do that. Yeah. Global news. All right guys kicking off global news this week. Uh this past week was Richard o'brien's birthday. Yeah. Happy birthday. Just like John. He is also becoming an adult and he went from 78 to 79 on Thursday. Maybe a, a little more of an adult. Yeah, probably not famous birthdays dot com. Uh that's a site that ranks the top 25,000 most famous people. Uh lists Richard o'brien as the 9929th most famous person to have a birthday. Of course, in our hearts, he's number one. We love you, Richard. So to commemorate this auspicious occasion, we gotta ask our favorite basic white bitch, Nikki. Do you have any hot takes to share with us about Richard star signs? No fuck off. Ok, but would you do it for a pumpkin spice latte? No, would you do it for two pumpkin spice lattes? Venti with whip. Sure, whatever you want, sweetie. Ok. So o'brien was born on March 25th, 1942 in Cheltenham UK. His zodiac sign is Aries and his daily horoscope on Thursday was you will be more social than usual and you will want to spend your free time in the company of friends doing your hobbies or have a lovely time with your partner. You will want to express not only your romantic emotions but also creative thoughts. You will feel the desire to be creative and to show your talent and playfulness. But during this period, fun can easily turn into a problematic situation. So be careful and be rational when you have the desire to experience something new. Sounds pretty standard for Richard who I'm fairly surprised is still kicking at 79. Despite all the drugs, a man of his inclination must have in his system. Reminds me of Alice Cooper upon whom Franken Furter was based and that was astrology corner with basic bitch Nicky moving on, or should I say back? Let's take a look at some of the special birthdays that o'brien has had in the past so five years ago on his 70th birthday, Richard had a double whammy, both celebrating his birthday with an event at his hometown as well as a one off 70th birthday concert. Richard is from Hamilton, New Zealand and they even erected, erected a statue of Spacesuit Riff right in the spot where o'brien did a lot of his work creating Rocky Horror. We talked about that a few months ago when we covered the statue's birthday party o'brien also celebrated the occasion with a one off 70th birthday concert on Saturday, March 17th, 2012. The was serious funds for the Child Focused Starship Foundation as well as celebrate his then recent induction as a fully fledged New Zealand citizen. The mayor also presented o'brien with a birthday cake to celebrate the occasion and town residents were invited to celebrate the artist. All the festivities took place at the riffraff statue. So on Richard's 75th birthday in 2017, he threw another birthday bash concert, 75 years of rock and roll. Again, the proceeds went towards the Starship Foundation. Nicky. Would you like to tell us a little about starship? Of course, Aaron, could you tell us a little about starship the charity, not the Zoom Zoom. Captain Kirk. Shit. Starships. We're meant to fly Starship by Star Kid, the musical Jefferson. Starship. So sure, this is straight from their Facebook page. The Starship Foundation generates funds to help give our Children better health and a brighter future. So since 1992 the Starship Foundation has invested more than 100 and $35 million into preventing child abuse and working towards overall child health and welfare, both physically and legally. No, that's really sweet. Good for Richard. He may be old as shit and he may be weird as hell. But it's awesome that he's using his platform to spread awareness and donate to such a worthy cause. Well, let's move on to our next Richard o'brien story, Aaron. Why don't you take a look at this picture in the Google Doc and tell us what you see? That's also what I see. Oh Actually this is really fucking cool. Hold on. I mean, it's a little horrifying but mostly cool. All right. So this is like a hyper realistic mask or a sculpture I think of, of Richard o'brien as riffraff. I think this is the one that I saw earlier this week. It's, it's done by the artist uh Russ Turk. It's like super detailed. I know that he like individually hand did all of the hair on this. It's like absolutely crazy, super realistic, all of the color and the skin tone and the makeup is represented in there. It's like your life size. This thing is huge and kind of creepy. Yeah. Absolutely. Rurik is an incredibly talented artist who specializes in hyperrealistic monster masks. His masks are sculpted in clay molded cast in latex, airbrushed and then hand painted for this particular mask. Rick's eyes were glued in separately and all the hair on his head and face was hand applied. Russ makes all sorts of masks. Horror is clearly his favorite genre but within that, he creates portrayals of a really wide range of characters. He sculpted genuinely scary shit like werewolves and aliens to cut or horror stuff like the child catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang or zombie attack. Charlie Brown who's really just regular Charlie Brown whose brains got a little nibbled on by a zombie. So, you know, there's something here for everyone except me. I thought the child catcher was horrifying that she gave me nightmares for months, man. You were a scaredy cat even as a little kid. Huh? I was 23 I thought Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was a fun kids movie. Oh my God. Yikes moving on. Russ puts an insane amount of time and detail into every single one of his masks and sells them online and at conventions, did y'all know that mask fest is a thing? They have a whole convention just for masks. I've never heard of it. But Rocky Horror conventions are all sort of things. So Yeah, that's fair. Well, Turk Monster Masks, which is Russ's company seems to be exclusively online only right now while cons aren't happening. But shopping around on his Etsy page is almost as good as in person. He posts a ton of pictures for each piece. So you can get a fabulous idea about how intricate they all are. Also shares a ton of content online about the mask creation process. And it's actually really interesting if you're like me and you're into super different kinds of art, he's even got a youtube channel, Indie Cabaret N Y C where he does videos about how he makes all his different masks. They're super cool and I definitely recommend giving them a watch if you're looking for a new youtube rabbit hole to explore. And if you're into Rocky Collectibles, Aaron Russ is selling the Riff Raft mask for $525 which is just a drop in Aaron's wallet. It is absolutely gorgeous with an incredible level of detail put into it. And I'm sure many, many hours of work that should go right into Aaron's hands. Damn. That's like 1/6 of a frank jacket. And what is probably currently in Aaron's wallet? No, I think that's in my Venmo though. You know what this is an important too. Let's meet up Nikki. Some of us don't use our Venmo as a bank account. So some of us get laid. Oh God, Nicky woke up and chose violence today, bitch, I bought my wife. Ok. So even if you don't got 500 bucks lying around in your couch cushions that you can spend on art Russ's Etsy page is definitely worth a visit. Just to be amazed at the sheer amount of talent that this guy's got. We're linking all of that for you on our show notes. If you want to take a look and speaking of sheer talent, our boy Meatloaf has partnered with a production company called Nobody's Hero to start working on a new reality program called and I shit you not, I do anything for love but I won't do that. Oh, so original Meat will be the executive producer for the show where couples will compete against each other in all sorts of games, revealing how well they work together and how much they trust and believe in each other. Of course, all the games will be underscored by a soundtrack of classic hit music performed live in studio by the original artists. So according to a deadline article in each episode, there will be two couples who put their relationship on the line for the show's cash prize. After two rounds of absurd and sometimes frightening physical contests inspired by ballads. The couple on top gig will advance to the end game where their faith in each other will undergo the ultimate challenge. I can feel a lot of bad musical puns about to happen and I'm not happy about it. Nikki, this entire show is one bad musical pun full of smaller bad puns. It's like a punny nesting doll and it's gonna be great. You would like this. I just want to know what game show they're gonna have while I have to listen to in the land of the pigs. The butcher is king. That's kind of some Fear Factor shit. Right. Ok. Anyway, so the program was conceptualized by nobody's hero. That's the production studio that brought us the hit reality competition series and nailed it who have recently been working with Netflix Amazon and Hulu to create even more lighthearted content that I've never seen. When speaking to deadlines studio creatives, Christopher Potts and Johnie Nash are quoted as saying, we want to create shows that are funny, clever and buzz worthy. But two out of three ain't bad to which Meatloaf responded. You took the words right out of my mouth. Oh Jesus Christ. See it's already starting. I can't wait to watch this. It's gonna be ridiculous. So next in the script, it says anybody have any ideas for a rocky reality show? I feel I'm putting this here, but I also wouldn't be surprised if the answer were. Yes. Well, yes, that's really stupid. Anybody Bueller can we move on? You know what me, you should feel dumb for putting that there. Hear me out. Ok. So, like, you know, those shows, you know, like that reality show that they had that was like The Search For Elle Woods. And it was like a Broadway reality show where they got like all these talented people to try their luck at playing the main character. You know what I mean? That, but like Franken Furter for R K O K, a whole show dedicated to finding like the bot best, most detailed and like dedicated person to play Frank for an entire con. I'm here for it. I'll host it. Let's get her done wrap, put it up, let's do it. Let's do it. Somebody call Roy Rossi right now. Get him on the phone. Let's do it. So I'm going to point out if you're doing a multimillion dollar television series, I think that you could find the new Frank for the, uh, touring show in the UK. You probably don't have to shuffle him off to a hotel in Providence, Rhode Island for R K o'connor. I'm just saying it would be fun. Oh, no, I'd watch the shit out of that. Are you kidding me? How many different times can we watch somebody do? Sweet transvestite over and over. How do they even do that on the Elle Woods show? Like, did they sing different songs all the time? Yeah, I think, I don't know. I didn't watch it. But so anyway, the show is currently in the early stages of development and is being shopped around in the networks. So we don't know when or where it will be available yet. But you guys, this sounds terrible and like it's going to be so much fun. Stay tuned. We'll keep you posted as we learn more. And speaking of terrible, let's move on to community news. No, no. All right, I'm taking my 15 minute break now. All right guys, we lied. We have a pretty major community announcement that is 100% the complete opposite of terrible. It's as far from terrible as you could possibly get Colombia's Closet. The iconic costuming website run by the equally iconic Mina Rude is back up and running. Yay, yay. Oh my God. So for those of you who joined the community within the last year or so, Columbia's closet has been an absolute staple resource for creating screen accurate costumes. Since its creation in 2009, the site contains a gold mine of information about how to create your own costumes at almost any skill level as well as how to most effectively place custom costume orders from other creators. The website went down in 2020 but we are delighted to announce its return if you're new to the community and haven't had a chance to check it out or if you're a rocky vet looking to update your costumes during this break from performing, most of us are kind of forced into, you can visit it at Columbia's Closet dot blogspot dot com. So we might be on a performance break, but virtual shows are still going strong and we've got a few that we are super excited about. First up, the ordinary kids are going to be re airing their virtual performance on Saturday, April 17th at 10 PM Eastern. The show will be streamed on Twitch with a live Q and A and hang out on Facebook live afterwards. Oh, that sounds fun. You sound fun. Yeah, I do. I, I am totally enthralled. I totally enthralled. I'm John. Damn. It. No, I am pumped and super excited and totally enthralled by the editing and postproduction process for their show. So I'm gonna have to tune back in and pick their brains about all of the crazy stuff that they did. Yeah, it's not for a couple of weeks. So we'll be posting links as we get a little closer to the show time, but definitely mark your calendars for this one, especially if you missed the original showing. Their performance is super impressive and a lot of fun. And we've recently got a hot steamy sexy lead on some more virtual shows that we didn't know about. Excited mental state, which is up in Toronto has been putting on digital performances on the last Friday of every month and we finally got to tune into one this past week. You know, now that I think about it, it's kind of weird. We didn't know about these, especially since a certain Frenchman who listens to our show every week happens to live in Toronto and happens to be part of the excited mental state cast. You'd think he'd have clued us into his own cast performances. Huh? Hm. How about that? Nah, we're just kidding. We love you Hadrian. And we also speak for yourself. I love you Hadrian. We also loved getting to watch Ems S performance. It was way different than the ones that we've been checking out lately. So, it was great in a very sweet and intimate way. The whole show was on Discord with two cast members, Amy and Sarah hosting the event and shadow casting, a few different roles. Each, they had a fun little chat going before Showtime where Amy Ems S director hung out with the audience and chat while she waited for her cast mate, Sarah to log in, she even opened up the floor and asked if anyone had any rocky announcements to make before Showtime, which was really kind this month. They decided to do a Tim Burton theme night. Amy did a really cool Sweeney Todd that worked really well with Riff the character. She was mainly playing. Sarah did an insanely good Jack Kellington with full face paint it vib spectacularly with Crim, her main role. And during the show, the girls encouraged viewers to turn on their mics and shout live callbacks, which was amazing and something I know that we've all been really missing during virtual performances this past year. And for those of us who couldn't have our mics on, for whatever reason, they'd also set up a pretty extensive gift library to play with. So the whole show was like, really, really interactive. We loved this performance so much. Both performers seemed like they were having such a good time and it was such a breath of fresh air to be at any rocky show where the performers were able to interact and goof off with the audience in real time. Certainly wasn't as polished as a lot of the shows we've been seeing. But that's part of the fun sometimes. Yeah, this show was very reminiscent of like a January or February night where it's snowy and disgusting outside and you have like four audience members and only half of the cast is available. So what do you do? You just lean into it, you get the audience really involved and everybody walks away having had an awesome, wonderful time. These girls went above and beyond in their show to include the audience and, and it resulted in a fantastic performance. So if you are interested in tuning into the next one, it'll be on Friday, April 30th. We will be sure to remind you the week before and post dem links. So, speaking of reminders, did you guys know that this Friday, my cast is reopening our show. That's right. This Friday, April 2nd at 10 o'clock F N S is bringing sexy double masked up realness to the stage. I'm playing Rocky to a sold out show and I couldn't be more pumped if you're interested in what COVID precautions we're taking or how our show has changed. We have an entire section dedicated to it on our website. Go to rocky horror N J dot com and click COVID-19. We're going to continue being open every other Friday at 10 o'clock at the count. Basie cinemas in beautiful sunny red Bank, New Jersey. Hoola Congrats. That's awesome. Nikki. Did you? You just Hoola, didn't you? Hola John. I I thought better review. No, in earnest though. F N S has this like adorable regular who doesn't really come in that much anymore. But he did a lot in the past and he always has like the most extravagant costumes on like one time he came dressed as a satanic mechanic, which I thought was really cute regardless on every single one of our posts. Like without fail. If you check the comments, it says something along the lines of like hoopla Red Bank or Hoola Friday night specials. It makes me so happy. Well, Hoola Janet, so last up in community news, we want to thank everyone who came out to community preshow night. Last weekend we had an absolute blast watching videos and dip it up with all of you guys in chat, Dick Cheese. OK. Wait, do you guys know was that one of you? Because what the fuck was that? It was fucking rowan. Who else did I have I've never met Rowan. I just know like for the 1st 10 minutes of the show, it was just Dick Cheese Constant. And I was like, how is this person typing it this quickly? I legit threatened to uh restrict your, your throttling speed for how fast you can post comments based on which colors you pick. We want to thank everyone who came except Rowan and we also want to thank all the casts who submitted videos all in all. We received submissions from the Friday Night specials, full body cast, R H P S Buffalo, the Junior Chamber of Commerce Players, N Y C R H P S, the ordinary kids R K I and Tester Act. In fact, we got so many submissions that we were only able to include about half of what we received. So if your cast submitted something you were really excited about and we didn't include it. We're very sorry. We just didn't want to keep everyone there for a million years. Hang on. So what you're saying is we have all the content we need to put on another one. I mean, we still have a ton of videos that we didn't get a chance to air. So, oh maybe we should do another. Who said that? Who said that? I mean, I could go for another honestly. Same. That one was fun as shit. I wonder if our listeners would be down for a part two, two, two, two. I don't know. Let's ask them you fuckers want us to go again, maybe in a month or two. Let us know, you know where to find us. I don't know where exactly do they find us if they want to write to us? All they got to do is visit our website rocky talky podcast dot com and fill out a contact form. And that's not just to beg us for another preshow night. Either they can also use the form to submit questions for Nicky asks a question, Ball or Rocky story for Big Dick story time or to submit any cool Rocky related stuff they or their cast are working on for us to announce in community news. Oh, thank you. Thank you. Got it. Got it. Yes. But I'm just going over that for your benefit. Erin. They already knew that. Right. Right. Yes. Yes. Yes. And speaking of Nicky asks a question, let's move on to our next segment. Next, the N AA Q N the N AA Q. Nick's got a Nick knack. Oh my God. Oh my God. We got there. We got there, everyone, guys, guys. Are you seeing this? Are you seeing this right now? So, uh yeah, I asked the question for Nick Max this week. Anyway, so this is a bit of an interesting one and it might be overly specific but whatever I was talking to my cast director the other week. And if you don't know F N S is hosting the Rocky Down the Shore convention in 2023. But the episode we did a few weeks ago for Women's History Month, got me thinking before the internet, how in the hell would fans all over the country keep track of what was going on in the Rocky community? It wasn't like every time someone had an announcement to make, they faxed it up to their 10 closest friends and hoped it got passed along. Several of the fantastic women we highlighted a few weeks back were editors and contributors to all of the Rocky horror newsletters that were published around the country. I've only ever seen the ones Aaron has hidden away behind plastic protectors and while you've got quite a few, I'm pretty sure that's only the tip of the iceberg. So you know, let's go swimming. Iceberg dead ahead. No, Jack don't leave me, Jack and you. I don't, I don't know when to stop the car and you're here. No, no, John, please. John. No, that is. So that is enough of that. I'm so OK with that stopping, you know that movie came out before I was born. That's your one pre 2000 reference for the day. My heart will go on and on. Uh anyway, OK, back. Say it, say it correct. Correct. Good boy. Oh fuck. I got bad news because pretty much everything to do with newsletters is pre two thousands. The, the final issue of crazed imaginations, which I believe was the last newsletter in circulation was in 2006. Once the internet took off the entire format pretty much died off, hell, the entire idea of newsletters pretty much died. I remember my parents would get school newsletters set out by the P T A every month when I was like a child, local churches, community clubs and national organizations all sent out newsletters to tell you about what was going on in their little quarter of the world, right? All over the place office, copy machines did some off the books over time with countless unsung heroes stuffing envelopes so that you could receive a few photocopied pages in the mail every couple of months and the content was all created and curated analog, carefully laid out with scissors and glue with typewriting pages or hand done lettering. The idea of making a publication like that without Photoshop and illustrator gives me so much anxiety legit. That sounds so difficult. I'm all down for some type setting, but don't ask me to actually move little blocks of lead around. Sure. We don't get to make references about things that come out in the two thousands, but you drop a casual print making reference, which I'm pretty sure is like 1000 years old, almost John Fun fact, movable type was first invented in China around 10 40 ad by a man named B Sheng. It wasn't until 14 50 that Johannes Gutenberg developed a mechanical metal movable type printing press in Europe. I thought I did the random facts. So did I, that fact isn't about Rocky. Let it go. Aaron. There you go. No, no, I'm not doing that one. Show yourself is a much better song. Hi, I'm not doing that one. I'm John. Fuck. Stop Collaborate. And listen, Ice is back with a brand new edition. You listen, Rocky horror fanzines. Stay on topic. Yeah, fanzines. All right. All right. She got there. Honestly, we should probably keep that in. That's probably a relevant piece that we didn't address. So there were what can only be described as a metric fuck load of Rocky horror fanzines that came out over the years. Some of them had only a single issue. Some of them ran for years or stretched over a decade and they came from all over the country in the world. Sapiro chronicles a lot of them in the pages of Creatures of the Night and Creatures of the Night too. There it is. Don't you actually own a bunch of these? I've seen them. Why are we going back to Creatures? Does the podcast like get a kickback for every episode? We mentioned book man. I wish we'd have like $20. That's almost four items from Domino's Mix and Match Deal where you can choose two or more items for only 5 99. What do, do we need to put a sponsored content disclaimer on this one. Nah, I sent Domino's for free. Me and my roommate, Adam actually want to get instead of the 40 7-Eleven tattoo that Frank has. If I ever decide to get a tattoo, I'm gonna get one with Adam and it's gonna be 9193. Which for those of you who are not cultured is the coupon code for the two or more items for 5 99. We're genius. You don't have to tell me. Let's keep going. Anyway. So Sal in Creatures talks about a lot of the different newsletters, but he dives particularly deeply into the ones that were coming directly out of the New York City scene in the late seventies and early eighties. That's the Transylvanian and all of the quarterly publications from the official Rocky Horror fan club. See now we're getting somewhere. So if I had my Rocky Horror convention to pitch in 1980 I'd sends a letter or maybe call him up. If I was like on the inside track and ask him to put a notice in the fan club newsletter, he'd pass it on and by word of mouth or reading it in other newsletters. Fans around the country would hear the news seems slow and tedious and error prone and anyway, but sure what you gonna do, right. You've got to remember the vast majority of these newsletters were local affairs. Some were printed and distributed free at theaters. Some were sold at a small cost to cover expenses and only a handful charged a small subscription fee to cover shipping. It would send all over the country and they weren't just news about upcoming events, like, sure there was a ton of that. But these also featured a ton of original content, things like trivia questions, puzzles and original stories or editorials about. Well, the same kind of stuff that we talk about in the community today. They had reviews of special shows, news about the actors and new merchandise being released and the ever present sections devoted to personal ads where for a dollar or two, you could shit post on paper. And that's just like the community still includes in the back of all of the convention programs that didn't come out of nowhere. It's actually a grand old Rocky tradition that has its origins in the newsletters and fanzines from the late seventies and early eighties. And for the origin of Rocky newsletters, I know we've got Laura Stein to thank, we talked about her briefly in our women's appreciation month episode. But let's talk a little bit more about the first Rocky horror newsletter, the Transylvanian. Sure, I was lucky enough to recently pick up a copy of the earliest original issues. And I got to tell you it is an absolutely fascinating time capsule meg can attest when I got the package that contained these, I sat at her kitchen table and read these out page by page like a little school girl who just got her hands on the new twilight book. I can test. Aon's a little school girl. Hey. Well, you're hot in a tiny little dress mood. Ok. Let's, let's just make sure we cut that a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Ok. So the very first issue of the Transylvanian was released in January of 1978. It was edited by Robin Lipner. It featured an introduction from Sapiro and an interview with Johnny Green. He was a writer from the New York Daily News who recently did a piece on the Waverly theater that is so meta, an article about an interview with a guy who wrote an article about interviewing people at Rocky and an issue. Number one boy, there's also a review of the showing of Rocky and Queens. That's one of New York City's boroughs where they report the theater regularly sells 600 tickets every Friday and Saturday night. But it laments that the theater hasn't yet taken to using any props like cards or confetti. And the audience hasn't seemed to master doing callback lines in unison yet. Oh, geez. I think it's easy to forget that this is like January of 1978. The movie had only started playing at the Waverly in April of 76. Audience participation was invented later that summer, Sapiro wouldn't go see the film for his de Virgin until January of 77. And the start of using props like Cards was in April. It wasn't until that spring of 1977 when Dori Hartley first came to the Waverly theater and it's around that point now that most of the major players were in place where you get the start of the Transylvanian biweekly magazine that was put out by Laura Stein, that would eventually become the National Transylvanian magazine. That's the one that she called Mel Tells since she played Columbia and called herself Mel and her name was Laura just like Mel. I still can't get over that. I'm pretty sure her and I would have been legit besties. It was the late seventies, right? So, like disco buddies, we could wear like roller skates and flared pants and we could do each other's hair and we could hang out and she could be Mel and I could be me and then maybe we could kiss disco buddies. Is that like disco fries? Oh, Smother me, gravy and cheese, please. Also, it's the late seventies. So Disco Socks, at least that's what I learned from that seventies show. You remember the one where Fez dresses up as Franken Furter? Yes, of course. How could I forget? Oh Wilmer Valderrama. Did you know he just had a kid like last month, go figure, fuck. We're getting old back to the first issue of the Transylvanian. Uh Also included is a word search with 22 hidden words in the jumble and a fantastic piece of fan fiction written by none other than Dory Hartley. It is accompanied by comic illustrations that are still used by the Rocky websites that exist even today. 45 years later. What was it about? It's the back story of how the old Transylvanian Queen set Frank on a mission to Earth in order to research, if it was compatible with the Transylvanian way of life. Do you have a copy of this? Erin? I totally read this when you showed it to me. Oh, oh my God. Anyway, that's really exciting. I feel like I'm in, I'm in on the secret. Wait, isn't that just like in Universe Cannon? Well, it wasn't then. And lastly, and also most relevant to your question, Nikki, there's a brief piece by Larry for the then fan club vice president that is announcing the New York Rocky Horror convention for the spring of 70 eight. Oh, wow. Full circle. Yeah, Larry writes this convention planned as a three day event in the spring will be held at a major hotel in Manhattan, offering a time warp dance, a banquet of films, contests, quiz shows and guest appearances among other things will honor Rocky Horror and its fans. So I'm pretty sure I've heard that convention was like a massive train wreck. You know, hindsight's 2020. We'll have to do that story for Nicky asked the question some time and the whole story about the first two conventions from out in Long Island, the mini cinema ones organized by John Mancia. We talked about those a little bit in episode nine. The one where we discussed the Galaxy Con panel where Barry talks about the first fan and we talked about how much we want Zephyr's face. Do you know? They also put out a fanzine? Wait, wait, wait, Zephyr's face did a fanzine. No, John Man. That's a pretty good title for a fanzine though. Zephyr's Face. Is it fanzine or fanzine? They are both acceptable. Incredible. No, the one put out by John Mandra was called True Life Horror Stories and it first released in 1979. Oh, so there were several fanzines in New York in the late seventies, like John said before, most fanzines were locally based. They were generally distributed by a single cast out of a single theater. Heck The Rocky Review from the Ken Cinema in San Diego, California even put the phrase or something to read in line right? In the title head of the entire publication. This seventies, man. What a weird time. So how many fan signs were there? Are we talking? There could be like even one for each cast. So I've cataloged around 75 different ones just between those shown in the miscellaneous Rocky books, the Rocky Wiki stuff that I've got my own personal collection. But I would guess that the total number of different publications is easily in the hundreds for every fanzine that I'm aware of. I'm sure there's a dozen more, some with only a handful of issues that were handed out by a local cast in the eighties or the nineties. I mean, that makes sense if you think about how a lot of these fanzines are content put together by a single cast or for a local audience just hanging out on the line before a show. It's like all the cast Facebook pages, Instagram accounts, Tik Toks youtube videos. It's all done to build the brand of the cast and engage your local audience. We just all get to see now what casts are doing from California or Paris without having to send a self addressed stamped envelope across the country. Just imagine if the only outlet really for all that content was a monthly newsletter and at the rate that some people post, that'd be a lot of stamps. So we talked about the Transylvanian, the first big newsletter and we've mentioned a few others. I'm sure Aaron's super excited to talk about the other two shop talk and crazy imaginations. But before we do that, can we just take a second and appreciate some of these bat shit names that some of these fanzines have like in your pants from Wayne New Jersey and the one half creeper from Shamokin Pennsylvania. I know about you all, but I got a half creeper poking out right now. Also, Frankie's Johnny, I feel attacked. I think my favorite is the Tim Currier, which is published out of Bethesda. Maryland. Oh, my God. And we've got the tinted Rose that was published out of Brooklyn in the late seventies. There's a Swedish one called Another Slice. It's wild that there were so many fanzines that were made about this. It just goes to show that it's impossible to be original. Nowadays, there was one called The Darky Dark Darkness out of Santa Monica. I don't love gothic news. Was it specifically Rocky Horror or was it like a whole thing? Because if it's a whole thing, I get that. But like gothic news as a Rocky Horror fan sign is just too vague. Yes, because the darky darkness is so goddamn dark that it's gone. I mean, unbound pages sounds like the complaint that they filed with their printer, not the title of their, we addressed the Night Stalker from North Haven, Connecticut. Uh Yes. The infamous Night Stalker from North Haven Connecticut. That's like, so fuck. I'm like, I'm going to start a fan scene that's just like the Ted Bundy Chronicle and it's a Rocky horror fucking fan scene. Yeah. And there's dozens and dozens more where that came from at least three different publications. All use dark refrain at one point or another. You saw all the variations on time warp, the names certainly get weirder and weirder as you enter into the nineties. All the best options were taken in the seventies and eighties. Welcome to Rocky Talkie by the way. Yeah, this might be a glasshouse situation and maybe we need to put down the rocks. Let's talk about shop talk. I know from our women's appreciation episode that Betsy Voytko took over editing it at some point and she saw it through the bulk of its prolific 100 plus issue run, but she didn't start it originally. Right. Right. That was a guy named Alan Hero. He ran the Rocky Horror shop. It was a mail order business that sold memorabilia out of Seal Beach California. In the early eighties, he started shop Talk as a supplement to the catalog. He retired in the mid eighties and he passed the reins over to Betsy. She continued publishing shop talk throughout the rest of the decade all the way till 1989. And when it released its final 1/100 issue shop talk ran for over eight years. That's quite an impressive feat and was basically the most broadly consumed fan periodical throughout the entirety of the go go eighties. Got it. So if I'm trying to let everyone know about my super sweet convention in the late seventies and early eighties, I need to get in touch with Sal and the fan club team in New York. So it can go in the Transylvanian. But by the mid eighties I'm ringing up Betsy in Wisconsin to get the news out there in Rocky Horror Shop talk. And I probably publish an announcement in my local fans eye and that my theater would put out and probably a few other scenes put out by nearby casts in the late eighties and early nineties. You had the publication Creatures Of the Night Out of Canada. I don't know a whole lot about this one, but I'm pretty sure that they published over 50 issues. I only say that because the one photo I've seen is of their 50th issue in Creatures of the Night too. But the big, the one that we've got to get to starts in 1996 and that's crazed, imaginations crazed was unlike a lot of the fan signs before where they were traditionally low fi photocopies. Many were barely double sided, let alone multiple pages crazed was for all intents and purposes. A full length highly produced Rocky Horror magazine craze cover Rocky Horror and Shock treatment focusing on both the shadow cast and the stage scene. And at its height boasted subscribers from more than 25 states in six different countries. Their old website used to say we use modern technology to keep in touch with our readers and get as wide a range of information as possible and present it to you the old fashioned way on paper. This is nuts just looking at some of the stuff they covered. They've had multiple interviews with Richard o'brien, Sue Blaine, Patricia, Quinn, Richard Hartley Mick Rock, Anthony Head Lou Adler, Christopher Malcolm, Sadie Cory and Perry Betton. And on top of that craze brought so much exclusive content to the community, original costume drawings from Sue Blaine. Never before seen Mick Rock photos. They even published the original statements from the criminologist's book. That's absolutely crazy, crazed if you will. I won't. And the whole thing lasted for over 11 years. Bill Brennan, out of the New York City cast was the founding editor and he ran crazed for its 1st 2.5 years. Starting in 1995. Ruth Fink Winter started with the publication in 1998 and saw it through as its editor all the way to its conclusion in 2006 with only a single one year hiatus. Wait, Bill Brennan and Ruth Fink Winter both edited the crazed imaginations. That's insane to me because like, I know both of their names, like they're both ingrained in my head so vividly, but I had no idea that they even crossed paths if you thought those names were familiar many other major names from the community that you might recognize worked on crazed as well. Mike Bennett, Jean Chiari, Jeff Nitz and a dozens upon dozens of reporters, graphic designers, writers, and countless other roles were filled by members of the community all over the world and really crazed, had an amazing run. It was literally the rise of the internet, an entirely new mode of communication that would lead to its end. So by the late nineties, the Rocky Horror News group had been formed and now it was possible to send messages to the entire community digitally and in near real time, no more stamps and envelopes and paper cuts but also no more cute designs and crazy layouts. I mean, there was ask art, we all know that an ask penis just isn't the same. What does ask you mean? I don't know what it stands for but it's like it's like making a picture out of like characters on a keyboard. Oh OK. I understand. So up through the early two thousands, that's where you would have posted about your upcoming Con Nikki, you blast out an email to a few 1000 people and watch it spread from there. But after the turn of the millennium, things started to get really decentralized. The internet started to fragment off the community into a lot of different places. You had the forums on Cosmos Factory. There were live journal groups, tumblr blogs, myspace pages and independent websites run by fans. You could still find the content that you wanted, but it was all over the place. And by that point fanzine, print publications were a dying breed, not just in the Rocky community in 2006 after holding out far longer than anyone could have possibly imagined. And after an amazing 106 issues, crazed imaginations closed up shop, essentially signaling the end of the entire Rocky horror fanzine era. The entire phenomenon spanned from 1977 to 2006. That's almost 30 years of content produced by the Rocky Community, countless articles, trivia, puzzles, news reports, reviews, fan fiction, drawings, interviews, and so much more all brought to the fans by the fans. In Creatures of the Night. Sao calls the fanzines, the heart and soul of Rocky horror that quote pops into my head from time to time. And I think it's something to remember even now as we all find ourselves making content online years and years before it was easy to post to one of the many Rocky Facebook groups before we could hop on video calls and virtual shows with casts all over the country. It was the dedicated work of these individuals sitting at their typewriters in kitchen tables that brought Rocky content to the masses. It was the super fans cutting up photos, writing, editing, drawing, creating layouts, producing copies and stuffing envelopes that helped create the massive international phenomenon that is Rocky Horror and in turn created the community as we all see it today. So from all of us here at Rocky Talkie, thank you to everyone who ever picked up a pen and made the world of Rocky a little bit bigger. And also quick note for me, if time ends up being cyclical and wraps back around next time, we're in the seventies and eighties, please. For the love of God, put the fucking publishing date on the front cover of every issue. Do you have any idea how hard it is to collect these things when I don't know how many of them are actually out there. Hashtag First World Rocky problems, more like just Aaron problems. Aaron has a lot of problems. Not enough problems. All right, I'm glad we all got there 99 problems. And that's our show. If you would like to submit a question for us to answer on air or write to us with some community news or even just like a cool story about your time in the Rocky horror community. Go to our website rocky talky podcast dot com and fill out our contact form to share with us. We really enjoy getting to hear about all the cool stuff that you'll have been working on and we love having the opportunity to share it with the rest of the community. If you're enjoying Rocky Talkie, please help us spread the word about it. All you gotta do is rate review and subscribe on itunes. It helps us make our podcast more visible to new listeners, which helps us to grow the show or on Facebook, Instagram and tiktok all at Rocky Talkie podcast. So please check us out if you like us and want more content, we'll talk to you all next week. Bye. Hey, Meg. I hope you like this. Mm No. Um One thing before I go on this rant um Jacob wrote your link wrong. So it's not the famous birthdays dot com. It's just famous birthdays. I checked because I knew that it was famous birthdays. But I was like, maybe it's another thing because it just the famous birthdays sound so boomer. I was like, there's no fucking way so I mean you could keep it in but it sound like a boomer. Famous birthdays dot com. Reminds me of Alice Cooper, upon whom Franken Furter was based. What the fuck is that citation, that citation? That's completely not true. That gives me agita OK. What should I say? No, it's fine. We'll keep it and keep what I just said. Ok. Now listen, this is Aaron from the future. I'm not usually one to argue with myself but I was wrong and I'm not saying Jacob was right. I'm saying that the website that he stole his information from that sourced something from I M DB that sourced something from the Rocky Horror scrapbook was actually correct. It, it does say in there that Alice Cooper is kind of an inspiration for Frank. So that's fine. I'm not wrong but I was wrong. So according to a deadline article in each episode, there will be two customers who put their relationship to customers. Why a You do? No, no, that those aren't even the lines that those aren't the lines. Yeah. Hold on, let me do some editing more. You are in the door and you're here in my heart and it wasn't until 14 50 that Johannes oh God. Johanna. Johanna, why would I, why would I know this? So, is it fan or fanzine? They're both acceptable data or pronunciation? Doesn't fucking well that one is, or I hate you done recording stop.