What the fuck is up to all of you unconventional conventions. Welcome back to Rocky Talkie, Rocky Hard Podcast where we talk about anything and everything. Rocky Horror. My name, if you didn't know is John classing it up. I'm Aaron and Nick always classing it up. Aaron. How was your week? We haven't talked in like three whole days. Oh man, it was, it was pretty good, John a lot happened in three days. I got to Bronze tier four on Classic Hearthstone. Look at you. I'm always on my third bronze star in Overwatch. Yeah. So I mean, I'm practically a pro at that game at this point. No, they just, they just came out with the classic mode. I this is probably six months ago or so that that happened. I hadn't checked it out. I played Art Stone a Ton way back when and I hadn't given it a go yet. I got back in all my cards were still there. I went in played a bunch of games, remembered all of the things that are frustrating about that format and uh then I went on and worked on some Rocky Horror stuff this week. So love it. Yeah. I mean, that was, that was pretty much my week. How was your week, Nicky, how are you doing? I've had a pretty good week. I haven't really done too much in terms of, like, exciting stuff. I know that, like, our weeks aren't supposed to be too rocky related, but I feel like this bridge is the divide. One of my very good friends and fellow cast mate Heather and I are finally collab on a piece for our show. We're doing a brand new poster and I'm so excited. We're in the final stages of it. I'm obsessed with Heather. I love their work so much and I'm so excited to finally see everything coming together on the big screen. I'm so pumped. Shout out to Heather. Shout out to Heather. Indeed. Y'all will not believe what I got to do this past week. So this week I actually had the opportunity to see in the heights, the movie that is coming out next month. And for all of you who are super excited to see it, who all of you are? Big theater people, big Lyn member, while Miranda people, it's incredible. So when it hits June 11th HBO Max and I think it's a in theaters, go see it, go see it any way that you are comfortable seeing it. It is so good. I cannot stress to you how amazing this movie is. I can't stress to you how horny I am. For Anthony Ramos. I don't blame you. Literally. The entire cast is hot. Like the entire cast. Even Abuela. That's awesome. I've, I've never seen it. So I am, I am absolutely pumped to get to a, to find, I, I don't know. Was it based on the stage show? I have no idea. I mean, yeah, it's based on the shit, it's based on the stage show, but it's updated a little bit for current times because it came out in like 2008 or something like that. So it's updated a little bit, but it's so good. Awesome. Yeah. No, I've, I've never seen the stage show. So I'm, I'm kind of pumped to, to get to finally get to see a version of it. This uh this will be fun. That's awesome, dude. Abs absolutely fucking loot. But we're not talking about in the heights on this podcast. We're talking about Rocky. So with that, let's get started with our first segment. Do global news club. So for stopping global news, we've got a fun announcement from Oakley Court. Go on. Oh my God. Oh my God. Shit. I just thought they were doing something really cool recently that I was going to send to meg to include in the show and I totally forgot maybe it's the same thing. Oh, well, do you want to just go first? No, no, let's do the show first. I can say mine at the end super quick. All right. Well, the Oakley Court, which is the castle where Rocky Horror was filmed, just announced that their annual film and memorabilia affair will be returning this year and will be held on Halloween 2020 one. So for those of you who may not know the Oakley Court film and memorabilia fair is a unique and exciting film and movie memorabilia event set in a venue steeped in British TV and cinematic history. They feature over 40 specialist dealer tables selling everything from movie posters to film, memorabilia, stills, books, videos and DVD S all sorts of stuff. In addition to being the set of, well, our favorite. It's also home to a ton of other horror movies from the sixties, the seventies and the eighties including Cursive Frankenstein, Dracula, the Reptile Theater of Blood and TV. Favorites including the New Avengers and Hammer House of Horror. It was also home to 20 nineteen's most ridiculous wedding where airline barf bags full of alcohol and rubber penises were handed out to the guests at the beginning of the ceremony and Savannah dressed as morticia. Adams almost ed themselves into the Thames River during the post ceremony photography session that was Aaron and Meggs wedding by the way. Yeah, I was gonna say that sounds familiar but I digress this year's special guests will include artist Graham Humphries, author and horror historian, Wayne Kinsey and locations expert and Oakley court tour guide Andy Ellis. I don't know who any of them are, I actually have a book by Wayne Kenzie that I just got in the mail. It's all about Bray Studios during the Hammer Horror period. It's actually really interesting. It features a bunch of like architectural diagrams of the layout of the sound stages that they shot parts of Rocky Horror on. So that's awesome. Get a, get a meet him if you go to this event. That sounds super cool. I can't read. So I, I've always heard this event is super cool. They've got a ton of exclusive artwork and merchandise. Plus if, if you're a history nerd like me, I'm sure the tour guides they'll have at this event are insanely knowledgeable about the castle and they have tons of cool stories to share about the stuff that's happened there. I'd love to go someday. It sounds really neat. I just wish it was closer to the picnic. If you're one of our listeners across the pond or just feel like springing for a quick trip to the UK. This sounds like an amazing way to spend a Halloween tickets. Have any gone up for sale yet, but they'll be announcing all that soon as well as info about guests, vendors and more. If you're interested in learning more or buying tickets to the event, we've got the event's Facebook page linked in our show notes. That's where they post all their new info as it rolls out. Speaking of our friends across the pond. Wait, wait, I have a thing. Oh, shit. Sorry. What's your thing? Nikki? I saw an article about the Oakley Court. Was it this that we just talked about? No, it wasn't. I feel like my thing is even cooler though. Did you guys know that they turned the Oakley Court into a hotel which is like awesome because you could go to the fair and then stay the night. Cool. Right. Go fuck yourself. Whatever. I thought it was cool. I'm firing you right now. Damn it. Please don't. Speaking of our friends across the pond, we've got an update from for the Love of Horror Con. So this convention already has a huge stable of Rocky horror film actors who are going to be making appearances. Tim Curry uncle Barry Little Nell Patricia Quinn Meatloaf. And this week they've got 1/6 cast member, Stephen Calcutt who Stephen played the tallest Transylvanian in Rocky Horror, as well as a wedding guest at the start of the film. So Stephen was registered with the ugly agency when the casting call came out seeking unusual looking actors to be casted as Transylvanian and apparently being six ft six was unusual enough to land him the role. I'm so sorry. What? The ugly agency. Yo, you heard me? The ugly modeling agency is a London based alternative modeling agency that specializes in character modeling. Their primary focus is celebrating everyone's unique beauty. It was founded in the late sixties to fill a need in the modeling industry for faces that didn't fit the mold of what is conventionally attractive. They helped Stephen land one of his first acting jobs, which was the Rocky Horror picture Show after Rocky Steven took on numerous screen jobs including portraying five different characters in doctor who throughout the seventies and eighties, he's also done a ton of, I don't want to say notable work because the point is literally not to be notable or not on screen, but he's been extremely successful as a body double. You haven't seen him in all three original Star Wars films where he stood in for Chewbacca, the first two Harry Potter films and 007 Die Another Day. Damn, I feel like almost everyone has seen at least most of those movies. It's so funny that we were watching him all along without even realizing. Well, if any of you are interested in seeing Stephen in real life, he'll be up here as a guest at for The Love of Horror Con on October 16th and 17th in Manchester, United Kingdom. I bet you'd make his entire life if you mentioned to him how much you loved his work in Star Wars? And speaking of Star Wars are y'all ready for some retail therapy? Because Adam Age Industries has just released a line of really neat and honestly, really fucky original Rocky Merch. Yeah, I was ready to scroll through this stuff and see more variations on the same Rocky swag. Most companies release, but they've got a lot of really different designs to choose from and I'm here for it like the enamel pin of Frank's Boss tattoo. I've never seen one of those and it's really freaking cute and the lips throw pillow. I absolutely want one for my couch. That is so adorable. They've also got a bunch of T shirts, of course, including the original Roxy logo and the Time Warp Dance Steps. But they've also got the O G logo in like this really bright acid green color, which doesn't sound like it would work, but it totally does and looks really cool. I'm a big fan of the t-shirt that they have. That's just a copy of the Japanese poster on it. Like what the fuck, man. I love that poster. We, we've got a copy of it in our bathroom. It's my favorite one, especially because the poster is entirely in Japanese except for a couple of dates and the word sex. Like I have no idea why I've never found a translation of this. That's any good. But it's funny as hell. Oh shit. You can see it here on the shirt too. Oh I need it. I need it. Why, why does this exist? I mean, I don't know but I want one but guys, they also have a glow in the dark shirt just saying you could wear it as a crew member because it's technically black, but you'd be sticking it to the man because you would glow. Oh my God. I mean the man is meg and I'm already sticking it to her. I mean, I'm also kind of the man. You can stick it to me if you want. When the fuck am I ever going to like volunteer to do props if you God. Well, if you're interested in shopping, you can find the entire line at Adam age industries dot com. The shirts will run you between 20 and $40 or approximately 1 1/100 of a frank jacket. The lips throw pillow is $44 and about one 68th of a frank jacket. And the adorable little Boss Pin is only $10 or 1 3/100 of a frank jacket. And we've linked all of that for you in our show notes. Yeah, I might have already bought some of these guys. I'm not surprised. I, I actually, you'd be surprised. I actually do not own shirts. They're just like straight up the rocky lips and the logo and stuff. So this was a great opportunity. I'm gonna send you a shirt that's just my lips. I would buy that. Yeah, I'm sure you would. So next up, we are gonna talk about community news. Nobody's excited about that. So first up in community news, we've got a very sweet article written by May Hunt. That sounds like a fake name. Yeah, that really does at the Kenyan Collegian about the first Rocky Horror performance. The Ohio University has put on since the start of the Panera bread. You mean the Panorama? No, the pansexual? Oh, ok. The pan fried tilapia. Pan seared pot stickers actually. Oh, those are good. Those are really good. Now, I want to go to Friday's that said you. Pennsylvania. Ah, how I can't come up with a single one of these Jesus Christ. It's the start of the pansexual Pennsylvania. The performances took place on April 27th and 28th and they featured quite a few socially distanced amendments that I bet most of our listeners are probably familiar with by now. May describes how the actors all wore face masks. So naturally, a few things get lost in translation and it felt a bit difficult at times to grasp the full range of the performances. Certain numbers especially Taa were slightly awkward without the actual touching. However, the production team seemed aware of this and they added a gag where the actors held a six ft long measuring tape between their bodies instead of boning. That's a cute take. The performance took place in an outdoor space and while it was limited to a capacity of 50 audience members, plenty of stragglers watched from the grassy area around the fence that demarcated the official performance space all adhering to social distancing guidelines. Of course, while infinitely safer than an indoor theater, the article lamented the lack of an intimate feel to the show that one would normally find from a traditional theater setting. May does go on to say that a production without some rough edges is arguably a flawed interpretation of the source material. I think we can agree with that and says that in spite of its weirdness, the show was a ton of fun. The crowd was super energetic and had a great time shouting callbacks. They even did a virgin sacrifice during intermission where the two virgins competed in a dance battle. The production team even enlisted audience participation with navigating the outdoor theater space, encouraging audience members to use their phone flashlights to help the actors see as they were entering and exiting the crowd, which is like the most hard core audience participation I've ever heard of. I mean, or more like just free labor. Hey, you want to go to the Rocky War picture show. Crazy audience participation here. Hold this spotlight. It's cool to hear about how the audience can kind of help change the show post COVID because I know my cast in like particular had a lot of trouble in the beginning navigating what to do during bedroom scenes because we're not gonna do those scenes. There's just no point and it's we can't social distance that it's not safe. So when we first reopened, when we did our test run for Halloween, we just played the scene and it was kind of boring and we didn't really know what to do so. The first week back, my director Ryan just got on stage and did like a little bit of like a joke riff to kind of be like, we can't do this scene because of COVID. But here's some funny stuff and now every week we change it and we incorporate the audience in some way. So last week, like last Friday, we had my very good friend David come on stage and we auctioned him off to the highest paying audience member. Um And we got some wonderful prices such as a warm loaf of holla bread and three Doge coin. So it's really interesting to just see how the audience comes together to help you rework a scene when you don't really know what to do. Hey, those Doge coins are worth like $3.02 dollars, 70. I think it's like 38 cents right now. There was this one time where uh N Y C didn't have a Rocky like at all. And then Adam's partner at the time who was just an audience member had to play Rocky that night. He has never stayed awake past time. Warp. So he had no idea what he was doing. That sounds about right. Yeah. Huh. So the article concludes that all in all the production was the highlight of May's semester. She really got the sense that everybody was really grateful for an excuse to put aside their stresses and dance the time warp. And that alone makes the production a success. This was such a relatable article to me, you guys all know I've been performing again with F N S and the way this article talks about the entire social distance, Rocky situation really hits home. It is weird to have to be masked all the time when a huge part of our performance is done with our mouths is whatever. But it's also weird to have to be socially distanced from the audience and to have the crowd energy be super different to what it was pre Pentagon. But that said, I really feel like the underlying heart of our show is adaptability. Rocky has lived on for so long because the show and the performers all lend themselves so well to change and are able to roll with the punches to give the audience a fun experience, no matter what weird ass conditions you're working with. It's a really big culture shock to see the differences in pre pandemic, Rocky horror. And now like one thing that I think about a lot that I think is kind of crazy to me is you guys know the scene during lab scene when Frank gets up on his mic and Magenta and Columbia on either side of him and you know what I thought about, I don't know if it's different for every cast, but for my cast, the masks that they wore on the on the stage was a cast item. So we were all just sharing masks and like before the pandemic, that wasn't like, that wasn't a weird thing. But thinking about that now, like, I don't want to be within six ft of your fucking mask. Like that's crazy to me that we were just casually like sharing masks, tossing them to the side like it was nothing. Um And another thing that I realized or another thing that I picked up on the other day was my cast, social media manager posted a video of our show to tiktok and I believe CJ Gatsby from J C C P commented on it and was like, do you guys lip sync with your masks on? And a lot of my cast members were like, hell, yeah, I absolutely do. I personally do not. I, so I don't know if this is just like a the way that I'm built, but if I even move my mouth with a mask on my chin is like, nope, I'm not wearing a mask anymore and then I just look like the crimson chin running around stage with a mask like a duck bill. So I don't lip sync with a mask on and I guess I'm in the minority of that. Well, this was such a fun article. Mad Props to hunt for writing it and snap, started the entire production team at Kenyon College for putting together a wonderful show and speaking of fun college experiences, we have a few write ins that we're going to talk about this week. And the first one that we have is a write in from Tory from T PB R K O F BC. Hello, Tori says, guess who's back, back, back, back again. Hi there. If this would make the episode that airs on 5 13, that would be dope. Good news Tori. It will here to remind the community to get in this casting submissions for the all-star Rocky horror and shock treatment that will be happening during our virtual con the test staycation shocky is Friday 7 16 at 11 30 pm Eastern time and Rocky is Saturday 7 17 at midnight which is 11 59 Eastern time. The deadline to submit for the shows is Friday, May 15th which is for my birthday, not Tory's birthday. My birthday, my birthday, my birthday is May 15th to birthday. Yeah. What you're gonna show up on my birthday with a birthday gift on my birthday, my birthday party with my birthday party with a birthday gift and my birthday party with a birthday while you're there for John's birthday. Fill out our panel and maybe submit a cast free show for pre shows on 7 17. All links can be found in our link tree which we will link for you all in our show notes and any questions can be sent to the tere players on Facebook or Instagram or you can email us and by us, I mean Tori at te staycation. That is T E S er ac T est A Y C A T I O N at gmail dot com. We're about two months away from the con with so much more to be announced. Soon. Heart. By the way, you're also pretty and sexy. Thank you for sharing this. I love you and we'll cook for you one day. Wow, Tori. You know what I am pretty and sexy. I think that part was about me. I think the cooking part was for you and Aaron, but the pretty and the sexy was just, you know, for Nicky of Nicky asks a question also known as knack snacks. Joan. Yeah. Ok. That seems accurate. All right people I know July feels like forever away but it's really only two months from now, which is terrifying to think about. Especially because me, Adam and Savannah are moving in July. That means we're moving in two months. We should probably start packing. What even is time our friends up at test are all working really hard to put on a fun virtual con for us and we think they're doing a fabulous job. So please help make their lives a little bit easier by getting in your submissions as soon as possible. I know that we're all Rocky people and Rocky people leave shit till the last minute. But please be a bro John. Have you gotten your submission in yet? I haven't, I think I might just rebrand the riffraff video that I used for R K O because I genuinely do not have fucking time, but I do want to be a part of the show. I'll probably just rebrand it. Uh If I can find that file anywhere because it's been literally eons since I made it. What about you, Nicky? Um I don't really know, I'm still on the fence about auditioning. I'm thinking about putting in for Trixie, but also the idea of getting naked in my living room just feels a little, a little weird. I personally love getting naked in my living room. I live with my parents. I personally love getting naked in my parents' living room. What about you, Aaron? Uh I prefer to get naked in my bedroom. Oh You mean about the show? I said there, there wasn't a box to check to submit for Ralph Haps and like he's the only guy I want to play at a con not in shock treatment in Rocky. Of course, he, he has too many words and shocky, but I did, I did sign up for maybe being involved in some of the panels and things like that. We'll, we'll see how that all shakes out. I'm really excited for it. Still never seen shock treatment. Keep it that way. All right. Fair. But everyone else should make sure to get their submissions in soon and fill out those other forms. Why don't you and eat something? You never eat? Haven't you met a nice man yet or do you want me to go to my grave without grandchildren? That's exactly what I want. Are you ok, Nikki? Oh, yeah. I think I just channeled my mom for a minute there. Anyway, next up, we've got another write in from Tori. Everyone's favorite ginger again. You know, I was just saying we hadn't heard from her in so long. Wasn't I just saying that. no. Anyway, she writes hi. We have another totally awesome wicked cool Tessa staycation announcement. We just opened submissions for our All this and a floor show talent show prior to the All Star Shock treatment show on Friday night, we will be buttering everyone up with the skills and thrills of the community. Do you sing? Can you put your pants on without using your hands? Can you flip the most? Perfect Pancake submissions are open now and are due by July 1st. Same deadline as video pre shows. All acts must be prerecorded and no longer than seven minutes long. We can't wait to see and show you off. Don't be afraid to get weird with it. Am I right? Ok. Tory. This is an exciting one. Like we really love talent shows, especially at a rocky Con. Our community is full of such amazingly talented and frankly weird people and we all love going out and throwing our dicks on the table when we get together. So con talent shows always the best. What sorts of things do people usually do for con talent show performances. I could kind of go for pancakes. I don't think we've seen any actual pancake flippers, although I could be wrong. But we get a pretty wide variety of performances. We get singers, dancers, people shadow casting different musical numbers. Our community is full of sideshow and burlesque performers. So we see a lot of those sorts of acts every single time. I think of Khan pre shows. I think of the M Y C alumni. Steph. She has such an incredible voice and she doesn't utilize it as much. Like it's not like a, like a thing that defines her. Like no one thinks of Steph, the singer, but holy hell has she got an incredible voice? And she always comes to these con talent shows and absolutely murders it. I love her voice. I love her and I hope I get to hear her sing again soon. Yeah, I won't lie. The con talent shows are usually the point in the uh in the evening where I like am dipping in and out of the performance area to run to the bar to catch up with friends or whatever. So I'm pumped that I'm gonna actually get to sit down and see all of these acts. I think it's gonna be really neat and I cannot wait to see what the community's got in store for us. So, are you guys submitting anything? No. Ok. I mean, if I were to submit something, I don't even know what I would submit because, like, yeah, I sing and play guitar but, like, I, I feel like I'm more creative than that, you know, like I wouldn't want to. Yeah, I was in theater for like, a good portion of my life and I was in multiple bands when I was in high school and college. Well, I'm going to be honest, every time I hear of like a boy that's like, yeah, I was the lead in every one of my school musicals. I'm like, you can't sing. You're just a boy. But I believe you. Now, if you were a boy and you were in high school theater, chances are you were only there because you were the only one who was willing to embarrass himself unless you went to a theater school. And, which is a completely different situation. But, no, I've played in bands. I've done theater for a while. Uh, I sing almost every night on twit. Really? Yeah, I'm subscribed but I'm just never, I'm never there but I am giving you my money. What about you, Nicky? Would you do anything? Oh, God. Um, I don't have much talent. Um, you know, it's very mature of you to admit that. Yeah. Uh, I'm trying to think of like, any talent that I have and it is just, it has lost me. I don't believe I have one. No show him that thing that you do with the cherry stem. No. Is that not? That's for your other shows? Ok. Never mind. Wow. Well, if any of our listeners are interested in submitting, we've linked the submission form for you in our show notes, we are. Hello, looking forward to this and we can't wait to be wowed by how amazingly talented you all are. Wait, what about you, Aaron? Are you submitting anything? Uh No, but if I was, I don't know, it would be, I'd probably have to do some kind of shitty magic show. Like, I don't know what talents I've got that would, would play well to a rocky crowd. Oh, man, that actually reminds me of my favorite talent show performance I've ever seen. There was, it must have been at one of the R K O cons where I want to say it was art. I don't know who it was where there was a performer who did this awesome magic routine that was actually set to a bunch of rocky, like kind of themed content. Super neat. Did a, like a straitjacket escape at the end. Really? Enjoyed that one. Oh, I'm kind of bendy. I could do some bendy shit. Huh? Do it. No, I'm not going to do some bendy shit but I could if I wanted to. Isn't that just the ping pong ball thing? I think that's the other. Um, I don't even know what these things mean. Did they call you. There we go, we got there and next up my friends we have everybody's favorite segment. Nicky asks a question. Yeah, guys, I mean, I heard we were talking about amazingly talented people. So I guess I'm here. This is your talent asking questions? Yes. So this week we've got more of a discussion topic than a straight up question for our snack snack. I want to take a dive into a topic that we've been carefully reserved about on the show for good reason. But I think it's finally appropriate. Let's talk about Rocky Horror coming out of the pandemic and shows beginning to reopen. I've got a lot of first hand experience with this. I feel like F N s has settled into a new kind of routine. I don't want to say new normal because nothing about Rocky is normal, especially now. And let's be real Rocky right now is very different than Rocky before the pandemic began. But there's a lot to talk about here. I'm down. I know we haven't talked about this a lot because we've been waiting to kind of take the pulse of the community. And I wanna be really clear before we talk about this. Like every situation with every cast is going to be different, there will be casts that open sooner or later. Some like F N s are already open, some will not be able to open due to their local restrictions and some are going to remain closed because of recent X Y Z like N Y C. Yeah, more than anything. I think we can all agree after this last year that not everyone feels the same way about being out and about and resuming the things that we did before the world went to shit. So we're not calling anyone out. We're not telling you how you should feel and we certainly aren't advising you to do anything that doesn't comply with your local ordinances or the rules put into place by your theater or your cast leadership, your cast situation will be different. Think don't do anything stupid. At least not anything more stupid than usual. And if you're not comfortable with something, say something. So with that massive wall of disclaimers out of the way, let's talk. What's some stuff that we should all be doing as we're getting ready to come back to Rocky? I think I want to hit that point that you just brought up. It's all about everyone's second favorite C word. Oh my God meg. Not that one. Consent. Oh, so going back to Rocky after a literal year plus of not being around large groups of people and not interacting with strangers and friends in the same way is going to be different. If you're not comfortable, you have a right to say something. It doesn't matter if it's, I don't want to do bedroom scene or can we stand a little further apart? Or I'm not comfortable performing if everyone isn't vaccinated, right? All those same conversations that you have with new performers or when you start doing a new role, you gotta have those again. The slightly awkward ones about how do you wanna do Taa and telling your Frank, it's OK if you want to fuck me from behind, but please don't put your face in my face. You get to have all those conversations again, but don't worry, you already know most of these people and they will be just as relieved to talk about it as you are. And it's super helpful to be able to run through the stuff that's going to change. If you in Colombia aren't doing lifts anymore, figure out what you are doing. I was really glad that F N S was able to find time to rehearse before we reopened. We didn't have Rocky Horror for over a year. So a lot of us were so rusty. But in partnering with our incredible theater staff, we were able to designate time during the week to rehearse all the important stuff and it made reopening so much easier and there's a lot of things that are gonna be different over in New York, we still don't have a reopened date theater and movies in the city just can't be run at the capacity rates that the city can currently deem safe. So with my role as, as director of the New York cast, most of the questions I'm getting from cast members and I know me and Eric, the two directors are getting these too. Is when are we opening up? Are we at the same theater? What can we do to get ready? And I can assure you out there just as I assure the New York cast, you'll know as soon as your cast leadership knows, I know that we finally had a couple of opportunities to help out other casts. So for example, there was a drive-in show yesterday that a few of our friends performed for Trust me, when they become available, your directors will let you know, stop asking me. I really liked getting a chance to do the drive in shows last summer. They were a whole different experience, but one that obviously doesn't directly carry over. I was really glad F N S did four shows over Halloween but didn't fully reopen until April. I'm really pumped. We were able to have that because post COVID Rocky Horror is so different. No virgins, no dance party. Some scenes need to be omitted, masks, socially distanced, blocking and seating. There were a lot of changes that I'm really glad we were able to preview before we went back in full swing. And we were also able to figure out what worked for us and what didn't definitely if the opportunities come up and you're ready to perform, get in on them and if you aren't ready, but you see others out there performing. Remember that everyone has a different situation. It's going to be ok to sit out a few if you aren't comfortable yet and your cast leaders will understand. Perfect example, Savannah has been vaccinated and inoculated for like two months when Meg had posted in the N Y C group chat about all these outdoor events that are happening with other casts. Savannah was like, I want to do it, John. Do you want to come with me? Like, do you wanna be like my Rocky? I'm gonna play Frank. Do you wanna be RFF and Magenta together? And I was like, honestly, dude, no, uh because I'm not like I get my second shot on Thursday and I'm not gonna be fully inoculated until June. So like as much as I would love to return to the stage as R or Frank or somebody, I just don't feel comfortable doing it. So Savannah went, had a great time and you know, we all perfectly understood. They had a great show from what I heard and it was because everyone who was there was comfortable being there, nobody's getting kicked off of a cast because they aren't comfortable performing yet. Imagine Meg being like, yo, John, if you don't go do this show in the middle of butt, fuck Pennsylvania, you're off cast. Like if they're doing that stuff, your directors are assholes, right? But in the meantime, right? Even if you aren't ready to perform. It's really easy to knock out some of the low hanging fruit. Get your costumes and your props organized, find everything that you might have pulled out to get fixed or cleaned or, or maybe you got a new piece during lockdown. Throw out some of that old makeup that you might need to replace. Yes, I'm talking to you. Uh, and go get your costumes dry cleaned, seriously. Get them cleaned and, and get them altered if they need to be altered. That is one of the main reasons why I'm nervous to go back to performing because I lost like £40 since we stopped performing because I did keto and I'm still at that weight. So none of my costumes fit me anymore. I had to put on, for example, my frank dinner scene corset just for like a drag book that I was doing for Twitch and it fell right off of me. I need to get every single thing altered before I go back to performing. And I know that it can be intimidating to get stuff altered, but it really isn't. Most local dry cleaners will also offer a tailoring service or, I don't know, just Google a local business, you know how to internet or like hit up one of the million seamstresses that are in the Rocky Horr community. I guarantee you every cast has at least one. I have an in-house seamstress Savannah and it can be really cheap. You can spend 15 bucks to have something modified rather than buying an entirely new piece. Right. And that's assuming that you don't have the aforementioned local costuming wizard. But if you do reach out to them now, because you know that they're gonna be swamped the two weeks before you reopen with all those last minute simple requests. Right? And when you do finally hear word that your show is coming back, make sure to ask whatever questions you need in order to feel safe. Ask if your cast is requiring vaccinations. If that's something that concerns you, I know I personally will not be performing till I can assure that everyone on stage is vaccinated and inoculated. Yeah, I would say almost every one of my cast members has at least their first shot and it did help to breed a stronger environment of comfort through performers and techs. We all felt a lot safer knowing that everyone around us was doing exactly what they needed to do to keep everyone safe and those who couldn't slash didn't want to chose not to return, which really helped a lot. Yeah, a lot of discussions are taking place in the professional theater world about what kind of safety and regulatory restrictions are going to be in place as places reopen in the last several issues of Lighting and Sound magazine. There have been several pieces about exactly that topic and getting vaccination numbers up is a major part of making staff members feel safe. Wait Lighting and Sound Magazine. That's a freaking trade magazine, Aaron. Is there anything that you aren't a massive fucking nerd about? No. But listen, dude, the subscription is literally free and they have all those super cool ads in the back for like lighting equipment and things that, oh I just dream of buying for the New York cast. New York already has the most complicated lighting set up I've ever seen at a rocky show. Like beyond what anyone has ever needed. Why in God's name would we need more? No, no. Listen, man, there's this like micro fog machine out there that just came out. There's, it's like the size of a Vape. It's, it's basically a Vape but it pumps out in a fog though on every single charge for superheroes and Eddie's entrance and the pool and like wherever the fuck else you want fog, it's under 200 bucks. It's called the Micro Fogger two point oh, you can pick it. Ok. I'm cutting you off there. I mean, honestly, Aaron, that sounds kind of fucking dope. So I retract my statement. Right? Seriously, go Google this thing. There's an awesome video I saw. Anyway, my point is now might be the time to start thinking about those things that your cast wants to do to change up the show. These could be as small as adding in a new light or finally replacing that old prop or maybe something crazy, like rethinking your entire show schedule. Oh, man, that was a big one for F N si. Loved the big changes that were made there. We opted to start as a biweekly cast upon return which normally we have shows every week. This gave us ample time between shows to prepare for the next. Make sure we were all healthy, properly clean our costumes and sanitize communal cast props and costumes, et cetera. I was really reluctant at the idea initially, but it really changed the entire experience in a really positive way. And you can see a significant difference in the audiences now that our performances are more sparse. For example, we've sold out literally every show and that's not hard because we're only selling like 50 tickets. But it's, it feels really nice to be able to flex that we sold out anyway. I feel like a lot of casts are going to be doing that like, or even considering performing at multiple theaters or other venues that they wouldn't have beforehand having a home theater is great, but maybe it's time to venture out into the wider world. And if you think your cast isn't looking into these kinds of opportunities, but you're kind of seeing them out there, shoot your leaders a message and ask like, what's the worst they can say. No, we also had a really big change for F N S shows that I was skeptical about, but I turned out to really like we pushed our start time to 10 o'clock midnight. Rocky Horror was always such a big spectacle in my Rocky Horror experience. So I was kind of bummed when I found out we were moving to 10, but it changed the show and the energy exponentially. I feel like we put on such a better show and post show. We're all still so awake and ready to help clean up the theater and put everything back where it needs to be. And the audience is so much more lively and we sell out. So and yeah, I'm not a singer. I mean, I love that. Plus, I mean, once the bars are all open, you get actual time after the show like that'll be nice. Oh man, that does remind me though of something. I wish we had done that. I would like totally advise everyone out there also to bring up a our leadership team have a drunk people game plan. We perform in Red Bank and a lot of bars reopened. So with the show starting at 10, we have seen a few obnoxiously drunk people at our shows. They still keep their masks on though. So do better antimaskers. Uh One time though, this drunk lady decided that she had to pee during sweet tea. And also she was cosplaying as like Magenta, but she looked like Patricia Quinn. So it was very funny for me, but she audibly yelled, I'm so fucked up. I got a piss and she literally shoved past Frank on his walk down. I was Janet watch the whole thing happen. And I was, I was literally like, bitch, what the fuck like read the room just read the room. I mean, she sounds like a real uh you know, everyone's third favorite C word Karen. I met Karen. Jesus Christ. Me. Chill out. Karen starts with ac I mean it pretty much does now, doesn't it? There was this one time I believe it was one of our Halloween shows. Uh The last time that we performed for Halloween and it was one of our cast members like first nights on cast and she had come up to me and was like, hey, you know, there's this girl who's in the back, she's like extremely drunk. What do I do? And then I was like, oh, that, that's fine because I was in the middle of getting like costumes and props and all that stuff together for the show because it was a midnight show. So I was like, just go get security and they'll just escort her out. And then in the middle of doing that, she vomited all over the floor and then passed out in the back of the theater. Oh my God. And at that point, the, the thing is, is like, what are you going to do? You know, as somebody, well, at least with N Y C we are just performers like we're just there to perform. We have that theater like that. It's not our theater, it's not anything that we have jurisdiction over. We kind of fall into the hands of the theater. So if something like that happens, we have to get the theater people and then they kind of decide what needs to happen. So it's not only a conversation that you need with your leadership, it's also a conversation that you would have to figure out with your theater as well to see who is responsible for that. Luckily, for N Y C, it's the theater staff and not us. But I imagine that a lot of casts are gonna have a whole new set of challenges to deal with when it comes to the audience. And it's not just the drunks or the people who would want to start fights, it's the new breed of willfully noncompliant people. Like you need a game plan for Karen who shows at mass and shouts in people's faces thinking that there are just no rules at Rocky because that's how it was back in the day when she saw it. And if your cast leaders don't spell them out, ask about what those policies are gonna be and how they're going to be enforced. Does the theater have a policy for handling them? Does someone need to be designated as security for your shows? That's if you have enough people to even be able to designate responsibilities like that? A lot of casts are going to be struggling to put a full floor show together if you haven't returned. But you know, that friend that always promised they were going to join, reach out. Now, I know it's virtually impossible to bring new cast members on during quarantine. So I'm glad that we didn't at F N but it was definitely a shift in our show when we came back missing so many cast members, I've played a floor show character every week since we reopened, which I'm super happy about like, I'm very grateful to be able to have that casting opportunity. But also, I'd love to be able to take a week of just like a quick Trixie and a relaxing show. But it's just not possible yet. Yeah, like everything else, I'm sure it'll get there. Uh But that's another thing. I if you picked up costumes for a new character or maybe there's a character you're not comfortable performing anymore, get that shit figured out if, if you don't have a usable for show corset anymore, start figuring it out now or let your director know that you won't be able to do anyone that needs a corset. Put some time into thinking about what has changed in your circumstances before your director asks you if you're available, a little bit of thought now is gonna save a lot of awkwardness in the long run and you'll avoid agreeing to something you might not otherwise just because you were caught off guard and you would have said yes to it a year ago. I guess I should probably reach out to Hillary about my Columbia costume then. Shouldn't I lol that should have been done for like a whole last year and it's just sitting in her apartment. I should probably go get that. Uh, and honestly probably ask her to tailor it because it's not gonna fit me anymore. See John, a whole list of things you got to do. We just, we just nailed right through them. Honestly, once everything is back up, I'm gonna say yes to anything. Frank doubles theme nights, spit in my mouth, whatever meg literally just wrote that so that she could cast me double Franks for the rest of the foreseeable future whenever we go back and I hate you for that. I wrote that and I recognize not everybody will be up for that. I'd be, I'd be down to do a double Frank. I've never done a single Frank, but that's our main takeaway. We're excited. You're excited. Everyone is excited but everyone and everything is going to be a little bit weird for a little while and we do Rocky. We're used to weird and we should do the same thing that we always do when we encounter something weird. Be even fucking weirder. Amen. And that's our show. We want to thank Tori for writing in. We're beside ourselves and can't wait for staycation. Con and always love getting those updates, please keep them coming. If you've got a question that you want us to answer on air for Nicky asks a question or some community news that you'd like us to talk about or even a cool story to showcase your magnum dong to the entire community. We would love to include it in our show. Just go to our website rocky talky podcast dot com and fill out our contact form to share with us. We all really love getting to hear about the cool shit that you guys have been working on and we love getting to share your work with the whole community. Plus if your cast is working on something fun, a virtual show or maybe even a real life show send that into and we will help to spread the word. If you're enjoying Rocky Talkie, please help us out by rating, reviewing and subscribing to the show. It makes the podcast more accessible to new listeners which really helps us grow the show. And if you want even more Rocky Talky content, check us out on Facebook, Instagram, youtube and Tik Tok all at Rocky Talkie podcast. We'll see you next Thursday. See you next Thursday. This, there's so many s s in this sentence, I saw an article about fuck an article, an article Steven was registered with the ugly agency fucking what they even did a virgin during, they even did a virgin. They did a virgin, virgin during intermission. And speaking of fun college experiences. I don't know. I didn't go to college. Yeah, I dropped out. So, me too. Is it my, it's not my turn debt for no reason. I'm not in debt. I went to community college. I was, I was a student government president. I was popular in college here to remind the community to get into the uh uh-huh. All right. Well, annoying mom voice. What does that mean means? My mom is 37. Ok. She always does some like fuck every single time when I, when I'm gonna eat my fist, don't do it. I'm gonna do it. Duke. Did you really jump off the bed while I was being casual? I really liked getting the chance to do the drive in. I really, I did the entire drive in. Damn it. Half the C C UN T Hillary. Can you remake my entire Columbia costume? Good bye bye.