Hello to all of you. Unconventional conventions. Welcome back to Rocky Talkie. I'm Nicky. I am John and I'm Maron. Hi, John and Aaron. How are you? I am absolutely fucking amazing. How are you, Nicky? I'm doing great. What did you do this week, John? Yo. Uh so check this right. So this weekend was a 24 hour charity stream that I did with my friend Kelly on stream. We both did 12 hours each. So she did six. I did six. She did six. I did six and we were raising money for Saint Judes play live. Oh, nice. Yeah, one of her teams is like big into seeing. She used to play live. So they've been raising money all May and she had approached me about this was like, yo, I want to do a charity stream with you. I have a really cool idea. So without boring everyone with the, the details. We did it, it started Saturday at two PM and it ended Sunday at two PM. So 24 whole hours of us going back and forth with each other and we raised over $4000 in our two communities who, which is an unreal amount of money. We raised 1/5 of what the entire team has raised all month in one stream. That's so cool. And I'm not even on that Twitch team and I have come in third place in fundraising when everyone else has been raising money for the past month and I did it for one day. Subtle flex. That is such a flex. I raised almost two grand in one day and all the other, like the majority of the other streamers haven't even broke 1500 all month. See, and you guys be telling me that Frank jackets are expensive. One day of work one day of work for you. Exactly. One day of work y'all, you get yourself a Frank jacket. Oh, that's great. What about you, Aaron? What was your week? Like? Uh my week was pretty good. My week was pretty good. It was busy with a lot of work stuff. Um Meg found a squirrel peanut. End of story. God, I wish it was uh no, this story ends up good. This story ends up good. Meg was out taking Dobby for a walk this week and they found a, a little tiny baby squirrel that was uh lost and without a home or, or any parental guidance and supervision. So she brought the squirrel home as crazy people do and showed it to me and I said we are not keeping a squirrel goddamn it. No, no, no, no, we are not keeping another stupid animal that you found on the side of the road. I'm one of those, what a stupid animal that we found on the side of the road. Yeah, that Megan Aaron God, you're not wrong. Um, and, yeah. No, it, it was good. We ended up contacting, uh, local animal control. They were able to take him to a, uh, a woman who rehabilitates squirrels and gets them back out in the wild. So that's good. Peanut is in a safe home. Yeah, he had a bad drinking problem. Yeah. Needed, needed to wear that ankle monitor all the time. Can you imagine a little squirrel with an ankle monitor? Put a picture of peanut in the show notes. Oh, yes, I will totally do that. But more importantly, I just got the most amazing box in the mail from none other than Ruth Fink Winter, the entire collection of crazed imaginations fanzine. All of it. The whole fucking thing is in my hot little hands and I am just so excited. I will be doing nothing for the next several days. But reading about rocky stuff for the last 10 years, 20 years. Oh, I'm so pumped for it. It's absolutely cool. I want to touch them soon. You'll be able to come over very soon. Uh Wednesday. I am done like my two weeks is over. You love to see it. Yeah, I do. Um, so is anybody going to ask me about my very riveting, very exciting week. And let's get started with our first segment. Yeah. What were you up to? What were you doing? Ok. So, I have two things to say because one last week I like, accidentally manifested something. Uh, I don't know if anybody remembers, but the last show that we did, I was talking about how, since my show has reopened every week I've played a floor show character and I was like, it would be really nice to just like, sit back one day and play Trixie and get to just relax and enjoy the show. And little did I know this Friday? I played Trixie. I also played Crim, but Crim is like such a chill role. I got to have like a nice little lax show. I had a really good time and I was really happy that it happened. But also I feel like this is a very niche thing, but I feel like we have some listeners that would probably get it for those of you who don't know we're recording on Monday and today is Monday, May 24th 2021 which means it's Reggaeton Day. Uh like a year and a half ago, somebody posted like a very threatening video on tiktok of like spiders and was like, eat a bowl of rigatoni pasta on May 24th 2021. And we were all just kind of like, OK, so I've had it in my calendar ever since and I'm having my besties come over, Andrea's coming over, Erica is coming over and we're going to make some reggaeton and we're going to eat it in a bowl and it's going to be glorious. It's like a chain letter where if you don't do it, like someone's going to cry and sailing and murder you when you wake up. I don't know if it was like a suggestion or a threat, but either way I'm going to blindly follow. I'm just a crony and honestly, I'm ok with that. But yeah, so with that, let's get started with our first segment. Yes. So for our friends on the east coast, you might have seen that New Jersey is lifting its mass mandate this Friday the 28th or if you're listening when the show comes out tomorrow, it's supposed to be exclusively for fully vaccinated people. But like, let's be honest, we're all living in the same pandemic. Your uncle Mike and his four anti vac kids ditched the mask six months ago. They're not going to wear them. There's no official word on how this masking affects theaters and Rocky Horror for that matter. But according to N J dot com, people will still have to wear face coverings in crowded indoor settings, such as buses, planes, trains, etcetera. And since the indoor gathering limits are being removed on June 4th, I have a feeling we'll be covering our lips for a few more months and I'm absolutely fine with that. If you're from New Jersey or from another state, the mask mandate has been lifted and you have any insight maybe right into the show and let me know what you know, or how you feel, would you feel comfortable attending or performing at an unmasked rocky horror show? What do you guys think? Uh I mean, on my end, I feel like I would be comfortable performing or attending an unmasked show. If everybody who I was performing with was vaccinated and inoculated. The way that I think about it is like, I'm not gonna go and perform Rocky next week or in the next two or three weeks. So it's all a matter of me like sitting it out and like kind of seeing how the mandate rolls out and to see if COVID cases start getting aligned with it, you know, things like that. So I think it's different for someone like you, Nicky who is actively performing rather than like me, me and Aaron who are still kind of waiting to see how the mask mandate affects New York City and the metropolitan area. But honestly, as long as everyone on stage is vaccinated and inoculated, I'd probably be fine with performing with them. Yeah, I'd probably be fine with performing. I mean, obviously I still have concerns about, you know, Uncle Mike and his idiot kids, but there's nothing you can do about that, you know, at this point and I think it's just making sure that, you know, it, it's encouraged when it should be encouraged and uh see how it is. I'm gonna be honest, like I am very much in a gray area about this because like at my job it's outside, like I work outside. So I deal with people unmasked mostly all the time. I'm a waitress, but I wear a mask and I've already said on the record when the mandate is lifted, I'm definitely going to continue wearing a mask because like, I work in a very red area and it's just not like the safest area. I think I'd be comfortable performing with a fully vaccinated cast with no masks. But I also get nervous just because it's like, I don't know, like, what if I end up carrying it and bringing it home to someone? So I don't know, I'm a little paranoid, a little paranoid, but we'll see how it rolls out. I also don't think the masks are coming off for my cast in general anytime soon. So I'll worry about it when I can not speak for Meg and Eric. But I'm pretty sure that whenever we meet to talk about a returning process that we're still going to require people to wear masks just because in, in, in the essence of safety, it's also just like, it's better than not. I don't know like why take the risk just to lip sync and, and even furthermore, like when we come back with N Y C, there's gonna be a lot of cast members who aren't going to be able to come back because they've had to move home. They've had other things happen to them. So we're going to end up having to pull people who have previously not performed on the stage and well, if we can focus on them and not knowing the words but knowing the blocking, put a mask on them. Right. Let's do it. Yeah, I mean, yeah, sure sounds great. Honestly, I'm all about, you know, not having to deal with the flu every year. So you might just see me keeping that thing on in public transit and all over the place. So next up if you are anything like us, you aren't sad by the current availability of Meatloaf documentaries online and cable. That's why this past Sunday the 23rd at nine PM. Everyone here at Rocky Talkie was amped to tune into reels to watch the 2015 documentary meat loaf in and out of hell finally released on their cable channel. Sweet, shut the fuck up. You watched it. Reels used to be a channel devoted to programming focused on the Hollywood film and entertainment industry with shows about current theatrical releases and info on other cable networks and TV shows. More recently reels runs, reruns of the Oxygen series, snapped some reality series and a few entertainment programs, but they mainly air films series and documentaries about celebrity scandals. Yeah. So this makes the Meatloaf documentary. Meatloaf in and out of hell a cut above their typical programming. The documentary covers everything including Meatloaf's youth in Dallas with an alcoholic father as well as, as many ups and downs as a professional performer. It goes through his first break in the form of a role in the Los Angeles musical hair. The constant rejection he faced trying to sell bat out of hell, his bankruptcies and subsequent falling out of the spotlight. The documentary covers a lot of ground and includes interviews with several friends close to meet, including Ellen Foley who sang with him on bat out of hell, Carla devito, who sang Foley's parts on the tour and Bob kick the tour's guitarist who unfortunately passed away in 2020. The documentary is great. If you want a deeper dive on meat loaf, it even reveals how he got his name. Can we spoil it? It's kind of adorable and we're not exactly giving away any plot twists. Yeah. Skip ahead 10 seconds. If you want to be surprised about when you watch this five year old documentary, it's really cute. So at birth, meat came out red and loaf like and was bequeathed the nickname Meat from his father. Later on during high school, he stepped on his coach's foot who then yelled at him, get off my foot. You hunk of meat loaf and it has just occurred to me now that we have been referring to him as meat this whole time because his nickname is a first and last name kind of deal. First name meat. Last name loaf. Mr Loaf. If you're nasty, what a like d list origin story, right? Honestly, like you go. Oh Spiderman. How did you get your powers? Ok. Oh. Oh Batsman. Ok. That's a meat loaf. I look like me. I look like me and then my coach called me an idiot Republican America. Anyway. Yeah, I mean, so this was, this was fun. Uh Meg and I had a really good time watching it this past Sunday and I'm pretty sure you guys must have watched it as well, right? Yeah, definitely. Aaron. Yeah. What, what am I paying for this real subscription for you for then? Like, I mean, me and Sav always keep our Saturday nights open to watch food themed celebrity documentaries. We had a blast next weekend we're going to start binging the O J docu drama starring America's heart throb David Schwimmer. Wait really? No, fuck you. Oh, I really love that docu drama. But you know, this documentary's rebroadcast was fun to check out but not exactly current. Can we talk about some more recent meat shenanigans? What you got, Nicky? Well, we all know that when Meatloaf and Jim Steinman wrote, recorded and produced their worldwide hit song, I'd do Anything For Love, but I won't do that. Their ultimate goal for the ballad was to somehow turn it into a spectacularly successful game show theme. Well, I mean, of course, what else do you do with a major hit like that? And recently me's dreams have been coming to fruition. He's been working with a production company called Nobody's Hero, run by Chris for Potts and John Nash, two of the creators of Netflix nailed it a cooking competition show about putting amateur bakers against each other in order to see who can best recreate a picture. Perfect dessert. We've talked about it on the show before, but we've got some spicy new dates about the upcoming program and it sounds like it's going to be a time this game show titled, I'd do anything for Love, but I won't do that will be themed around couples competition, classic rock hits and meat loaf. Couples will compete in games, testing their trust and ability to work together with a soundtrack of music being performed live by the original artists and new ones with meatloaf pulling all the strings in real time acting as the mysterious figure behind the scenes guiding the show. Each episode will feature two couples testing their relationship against one another in pursuit of a cash prize. And if it weren't for meat loafs, someone might accuse this show of sounding a little janky. Thank God for meat. You said it not me. Yeah. After two rounds of battling against one another, the couple on top Ha Ha will advance to the end game where they will be tested once more in pursuit of a cash prize. Nothing like shirking your love for one another to suck. 10-K from the tet of daddy loaf. Oh, my God. Guys leave meat loaf alone. I mean, I for one think the idea of a relationship competition backed by rock ballads and the presentation of meat loaf is sure to be a hit if, if only for the endless laughs. I'm looking forward to what I hope is wipe out with couples meat Loaf and certainly intense love ballads. It's gonna be ridiculous and I am very here for it. Meatloaf and nobody's hero are already fielding offers from streaming services and cable networks. Nothing from youtube. But hey, two out of three ain't bad. No, it's not even the name of the song. I mean, it's the other song. Well, we hope that you'll tune in with us for this game show for Meat Loaf and we'll definitely update you guys as we learn more. Yeah, we here at Rocky Talkie, like our TV, the way we like our movies. Terrible. And I can't imagine this will be anything but I can agree with that. So, speaking of terrible TV, shows though, did y'all watch the Bob's Burgers episode that aired this week? I actually watched it this morning. It was freaking adorable. I know the little raccoons all had their own tiny outdoor, socially distanced dining experience by candlelight for those of you who don't know, I've always wanted a pet raccoon. They have tiny little bandit hands that are the perfect size for stealing your heart and also all the cutlery out of your cutlery drawer when you're sleeping. Nicky. I meant the, a plot, you know, the one that was basically an homage to Rocky Horror. You know, the thing that we do. Right. Yeah, that part was cool too. I was really in it for the raccoon restaurant though. Well, for those of you who might be in it for the rocky content, we're gonna be discussing the episode for the next few minutes. So spoiler alert, if you don't want to hear about it, jump ahead to community news. Bob's Burgers is an animated TV show for adults that is currently in its 11th season. Shit. I didn't know that until I just read it. It's a show about a family who runs a burger restaurant. They're all very awkward in their own unique ways, you know, like a standard family sitcom situation. But in the most recent episode, which is titled a Vampire Disco Death Dance that dropped on May 23rd, Bob, the dad invites his 13 year old Tina to a midnight cult movie where audience members dress up as characters from the film. They shout things and throw stuff at the screen, they get up and participate in the film's dance numbers. Is this sound familiar? Ring a bell to anybody? No, Oh, Bob was very into the movie and his youth and wants to bring his daughter Tina to her first screening as a rite of passage. Tina really enjoys the experience but the friends she's invited along think it's lame and aren't really interested. Oh, yeah. We've all been there as the friend trying to get your friends involved in Rocky when they clearly don't give a shit. Yeah. It, it sucks. Yeah. Tina feels really bummed out that her friends don't vibe with it despite how hard she's trying to get them involved at the end of the show, she and her dad have a heart to heart where he encourages her to keep coming back to midnight screenings because the people who attend are way more likely to be her kind of people. Yeah, Bob goes on to tell Tina about how he made some really good friends back when he attended regularly and, and I don't know too much about Bob's burgers or the characters, but he makes it sound like he and his wife might have even met and got close while attending shows together. It is a cool story. Oh, it's like the ultimate rocky love story or vampire disco death dance love story. Same difference. It's also a terrible advice. Bob. Imagine encouraging your kids to join a Rocky cast after having been part of one yourself. I mean, it kind of sounds like something me and I would do but I guess I have no room to talk. I mean, he's kind of right. The sort of people who gravity towards Rocky and stay long term are all a very specific sort of people. And if you're one of them, you are pretty likely to make a lot of friends within the community. Like we just vibe with our own. Well, we all know that all three of us have drank Bob's kool-aid pretty hard. All of our best friends and significant others are people we've met at Rocky. But my question to you guys is, have you ever been in Tina's position? Like where you've tried to get some non Rocky friends involved and just had the whole experience fail miserably. Absolutely. My best friend Craig, shout out to Craig if he ever actually listens to this because he probably doesn't. I've known Craig for like 13, 14 years at this point and he has been to Rocky three or four times and he literally only goes because it's convenient for him to go. He fucking hates it. He thinks it's loud, obnoxious, annoying. There was this one time I wasn't even at the show, but we ended up going to the show for one reason or another. And he sat in the back and he listened to people covering Chicago songs, not the musical, the band. That's how straight Craig is. He hates it so much, so, so much. And it's hilarious to the point that I bring him just to piss him off, man. At least he still comes like my story. It took me a while to come to terms with it. And like, I mean, when I say it took me a while, it was like within the first year or so of starting to do Rocky, but it took me a while within that year to like get around to the opinion that like, I love this thing. I want to share it with as many people as possible. But boy, some people really fucking hate it and some people, it just, it's not their thing. Some people, it just doesn't gel with them. So like, I had a real hard time like, convincing people to come and just handling when they didn't like it afterwards when they'd say like, oh yeah, it was good. I, I, you know, I liked the show but like, and I'd be like, great. Yeah. Yeah. You want to come back next week? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Once once was enough for me ever. And like, for some people, that's just how it is. You know, I have a great story. Yeah. So uh I'm going to take you back in time to my Janet debut for context. I'm 17 and a senior in high school and a very nice boy, ironically named Aaron. Not. You came up to me in Spanish class and asked for my Snapchat and I was like, this is great. So Aaron and I get to talking and I invite him to come to my Janet debut and I don't tell him anything about the show other than I'm going to be in a bra and a slip and we can get food afterwards. Aaron made it to about dinner scene before he went home. He sat in the back of the theater and this was not a sold out show. This was like 50 people. Like there, there was a lot of open seats. Aaron sat in the back of the theater with one of his friends. They were not into it and we did not talk in Spanish class the next day. It was, it was rough. But you know what? Pour one out for Aaron. What's Aaron doing now? Um Drugs, I think. No, I kid Aaron's playing baseball in Jersey City. I think he's on a recreation team. He's not in college anyway. You know, I think we're gonna be having a similar conversation a little bit later during our next snack. But before we keep going with this, let's hear about what's happening with our Iraqi people over in community news. First step in community news. We've got yet another exciting con update from our friends at Tesser Act. This week, the con runners announced that one of the activities will be a virtual art gallery that will be up to browse all weekend long. This one is really exciting. I know we have a lot of super talented artists in our community. And of course, we see a ton of their work I R L and on social media. But I don't think we as a community have ever really had the opportunity to enjoy everyone's work all consolidated into one place. Well, this virtual gallery will be very accessible to all con attendees. It'll be created in Google Slides. So everyone will be able to view your work in between attending virtual panels or performances with just a couple of clicks. If you're interested in submitting work to be included in the virtual gallery, all you have to do is put together up to 10 pieces. You'd like to show, pay the $5 gallery fee and let the con runners know exactly how you'd like your work displayed. They're happy to work with you so you can make sure that your art looks its best. Plus, if you're interested in vending, you can also include info to be provided to gallery goers. So let them know how to purchase a piece that they fall in love with. So I know Aaron and I aren't super artsy, but for those of you who may not know, Nicky is a very talented artist. She designed our logo and all of our graphics for us and has worked on a ton of other rocky pieces that are just as pretty. So, what about you, Nicky? Have you thought at all about submitting some art? Thank you for saying, I'm very talented. That's so cute. It was in the script. OK. Don't whatever. Thanks Meg for writing, but I'm very talented. Um I've been thinking about it. I think it's I'm definitely going to submit, but I just need to get over that initial hill of like, no, please don't perceive my art because there's so many people in the community that are so fucking talented. Like it makes me anxious, but yeah, definitely going to do it. Well, the submission deadline is July 1st Nikki and any of our other listeners who might also be interested in submitting should definitely make sure to have your stuff into the con runners. By then, we've included submission links for you in our show notes. And next up for all our listeners who are fans of the stage show. Longtime community members, Mark Jabara and Tony Pazo have recently announced that they've been adding a ton of new content to the Oz Rocky Horror website. For those of you who may not know Oz Rocky Horror is an Australian based Rocky website run by Mark. That is home to what can only be described as a metric shit ton of information about basically every single professional production of the Rocky Horror show that has ever been put on uh before it became the version that Mark doesn't like, which is the version after they redid it in the nineties. But if it's any of the stuff about early Rocky Man. This is the place to the site, has everything in depth info about every cast that has ever been involved in the production. Thousands upon thousands of photos, interviews with production members, performance reviews. Like if you've ever wanted to read a digitized version of the newspaper review that ran for the 1984 Trinidad performance or find out who played guitar in the orchestra of the 1979 production that ran in the Kingdom of Lesotho. Oz Rocky Horror is the place for you. I'm sorry, the Kingdom of where was so it's on the eastern side of South Africa. The production ran at the Mau Holiday Inn and Frank was played by an actor named Derek Damon. I don't know what to do with that information, but it's kind of awesome that we just know that Jeopardy, but there's an absolute gold mine of information about the stage show's global progression through the time. So Mark and Tony have very detailed pictographic timelines of the show's set, designing costumes with images and text info about how exactly each performance built onto the last, finally evolving into the more recent iterations. The costumes are especially cool to look at and one of the newest things that they recently added to the site, uh they include pictures of almost every single portrayal of every character as they evolved. And it's fun to see how the costumes started out and then get to click through and see how they evolved into the characters that we know today and into the film. Me and Tony have recently been adding a whole bunch to the site. So if you're the same flavor of Nerd as me and can't get enough of this sort of content, I highly recommend checking them out the amount of detail that they include in each of their posts is beyond insane. And it's such a wonderful resource for our community as a whole. Absolutely huge. Thank you to the two of them. Not only for creating such a treasure trove of stage show history, but for taking time to keep it up to date and accurate for all of us out there. Shit. That sounds so awesome. If you're interested in checking out this site, I know. I certainly am. You can visit it at oz rocky hard dot com. And we've also got a link for you in our show notes and with that, we should move on to, you know, the most beautiful, delicious, glorious, I mean, special important, incredible segment of all time. Nicky asks a question just in my own segment. Yes. Yes. Hello. All you sexy people. Welcome to Nicky. Ask us a question. Is your life boring mundane. A little too ordinary. Have you tried Rocky Horror meth? So you're going to ask if I've tried meth? No. Yeah, we're more of a bath salts kind of bunch. Well, you suck. OK. So no, this week for ana snack. I want to give some tips to all those virgins out there coming to your first show. Or maybe you've decided that 2021 is the year that you'll find. Finally join that Rocky cast. Let's give those folks some tips too. Love it. Just the tips. But also like, who is this one for Nikki? What do you mean? I said it virgins and people who are thinking about joining a cast, right? And, and you think they listen to this show? Well, I mean, they might. No, no, Aaron's got a point, a bit of a demographics quandary here. I got this crisis, averted Kay for this knack snack. We'll be addressing these suggestions to the virgins and newbies. But know that really we're listing things that you should do as a cast member or cast leader to welcome these new folks. Be it the new prop Tart or that awkward high schooler in the audience. That's a lot of critical listening skills that have to apply. I'm not sure if our listeners are up for it. I don't know. What do you say? Listeners? We take your silence as a sign of consent. All right. Well, that's fucking awful. Let's not ever do that. You know what I mean? Was this one of Meg's topic suggestions? Because it sounds like she wants sound bites that she can send to people instead of having to answer the 10/1000 Facebook message about. What should I bring to the show. Yeah, she might have suggested this one. So, the alternative title for this, Nicky asks a question. Might be 10 things you can tell virgins to make your cast director's life a little bit easier. Yeah. But that's not a sexy title. I like this one is so much better. Nothing sexier than virgins. Aaron. Right. Except for, you know, literally anything else, whatever. All right. So where are we starting? We got, we got two different topics here, new audience members and new cast members. I guess we start with the newbies of the newbies first. Right. Sure. And not all of these are going to be pandemic specific. In fact, most won't be, these are just general questions. So, I mean, let's kick it off with a softball. I caught part of the Francis bacon experiments virtual show this last weekend and it was awesome. But I did see a lot of people in the virtual audience saying things like this is my first rocky or first time seeing the show and even some audience members that really wanted to participate, but weren't really sure what to do. You got to love that one guy who had a little too much to drink and doesn't realize that screaming goat fucker every five minutes is not the same kind of audience participation as what we're shooting for, but good energy, bro. Like I think that's a good starting point. But as an audience virgin be prepared to be confused. Every single person who was part of the Rocky community was a virgin. Once you, you aren't alone and it's expected that you won't know what you're doing. You, you won't know when to scream the lines. You won't know when to throw the props. You, you will have to get up and dance and it won't be a dance that, you know, I mean, that's all totally fine. And from the casting crew side, you don't want to ruin that surprise, but you also don't want people getting confused or angry. That's how you end up with the Karen who's asking for a refund because I want to see a manager because people were screaming during the movie in general. This kind of stuff all should be covered when lining up before the show and by the MC, when the show starts at F we do the whole call. So and so an asshole and call whoever is Janet that night a slut to get people vaguely to understand what A P is. Yeah, we do that bit during hosting in New York too. So new audience members should be good on the What to expect front. There will be people screaming, there will be people dancing, you might get wet. Yeah, you will. But that's just part of it. A lot of the time. It can be difficult to set expectations because, well, expectations have changed since the 19 eighties or whenever the guy who was bringing his kids to the show last saw it. Oh, man, that reminds me of this story. It was, um, this must have been a couple of years ago. We had a, a night where we had a, it must have been a lingerie night because we had a special preshow for the night. It was the song from Crazy ex-girlfriend. Uh, you can touch my boobies that number you ran that. Preshow. Right. Yeah. I usually do the majority of like the production of the Preshow because I'm really, really, really, really bad at choreographing. So I usually, like, organize the rehearsals and organize day of stuff, call times, things like that. Savannah does all the choreographing. So it was this really sexy preshow. Right. And if you remember the bit from the TV show, we kind of mirrored that where it's like this guy who's getting all these really, he's having a dream sequence where he falls asleep and all these sexy girls come out and are telling him, you know, you can touch my boobs and stuff. Well, this one night we get a lot of tourists in New York and this family of tourists came in now, mom and dad seemed like they were probably having a few drinks at the bar beforehand and probably a few more than they should have been considering that they were toting their, I'd say teen and preteen kids around New York City. Uh, and the kids come in and they sit down and they really don't know what they're getting into. And this preshow starts and the littlest kid, there's 22 young boys and a girl with them. The littlest kid, probably 10 or 12 or something just is horrified. He's horrified at the lyrics that are coming out of this. He's terrified about these women walking around wearing almost nothing and he's just sitting there and they're talking about like, if you remember the song, it's like your parents are away at Benny Hanna, you can jerk off in the living room and like, you just see this kid slowly like getting more and more upset that like this is what's happening and like he has to go out, they have to take him out. The kids are all like there and like mom and dad want to stay, but like the teenage daughter who's clearly like understands the situation is like, no mom, we have to go. This is not for us and like they left, it was a great preshow. It was an awesome preshow. Like everyone who was age appropriate really enjoyed it. But like that's a perfect example of mom and dad remember that. Like Rocky was fun in the eighties and don't quite remember that they were probably 15 or 16 when they saw it. Yeah, I remember that night and you see scenes like that all the time where someone's only recollection of Rocky is from 25 years ago. When they went five times over a summer and they have this weird combination of memories that don't necessarily align with Modern Rocky. I mean, how much could it have possibly changed? The movie is the same, aren't we really talking about cultural differences here? Sorry, grandpa Boomer women have rights now. I mean, that's a lot of it. And this might be helpful to cast members who are dealing with the audience member who says, you know, well, when I saw it, nobody cared if I smoked pot in the theater, right? Nobody cared because half the people were smoking cigarettes in the theater like the world changes. So, hey, this is fun. Let's go decade by decade. Let's do some role play. I'll be the disgruntled Karen and you can be the cast member who has to deal with my un waxed, maskless dumb ass and full disclosure. I had a lot of shots at the bar before I came over to the show and I'm going to make sure everyone knows that I am fucked up. Who party? Well, ma'am, I'm gonna need to stop you right there because this isn't the 19 eighties. When you might have last seen Rocky, everyone is not here drunk and high partying like it's a club trying to find someone to hook up with before the night is over. Speak for yourself. Mhm. No, I'm here to party when my friend's mom saw this movie in the seventies, she said some guy grabbed her ass and then they, like, made out in the back row for like the whole show. I want that. Where's that? Give me a butt to grab yikes. Oh, ok. Ok. Miss, um, we, we often don't talk about this part of Rocky's history much, but there was certainly a time in the seventies and eighties where Rocky was also home to, shall we call it seedier elements? Some of these assholes would engage in what they would call a bit of harmless fun. But we know it now by the more accurate term sexual assault like porn, you know, when you see it be it slapping someone's ass, a drunk dude exposing themselves or someone getting handsy during the preshow dance party. That is not OK and it is not OK without consent, right? It was never OK to grab that guy's ass, not in 1979 and not. Now the difference being if you grab Brad's ass as he's walking down the aisle in 2021 we throw you out, you go to Rocky, you'll buy by strip club rules or burlesque rules. Consent is sexy. This one is zero tolerance does not matter that you are here with your bachelorette party. You don't grope Ben Platt when you go see D R and Hansen, you don't grab the drag queen's boobs at pieces and you don't grab Frank's junk when he sits on you during I'm going home. Unless you ask first and then I'll give you a rock solid handful of my ham sandwich if you know what I mean? But how am I supposed to know all these rules? Well, what about all these freaks running around? They're doing whatever they want when I came in the nineties and two thousands. Rocky was all these punks and goths and emo kids. Now, I can't even say, hey, girl without doing something politically incorrect. All right. Well, you're just a boomer but also Rocky has really changed in its inclusivity to accommodate the times Rocky attracts the underrepresented and anyone who doesn't feel at home somewhere else and the world changes and the marginalized groups change and so on, you'll still find Goths and punks at Rocky, but now you'll also find anime nerds and E girls and a whole spectrum of different lifestyles. And that's on top of all the different personal identities that you will find at Rocky. It's not just gays and geeks anymore. We've got the entire spectrum of LGBT Q I A plus representation and part of seeing Rocky in 2021 is that or maybe I'll just do another shot and then I won't care who I'm flirting with as long as they're sexy. You do you Nikki. Ok. But if you're in a position where you think someone is coming at Rocky from a let's call it outdated perspective, there's a great opportunity to help them understand that this isn't your grandma's Rocky horror and in all seriousness, that's a really big obstacle. People remember from fame that kids are smoking joints in the theater or in perks of being a wallflower where you might end up on stage playing Rocky with no notice while Emma Watson rubs all over you. Right. Just these totally out there unrealistic scenarios. Wait, what's unrealistic about doing Rocky at the last minute? I've done Rocky with like an hour's notice. I, I meant the Emma Watson part or, or really that you would get rubbed up on by a cast member at all but speak for yourself. But I think that's a good segue into the second half of this. What's Rocky like now for someone new, coming into a cast? A Rocky cast is a bit like controlled chaos, hurting cats. Yeah, exactly. So when anyone new is considering joining, at least in New York they generally get pointed in my direction. Oh OK. Role play number two. So like, oh my God, Totes, I want to join your Rocky cast. Like, oh my God. Can I meet Frank next week? Wow. I like your Valley girl. But uh no, no, you may not. Right. A lot of people think that they will just join a cast and slam bang on stage performing right out the gate. And this might be true some places but isn't true everywhere, especially with N Y C. So, Beverly Hills Nikki, let's talk about what joining a cast. Is actually like, so traditionally at an N Y C show, if somebody comes up to me at the end of the show, and they're like, this is really cool. I want to start performing and enjoying your cast. The first thing that they assume like we are role playing at this present moment is that we have an innumerable amount of costumes that we can just lend out to people. And that all they need to do is to watch the movie a few times and then we can put them in our costume and put them on stage in two weeks, which is not reasonable. So I often pull them aside and I let them know, you know, you can find our application on the website. But a few things that you need to consider going into this is that we perform every Friday and Saturday night. And when you are starting out, we require you to be there every Friday and Saturday night because you need to learn the lay of the land. You need to learn the show. And a lot of times that really separates everybody because they're like, oh, wait, I don't get to perform. And it's like, no, because you don't know the show. You don't know our blocking. You don't know what it's like to be comfortable on stage with another person pelvic thrusting behind them because you're rocky and the other person is Janet, you don't know that language and the logistics behind that. So you need to be at the show and watch the cast members interact with each other to understand what is necessary. Yeah, you're gonna be moving a coffin for a couple of weeks. Yeah, exactly. There are so many different moving pieces with it and a lot of people think that they can just perform as soon as they get accepted and I have to explain to them. No, we have like a 2 to 3 month waiting period where you need to be at the show every Friday and Saturday, either running props or running lights to ensure that you are understanding the lay of the land. Also, you need to realize that you are responsible for your own costume and your own makeup and everything. Like we don't have costumers, we do not have makeup artists, we do and they will do it for you for a fee, but like largely this is your own responsibility. This show is primarily your responsibility. And a lot of times folks don't like to hear that or they go, oh, that's, that's really cool. Um I'll let you know and it really separates the wheat from the chaff and that's some of the most important stuff that I tried to impress upon new hires is that this actually is a time commitment and it's also a monetary commitment oftentimes a negative monetary commitment. I really try to make sure that they understand what Rocky is and what they are signing up for. So like, oh my God, is there like a rule book and whatever? How do I know? OK, Beverly Hills Nikki, this, this one is also going to vary from cast to cast. And the important thing to remember is that even when rules are clearly spelled out for you and your cast, they're not always going to be enforced consistently. They can't be if you're a cast member who sees someone new come in, help them with all the unwritten rules and the questions that they don't even know that they need to ask. Oh yeah, like where can I stand? And can I take my top off backstage? And what Facebook group should I join? And do you get costumes? And who is Ron Maxwell? And what is a Boss Award? And who is that guy that shows up sometimes? I think he's from breaking bad um soul or I don't remember, right. I mean, this one can be a little difficult, the longer that you've been in the community, it's kind of hard to remember what it's like when you first joined Rocky, you aren't having conversations about screen accuracy and frank jackets and trips to conventions. Yeah, you're trying to learn blocking and you're coming to grips with the vast amount of new rules and norms that are, you know, packaged with when you were coming into Rocky and everything that the phenomenon entails, it can be super intimidating and it can really suck up your energy and free time, which is why a lot of people last a year or less. Yeah, Nicky is back. No more Valley Girl. Hey. So when I joined F N SI was 17 and I was in high school and I literally went to every single show every single day that I could just waiting until the day that I could join cast. I was a regular for months and I literally only went, I didn't love the show. I literally just want to be on cast. Obviously, I loved Rocky Horror, but I wasn't going because I was like this movie rocks. I was going because I was like, I want to be on this cast. And I think a thing that I didn't really consider was, you know, I was looking at the cast and the people on cast, like they were like these celebrities, you know, like I was like, oh my God, like, oh my, oh my God, like Andrea talked to me at the show, Andrea joined after me. That's just an example just saying um but I was like, oh my God, these people are so cool, like I love them. And I think a thing that I never really considered was like, you know, the guy that I idolize every week is now my boss and the people that I think are these cool local celebrities. I'm meeting for appetizers at the local Fridays on Saturdays. You know, like, I never considered that. Like, casts are full of real people and they're not just like, cool magical, famous artists. And another thing I don't think I considered before joining was like, Rocky kind of becomes your job a little bit. Like, it's a lot of fun and it's very exciting to be on a Rocky cast. But you're not just gonna join a Rocky cast and throw on a Columbia costume and tap dance and go home. You know, you're going to show up two hours early and help them set up the theater and then at the end of the night, you're gonna help them clean and maybe you'll have cast meetings or you'll hang out with cast members or you'll have to take, you know, a day out of your weekend to help make prop bags or repair props or repair costumes. Like Rocky isn't just a fun little Friday activity. You know, it becomes like a life activity and if you're not willing to put in the extra effort, then it's like you're not going to be important to a cast. Like nobody wants somebody who performs and then immediately gets off stage and gets changed and goes home. You know, we need help and you need to be willing to help. And I think I never really considered that until I joined and I was like, oh, wow, I actually have to do shit now. Ok. I, that's hilarious. I certainly remember after my first Rocky cast in the Midwest. I kind of was at this crossroads where I wasn't sure where I was going to move because I was, I was, I went to school for film and I was debating moving to New York or I was moving to California. And part of what I had thought about was, well, New York does have a way better Rocky cast. I mean, they, they've got, it's the original home of Sal Piro and it's run by Madman Mike right now. And you got Ron Maxwell and all these, all these Rocky celebrities out there and uh after a while, um a few years or decades go by and you realize they're just normal people too and uh they, they're just way cooler than you uh than you can ever aspire to. So I know when we interview people for the New York City cast, we tell them a lot of things. One of the most important things that we tell them is kind of molded into a question towards the end. We talk about the idea that when you join Rocky, especially when you join N Y C because of how often we perform, Rocky kind of tends to become your primary social circle. So a lot of times you are gonna get invited to cast functions and the only people there are gonna be people who are on Rocky, who used to be on Rocky or who are friends with people on Rocky. So they become what is called Rocky Adjacent and that becomes your primary social circle. And then, you know, once you're comfortable and cast and you have get togethers and you have parties and you try to invite your friends that aren't Rocky, they end up being a the minority and b leaving early because they're so confused as to what everyone is talking about. And a lot of times folks end up living with each other or dating or hooking up or anything like that. And then maybe there's a falling out that happens. So if that falling out happens and you lose your roommate or the person that you hooked up with or your significant other because of something that happened outside of Rocky. Like how are, how is that going to intersect with your professionalism at the show? Because that happens more often than we'd like to admit. And I don't think that that's unique to N Y C. I think that's every cast. So we always like to put that bug in people's ears that like we understand that things can happen. But depending on the severity of that situation, like you're probably still gonna have to perform with that person, right? You're gonna have these whole relationships where you laugh and cry and fuck these people and then you still have to go and be naked with each other on stage. Yep. And that's something that we always ask during the interviews like how comfortable are you with that? Obviously, if there is a situation that is uh rather unique in that, you know, we can make accommodations. But like if it's just like, oh, this wasn't working out or we got into an argument because he said, she said, they said whatever, whatever it may have been, you're still gonna have to do that, you're still gonna have to be comfortable. Because at the end of the day, we're putting on a show, the relationships that you form at Rocky are a supplement. We are primarily there to put on a show. So as long as you are able to perform with somebody and not spit in their face, let's put on a show. Sounds good to me who needs non Rocky friends, not us. And that's our show. We want to thank well, nobody. This week we love getting to answer your questions and hear all your wonderful stories, but you didn't send any. So whatever, fuck you. If you've got a question that you'd like us to answer on air for Nicky asked a question or some community news 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 talkie podcasts dot com and fill out our contact form to share it with us. We all really love getting to hear about the cool shit that you guys have been working on. We are totally obsessed with all the Rocky horror projects that I have been floating around out there. And we really enjoy getting to share your work with the whole community, that whole community, whatever. Plus if your cast is working on something fun, a virtual show or maybe even a real life show, send that in too and we'll help spread the word. If you're enjoying Rocky Talkie, please help us out by rating, reviewing and subscribing to the show show. It makes the podcast more accessible to new listeners, which really helps us grow the show. And if you want even more Rocky talkie content, check us out on Facebook, Instagram, youtube and tiktok all at Rocky Talkie podcast. We'll talk to you all next week. Bye mom. It's rigatoni time. Who wants the fuck? Who wants the rigatoni mama? Where the fuck is the go meet shenanigans, meet shenanigans. I don't, I hm No. Well, what is wipe out? You've never seen wipe out? I've never seen it. Sound familiar. Ring a bell to anybody. No. Oh, not at all. Well, that's all for our show tonight. Thank you all so much for, for listening. Sure. You like and subscribe. Follow my own face. My turn. Someone is wiping out in the street. Give me one second. Wiping out. Yeah, like ski. That's a technical sound. Yeah. The benefits of living in Harlem skirts. Yeah. I mean, he's kind of Right though. Can you not God, that guy's dick is big. It's so huge. Wow. I'm glad he has a way to tell us all how big it is. Yep. 17 floors up. I can't imagine what it sounds like on the ground. I want to see a manager because people were screaming during the movie. I want to see a manager because people were screaming during the movie. Um, let me think. You don't grow Ben Platt when you go to deer and trying to think of the saddest show imaginable. But how am I supposed to know all these rules? What about all these freaks running around? Let me do it again or maybe I'll just do another shot and then I won't care who I'm flirting with as long as they're sexy. I hate this. I want you to know. I hate this. I'm sorry. You do you, Nicky? Ok. It's not me. It's Karen.