Hello to all of you. Unconventional conventions. Welcome back to Rocky Talkie. I'm Nicky and I am John guys. It is so good to be back. I don't know if you remember, but last week I was exploring the wildlife in Papua, New Guinea. Did you guys know that they've got poisonous birds down there poisonous like they'll sting you? No, that's venomous. If something is venomous, it'll sting you and you'll die. If something is poisonous, you'll die. If you eat it, don't eat the birds in Papua, New Guinea folks, they will fuck your shit up. Wait, hold on. Didn't you say that you were hunting for treasure in Argentina? Snitches, get stitches, John. Maybe you shouldn't ask so many questions. Nicky wasn't here last week, dude. What Jacob hosted the entire show for us? Am I having a stroke here? Uh That's why she sounded so different. Anyway, I'd like to give Jacob a huge shout out for covering for me on the, on the show. That is obviously, um, what, what else would it be? What do you guys do this week guys? Oh, this week was a lot more uh, house stuff for us now, I'm not going to use that the same. This week, this week we had a new exciting thing happen. Our fridge exploded. Yeah. Yep. Just in time for us to sell the house, we have to replace the fridge. Yeah. Well, it didn't explode more like it just kind of plunked and uh, no longer keeps anything cold. In fact, somehow it manages to keep the things that are inside of it warmer than the outside room that it is sitting in. So doing some shopping and hoping and praying that I can find a fridge that matches it because we already sold the damn thing. So that's how my week's going. Yeah. Yeah, it's been pretty good. It's been pretty good. Uh This week has been pretty frustrating. I'm in the process of trying to get a uh a new C P U for my computer and it was supposed to be delivered to my apartment complex, but my apartment complex sucks and lost it. So I had to get a refund. So I'm waiting for it. But then we just got an email saying that we have a bunch of packages down in our package room that we have to go get. And I don't know where my C P U is. I'm really, really hoping that I just got a refund and then it's sitting down in the package room so that I got a free I nine C P U but we'll see. So my week has the potential of being absolutely fantastic. We're also in the process of moving, so we're, we're viewing apartments around the area and we found out we saw a bunch of really cool apartments earlier today. So there's a lot of like, cool things that are happening right now. So we're just kind of laying in wait. That's really exciting. He sounds hectic all around hectic, but when is post pandemic life? Not hectic. Right. Yeah. How's your hectic week going, Nicky? Well, you know, after I got back from the trip, I was kind of like jet lagged a little bit and really exhausted. But, you know, I just got right back into work. And, uh, what is it? What's today? I don't even know on Sunday, uh F N s and I were able to finally film a new preshow that we've been working on and we're going to be submitting it to Tessa Rat. We're very excited and then we're going to be debuting it at our show this Friday and I'm so excited. I've been editing with it all night and playing around and it's just like, it's so nice to be back making videos again. I feel like a human person again. Were you really in South America? Yes, Aaron. That's, do you not remember when I asked you to help me expedite my passport? Did you bring me back? A yes. A I did. Yeah. That shit's probably cold as hell right now. Well, his fridge exploded, not his microwave. Yeah. But with that, let's get started with our first segment. We're starting off this week with a bit of sad news. Graham Matters. One of the original cast members of the first Australian production of the Rocky Horror show passed away a few weeks ago on May 7th. At the age of 70 two. The first Australian run of Rocky Horror debuted April 19th, 1974 and ran for 18 months closing October 4th, 1975. Graham played Rocky during this production and judging by the photos we were able to hunt down on the Oz Rocky Horror website, he did such a phenomenal job. Yeah, there are some really cute photos of him up on that site. I mean, he's just being a hottie on stage covered in glitter. Like one of the things about the Australian production of the stage show is that it was a really big departure, particularly in how Frank was portrayed, Reg Livermore, who portrayed Frank in the Australian version really took a different attitude than what Tim Curry had. And you could see that all through the rest of the cast that had to adapt to this really grungy, different kind of Frank that wasn't quite so glamorous as the Frank that Tim portrayed on stage. But in these photos, Graham looks awesome and you can totally tell he's having a great time up there outside of Rocky. Graham made a number of appearances in Australia TV, and media such as Oz Hard Knuckle and the adventures of Bottle Top Bill and his best friend Cory say that three times fast that three times fast. Hey, so Graham leaves behind his wife, Wolf and their two Children, Charlotte and Ace. We here at Rocky Talkie. Wish them all the best in this difficult time. We'd also just like to thank Graham for being part of our Rocky Horror family. We'll see you on the other side onto some brighter news. We have a repeat headliner from last week or Aduba the soon to be Brad of the upcoming UK tour of Rocky recently did an interview with Michael Ball on his self-titled BBC radio show. Yeah. And we got some awesome stuff from the interview. The cast's first full rehearsal with the whole casting crew just happened this past Monday, June 29th and tech rehearsal is supposed to begin in just two weeks. It turns out or was actually a sportscaster and news presenter in the UK, appearing on a bunch of programs from 2008 when he joined News round, which is a BBC children's news program until 2016 when he competed in and won the 14th series of strictly come dancing during this interview. We also got to take a look into Aba's personal life for the first time. His shift into theater was a major career turning point for or a which Michael Ball really focused in on even going so far as to say, this wasn't what you were meant to be doing in life was it? And in the best analogy for joining the Rocky Cold I've ever heard or replied, you take the red or the blue pill. And I took the rainbow colored one Aduba also talked about how he performed all throughout his childhood trying out for every school performance he could. But that part of himself was something that he sort of muted in adulthood. Ultimately, it ended up taking his performance on strictly come dancing to rekindle the performer in him and bring him back to the stage. Finally ball congratulated Ore and his wife Porsha on their second child that they're expecting. They've got one little guy named Roman and they're all really excited for baby. Number two, a 11 of my favorite Rocky memories was back when our former cast directors, Ron and Hillary uh brought their son Will to the show in a teeny little brad outfit. So adorable, baby brad, baby brad. That kid's 18. Now. Anyway, or if you're listening, why? But secondly, invest in tiny Rocky gear for your little pals. Trust me, it will not disappoint and I mean, hey, do it for the gram. We're sending all the good Juju to Ore and his family as they welcome their new little one into the world. And we wish or and castmates all the broken legs as they head into rehearsal, we would be totally remiss if we didn't mention the other star of the interview, Michael Ball who made his own Rocky splash this week by time warping on Twitter to celebrate his 59th birthday. Now, not only does Michael have his own BBC radio show, he has a resume that's absolutely stuffed to the brim with all sorts of theatrical and performative conquests being a pretty flamboyant performer in his own. Right. He too, has you guessed it been involved in the Rocky Horror Show? In 2006, he shared the spotlight with Anthony Head as the two of them split the role of Franken Furter for the tribute show charity concert. The tribute show hosted by Richard o'brien raised money for Amnesty International. The performance was staged at the Royal Court Theater where Rocky originally premiered in 1973 and the cast list was absolutely star studded. Most notably Patricia Quinn played the role of the Usherette and no Campbell even made a guest appearance, but Michael has been involved in so much more than just Rocky. At the age of 23 he made his west end debut when he performed as Marius in the original London production of Les Mis. And in 1989 he reached number two in the UK singles chart with Love changes, everything, which is a song from another musical that he performed in aspects of love. More recently, April 24th, 2020 he was number one on the UK singles chart with a cover of you'll never walk alone with 82,000 sales. It was the fastest selling single of 20 20 in 1992. Ball represented the UK in the Eurovision song and he finished second with one step out of time. He has twice won the Laurence Olivier Award for best actor in a musical lastly and certainly not least during the Queen's 2015 birthday honors, which is an event for the crown to honor award and highly good deeds. Michael was appointed officer of the Order of the British Empire, which is a lot of, of an award on the same level of knighthood. Oh Fancy Fancy Schmancy. I mean, that just goes to show you ball is an absolutely storied artist with way more accomplishments than we have time to dig into here. But man, he'd be a blast to do a deep dive into sometime down the road for now. You can get your fill of Michael Ball listening to his radio show on BBC radio two Sunday mornings at 11. We hope you had a wonderful birthday, Michael. Thanks for joining us in a celebratory time warp. Why the fuck did you have me say that last up in global news? We're excited to announce that Tim Curry will be hosting a Galaxy con virtual meet and greet on Saturday, July 31st at two PM Eastern, which is when I am moving. That's right. This July, you two can have a chat with our favorite sweet transvestite for the low, low cost of only 100 $45 for a single minute. Or if you would like to double your time and save some big bucks, you can purchase a two minute chat for only $225. That's $65 in savings right there. That's money you can take right to the bank. And if that's not enough Tim will also be selling all sorts of autographed items, personalized photos, fun pops, Rocky posters of various sizes and designs. Plus, if you've got something special, you'd like for Tim to sign, he'll also be offering a send in option where you can send him any photo or piece of memorabilia you like and have him autograph it to you. That's all the information we've got for this upcoming Galaxy Con at the moment, but we'll definitely be keeping you guys posted as they add more info. This event is over a month away and this con has been doing lots of rocky centric events lately. So stay tuned. There may even be more to come in the next few weeks and one more little note that we want to throw out here, we want to wish a big old happy birthday to none other than Sal Piro. That's right. Sal Piro, former president of the Rocky Horror Picture Show fan club, the man responsible for keeping the entire cult going for over 45 years. Obviously, we wouldn't have a lot of sources for Nicky asked the question without him and the community would just not exist. So to Sal Happy Birthday man, have a good one. And with that, let's move on to community news. First up in community news, Mark, Jabara and Tony Pazzo have been working on a really entertaining new section to the Oz Rocky horror website, home media. What like DVD S and shit? Yeah. When you say it like that, it doesn't quite capture the magnitude of all the info they've added. They've got the full box art and all the dates for what seems like every single super eight V H S and laser disk version of Rocky anyone has ever been able to own. You've got to remember there have been multiple versions of these released all over the world. Sometimes more than once. The V H S section alone takes a solid 10 minutes to scroll through just looking at the picture and that's not even reading any of the information they've compiled about each release. I've got to say if you're even remotely interested in Rocky history, the V H S page is worth a scroll. Some of the box art is really funny to look at. For example, the UK 1984 V H S release features an image of Frank with Riff on his right side and a blonde woman dressed in lingerie on his left. We have no idea who she is a blond woman in lingerie. Is that Janet? Uh you'd think, right? But uh, Janet and Brad are on the back of the box and in that picture, Janet has red hair and Brad's wearing stripes. This is a confusing box. That's what she said. They maybe it's a throwback to the like she is dressed in lingerie and seems pretty into Frank. I could see a Trixie wearing that outfit. These are the questions that keep me up all night. But can, can we talk about the 1991? French V H S where the V H S box includes a little prop bag set. It's in one of those like plastic V H S holders. And above the movie are these little holes in the plastic that contain a lips pin, a tiny little Ziploc baggie of rice, uh a pink lab scene glove and a black fish net gauntlet. Why, why, why, why I love the implication that not only would a home viewer need these props for home use but that you'd keep them stored with the movie to break out when you wanted to watch? Honey. Let's watch Rocky Hard tonight. I'll grab a broom and you lay down some newspapers that we don't lose too much of our prop bag rice when we throw it around in our living room. Do you want the gauntlet or the glove this time? Kinky 11 last one. Ok. The Brazilian 1995 V H S. This thing is bright fucking green and oh my God, I hate it with every fiber of my bean. It feels so wrong. Anyway, these are just a few of our faves. There are so many more on the site and honestly, they are a ton of fun to look at. Mark and Tony are in the process of adding the DVD and Blu ray sections as we speak. So keep an eye out for those two if you're interested. Also, Oz Rocky Horror is just a great site. We highly recommend checking it out. Go take a look. It's over at Oz Rocky horror dot com. We'll have it linked for you. You guessed it in our show notes, check it out up next. We've got some updates from staycation con first up is a reminder to our listeners that talent show and preshow submissions are due on Thursday, July 1st, which is the day this episode drops. So if you're listening and our maybe sort of person to put stuff off to the last minute, this is your reminder to send in your videos. We want to see them, our friends want to see them. Don't forget. We've also received word that shock treatment casting has been decided and is in its final confirmation stages, I believe, finalized cast list for Rocky and Shocky should also be going up in the vacation group on Thursday, July 1st. That's the day this episode drops. So definitely keep an eye out for that little dopamine drop. Today, we here at Rocky Talkie have really been looking forward to it so our breath will be nice and baited too. And speaking of baiting gather around the campfire gents because it's time for another installment of Big Dick story time. The segment where our listeners get to slap their magnum dons on the proverbial table so everyone in the community can gaze in awe at how shockingly massive it is. Our first story today comes in from Gretchen who runs at Rocky Horror, tiktok and was kind enough to shout us out in a recent post. Gretchen threw back to our story from a few episodes ago where Aaron talked about the audio malfunction at Yin's K in 2018 where the movie audio went out during the All Star show. So the entire audience stopped doing call backs and started reciting the lines of the actual movie so the actors could keep the show going. Yeah, I remember that that was a little while ago. Uh Gretchen shared a freaking awesome story about how she and some friends were at a drive in show a couple of weeks ago with two friends who were super unfamiliar with the movie, but who both knew Gretchen like us was a major rocky nerd. The three of them were sat near the performers but it was outside. So it was difficult to hear the audio after being there a while and not being able to make out the words. One of her friends turned to her and said, Gretchen, can you say the lines of the movie because I can't hear and I don't know what's going on. So for the rest of the movie, Gretchen recited the entire script to her friends along with the film. Damn way to go. Gretchen. I can't fucking imagine trying to absorb all the weird shit going on at your first ever Rocky experience with the shadow cast at a drive in and you can't make out the words like all of that put together sounds so chaotic. Good for you for saving the night for your friends. Occasionally our nerd comes in handy, doesn't it? Congratulations on having this week's Ginormous Schlong and thank you for the tiktok. Shout out. We absolutely love getting to hear from all of you on social media. If you guys want to check out Gretchen's tiktok, we'll have it linked for you in our show notes. Also fun. Fact, I'm pretty sure that this was the Sweet Translucent Dreams Drive In show that took place on June 20th. That's the one where our H BS Buffalo and New York City gets performed. So Gretchen, you probably saw some of our cast out there. Yay, yay. Now, speaking of drive-ins, I've got a couple of big dick stories to share with you all this week. Not that my tiny penis can compete with Gretchen's plus sized salami, but N Y C is finally coming out of our cage and we be doing just fine. So a couple of weeks ago actually rewind to 2020 around Halloween, we really desperately wanted to get a show together. So I put out feelers to every drive in movie theater in New York City. And yes, there are quite a few of them who fucking knew and all the rooftop movies that are in, you know, like the ritzy gentrified areas in Brooklyn to see if they wanted to have us at a show. One of them that I actually had a call with was the Skyline Drive in. And they were like, you know what COVID precautions kind of making me feel icky about this, maybe like, we, we probably shouldn't be doing that and like, fair, I get it. No big deal. They have reached out to us about 2, 2.5 weeks ago and they were like, hey, you want to do a show with us? And I was like, yes, please. So I went down there, we scoped out the area. There was a few things that were kind of iffy about the location because it's gigantic. There's no area to change, but we're Rocky Horror. We can make anything work. So we got everything good and approved on our end. We signed on for a show for the 26th at nine o'clock. They had no lights for us. We had to go out and buy these like, dinky little flood lights and hope that it was going to be enough to light us. We set them up and we were like, oh, no, me and my lighting person for the evening clue, we were like, this isn't gonna work. They're not gonna be able to see us. So we're just gonna kind of have to do what we can. But as the sun went down and as the skyline went up, the floodlights actually worked really, really well. Uh Obviously the place was gigantic so the people all the way in the back clearly couldn't see us. But we brought so much electrifying energy to this show that nobody cared whether or not they saw us, they got out of their cars and came all the way up to the front. They went into the area that was only seating and they sat and they actually pulled their chairs over so that they could see us better. The staff was absolutely incredible. I was talking with the electrician for the evening and I was in touch with the security guy for the evening to make sure that we were complying with all of their protocols and procedures. I hosted the show from the sunroof of one of our cast members, cars and all of the casts took out their cell phones and lit them so that I could be seen in the middle in the dark. They had a P A system. I did all my announcements over that. The show was incredible. We had no props at all. Just personal hand props that each individual character brought. We didn't even have a wheelchair for Doctor Scott. We didn't have a tank, we didn't have a weight rack. We just improvised. We used a picnic table for the tank we used and barriers that they just kind of had left over for the elevator. It was a magical Diy Rocky show. We had a standing ovation at the end, it was difficult for security to kick people out for their midnight movie that they were showing because everyone just wanted to stand around and talk to us. It was a absolutely magical fucking evening. Honestly, I think it was probably because we haven't performed in a year and a half. But that was hands down the best Rocky show I think I have ever seen in the past four years. It was amazing. And if any of the N Y C cast is listening to this, thank you all so much for being absolute fucking rock stars on Saturday. It was incredible. Y'all made me so proud. Each and every performer brought their a game. Our crew and our costume techs were incredible. Everyone rolled with the punches. It was what Rocky is supposed to fucking be. I cannot sing the praises of how great this show was. I wish Aaron Meg Nicky. I wish all of you were there to have seen the show. It was unreal. Also, for anyone who is interested in the next couple of weeks, we will have uh professional pictures uploaded to the website N Y C R H P S dot org because there was actually a professional photographer who was just kind of there. And he was like, I'll take pics for you and we were like, dope. So he's going through and like editing them and stuff and for some of the pictures that we have seen, he is incredible. So like y'all gonna see this stuff, I really hope that I can revisit this and kind of make this a recurring area because everyone had such a great time and they almost sold out too and it's a gigantic area. So that was a pat on the back for us. So great show. Amazing, incredible. I had such a fantastic time. It really did my heart. Good to see Rocky Horror be brought back to New York City after almost a year and a half of being dead, man. I am so fucking jealous. That sounds so awesome. Sounds like way better time than dealing with an exploding fridge. Yeah, it absolutely was. I would say that I have to ask, what did you do for Dr Scott? So our cast member, Nick was casted as Doctor Scott and I told him a couple of days before the, the show that they had no wheelie chair and Nick's response was I'll make it work. Literally. What he did was he dressed as Doctor Scott. And when he had the entrance in, he literally just walked on the stage when Dr Scott is getting pulled around by the magnet. And when he gets put in front of the transducer with Brad and Frank, he just sat down on a chair. And then when we moved over to dinner, he literally just got up and moved the chair to where he was supposed to be for dinner, for kick line. He just walked back and forth with the chair. It was the funniest thing I've ever seen in my life. It was, it was, it was hysterical. So fucking funny. We had to fudge a lot of the show, Savannah who played Frank, my partner did the introduction from Sweet Tea by standing on top of our cast mate Kristen's car and like she used the car as the runway and like walked down the, the windshield and onto the hood and then onto the ground. Adam, our ex cast member now recently rejoined was Eddie. He actually brought his sacks and played the Ho Patuti Sax solo. We had to do a lot of different things for the show, but it was so fun. I was Riff and I wore a traffic cone on my head for the end of the show because of takeover. I used literally just finger guns instead of the death ray like it was as D I it was, it reminded me of like seventies eighties, Rocky Horror. You know, when they didn't have, they just used what was ever at the theater. And that's exactly what we did. And it was absolutely wonderful. I would love to perform there all the time forever. It took forever and a day to get out there. But it was just such a fantastic location. The staff was incredible. If anyone is listening to this and you're in the New York City Metropolitan area, make a point to go to Skyline Drive in because it is a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful experience. Do it very nice. Also, if my dick wasn't big enough this week, I also got the march in this year's New York City Pride Parade just yesterday. That's Sunday the 27th for those in the future. And we got an email Saturday morning around three am saying we want to invite you to this year's Pride parade, don't tell anyone. And we were like, we were like, what I mean? Ok. And the email was phrased as if we were like doing them a favor. So me, Meg and Eric were like, well, we have to like, everyone wants to do it. The kicker was that we were only able to invite a certain amount of people and our cast is pretty big. Thankfully, it worked out because of the really short notice. Not a lot of people were available, but we were able to scrounge up most of the cast we showed up at around 11 AM only had to wait about an hour because naturally this Pride March was much smaller compared to other pride marches because of COVID. And it was very last minute, but it was a great time. We weren't, we weren't shoulder to shoulder in the 93 degree heat like we usually are, we kind of had our own block to just kind of hang out and relax before the march. And everyone who actually knew that the march was happening and was there, brought the same exact energy that they do every year, so much love and acceptance and rallying and partying. And we actually got on TV, this time, which was really cool. You can see us in the background doing the time warp as we do while some random person is getting interviewed about his nonprofit, which is really funny. So I was Riff two nights in a row. I was Riff for the nine PM drive in show and then I had to wake up at eight AM to get ready to go to the Pride March again as Riff. So it was a very hot and sweaty weekend, but it was worth it. It really felt great to kind of be back to that same routine of Rocky taking over my weekends and I wouldn't have changed it for the world. Like I love doing the pride parade. It's a fantastic event. You can really feel that energy from the crowd and they did not skimp out on that energy just because we have been inside for the past year and a half. If anything, it was more explosive because of that. I mean, I bet. Right. Like, again, I wish I had made it to this one too. But like, oh, I'm so excited. We'll get, we'll get there very soon. I will get to get to enjoy our Rocky family very, very soon. And I mean, as far as the parade, like at this point, Rocky Horror is practically like an iconic staple at pride events, right? We're, we're almost a mascot. I mean, people always recognize the characters and they, they want their photo with Frank or Magenta or like whoever, right? How long has the New York cast been doing pride since it started or what? What the fuck just happened? I, I think you asked a question and that means it's time for Nick. He asks a question. No, but I, I didn't. You asked, how long has New York been doing the pride parade? No, but that's not a Nicky asks a question. That's a question. Question. Sorry. The transition music has spoken whatever it's pride month. Anyway, let's get all festive up in this bitch. Let's have pride. So we'll just, we'll just knock this out right at the top to answer your question. In short. No, the New York cast has not been at all of the pride parades since the beginning. Uh, that would be impossible as the first New York pride parade was in 1970. Right. That's a few years before Rocky would premiere as a stage show and in 1970 it wasn't so much a parade as a march and it was to commemorate the Stonewall riots from a year earlier, if you aren't aware of Stonewall. Well, a pay attention more in history and b just on the same page, the Stonewall riots took place in New York City's Greenwich Village on June 28th, 1969. Nice. They were a response by members of the gay community following a police raid on the Stonewall Inn bar where the cops attempted to arrest all 200 patrons of the bar for basically failing to provide an ID or for being dressed in women's clothes, which was a crime in, you know, Draconian in 1969. I feel I can speak for all of Rocky talky when I say, hey, Cab seriously. So a year later gay rights was starting to make waves as a national topic. And the first New York Pride March was organized much in the same vein as the suffragette and American civil rights movements. The New York Times reported that the marchers of that first event in 1970 took up the entire street for about 15 blocks. This was only three years before Rocky Horror would premiere as a stage show. I mean, it really puts into perspective just how transgressive it was for the period when it was released in 1973 the year Richard o'brien first did the time warp. That was the same year that the American Psychiatric Association and a bunch of other worldwide organizations finally removed homosexuality from the list of mental illnesses. Which can we take a moment with that? Richard and Jim Sharman and all the other creative minds created this piece of theater that is so unapologetic about its characters and their motivations and desires and sexuality. It's difficult to grasp and I doubt any of us really can as none of us live through this period. Just how out there it was, we see the complaints a lot today, Rocky isn't all that modern or has questionable elements. This is the rebuttal Rocky. The stage show released only a year after Twin Peaks Tavern, a gay bar in San Francisco finally was able to have clear windows, right? I mean, the porno deep throat released as a box office smash that same year. So straight smut hits the mainstream and Jack Nicholson and Johnny Carson can talk about it in the tabloids and how into this porno chic that they are. And meanwhile, the gay community can finally sip beers without blackout curtains. That's the culture that Rocky was created in. No wonder it became a huge icon for the gay community. It was another push toward mainstream acceptance. Another small step on the long road that continues to this day. And a few short years later in 1975 the year that the Rocky Horror Picture Show released in theaters, California and several other states finally decriminalized homosexuality though the number of states to do so is still in the single digits at this point by 1979. That's the 10 year anniversary of the Stonewall riots. You have Rocky exploding into the cult sensation that we all know and love. You have the birth of the fan club audience participation and shadow casting the whole thing. So as Rocky explodes into the zeitgeist, you also see the community starting to intermingle with all these events for the gay and alternative communities all throughout the early eighties out in Pasadena, California. You have the Dodo parade more akin to a carnival than a civil rights march where you see a lot of California casts participating every year all the way up to today. So to get back to your question, I'm not exactly sure what year the New York cast started doing the New York pride parades, but I do know that we haven't missed an event in at least the last 10 years. And I'm fairly confident we made appearances long before the mid two thousands. We reached out to uh Tom and Ashley Ameci. They were the cast directors for New York City before me and Eric took over the reins and they recalled that we definitely did the parade on and off during the early two thousands. I mean, I can certainly attest to that. I think one of the first big events that I ever did with the New York cast was the pride parade and it was probably in 2006 or 2007. I remember it because I was living in hell's kitchen in the middle of Manhattan at the time, just a few blocks away from where the parade route was. And I had suggested or offered to the cast that, oh, no, you can, you can come over to my apartment and using it as a staging area. I'll, I'll make sure there's beer and whatever else, don't worry about it. So the morning comes, everybody hauls their ass over to my tiny little apartment in the east fifties of Manhattan and they come in and the first thing that comes out of their mouth is all right. Where's the beer? And me being like a 19 year old kid looks at him and goes, what a, I can't buy beer. And b it's 11 o'clock in the morning. What are you talking about? Aaron now has a really different perspective on that one. Aaron now really understands why they were so disappointed that they can't actually go get any beer. Oh my God, Aaron then was kind of an asshole. Aaron then. Yeah. Hey, hi. So, yeah, so that was one of my first experiences. I mean, it was the only time I ever did the Pride parade because, like, honestly, I love the parade. It was so much fun, but I really do not like walking and walking and walking and walking for hours on end. Like I got my feel of doing parades in high school with marching band. Now. I'm good, I'm good on parades. But the New York Pride parade is iconic. I love seeing photos every year and honestly, I may have to do it again just, you know, to round it out. Yeah, we'll see in, in years as they come up. Uh But also back to your question again. When you go back to old issues of the Transylvanian or some of the other fan scenes, you do see accounts all throughout the eighties and nineties of casts all over the country that were participating in pride celebrations, parades, any kinds of things to interact uh with the larger community. You see it all over the country cast, participating in pride events, performing special shows, putting on theme nights, all the stuff we normally do, dialed up to 11 and with as much rainbow glitter as possible. Don't joke about that. Just ask great or Burton ouch. I mean, at least with a parade, you know, you'll sweat most of the glitter off long before it can become a hazard. Like let me tell you about that. So going back to this year's parade, the really good thing about it is that first off since it was still kind of considered a hush hush for a while. There were not a lot of people that were actually part of the march, which was really cool. So as a result, we weren't, as I said earlier, shoulder to shoulder when we were in holding, when we were there, we kind of had like an entire like two or three storefronts, kind of basically to ourselves. It was a really easy process to check in, unlike in years past where you have to wait in line and sometimes they lose your stuff. Like we literally were just like, we're here with Rocky and they were like, great take this COVID screening. You passed. Great, go sit somewhere. Basically. We were only there for an hour. Usually when we start marching, we have to, we're, we're held up for, you know, 25 30 minutes. I think the longest that we stood around before we actually got moving was around like 10, 15 minutes. It wasn't that bad. The March itself was smaller than other pride marches that we've been a part of it was only a little over a mile as opposed to the usual, like mile and a half mile, 75 that the Pride March traditionally is so it was a lot shorter, but the crowd was just as excited. There was also at least a positive for us. There were breaks in the crowd. So, like when we went into major areas like, especially around Fifth Avenue. And the closer that we got down into the Greenwich Village area from Chelsea, it got gayer and gayer. But there were, there were pockets of just like emptiness. Like there were no, there were very little people to interact with. There was very little cheering anything like that. So we just kind of walked, obviously, we walked with purpose and we walked with excitement, but we just kind of walked and that was really nice to do. I think my personal favorite interaction with the spectator. One of our old cast members, Ella brought her kid and her kid is a trained dancer. I'm a gymnast and obviously she stole the show. So she was like doing flips and cart wheels and all that stuff. Uh And there was this one point where she did some like backhand spring shit or whatever. And I being the silly jokester that I am, I looked at one of the patrons who was like clapping, applauding her and I looked at her pointing out. I was like, I can't compete with that shit. I'm almost 30 and she was like, don't be shy, try it. So like I did some dumb shit on the ground. Uh That was not even close to what Ellis Child had done. And obviously everyone was laughing at me and I was like, it's because I'm wet and this like super gay guy was like, yeah, you are honey. And it was hysterical. Everyone was laughing. It was a great time. But there were so many times I was able to go up to somebody and like compliment their outfit and be like, bitch, you understood the assignment today and they were like, so did you, it was great. We had so many people be like, let's do the time warp again. And every single time someone said that we had to stop and do it, you know, kind of like back in the day at Disney when you would walk into the toy story area and somebody would say, and he's coming and everyone would drop to the floor. They can't do that now. But we have to do the time work every single time someone mentions it. So we would like stop and do it while we were moving and stuff. There were so many like good and memorable interactions. The logistics were great aside from the fact that it was extremely last minute, but I don't really think that that was like the N Y C pride people's faults. I think it was just, it was a super stressful situation. They did the best with the time that they had. It was super easy getting in, it was super easy getting out. There was no checkout process. We just kind of spilled out into the Christopher street area and then we just kind of went on our own way. We had a person that was designated that kept us kind of on track. They stood in front of us and kind of walked backwards to make sure that we weren't going into another area, like another group's part in the parade. We had our own area. Like, it was surprisingly, despite the fact that they only had, like, 48 hours to put everything together. Basically, it was kind of more organized than previous pride parades. Like, and I know that the logistics must have been crazy on the organizer's end. Everything was super hectic from what I could tell, but they pulled it off. Oh, yeah, I mean, I, I got a small glimpse into this just overhearing Meg's phone calls with the, the organizers as they were kind of, you know, coordinating the beginning of this several months ago. They'd reached out about doing a virtual event for Pride weekend. Right. And they wanted to see if New York wanted to do, you know, some video or something, but they really weren't sure what the idea was. They really didn't have a ton of response from the community and like, we weren't even really sure what we were, what we could offer them for it. We just done, you know, three or four months ago, I guess, five or six. Now, the, the virtual show that New York did, you know, we, that's so much work doing another big video thing was kind of out of our wheelhouse. So we, we weren't sure if we were going to be able to do anything for pride this year. But then, like you said, you know, they just reached out and said, hey, we're gonna try and coordinate this. We've got two weeks to do it. The city says it's ok finally, and they want a pride parade. So we're gonna give them a pride parade and, oh, by the way, it's gonna be on TV this year. Something that we haven't done in other years. So, yay. So Meg's trying to coordinate with this woman who's like, getting shuffled all around the city just on her phone and is like, I don't care what the names of the people, you know, just show up with people and march in the parade. It's fine. Don't worry about it. We will get the logistics sorted out where you get them sorted out. So they just threw it together completely off the cuff and like, I'm pretty sure nobody knew what was going on. Uh, but it sounds like they made it work and it sounds like they scrambled and scrambled and scrambled and put on an awesome event props to them. Seriously. But, I mean, hey, that's what they're good at. That's also what Rocky people are good at. Right. You tell us to do a show or a parade or, or whatever, and we've got only a day or two to throw it together. Yeah, we can do that. Tell me about it. You know, my cast, we really wanted to return to theme nights because we haven't been able to since we reopened from COVID. And we thought that enough time had passed and we felt comfortable enough that we could do it. And because it was June, our leadership thought that doing a Pride Night would be the best idea. We've never done one. This was our first annual and it was so incredible. I can't even begin to tell you so many people came, like, we had a line out the door and everyone was dressed in pride gear and dressed in their own representative flags. And it was just so nice to see just like a sea of rainbow in the audience and like all different like identities and variances. It was just like such a safe place and it was so nice and so cute and the audience had such an incredible energy. They were so lively. We had so many virgins and the whole show was just absolutely insane. Like, there wasn't a moment that the audience wasn't going crazy. Uh I was lucky enough to be able to play Janet and we all like, doctored up our costumes to match our pride flags. And it was just like such a good show. I really want to go back. Like, I really can't even begin to express how incredible it felt to like, be on that stage in that environment and have just like this lovely audience around you. It was just like such, so accepting and so fun. And I loved it for floor show. We had rainbow boas and we wore our pride flags like capes and everyone on our floor show line was a different identity. So we all had different flags and I thought that was just like the neat thing. It was such a good time and it really got me in a really good mood for Pride Month. It's the most magical time of the year. I think we can all agree with that. I uh I guess that wraps us up, wrap up this dick, happy pride, everyone, happy pride, happy pride. And that's our show. We want to thank Gretchen for shouting us out and sharing her awesome story. Please check out her Tik Tok. If you get a chance, we've got it linked in our show notes for you. If anyone has a question, they'd like us to answer on air for Nikki, ask the question or some community news they'd like us to talk about or even just a cool story to share with the community. We'd love to include it on our show. Just go to our website rocky talkie podcast dot com and fill out our contact form to tell us about it. If you're enjoying Rocky talkie, please help us out by radio, 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, youtube, Instagram and tiktok, all at Rocky Talkie Podcast. We'll talk to you all next week. Bye bye bye bye. All right. No. Kicking off global news this week, I'm gonna kick you in the global news. Oh my God. Well, actually that's, that's probably more accurate. I just read down because we're starting off this week with a bit of sad news. John stole my line. Well, go pick up the line and then I'm not paying it is so fucking hot in here. Invest in tiny Rocky gear for your little pals. Trust me, it will not disappoint and I mean, hey, do it for the gram. I don't, I don't know how I am. I speaking like the millennials do it for the gram community news. I make that joke every fucking week. I need to get better material. You should. Yeah. First stop in community moves. First move. Move. Oh ew that one nice job. Anyway, what like DVD s and shit. Yeah. When you say it like that, it doesn't quite capture the magnitude of all the info they've added. They've got the full box art and all the dates for what seems like every single super eight V H S and Laser Dick. Laser Dick. Anyway, and Laser Dick version of Rocky anyone has ever been able to own. They've got the full box art and all the deeds for what seems like every single super eight V H S and laser dick. I can. Oh, ok. Talk about the driving and show, you know, you want to shut up, shut your mouth and that's it. Yeah, I pushed up. Oop.