Hello to all of you. Unconventional conventions. Who's a good unconventional convention. Is he you? Yes, it is. Welcome back to Rocky Talk. Yeah, Rocky Horror Podcast where we talk about anything and everything. Rocky Horror. I'm John, I'm Nicky and I'm Aaron. Fantastic. Yo, this has been quite a whirlwind of a week, I think for everybody. Nicky. How was your week? What did you do? Anything fun? Anything special? Yeah, I actually, we got some really good news this week. I've talked about him once or twice, but my boyfriend Josh, we just found out that he got accepted into coding school. So he's going and we're so excited for him. He's worked so hard for this, you know, we're going to celebrate and it's just been a very good week, a week of good news and happy tidings. Congratulations, Josh. You, we love him. My little software engineer. He's gonna do. Awesome, man. What about you, Aaron? What do you do? Uh I won't lie. It's all been Rocky and moving. So we're gonna talk about the rocky part, but it's all moving related stuff for me over here. We are five days away from packing all of our shit up and hauling it back to the big city. So I'm super pumped and excited for that. But boy, oh boy, is there about 900,000 things that need to get done between now and then. I'm sure you know all about that. I do because for our faithful listeners, this is officially the first Rocky talkie podcast recording that I'm doing in my new apartment. Aside from the, the, the one that we did for the con, this is like the first like episode, episode, you know, we moved five days ago and then immediately after we moved, Adam did nothing but work. Savannah left the state for a gig, came back and was sick. So I have done nothing but put together furniture for the past five days and I'm sick of it. Is it all IKEA? Yes. Absolutely. Oh my God, dude. I mean, could be worse. But also I do not envy your newfound hex key specialization like, oh my God, hex keys and Cam Locks. Oh, I'm so wet just thinking about them. Yeah. But it's been really fun. I really like this new apartment. I have my own room for streaming and for recording the podcast. It's a little echo in here, but Meg will fix that and post and then I'm gonna eventually get some like acoustic panels up on the wall to like absorb the sound. It's gonna be awesome and fantastic. And I'm so excited to start adding on to the apartment as we continue to live in it. So I'm super excited. We still have to go back and clean the old apartment. We have that apartment until the 31st. So we have to clean it and get it ready for going up for releasing for to somebody else so we can get our security deposit back. But uh yeah, it's just been such a breath of fresh air. I sleep so much better. Here. I am so much less stressed. It's just we needed a change of pace and this apartment has been dope. And with that, why don't we get started with our first segment? That, that, that would be global news also. I'm just going to say I'm a little unconventional convention. Yeah, you are, aren't you? Yeah. Yes. Yes, you are. Why? Why? So first up in global News, this past Friday, the 2021 UK Rocky horror show tour kicked off at the Mayflower Theater in Southampton. Yeah. The world really do be healing though. Yeah. Our friends across the pond were absolutely beside themselves. The UK fan groups on social media have been abuzz for weeks with ticket holders showing off the costumes that they plan to wear on opening night, scheduling meetups with their online friends and just generally getting each other pumped up for the return of their favorite show. Yeah. And the actors have also been going nuts on their social media AA Duba who's playing Brad Christian Lacomb who's playing Riff and Susie mcadam who's playing Magenta. They all graced us with some adorable opening night selfies. I want something like, I can't even imagine how excited they must be to get their show back up and running again. But I absolutely can't imagine. And I know that all of our listeners can too. It's kind of one of those instances where you see a celebrity wearing sweatpants at Walmart and you're like, oh my God, they're just like us, except in this case, they really are just like us. And it's wonderful to get to share in that enjoyment. I, I will point out that they are just like us except they get paid to do Rocky that's valid after the show wrapped, we got to keep the hype train going with some online reviews from attendees. Now, there were so many we could fill up our whole hour reading them all, but we did find one that we felt summed up the vibe just perfectly from Cliff Boon. He writes, I can't even begin to explain how much I have missed going to the theater to see Rocky, but I don't need to, as you all know and feel it too. Rocky opened tonight at the Mayflower Southampton. The cast had a great opening night and the new members did really well, Stephen was on top form as well as Christian Ico. Philip Franks was on fire and played with the audience in his special way. Or he did, well, not to laugh and his reish once in a while was spot on. Absolutely. Loved Joe Allen as Eddie Doctor Scott. Funny moment of the night was his mustache starting to come off during his solo. All in all the show was like a long cold drink after a walk in the desert. Oh, man. Right in the fields with that last bit. Yeah. He capitalized desert too. I don't really know why. I mean, reading through all the reviews, it sounds like everyone, the cast and the audience had a blast on opening night and I mean, we cannot wait to follow the tour as it progresses. And for those of our States side listeners who might be interested in checking out a stage show production. The Ocean Beach Playhouse is also in the midst of a Rocky horror show run the Obie Playhouse located in Sunny San Diego, California is a not for profit theater that produces musical theater, stage plays and comedy acts. Some of their recent productions have included Sweeney, Todd Avenue Q Heather's the musical An American Idiot. The Rocky Horror Show appears to be a bit of an annual tradition for the company. They last performed it in January and February of 2020 before the start of the Panera Bread. It's kind of fun that they get to bookend the whole thing by making Rocky one of their first performances to open back up with if you're in the San Diego area or don't mind a schlep. The show runs through Sunday. July 25th. General admission tickets cost $39.50 and VIP table seats are $52. The venue welcomes audience participation and props, like flashlights, rubber gloves, newspapers, playing cards and square guns. Although they do ask that patrons not bring rice or toast which like fair actually throwing around food in a theater is bad form. Plus, have you ever tried to clean wet rice out of a disgusting theater carpet? Like I haven't, but I've seen our theater staff try and it always looks like a waking nightmare, man. Good theater crew are like the fucking best. Here. Here's a question. Have you guys had a favorite theater staff member that you've worked with or at a show or anything? Really? Absolutely. Luis from Chelsea Snap. He is the usher. I almost called him a security guard but he is not a security guard. He is the usher that is usually at the shows every Friday and homeboy is just like the nicest human being on the planet. There are some ushers that like will give a shit for bringing in guests every once in a while or like, well, we're not on the loose or anything like that. Lewis just let's just do whatever the fuck we want because he knows that we're not problems, love him, love him, love him, love him, love him and most recently we were able to perform at the Skyline Drive in. You know, we talked about that a couple of episodes back and everybody who I worked with there was absolutely phenomenal, especially Bill. Their A V guy absolutely loved him. Red Bank is a little weird because most of our staff are like young boys, so I tend to not engage in discourse with them. They're really like, they're so nice, but I'm shy. But when we were in Aberdeen, there was a girl who worked there. Her name was Angel. She's a year older than me and she was the most delightful person in the whole wide world. There was a drink that people called the Angel Special where she would give you a courtesy cup and she would mix a bunch of different beverages together and it was so good. Uh and she's actually, I think she's studying abroad in some European country or something now. So she's not at our theater anymore, but it was not the same returning to Rocky without her because she was just so phenomenal. Yeah, I got to throw it back to uh the Chelsea Sonali there, John. You remember uh Craig? Yes. Oh boy. He's a sweetheart. One of the nicest guys. He was just a, you know, general purpose theater employee. He always loved interacting with the cast and talking to everybody. And he would always tell like all of the people on cast that like he, he collects cars and that he'd tell them like, oh, I'm getting a new car, I'm gonna name, I'm gonna name it after you and he'd name them after like the girls that were on cast or some of the people that, you know, he interacted with. And for years, literally years I thought, man, how is this guy affording to buy so many cars on like a theater employees salary and whatever? It wasn't until like, I shit you not like eight months ago where I was having this conversation with Meg and she tells me she's like, you know, he doesn't have real cars, you know, he makes model cars, right? And just fucking mind blown in that moment where I'm like, oh, that makes so much more sense. Damn it, Aaron, absolute sweetheart of a guy. Uh But boy, I thought he was full of crap for a long time. Well, everyone here's your daily reminder to be awesome to the amazing theater staff members who put up with all our weird shenanigans as we venture back into the realm of performing. Plus we'd like to wish all the broken legs to the members of the Obie Playhouse as they end out their stage show run next up while we are so happy to see some new talent and getting started with the show. It's always nice to keep up with the O G s. You will all be happy to know that little now, a disco ball full of nip slips and joy is as active as ever. She recently started a cameo account. Cameo is an online store for artists and celebrities to sell personalized video messages to fans. Customers spent over 100 million on content from the site's over 30,000 celebrities in 2020 alone now joined the video sharing site just over two months ago in May. Uh she has a fan club. I mean, that's how many people have hearted her account of 17 personalized videos start at 25 bucks and a total of 13 5 star reviews for an account average of uh carry the one uh yeah, five starss. And while Little Mel already has a bunch of the personalized videos that she's made for patrons on the site and available for anyone to view. The real fun of cameo is getting your own unique video. You can literally pay little Nell to do your own artistic reinterpretation of dude the swim or stilettos and lipstick, right? Aaron. I mean, who's turning that down at 68 nell is still every bit as adorable as ever. And a video message from her would be an awesome gift or pick me up for any Rocky fan if you'd like to check out our page and maybe ask our favorite groupie to record something special for the Rocky D Web in your life. We've got our cameo page linked for you in our show notes, but that's enough with global news. It's time to get to everybody's favorite segment come unity news. All right, everyone you all know for a fact that this segment is going to be us creaming our genes over the absolute coolest thing to happen in our community since the start of the peninsula. Staycation con Yeah. Yeah. We all had a totally amazing time. I think between all of us, we were able to attend every single panel, right? Uh We missed Jack Box. That was kind of a bummer. But like we were prepping for our panel the next day. So like it was for a good cause, but I mean, we'll, we'll get to that. So the art gallery opened at 8 30 on Friday night, which we were pumped for anyway. But what we didn't realize is that we would be treated to a tour of the virtual art gallery from Tory and Harley. That was a lot of fun. They both talked us through all the different artists who submitted and went through all the pieces to highlight their faves. It was a good time. I especially liked getting to hear all the artists talk about their work. Harley and Tory both had work featured in the gallery which they talked through in depth on the virtual tour. But then at the end, they opened up the floor to all the other artists in the chat who got to speak about their process and the pieces they'd submitted. I'm such a sucker for Rocky Art and I adore getting to hear creators nerd about their passion projects. So up next, we all bitched out for Jack Box. Uh If any of our listeners attended, please write in and tell us what we missed. But at 10 30 the entertainment portion of the evening started with the talent show and oh man, we know a lot of people with some really massive schlong, all of the acts were fun as shit to watch. I personally want to give a special shout out to s call me by your name, Paul Dance routine. It was both insanely hot and really fucking clever. I really loved Sam. The hobo's getting by number where they wore the by pride. Iron Man Cosplay. That thing was bananas and must have taken forever to make. Also, I am such a sucker for crazy ex girlfriends. So I transcended into a new reality. Crazy ex girlfriend really is a gold mine for shadow casting material. Finally Friday evening wrapped up with the shock treatment. All Star show, which was the phenomenal. I've gotta say watching through Shocky and Rocky this weekend really made me go. Huh? We've gotten virtual shows down to like a science. Everything about these shows was so seamless. Everyone knew their angles. They were great at keeping themselves in frame. All the cameras went on and off when they were supposed to. Nobody had any major video issues. Like it's almost a shame that we're phasing out of the era of like zoom shows because we're getting so damn good at it. Only you. What I liked was all the incredible talent that we had on screen. We had our lovely host Harley as Janet Phantom Filer from J C C P as Brad Sam the Hobo from J C C P as Farley Flavors. Our other lovely host Tory played Nation. We had Jeff from Doctor Scott's refresher course as cosmo and from R K O as an and we had Lucas from A K O as Rest Home, Ricky Rosie Cheeks from J C C P as Bert Cyrena from R K O as Janet's mom and creature feature from R K O and F BC as the movie's most ridiculous character. Dad majors. Everyone who performed, did an amazing job. We had a blast getting to watch all of your beautiful faces on screen. Saturday was Panel day and I've got to say these were insanely entertaining. First up, we had skills from R H P S in life, which is totally my jam. Everyone who spoke on that panel was super insightful about all the different ways that Rocky enhances the other aspects of our lives day to day. I especially like Ruth's insight on that panel. She's someone who has been in the community forever and has an amazing perspective on what life skills. Rocky has to offer younger newcomers. The big topic that the panelists talked about that hadn't even crossed my mind was how Rocky teaches people to network. It's a soft skill, obviously much like my dick. But for some people, particularly those who skew more introverted, reaching out to a friend of a friend of a friend can be a really daunting task. But all the panelists did a wonderful job of covering the fact that within our community, we've got a guy for almost everything. So let's say you want to learn to make sushi or you need help doing your taxes or you want salsa lessons. Odds are there's someone in our community who's great at that sort of thing and would be happy to help you. It is wild that I can read that and immediately think of one person for each of those things seriously, right? Knowing that those resources exist for us is an awesome incentive to learn how to ask around and find them. Maybe you're dying to learn to make sushi. So you ask your kids cast mates and you learn that someone on a cast in Arkansas is a professional sushi chef. Then you ask the brat on your cast who's friends with the Eddie on the Arkansas cast to put you in touch with their lighting director whose day job is sushi? Great, easy. Right now, you've developed that skill in a low pressure environment. You can go ahead and use it to, I don't know, find jobs later on in your real life. Rocky horror fan theories was next. And that was my favorite one to watch. By far. That panel was led by M Universe and Sam the hobo and the two of them went the fuck off on all sorts of head cannon that they had created all of which was unsettlingly on point once they started citing their reasoning for all of them and just like, dug into it, you could totally tell they'd spent many, many late nights sitting up talking through all of this stuff and it was fun as shit to listen to a lot of their theories tied into shocky and even other in universe content like revenge of the old queen. You could tell they'd really put in the legwork content wise to make sure all of their ideas held water. Speaking of which Aaron, we've got a pretty wild fan theory of our own that Meg and I have been dying, dying, dying to cover during our Nicky asks a question segment and I've got some tinfoil hats already made for all of us. Any chance your favorite panel might have been the push you needed to write about it. Sometime soon. There's a little hat in it for you. If you say yes, a little hat, you say honestly, it, it, it might be time, it might be time we've been holding off on it because let's be honest, this one is a little out there, but I think we're at a point where our listeners like getting weird with us. So it might be time to get even weirder. I'm not even sure how we could possibly get any weirder but YOLO time to put on that hat and start writing Aaron. So I'd just like to give a big fuck you to Meg for scripting me into agreeing to write about this and to our listeners, I am already sorry. It's your fault. The next panel was shadow casting, non R H P S movies. That one was great because there was so much behind the scenes content of what exactly goes into producing a non Rocky shadow cast. There's so much that I feel like we as performers take for granted with Rocky because by the time most of us are on stage, we've already magically absorbed shit like blocking and costume changes and stuff just by virtue of being on cast before we actually get to perform. Not to mention things. Most of us never think about day to day like obtaining movie rights. It's crazy to think about having to completely start from scratch with a new show where it's not just learning block, it might be creating it from scratch and having to do it in a way that makes sense to the audience and is physically just doable for the actors. Plus there are a million other difficulties that you don't get with the standard Rocky show, like who gets to perform if you are a cast of 45 awesome actors in only 15 roles. And everyone knows you won't be doing the show again for a whole year. Decisions like that are hard. You must never get that with a rocky show because we do so many. So it becomes easy to do special shows on a rotation. None of us have ever been on the production side of a non rocky shadow cast. So getting to hear about all the little intricacies definitely gave me a new perspective on how difficult it is to make shit like that work and run smoothly. So I guess what I'm trying to say is I'm sorry, we're so demanding and thank you for all your hard work putting on a million non rocky shadow cast shows Roy. We promise that we won't hold it against you if you don't pander to us, Roy, we appreciate everything you do for the community and we recognize that a naked alien foam party is a ridiculous ask for a hotel party. Roy. Next up, we have the pandemic Rocky horror panel where we got to watch Aaron's we ass nerd out about virtual shows. Hey, Aaron buddy, you wanna tell us a little bit about that one? Yeah, that was super, super fun. It was me Tori Harley Caden and a bunch of folks from over at the ordinary kids. Super fun. Got a geek out over a bunch of the technical bits that happened over the last year in order to put on all of these virtual shows, talk about the organizational aspects of it. Uh Talked about what kinds of things we discovered during the pandemic that we should probably carry forward into, you know, post Panera bread, Rocky life, things like getting all of our content out uh online, targeting more low hanging fruit content. Uh all sorts of things that are uh directly applicable as learning experiences from this past year. Really fun, really fun panel. I was so honored to be invited to be on it. And uh it was super fun. Big. Thank you to everybody out there who came and listened and a big thank you to everybody who participated. Then finally, we got to our very own Rocky Talkie panel which we were so excited for. Oh yeah, the run up was crazy for that panel. We were scrambling to get everything written, but it was super, super worth it. We talked about the first couple of Rocky horror conventions, put together a slide show to go with it and oh boy, I think it paid off. We had a ton of fucking fun. I, I loved it. I thought it was so much fun to get to do one of our shows live. It was super unique. Yeah, we actually had a lot of audience participation. I wasn't surprised because it's Rocky and it's us. But we had a lot of really, really, really solid individuals in chat who are regular listeners. So, you know, our good buddies, Hadrian Gretchen Rowan and Andrea were all on chat, blowing it up, starting conversations with other people so that the chat was popping while we were still focused on doing our thing. So for the four of you and everyone else who was really, really, really engaged in chat, thank you so much for allowing a different area of the live show to become entertaining rather than just us. Our writer Jacob was also there and actually was able to part participate in some of the festivities. We got a question during the Q and A session uh regarding the safety of his truest love B B A K A Barry Bostwick and Jacob provided a lot of really good insight into his day to day life in Florida. So it was, it was something you didn't want to miss. Yeah, we also rounded the whole thing out with a awesome Q and A session that was super fun. Thank you to everybody who asked us some questions. Uh really motivated me to put together our show notes for this one and get them up there. So if you want to check out the show notes from the virtual con panel, those are up at rocky talky podcast dot com in our show notes section uh included in that is a big old zip file of all of the images and stuff that we used uh as part of our presentation in there. Is a, a couple of pages of the very early issues of the Transylvanian fanzine. So if you haven't seen those, go check those out. Also, some Transylvanian upstate those are there. And the links to all of the videos that we showed uh during the panel are linked in those show notes. So go check them out. This panel was our first ever live event for Rocky Talky Podcast and it could not have gone better. Everyone in our audience was so supportive and seemed so engaged. Toria and Harley were incredible hosts and from the bottom of our hearts, we want to thank each and every one of you who attended it really meant so much to us to have your support as we popped our live show, cherries, we hope to do more of them in the future and we hope you'll continue hanging with us as we do. And if you missed it, don't worry, we're gonna be posting the show to our youtube and releasing it as a podcast very soon. We promise we will keep you posted for when that drops after our panel. We got into the really exciting stuff, the preshow and the All Star show. I just have to say I loved the preshow. I don't know if you can hear my dogs having a panic attack. They're just really, really, really passionate about a good preshow and they and I together really love getting to watch casts, come together and get super creative and we finally get to catch yours, Nicky, the one that you've been working on forever. I know you were busting your ass on production with it for a month and it was so worth it. It was hilarious. Ah, thank you. Yes, we debuted our newest preshow. It's called Uber at the Frankenstein Place. Uh It's up on our youtube Friday night specials cast on youtube and we also have a link to it on our Facebook, which is also Friday night specials cast. I am so pumped. We've gotten so many like nice words and so much nice interaction and it makes me so happy. It was just so exciting to see it go live after so much work, but it was just a drop in the bucket of all the other great stuff that was showcased. R H P S. Buffalo did a tiktok mash up that I loved with lots of new content interspersed with some of their classics. I really like J C C P's wig in a box with everyone getting into their rocky gear during the song. That number is so obscenely spot on for show nights. That was one of the pre shows we got showcased during our preshow night and it was so fun to get to revisit it again. Also wanna throw a huge shout out to the ordinary kids. I loved your mash up of Dentton TV stuff. It was a fun bit of parody like I honestly went back and watched that thing a couple of times afterwards. Thank you so much for that too. That was super cool. And after Preshow was wrapped, we finally got to watch the All Star Rocky Show. It was everything you could just tell. Every single one of the actors was so excited to be there. They had gone all out to make their performance extra special. I just want to say from the bottom of my heart, thank you all so much for giving me such great entertainment. While I was crying over putting together my bed frame, there were so many amazing performers in this show. Like obviously, it's an all star show. Uh Our podcast would be like three hours long if we shouted out to everyone that was there. But please know that we all had a wonderful time getting to watch each and every one of you, our community would not be the home that we know and love without all of you and all of the hard work and dedication that you contribute. And it really showed. And speaking of people who make massive contributions to our community, we want to congratulate Tori who was granted the inaugural You're a hot dog award. It's a brand new award that will henceforth be given out to community members who do fun innovative things to keep our community alive and fresh and delicious Tory received this award for well busting ass during the Pansexual Pennsylvanian and producing a metric fuck ton of virtual content to keep our community together while we were all locked down. And culminating in this incredible con and we here at Rocky Talk, he would like to give you a huge congratulations Tori and to also extend our thanks and appreciation for everything that you've done for us. Nobody deserves this award more than you. And we are so glad that your work has been recognized. We'd also like to thank both Tori and Harley for orchestrating this con and giving us all a fun and Rocky filled weekend. We know full well that you both worked tirelessly to make it happen. You sat to maud every single panel, you worked on every single show and as a result, you gave every single one of us an absolutely wonderful time together from the bottom of our cold dead little hearts. Thank you both. If you attended the Staycation Khan and had a favorite part of the weekend that you'd like to chat about with us, please write to us. We'd love to hear your take. Just go to our website Rocky Talk You podcast to send us a message. And with that, I'm hungry. You know what that means? I need time for a snack. Mhm Yum Yum Yum. It's time for everyone's favorite Nicky flavored segment. Nicky asks a question and this week we're going to do a bit of a smash and grab with a couple of different topics. Why? Because we're all still hungover from Te Vacation Con. It's fine. Just keep it down out there. I've got a killer headache. Ok, Nikki. What topics would you like to discuss today? We've got piles and piles of facts ready to spew all over our listeners. No. Fucking, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, none of that. No. Yeah. Save your sexy streaming time for Twitch. Fine. Even though I'm playing a horribly triggering game right now. What do you want to talk about first? Ok. First up, I want to chat a little bit about something that air included me into while we were hanging out for the con. Apparently there is brand new information that's being dropped about the original stage show. How is this a thing? What's going on here? Heck yeah, there is. So this is a special treat that we've been paying attention to for the last couple of months online that I'm sure all of you out there might be interested in as well. So it's not all often that we find out brand new information about the original 1973 stage show, which was why this was such a total surprise when it popped up just a few months ago. So starting back in February, Martin Fitzgibbon began posting a series of write ups to various Rocky related Facebook groups about his involvement with the original 1973 Royal Court Rocky Horror show. This came near as we can tell completely out of the blue. Martin had posted a couple of comments before and several people asked him to expand on his involvement with the inaugural version of Rocky and he happily obliged. He's posted three very detailed and entertaining write ups and it's well worth a read for anyone who might be a fan of our knack snacks or maybe you've somehow consumed all the rocky content that exists out there and are looking for something new. So, forgive my ignorance. But who is Martin? What was his involvement with the original Rocky Horror show? And what are some of these juicy new deeds? So Martin was one of the original musicians that performed throughout the original Rocky Horror show's run. He was the drummer go on. Does Nicky have a thing for drummers? I mean, you know what they say about fast response time? What that they can at least count to four? Listen, that's all I need regardless. This sounds fascinating and we've never heard his stories before, correct. I've never run across interviews with the band. Richard Hartley, the musical director for the show. And eventually the film has been interviewed plenty of times, but the actual musicians we haven't heard much about which is why these posts have been wonderful new insights as he tells the story, Martin had worked with Richard Hartley several times before Rocky. They worked on an album together at London's I BC studios and when Hartley began work on the Rocky Horror show, he rang up Martin and told him that he needed a drummer according to Martin. And I imagine this is him being humble. But the number one reason he was tapped for the gig was due to the restrictions of the initial venue being in the small theater upstairs at the royal court. According to Martin Richard Hartley needed a quote drummer who can play quietly and you're the only person I know who can do that. I mean, for real, we've all met drummers. Their range is usually loud to ear, fucking loud. Hey, I mean, I played drums for several years and I can tell you that. Well, yeah, basically, the real kicker is how much he got paid for the initial run, £20 per week, which is about £250 today adjusted for inflation or around $340 in freedom bucks, which still not a ton, but like you could get by, I think my favorite tangential tidbit is that Martin later revealed that he found out that the band actually made more than the actors. During that initial run. The Musicians union actually beat out the equity Actors Union with the cast only making around £18 per week. Tim motherfucking Curry. Nice job creating one of the most iconic characters in stage and screen history. Here's your 18 bucks. Don't spend it all in one place. Get yourself half a chicken at Nando's but you probably shouldn't splurge on the Fries. Martin recalled one of the very first rehearsals that the band had for the stage show. They were crammed into a basement studio in London with Richard Hartley on keyboard, Count Ian Blair on guitars and David Channing doubling on saxophone and bass guitar along with Martin himself on drums. He remembered seeing the sheet music for the very first time, some of which he still has which Oh my God. Wow. Uh And he remembered seeing the titles for the songs like Sweet Transvestite and Time Warp. He, he said it was really something that was totally out there. He recalls that during those first run throughs, there were no lyrics pretty standard for bands rehearsing in isolation for a show. But that Richard Hartley would queue them up by giving some context. The one he remembers most vividly was when Hartley gave them the first rundown for Hot Patuti. He recalls Richard saying, ok, at this point, Eddie jumps out of the Coke machine, then Columbia screams Eddie and I'll count it in. It's hard to grasp how massively unusual that was for the time when the west end was saturated with God Spell. And Jesus Christ superstar Martin remembered the second rehearsal day when the band and cast got together in the ballroom of a London hotel and he first noticed that Tim was wearing women shoes. He had recalled, Tim telling him later on that his way of getting into character was from the shoes up that Tim had once played a soldier starting with the boots for the same reason which as everyone out there I'm sure can attest the shoes really do flip a switch in your brain. When you're playing Frank Martin later expanded on what it was like during that initial run at the Royal Court, he recalled that the band was hidden behind a curtain where they could see the audience, but the audience couldn't see the band. He particularly enjoyed before the show when they had to sit in silence and watch the usher wearing their ghostly face masks, menacing the audience as they showed them to their seats. As the audience was let in, Jonathan Adams playing the narrator in the original show sat to one side of the stage and Patricia Quinn dressed in her costume, complete with ice cream tray, sat on the edge of the stage, motionless, draped in a layer of Muslin for at least 15 minutes as the audience drifted in. But if you think all that was uncomfortable, imagine poor Patty o'hagan. The original Eddie who Martin recalled had to climb into the Coca Cola machine that he would burst out of during hot patuti before the show even began, he had to stand entombed in there for a good 30 minutes before he was able to burst out for his entrance throughout rehearsals. Martin did recall little Nell taking breaks to go busting down the street, a story that we've heard repeated for years. But without the added detail that each session would net nell a few extra quid which considering the actors were all on £18 a week. Salaries makes so much more sense. After the show's initial run at the King's Court theater, Martin didn't recall a whole lot of musical changes when the show moved to the Classic Cinema, David Channey, who is the bassist left before the transfer due to our prior engagement. And Martin suggested Dennis Crow and who could step in to take his place. It was Dennis that was friends with Keith Moon and invited him to see the show for the younger members of the audience. Keith Moon was the drummer for a little group called the who uh we'd heard accounts that he visited the London show. But the details about how exactly he had come to see Rocky during its early run were kind of unknown until Martin shared this tidbit. And on the subject of celebrities, Martin gave some additional details to the story about Mick Jagger and his wife Bianca coming to the show. According to Martin, Patricia Quinn was irate that Mick had brushed her off completely. Instead focused on talking to the then bassist for the band. That faithful night was the intended final performance at the King's Court, which Eagle Eared listeners will recall was also the night of Rayner Burton's famous glitter incident which we covered in episode 16, aptly titled penis makeup malfunction. Ouch, ouch ouch. As you might recall the show that night had to be canceled. Leaving Mick Jagger and the rest of the audience out of luck until the show reopened at the Chelsea Classic at the Classic. There was no orchestra pit. So the band was stationed on a tower on stage, right, that had been erected to one side and was access via just a ladder. The only problem with the placement Martin remembers was how horrible the acoustics were. He ended up having to put a sheet over his entire drum kit in order to cut down the sound. It was also at the classic in the wake of Rayner Britain's famed glitter incident that the show finally brought on a pair of understudies Ziggy Byfield and Angela Bruce. However, Martin revealed that the pair first cut their teeth by adding to the number of ushers who harassed, embarrassed and unsettled the audience members before the show began, Martin remembered Ziggy taking to the role with particular glee. Often they would sit beside patrons or harass everyone in a row to move one seat to the right or to the left or both ways. On one occasion, coming face to face with Ziggy as he moved about the audience, he chased Martin through the theater and back to the band's position, man. So I know this isn't like directly related, but I think it's fascinating to compare that original behavior of the ushers and the phantoms to the preshow festivities that go on at like a modern Rocky shadow cast. Like I know it's just, hey, there should be something before the show. But I love that in doing the Virgin Games and harassing the audience. We're like embracing a little bit of that chaos and absurdity that was present even way back. Right in 1973 I don't know, random thought. And speaking of chaos, Martin also recalled two different bomb scares that occurred at the Chelsea Classic most likely tied to activity by the Ira. That's the Irish Republican army. A name used to describe several paramilitary organizations that among other things advocated for a free Ireland independent of British role. I'd heard the story of one of these in Rayner Burton's biography, but Martin added some extra color. Apparently the first time there was a scare, the police had asked the casting crew to help search for any hidden devices. After beginning the search, it was Tim Curry who pointed out that perhaps it wasn't a great idea to have the cast actively hunting for an explosive device. Tim Curry, the voice of reason. Don't go searching for bombs, kids. So in that same vein, Martin also recounted a story that had originally been slated to be published in Rayner Burton's book, but that his publishers decided to edit out at one occasion during rehearsals at the royal court while Martin was hanging out at the pub next door to the theater before rehearsals began. Rayner came in clearly a bit frazzled. Apparently his car had run out of fuel and stopped in the mall, a major London road that leads up to Buckingham Palace. The police obviously concerned about the stopped vehicle on the doorsteps of the royal palace and worried about a potential car bomb had been threatening to blow up the vehicle. Martin who is clearly the pragmatic one suggested that since Rainer's car was already beaten the hell anyway, that he should just let the bomb squad do what they would do and make the insurance claim later. A wonderful plan. If only Rayner had car insurance at the time. In several other anecdotes, Martin recalls interacting with Tennessee Williams including accidentally exclaiming that he thought the prolific writer was dead while the playwright was right behind him. He also tells a great story about being starstruck. The time Lauren Bacall came to see the show being a golden age. Hollywood star Martin was amazed that she packed no entourage made no fuss and sat quietly and enjoyed the show without much recognition. He admits he was so gobsmacked that he even called his parents to tell them that he had seen the iconic actress at the show. Martin has a plethora of other anecdotes too many to enumerate here all from the days when Rocky was just a little show upstairs at the King's Road and its eventual explosion onto the London theater scene. He's written three pieces and promises 1/4 sometime in the future. All of them are available to read on the Rocky Horror Picture Show fan Club group or the original Rocky Horror Picture Show fans group. They're a bit difficult to find. So we will of course, be linking them in our show notes. I think it's amazing that 48 years later, we can still hear new stories and new facts about this show that we all love and are obsessed with. It's really a reminder of just how prolific Rocky is, but we're not done there for today. Speaking of new tidbits being revealed every day, we wanted to throw a quick mention of another story that just dropped and this one is particularly relevant to our panel topic from the tester staycation con and if you missed our panel, don't worry, we will be working on getting it uploaded at some time in the near future in it. We discussed the history of the very earliest Rocky horror conventions all the way back from the late seventies. One of the conventions that we touched on was the first annual Transylvanian convention in L A in 1979. We didn't have a ton of information about that event. Just a brief list of the schedule and location information along with a couple of flyers. Well, in a bit of serendipity, Lisa Kurtz Sutton, uh an O G Rocky horror legend and prolific community member from the earliest days of West Coast, right posted over on the Rocky Horror Picture Show at the Tiffany Theater, Hollywood Facebook Group about her experience actually stopping by the convention in July of 1970 nine. Lisa remembered it being a very small event with only a handful of dealers and screenings of non rocky content. She also recalled the West Coast performance group. The Rocky Horror Review was scheduled to perform overall. Lisa remembers it as a laid back event run on a micro budget very much in line with the kind of independent fan get togethers of the period for horror, science fiction and other oddities. And if you were surprised during our con panel to find out that some of the earliest Rocky Horror convention organizers were keen. Here's another great example, Rick Sloan, the organizer for this L A convention was only 18 years old and a college film student makes you really reflect the fuck did you guys do when you were teenagers? Not organize Rocky conventions? That's for sure. Yeah, but I was still doing Rocky. So was I not me? I went to church? What? Ok. I'm not touching that one. But anyway, um so Lisa's accounts of West Coast Rocky from the earliest days of the fandom are a, a wonderful primer for some of the early days. If you haven't gone and read through her write ups, you totally should we have a ton of documentation of New York and East Coast Rocky through the early fan club publications and Sapiro book Creatures of the Night. But the West Coast Rocky scene was equally obsessed in the early days. And it's fantastic to get a whole new perspective on the community from that time period. If you want to check out Lisa's full account of the event, check out the post over on the Tiffany Theater Facebook Group. And as always, we'll drop the link into our show notes. Also, while we're on the topic of follow ups, we wanted to let everyone know that we've got such a fantastic response to last week's episode about the bootleg Rocky Horror that we'll be doing a follow up in the next few weeks. This blew up more than I could have possibly imagined. I am Super Pump to dig in some more. We've had so many amazing insights shared with us by a long time prolific community members. I've learned a ton about early pay cable international TV broadcasts and just a slew of other things that we're super excited to compile and share with you guys out there. So look for that coming up soon. But before I wrap up this week's snack snack, we've got a write in that we've got to get to and I'm loving it. Here. It is from Nicky's Bestie Andrea. Why did they have the Castle squad? Riff, Magenta Columbia and Frank, be the church people for Ralph and Betty's wedding. Had they scouted out Brad and Janet before they even arrived at the castle, making the tire popping, deliberate or was it just a fun Easter egg? What a great question. Uh I'm going to ignore that. You mentioned Easter eggs. That's a whole other episode of the podcast. Do not get me started on that one. I think we also talk about the Transylvanian's appearing at the wedding back in episode 17, but it was tied into like a whole mess of changes that were made from when the stage show was adapted into the movie. So let's real quick focus on just Frank and the crew appearing at the wedding. Jim Sharman and Brian Thompson's love of the Wizard of Oz is very well documented in interviews in their own writings and in their artistic styling with Rocky, they leaned very heavily into the Oz references, right? Originally, the film was going to start in black and white and only turn to color. When Frank was revealed in the elevator. The high pitched voices of the Transylvanian strain Time Warp is an homage by Richard Hartley to the Munchkins from the Wizard of Oz and the Rainbow over the castle at the end of the film, echoing the neon rainbow lights that were used at the end of the stage show itself being another Oz reference. The Wizard of Oz is the same inspiration for Jim Sharman deciding Frank Columbia, magenta and Riff should appear at the church for Ralph and Betty's wedding. They are intended to echo the Farm Hands from the classic Judy Garland film. They're supposed to further invoke that twisted departure from reality. They add to the confusion is the story we're watching an illusion or a dream. Is it a warped version of reality or some kind of living nightmare? It was meant to put you in that weird off kilter headspace that gets evoked in the Wizard of Oz where you aren't sure what's going on. When you see the tin man, the scarecrow and the cowardly lion played by the same actors who play the Farm Hands before Dorothy's whisked away to Oz. But as far as the character's actual motivation, that's entirely up to speculation. There's never been an in universe explanation from Richard o'brien or Jim Sharman. The most that they've ever said on the topic is in relation to the Wizard of Oz references. If you tuned in to the fan theories panel at Tester Act con, you got to hear some of the community's favorite theories, including some speculation from Mick universe and Sam that echoes what Andrea is describing pretty closely. They speculated that indeed Frank and the crew were working at the church as a cover for their activities and to pick out humans for their experiments. Brad and Janet just so happened to be the last stragglers after the wedding. And well the early bird gets the worm, but the slow birds get kidnapped, fucked by Frank and dressed up in fish nets to perform a floor show apparently. Does it make sense? Kind of mostly it's as good a theory as any. The only for sure reason we can give you though is the Wizard of Oz reference making it closer to an Easter egg than a grand masterful plan. But hey, it's rocky. It can be whatever you want it to be. Check out episode 17 0 homage. If you want a deeper dive into some of the other changes from the stage show and some of the other more obscure references in the film. And that's our show. Look for that, follow up on our bootleg episode coming up real soon. We wanna thank Andrea for writing in and super big thanks to Tori and Harley for making this last weekend and an amazing Rocky experience. If anyone has a question, they'd like us to answer on air for Nicky asks a question or some community news they'd like us to talk about or even a cool story to share with the community. We'd love to include it in 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 rating, reviewing and subscribing to the show. It makes the podcast more accessible to new listeners, which really helps us grow the show. And if you want even more Rocky talkie 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. Or stilettos and lipstick, right? Aaron. Say it, I mean, oh, is that what that is? Everybody's favorite segment come Unity News. I thought, I thought it was Nicky as the question was the favorite segment. I, I very much like, sign off personally. Um, I'm just gonna, like, slowly go through in every episode. I'm just going to be like, everyone's favorite segment is going to be a different one. Ok. I like that. Yeah, it's gonna be a thing. You heard it here first folks. Yeah. Yeah. Also point of reference. I helped coordinate the Reefer Madness. Shadow Cast that one time. So fuck you Meg. And we've never heard his stories before. Sorry. Yes, I am John. Thank you. Damn. It. So is like afraid of um I, I, I built a day bed in my streaming room and Kabab is afraid of it. So I'm trying to get her to like lay on it. So every time she jumps up there, I'm like, yeah, that's great. Adjusted for inflation or around $340 in freedom bucks. Hold on a second. Dropped the toy in the crack in the David so I could get it for her. Yeah. You don't like freedom bucks. Snicky. No, I don't like, I don't like freedom bucks. I'm not an America stand my dad. Good girl. Ok. Anyway, what is it with all these fucking planes today? Do you think that, that those pilots have small decks too? Is it like your old apartment? I think so.