Hello to all of you. Unconventional conventions. Welcome back to Rocky Talkie. I'm Nicky. I'm Aaron and I'm Jacob Subbing in for John, who is up at Disneyland, right? Speaking of which, how was diving for treasure last week? Nicky? Oh my God. It was really good. I had a lot of fun with James Cameron. Um We didn't end up finding the heart of the ocean, so we're actually going to ship out next week and go again and just do a more thorough search. But it was really exciting. I had a really good time. I learned a lot about myself. No, seriously, guys, he's at Disney. Uh and I'll be sure to tell James Cameron, you said hi, Jacob for real guys. He's been posting pictures. Ok, Jacob, whatever you say. How was your week, Aaron? It was pretty good. I didn't do anything exciting like exploring the Titanic, but uh I did get a bunch of posters up on my wall in our apartment. So that was really nice. We got a bunch of artwork up, uh all of our friends artwork that we uh have collected. We got uh all that up on the walls so very exciting to finally, you know, make the space our own. I was feeling a little crappy this last week. Uh, I wasn't feeling too hot, so I was, uh, stuck in bed for a good part of the week. But, uh, other than that, you know, it was pretty good. It was pretty good. How, how was your week? Nicky? It was good. Um, while I was deep sea diving, I actually did catch an ancient strain of a plague. Um So I was also laid up in bed. I've been feeling like shit. That might be a new pandemic. I don't know. No, I just, I had like an upper respiratory infection but I'm cool. You can probably hear it in my voice. I know I can hear it in your voice, Aaron. Um So it's going to be like sexy voice. Rocky talky. Here it is. Um But no, I didn't really do that much this week. I just hung out. How are you, Jacob? We've never been on air together like this. This is very exciting. I know it's a whole new world. I know. How are you? I am doing great last night I was at a bar with Megan Aaron and some other people and there was this girl there, her name was Ariel, but she is not the Ariel Premier cast, totally separate person. And she told me about this job. She had working for the Tribeca Film Festival and for the interactive element of the Tribeca Film Festival. And there was this horror game that she got to play there that was V R. And at the beginning of the game you say your name and throughout the game at certain points, you hear your name, yelled back at you in a variety of voices, ages genders. And she said for like weeks after she played that game, she kept thinking that she heard other people say her name in like her regular life and was like, terrified constantly about it and made me really excited to, I don't know, probably never gonna play that game because it's V R and I'm poor, but maybe someday. Oh my God guys, what's happening? I'm gonna go. Oh, no, that's exactly what I think ghosts sound like. That's a story. All right. Uh With that, let's just get started with our first segment. Oh boy, uh Global News today. We'll be heading off global news with a riddle. What has two thumbs, a raging erection and fantastic news about Father Barry's next public appearance. Please don't reference your erection someday. We'll have money for professional hosts. That's right, Nicky. It's me. You may remember last year, the 45th tour which came with Barry himself was sort of canceled due to COVID. Some dates were slashed out but others were kept and Barry even met some shadow casters, including me and everyone else at F N S. It was a great time. However, COVID mandates are still in the process of lifting and theaters are opening back up. So Barry is back on the road for the let's do the 45th anniversary spectacular tour. Again, of course, with the in home camera system I've installed in his Florida condo, I already have an intimate knowledge of my B B schedule. But for the rest of you, here are the details creepy. The let's do the 45th anniversary spectacular tour again will be shown multiple nights across various theaters complete with a full unedited cut of the movie live shadow casters, a costume contest, memorabilia display, Barry himself and more live daddy be. What more could you want so far? We've seen tickets for the tour on six different dates, the Capitol Theater in Flint, Michigan on October 21st, the Fox Performing Arts Center in Riverside, California on October 22nd on the 24th at the College Street Music Hall in New Haven, Connecticut. Plus, we've also got the Santander Performing Arts Center in reading Pennsylvania on October 29th, the hard rock cafe in Atlantic City on October 30th. And lastly on October 31st at the entertainment and sports Arena in Washington DC. If you're around any of those theaters in October, you should definitely check it out. I'll certainly be there waiting for my turn with Barry. We should definitely link up Jacob. No one wants to help you make Barry Boswick feel uncomfortable, you know, and speaking of uncomfortable next up, we've got a super exciting immersive experience coming to Houston, Texas for one night only time. Warp World. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. Time Warp World is an all new reimagined interactive fan celebration inspired by cult and sci-fi movies from the past. It contains all things Rocky Horr, classic rock and roll records and the referential remix nature of pop culture. Time Warp World invites audiences to explore backstage and behind the scenes of the most iconic characters, settings and stories of all time to uncover new meaning and unknown secrets from the making of your favorite Hollywood movies and musicals. Don't dream it be it in real 360 degree immersive environments depicting a rich and dynamic universe of science fiction horror films chart topping hit records and surprises around every corner. This immersive pop-up experience allows participants to walk around museum style installations celebrating the world of Rocky horror, its influence and inspirations in pop culture. The event contains concert caliber sound and lighting curated rock music, remixes, live band karaoke and some surprise performances plus one of a kind cocktails and custom food menus themed for the occasion. And of course, what Rocky event would be complete without a costume contest. Time Warp World absolutely invites all participants to dress up in whatever costumes they have that make them look and feel awesome guys. This shit sounds like an absolute blast. I'm personally pretty salty. That. I'm not anywhere near Houston, Texas because I would fucking love to go to this. But if any of our listeners are around the Houston area, this event will be taking place on October 30th doors open at seven PM. And general admission tickets start at 45 bucks. But if you're feeling like a baller, you can also reserve cocktail tables or buy VIP tickets which grant you reserved premium booths, three bottles of champagne and an unforgettable kickoff Halloween 2021. And of course, if any of our listeners are able to attend, please write to us at rocky talkie podcast dot com. We want to hear all about this one. It sounds like a crazy good time. Last up, our favorite pizza delivery boy, Meat Loaf will be hanging with fans at Steel City Con in Monroeville, Pennsylvania just outside of Pittsburgh. Now, bad news about the con. It's taking place from August 13th through the 15th, which is the weekend we're recording this show so we can't promote it as we normally would. However, as a promotion, our boy meet gave an interview with the Pittsburgh Post gazette that was actually pretty heavy and we wanted to chat about it here on the show. It, it wasn't pizza, Nicky. We've been over this what? Uh but, but he's a pizza delivery boy. He brought the pizza. Yeah, he did. Yeah, he did. Sure. Ok. Did Meatloaf not deliver pizza in Rocky Horror. Allegedly, he I mean, my whole world view is what next? You're gonna tell me that rose tints. My world is an innuendo to something. No, no, that's, that's just little now. Really likes her new pair of glasses. That's what? Yeah, I know. Anyway, get back to the script. Jesus Christ Meat hasn't been able to perform a live show in five whole years due to his multiple back surgeries, a lapse in physical therapy during the pandemic and just generally being 73 years old. His last album Braver Than We are was released back in 2016 where he partnered with his late bestie Jim Steinman and Ellen Foley the co-star on his hit single, Paradise By the Dashboard Light. During the interview, he talks about how he physically just isn't in great shape. He spent his whole career playing football and going crazy during onstage performances. And after needing back surgery, he started up physical therapy and got into a daily workout routine in order to keep fit, but he lost a lot of his progress during lockdown stating that he's hoping to get back into shows at some point, but he feels COVID put him back at zero. He also noted that he considered ripping off of Phil Collins who did his last tour in a chair but felt unsure about whether he'd be able to go through with it. That's fair. Phil Collins has got a pretty mellow vibe whereas you absolutely expect to see me going crazy on stage. However, meat isn't going to let his age or physical ailments get between him and his fans. He stated in the piece that he loves attending cons like this one in Pittsburgh because he really values continued communication with the people who support him. He states it's important to communicate with them. I did cameos for the same reason, not for the money for the opportunity to talk to them. Cameos. You only get one way at Comic Con. It's like double action. They talk, I talk, they talk, I talk mostly I talk after they talk all this in spite of me's serious social anxiety, something he's been very outspoken about sharing with the world in the interview. He touched on it briefly stating I'm very shy. I don't go out a lot. I don't want to go out a lot, going out and interacting scares me which like same damn, I did not know that was a problem for him. Wow. Good for me going out and meeting his fans when it's obviously something that's such a big cause of stress and good for him for talking about it so openly and normalizing it amongst his fans. Yeah. It, it really is so helpful to people when celebrities and artists they look up to are vocal about, you know, just being normal people really and having the same sort of problems that we all have. It's so easy to get caught up in your own head about stuff that you feel is like only happening to you when in reality, it's a super normal thing like social anxiety, right? So time to get deep here guys, have you ever had an issue that you thought was strictly your problem? But that you felt better about once you realized the celebrity that you looked up to had the same kind of thing going on. I have always had a lot of social anxiety and hearing me talk about it knowing that he's comfortable with it and is obviously very popular and very talented and also doesn't really like people and struggles with interacting with them was really reassuring to hear. That's awesome. Yeah, I, I think one of the, the ones that I've always stuck with is Kevin Smith. Kevin Smith has always been like very vocal about his struggle with weight loss and his own weight issues and, uh you know, body dysmorphia and all these kinds of things. And I think that that's a great message to get out there to, to normalize, talking about that kind of stuff. It's certainly something that hits home for me. And yeah, I, I love that. He's been, you know, so outspoken about it, even though it's a tough issue to talk about. We here at Rocky talky, wish me the best of luck at the convention and hope he's able to figure out a way to get back on stage real soon. And with that let's move on to some commun news. Come unity news, John is not here this week. I will not have any vulgarity at all. Come on my unity news. This is hell a few weeks ago. You may remember us discussing little Nell starting an account on cameo for anyone who might have missed it. Cameo is a website where celebrities and anyone else so inclined can send personalized messages and video for compensation. Since 2020 cameo has had over 20,000 content creators making personalized videos for their adoring fans and it seems recently Patricia Quinn has joined their ranks. We could tell you about Patricia Quinn's involvement on the platform verbatim or we could introduce her profile and contrast it with little nails. You know, like the intro I took to a wrestling match survey says in this corner, we have the nip slip that makes your heart dip the thunder from down under. Now she's five ft six and an average response time of two days. A total of 20 individual five star reviews a subscriber count of 102. And you can get a personalized video from Miss Campbell starting at 25 $5 and in this corner weighing in at 62 kg and measuring up to 1.62 m. The high and mighty maid of the movie, the pretentious Poofter Patricia Quin. She has an average response time of five days. Three individual five star reviews 67 subscribers and you can get your very own made the video starting from 100 and $50. And, but damn, I'm impressed both of these girls have only been on the platform for a few weeks and they've both got pretty great stats. I'm especially happy for Pat who seems to have gotten a lot of attention already for having started so recently, Pat stats sure are right on Nell's heels and both our faves are killing it. We wish them the best in the ring on cameo and in life up next, we here on Rocky Talkie are all about fan projects and we've got a fun one to share with all of you today. There was a lot we missed last summer, pool parties, music festivals, the 74th annual Tony Awards, but no events, cancellation was more publicly mourned than Alden Derek's annual musical cabaret show. I'm sorry. Humps Alden Derek. He was a staff writer on the Mindy Project and Crazy ex-girlfriend who hosts an annual musical cabaret show. Everyone knows it's the event of the year Jesus Aaron keep up uh seriously. After a whole year of all of us staying inside and watching everything on Netflix twice, you'd think Hollywood Broadway and the general public would be ready for some original ideas right wrong. They'd rather remake suicide squad. So instead of fighting the reboot craze, Alden's third annual review embraces it with open arms and an empty bank account. This year's entirely digital show takes scenes from the movies TV, shows and comics that got us all through the pistachio ice cream and gives them a musical theater spin. Thus, Adaptation Nation was born. Adaptation Nation is a virtual cabaret show featuring a whole bunch of hilarious themed reboots set as big Broadway style musical numbers. For example, we've got best in show medley that gives us a Broadway crossover with the famous cult mockumentary directed by Christopher guest. We've also got a number called pop punk zombie queen inspired by the conspiracy theory that Avril Levine died back in 2003 and was replaced by the media, the music industry, someone by an actress who was once hired as the singer's body double. What is that? A real thing? It absolutely is. Go look it up and while you're at it, check out the one where Katy Perry is actually Jonbenet Ramsey all grown up. That, that's a good one too. Both of those are objectively true and I won't be taking constructive criticism. But the reason why we're talking about Adaptation Nation is a little number called the Rocky horror Reboot medley which reimagines Rocky amongst a backdrop of an eighties slasher movie, Brad and Janet are eighties teens and Franken Furter is a terrifying criminal, terrorizing a sleep away camp. Oh my God. That's like my wet dream. The songs from the movie are interlaced with some of our eighties faves like Pat Benatar. We belong Michael Jackson's thriller, Duran. Duran's Hungry, like the wolf and Bonnie Tyler's total eclipse of the heart. Just to name a few. I'm sure they got licenses for all of those. Hell, yeah. Alden's entire project is available for absolutely free on adaptation nation dot com and on youtube, we've got those both linked for you in our show notes. The entire show is spectacularly well done and lots of fun to watch. You should definitely check it out when you get a chance and who knows? Maybe we'll be able to catch it live one day or we live in hope. And with that you guys, I think we've got a little problem to address. Um So it's time for everyone's favorite segment. Asks a question. Hey, well, good. I'm glad we cleared that up. Listen, grandpa, the one thing we can definitely agree on is that this isn't an errand segment. Yeah. Boomer. Stay out of this. It's called Nicky asks the question and that means me, Nicky. This is a safe space for generation alpha to ask questions. Sorry, Jacob. Get your millennial garbage out of here. Listen, you want to be Zumer. You need to learn to respect your elders. And as part of the greatest generation, that means when I say it's time to jack it, we fucking jacket. I'm beginning to think that you guys have no clue what generation anyone actually belongs to. Shut up. Boomer. You know what? No. Sit down both of you do, do not make me turn this car around. The adult is now talking and this week we're gonna do Aaron answers a question that nobody fucking asks and you are gonna listen and maybe, maybe you might learn something including why a, not a goddamn mother fucking boomer. This sounds boring. Too bad. Too bad Nikki. Not all of our topics are gonna be social, instant face post worthy. You're gonna have to get your up votes some other way. This week, I don't think those words mean what you think they mean? You shut up too. Oh my God fucking Children. Can we at least stop at mcdonald's if we're gonna go shut up? OK. Hello. I'm Aaron from Rocky Talky. And today on our informative segment, we'll be looking at a generational retrospective of Rocky Horror. This week. I want to explore the various generations that have found Rocky throughout its 46 year history. Also, we'll talk about the various subcultures that were prevalent during those generations and we might discover in the end that we all are more alike than we might think. Play really harshing my buzz here. Listen, I know we do a lot of history on this show. That's pretty much what this entire segment is all about. But we do Rocky Horror history. This is like boring history. Yeah. Oh, ye of little faith. Too bad. You're both stuck here. Get fucked. So the whole reason this topic like even landed on my radar was a conversation I was having with Jean Chio Vari, a legendary community member, Boss award winner, and O G Rocky fan. So when I was doing research for our bootleg episode and the follow up that we did about Rocky on TV, I was talking a ton with Gene. And one of the things that we talked about a lot was the generational differences in the Rocky community. Specifically, we were talking about how difficult it was to explain certain technical things to a more modern audience. What like mono versus stereo, audio and V H S copying and set top cable TV, boxes and all that stuff. Exactly. And I'll be honest here, there was a ton of that stuff that even I had to dig in and do research on like, I'm not the youngest member of the Rocky community, but I am far, far, far from the oldest and I only came around Rocky in the early two thousands. Hell, I was born in the mid eighties which makes me a millennial. By the way, there is a ton of Rocky history that predates even me old. I know you're a millennial but you don't have to get all bent out of shape about it. I can't help it. As a part of gen Z, I like to push buttons, any buttons, Nintendo controller buttons, smartphone buttons or the buttons on fragile little millennial egos, grandpa got them. You know, I'll, I'll let that one slide. That it's pretty good. Yeah, Jacob and I are pretty close in age but we are definitely of the most recent named generation that has come to Rocky. Nicky called herself generation Alpha before. But we all know that's not even close. Those kids are like 10 years old and while I'm sure there's some 10 year olds that could handle Rocky, let's be real, they're still half a decade away from showing up in our theaters and asking to join cast. Oh, so you guys do know? That's great. So, ok, let's start here and work backwards. Shall we? Uh What would you guys say are some of the defining aspects of your generation that drew you guys to Rocky? I mean, for me, Rocky was definitely a good avenue to meet people. Some of my closest relationships that I have now were forged through Rocky. I think that's definitely something that a lot of our generation struggles with. We're the most connected generation in history while barring the upcoming generation. I can't remember a time where I didn't have access to the internet or the ability to chat with my peers online. All of the games I played over the years have inherent social aspects to them. You're always in chat, talking with other people, but you aren't making a ton of real social connections. It's not like the eighties and the nineties where you might go hang out at the mall and get some so pop youngster and just chill and chat with anyone who was around. It's so easy to be laser focused and constantly fed entertainment that I found Rocky. A great relief from that for a couple of evenings. Every weekend I could go be silly and hang out with a bunch of people screaming at a movie screen and everyone wasn't sitting there glued to their phones the entire time. I've said it before on the show. I very much wanted to join my cast because I thought these people were awesome. But over the last three years of being on cast, I've definitely gotten a lot out of it that I wasn't necessarily expecting on a whole Jacob and my generation has a lot less work experience throughout high school. Rocky was awesome for that building relationships in a more structured environment, feeling the weight of responsibility and putting on a performance. And compared to prior generations, I know that we're given a much shorter leash, much more protected. We were raised with second generation tales of stranger danger and constant monitoring of our location through sharing locations on our phone, which my mom still does to me, even though I'm an adult and I pay taxes anyway. That was insane to me. When I first heard about it from people your age. I had no idea that anyone actually shared their location on their phone all the time, let alone it was a thing. Parents made their kids do. There were years when I was a kid when I would like, run off through the neighborhood all day long and only have to be back by dinner. Like not exactly a full on latch key kid, like some of the Children of the eighties, but definitely not this 24 7 surveillance. And, well, Rocky was great as a respite from that. I got a dose of freedom. They knew I was at the movies with some friends, but it also felt a little more risque than what I thought they might allow. I find it very funny that when I joined cast, I kept like the role that I joined as, as a secret for months before I debuted because I was terrified to tell my mom that I was going to be playing Janet because I was like, there's no way she's going to go for it. I'm going to be on stage in a bra and a slip. She's going to lose her mind. And I literally like right before I debuted, considered putting together a Magenta costume and just like biting the bullet. And then I just sat down with my mom one day and I was like, I just want to let you know that I'm going to play Janet and you need to be OK with that. And she did not give a fuck. This caused me so much stress for months. And I think that that's very funny. That's pretty good. But aside from that, Rocky is a place that aligns a lot better with our generation's values than some other places. I'm not saying there aren't stupid, racist zoo out there. But the average person my age is a lot more tolerant. A lot more open to people of different cultures and identities and Rocky didn't even feel transgressive in that way to me. Yeah, it definitely felt like a place that was in line with my values and those of a lot of people, my age, not a place that was subverting the norm. Obviously on a wider perspective, it is subverting the norm, but that's only because society statistically has to account for all those old homophobic assholes who all wish it was still 1955. However, I I do think and correct me if I'm wrong here, guys that your generation has a lot more safe spaces from all those hostile assholes than previous generations have found. And this is what I mean about uh subcultures for my generation, the millennials, Rocky was the place for big tent kind of acceptance, you know, like all encompassing like not a tiny tent, like a big tent, like one you would get at Home Depot like industrial size. Wait like one of those tents with like the rooms in it and shit, right? It has like a living room and two adjacent sleeping rooms. God damn hell yeah. Big tent, right? Because at Rocky, you had goths and you had emo kids and punks and ravers, you know, all alongside the wider gay community that were drawn to Rocky as a safe space for acceptance and that history stretches back into Generation X and it stretches back into the Boomers. Rocky was a place for all kinds of subcultures, but now I think that there's just a lot more inclusion all around in the wider world. That's fair. You have all kinds of communities that are very open about inclusivity, the gaming community, the cosplay community, anime and other fandoms and all the mainstream adjacent subcultures, things like influencer culture or E girls and E boys live in that hashtag tiktok and Instagram life. You've got hippies alt girls, the boys, hot Cheeto girls. Hi Bimbos them. The list goes on all of these subcultures a lot more accepting. So you don't find them turning to big tent inclusivity spaces like Rocky Horror. Did I use it? Right. Big 10 sounds like what happens when someone subscribes to my only fans. You did. Good job. Wait, what? Moving on enough about us. You promised some history and we haven't even made it back past the mid nineties. Are you really a millennial? Do millennials stretch all the way back to the eighties? It it does. Although the front side of millennials where I most closely self identify is referred to as the xennial. That's with an X uh being more similar in experience and frame of reference to the tail end of generation X. Our producer Meg is more firmly a millennial being about four years younger than I am. This is the generation that was raised on Brittany and the Backstreet Boys, right? We saw the rise of Real World on MTV. We saw the dot com bubble Enron and 9 11 and the Iraq war like all during our informative years. The, the main reason I associate closer to the in between generation is because I personally strongly remember a world before the internet had exploded where I still did go hang out at the roller skating rink or the mall or right around town on my bike all day and there was a cell phone in. So what was it that drew you to Rocky or your generation? You touched on it a little bit with all the tense stuff. Were you a goth or a punk? I can't really imagine that. No, but I was certainly drawn towards those subcultures, if not on an immersive level just as a spectator. Like I was the geeky kid that wanted to hang out with the goths and the much cooler alternative subcultures. And when I found Rocky, that definitely clicked here was a place where all the different kinds of people that I wanted to be around were all hanging out together and geeing out over something that I could also geek out about a crazy stupid musical science fiction movie. I feel like from what I know about that period, that everything was just kind of a mess for a young adult. You had a whole shift in the way society was communicating and interacting that most of the older generations didn't want to try or understand. You had massive global instability and the shattering of the American facade of invulnerability with the September 11th attacks. Bush did it. Exactly right. And Rocky was that space where I could go to be me, whatever the hell that was and find a ton of people that share the same experiences and felt the same ideas as we go back further. We're going to find Rocky playing a far more important role as a safe space for marginalized communities. But the late nineties and early two thousands when millennials started going to Rocky, it wasn't so much about dreaming it as it was about being it disgusting but true. In the early two thousands, the LGBT Q community had a lot of successes when it came to equality, marriage legislation, gay pride events, media representation, and general pop culture, acceptance of queer characters and icons. Rocky was more the Village Square, the coming together of these more fringe communities and not the seedy nightclub where they had to hide from prying eyes. So what's before the millennials? That's generation X. Right. Yeah. People roughly born in the mid sixties through the late seventies who would have come to Rocky as teenagers in the eighties and nineties So, whereas millennials were the tipping point for mainstream acceptance of the wider LGBT Q and other alternative communities. Those of the eighties and nineties had a greater need for the safe space that Rocky provided out and out proud was not yet accepted. And there was a general sense of sexual caution and moral panic in the mainstream towards the kinds of communities that were welcome at Rocky and that's not just alternative LGBT Q lifestyles, just general sexual freedom and openness, right? This was an era that was just rife with slut shaming where the kink and fetish communities were far too weird for polite company and where mainstream media still made gay men the butt of almost every joke and you had a huge mobilizing issue and while scary as fuck kind of binding force with the HIV AIDS epidemic. And this was alongside a crazy cultural backdrop, you know, the fall of the Soviet Union at Tiananmen Square and the first Gulf War all alongside the birth of MTV, the spark of the computer revolution in the Macintosh and personal computing and the rise and fall of disco. All of those things unified a lot of these subgroups alongside the wider LGBT Q culture. And Rocky was a great space to celebrate that unification against the common enemy of misinformation and prejudice. It seems like Rocky kind of feels a coming of age need for his sexuality amongst generation X in general, Brad and Janet could express their emerging desires so too could gen X taking what they saw on screen and projecting it on culture at large. You had disco fans and metal heads and punks and goths and computer geeks and sci-fi and horror fans and everyone else, you know, big tense style, just like in my pants all within a safe space without judgment. And certainly without tipper gore, I know who that is, who she's a cunt. That's all you need to know. Ok. Well, I guess that brings us to, you know, the Boomers and the first generation of Rocky, because Boomers were born between the mid forties and the mids sixties, that's obviously a pretty wide range and something to note as you go further back in generations, the age range becomes more encompassing with a generation expanding from spanning 10 to 15 years to more like 15 to 20 years. Either way, this is the generation that created Rocky. The earlier side of the generation that Richard o'brien and Tim Curry and everyone else who made Rocky belongs to. And the later half of the generation that encompasses the first generation of Rocky horror fans, which is kind of boggling when you think about it. This is the same generation that experienced the Cold War learning in school how to hide under their desks to thwart a nuclear attack that saw live on television, the assassination of Kennedy and Martin Luther King. They saw a man land on the Moon and the struggle of the civil rights movement and the absolute horror of the war in Vietnam and culturally, the earliest of the generation were the first to see modern rock and roll. And Elvis and The Beatles and many were at the right age to be involved in the hippie movement and flower power. In the mid to late sixties, the boomers were also the force behind the beginning of the gay rights movement. With the Stonewall riots in 69 you saw the powder cake that spawned the modern movement. This marked the beginning of gay activism and created a media focus on the gay community and right alongside, it was Rocky Horror. It offered those on the younger side of the generation, the first shadow casters and audience members a safe space when so many other places were not friendly to freedom and self expression. This was an era when it was still illegal to be gay in many parts of the world. And when a man walking down the street in high heels would suffer ridicule or more likely violence. This was when don't dream it be, it meant exactly that. And the first generation of fans embraced it reveled in it and made Rocky into its own subculture and cast as wide of a net as possible. Looking for those other marginalized groups, they pitched a big tent if you pardon the expression I regret teaching you that not the first time I've heard someone say that especially you. So really and I know that this will get an eye roll, but we've got the Boomers to thank for the beginning of Rocky. And I certainly don't mean that to say that anyone is right. If they wish Rocky was like, it was back then, just to acknowledge that someone had to be there to set up the tent and to get all of us clowns into the circus. Someone definitely set up my tent and put all the clowns inside of it. All of them, every single clown just jam packed. He there's a lot of other aspects of the Boomer mindset that you can see directly apply to Rocky Boomers were the great consumers. They became famous for spending every dollar they earned with two cars in every garage and a chicken in every pot. It's no wonder that Rocky was one of the first fandoms that spawned such massive merchandizing. This was before Star Wars and before pop culture, consumerism, the boomer spending habits fueled the world economy. And in part, you have to acknowledge how that shaped the fanaticism around the Rocky Horr phenomenon. No, no, no, no, no dude do. You could own it all. You could buy every button and own every poster. Ah See I told you Aaron was a Boomer. Holy shit, Aaron, you do buy a lot of fucking posters and shit. I will concede on that point. But only that point, I am a Boomer tier collector. So that's it. Right. Rocky didn't exist before the Boomers so well, almost throwing it back to the conversation that started me down this whole path. One of the most interesting things that gene pointed out about those very early days was that while, yes, the Boomers were the generation that primarily spawned the Rocky phenomenon. It wasn't just the Boomers. There were plenty of people in that audience that came from earlier generations. There were some from the silent generation, the woefully underappreciated group born during the Great Depression, whose outlook on life had to have been pretty bleak during their informative years and for whom Rocky would have appeared to be this decadent and indulgent wonderland. But even Jean reminded me, there were some from the greatest generation, that's the people who grew up in the Depression and then fought in World War two and later became the parents of the Boomers. Many would have been in their late forties and fifties by the time Rocky came around. But I guess that's not all that unusual even now in the community as Jean pointed out, I imagine it was a bit of a throwback for many of those from the greatest generation in their youth. They may have experienced the experimental nouveau theater or the Bajas movement of the twenties and thirties. So Rocky, nearly half a decade later may have come as an eclectic throwback to that sort of entertainment, you know, for them that's pretty cool to think that there was a point in rocky history where you had literal nazi punching badasses, flower power hippies, disco freaks, drag queens and the entire LGBT Q spectrum all in one theater all calling Brad majors an asshole and Janet a slut. It must have been a really big tent. Oh, and that's our show. We want to thank Jean Gio Vari for sharing some insights with us and the big tent for being a great euphemism all throughout this episode. If anyone has a question, they'd like us to answer on air for Nicky asked a question or some community news they'd like us to talk about or even just a cool story to share with the community. We would love to include it on our show. Just go to our website rocky talky 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 bye bye. Hold on. Hold on. Sexy sinus infection break. No. Oh my God! Phlegm time. OK. What spring time? Uh You said time but you did it in a way that made me think we were getting into a musical number. Ok. Anyway, moving on, they didn't remake Suicide Squad. It was a sequel. But, ok, it was not a, no, no, they, it was a sequel in My Heart of Hearts. I disagree. The Suicide Squad is to Suicide Squad. What shock treatment is to Rocky Horror? No, it's no, because the, the shock treatment didn't try to put, you know, Rocky Horror under the rug. Like the suicide squad, we kill Jacob DC. Comics. Doesn't care about your feelings. Jacob does DC Comics. Yeah. Ah, so stupid. They're wrong. Artists don't get to tell you how to interpret their art. It's anyway, whatever. So, speaking of artists record scratching, I, a bit sexy voice time and, well, Rocky was great as, what the fuck is that words respite? You can't even pronounce it. I can write it. She got there. She does. And where mainstream media still made gay men the butt of almost every joke. Uh It was a poor choice of words. I, I know what it was. Hey, guys. Hey, guys, this episode it was real intense. Oh my God, I'm quitting the show. Good night. You did the thing. I did the thing.