Hello to all of you. Unconventional conventions. Welcome to Rocky talkie. I'm Nicky. I'm John and I'm Aaron. Hi, John and Aaron. Hi. Coming at you live from my work. Hello? Oh, hi, guys. What have you guys been up to this week? How's everything going this past week was dope. Kind of, uh, Savannah has returned, which is awesome. But also that sucks because Savannah is uh not on the tour anymore, but it's great to have her home, love to see that. So, uh we celebrated a little bit by going to see a ton of shows this week. Uh I went to go see the music man and Haiti's town in one night and then I ended up going to see Haiti Town again. The next night, Savannah was at two of those three shows and I'm not stopping anytime soon. Can't stop, won't stop. No, I, I absolutely refuse to stop. I've seen Haiti Town nine times at this point, Jesus Christ, John. At what point did they just give you your own box? That's what I'm saying. That's what the, the fucking security guard I've had the past like three or four times. I went to go see it. Remembered me and he was like, you're back again and I can't tell if that was a compliment or an insult. Yes. Holy shit dear Hansen is on the fucking Broadway ticket thing that I have. God, god damn it. I'm more. Yeah, I buy the shit out of those. All right. Let's see what they got. Oh my God. There's a bunch of Sunday dates. I'm gonna come, I'm gonna come, I'm, I'm gonna come everywhere. Well, well, well, John, shut the fuck up. I'm gonna come, I'm the top. Well, well, John goes and plays with himself and his keyboard. Uh Let me tell you about my week. It was, it was pretty good. Uh catching up a lot catching up. I mean, as our listeners probably know we didn't have a show last week, Meg and I were uh over in Pittsburgh visiting the J C C P. That was fucking awesome. We gonna be talking about that later on the show. But yeah, I've just been catching up catching up with work, catching up with life. Uh Happy Valentine's Day to everybody out there sweetie. I definitely totally didn't forget to buy you anything. Um But yeah, I'm excited to be back and uh you know, back at home talking about Rocky with you guys. Yeah. What you been up to Nicky this weekend? I drove an hour north and I went and visited the ordinary kids. I had a very good time they were doing a Valentine's show and my Bestie Andrea was guest performing and I've never seen their show before. I was so, like, blown away. First of all, I don't know if you guys have ever been there, but their theater so pretty, like I was like, am I walking into a museum? What is this? And their show is just so much fun. Like AJ and Pauly and the rest of the cast have absolutely done themselves. You can tell every single person on stage plays a crucial role in making sure the running of the show happens and they all care so much and they just have like such a good time. Um So I definitely recommend if you're in that area to check them out. They were so much fun. Um Other than that, I didn't really do anything this week. It's been a very slow week of just like prep for the week. Um But I do have some exciting news. Oh, exciting news. That's not global news. No regular Nicky news. So I deliberated back and forth on this for like a full year. But it's official. I am going back to college. I am so, so, so, so, so excited for this new chapter of my life and I cannot wait to see what the future will bring. Oh my God, congratulations. However, however, intelligence in order to be able to go back to school full time and also work on my days off. I unfortunately have to take a step back from Rocky Talky for the duration of my semester. Oh, thank God. I mean, what now is not the time to tell us live on air. Nicky? I don't, yeah, we definitely didn't see this coming at all. I love everyone here like family and I am so thankful for the year and a half journey that we've gone on and I'm especially thankful for our audience for putting up with me all this time. I sincerely hope that Rocky Talky finds someone as equally hot and funny to take my place for the remainder of my hiatus. Um But this absolutely is not. Goodbye. It's just see you later and the next time I'm on the show, I'll be very sexy and learn it. So who can really complain? I don't think anybody can complain about that. Congratulations Nikki. That's awesome. We wish you the best of luck going in book learning and for any of our listeners out there wondering, well, what's gonna happen next? Don't worry. We've got some fantastic plans in the pipeline. Uh We've been reaching out to a number of community members. We're gonna be having some guest hosts on while Nikki is off enjoying her college experience. And uh I think it's gonna be super fun if uh you're a listener out there and you're just like, you know what I can do better than these jack offs. Shoot us a line. We are uh looking for some guest hosts and uh, yeah, we're open to anybody in the community. So give us, give us a shout out. Yeah, I was really, really hoping that with Nicky leaving that I could kind of weasel my way into leaving too, but Aaron wouldn't let me. So we're still going. Absolutely. Absolutely not, John, your contract says that you are committed. What did Nicky say? Mine said that I was committed except if I wanted to become learned because then I could pay Aaron 50% of my graduating salary. That really sucks. I'm so mad. I got my master's like five years ago. He should have should have invested more money into the educational racket. John. Yeah, I did get it for free. So um well, with that, let's get started with our first segment. I would really like to. Ok. Only because you're leaving. Ok. Thank you. Yes. So up first this week we have some news about our favorite old timey tap dancer, Little Nell. In recent months, we've talked about Nell's recent account on cameo selling personalized content for a low low price and her own personal website launching at cameo dot com slash Little Nell and Little Nell Campbell dot com. Respectful respectively. The holiday, we've also talked about her sharing memories and Rocky highlights all over Instagram as she steadily goes crazy under lockdown. Well, things are looking delightfully up because recently now was invited for the Sydney morning Herald and she went on a morning show. She talked about her recent and upcoming work in the former and dropped an F bomb. In the latter, Nell had a lunch interview over Zoom with Kerry o'brien, who is a senior culture writer at the Sydney morning, Herald over a lunch of sushi and Sashimi Tempura Omma and Aga Ashi Tofu Nell talked about her narration work, her daughter, her stint as a journalist and of course Rocky Horror. So has been working in audio books apparently. And as of now, you can hear her silk song voice on the track for a happy hour by fellow Australia resident novelist, Jackie Byron. Commenting on her work with audio books, Little Nell said, I would say rule number one is do not let an author read their book. It's certainly an art. She says just like with music and singers, everyone has their own taste in who they like. And I'm used to reading scripts which you read in two or three hours. Of course, it was four or five days. You've got to read it and do all that highlighting and making notes along the way, their accent, their age notes about the characters. I had over 30 characters. As you may know. Little Mel moved back to Australia in 2005, after decades abroad to raise her daughter Tilly there. Tilly is now 23 living in Paris where she studies filmmaking. She's also incredibly hot. Literally confirmed while discussing her daughter's move abroad. She commented it's almost like it's in our DNA to up and leave. Although adorably the two of them still face time every day in light of his passing, no commented on Meatloaf and how it was working with him on set and carry referenced a recent Instagram post at the star that made in memoriam of the star from the Instagram post. I'd never heard of the person cast to play Eddie. My paramo in Rocky Horror went into the rehearsal room sauntered a Texan chubster with the confidence of a cowboy entering the saloon bar after shooting dead all the baddies ordering a whiskey then heading upstairs to ravage his favorite whore if that weren't enough, his Texan accent made me come over all Scarlett o'hara and then he began to sing a few bars into the hot Patuti and Patricia Quinn and I were blown across the room pinned to the wall hair electrified. You've heard that quote eight different times in the last five weeks. And during the interview, Little Nell added in total contrast to his stage persona. He was the sweetest, gentlest man with a heart of gold. I saw him as a big baby. He was wonderful with the fans would always ask their names where they were from and was up for a chat. It's so nice to hear about meat loaf. I feel like we so rarely get to hear or see what other Rocky cast members feel about him because he was so far out of the Rocky circuit for just so long. It's been very sweet to hear Nell speak so fondly of him just throughout the past few weeks and something I was never aware of. Apparently little Nell was a journalist in New York for a little bit. Wow, she really gets around. So, do you? No, I don't. Oh, commissioned by Tina Brown. Nell wrote for talk magazine where she interviewed famous people's moms dream job. Me, me, me, me. She got to a lot of pretty great moms including the mothers of Venus and Serena Williams, Oliver Stone and Damien Hearst. Lastly, Nell talked about her delightful experience with cameo saying people contact me and they'll say the most amazing things. I've just come out to my wife and Children as trans. They've been really great or I'm going to tell my parents I'm gay this week. Can you give me some tips or I want to make the clue master angry on trivia night. Let's hear about some eggs. Shut up, Nell. And as she closes out the interview now mentions plans for a scrapbook, like memoir with photographs and Mementos. We'll be waiting for that book. Now, I've got a spot cleared out already on my shelf just waiting for it. So this interview went great. And now as always was a bubbly ball of kindness and energy, eager to share with the world. Unfortunately, all the bubbly good will in the world couldn't save her from one of morning T V's biggest sins. A live on air. Uncensored f bomb to an audience of millions gas. This past Friday, Little Nell was on Australian breakfast show studio 10 and accidentally swore on air without a bleep guess. Nell was in the middle of teaching the show's host. That's Angela Bishop. A little tap dance routine. Nell was in flip flops and dancing absolutely stunningly in the middle of dancing with the host, Nell looked over and saw Angela's footwear, stiletto, black heels. Little Nell looked aghast stopped dancing, put on a very serious face and looking at the camera said, ladies, I would like to make an announcement to all women in all countries in the world. Stop it. You don't need to wear, follow me home and fuck me shoes. Ok. Oh, the word hasn't been out of her lips for a moment before both Little Nell and host Angela made a gasp in unison. Nell froze and gave the camera a signature little Nell caught off guard. Look while Angela ran damage control, dropping the dance, grabbing little Nell and joking that she would have to make a deposit to the swear jar before swiftly throwing to a commercial break. Now you may be thinking, wow, that was cool. Surely that F bomb on live TV from Little Nell is the star of this segment. Well, guess again, fuckers. Not only do we get a faux pas from Nell. We also get one from the Daily Mail who reported on this incident in talking about where Little Nell got her nickname. They wrote her. Co-stars gave her the nickname Little Nell, which later became her stage name. But we know because we're cool kids that, that isn't even a little right. In reality, Little Nell is an extension of her father's nickname for her, which is Nell, the nickname developed over her youth and now it is largely how she's known. So now we get a laugh at a professional publication for getting their facts wrong. Come on, guys left, left, left with me. Uh be funnier if it wasn't so sad. Daily mail more like daily falsehoods. Do your job next time. Yeah. You stupid morons. I don't know. Maybe go to journalism school next time. Yeah. And could you take me out to dinner before you make me read your lies next time? Because I like to be wined and dined before. I'm fucked. That's a Jacob line. Isn't that literally something Jacob has said? That's a Tik Tok audio. You're old, goddamn it. Now that we've gotten little now and our frustrations out of the way we can move on next up the River Oaks Theater. You guys might remember around this time last year, we told you all about a tragic victim of the Ponte replay by Rihanna Houston's River Oaks Theater. It was a theater for the people it was a community hub and a landmark of the biggest city in Texas. It had been standing and delivering feel good movie times through films like the Rocky Horror Picture Show until it was viciously snuffed out by the scourge of corporate greed. In 2021 real estate company, Weingarten realty was pushing harder and harder down on landmark theaters and rent was becoming an issue. The community around the theater started petitions, They gave money to the theater. They even held rallies to save a piece of their home. But unfortunately all the town's people's support and all their money wasn't good enough for Grubby Weingarten Realty. And in 2021 after 82 glorious years spent serving the community, the River Oaks Theater was forced to close its doors. But that's just a story up until a few days ago, the sad story of a theater on its way out and with it, one less Rocky Horror cast in the world, but fear not for. This is a good update. Star Cinema Grill. The Houston based dine in movie theater chain is taking over the site with the intent to reopen it near the end of the year. They plan to preserve the integrity of the building and have promised to keep the original River Oaks name. Yay, yay, friends of the River Oaks Theater. The group who originally helped organize events and donations to preserve the theater will continue to assist in the theater's preservation, which is good news for everyone, especially Rocky people because chief among the members of that nonprofit is a Houston cast who had been using the Star Cinema grill as their performance space for years. The Royal Mystic Order of Chaos, Maureen mcnamara, a spokeswoman for friends of the River Oak Theater said of their planned involvement with the theater as true friends of the theater. We are in this for the long haul. We look forward to applying our knowledge of the film community and of historic and independent cinemas to collaborate with all involved on our share vision for the theater's bright future on. Talking about the current plans for the theater, Omar Khan, the president and Chief executive of the River Oaks Theater says being a part of the Houston community is something we take great pride in. And as the only locally owned and operated movie theater group, we feel very fortunate to further expand our roots within our hometown. And in great news, he plans to have the theater maintain its rich history by showcasing classic features such as the Rocky Horror picture Show and hosting film festivals for everyone to enjoy. So we did it well, not we. Yeah, I I had no part in this. Well, someone did it. A brave little community group jam packed with a bunch of awesome people and one whole Rocky cast stood up to the big man and got their theater back. And this time it's here to stay. It's coming back with the community's vision in mind and with showings of the Rocky Horror Picture Show, which means the Royal Mystic Order of Chaos has a home again, which is just more than enough reason for us all to celebrate everyone. Drink. I'm Nick Uber, Nicky. We have a, we have a podcast to record you. You, you can't drink you. Yeah, you're, you're, you're not drinking. Are, are you anyway? On that note, let's move on to something like community news. First up in community news, we've got a really exciting update from theater coven productions. You might remember theater coven and their director Tavon Vinson from one of our episodes around Halloween when we told you all about their freak show production of Rocky Horror that they were putting on in L A. But for those of you who might benefit from a quick recap theater Coven productions is a Baltimore based all African American shadow cast production of Rocky that is being performed with a circus Sideshow theme. The organization was created back in 2016 by director Tavon with a mission of creating stage and film productions within the horror, dark comedy and fantasy realms. While bringing awareness and representation to the LGBT and African American communities in Baltimore. Last November, the company had the opportunity to debut two performances at the million dollar theater in downtown L A. Since their launch, their cast has been inundated by requests from Rocky fans in Baltimore to bring a version of their show to their hometown. Unfortunately, theater productions cost money to produce. To that end. The cast recently started a gofundme page with a goal of raising $5000 to put on a version of their show in Baltimore. The money raised will be used to cover costs associated with venue rental and movie rights as well as things like new props, costumes and makeup. Yeah. Yeah, we all know how expensive Rocky is. You don't gotta tell us the cast is hoping to reach their goal by the last day of February so that they can start booking a venue, building props and rehearsing the show. As of right now, they've raised just shy of $2000 which is quite a bit of money, but they've still got a way to go before they reach the full amount. Any amount of donation helps the cast and to sweeten the deal, they've promised to include names of all their donors during a pre show video that they'll play before each performance. If you're interested in learning more about this great cast or the phenomenal show that they've been working towards. We've got their social media linked in our show notes where you'll be able to take a look at all the gorgeous pictures that they posted from their L A show. We've also linked their gofundme if you're interested in learning more about the upcoming production or maybe sending them a donation. I'm sure that they would really appreciate your support. And speaking of supporting fellow community members, Fred and Harley recently launched their eighth Kickstarter project. Holy Cow. Is it really eight already nuts? And this time in honor of the long, long anticipated 2022 Con Harley and Fred have decided to go a little nuts and create something completely over the top enamel pin wise. This design which will be created in both pin and magnet form is an insanely intricate one featuring floor show Columbia, Rocky Brad and Janet sexily draped across each other. And it comes in at a very colorful and whopping 3.5 inches, much like John. That's above average. According to many of my exes, it sure is. Nicky. It's not the size, it's how you use it, but also the size. Now, the unique aspect to this Kickstarter is that it's part of the platform's make 100 program. Every January Kickstarter encourages creators to try a simple creative constraint, launch a campaign that offers exactly 100 of something. It could be literally anything hand drawn pictures, board game figures, copies of your comic book, whatever you want, you just have to produce exactly 100. It's a very cool campaign and it means these pins will be Hyper Limited edition. As with any Kickstarter, there are different tiers of backing costs, $8 will buy a single magnet, 15 gets you a pin and for 20 you get the set of two, only 1, 1/50 of a frank jacket. As of now, Fred and Harley have 49 backers who have purchased various tiers, but like we said, the design is only going to be printed once, once they're sold out. That's it. These puppies I thought they were selling pins are halfway gone already and there's only a few days left to back the project. So definitely hit the link in our show notes and grab yours sooner rather than later your frank jacket. We thank you for it next up as all of our listeners are probably very aware mostly because of how excited I personally have been about it. J C C P hosted a huge double feature Rocky Horror Shock Treatment Night that featured like 1000 performers, including actors from four different casts. We were hyping the shit out of it and last weekend it finally happened. And uh as the only one of the three of us who was there, Nicky, I would be remiss if I didn't give everybody out there a quick recap. OK. OK. Listen, I really wanted to go but there was an emergency. Somebody in Sweden had a runny nose and I had to fly to Madagascar to help them completely shut down their international borders. It was pretty easy because you know, all they've got is the one sea port, but it was still a weekend long shale. Oh, my life is so hard. Now understand you got to get all your international relief working before you start school. It really beefs up the resume. But Meg and I were there and I mean, I would be remiss if I just didn't rave about the phenomenal job that everybody did. So let's play story time. I'm gonna give you a brief rundown of my trip to Pittsburgh. Ok. Slide one click. So Meg and I flew into Pittsburgh after like a six hour delay due to the northeast snowstorm that was going on last week and it wasn't really a six hour delay because of that. It was a six hour delay because Meg thought that we'd just be able to slip on through security. Uh and she reassured me so many times as I was standing there that oh no, they can't leave. They have our, they have our bags on the plane. They'd have to take them back off the plane. They can't leave with our bags on the plane. They'll just wait. So my fat ass runs all the way through Newark Airport to see the door slammed shut directly in front of us and us have to wait six hours for the next flight, which I will point out they did ship our bags to Pittsburgh before we got on a flight. So suck it. But after that little kerfuffle, it was all fucking awesome. We had a fantastic couple of days hanging out with the crew over at J C C P, especially Sam and Trey. We went to an awesome jazz club with them. And uh also we met up with Ryan and Jamie from uh the Francis Bacon Experiment. That was a fantastic night out. We had a really cool time there and then we ended up going with a bunch of people to visit the Pittsburgh Botanical Gardens. Yay plants. That was actually super cool. I really like yay plants. They, they have like a little train room where they've got like this, you know, community interest, you know, kind of project that like clearly has been built up over years. They've got like glass sculptures in there from some fantastic local artists. It was actually super cool also plants. Uh and then the big evening of the weekend uh back to back shock treatment followed by Rocky Horror and I've been to the theater in Pittsburgh once several, several years ago for Yin's K. Uh But I'd never seen the space that the theater has reserved for the J C C P cast. Uh down in their basement. I would call this space like a Rocky Horror Clubhouse. This thing is so much room. They, they basically have an entire basement or at least half of a basement where they have couches and a TV set up to play the movie and a 12 ft costume rack on one wall and a display case to hold wigs in and huge storage space for all of their props. And on top of that, all of their cast members have individual locks that they have in this area. Like this is like walking into like the Rocky Horror Clubhouse locker room that you have always hoped that your cast could have fucking amazing space and says a lot about just how much effort J C C P has put into making the best of what they've got. And just if you ever make it out to Pittsburgh, ask to check it out. It's really cool to, you know, just see the space that they've got. Um everyone from J C C P was just amazingly helpful. It was a master class in how to treat, you know, out of town guests at a show. We were there. Uh Buffalo came down uh AJ and Polly from the ordinary kids were there. There were, there was even some folks from other casts that I apologize if I'm forgetting anybody but like it was a super fantastic evening. Uh shock treatment. Amazing. Like I think this was the first time I got to see shock treatment, not at a convention. And I, I, I love what J C C P does with shock treatment. Their version of thank God, I'm a man is the funniest fucking thing that I have ever seen. You know how at conventions? Thank God. I'm a man. That's the, that's the song in the middle of the show that's, you know, uh Janet's dad does where he's all uh you know, the alt, right piece of shit. They just went full camp with that thing. Like they had the actor playing uh Janet's father just gay it up in the most ridiculous campy way possible. I absolutely loved it. It was so funny. He was basically giving Brad in the wheelchair like a lap dance the whole time and like just slapping him with a dildo. It was so fucking funny. Uh There are so many great things about shock treatment, the way that they use the space, the the the blocking around all of the different numbers was fantastic. A hilarious bit where they brought on a second. Janet for the mirror uh for the lead up to little black dress. Absolutely loved it. Also just fantastic work from Jamie uh out of Buffalo who stepped in at the last minute to pick up one of the roles. They were absolutely awesome. Uh And yeah, shock treatment was fantastic. There was a great audience there for it and then right afterwards, everybody scrambled to get the props and big giant pieces off stage to get ready for Rocky, which was probably like my favorite part of the entire experience. Um J C C P did a wonderful meatloaf preshow uh where Sam got up and was blown around with a leaf blower and like it was, it was hilarious and Crazy Rocky was fantastic. The crowd was super into it and everyone from Buffalo, the ordinary kids, J C C P, they were all at the top of their game and it was just a really, really good Rocky show after that, uh The next day, we went out for brunch and to say goodbye to all of the other casts. Um And Meg and I were sticking around in Pittsburgh for an extra day. So Sam invited us to drop in on J C C P's cast meeting that was being held later that day, which if you ever have the opportunity to go see another casts, inner cast meeting like, oh my God, of course, you're gonna take that. Uh So we stopped in for a couple of drinks at a local brewery and we popped over to Sam's place to meet their adorable dog be uh and then headed back to the theater and to that fantastic J C C P Clubhouse. So what could I say about this meeting? It was super cool to see how another cast gets things done up here in New York. We are pretty much a dictatorship. Me runs the show with an iron fist, but I'm sitting right here. OK, John also does stuff but over in Pittsburgh, they've heard of a little thing called Democracy. No, and oh my God, it is. Honestly, it's, it's incredibly cool to see a completely different way of getting things done where everybody on their cast has different responsibilities. They all take point on different you know, aspects of, oh, we're doing an upcoming show who wants to do it. Let's nominate people and vote on it, you know, kind of thing. It, it really is an entirely different way of running a Rocky cast than I've ever seen. And I just want to shout out a big thank you to J C C P and for Sam for letting us, you know, sit in on that and uh get a peek as to how the sausage is made. That was super, super fun. Uh That kind of wraps up our trip after the, after the J C C P meeting, we went out with uh Randy, one of J C C P's cast leaders and uh had a fantastic conversation around all things Rocky and cons and shock treatment and yeah, it was super fun to hang out with him. Shout out and uh yeah, that was our trip. We wrapped up the next day uh with some shopping and uh made it to the Pittsburgh airport with plenty of time to spare this time and uh got back here to New York. Awesome, awesome time. I got those like post con, you know, vibes right afterwards where I'm like, I wanna do Rocky stuff. I want to talk to all these people. I wanna, you know, all that kind of shit that you get right after you go out and meet members of the community so big. Thank you to everybody who performed out there and of course to J C C P for hosting a fantastic Rocky shocky double feature. Yeah, I was there. All of that is true. And if hearing about all the cool shenanigans, you're b that you missed out fear not, we've got another amazing opportunity to get together as a community for shocky coming up really soon. So I obviously won't be there. The Francis Bacon experiment up in Buffalo are gearing to put up a shock treatment performance on Friday, April 1st 2022 at 7 30 pm at the screening room cafe. Just this past week, the cast opened up a few roles to members of the community who might be interested in coming to guest perform A K A Megan Aaron as I'm sure you can imagine lots of the parts got snatched up pretty quickly. But at the time of this recording, there are still a couple available. We are definitely gonna try and make it up for that. We're linking the post in our show notes for you if you're interested in a potential guest spot. And we're also including the show's event. Bright page tickets are only $10 but they're pretty limited. So make sure you get yours sooner rather than later. If you definitely want to go, it's going to be a great time and will be a fantastic way to meet new community members and show your support. And last, but certainly not least we've got to write in from none other than our bestie, a Rowan. So as our listeners know, Rowan recently auditioned for a stage show production of the Rocky Horror Show up in Rhode Island, we shadowed them out on the show just before their audition and it looks like we finally got some news about how it went Rowan writes. Thank you so so much for your words of encouragement for my Rocky Horror show audition. So after nearly 60 people have auditioned for this production, I have an update for y'all. Despite going to my callback audition for Franken Furter, I have been thrown a curveball and in turn was cast as Rocky. Very stoked for this show to happen and to play this role that said, I'm absolutely the most twink person they could have picked. But let's embrace the Twink Rocky aesthetic. It's running from April 21st to May 1st at the Robert E Will Theater in Kingstown, Rhode Island. The show was presented by Hasbro. Yes, the toy company. Thank you all so much for your kind words. Yay. Awesome way to go Rowan. We knew you could do it. I mean, I didn't think that they could do it. Yeah, but I mean, it's what you say, isn't it? Tickets for this show aren't on sale yet. But don't worry, we'll be plugging the absolute shit out of it when they're available after we snag ours. Of course. And I got to say I'm here for the whole Twink Rocky aesthetic. It's just really funny because a lot of times when you think of like the stage show of Rocky Horror, they try to stay a little bit more true to the character. Like when you go to see a shadow cast, it doesn't fucking matter what the Rocky looks like, you know what I mean? Like it doesn't, does not matter. But with the stage show, they traditionally try to keep Rocky to be like a hyper, masculine jacked blonde person. Well, I mean, waits happened but like, hi, masculine, super jacked, really beefy, all of that stuff. But for those of you who are listening to this podcast and you don't know who Rowan is. Rowan is quite literally the complete opposite of that. Rowan is like androgynous leaning fem, super small, super fragile, the biggest twink out there. And I think it is going to be so funny to see the actual stage show be put on with not a hyper masculine Frank. I can't tell if it's progression or if they just didn't have anybody better suited for Rocky than Rowan. Either way, I'm super excited to go out there and see them totally crush the approximately 1.5 songs that Rocky is in. I mean, I'm fucking here for it. Right. Like I, I love the classic version of the Rocky monster. Big bulky. Oh Stupid. But like some of my favorite shadow cast performers is Rocky. Have been you know, little Twinkie guys that are fucking amazing and just put a whole spin on it. And you know, if there's anyone that can put a spin on it, it is definitely Rowan. It kind of reminds me of small Greg on the N Y C cast because like I said, you know, it doesn't really matter who plays Rocky in the grand schemes of a shadow cast because the whole point is inclusivity and acceptance and one of our cast members, Greg, he's like, what, 525 £300 soaking wet and he plays the Twinkies Rocky. So it's gonna be very fun having seen that translate to a professional stage. Hell, I think most of our rockies on the New York cast at this point are all little Twinkie guys like, and, and I mean, I'm here for it. They interact so well with the audience and just, it, it, it, it really is a, a great bridge, you know, to showing how inclusive and how different the shadow cast version of Rocky is. Then the stage show and I'm, I'm glad to see, you know, the stage show kind of embrace that certainly in a, a smaller production like this one. Absolutely. Anyway, congratulations Rowan. We can't wait to come and watch you do the thing. Ok, boys, before I go off and do some real book learning, let's indulge in one more knack snack in over 60. Nicky asks the questions we've done. The who the, what the, when the why and the how, but before I take a break, I want to hit on the one. We haven't covered that much. The where, let's talk about where the Rocky Horror Picture Show was filmed. Oakley Court, the Hotel and Brace Studios. You know the place where all the Hammer films were shot, the movies that Richard o'brien is spoofing all throughout Rocky Horror. And for that matter, what about Hammer? I know they did like Dracula and a bunch of those cheesy horror movies in the fifties. But what about them? We haven't talked about that before the studio that dripped blood. The Hammer House of Horror. Yeah, I've been waiting to do this one for a while. It's a super fun story and only recently did I get a chance to sit down and finally sort through a couple of books that I've picked up over the last year. One of them is Wayne Kinsey's inside Brace Studios, the complete story of Hammer's House studio. And let me tell you this thing is a beast. It is practically a 350 page text book all about Hammer Studios and Bray. But I, I loved it. It was absolutely fascinating. A lot of what we're going to go through today comes from that book. Also, there's a 1987 documentary up on youtube titled The Studio that dripped blood. It features interviews with a lot of the Hammer Horror crew and actors hilariously. It's also narrated by Rocky Horror, Criminologist, Charles Gray and the History of Hammer Horror and Bray Studios are inexorably linked. Telling one story inevitably tells the other and we even get Oakley Court thrown in for good measure. Actually, it's an estate. The history of Hammer films starts before World War Two with a man named William Heinz. Heinz was your average run of the mill busy businessman and also a failed comedian, right? I mean, who isn't? I know right before the war, Heinz and a friend even had a comedic double act. His business was centered in Hammersmith and they called themselves Hammer and Smith Laugh throughout World War Two, Heinz company financed and distributed other studios films under the name exclusive because we even exist back then. Well, there were these guys in Germany doing a good job of it after the war. Britain and the whole world saw a huge uptick in movie going as a pastime. Audiences craved escapism at the cinema, the Hollywood Studios were booming and there was a huge demand for films. Any kind of films good or bad. Last time we talked about the rise of the movie palaces, this was the same boom period where audiences flocked to those movie palaces to see the latest films. It's the period that the usher wistfully recalls in science fiction double feature. Hammer films looked at the opportunity and began expanding from distributing other studios films to producing their own. Throughout the late 40 s, Hammer thrived on adapting BBC radio series like PC 49 The Lion's Den. These are mystery thrillers and suspense dramas. Often they used American actors in order to obtain funding from us companies. It was in producing these pictures that the Hammer team discovered that it was much cheaper to rent an old house and shoot the films in the rooms than it was to rent expensive space at the larger established studios. Hammer began rotating through a series of studio houses before they found a home in their fourth studio house, downplays which would eventually become Bray Studios. These studio houses promoted Hammer's repertory style approach to filmmaking, employing technicians, crew and actors that would return for film. After film, the crew often lived together at the studio house. During production, they became a big family which like Rocky. At the beginning, there were many limitations, low ceilings at the converted studio houses resulted in limited lighting, poor soundproofing was another major problem as these were old mansions with oak paneled rooms and so blankets and canvas had to be used to hide the low hanging lights and to dampen all of the noise. In 1949 and 1950 Hammer first came to Oakley Court must have been hard to film movies in a hotel although I hear their English breakfast is to die for because if there's one thing the British are known for, it's their culinary prowess. We have diners, dives and drive ins, drive ins and dives. Aaron go back to Germany. I meant to say Britain and Germany came out, I'm sorry, it wasn't a hotel yet. So in 1950 Oakley Court was just an old gothic mansion on the banks of the Thames between Windsor and Maiden Head. Five films were shot there in the two years that Hammer took up occupancy. They primarily utilized the first floor with its elaborate victorian furnishings, the striking staircase and the gothic exteriors with the second floor being converted into offices and workshops. Hammer was on a roll with the slate of films for 1950. Increasing 50% over the previous year, 12 pictures were to be shot. It was during productions at Oakley Court that Hammer first became aware of the nearby property at down Place needing to expand to support the massive undertaking. The Hammer, production teams also took up residence at Park where they produced four films. As the 1950 season came to a close, the team and Hammer turned their eye to down place. The big appeal being that most of the estate had been sitting derelict since the end of World War II. And it did not have any construction restrictions that had prevented the studio from modifying their previous studio houses. The history of down place is largely a mystery. There is evidence the original estate was purchased in 15 18. It changed hands several times over the next 300 years and the buildings were modified, renovated and added on throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. By the mid 20th century, the house was largely in disrepair. It was mostly just a shell right for renovation. And so Hammer took up residence bussing the crew from London every morning. However, the lease was only through August of 1951 forcing Hammer to move production for the remainder of the year and the start of 1952 to the Riverside studios in Hammersmith, the company was making plans to stay at the riverside studio when a dispute with the unions serendipitously combined with down place looking for new tenants. The chairman of Hammer films, James Carreras made a deal to buy the freehold on the property, allowing the family who lived there to remain in the southeast wing of the house. Hammer moved back to down place, renamed it Bray Studios after the nearby village of Bray and it would remain Hammer's primary home until 1966 with only one film being shot at Bray at a time. It further led to the repertory style of filmmaking, retaining technicians for picture after picture and saving on sets through extensive reuse an unusual method of filmmaking that resulted in a family like atmosphere amongst the Hammer crew. The team worked long hours in cramped conditions. What was originally just a few rooms in the house at Bray Studio grew into additional sound stages built through the fifties, which it's pretty amazing that on miniscule budgets, they were able to produce the iconic horror films that would define Hammer films and revolutionize the horror genre. So in 1953 there is a very successful BBC television serial called The Quatermass Experiment. I love cereal, Anthony Heinz. That's the son of William Heinz. And now an integral part of the Hammer Company, went to the BBC and obtained the contract to produce a full length feature. The Quater Mass Two. The plot is a condensed but largely faithful retelling of the original television serial. Although Quatermass two was financially successful. Its box office performance was eclipsed by the massive success of another Hammer film, The Curse of Frankenstein, which was to be the first of their many gothic horror films. As a result, it would be over 10 years before Hammer adapted the next Quater Mass serial for the cinema when they did Quater Mass in the Pit. In 1956 an American producer came to Hammer studios and pitched a remake of Frankenstein. And even though Frankenstein was in the public domain, at least the original Mary Shelley book was Universal's lawyers. Made it clear that they would be litigious if Hammers Frankenstein replicated anything from their classic monster picture that wasn't in the original book. Frankenstein's look, had to change, the effects, had to be different and it left a lot of creative room for the Hammer team to make the story of their own. In May 1957 Hammer released the Curse of Frankenstein starring Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. It had cost the studio under £70,000 to make and was one of several films shot that year. And after all, it was just a remake, nobody knew it was going to be a huge success. Legendary film director Martin Scorsese saw the Curse of Frankenstein when it was released in 1957 at a midnight showing when he was 15 and recalled that the audience went wild for the reimagined Hammer Monster. After Frankenstein's success, Hammer reused the same actors for 1950 eight's Dracula Scorsese recalled it was even better than Frankenstein. Hammer's Dracula was a sexually charged departure from Bella Lugosi's 1931 classic movie monster. The success of the new generation of horror icons now in color and ramping up the brutality, the gore and the scares that were absent from the thirties version left audiences clamoring for more and critics disgusted. One review of the new Dracula said they quote, came away revolted and outraged, but critics never know what audiences want. And the late fifties and early sixties packed even more hits for the studio. Their successes skyrocketed the Hammer actors, Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee into worldwide superstars hits poured in the mummy again. Curbing off the old universal classics. The Hounds of Baskerville, a spiced up version of the Sherlock Holmes story and the revenge of Frankenstein showing the money making potential of fast turnaround Sequels. Long before they were in Vogue, Hammer became the biggest and most successful producer of horror. He said when I went with groups of friends to go see certain films, if we saw the logo of Hammer films, we knew that it was a very special picture and that it was a certain kind of film, a surprising experience usually and shocking as Hammer expanded at Bray from a handful of rooms, they constructed several sound stages. The largest, a 72 100 square foot sound stage was built in 1957 and used for the huge sprawling sets in films like Dracula Prince of Darkness, the Old Dark House and The Curse of The Werewolf and simultaneous with the expansion. Hammer continued to film atmospheric and exterior shots at the nearby Oakley Court. But by the early sixties with the success and expansion leading to higher and higher costs, Hammer was looking for ways to slim down budgets. They reused a large number of back lot sets and even filmed four films back to back, reusing the same locations and same actors fire in 1961 had been extremely costly and by 1964 Hammer sold a partial interest in Bray Studios. The last few films, Hammer shot at Bray Studios were in 1965 and 1966. The last, the Mummy Shroud was shot in October with Hammer moving out of the studio in November of 1966. So with Hammer gone from the studio, it was used extensively for special effects work in the late sixties. And Hammer finally sold the remaining interest in Bray in 1970. But the new management hit on an incredibly successful niche while other studios struggled with the out of fashion British film industry. Bray focused on TV, shows, commercials and music videos, as well as renting out their spaces to artists and bands for rehearsals. The studio was so successful that they expanded and renovated. Yet again, it's this era of studios that Rocky Horror was shot at in October, November and December of 1974 Jim Sharman. Rocky's director really wanted the film adaptation to have an authentic reality based look similar to that of the motion pictures. It was spoofing Bray offered a perfect home for their film with its sound stages in nearby Oakley Court. Rocky Horr had come full circle to the studio that had originally fueled Richard o'brien's imagination and inspired the stage show in 1973 by 1974. However, nearby Oakley Court was not faring quite so well as Rocky horse production designer, Brian Thompson recalls, although the structure stood empty in 1974 its most recent owners had removed the lead from the roof hoping to sidestep a preservation order in order to demolish the building and free up the land for development at Oakley. The wooden floors and interiors of the building had rotted and made for uncomfortable filming conditions but certainly evoked that hammer aesthetic for Rocky. The exteriors. The entrance to the castle crim scenes, dinner and Brad Janet and Magenta in Columbia's bedroom scenes were all shot at Oakley Court and the dome on the castle that was real. They built a 25 ft wide fiberglass geodesic dome and craned it up to the roof. But the house was in such disrepair that in order to shoot riff scenes at the window for there's a light, the crew had to lay down board so that Richard could walk across the rotting floors to get to the window. The ballroom and the lab scenes were both shot on stage one at Bray Studios first, the lab scene and then it was redressed for the ballroom and for floor show. However, it's worth noting that this isn't the same stage one from Hammer Films history. This stage one was constructed in 1973 after they demolished the original stage one that had been built in 1957 replacing the 7200 square foot original. The new sound stage was over 10,000 square feet and had originally been part of M G M studios where it had been dubbed Stage 10. The building was dismantled and moved to Bray. This wasn't the first move for the soundstage though in 1963 it had come to M G M from Walton Studios when it was there. It was known as stage. A the history of the building at Walton is relatively unknown though it is suspected that it was built at Walton shortly after World War Two. Reportedly the soundproofing for the sound stage was not optimal and shooting could be interrupted by passing aircraft or emergency vehicle sirens. Ironically, while Hammer never filmed in studio one at Bray Studios, they did film Quarter Mass and the Pit in the same building in 1967. While the stage was still part of M G M Studios. So the physical building was used in at least one. Hammer picture. The church scenes were shot on stage two and this sound stage was originally Hammer stage four on the edge of the Bray Studio lot when the stage was initially constructed is unknown with the earliest reference to it being during the first production, Hammer shot at Bray in 1961 which was called Watch It Sailor. It was only 2556 square feet which is like minuscule by the soundstage standards, but perfect for the Denton church. Unlike stage one, though this studio had been used by Hammer films during their heyday. It was used in Dracula Prince of Darkness, the plague of the zombies, the reptile. And for the rat shots in 1960 one's the fan of the Opera and the exterior for the church was filmed on the lot at Bray Studios. That's right. If you didn't know the outside of the church at the start of the movie is just a facade, not a real building. The production team basically took a photograph of the American Gothic painting and replicated all the styles and ornamentation work of the house that is behind the couple in the background and turned it into a church. If you get a chance to sit and compare a photo of American Gothic to the movie, it's actually super neat. You can clearly see they were replicating the details from the painting. It's especially obvious in like the windows and the roof line and just everything else. I I think it's a super cool little detail. Uh If you want to check it out, the best shot is in the opening right after science fiction double feature with the church bell as it pans down the facade like right when the doors are opening? Nerd. How's this for a nerd fact because Rocky was being filmed that Bray on the old hammer stomping ground, there was other stuff. The team could pillage the lab scene tank was found in one of the studio's storage rooms. It had been used for Hammers, the revenge of Frankenstein and was still there as was the dummy that was floating inside it and that was the tank with Rocky wrapped up in it. They painted it red, they broke the water tank that was inside it during production and Lake got too close and cracked it and they had to drain it and replace the whole thing. And of course, the whole thing got thrown out after Rocky, those photos are floating around of the tanks sitting destroyed. After filming in from concept to cult Rocky's art director that's Terry Alin Snow talks about all of this stuff. He's the guy who was basically handed Brian Thompson's designs and just told to run with it. Thompson went off and did the stage show in New York while the movie was filmed. Terry mentioned that during the car scene and during there's a light, Brad and Janet are walking through a picnic area near Bray Studios that's called Marlow Woods on Marlow Common. He apparently used to take his kids there but don't think Bray was just all peaches and cream for shooting Rocky Oakley Court was cold and wet. Susan gave the hotel pneumonia what Susan gave the hotel pneumonia. The bathrooms at Bray were in separate buildings to the sound stage. So you had to walk in the rain and mud across the courtyard and then you had to walk across the wet and muddy fields to go between Bray and Oakley Court. And then they shot the pool scene and studio one was not heated, it was freezing cold. Just one room was heated by a pile of space heaters. But apparently that was next when one day the room caught on fire, Bray just can't get a break on the fire thing, can it? Nope. And after Rocky Bray continued to be used as a studio all through the seventies. In the eighties. Bray was sold multiple times until eventually landing in the hands of a development company that planned to demolish the sound stages and convert down place into office buildings. But in 1991 television producer Neville Hendrix bought the complex and allowed film production to continue. By this point, the sound stages were often used as rehearsal facilities for large musical events and like touring groups. This included the Freddie Mercury tribute concert and on numerous occasions were used by Pink Floyd and Roger Waters. Bray would serve as a location for filming all the way until 2014 films like alien, the Da Vinci code, the imagin Ari of Doctor Parnassus, the chronicles of Narnia and doctor who all shot at Bray. In 2014, Bray was again sold to a property development company who submitted a planning application in 2015 for luxury apartments and demolition of the soundstage buildings. Several sites at Bray were demolished in 2017. However, the developer apparently rethought their plans in 2018, reopening for filming of the BBC series Dracula and the Elton John Opic Rocket Man. In recent years, there has been a substantial reinvestment in the studio with the restoration of the dilapidated main house and a multimillion dollar expansion plan featuring nine sound stages, workshops, production, support facilities and the permanent retention of a rehearsal building. Recently, it was announced, Amazon would be filming parts of their new Lord of the Rings series at Bray Oakley Court was used in filming until it was sold in 1979. It underwent a huge restoration effort and was reopened as a hotel in late 1981 and has remained so to this day. Every year, it hosts the Rocky Horror Time Warp picnic organized by the UK Fan Club and it is also often home to film and memorabilia fairs that specialize in the iconic Hammer films that were shot there. As for Hammer films, the saturation of the horror film market by competitors in the sixties and seventies along with lost funding, forced changes to the previously lucrative Hammer formula with varying degrees of success. The company eventually ceased production in the mid 19 eighties. In 2000, the studio was bought by a consortium that announced plans to begin making films again, but none were produced in 2007. It was sold again since then. Under the new owners, Hammer has produced several films including the resident in 2011, The Woman In Black in 2012 and The Lodge as recently as 2019. Oh my God, I so recommend watching the Lodge but there you have it, the Wear Brace Studios, Oakley Court and Hammer films. I'm sure you guys will keep on learning nonsensical amounts of Rocky Horror minutia without me. But I guarantee they won't be as delicious as my next snacks and that's our show. We want to thank your mom for having excellent tits. Yeah, but we also want to thank J C C P and Buffalo and the ordinary kids and Owen and your mom for having excellent tits and all all those wonderful people who have contributed stuff this week. Thank you so much. As always, we'd like to thank our writer Jacob and our editor Aaron from Tennessee. We appreciate all your work. We would also like to thank Nikki for everything that she has done over the past over a year that we have been recording this podcast, Happy Trails. Nikki. I hope you learn one thing, but I hope so too. But if anyone has a question that they'd like us to answer on air for Nicky asks a question, we might have changed the name of that segment and say so if anyone has a question, they'd like us to answer on air for some fucking person in the Rocky community asks a question because I'm sure shit isn't gonna be me asking it because I don't care or some other community news that you'd like us to talk about or even 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 helps us to really 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 podcasts. Go on, Nicky. Save the sign off. We'll talk to you next week. 60 415. Get the fuck out of here, Nikki. Bye bye, bye, bye. Bye, bye, bye bye. Become learned. So up first this week we have some news about our favorite old timey tap dancer little now. Oh, I thought you were talking about me. Oh, do you tap dance? Oh God. Well, do you, I could if that weren't enough. His Texan accent made me come all over. What? Oh and in the great news, what, who fucking wrote this? Probably meg in the great news. The great news is you're writing, it said and in the great news, it sounds like fucking Tommy Wazza wrote it. And in the great news, I'm into great news. He plans to have to theater. I mean, I can't burp on command. No, there you go. Now, you can just edit that in anyway. On that note, let's move on to something like community news. I'm trying to burp on command. That was really good. Yeah, that sounded just like a listen. If you can make somebody come with your fingers, you can make somebody come with a 3.5 inch j just because you've been dating sweaty gamer men. Your entire life doesn't mean that small penises can't get you off as it all sweaty. Oh. Oh, that was not directed at me. Somebody in Sweden had a runny nose and I had to fly to Madagascar to help them completely shut down their international borders. It was pretty easy because, you know, all they've got is the one sea port but it was still a weekend long shale. Oh, my life is so hard. Was that a reference to something or did you just make that up me? No, the paragraph. No, I will point out that Madagascar and Sweden are so far apart that Google Maps cannot get me directions. Ok. Um Madagascar is off the coast of South Africa and, uh, Sweden is where Sweden is. So, but.