Hello to all of you. Unconventional convention is out there. Welcome to Rocky Talkie. We're the Rocky Horror podcast that talks about anything and everything. Rocky Horror. I'm Aaron, I'm Jacob and I'm Meg and I'm Jam. All right guys. Um This has been a hell of a week for all of us. Uh I know that there has been a lot of con hangover, at least in our house. Uh What have we all been doing? Do we get up to anything fun in between to like trying to fix our sleep schedules? I have not gotten up too much listeners. I have been in a computer program thingy, learning to code and hopefully get a real person job. And so I've been doing a lot of work involved in that specifically right now. I am like making a full stack project which is a copy of a popular website. The website I chose is Tumblr. Um That's how, you know, I'm not very cool. I feel like Tumblr is not a website for cool people. No, it's mostly furry porn, right? Uh It used to be, they got rid of the porn and then everything went downhill and now it's just say for work furry stuff, which is even worse. Wow. Other than that boo boo, boo, boo boo. Oh my God, this is, this is crazy to me. I got caught stealing at a Whole Foods. I have been stealing from Whole Foods my entire goddamn life. And there have been some close calls but like just close calls on myself, like just me thinking like, oh my God, it's gonna happen this time. They're gonna get me but never any actual close calls because it's who gives a shit but but whole but fucking shit they're on their game. I was checking out and doing what I do and like I had multiple items but I only scanned one and a lady and the lady just tapped me on the shoulder was like, hey, you should pay for that too and fucking, of course I did because I, I don't have the balls to just be like, no, I'm not gonna do that. It's OK though. Uh The very next day I went to a different Whole Foods and I still there so it hasn't wrecked my spirit. But man, it was like a mind fuck like shit, they can catch you at Whole Foods. I'm surprised anyone gave enough of a shit to even expend the energy to like walk up to you and formulate words. You know what I mean? Like absolutely this, this is a lady I often steal from this whole Foods um I go there on my lunch break and this lady walks up and down the self checkout aisle like she is the person always there doing it. So I imagine she has like an allegiance to the role and she wants to be like the best. So she is on her guard and she is watching out because at other Whole Foods, like I have smiled at cashiers who have noticed me like there was one lady a few weeks ago, I, I was, I paid $2 and you could see like $2 on the screen for multiple bags of groceries. And this lady saw it and looked at me, smiled, shook her head and I smiled back and she just walked away and it was a great time. It was just a little secret between us. She knew what was going on. She worked there. She didn't give a shit. She didn't say nothing. It was great. Can't always be that lucky though. Yeah. You know, I used to work in retail and I would watch people just take stuff and walk out the door with it all the time and like that's not my fucking problem. So this woman's, I just don't care. It's not my stuff. You're not stealing from my house, you're stealing from the old navy. Like whatever. I don't give a shit. I go back with like um a pair of glasses and like a fake mustache. Oh, don't worry. I I switch out like wearing my glasses and wearing a mask and having a hood on my head to come across as a different person each time because I am a little neurotic that maybe they have a camera system in place and it'll pick up on me stealing things and because there's that, I don't know if it's a rumor or a true thing that like, Target keeps track of how much you steal up to $500 and will not apprehend you beforehand. But at 500 they go for you. And I'm worried Whole Foods has a, a similar thing going on. That sounds like a rumor that Target started. You know, like I, I would be very surprised if any of these places gave enough of a crap to like install technology like facial recognition technology since all this is getting cut anyway, you didn't pay for it. So there's no way they can track how much you stole. There's nobody with a fucking clipboard who's like, uh yeah, pretty sure that guy had two extra batteries in there, right? But in the universe that he's talking about, they have like technology that is able to keep track of your face. And also the items that you didn't pay for the Amazon store, the Amazon stores that recently closed, that that was their whole thing you checked in and the store kept track of what you pulled out and automatically charged it to your account. Wherever we cut this, uh, we'll go with, uh, Rocky Talkie does not condone theft even from our Lord and Savior Jeff Bezos. Um, I think Rocky Talkie doesn't really have a stance on stealing. Do what you gotta do, man. Live your life. Well, I didn't steal anything this week but it was a pretty good week for me. Um, you know, let's see. I, uh, did a ton of work, uh, uh, a whole whole ton of work. Um, and also, you know, was catching up on all the stuff that we've been slacking on since con I know that, uh, this episode's dropping a little late and we got some other stuff coming up real quick. Uh, but, um, yeah, it's, it's, it's been a lot of catching up fun thing though. Uh, we got a AAA phone call from Sapiro asking us to help, clear out a storage unit of his, uh, this last weekend. So, of course, I'm not gonna say no to that. We went and helped him out along with Phil. Uh, you know, who's been on the show before and, uh, had a lot of, uh, very interesting things in there. It wasn't his storage unit, it was a friend of his, but that anyway, long story short, I ended up coming away with a couple of really neat things, a bunch of pins, uh, old Rocky horror pins, including one with South Space on it. That was super cool. A uh a really neat fan club, uh, membership card before. The ones that I'd even seen, I had never seen one that looked like this before. This is from like 77 78 somewhere in there, you know, kind of thing. And also a whole box of old letters that people had written to the fan club. So I'm very excited to dig through those and see, like, you know how crazy all you bastards were from the early nineties. My favorite part of the day was we walked into the storage unit and he immediately is like, does anybody want and he didn't call it this, he said like the seventies version of it and I can't remember what it was, but he offered to us like a leather daddy club hat and was like, does anybody want a, a leather daddy club in hat to which my response was like, yeah, absolutely. So we have one of these now and it's adorable. There is some crazy stuff in it. There's probably like 2000 plus vinyl albums, tons of books, lots of clothes, all sorts of stuff that, you know, got to sift through and unload and all that kind of stuff, but it was super fun. Uh Lots of, lots of vintage stuff and uh if you know Meg and I, you know that we love antiquing and going through vintage stuff. So uh this was, this was a fun trip and just gotta, gotta have fun talk about some rocky shit while we were doing it. That's really cool. You guys helped sell Piro move? I don't know, do anything like he seems like such a, a big figure with such a large community around him from just what I saw at. That's pretty cool that you're like that niche in his circle. Yeah, he's just a sweet old man. He called me, sweetheart and offered to take me for ice cream. So we're like tight. It's cool. We talk no biggie. What about you, sweetie? What, what, what do you got going on this week? Uh I started a new job two days after. So that was a thing. I like got home and slept all a Tuesday and then Wednesday started my job. So that was fun. I won't do myself but I work for um a subsidiary of a very famous mouse. So that's been fun. Yeah. Mighty Mouse is my boss. You guys. Um And I work on, I work on True Crime podcasts. So not a far departure. Oh Mighty Mouse and Yeah. Yeah. Mighty Mouse with the cartel. I talk about his, his life and times must be really easy. He's so fast you've ever met? Yeah. All right guys. Now that, that's out of the way, let's dive into our first segment of global news. First up in global news. Our favorite Australian Disco Ball, Nell Campbell has been busy, busy, busy. She's promoting the hell out of her. New one woman show. All's now that ends now, Colombia's Rocky Horror, Confessional. I love this. This is great in a recent Facebook. Post Nell writes, darlings do come and see me live on stage sharing behind the scene, shenanigans of all things, Rocky Horror and Nails. My New York Nightclub. I have dived deep into my photo albums to illustrate the giddy times and of course, a Q and A to answer that question you have wanted answered for so very long. So dust off your sequence and join me. Wow. Wow, Jacob has a great accent. I feel like she's gonna try to sell me violets. All right on. But like uh how disgustingly cute is that fucking old Nell that ends? Now give me a break. We know that she loves to interact with the Rocky fans. So this just seems totally up her alley nell recently did an interview with Q News where she gets real hype about the show and talks about it in a little bit more detail. And uh in that interview, she says what I'm going to do is I've been taking photos forever and so I've got lots of incredible photos to share. So I'm just gonna be telling everyone about those talking about Rocky Horror and talking about my nightclub nails in New York with lots of photos and stories. People can ask me questions and we'll just have a goddamn good time. Oh I know that uh Tony Pizzo and Mark Java have been helping her out with some of the research for this. This is super cool. Uh her, they totally are. Uh her interviewer did make a point of asking whether we'd be seeing her break out her tap dance shoes during the show to which now Coley replied, well, see, thank you Jacob for that. So, any of our listeners who are in and around the Gold Coast or Brisbane Australia, go check out Nell's show on October 14th and 15th. It sounds like a really fun way to kick off the Halloween season and we hope that we get all the intel from anyone who attends or uh maybe uh maybe now you need to bring that show to the US. Yeah. Yeah, that would be fun. As always, we've got the dates including where to buy tickets linked for you in our show notes. Next up in community news. We want to bid a fond farewell to Ron Barlow who passed away on August 9th at the age of 73. Ron made major contributions to the Rocky Horror community by editing the Rocky horror scrapbook and the poster magazines. These are two pieces that any Rocky collector definitely has sitting in their treasure troves. He also worked on reprinting the weird fantasy comic books, including the one that's featured in the criminologist book. You know, the one that looks like watermelon that's there in part because of Ron. Ron linked up with our community around 12 years ago when he made friends with Larry Weisel, he was running at anti shop in New Mexico at the time. And while he knew there was some serious Rocky horror collectors out there in the world, he didn't have an in until he met Larry. Since then. He's been doing the Lord's work by hooking up Rocky junkies with delicious old paraphernalia. He's been a really phenomenal asset to our community and unfortunately his presence will be missed. Ron. We appreciate everything you've done for Rocky Horror and we'll see you on the other side. And last up in global news, if you're feeling sad, why not try some retail therapy. Jeb's Malar has recently started offering a uh my first word onesie so that your baby can rep our favorite beverage. Mellor. It's adorable. It's a little tiny black onesie that features a block letters that Children might play with. They spell out Maor. So um I don't know what to say to this. Yeah, I think, I think I know of a baby that might have one of these onesies in their future. I think we do. Hm Christmas present. Me and Aaron are going heavily off script and I'm pretty sure this is the beginning of Meg's Kaczynski Arc. So watch out everybody. Yeah. So if you happen to know somebody too who might um have a baby in or around their, their life in their future in their present and um that baby needs to be more hard core. You could check out this onesie at Jeb's Maler dot Webley, which we will link for you in our show notes. It's adorable and will be the perfect addition to any infant. And with that, I think it's time for some community news. So first up right off of Con Mega weekend, I think we all know what's gonna go on here. We're gonna recap the biggest thing to happen within our community since the start of the panda express. Good happened and it was every bit as awesome as I hoped it would be. Now, we all know that everyone's con experience tends to be vastly different depending on how involved you are in performances, whether you're an early bird, a partier or the rare early bird, night owl, I'll sleep when I'm dead combo. You people especially are troopers. So we thought it would be fun to do a rundown of how our respective cons went. Obviously Aaron and I had a lot of overlap but Jacob, I feel like we barely saw you. Yeah. Um I spent a lot of time playing heads up with Andrea and that was so much fun. Like the card game. Um It's a game on the phone. You, you, it's like it shows different topics and you put it on your head so only the people around, you can see it and the people around you. Yeah. Yeah, we got, we got, we did it so much that um we started just like thinking of random things in our heads and trying to get the other to guess what it is. We like fuck the phone entirely. Just I would think of a pumpkin and try to guess the word pumpkin 20 questions that no, she doesn't ask me any questions though. I say things and she just guesses. Yeah. Ok, fine. Yeah, Meg and I checked in on Wednesday and then like the first thing, right? As soon as we got, there was Buffy and uh the Rocky horror punk show, these were fucking great. I love Buffy. I think Buffy is fantastic. There were a lot of awesome people that were doing it and I got, got a chat with a bunch of them afterwards. Where did you get your shirt? Where'd you get this? Oh I love that part. I, I love it. I love Buffy. I was blown away by the punk show though. Holy shit. I had never seen that before and that thing fucking rocked. It was so good. Like, oh my God, I've never seen an adaptation that good. It was tight. It would be great for like a club. Yeah. Perfect, perfect kind of club show. Definitely check out the video for that when it drops over uh on R K Os youtube. Did you check out any of that, Jacob? You were at the bar? Right? Yeah, I was at the bar. Um Just for a little bit. I said some hi. I said hi to some people. I knew I met a few new faces. I think I saw Gretchen for like this the second time in my life. I, I met a few, a few other couples. Um, I think I met the lady who was the lead for one of the pre the preshow with the, the preshow with the French song with a bunch of people dancing. Uh In course, it's very, very sexily. Uh I met the lady I think because this is what Andrea told me, I think I met the lady who was like in charge of that on stage that night. Oh, yeah, Jamie from Buffalo. That's fantastic. Yeah, I, I loved getting to see her and Ryan again, man. Fucking love out to Buffalo. I love you guys. Yeah. Uh So Thursday, we got to check out Fred's amazing panel. It was super informative on fundraising for casts, which is definitely something that our cast could benefit from and probably will very soon. Oh, yeah, talked with Fred a bunch about it afterwards. I was real sad that I didn't get up early enough to see uh Hank's panel about five oh one C three. Hopefully that one will go up on youtube at some point and I can actually check that out. Um But yeah, no, this was super great, uh great panel. Loved, loved every minute of it. Um And then in the evening we got Hedwig, which was so exciting. Oh my gosh. I, I've never seen a Hedwig shadow cast before and it worked so well. All of the performers were like fucking electric Ali from Buffalo. What an incredible job playing Hedwig. Holy shit. I mean, everybody was fucking ridiculous. I was, I was riveted to it the whole way through. Like I've seen Hedwig Shadow cast before, but never with the amount of detail and costumes and like just everything that came through. Uh in this show. This was a fucking smash success. I really hope we keep doing Hedwig at, at conventions. Yeah. Shout out to Nick and Eric from N Y C R H P S. You guys were fantastic in that show. Um I was blown away. My God. That was incredible. I, I started, I, I have never seen the movie version of Hedwig. And until con weekend, I did not realize that Hedwig was a movie. I thought it was just a stage show and I teared up um at several parts, it was, it was like heart wrenching. Um I, oh fucking, I mean, so beautiful, so gorgeous, so many of the outfits and the costume pieces. One of the um like, not, not one of the main people but one of the like instrumentalists in the band um who was the drums and had like a drum set on their body the whole time. I thought that was fucking hilarious. Oh my God. That was incredible. And you were my favorite part of that show, Bar Nunn. So good job to you. Um And then after Hedwig, we had my fucking favorite part of any convention. Rocky's got talent. That was fun as shit. Oh My God, I love a talent show and I especially love Rocky People talent shows because everyone is so ridiculous. I mean, I know that this is like nepotism but getting to see Jack Sullivan do his whole routine again after, I mean, honestly, after weeks because I see him at Coney Island perform all the time, but he used to do similar routines um on stage for our cast as a preshow. So getting to watch that happen in like that sort of rocky environment was very nostalgic and fun for me. Absolutely loved it. But uh the night was not over yet. The room happened. Oh my God. Did it happen? I feel like it happened to all of us. You know, I hadn't seen the room live before and now I want nothing more than to see the room live again and again because that was like the quintessential like what I think Rocky would be like, you know, if I didn't fucking know so much about it and I'm just sitting there going, what the fuck time to throw spoons, spoons like, oh, it was so good. It was so good. It wasn't even shadow casting. They didn't even shadow cast. It, they performed the room and sometimes on stage. Right. Yeah. Like sometimes the dialogue happened from the movie. But like, wow, that was a whole last performance. Nobody phoned anything in. You couldn't have, otherwise it wouldn't have been as ridiculous as it was. Did you stay for the room? Um, no, I, I saw Hedwig and then, oh God, that was a delicious night. I had such a good time that night. Oh my God. So me and Andrea saw Keely that night and we with her I think, watched Hedwig and then after Hedwig, me and Keely and Andrea just walked around the, the the area there was a cool little church and a little hill thingy. Um We went to this nice little pretzel place. I got, oh I got to kick their ass at foosball. It was fantastic. Um Thursday was also the day of board games in the early afternoon. Um board games started at like two or something pretty, pretty early for con days. I'm sure me and Andrea were down there like white on rice. We love board games. Um I met this great dude named Bill Shout out Bill. Um He had like 17 board games just stacked on a table the entire day. Yes. Um I started my day playing Puerto Rico uh which is really fun. It's uh yeah, yeah, it was like a, a less complex um version of Mars. I thought it was really fun. Um Then I went about my day and while the talent show was happening and probably a little bit of the room, um I played this game, Betrayal at the house on the Hill third edition. And it was like, it was really fun. Like, I had a really, really good time with the people I was playing with because it was like, like artsy and creative and like, there were so many cards with flavor and I find that really fun. Um But the game itself was like, really skewed. Like there's one person who's the bad guy and the rest are the good guys and there was no way, like, pretty early on, it was obvious there was no way the bad guy was gonna win. Um But still such a blast. Thank you, Bill and to all you other people I met and um for names, I, I have forgotten you are still alive in my hearts, but I have a terrible brain that doesn't remember letters. So there's that, oh, that sounds like a fun fucking time. I, I, I really like that. They did the, you know, the alternate stuff during the days and everything to, you know, fill in some of that time. That's fucking great. Yeah. Yeah. While all that, like, Rocky stuff was going on, I still felt like I was, you know, part of the community and part of everything that was going on, even though I was just playing board games, which is, you know, not super duper Rocky Que, not performing on stage or watching a performance, but it's, I still felt ingrained. That's cool as well. And on Friday we got up bright and early to prep for the highlight of the whole convention. It, it wasn't quite that crazy. But yeah. Um, it was that crazy. You old fart. Ok. Uh It was so much fun. I, I was kind of worried that we wouldn't have a lot of people because I felt like, oh, man, you know, we're, we're a podcast and we're a great podcast and we put so much work into this, but we're still just a podcast, you know, up against all the, the incredible things happening at con, you know, we're not a shadow cast of the room or repo, man, you know, and we're also like, yeah, yeah. And we were like early in the day and then we got so many people. Um And I saw a few familiar faces but also a bunch of new ones and I got to meet a lot of people and I thought that was absolutely fantastic. And Jesus Christ, the, the amount of work and special and like just shit you put into this. Aaron was, I mean, blows my mind just to, to think about and to have performed it so, so incredible. And I, I cannot applaud you enough because it was such a good piece. It was like a piece of theater, you know, it was, it was a podcast recording and a regular script, like anything else, but the amount of research and finding shit you you put into it really showed and I think made it a fantastic episode. So thank you for sucking my dick and anybody out there who hasn't uh checked it out yet. Uh It should be the episode right before this. So uh go check it out when you're done with this one, our R K Ocon four panel, all about Cinderella Rock. I had a fuck ton of fun putting it together. And honestly, that whole thing went off without a hitch, like fucking props to Keith for having the tech set up so well that I was literally able to just handed my laptop and pushed go on my phone and it worked the whole time I was blown away. Yeah, everything was just came together so well, I don't know about you, Jacob but sweetie, you and I spent the whole night beforehand just going over things and prepping and being stressed out, especially you. And then we got there and everything just seamlessly like just work came together. It was great. We set up our stuff, we did the thing, people were there, which was the best part and everyone seemed to really enjoy it. See, big shout out to Roy. Thank you for putting us right before the costume, right? Yeah. Uh Which, yeah, that was fucking great. I caught a bunch of the costume panel ton stuff from Becky and Nick and Brandon and Zephyr and Savannah. Like, oh, that was, that was a great panel. I loved seeing Frank jackets represent like it was so cool, so fun to look at and, uh, yeah, it was awesome to hear Becky talk about all the crazy shit that they're doing out there in Michigan. Uh, just the insane costumes that she puts together for all of their shows. It's so cool and uh Savannah talking about wigs and how to keep all that shit. Like I cannot wait to get a more dedicated wig panel. Um I know she's been doing some stuff over on John's Twitch Stream where she's uh styling some wigs and stuff. So definitely take a look at Hi John, I'm dad and see when she's uh doing some of that kind of stuff for content. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. And I know that there's like there's been talk about possibly doing like full dedicated panels or like tutorials or like watch me while I work kind of situations they've been looking at. So that would be cool in the future because you could talk about it all you want. But I feel like at a certain point getting that hands on, especially for something like wigs or makeup um is gonna be the most helpful thing and they're great for that. But while I had time to check that out, you were scrambling. Yeah, I didn't get to see any costume. Anything I was scrambling upstairs getting my own costumes together for Amber Suite for Rio. Uh, that bitch has a million costumes. So, so those are the ones I was focused on. Yeah, I think I had like five costume and full week changes for that show. And, um, I had made some like bloody latex faces which I just, I painted liquid latex onto my own face, which apparently you're not supposed to do because your skin gets very, very dry if you do that. Um But it all worked out. Uh Rio was fun as fuck. I had never performed in it before. What a scramble it was. But it was great. Shout out to fucking Ryan and Morello, they came up to me before the show and they were like, we're Amber's bodyguards. Um And we'll just, we'll just like keep you posted throughout the show and what you're supposed to be doing because I didn't fucking know I've never done this show. And they warned me when I had like two scenes to go before my next appearance and they were like, listen, just so, you know, we're gonna walk out and then you're gonna do this thing and then we're gonna come back in, ok? And then you have like forever before your next change. They were so sweet. That's so great. I fucking love that. It was awesome. They made it so easy. You were so great. It was so nice to like, just see a friend in a show. I mean, and, and your costumes were so good too. Um That was so great. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Thank you so much. Yeah, I loved Repo. Repo was fantastic. I uh I'm always blown away with the quality of costumes and the shadow casting and that like the people who do Rio really fucking love Rio and it shows, it shows in how well they know the movie, it shows in how well they, you know, have put so much effort in to get these insanely expensive and complicated costumes and just how much fucking fun everybody has while they're doing that. It, it, it, it just resonates off the stage and I, I loved it. It was a great, great show. We made friends with the guy who was killed multiple times in the show. Oh What? Stress banana, banana for the C C C C P. Yeah. Shout out Chris. Um He was hilarious to watch, getting murdered. Um And, and what Aaron was saying about like, it's incredible how much like to see how much these people enjoy Rebo and like the effort they put in watching Rocky and watching like the costumes, you know, for so many years, it loses its dazzle. Like it's obvious people put so much work into their Rocky costumes and into their corsets and into everything but like your eyes kind of gloss over because it's, it's hard to be amazed by the same thing, five years in a row but Rio, it, it was so new to me and like, like watching that and watching all these incredibly inventive costumes straight from this movie was like mind blowing. It was like my second awakening Jesus rebirth of shadow casting, whatever you want to call it. I have like this massive drive now to at the next con or when, wherever I can just be a part of another shadow cast because to, to create something like that would be so fulfilling. I feel like, and congrats to everyone who did. Yeah, it's fun. You should totally, I had never done it either. This was my first con where I performed as anything other than fucking. And it's, it was, it was stressful because you got to like learn it. But it was fun as shit, man. Like 10 out of 10 would recommend. Oh yeah, I, I, I loved Rio. It was so much fun and it was so so much fun that it, it tuckered me right out. Uh After, after Rio finished, I had to go have a lie down. I was so fucking exhausted. Hadn't slept the night before very well because of, you know, going through our panel a million times and I was just running on empty. So I went and crashed. I didn't catch the video. Preshow because I was like, OK, if there's one thing that'll be online later it'll probably be those, um, Jacob. Did you get to catch the video pre shows? I did not, unfortunately. Um, I forget what I got up to right at that point but I know, uh, the F N S one, Andrea told me about the, um, what if, what if Rocky went differently wrong on video? Preshow. And we watched that and I thought that was pretty hilarious. Um, oh, yeah, that was super funny. I checked that one out. They posted that online already. Yeah. Yeah, we watched it at the con but not at the event unfortunately. So, so cool, so cool. But yeah, and all you people out there that have video pre post them online, make sure, make sure everybody gets to see them because I know that you guys put so much fucking effort into them and uh I want to see him. Yeah, we were just tired man. Uh So after nap time we uh we dipped back down to the ballroom to check out Shocky, which was fun as fuck shock treatment. God, I love shock treatment. It's kind of a well oiled machine at this point, right? Like it's amazing to me that you can have a show like Shocky which has what 35 40 people in it and it just goes so cleanly and so everybody just has so much fun. I don't know, there's a reason. Shock treatment is an absolute staple at conventions and this was a convention. Performance that just reiterated that fact. Yeah. Uh Shocky was so much fun. So, so many times at this time, I cannot count them with my two hands. So many times that Sam, the hobo was in a shadow cast, the audience erupted in cheers and for the most part, for the most part, I was like, I don't, who cares? So it's a who cares? They're, they're like of, of a certain age and they look a little spiffy but in that fucking white suit, goddamn goddamn. I was right there with everyone. I was out of my seat, fucking whooping in the air. Um oh my and that, that scene towards the end where uh psycho suit brad and white suit um person have the like face off and the fight and they were walking around each other. Jesus Christ. I was like hyped up. I felt like I was at a fucking football game and cared about the winners. You know what I mean? Like uh oh it's so I fucking love shock treatment. I fucking love white suit Farley like, oh so good, so good, Sam. Goddamn it. The number of people who came up to me during this con to be like, yo, Sam, the hobo was hot as fuck. And I was like, yeah, I know but I, I spent a lot of the con hanging out with their fiance Trey. So he was an earshot all the time and I just thought, oh So yeah, shock treatment happened. That was fun. Um And then after shocky, we dipped back upstairs to our hotel room to get some more uh reefer madness rehearsal in because we were leads in that show which was daunting. Yeah, I uh I over prepared for our con panel and boy did I under prepare for reefer. Um But we had a rehearsal in our hotel room. That was fun, a dance rehearsal. So we were up there for a couple of hours doing that with some of the the cast members. And then we came back down for drag race, which was fucking dope. Loved watching that Harley and creature feature did an incredible job of putting that together. I know they were both a little bit stressed about it, but wow, it came together so well. And I gotta say separating the talent show from the drag show was like the best decision anyone's ever made because they're both such niche events where you'd think there's overlap, but there's enough separation that you want them to be two separate events, right? You want that drag show environment where people are like sitting at the foot of the screen, clapping and throwing money and handing performers dollars. That's so different from like the vibe of the talent show where you're sitting there watching a performance happen. The drag show was interactive. It was so lively. You had the performers coming down into the audience and just like living their best lives. It was wonderful to watch. That was definitely a party. I think it's the only time I bought booze at the hotel bar, the entire time was during the drag show because I was like, I don't want to leave and go back to my room to refill my cup. I guess I will buy a $12 beer or whatever the hell they were. I don't know, it was cash only. What the fuck is that Hilton? Uh But uh I didn't want to miss a minute of it. Yeah. And then the, the drag show just sort of evolved into a dance party, which was really fun. And we all just, we chilled. We spent the evening hanging out together. We were on the patio, we were listening to music. Um I don't remember who the DJ was that night, but they were great. Oh, yeah, it was super, super fun I think. Uh I crashed a little bit early because we had to be up the next morning bright and early for more reefer madness rehearsal in order to make sure we knew what the fuck we were doing because that show was at one PM. Yeah. And uh I went to bed in a panic like I panicked myself to sleep the night before because I was like, what if I forget everything about this show? But I woke up Saturday morning and somehow May had like osmosis herself into my brain and I was like, oh no, I got this. I actually know everything. I'm so good. Let's just do it. Oh, man, if that's a success story, let me tell you, I had probably the most panic inducing stressful show fuck up. I have had in literally decades. So I'm doing Jack in Reefer Madness and Jack has a couple of costume changes. One of them is changing a shirt and changing a tie and the other one is stripping the shirt and just having his wife beater on easy, easy peasy, easy as hell. Absolutely. You have plenty. You have plenty of time to do it. You Yeah. As long as you can tie a tie, you're fine on the first one and the second one is literally just stripping stuff off, putting stuff on. Great. I was like, this is so easy. I'm not even gonna practice these costume changes. It's fine. So I get through the show and like I can feel, I don't, I'm a little on edge because like, I don't know everything the way that I want to know everything. I'm kind of missing a few things, missing a few beats. Uh Big shout out to everybody that was performing in Reefer Madness. Thank you for fucking covering uh for the lack of shit that I knew um and just doing amazing performances, but it comes to this change and I go back and I, you know, I, I'm butting the shirt and I pull it off and I stand there with the shirt dangling off my hands inverted in the sleeves because I forgot to take the goddamn cuff links off before I took the shirt off. And now my hands are stuck inside the sleeves of this shirt and I cannot get the cuff links off. So I'm wandering around backstage with this shirt hanging off of me walking up to whoever I can. I think Sam was back. There I go, Sam help, help, help, help Sam's like I have no idea what to do with this. Tries to tug at it. Can't get it off. Can't do anything. I can hear all of my time for this infinitely length costume statement change slowly ticking away. Eventually, I can hear where my cue is supposed to be on stage and I go fuck. I have to get on stage. I have to do something. Fortunately, Keisha's walking backstage and Kesha goes, is there a problem? And I go? No thanks, Casesa goes, shirt's gotta come off. Right. I go. Yeah, she's like absolutely no problem. Gets down on the floor with me. Props her foot up against it just starts ripping and tugging at it until eventually my poor little hands poop somehow stretch the thing far enough that they slide out of it and I just scramble on stage for the next scene. Meanwhile, you're standing there like where the fuck's Jack. Me and Sally are like singing to each other. Having a great time cowering behind ourselves from Ralph and I get up there and we're doing the whole thing and I realize I never had time to put the damn shoulder holster back on. So I don't have the gun and I've got to kill Ralph. Fortunately for me, my cheat sheet of notes is sitting on my phone in my pocket. So Ralph, instead of getting shot just gets phoned at for a little uh I was able to race back in back and you know, slap on the, the spenders and the gun holster and get back for the next bit. But I was so flustered. And then by the time that I'm like coming in back to do the costume change into this horrible bag George Washington costume that I bought on Amazon for like $50. I am just so frazzled. It's not even funny like Meg called me down and was like, just put the pants on and go do the dance. And I'm like, all right, I don't know this dance either, but it's fine. There's other people on this stage that do, I'll just be the guy who's kind of sitting there a little bit behind copying everybody else. You were on stage with Jamie and Jamie knew everything. Jamie knew it perfectly. So I'm just like, all right, cribbing off of you. I know. Oh, it was so insane, but absolutely fucking huge. Shout out to mix and to Sam and J C C P in general and just everybody who did Reef for Mattis. I, it was probably one of the most stressful yet still fun things that I've ever done. I really hope the community gets to keep doing reefer madness. I probably uh will take a closer look at it before I'd ever do it again. But God, it was fun. Wow. Um First of all, yeah. Huge. Shout out to M who is the most knowledgeable and like meticulous and detail oriented director who I've ever seen work, but they're also like so gentle about it. It's so impressive when we did the uh the rehearsal in our hotel room, they're sitting there like, listen, whatever happens on stage. I know that everyone is like putting in their best effort and they're working as hard as they can. But also if you don't like quite know the dance yet, Aaron, if you could like learn it before the show tomorrow, that would just be clutch man. Uh But also, you know, just try your best, but it's left, right, left, right, not whatever it is you're doing. Oh, it's not stumble, stumble, stumble, stumble. Um I loved reefer. It was the most fun I've ever ever had on stage. Uh getting to play May, she was great. Um And yeah, if there's one thing that I hope carries on to future cons, it's absolutely this show. They did a phenomenal job just orchestrating it and making sure it got put together well, and what a fun ass show everybody I performed with was like really, really happy to be there and excited about the show itself and like the content, I don't know, it just had a really, really good energy just amongst the cast. It was a lot of fun also. Uh Real quick, I wanna shout out Nell, our, our former cohost of the show who did such a gorgeous job playing Mary. Holy shit. I had a dance mom moment where I was watching them through the curtains. Do Romeo and Juliet up top. And I like, I got a little choked up watching them perform. It was really, they did a really beautiful job and we had just had so many moments leading up to it being like, oh my God, we'll do Reefer madness together. What if we both auditioned for the show? How fun would it be? And getting to like, have that finally happen was a lot of fun. Oh Yeah. Yeah. Oh, it was so good. And I mean, everybody, everybody fucking fucking Mary Sunshine. Holy shit. Wow. I just, I don't know where to go on that. That, I mean, just fucking, wow. Like, oh that, that whole show huge props to everybody who performed. Everyone was so good and like for putting fucking 40 people on stage, that is no easy task and made so much more difficult for such a complicated show where you have no clue what you're doing in it. If you've never done it before, I, I, I loved it. It was a great, great show. Unfortunately, I was not able to see Reefer Madness due to personal issues. Um, I really wanted to me and Andrea both but it didn't pan out and I'm gonna be watching the recording later this week. Hopefully. So after Reefer wrapped up, I was dead, but, uh the day was not done. Not by a long shot. And I can't believe I forgot to mention it while we were scrambling to come down for reefer. Uh Doctor Horrible was going on. That was fucking cool. Love seeing that. I wish I got to see more of it. Um And I love doctor Horrible. Oh yeah, so good. And uh the chocolate covered rocky panel was earlier in the day which I was not able to catch that one. Put it up online. Let me watch it like uh I'm, I'm kicking myself on that one but there's just so much going on this day had to give something I had to give. Uh But yeah, so as soon as we finished reefer, we were running back up to the hotel room and quickly throwing on our wedding clothes, throwing them into the suitcase, the biggest suitcase in the entire world. Yeah, throw them into a suitcase, get on the bus over to the stadium theater uh where it turned out. Uh We were balls early. Um we definitely did not need to get on that first shuttle bus that was not meant for us. Uh So that was ok. We got over to the theater and we had a five pm brunch with a bunch of friends uh in the community that was super cool. A bunch of us went over to this little uh pub that was over there and it was, you know, there was some food before uh before the big show. The preshow started at seven was the first preshow, the F N S preshow. Oh Fantastic. Uh We got there, like, as that was beginning, I was worried we may have like missed one, but that's really cool to know. Um The preshow were so cool, I would say, yeah, like 2nd, 1st, best part of the, of the, the big Grand Rocky show perhaps. Um The, the thing I mentioned earlier, the French song with the, the stripping and the stuff uh Marmalade lady Marmalade Lady Marmalade. That was great. Um The like, I, I don't know what the music was. It was like horror kind of sort of themed. It was, yeah, that was really great. And holy fucking shit. Jesus Christ. I mean, what, how the fuck, I mean, R K O con's preshow was like, like something I would expect to see at a, at an NFL Super Bowl halftime, you know, like, like holy shit and, and if I had, if that was in a halftime show. I would be like, wow, they really upped their fucking game this year. Like, what the fuck, man? And it's crazy because the people before them did really good too. And I was impressed and I was like, yeah, these people put work into their preshow and like, this is a fun little watch. I'm so blessed that I get to see all these other casts putting their work into their little thing. And then R K O was like fucking the Godzilla of the whole thing. Like I am still mind blown that, that shit happened and like God Jesus, God, God, God, God. Yeah, I mean, that's part of the reason that Megan, I like to do Betty and Ralph at cons is uh you get to see all of the preshow and oh my God, were they good this year? Huge, huge, huge fucking shout out to Nick uh from T MP. Uh The audio cut out in the middle of him doing, you'll be back from Hamilton and uh did not miss a fucking beat and the entire audience decided to sing along instead. Literally, you could not have planned this to be a more interactive and fun preshow. Like absolute huge shout out to Nick. That was so cool. Fucking lady Marla Buffalo. Wow. Just, I don't even know how to just Wow. Absolutely. Fucking. Wow. That was really impressive with, you'll be back because I remember sitting there when it happened and thinking Well, this has to be like part of it. Like, like the, the audio must have intentionally been cut out and there are people from his cast in the audience who were there to pick it up and to realize that it was like, no, the audience was just, like, ready for it and just did. It is like, kind of crazy. Yeah. Absolutely insane. It was so good. I had such a moment during Nick's Preshow where I was like, man, I haven't watched Nick do a solo preshow in like four years. I got a little choked up. Oh, because like his are so iconic and then we got to sing. That was fun. Oh It was so good. I loved the necronomicon. Like Evil Dead. The musical is one of those that like if you're in the rocky sphere and you haven't seen this thing, like look it up on youtube or something, I'm sure there's AAA rip of it somewhere. But like, it's a great, great fucking show and J C CV just, just knocked it out of the park on that one. That was so much fun to watch them. Like wander around backstage in the little dressing rooms as zombies, right? And uh like Jacob said, R K O congratulations. You have fucked up the curve for everyone. Uh I don't know where you're going next time. Good luck because that was fucking insane. Huge. Shout out to Zeph for all the editing work. That went into that huge shout out to all of our K O that put just so much time and effort into it and for the butt holes, we wouldn't have had nearly as many butt holes without you. Yeah. And uh yeah, let's shoot Roy out of a candidate at every con. Why not? Right. Yeah. Next one's 50th, we got to shoot them out of two cannons, two cannons. But yeah, preshow, were fucking great. And then uh then we got into the rest of hosting um the uh MC and awards part of the evening uh where Roy took the stage and got to be everybody's daddy and all of us, his little ducklings and yeah, that was super cool. Yeah, there were also awards and they were really cool. Yeah, we got two community awards this year which I feel like doesn't happen very often. Keisha Autumn received a new award, uh the Guiding Star Award for her work towards helping keep our community a safe place. Absolutely. That was fantastic. And uh Becky Milano Kapo received an Atlas award for being an amazing cast leader costume, just mega mind and literally just an all around bad bitch. This has been coming for years and so well deserved. Uh You guys said you were surprised that two awards were given out. Is it usually like only one award or, or more than that? It's usually just one that I've seen. It's kind of a crap shoot it depends on year by year. Some years they won't do any, some years they'll do two or three, some years. It's only one. So, it was really good to see the community get back in the, uh, in the pattern of, of recognizing these people that have done absolutely phenomenal jobs in our standouts and deserve to be recognized. And then we had the big All Star show. It was wonderful to get to see all the crazy hard work. Everyone put into their performances. Yeah. Oh my God. These are always so much fun. Let's go. What was everyone's favorite part? Did everyone have a favorite bit? Well, I'm gonna say once in a while, I mean, I'm gonna, I'm gonna steal it right off the bat once in a while. I love it that we do it at cons and this was like the coolest way to see it be done. It drives me so fucking happy to see that little bit of Rocky history put back in there to see people doing it. Um But man, other than that, like, I love seeing Transylvanian. I love seeing a whole fucking stack of Transylvanian's on stage. I, that just makes me so happy because it's something we don't get at most regular shows. And I, I just, I, I had so much fun. It was such a great show. All right. So Aaron has changed his to the Transylvanian. So I'm over the once in a while. Because, yeah, I was, I was having a hard time thinking about what really, like, like, stood out to such a degree. But, oh, my God, that once in a while that was, like, hilarious and endearing and something I had never seen before, which I feel like is a lot to say about, uh, a show you have been doing and watching for, like, so many years. Yeah. I was like, I was, like, blown away and, and before that point I was kind of thinking like, ah, I, I don't know, this just, this isn't, maybe not my vibe. Like, I, I can't hear myself do call back lines. I don't feel like I'm interacting with anyone and then that happened and I was like, wow, I am so glad I got to see this. Um, again, I feel like this is total, total nepotism. But my favorite part of this was getting to watch our cast member, Eric perform his bra. Oh my God. He's the first cast member who I think I've had under who, who I've brought on as a cast member, as a director who's performed in a con show. I think he was my first duckling who's, like, gone up and done it. Wow. And he, like, came out on stage and we're sitting there on the balcony and it just, like, kind of slapped me in the face. I had a moment. I had a lot of feelings during this call. You guys. But yeah, no, I, I did get a little Misty and Aaron was like, are you OK? And I was like, yeah, why is watching him perform? Making me like emotional. I'm just so proud and I couldn't figure it out and it took me a minute and I was like, I think this is like, I think he's the first one. I think I'm just really proud of him. He was great. He was so good. I loved getting to see Pony Boy and Mick do a whipping scene. That was fun. That was a spicy meat to ball. Uh Loved that. That was so much fun. And I like getting to watch Erica Kill Nick. Oh Yeah, man, spousal abuse. We got it right here at the Rocket Haw Picture Show. Oh It was so much fun. I, I loved it. It was great, great, great performances all around and just um yeah, everyone, I love a good con casted show. I love a good con casted show. All right. And then after the show, we all fucking piled back into our buses to the hotel for the after party. Or uh should we say the Jellicle Ball? Because some of us orchestrated a very silly impromptu cats night that happened to line up really well with um the R K O preshow, which we didn't know. Um it would me, me and Eric and, and, and Justin and a whole bunch of people um kind of decided very stupidly that we would just dress up as cats, uh, on Saturday night. And again, I think, I think the, the decision for that night had a lot to do with the preshow. Um, and a lot of people ended up doing it and participating just to be funny and weird, even if it was just putting on like cats ears and a little bit of makeup or something, you know. Um, but I didn't expect there to be as big of a turnout as there was. We had a lot of, a lot of people get in on it and um there was cats karaoke, which was really silly and everybody kind of did the choo who knew it? And I think a bunch of them had learned it for the preshow and watching everybody kind of pounce on Roy was, was just fucking 10 out of 10. We have videos of it. Hit us up. Can we talk for a minute though about the youth hockey team that was hanging out out on the patio? Is that what they were? They were a youth hockey team, I think they were high school. Um But it's these kids who were in like a hockey tournament or something and they're out there on the patio for half of the night with a big ass boom box. Like their, their hockey dads are drinking over in the corner and these kids have no idea how to interact with this. Flock of Rocky people that their typical bro, I'm a jock attitude is just not winning on points and they don't know what to do. A bunch of people went over and interacted and talked with them. I saw, you know, a, a lot of people that were, you know, showing them a good time and whatever. But, um they, they were just so funny and out of place, which is honestly one of my favorite things to see at Rocky is a bunch of normal people not knowing how to interact with the Rocky community. Uh Roy made best friends with all of them. He was dancing with them the whole time to their music and just rocking out. It was incredible. He's such a fucking champ. But eventually the hockey boys had to go be tucked into bed and, you know, five or six hours later, all of us uh crashed at the crack of dawn and uh went back to nurse our own respective con hangovers. Uh Something I wanna mention. Uh I don't remember which day it was, but F BC hosted that um that little like poker shindig and that was really fun. Um I got to see Eric Garment who I haven't seen since. I mean, I've seen him here and there. I ran into him while I was like biking in New York City once, but I haven't like talked to him. Um I got to see him and Molly and uh Marty was also at my table and Matt and I and Matt A was also at those tables. Um It was just a ball and also like, like props to F BC. That was like a lot of, a lot of work that they, they didn't have to do and they just did, they were like uh sexy little people waltzing around, um handing out drinks and taking drink orders uh for free, which I thought was a wild, like five times. People in scantily clad clothing just came up to me and was like, hey, what do you want to drink? And I, I mean, I didn't say anything because I want to be polite and not take advantage. But holy shit, it was there. If I, if I wanted a sparkling soda, I could have got one. No charge. Wow. Oh man. Yeah. Judging by some of the stories from that, I think I might have to play in one of these uh one of these years because it sounds like you all suck. So next time, next time I'm coming for you. Uh I mean, this the, the whole weekend, the whole weekend was such a fantastic time. I mean, we, we just have to thank Roy and the entire team over at R K O for just putting on such a, a lovely party like we had a fucking blast. It was so good to see everybody in person after so long and so much bullshit over the last couple of years. And, I mean, I cannot wait for the next time that we're all able to get together as a big old family, whether it's a con or a hang out or just one of those many community get togethers that we've been, you know, traveling to see each other lately and the power of friendship unites us. No, no, no, I'm, I'm 100% with you. Uh, it was such, you know, actually, uh everyone put so much work into everything and I congratulate, you know, the people who set that up and who made that event. R K O is something I have like, been dreaming about for a long time, probably since the last R K O K and I didn't go to that, but I, I went there and, and I, you know, I don't know if it was for me. That doesn't mean it wasn't like a fantastic, amazing event and I had a lot of fun. But uh if you went and if it wasn't your vibe, that's, that's cool too. Um I'm not a big partier and I, I'm not sure if, if I'll go next time. But uh I also, I had a blast at a lot of this stuff too. Well, I'm a big partier and it was absolutely for me and I will slap my ass to the next, hang out, the next, the next event. Uh I'll go up to Buffalo, I'll go out to Pittsburgh, I'll go anywhere if it means we get another fun party weekend with a bunch of you people because you're my favorite. And actually, we would be remiss if we didn't point out that at the tail end of the Rocky Show, we did get to find out the next big conventions that are coming up next year. We are all taking the trip to New Jersey. That's right. Rocky takes the Garden State August 3rd through 6th, 2023 in Somerset, New Jersey. I'm pumped for this F N S is running this con. It's at N J rocky con dot com. For all the info that's been released so far. You guys aren't gonna want to miss it because it's gonna be just as big of a blowout as R K O and then we're going to Pittsburgh. That's right guys. 2024 Pittsburgh, all yens get out there. It's gonna be a fucking amazing time with the J C C P that K is, you know, we're gearing up getting through their planning stages. They've been announced and oh my God, Yin's Khan was so good. I cannot wait for the second one, but it wouldn't have been a complete set of announcements without Roy telling us about plans for the 50th. And you know where the party is gonna be 50th anniversary. Fox can go do whatever the hell it wants to do, but we're gonna be in Providence with the R K O Army. It's gonna be so much fucking fun. Can't wait for that. So, yeah, if you uh missed out on R K O K this year, we've got a bunch of fucking great events lined up for the next three years and you're going to want to be there. Hell yeah. Yeah. Well, as much fun as big get togethers are next up in community news. We've got a little bit of a bummer as we say goodbye to Rocky's most iconic get together at the time. Warp picnic. Oh man. Really? Why the shittiest reason of all money? Just this week, the fan club group made a post to the Time Warp UK website stating 2022 will be the last picnic for the foreseeable future. We had hoped and planned to continue to run the event every year. But the prices for the 2023 we were quoted a non negotiable rate of £665 per room plus breakfast. That's up from a room cost of £270 back in 2021. I do say we do not want our event to become something that only the really well off fans can afford. The original point of the picnic was that we could stay at Oakley Court, get to wear our Rocky costumes and have a picnic at a cheaper price than normal room rights. We love being at Oakley Court, but we cannot expect fans to pay more than double the cost of two years ago. Uh Man, I mean, it blows, but also I totally understand it. You want Rocky to be something that's for everyone and making the big annual gathering, something that's only accessible to people who can throw down 800 bucks for a night at a hotel room is definitely worse than just canceling it all together. I mean, you're not wrong. Oakley's gone through a lot of shit over the last couple of years, a lot of changes in management and this is really the end of an era. But I mean, it's also a very difficult decision and I think it's been made for the right reasons and with the very best of intentions, we here at Rocky Talk, you want to thank the UK fan club for hosting all of the wonderful time work picnics up until now I had the fortune of going to two of them and I had some of the best times of my life there and thank you for having the presence of mind to make this difficult choice. We hope that everyone across the pond has a wonderful last hurrah this upcoming week for the time war picnic. Last up in community news, community photographer, Lauren Everett recently posted an update to the people like us Facebook page. For those of you who might not know people like us is a gorgeous coffee table photo book that was published back in 2015, featuring pictures and anecdotes from Rocky casts all across the country. Lots of people you know, are in this book, especially if you've been around the community for a few years. And it's fun to look through in the same way. A high school yearbook is, the photos are wonderful and the stories are really freaking cute. So anyway, Lauren made a post to the book's social media page this last week. Uh and she was laughing about the fact that her book can now be found on Amazon for the high, high price of $764. That is approximately 1/5 of a Frank jacket gotta have two highs in there because you know, whoever made that price was blazed off their ass when they did, she went on to state that since the book was funded by supporters back when it was published, she's decided to permanently lower the cost of the book to holy fucking shit to permanently lower the cost of this $764 book to 20 bucks. I I an I, I, I studied economics and there's this trick where like mcdonald's will say that the large I I people like people manipulate prices to make you buy things when they're not actually that expensive. But that's incredible. Like I, I don't know, I can't tell if I'm being manipulated and the book isn't worth $20 and 7864 was just like a sticker price that I was already going to be talked out of. But that, that blows my fucking mind shit. Um I can answer this. Lauren refuses to sell the book on Amazon. So these are Amazon resellers who are selling this book at a majorly inflated price because I guess they're not available around like they're hard to find. Yeah, if you go online looking for this book, you can kind of find it occasionally on ebay or on a books or, you know, Amazon, obviously, when it's not Amazon resellers, you're generally looking to pay about 60 70 80 bucks for a copy of this thing. But that's still a huge markup over the $20 that Lauren is offering to the community and for those of our community members who really, really want to check out a copy, but seriously can't spare the money. She's willing to send you a copy for just the cost of shipping alone so that everyone in the community has access. What a freaking saint God, this woman sounds amazing. Um Mind you, this is all on our system based. So please don't take advantage. But if it's something you've always been dying to see, but can't afford the cost. You, you can reach out to Lauren and she'll hook you up, Lauren. You are such a g my God, right? It was such a sweet offer. I was blown away when I saw this. Um But yeah, all the dates for how to order the book are linked for you. In our show notes, it really is a wonderful slice of life for our community. And we strongly encourage anyone who's looking to spice up their living room coffee table or who's in the market for a fun, unconventional gift to go check it out. And speaking of fun, unconventional gifts, it's time to ask a question. Happy 47th birthday bitches ya am I that old. This last week was the 47th anniversary of the Rocky Horror Picture show premiering in theaters. It premiered in London on Thursday, August the 14th, 1975. But we've been saying it's the 47th anniversary all year R K O K was billed as the 47. You can't tell me that was all a lie. Are, are you sure about your facts there? Why do you ask Mr Roger Gordon? Mr Roger Gordon? I see my partner's cousin had himself a problem with the Rocky Horror and I've done some reading and there's nothing more addicting than that stuff. Roger Gordon Russian name, isn't it? It's what? No, the Portuguese. Of course, of course, I certainly applaud your brave unwillingness to believe something simply because it's on a podcast with the word talkie in the title. You stand as a shining example to your comrades and the rest of us, my partner might have mixed up the story. I think you're right. You're right. It is the 47th anniversary. It's bad, bad stuff. Bad stuff. Indeed. If only it were mere heroin. So, yay. Happy 47th birthday. Rocky Horror. Wait, heroin. I irregardless and not that I don't believe you. I, I just August in London. Well, what about the Waverly and, and all that? It didn't premiere in New York? Oh, you sweet summer child. All right. It's August 14th, 1975. The Rocky Horror Show has already been a smash success in London. It was a slam dunk at the Roxy in L A and it failed miserably on Broadway. But that's ok. The Rocky Horror Picture Show is already in the can and ready for its big international release. And it's a film born in the UK. It should premiere in London. And what better venue to launch than at the famed Rialto theater in London's Leicester Square. Oh, yes. The real, how silly of me. Ok. So this was actually a really sweet venue for a movie premiere. Uh The real was one of the West End's oldest cinemas. It opened in March of 1913 with a near 700 person capacity from the outside. It looked a lot like your average American cinema. But inside was a barrage of Edwardian plaster work designed by Horace Gilbert and architected by Hippolyte Blanc. There was a small cafe on the first floor of the building and in the basement was the Lyi Restaurant which later became the cafe to Paris, which was a big night spot. Shortly after it opened, it became the first cinema in London's west end to have neon signage. Oh boy. Neon. Keep it in your pants. No, no. Neon is super cool. Who doesn't love basking in the warm light of a red triple X while you fumbled through your wallet to see if you, if you got €50 for the lady in the window to throw at her on her titties and watch the red marks form. Those aren't facts. It's just a shitty story of your trip to Amsterdam. Plus they accept cards everywhere, accepts cards. Did you know the foundations of neon signage technology can actually be traced all the way back to 16 75. Shut my mouth. I don't believe that even before electricity, French astronomer Jean Picard noticed a small glow of light emitting from mercury in a barometer tube. If you shook it due to the static electricity, it fluoresced. Then in Germany in the late 18 fifties, glassblower, Waka Waka Heinrich Geisler and physicist Julius Plucker produced tubes that were used in labs and by miners in France. These didn't all contain neon. Many used other gasses like carbon dioxide and mercury vapor. The technology eventually worked its way into commercial uses like signs and lamps. In the 18 nineties, it wasn't until 1910 that French inventor Georges Claude invented the neon glowing tubes that resemble modern neon lights. He showed off his invention in Paris at an expo later that year, but wouldn't patent the invention until 1915. So for the real to have a neon sign in 1913. Ha. Ha. Well, boy, howdy, that really resonates with how high end this theater was. Let me tell you what great fact. I OK, welcome to the Lighting Fixtures Podcast this week. Neon. Listen, as the light of many people's lives. This is a subject I know like the backside of my penis, you know, because I fuck on top of a mirror very often. I know what that looks like. There it is. Jacob's back. OK. So the Rialto theater opens in 1913. It's got success throughout the early twenties. In 1924 it undergoes a complete remodel and is renamed to the Rialto Cinema until the early thirties. It operated as a British subsidiary of Universal Pictures, mostly showing studio films from that era. Remember this is when movie studios could still actually own movie theaters, they monopolized the entire industry. Something that was broken up by the Hollywood antitrust case in 1948. Good thing Hollywood Studios can't control the means of watching movies anymore. Uh They're totally unrelated. Did you see Disney plus is bumping up subscription prices and adding an ad supported tier, go figure. Thank God, I work for Mighty Mouse. Anyway, throughout the thirties, the Rialto served as an art house cinema and in 1933 became a newsreel theater that only lasted about a year before the associated British cinema theater chain took over in 1934 and they operated the theater until the early forties. As World War Two ramped up, the Rialto was taken over by an independent operator in 1940. However, the theater would see some of its darkest days in March of 1941 at the tail end of the German bombing campaign of London, widely known as the blitz. A bomb penetrated the Rialto roof, passing straight through the auditorium. It traveled down a ventilation shaft and detonated in the crowded cafe de Paris nightclub. In the basement, 34 people were killed. The Rialto would remain closed and under repair until 1942 for obvious reasons. In 1946 it was sold and became an art house cinema, primarily showcasing French foreign films. It was further renovated in 1949 and leased to a French film distributor. Finally in 1954 it was taken over by 20th century Fox and a further round of modifications were made to allow cinemascope films to be screened. The last set of alterations before Rocky premiered took place in 1959. Fox used the theater to premiere a number of films including Repulsion directed by pedophile Piece of Shit, Roman Polanski and 1960 five's James Bond film Thunderball starring non pedophile Sean Connery. So that was a very long walk around the block, but hopefully, it gives some insight into just how big of a deal this theater was and why not Rocky Horror was the film adaptation of a smash stage musical that had swept the world. What could go wrong in the lead up to the premiere advertisements flooded the radio. This was the first ever radio advertisement for the Rocky Horror Picture Show aired in August of 1975 thrills and chills, gorgeous gals and Transylvanian parties. Lots of laughs and justice action packed, 18 great songs soundtrack available on O Records. The Rocky Horror Picture Show certificate AA now exclusively at the Rialto Coventry Street and the premiere was a fanfare. There was a sizable crowd of onlookers and media waiting outside the cinema. Both before and after the screening, Patricia Quinn dressed for the occasion in a look inspired by twenties actress Clara Bow from the movie Red Hair in nothing more than a slip stockings and garters sporting the hair do from the film. Wait, so Patricia Quinn went to the premiere of Rocky literally cos playing a character from another movie. Does that make Pat the first Rocky shadow caster? Uh I'm just saying uh she didn't perform in front of the screen, Mr Roger Gordon, you're right. She performed on the screen. I stand by my statement and that doesn't make me a coy you bootlegging fascist. But by the end of the premiere, all was not. Well as the audience quietly exited the cast were deflated. We all went to the premiere of the film and were disappointed, said Perry Benton years later, both Tim and Richard spoke about what had let them down about the film compared to the stage show. Tim said, quote, I think it becomes a little self congratulatory the movie and I was pushed to make Franken Furter a lot more kind of camp than I'd played him on stage. I mean, I played him much more like a truck driver on stage and it kind of got a bit of vogue because the great thing in the show was that most of the makeup had gone in about 20 minutes. It had all sweated off my face and, and that was part of the look of it. It was grungy and punky and the movie was all a bit kind of Hollywood for me. I guess I can see that. I mean, it sounds like he was lazy and didn't reapply makeup during intermission. Just saying was, was there an intermission? Uh No, not in the original state show. It ran right through. No latecomers admitted. I don't think that the show added an intermission until much later when Richard started tinkering with it again. In a 2005 interview, Richard talks about what he had thought went wrong and also gives me the opportunity to do my third British accent of this episode. You're welcome. Lucky listeners on stage. We were buried doing B movies. We had a problem if we would want to be seen to be a parody or just another bee movie. Uh, we were stealing from the B movies and, and yet we were making a Bay movie and, and intentionally making a Bay movie. Would it work? Would our audience understand what we were doing? And then he opened up, uh, of course, and it was quite clear that the audience didn't understand what we were doing and certainly Fox didn't understand what we were doing. I'd wondered if we'd all screwed up. Jerry Seinfeld was in B movie. Yeah, it was a lot more energetic than I've ever heard. Richard o'brien be so I, uh, but it didn't take long for the reviews to start rolling in London's Sunday Telegraph was kind saying, quote, it's one of those films in which nothing ought to work, but almost everything does. The Guardian however was not. And in an oddly prescient review said that quote, the Rocky Horror Picture show is alas exactly what I feared a stage show that doesn't translate effectively to the screen, especially when directed by the same Jim Sherman who made it such a memorably different theatrical experience. It now seems to belong to neither medium which only goes to prove that you must get a filmmaker to make a film. He sure called it not theater, not a film must be shadow casting. I mean, in this one case, you're not wrong, but this is the UK premiere. These Hoity Toity Tea drinkers will hate anything fun. America understood Rocky as a movie. What about the premiere in Hollywood? Thank you, Mr Kaczynski. That was very patriotic. So in the good old us of a, the Rocky horror picture show premieres at the United Artists Theater in Westwood, Los Angeles on September 26th, 1975. And unlike across the pond, it was a smash success and there was already a built in group of fans who had seen the stage show again and again and again, when it played at the Roxy Theater, local musician, Joan Jett, you might have heard of her was a huge fan. Her and her band, the runaways frequently made the trip to the cinema to see Rocky over and over again. Fun fact, the runaway singer, Cherry Curry even donned a Frank Corset for their shows and yes, she cribbed her name from Tim Curry himself. The L A Times had a glowing review saying that the Rocky Horror Picture Show moves fast and looks slick in Austin, Texas. It was a bit more lukewarm. Austin American Statesman writes, Sharman's done a rather zippy job, but all the vulgar spy does begin to wear thin before the movies over. Ultimately, a matter of taste. So at the U A theater in L A, Rocky continued a regular release playing continuously throughout the afternoons and evenings. It sold out frequently, but this was unique to Los Angeles. Rocky's general release in the US had only included eight theaters and all of them had audiences so tiny that not a single solitary theater was willing to keep the movie on. With this lackluster response. The studio decided that the movie's New York opening scheduled for Halloween was canceled no point in throwing more good money after bad. And this is where you get that weird intermediate phase of Rocky's release where the distributors tried to pair it as a double feature with Phantom of the Paradise that promptly failed again. And from there, Fox exec, Tim Deegan and producer Lou Adler began visiting the U A Westwood nearly every night trying to figure out what had worked in L A and failed across the country. And what they found was the same group of regulars returning to the theater again and again, they were singing the songs, they were identifying with the movie and it turned out that in those original other eight locations that didn't keep showing the film, those meager audiences they had were also the same super fans showing up again and again, night after night. And once Lou and Tim figured out what had happened, Rocky was destined for the midnight movie circuit and the fame that awaited it. No pun intended. I don't believe you. I don't even know what the pun would be. So Rocky was in fame, fame. Rocky was in the La Guardia movie. Oh God, I know. So there you go. So there you go. 47 years ago, Rocky had one of the worst premieres and it still plays in theaters today. It is now the longest running theatrical film release in history. Thanks entirely to all of you out there, the fans and that's our show. As always, we want to thank our editor Aaron from Tennessee, dude. You're incredible. Especially with this episode. It's a fucking Jonker. We appreciate every moment that you spend making us sound nice. If anyone has a question, they'd like us to answer on air for our asks a question segment or maybe some community news they'd like us to talk about or just a cool story, story. They want to share with the community. We would love to include it in our show. Just go to our website rocky talkie podcast dot com and fill out the contact form to tell us all 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 Talky content, check us out on all social media. We're on Facebook, we're on youtube, we're on Instagram and we're on tiktok all at Rocky Talkie podcast. We'll talk to you all next week. Bye bye, bye, bye. I have no idea what this version of Jacob like, like these lines are so all over the place. I can't tell what my motivation is guys, like, I'm in a liminal space right now. Yeah.