Hello to all of you. Unconventional conventions. Welcome back to Rocky Talkie. I'm Meg. I'm Aaron and I'm Keely. That's right. I'm back with us this week to dish out on the hot gossip. It's global news. But before we dig into all those delicious musicals, let's do the thing. How was your week guys? Did you get up to anything fun? I had a pretty good week. We had some exciting stuff happen. Our former cast directors, Ashley and Tom Ameci were in town this week. Uh So Aaron and I got to hang out with them a little bit. It was great. Uh Tom has a huge affinity for theme restaurants. So we went to the Margarita Villa in Times Square and we had some margaritas and we had some key lime pie and it was like uh like being on an island with Jimmy Buffett. If Jimmy Buffett was a tourist trap in Times Square, which he kind of is if you think about it and charged $18 for a margarita. Yes, sir. It was fun though. I really enjoyed seeing how we got to shoot the shit talk all about rocky stuff and Rocky people that nobody knows anymore. It was great. Keely. What were you up to this week? I have been in Show Hell or? Well, I finally got out of show. Hell. I did a production of Uncle Boa at my school. Um Some rocky folks came to see it, which was sweet. But yeah, this week has been pretty much recovering from that. Um And then finishing up moving into my new place and getting everything set up and, uh, doing some drag stuff as well. I'd been kind of drowning in school. So I finally got back to that a little bit, did two gigs, one in Brooklyn, one in um hell's kitchen. And then, um, hung out with my friend Bridget. I hadn't seen her in a minute, so it was nice. Sweet. Oh, well, Meg stole mine. I mean, we were, we were hanging out shooting the shit I had. This is not really something I did this week, but this morning I woke up, well, let's be real. This afternoon I woke up from a nap and I had one of those rocky dreams that I'm sure everybody out there can relate to. This is that dream where like you're, you're going to a show. It's probably not a show that's like in your hometown and you're getting ready and you realize you don't have all of your costume pieces and like, it's all of them. I was doing riff in this dream and I could not find my vest. Like I would see my vest. I would pick it up. I would start to put it on. I'd go, oh, wait, I have to do something else. I'd put it down and then I'd turn around and it was gone. Like I would, the costume pieces would just disappear and move around to the point where you end up. Or at least in, in this dream I ended up in the theater with nothing except for like a white t-shirt on going. I guess I'm doing riff in a white t-shirt and nothing else. It was terrible. I hated this dream. So for anyone out there who has those dreams, you're not alone. I'm so sorry. I used to have the nightmare all the time where I would get thrown on for a floor show and had to do all a floor show by myself and didn't know any of the choreography for floor show. So I learned it and stopped having the nightmare. I guess that's the secret. I just have to, you know, get more costumes. I don't see any other way around that. We need more costumes. We don't have enough. You heard it here first, Keely? Have you ever had a rocky nightmare? Oh, a rocky nightmare. Oh God. Um I feel like mine just stem more from a general anxiety kind of thing where either it's like you go to a show and you think that you're on that night. Uh like, let's say, like you roll up, you're in your entire, like, Janet gear, you're like, ready to go. And that's one of those awkward moment dreams where someone else is like, Janet actually. And they're like, like stuff like that, that, that I think is the closest I've gone or like dreaming about like fights, like being like a huge fight broke out backstage. But then you wake up and you're like, oh, it's Monday, it's not Saturday, it's Monday. You know, so that's probably as close as I get better than all those sex dreams about John. Well, I had a recurring nightmare about Rocky or a sex dream with John. Uh write to us, tell us about it. Rut's Rocky Talky podcast at gmail dot com. And with that, I think it might be time for some global news, first stopping global news. It's a downer. That's right. Barry Humphrey is the Australian comedian and actor, best known for his character Dame Edna Everidge passed away at age 89 in our Rocky horror world. We know him as that weird little game show, Gremlin Bert Schnick in shock treatment. The legendary performer reportedly suffered complications following a hip surgery. Humphrey's career spanned across seven decades of theater, television, books and film. In a statement from his family, they wrote his audiences were precious to him and he never took them for granted. Although he may be best remembered for his work in theater. He was a painter, author, poet, and a collector and lover of art in all its forms. He was also a loving and devoted husband, father, grandfather and a friend and confidant to many his passing leaves a void in so many lives. The characters he created which brought laughter to millions will live on for those who may not be up to speed on their Australian cultural icons. You may recognize Humphries as the Great Goblin from the Hobbit um or as the voice of Bruce the Shark in Finding Nemo and don't forget Spice World that he also appeared in alongside decades of talk shows, celebrity interviews comedies and of course, the 2007 episode of the Dame Edna treatment where Edna interviews both Susan Sarandon and Richard o'brien and the three of them all do the time warp. Is that real? It is absolutely real. Barry Humphries was one of the most ardent supporters and reviewers of the original Rocky Horror show when it premiered on stage in 1973. In his review, he praised Jim Sharman as unarguably the second most gifted Australian actor in London, which I suppose technically is an accidental slight against Richard o'brien. When the stage show transferred, he wrote a review in punch magazine. Uh part of it reads Rocky Horror is a lewd and lovable show. Reeking with Grime Gunpowder and Gusset and laughter flows with a hemophilia. Abundance. The musical theater is now surely the richer for Mr Curry's Phantom fiat Trix. Just prior Humphries had worked with the original stage show Janet Julie Covington in the 1972. The adventures of Barry mckenzie. This was a film version of a comic strip character Humphries had created in private eye magazine. In 1982 Humphries was made an officer of the Order of Australia and received AC B E for services to entertainment in 2007 and just to pile on as Dame Edna, he won an Olivier Award for best comedy performance in 1979 and a Tony Award in 2000, the lights were dimmed at Sunday, the 23rd s performance of the Rocky Horror Show at the Adelaide Festival Center in South Australia Floral Tributes were also left outside Her Majesty's Theater, which Barry had described as his favorite in the country. So with a solemn chorus of Hoola Burt, thank you, Barry. We'll see you on the other side on a much lighter note and I know Aaron is going to be excited for this one. Still, the beast is feeding the penultimate Rocky horror reference book is getting a new release. Yeah. Yes. In a note to the UK Fan Club authors Rob Bagnell and Phil Barden said, quote, a massive thank you for giving us this extremely exciting opportunity to revisit our beloved opus. 10 years later in order to bring you this fully revised, updated and expanded edition with additional material, delicious new interviews and plenty of thrills and chills just in time for the 50th anniversary of the Rocky Horror Show. Oh my God. Yes, I am so pumped for this. I didn't expect this. I don't think anybody expected this super cool big shout out to both Rob and Phil for you know, going the effort and, and doing a new release. This is so exciting. Preorders are available now from their publisher. That's Telos publishing. Although I will warn you that if you are in the US shipping is ridiculous as, as in like twice the price of the book ridiculous. I mean, it's coming from the UK. After all, I am holding out hope that we might get a a possible US or even just a digital release of this. No word yet. Uh If that's gonna be in the cards. So I went ahead and had to preorder anyway because of course you did. I mean, I've said it before, I'll say it again. If you are someone who really likes digging into the annals of history and the little known details of Rocky, there are just a few books you really need and still the beast is feeding is absolutely in the top five and it is easily the most complete book when it comes to the stage show. I know I am pumped. I'm buying it. You should buy it too. And speaking of stuff to buy new stage show, Merch just dropped for the 50th. Again, this information comes from the UK time work fan club. We have a whole new set of shirts, tote bags, badges, a new brochure and a set of super cool playing cards. Let me put it this way. One of them has Richard o'brien's face on it, but he looks like a little tip. You know what I mean? Like like a tip with eyes just like hunkering down at you. Just the tip, just the tip, like it's just his head. So that, that kind of makes sense. This is like the, the, the, the o'brien head that's on the um that absolute o'brien cd that he put out a while ago. The, the one with the pink cover, it's basically that it's, it's easily a 30 40 year old picture of Richard and he's making the face, it's just half of his head is his fucking bald head and he's doing like the chin tilt down eyes looking up like myspace thing except it's at an angle where wow, he really is all bald head. John would be proud who is buying playing cards because I feel like it's either magicians that smell like cheese, Aaron or like, you know, or like someone who's going to frame them. Yeah, I feel like you just listed three different qualities that Aaron has. Aaron doesn't smell like cheese. I don't the smell of cheese. Why? What kind of cheese she's and magicians, Aaron or people who are gonna frame these playing cards and you're all three of those. No, no. She also said they smell like cheese. I'm still a little magic bitch. Go fuck yourself. Why the fuck do you think I married him? Keely Jesus Christ. Can we, can we talk for a minute though about the fucking logo that's on the rest of this stuff? I don't know. I don't know if you guys took a leg, go, go check out the, the, the link, the, this is in our show notes, guys, uh the Time Warp UK site has the full list of the new merchandise uh on, on their, on their site for the 50th and I gotta say the 50th logo, it's the same logo that you've seen for the last God knows how long except they've got a little 50 at the bottom of it. That's it. That's what it is. It's the same thing. I was excited when you said Tote bag because I'm one of those hipster fucks that has too many tote bags. And I was like, oh, do I add one to my collection? But that's just, you know, I mean, it kind of is giving like Harley Davidson energy. Like if you put that on the back of a, an Eddie jacket, that'll be kind of cool. Maybe I could see that. But I don't know, like I'm like, uh I was hoping for something a little more like there's like a Etsy shirt. I saw a while back because Etsy is my guilty pleasure. But, um, there was like a logo that had like, the Frank pumps on it and, like legs and I was like, that's kind of sick. I, yeah. No, I, I'm, I'm into that. I'm into anything that's not this, uh, I mean, it's fine, it's fine. It's fine. It's fine. It's just, we've seen it all before and it, it, it's, it's pretty much the same thing. Uh, new brochure though. That's cool if you're into collecting uh the UK touring uh brochures and stuff. Uh This is a really nice updated program that's got a bunch of photos, a bunch of interviews. So, I mean, that's, that's definitely worth checking out. And I mean, I don't know, I'm still here for the playing cards. I want them. They are pretty cool. They're a little creepy but they're pretty cool. It's just the logo. It's, I wish there was something else going on here. You know, that said somebody put some of these playing cards up on ebay, please because I want them. Of course you do. The stage show news keeps coming in this week though. Not one of the big touring productions. Actor David Rummel published a short video reflecting on his time performing as the narrator in a November 2003 production at the Chelmsford Civic Theater. Yeah. So historically and this might sound a little cold. There's nothing particularly noteworthy about this production. It is one of the many repertory theater performances of the stage show that has just come and gone over the years. Wow, you're a dick. But, but hear me out, David's reflections on the experience are just downright charming and told in a very well narrated and conversational tone. Don't believe me. Well, here is a short clip from the video. I have to confess when I first saw the show, I was a tad befuddled by the plot and it only kind of made sense when I saw the film. But this is a show for the theater and its traditions and interaction with its audience is as traditional as pantomime and any attempt to deviate from those traditions and the myriad of fans will soon let you know. So in 2003, I had another baptism by fire when I discovered that new Palm productions were producing a short run at the Civic Theatre in Chelmsford. David has fun stories about the process and it gives an interesting glimpse into the world of Panto and touring repertory theater in the early two thousands. The video is over on his youtube channel which we will of course have linked for you in our show notes from the small stage to the big stage. This last week marked the official kickoff of the 50th anniversary Australian tour. This was kicked off opening night with Richard o'brien himself getting in on the fun directed by legendary Rocky horror, Devotee Christopher Luscombe. The show features fan favorite David Biella playing his ever so iconic version of Frank. And because it's the 50th, the opening was full of stunt casting from the X Factor and the voice there was stellar Perry as Magenta 9 to 5 cast member Ethan Jones as Brad. And so you think you can dance as Loretta Malcolm as Rocky. Topping it off was Australian TV. Personality's Mi Warhurst is the narrator. Wait, so if my Warhurst was the narrator, what was Richard doing? Surely not Riff the man's ancient. He's 80 one. That's like not even a real number. Like I thought high school musical was old and I'm only 21. Yeah. According to Richard himself, quote, I'm top and tailing the show doing the opening narrator speech and the final narrator speech. And uh that's it really beat the drum and wave the flag for it. I guess. So, Richard's a switch is what I'm hearing. What if he's top and tailing? You know, I'm, I'm pretty sure Richard knew what a weird way to say it though. Like beat the drum and wave the flag. How, how Rocky Hall. Yes, Dr Well, in addition to topping and tailing the opening festivities, we got a whole new swath of quality Richard o'brien media quotes in the UK tabloid express, Richard talked a lot about Rocky's significance to the audience. He said, quote, people have turned it into something for their own advantages and their own point of view. Lots and lots of people have said it allowed them to come out or it allowed them not to be ashamed of what they were by default, you know, gay or transgender or anything. So, it has had an uplifting effect for many people which is joyous. It's almost a family show nowadays. And on the flip side of the interview pile in Rupert Murdoch's tabloid the Sun, the interviewer seemed to insist on pushing Richard about the show's boundaries and his self identity. Richard's reply to his credit. I don't think we thought we were pushing boundaries. We've got to remember that our director was a gay man. Our art director was a gay man. I'm transgendered and we were playing and entertaining ourselves. And when the son asked about how Richard identified he had this to say, quote, I don't like labels. I like to be an in between. I think I'm a member of sentient beings. Oh my God, Richard, I think I'm a member of send and beings who happen to be a little bit mixed up between the male and the female on a continuum. Some of us are hardwired to be male. Some are hardwired to be female, but most of us are on that continuum. I just happen to be more towards the middle than most. Despite the unnecessary probing, Richard spoke candidly about his upbringing and history, discovering his own identity. He said, quote at some stage, I said, fuck it. I am who I am. And that was a strange thing. It's a fairly interesting interview and while I don't love that, it focuses much of its time on Richard's self identity. That is one of the surefire topics to get eyeballs on Rocky Horror. And I mean, you can see why the sun trotted it out if you're more interested in how the opening of the 50th stage show went check out Express and if you want other tabloids, well, there's always the sun and for once, I think Richard might not have actually put his foot in his mouth. So there's that last up in global news, everyone's favorite tap dancing. Disco ball little now is bringing her one woman show to the UK for a one night performance. Presumably, this is the same show that she's been performing in Australia, featuring photos and videos from behind the scenes of Rocky horror stories from her Manhattan nightclub nows and oh, so much more. This show is one night only Tuesday, May 23rd at the Traf Faga Theater. If you're in Jolly All England, you don't want to miss it and hot off the presses. Nell announced today that she'll be doing two additional shows for her fans in Wales Friday the 12th and Saturday the 13th at the Community Center in Barrie Wells Wales, check out Nell's social media for additional information like some us states. Come on. Now. Do it for me, please, please simp you are such a little simp for now. Any time last up, we've got some community news. Um, excuse me, I thought you said we were just doing global news. It's all the listeners fault. They keep doing cool shows. Indeed. They do. So. A big congratulations to the folks at the Francis Bacon Experiment for their performance of Reefer Madness. Not the musical and a ho to all of our friends out in Pittsburgh at the J C C P for their own Reefer madness. The musical coming up R K O has Reaper Madness on May 6th and Francis Bacon is doing their shock treatment on May 26th and J C C P has a live stream of their shock treatment performance on May 12th over at H P S live dot com. If you can get over there to one of their shows, you absolutely should. And I think we've got a little bit of a New York City announcement as well. Hey, Kelly. Yes, we are doing our own Reefer Madness and I'm so excited to be directing it and the cast and crew has just been so excellent. Everyone has worked super hard so far and we are just really excited to keep pushing on and, you know, taking the next steps in our little Rocky horror community. Ya. Hell, yeah, I think we've even got some special guests coming in from around the community for that. So I am, I'm pumped everybody. Everybody wants to check that out. Get your ass over to New York. We're doing reefer and it's legal here in convention news merch preorders have been added for Rocky takes the Garden state this August in New Jersey. That's right. When you purchase your tickets or I'm told if you've already got your passes, you can preorder these items on their own. They've got t-shirts, tank tops and enamel pins. Check them out. They'll all be waiting for you at the merch table when you get to K F N s has also teased a big info drop on May 1st. So if you're listening to this, you can probably go check it out right now and that I think are all the nudes fit to print. As always, we would like to thank our editor Aaron from 10 to see. We appreciate all of your work. If anyone has a question, they'd like us to research for our ask a question segment or some community news they'd like us to talk about or even a cool story that you want to share with the Rocky community, including any stress dreams you might have had recently. We would love to include them in our show. Just go to our website rocky talky podcast dot com and fill out our contact form to tell us all about it. If you're enjoying Rocky Talkie, you know what to do, please help us out by rating, reviewing and subscribing to the show. And if you want even more Rocky Talkie content. Check out our blog at Rocky Talky podcast dot com. That is talky with an I E I don't know why. Um And our social media accounts on Facebook, youtube and Instagram all at Rocky Talkie Podcast. We'll talk to you next week. Bye bye. You're green. Ok. Sorry, it doesn't matter. I'm color blind. Shut up in Barry you. Well, Whales Barrio, your guess is as good as mine. Barry O W is it? Yes. On July 3rd we will be doing our own Reaper madness. The musical at our wicked lady. And uh who's going to be directing that, Kelly for inquiring mine. Now, let's say it in a full sentence. Um Yes, I'll be directing it. The reason it's Rocky Talkie with an I E is because Rocky Talkie with A Y is already a brand and it's a bunch of walkie talkies for rock climbers. That's true. We got screwed over by the granola heads. We couldn't get the good domain motherfuckers. I E is cuter our names. I, I is cute. There's Cindy and Laurie and.