#cast blogs

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Crew Blogs!

We’re highlighting Crew this month!  Read their amazing blogs at www.steelcityrockyhorror.com

and say “hi” to them at FRIDAY’S SHOW at 10pm at The Hollywood Theater in Dormont!

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One time, I asked Chris Evans’ mom on a date. Another time I made someone laugh so hard they almost died. Sometimes I also shadow cast the Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Let me go back (to what seems like forever to me) to when I was 14. Rocky Horror was playing at The Oaks during Halloween, and I sort of just stumbled into it. I had no idea what to expect, and I’d never even seen the movie before (but I did do a half assed Brad costume). Being a virgin in a Halloween crowd is electrifying, let me tell you. The whole night was a blur and I had no idea what had just happened but I knew that I had to be a part of this. I wish I could tell you that I had a calling to join cast that very night, but the audience is what dragged me in. I was absolutely amazed at all these precisely times jokes in sync with the movie. All my life I’ve been a bit of a comedian. I have very distant memories of being two or three and cracking jokes to make my fellow preschoolers laugh. Not having very many friends going through middle school and high school, I always used humor as a bit of a way to be like “Hey guys! Remember I’m here!”. After telling a joke, you know you’re friends with that person for at least thirty seconds. So seeing the audience land a good joke in of a crowd of 300 something made me know that Rocky was the place I belonged.

After this one beyond perfect night, Rocky was gone. At that point, the JCCP didn’t have regular showings. And I was already hooked. I got the DVD for Christmas and watched it every single night religiously. Not only that, but I read every single AP (audience participation) script I could find on the Internet- which is a lot, by the way. I was armed and ready with call backs with no Rocky Show to do it at. Nearly a whole year passed before I would be able to see Rocky in a theater again. Around September of the next year, I finally found Rocky again. It was playing at The Hollywood Theater in Dormont. I dragged my friend this time, now dressed as Magenta to go see the movie I loved with all of my heart. There were about four people in the audience that night. The audience was so dead in fact that Lady Tramp (who was playing Magenta that night) dragged me up on stage during the movie to do the Time Warp.

Thankfully, the JCCP had gotten their regular shows back. I went to every single show. Every single show for years. I’ve missed one show in the entire five years I’ve been going to see this movie. I was debating every since I started going regularly if I wanted to join cast. I wasn’t (and still aren’t, to be completely honest) much of an actor. Plus, after watching the same people act out this movie to perfection for four years (at that point) it makes you a little nervous to join. But I pushed through and got an audition anyway. I auditioned as Riff, and I’ll be the first one to tell you that it was absolutely terrible. I was a nervous wreck. Somehow, the cast decided to take pity on me, and voted me into full cast.

When I auditioned it was just a few short weeks before the Halloween shows- which everyone know is basically Rocky Christmas. So right after my audition, Sideburns approached me and asked to speak to me outside. When outside, she told me that they were short a Janet for the big Saturday Halloween show and asked me if I would be able to do it. I agreed, even though I was about throw up at that point. I stumbled my way through my first group rehearsal ever AND as a main character but I was determined to at least do well on stage. Those weeks leading up to the Halloween show, I basically lived at Sideburn’s house. I was over there every other day rehearsing Janet. I wish I could tell you that when the big Halloween show came, I blew it out of the water and was the best Janet there ever was up on The Hollywood’s stage. But I was just okay. However, I did make Shpadoinkle, who was my Brad break character and laugh during the show.

At that point in my life I was in high school. Like everyone else in high school, I had absolutely horrible self esteem, and body image. Couple that with the stress and you don’t exactly get a great combination. During middle school and high school, I was on the cross country team and track team. I was never the best on the team. I peaked during my 8th grade season and just start slowing down after that. With all my teammates passing me up, I wanted to be just as fast as them. Sometime around this point was when I start getting really bad anxiety. Something about not being the top ten like I used to be in 8th grade was driving me crazy. I would cry from being so anxious both before practice, and after. It was getting so bad to the point that if I knew I had to run a race my body would just shut down. I was already so exhausted from thinking about the possibility of having a panic attack. My junior year, I had panic attack so bad over a race, I just quit on the spot. The year and a half away from cross country, coupled with Rocky really helped me with getting my anxiety to a (somewhat) manageable level.

Unfortunately, my my negative body image hasn’t improved much since high school. You might be wondering “Hey, Calipornia, why do I never seen any pictures of you on JCCP’s Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, Youtube or MySpace?”. I have, and I will be upset for hours after seeing a picture of me on one of the social media sites. The combination of my face, body and over all being in pictures (or videos) has, and will have me crying for ridiculous periods of time coupled with self hatred. If you’re an audience member- I know what you’re thinking. “If you hate pictures of yourself so much, Calipornia then why do you go around taking selfies with half the audience?” And I would tell you this, dear audience member, that a selfie is a controlled pictures of myself. I get to have fun with an audience member while angling out a certain part of myself that I don’t like, or making a really ugly face just to make a point. If you ask me to take a full body pictures I will probably integrally cringe. However, Rocky- which has been with me during so many up and downs in my life has this magical quality to it. I don’t know what it is, but on any given Rocky Saturday (or, Friday) I can look in the mirror and think I’m best goddamn thing on this Earth. Something about Rocky Saturdays make me somehow more beautiful. I’m so proud of myself that I can strip in front of a crowd as Trixie or lose all my clothes as Magenta and be wearing the world’s most see through sheer and feel incredibly confident in myself in the moment. That’s why you’ll see me mostly likely see me running through the crowd proclaiming that I’m the cutest cast member there ever was, because right then I am.

For everything Rocky has helped me do in my life, it also manages to get me into some of the most embarrassing situations imaginable. This would not be a Calipornia blog, if I didn’t mention the time I got into a fight with Stephen Chosbsky. For a short while between when I first saw Rocky at the Hollywood and when I first joined cast- the Hollywood lost the ability to show the movie. It was about five months (I think). During those five months, I was obviously upset and missing Rocky terribly. There is absolutely nothing like seeing Rocky Horror at The Hollywood Theater. (Trust me, I’ve been to see plenty of other casts and theaters.) Rocky at The Hollywood is so special, in fact, that Stephen Chosbsky wrote about it in his award winning novel; The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Showing Rocky at this particular theater is so incredible that not only did he chose to write about it, but when filming the movie they also chose to film the Rocky scenes at The Hollywood. One day, a year or so after Perks of a Being a Wallflower had completed filming, Stephen decided to tweet how wonderful the Hollywood was and how you should donate to keep this beautiful theater up and running. This is where I decide it would be a great idea to tweet at Stephen Chosbsky ten times in a row. They were all different, very mean tweets but the general summary was “If you love Rocky, and The Hollywood so much- then why aren’t you donating to help bring it back?”. Since I was basically harassing Stephen Chosbsy, a wonderful man who mean so much to the Rocky community over Twitter, he then tweeted me back a nasty message saying how he was doing all that he could. Flash forward to Halloween 2014. I was in cast at this point and Stephen Chosbsy decided to come visit The Hollywood for a Rocky show. Arm and prepared with the tweets printed out, I shyly approached Stephen Chosbsy. I apologized for interrupting him, but told him there was something I wanted him to sign. After looking over the piece of paper with the tweets printed on them for a moment, he looked back up at me and said “I remember you. I really am doing all that I can to help this theater.” Of course this story has a happy ending. I wouldn’t tell you all this if Stephen Chosbsy still hated me. We made up and promised to best friends forever. He also promised to follow me on Twitter. (Which he did not. But you should. Follow me on Twitter.)

My signed Twitter fight with Stephen Chobsy is just the tip of the iceberg to my Rocky collection. I might get into a fight with some of my fellow cast members, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say that my Rocky collection is one of the most extensive in our cast. A few highlight of my Rocky (and Shock Treatment) collection include, a film strip taken from a Tim Curry music video (Thank you Kevin!), a Shock Treatment Canadian release poster, and a whole display of Rocky trading cards. If I were to name all everything in my collection, I would be typing all day. This isn’t to say I have the biggest collection in the whole world, because I am far from that. But I sure do have a heck of a lot of stuff. With that said, I am an expert on this million dollar movie (that’s right, the budget for this movie was about 1 million dollars- Rocky fun fact for the day). So next time you see me be sure to come test my knowledge or at least ask me about it so I can tell you a fun Rocky fact. It’s what I do best.

Any one out in our audience should never be afraid to come talk to me (or anyone else in our cast for that matter) about Rocky. At least for me, it’s the thing I love the most. I always want to talk about it. I know when I was an audience member, I was slightly intimidated by this group of people. Shadow casting seemed pretty glamorous from the sidelines. Now being in cast, however- I can promise you it’s not all sparkly sequins. You know the Time Warp, right? Obviously you do, audience member. You’ve seen the movie (if you haven’t- drop everything you’re doing and buy tickets to our show). The song that goes “jump to the left, step to the right”? It all seems pretty easy. Just follow the directions that the sing in the song. Right? Wrong. I couldn’t even tell you how many times I’ve rehearsed that Time Warp. And I’m not even talking about the times I’ve been either Riff or Magenta. Transylvanians (or, as we call them ‘Transies’) rehearse the Time Warp like crazy. There have more than a couple shows where I was Captain of the Transies and messaged everyone that was a Transie that week a 10 page list of the dance movies and costuming. You wouldn’t even believe how much work goes into one show behind the scenes. I can assure you; everything that we present on stage has taken a lot of blood, sweat, tears, glitter and hot glue to put together. So you damn well better clap for us.

One of my favorite quote of all time is from Sal Piro (president of The Rocky Horror Fanclub, and was in the first Rocky shadow cast- like, ever). He said shadow casting this movie is like making love to it. I honestly believe that. This is the greatest movie of all times and it speaks to all kind of different people in all kinds of different situations. So, remember that next time you’re sitting in the audience- or even shadow casting it, if any of my fellow cast is reading this, we’re part of this really special odd thing. It’s been going strong for 40 years, and we’re gonna keep it that way. Punch a wall, be hilarious, and always remember the rule; “If you’re not having fun, you’re doing something wrong”.

Delete this,

xoxoxox Calipornia

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Cast Blog: Pretty Pony

Hey there! Pretty Pony here and it’s time I tell you lovely folks a bit about myself and my experiences with the JCCP. I discovered Rocky when I was 15. A close friend of mine showed me the movie one night and a few weeks later we ventured to the JCCP’s old home, The Oaks. I loved everything about it. We started going to every show and bringing friends. We even went as far to sneak out of our semi dance early to catch a show (seriously why lock a bunch of kids in a school until 11:30pm?), and I celebrated my 18th birthday with a Rocky at the Hollywood.

I moved to college in Ohio. I caught some shows in Cincinnati. It was still a lot of fun, but I missed the JCCP, The Hollywood, and Pittsburgh. All throughout high school I was that kid that couldn’t wait to move far away. I never thought I would miss the city or anything about it except for my pets, but I was wrong. I didn’t realize how much Rocky meant to me until I was away from it. I came back home after a semester and resumed my trips to the Hollywood. Part of me wanted to join cast, but the other part of me was scared. You see I was a weird kid growing up. I didn’t have many friends and I really didn’t fit in anywhere. I would talk to people, but I wasn’t close to anyone. I was pretty much a loner, save for a couple friends. I had also had a really rough time while away at college. I had not made a single friend at the school, and it was pretty clear some of the girls on my floor only hung out with me because they felt bad for me. This really hit my confidence hard and made me realize I had some social anxiety. I was content to just be an audience member for now.

That changed in August 2014. 5 years after experiencing Rocky for the first time. I decided I was sick of being timid and auditioned for cast. Since coming back from college all of my old friends and I had grown apart. Most of them moved away to attend college, and I lost contact with the few that stayed. It seemed like I was always the one to start the conversation and make plans. I thought I was annoying them so eventually I would text them less and less and eventually stopped. I figured if they wanted to talk to me they would. Spoiler alert 99% of them didn’t, so I would spend my days working, doing class work, riding my horse, and playing Sims. The only time I really went out was to go to Rocky. I finally mustered up the guts to join cast. I sent an email and set everything up.

The day of the meeting that I was invited to I was so nervous. I almost emailed them and said something came up, but then I realized; this was an opportunity to branch out and meet new people. Before the meeting people were actually talking to me and seemed interested to hold a conversation. I will spare the details because frankly I was so nervous they are kind of blurry, but I was welcomed into the JCCP family with open arms. My first few shows were pretty nerve-wracking, and the first time I played Janet I thought the spot light would hit me and I would forget everything and just fall over. The other members of the cast were super patient and didn’t mind my million and ten questions, which is what I tend to do when I am nervous. I will never forget how happy I was after that show. Yeah, I messed up a few times, but the audience still enjoyed it and I had a blast.

Now, almost a year after joining cast, I can say this was one of the best decisions I have made. I am a part of group that is family. The support from the cast and our audience is amazing. Hearing someone cheer after a floorshow routine, or having someone compliment you on something can make you feel awesome about yourself and can really help boost your self-confidence. Joining the JCCP has also gotten me to experience Pittsburgh in a whole new way, and has taught me some new things as well. I have gotten a lot better at parallel parking, I don’t get lost around the city as much, and I finally figured out the T. I also get to hang out with a pretty great group of people pretty often.

I am still pretty shy and awkward sometimes, especially during the dance party, but I am very slowly working on coming around and trying to become less socially awkward. In some ways I still feel like that weird, not so attractive, loser I was in high school, but then I remember with the help of my JCCP family that I am pretty cool person. So, if you see me milling around don’t be afraid to come say hi. I promise I’m not mean and I don’t bite.

Overall, joining the JCCP was my way of trying to branch out and make new friends that I would actually fit in with for once. It also gave me a chance to get out of my house and do more, and majorly boosted my self-confidence. The JCCP has been so great, and I don’t think I can put into words how happy I am to have a group of people that are so wonderful and accepting in my life.

Much love,

Pretty Pony

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A JCCP Month in Review by PonyBoy!

Well June is finally over.  The month that just seemed like it’d never end!  And boy was it a busy one!

We started Pride month off with a bang with our Rocky Horror Pride Show.  The double casted event was filled with plenty of genderbent goodness from drag kings to drag queens, to those that fell somewhere in between, and those that were something else entirely.  It was definitely a colorful show and was a fun time all around.

    Even several audience members came in costumes.  There were so many open flames in the theater I’m surprised we didn’t burn the building down.

    The following weekend, the JCCP took to the streets for the Pittsburgh Pride Parade.  We got rained on and sunburned but that’s okay because we’re all used to being hot and wet.

    A week later and we were back at the Hollywood for Pride 2.0.  This time around we stuck to our usual programming with the addition of Aphrodesia killing her first performance as Magenta and Sheela Nagig showed us her stellar emcee skills and introduced a new virgin game “The Pelvic Thrust!”

    By the time the next weekend had rolled around, the JCCP had taken over a new venue, as we performed at Cruze for the very first time.  The freedom of having multiple stages and live recordings of the performance made for a very fun and very different show.  For those who missed this incredible opportunity, be just and fear not, for the JCCP will likely return to Cruze again in the future.

    And as if we couldn’t celebrate pride enough, the day before Marriage Equality became legal across the country and there was much rejoicing.

    Well that about wraps up this rainbow filled month.  Three incredible performances, one amazing parade, and one unbelievable court decision.  But stay tuned loyal followers because the JCCP will be back July 11th with a very special double feature performance of Shock Treatment and The Rocky Horror Picture Show!  Lets start this next month off with a bang!  See you all there! 

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Ponyboy has gone from loyal fan to an outstanding cast member!  Read his blog at http://steelcityrockyhorror.com/wp/cast-blog-ponyboy/

and don’t miss him and the rest of our cast as we celebrate Pride The Rocky Horror way this Saturday, June 6th at midnight at The Hollywood Theater in Dormont!

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Cast Blog: Snare Drum

May 13th, 2015

On stage is the only place where I really know what I’m doing.” John Belushi said that but I think it also describes me pretty well.

I used to be on stage a lot when I was growing up, I was a hard core dancer. I’ve always been a ball of anxiety but when I was on a stage, it didn’t matter. Dancing was my life but when I was about thirteen my joints started to act up. It was later found that I had/have Fibromyalgia. I had to quit all dancing and let my legs rest. However, little Snare Drum was miserable at the time; I didn’t have any idea what to do without dance! That’s where Rocky comes into play.

See, I watched musicals and was mesmerized by them. All the costumes, choreography, and music let me escape from real life. My parents mentioned that there was this show I’d probably really like called the Rocky Horror Picture Show. They underestimated me, I fell in love. I watched it over and over again. When I saw Susan Sarandon as Janet, it just felt right. She was always the good girl but then she got to open up and be “bad”. I wanted to be her more than anything else.

I found out that there was a group in Pittsburgh who acted out the movie. After plenty of begging, I attended my first Junior Chamber of Commerce Players show on my fifteenth birthday. Everyone looked so happy and pretty, dancing around the stage. That night I told myself that when I was old enough, I’d be one of them.

Since then I’ve gone through plenty of health scares, but Rocky always got me through. I took my beat-up cd of the Roxy cast with me to every appointment I had. I’d listen to it on the way there and coming back home. When I was allowed, I even listened to it while I had tests done. Even when it got really rough I’d tell myself, “Rocky. Get this done and there will be Rocky.” Boy, did that work. Right after my eighteenth birthday I auditioned for the JCCP and now I’m back on stage, doing what I love with amazing people. They’re the best group of friends anyone could ask for. The members of the JCCP have taught me so much about Rocky. They’ve also been caring and loving, you could even call us a family.

This movie is my escape. I still constantly deal with pain, fatigue, and a slew of other symptoms. I have Rocky though. The characters I play aren’t disabled (no Dr. Scott jokes) so when I’m in character I can forget about my health problems and just act. Snare Drum is my favorite person to be.

Love, Snare Drum

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I am Big Tom, and I am Pittsburgh’s Old Man of Rocky.

If you read most of these blogs, you will see folks talking about their first Rocky experience, and for most it’s been within the last 5 years. My first Rocky experience was in 1986. So I want to talk about Rocky from a different time.

At the time, I lived in Western Massachusetts. Every Saturday, I went to our local gaming store, the Tin soldier, to play Dungeons and Dragons. Well, one day three of the older guys (as in High School Seniors and first year college folks), Chris, Richard and Tom, kept doing all of these weird in jokes to each other. Finally, they explained that they had been to see a movie where you could yell lines back at the screen and it was really fun. Of course, I had to check this out. So, a few weeks later I convinced my parents to let me join them. So I went to Rocky for the first time. There was no cast, and not a lot of folks in the theatre, but they knew the call backs and it was a hilarious experience. I was hooked. I would see Rocky a few more times before finally heading to Pittsburgh for College, but I still hadn’t seen it with a cast.

Arriving as a CMU freshman, I was soon advised of the existence of Rocky at the Kings Court Theatre in Oakland, and naturally I went to check it out. I was an overweight 17 year old kid who had known exactly 1 openly gay person in their life, but something kept bringing me back to this weird movie about perverted aliens. There was a cast at that time, but it was not yet the JCCP. That cast didn’t even have a name. It didn’t need one. That cast and show was absolute magic to me. I attended for several months, getting really good at the call backs and trying to get friendly with folks. I wanted to perform, but I had no performing experience and a bad self image. Finally, I worked up the courage to ask the cast director, a gentleman named Adolph, about joining the cast. He laughed and told me “I was wondering when you would finally ask”. The next week I began training as Dr Scott. Back then, there was no video to train from. You trained at the show by watching someone else do it, and then you got put in a show. If you were lucky, you had a sound track to work with. Mine was on a cassette tape. I started to perform. I made friends. I started staying out late at parties with cool people having interesting conversations. It was a growing experience. At that time, Rocky was a big party scene. After every show, we would have a brief get together, then head to someone’s apartment to party until the morning. There were a lot of drugs and alcohol, which didn’t interest me at all. But there were also a lot of people and perspectives I hadn’t encountered before. It was a wonderful time of growing for me and questioning my world.

Unfortunately, while I was having wonderful success as a Rocky performer, I was failing as a student. After two years, a combination of immaturity, lack of focus and an undiagnosed sleeping disorder dictated I would be taking a year off. So I headed home to Western Massachusetts. I learned that there was a Rocky cast an hour drive away in Connecticut and I soon was making a weekly commute. My friend Chris who helped introduce me to Rocky was still going there on occasion. Tom had left for college and not returned. I quickly joined the cast. It was a very different experience than Pittsburgh. It was not a party scene, and it was not as friendly. A few months after I arrived we removed the cast director in a very ugly coup d’tat because the only thing everyone could agree on was that we hated him. Back then, casts didn’t have governments and elections, they had a director who ran things until they didn’t want to run things anymore. So if the director was bad, it would end up in an ugly situation. A new director was chosen, and Rocky got fun again. I made friends. Real friends. I learned what true friendship meant. I also had my first true, deep crush, which was not at all returned. I made mistakes and I learned what forgiveness meant. I grew up in so many ways. I wish I could say my “Perks of Being a Wallflower” period happened in Pittsburgh, by my time of growing and growing up happened in Connecticut.

Something else that was different back then was that being gay, or being associated with gay people, was not acceptable. Sodomy was still illegal in many places. So being part of Rocky really was a subversive thing. Although I am straight, I made friends who were gay and trans in Rocky. So I got an education in that struggle. I have had the experience of watching homosexuality go from being illegal, to immoral, to grudgingly accepted, to actually having a real chance at full legal equality.

By the time a year had passed, Rocky in Connecticut was dying. Many in the original cast had dropped out for a variety of reasons and the theatre management no longer wanted Rocky. So no props and no support for the cast. Chris had dated a girl in the cast and had a bad break up, so he had moved on. It was a very sad goodbye when I finally returned to Pittsburgh, punctuated by my attending the wedding to the girl I had crushed on.

But return to Pittsburgh I did. To find no Rocky. The Kings Court had closed and the Hollywood hadn’t opened yet. I managed to contact the remaining cast, but it had changed. Adolph was gone and his successor had also left Pittsburgh. Terry Thome was now in charge. Terry kept us together as a cast. He got us to the Hollywood. So I got to be part of the first cast at the Hollywood. In some ways it was like old times, but the energy had changed. It was still a great thing, but different. Part of that was the change in people, and part of that was the change in me.

Over the next years, I would fade in and out of the scene for a variety of reasons, especially job related. For a long time the only job I could get was night work. So I would have to work when I wanted to Rocky. Rocky was always a part of my life though. I watched it change and grow. The cast became The JCCP. The cast manager became an elected position and Rocky became a turbulent democracy. The age of video began, and you could get a copy of Rocky on VHS and rehearse at home. People got better at their roles. The Hollywood became one of the best casts in the country. I cheered, I did callbacks, I occasionally performed. I failed out of college again and started putting my life together. Then the Hollywood closed its doors.

Rocky would go through ups and downs for many years after that. I didn’t get involved. I was putting my own shit together. I was certainly keeping track and seeing it when I could, but something wasn’t right. Looking back, I realize it was that most of the casts had a lot of internal tension and it bled into their shows. I also had my own head to put on straight. I would finally get my sleeping disorder diagnosed and treated and start turning things around. However, I still could not find a comfortable place in Rocky. However, even as Rocky was becoming a background issue, it was still helping me. The confidence I gained as a performer lead me to do Stand Up, then Improv, and then live theatre. It also got me involved with Scarehouse, which has brought me a small measure of fame and a huge amount of personal joy. None of those things would have been possible if it hadn’t been for the lessons I learned being in a cast. Things would change when Rocky got to the Oaks. By that time my sleeping disorder was diagnosed and under treatment and I had a job that actually paid my bills and left me with a few bucks in my pocket. Mikey had taken over the cast. I had known him through the scene, and he was truly passionate about getting Rocky back on track. I was at a point in my life where I had time and energy to put into it. I joined up and I started performing again. DVD made it possible to rehearse at the push of a button. So I could gather with a new generation and we could learn together in a living room. The magic returned. It wasn’t the social scene it had been before, but the sheer joy of performing Rocky came back. For a little while it was the late 80s again and I was having the same rush as the first time I got on stage.

The Oaks would eventually decide Rocky didn’t work for them and Rocky floated for a while. Mikey had to stop directing the cast because he got a new job and had to devote his energy to that. For a few years there basically was no Rocky and no Rocky scene in Pittsburgh. That greatly saddened me, but I was not in a position to do anything about it. My own life was busy and good, and I didn’t have the energy to make it happen. It took the energy of a new generation of performers who, without a theatre, decided Rocky needed to be a thing again. They built a new cast and began approaching theatres. They held shows in people’s back yards. It took a lot of time and a lot of work, and there were some miss steps along the way, but that group got us back to the Hollywood.

Which brings us to today. I am still here doing this thing I love. With a cast that are also friends. And in the end, that is what always pulls me back to Rocky. There is a place, on a late Saturday night, where I can go, scream my fool head off, run around like an idiot in lingerie, and have people actually enjoy it. Some folks ask when I will stop doing it. I can tell you that. When I stop loving it. When will that be? I don’t know. But when that day finally does come, I will walk away with my head held high, grateful for everything this wonderful experience taught me.

I just realized, I forgot to mention what happened to Richard, the third person who introduced me to Rocky. Richard was that one gay man I knew before coming to college, and started me on the path to understanding that gay was ok.

Richard died from AIDS in 1988. He’d gotten sick and died shortly after I went to college.

I came up in a different time. It was a time of change, and I hope we gave your generation some better things. I will always cherish my time in Rocky, good and bad. I am grateful for what it taught me and what it made me. However, there are some things I will always look back on with sadness. That’s ok too. If you can feel sad about it, it’s because it means something. So my final comment to the new generation of Rocky, and every generation that comes after, is that you will have your ups and downs, your victories and your struggles. If you learn what all of those things have to teach you, you will always find joy in this strange thing we do.

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Our Highlighted Cast member this month is John with an “H”.

Hello and welcome to another edition of the blog from the JCCP, a Rocky Horror shadowcast in Pittsburgh. they call me John-with-an-H, but secretly I’m Halloween Jack. I heard the name in the David Bowie song Diamond Dogs, and you’ll discover it suits me.

Before joining the JCCP family, I had previous experience with acting. My first role was Bert Bacteria in a kindergarten play about dental hygiene. I took acting and singing classes throughout the k-12 spectrum of schooling, and graduated from Bethel Park, lettering in theater and choir. After school, I also participated in a couple community theater projects in Washington, PA. I went to school for special effects, getting my degree from the Tom Savini program in Monessan. While there, I helped construct the haunted house Terrormania. I designed and acted in the dining room for two years, Schizo the Clown the first year and the Mad Hatter the next.

I first saw The Rocky Horror Picture Show on tv, then my family moved closer to Pittsburgh and I found out from some drama club friends that Rocky Horror was playing in Dormont. I was 18 when I first saw Rocky at the Hollywood Theater. It was a Halloween triple feature, and I won a costume contest so it’s one of my favorite memories. A lot of my favorite memories have been made because of this movie.

Besides acting, I also sculpt and write. I  have a novel called Myth’s Treasure, and I self-published with money I raised at Zombiefest with my  jewelry and glowing clay things.  In 2013, I had a rather great day at Zombiefest. My boyfriend came to help at my booth, and I dressed him up like Baron Samedi. After the festival, I packed my tent and inventory and drove to Scarehouse, where I was meeting several friends from the JCCP.   I was still in zombie makeup myself, and it was fun getting reactions from people in line. When our group reached the door, I asked if I could lead. it had been quite some time since I was in a haunt I never visited before, so everything was new. It was spectacular, and one of my favorite days.

I’ve been in cast for nearly three years and I’ve been Brad, Dr Scott, the Crim, Columbia, a Transylvanian, and I picked Eddie for a Hat Show.  For my first show in cast, I was a Wonder Woman/Betty Monroe, then Heinz Ward, then the Incredible Hulk for an Avengers takeover. I like the challenge of being several roles for one show. I’ve also had the opportunity to be several people for the Grease  sing-alongs, Colonel “Honey” Mustard for Clue, and I’ve had the challenge of being Moloch and Satan for Reefer Madness, which also let me work some special effects magic into a show. I made a few props for those shows, as well, such as the herb garden and Sally’s head. I’m glad that I could bring my fx talents with me when I joined, because there have been times when someone grabs me and says “I need you to make me a zombie!” and I love those times. I whipped up a Necronomicon with some latex, cotton balls, and an unused photo album for our last zombie show. Each character was playing homage to a different zombie thing. Our host was Ash from Evil Dead, and I was Dr Scott Ashford, a reference to the wheelchair-bound genetician looking for his daughter in Raccoon City. Unfortunately I was infected with the T-virus and mutated before the floorshow, and when I was activated I revealed a jacket I made with pool noodles, an oven mitt, and balls of various sizes. The line “for the thrills!” was followed by the audiences squeal as they saw the eye on my shoulder the size of a volleyball, surrounded by smaller clusters of eyes in the shredded bubbly musculature. My right arm was grotesquely exaggerated into a hand ending not with fingers but bone spikes sixteen inches long. It was fun offering it to Riff to shake after he shot Frank. I love making scary shit. I love that this group gives me opportunities to do so.

I grew up feeling like a weirdo. I mean, besides collecting Madballs and Garbage Pail Kids, I was also gay. Discovering Rocky Horror gave me my first dose of gay horror. I didn’t know they could be combined! It’s hard enough being pigeonholed a splattergeek, but imagine the exacerbation of adding homosexuality? In a sports town??  Imagine Clive Barker in Liverpool.

This is Halloween Jack in Pittsburgh. This was my blog. If you didn’t like it, come to a show and tell me why. Bring friends. Bye