Latest / Jersey Arts Podcast / Reminiscing on "Rocky Horror" with Film's Star, Barry Bostwick

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Reminiscing on "Rocky Horror" with Film's Star, Barry Bostwick · Jersey Arts Podcast

• 0:03
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: This is Gina Marie Rodriguez, and you're listening to the Jersey Arts Podcast.
• 0:07
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: We are fast approaching spooky season, and with that comes the inimitable "Rocky Horror Picture Show" season.
• 0:13
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: The cult classic has become synonymous with October and Halloween, likely due to the fabulous costume opportunities afforded by its cast of characters.
• 0:21
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Today I have the great pleasure of speaking with the Golden Globe and Tony Award-winning actor, Barry Bostwick, also recognized as the film's original Brad Majors.
• 0:29
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: He will be accompanying the film's tour to two stops in New Jersey this October.
• 0:33
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: While Bostwick has enjoyed 50 years of connection to " The Rocky Horror Picture Show," he has had a successful career outside of Brad Majors.
• 0:41
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Most recently, he has turned his attention to a documentary entitled "Making Megaforce." The film, also recognized as "the documentary nobody asked for," is executive produced by and starring Bostwick.
• 0:52
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Director Bob Lindenmeyer wanted to make a film about the making of one of 1982's biggest box office failures.
• 0:59
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: As Bob delves into the movie's history with cast and crew, he dragged his childhood hero, Barry Bostwick, in his mission to relive the past.
• 1:06
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: It's a touching and hilarious tribute to the power of heroes, friendship, and flying motorcycles.
• 1:12
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Today's conversation focuses largely on Bostwick's connection to "Rocky Horror," but this documentary sounded too fun to ignore, and I had to make sure to mention it.
• 1:20
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: But if you're a "Rocky Horror" fan, or perhaps just Rocky Curious, you'll learn a lot from today's episode.
• 1:28
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: So stay tuned.
• 1:29
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: We're going to be talking about "Rocky Horror." Big surprise.
• 1:33
  Barry Bostwick: Really?
• 1:33
  Barry Bostwick: Why?
• 1:34
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I don't know.
• 1:35
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: You tell me.
• 1:36
  Barry Bostwick: I'll tell you why, because we've been around for 51 years and people still want to come see it.
• 1:42
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I think that's well, it's amazing, but I was going to say it's also crazy because what does that longevity mean to you?
• 1:48
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I can't even imagine having something last 50 plus years.
• 1:52
  Barry Bostwick: Well, it wasn't so bad until I realized it was half a century.
• 1:57
  Barry Bostwick: And then and then you go back to you go back to your history books and they talk about centuries this here, centuries that, and you're going, my God, I've been I've been out with this show, loving it, you know, sharing it with the world for half a century.
• 2:16
  Barry Bostwick: And it's it's actually changed the world.
• 2:19
  Barry Bostwick: It is historical, it's historical in the sense of society and and mores and rock and roll, and uh it's historical in my life because I have made lifelong friends, not only in the movie, but in the shadow casts that we deal with and with so many people who were behind the scenes in the film who are still you know so involved in it.
• 2:55
  Barry Bostwick: And it gives me a chance to see four or five of the the original cast members that we go out and do these tours in October and sometimes in the in the middle of the year, but October is obviously the big time for uh because everybody comes up to me at conventions and stuff and says, Well, it's my October 31st tradition.
• 3:19
  Barry Bostwick: The whole family gets together and we watch "The Rocky Horror Show.
• 3:24
  Barry Bostwick: " And I say, "Well, why don't you watch it on Valentine's Day, Labor Day, any day?" Just just I hate to see it sit for the whole year and only be uh you know appreciated, loved, and and entertaining one day a year.
• 3:43
  Barry Bostwick: But so we go out usually in an October for the last three years, and we'll do these one-nighters with Shadowcasts.
• 3:51
  Barry Bostwick: And I'll do a venue, Nell will do a venue, Patricia will do one, and then we'll all come together at one of them in New York City or somewhere, and and then we just have a ball.
• 4:03
  Barry Bostwick: You know, we have costume contests, we have a the guy who is uh sort of leader of the group is the head of the fan club, Larry Weisell.
• 4:12
  Barry Bostwick: Uh, and so he he introduces the evening.
• 4:16
  Barry Bostwick: You know, you do your uh have you seen one of these things ever?
• 4:20
  Speaker: ever?
• 4:20
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I have, but I was actually gonna ask you about the shadow cast because the first time I experienced it, I had no idea what I was walking into.
• 4:29
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I had seen the movie, I loved the movie, and I didn't realize that I wasn't actually gonna be able to hear or or see the movie in the same way when I was present with a shadow cast.
• 4:40
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Um so, but yes, I have.
• 4:43
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: It's just a very different experience.
• 4:44
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: And I was gonna ask how you explain that to folks who haven't experienced a shadow cast yet.
• 4:50
  Barry Bostwick: Well, it's a theatrical event.
• 4:52
  Barry Bostwick: It's not, you know, it's it's a happening, it's a community affair.
• 4:56
  Barry Bostwick: It's um I always think of it as just a big party, you know.
• 5:00
  Barry Bostwick: We we throw a party and uh uh we're the participants and we just sort of keep it going.
• 5:07
  Barry Bostwick: But the audience is the is is are the main characters, you know, in this evening.
• 5:14
  Barry Bostwick: I mean, they're the ones who are creating dialogue and throwing stuff at us and um uh coming as virgins, and then we diverginize them in as embarrassing we way we can do it without getting arrested.
• 5:28
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Um it's improv to a degree, I guess.
• 5:30
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: You're you're improving with your audience.
• 5:33
  Barry Bostwick: Oh yeah, oh yeah.
• 5:34
  Barry Bostwick: Because uh the uh every audience is different.
• 5:36
  Barry Bostwick: I mean, the the uh where was I a couple years ago?
• 5:40
  Barry Bostwick: I was in a place called the Villages, which is a retirement area here in Florida.
• 5:45
  Barry Bostwick: And um it's it's it's a lot different when you're doing this in front of 700 people who are still in walkers, you know, and and you say, Let's do the time warp again.
• 5:57
  Barry Bostwick: Three people get out of their chair and they do the step to the left and a jump to the right, and then they all fall down.
• 6:04
  Barry Bostwick: But the uh but when you do it normally, you know, in in New Jersey, uh at a place in New Jersey, you know, they're very excited and enthusiastic.
• 6:16
  Barry Bostwick: They they give it a hundred percent.
• 6:18
  Barry Bostwick: And and also it's it's a younger generation, which always throws me, floors me.
• 6:25
  Barry Bostwick: We're in our third, almost fourth generation of fans of this.
• 6:29
  Barry Bostwick: And when you I don't know about you, but when I was 17, you know, I didn't want to have anything to do with what my parents or grandparents were entertained by.
• 6:41
  Barry Bostwick: But this is a family affair.
• 6:43
  Barry Bostwick: It's there's a family created in the audience by people who are maybe a little different, maybe a little socially awkward or something, and they have found they have found their community, and and they they come back week after week to it to uh fulfill their familiar duties, uh, which is um to have a hell of a lot of fun, to be around people uh of their like kind, and uh to uh express themselves uh as filthy and as uh as they can in a public place, because they can't do that at Walmart.
• 7:24
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Well, they can, they might just get in trouble for it.
• 7:26
  Barry Bostwick: Yeah, exactly.
• 7:27
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I think that's what's so impressive about this movie though, that I I don't know what the intention was, and maybe you know the intention behind the film, but I d I don't know if the the mission was to create a community and involve I mean this became uh very big for the LGBTQ community, um, folks who who feel othered to a degree that doesn't necessarily have to be about their sexuality, but it's created such a safe space for people.
• 7:58
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: And I don't know if this was just meant to be like a fun, uh a fun romp or if that was always the underlying mission statement.
• 8:05
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Do you know?
• 8:06
  Barry Bostwick: Um Yeah, fun romp.
• 8:08
  Barry Bostwick: It wasn't that's all they wanted to do is they were entertaining themselves in 60 60 seat theater, and um uh they didn't think it would go beyond that.
• 8:18
  Barry Bostwick: And um uh it just fed it it it came out of Richard O'Brien's obsession with old movies, um, you know, uh horror films, uh sci-fi films, cheap B movies, and some of the characters he's created in this are just pure reflections of those characters you see in those those kinds of movies.
• 8:43
  Barry Bostwick: He's just changed in some ways, he's just changed the sexuality of it, and uh, you know, uh but uh th that was the mid-70s, that's when glamour glam rock and and all of that was uh very hot, uh where people were uh exploring their alter egos uh sexually.
• 9:04
  Barry Bostwick: And um, so he sort of fit right into what was uh what was happening uh in 74, 73, 75.
• 9:14
  Barry Bostwick: And um uh but I he I he from whenever I talk to him, I mean he and you've probably read some of his interviews.
• 9:23
  Barry Bostwick: You know, he just thought he was writing a little fairy tale.
• 9:26
  Barry Bostwick: You know, Hansel and Gretel meet the uh big bagged wolf.
• 9:30
  Barry Bostwick: Um uh in the big bad wolf just happens to be a transsexual from the from Transylvania, transsexual from the whatever, the universe.
• 9:40
  Barry Bostwick: Well, yeah, you know who he is.
• 9:41
  Barry Bostwick: Yeah, yes, yeah, he uh um uh and uh cross dressing, or I don't know if you'd call that cross-dressing, that that Frank is doing.
• 9:52
  Barry Bostwick: Yeah, I guess it's basically cross-dressing, because he he is a man and he he has and he's dangerous and he's dark and he's selfish and everything's a you know, everything's about him.
• 10:08
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Uh that's so fabulous.
• 10:10
  Barry Bostwick: Yes.
• 10:11
  Barry Bostwick: And that's what and that's what's uh I think that is also the great appeal of this is that he is he does it in such a delicious way.
• 10:22
  Barry Bostwick: He so encapsulates that part uh that you can't look away.
• 10:28
  Barry Bostwick: And and and since then people have tried to play Frankenfurter, I mean, on stage now and uh Broadway and uh all over.
• 10:37
  Barry Bostwick: Uh and I I think they try so hard to not be like Tim that um it would be like if if Frankenfurter was Hamlet, right?
• 10:49
  Barry Bostwick: Um you you you don't wanna you can't change Hamlet uh that much and you lose the story, you lose the you know the right of it.
• 11:00
  Barry Bostwick: And um and also uh we played it for real.
• 11:04
  Barry Bostwick: You know, all the characters were very real, and we we just happened to be in a bizarre situation, but we played it, we were all very innocent, everybody was.
• 11:13
  Barry Bostwick: And everybody lost their innocence in it, whether it was the monster or you know, um Columbia, Magenta, they all went back.
• 11:22
  Barry Bostwick: Well, they shot Columbia.
• 11:24
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Um there was a lot of death in this fun romance.
• 11:27
  Barry Bostwick: Yeah, yeah, it was like the last scene in in Hamlet, you know.
• 11:30
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Yeah.
• 11:31
  Barry Bostwick: Maybe and that's what maybe that's what he was uh going for, you know, is that overindulgence will kill you.
• 11:39
  Barry Bostwick: You know, and and it's um it's it's a uh it's a warning, it's it's a warning piece, I think, you know.
• 11:48
  Barry Bostwick: It's like just don't go too far.
• 11:50
  Barry Bostwick: You can don't dream it be it, you can be it, but don't hurt yourselves or other people while you're being it.
• 11:57
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Right.
• 11:57
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I remember Tim had something had said something similar to that, just as long as you're not hurting yourself, dream it be it.
• 12:03
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: And I mean, it's it's hard to to move forward without addressing the fact that we just lost him uh recently.
• 12:10
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I mean, I I never had the pleasure of meeting him, but even I find myself getting really emotional because he was such a huge, a huge part of my life growing up, uh, aside from um Rocky Hora, but Clue and and everything that he did, everything he touched was really iconic.
• 12:27
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: And you mentioned how hard it is for up-and-coming actors who are trying to fill that role of Frankenfer because they don't want to be too much like Tim.
• 12:37
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: But if you don't, like you said, he created that role.
• 12:41
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: So how do you how do you avoid, you know, repeating some of what he did in order to keep it alive?
• 12:48
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: It's that's tough.
• 12:50
  Barry Bostwick: It's a it is a very hard job.
• 12:52
  Barry Bostwick: I couldn't I wouldn't want to do it.
• 12:53
  Barry Bostwick: I mean Tim set a tone for the whole movie, and it's about him.
• 12:59
  Barry Bostwick: And um and he wasn't um he wasn't uh well it's hard to explain uh who he is in this.
• 13:10
  Barry Bostwick: It's I mean without without the the normal platitudes and or or descriptions of like um I don't know, it's uh it's it's still hard to talk about him because you don't have to.
• 13:26
  Barry Bostwick: He had he had a he had an aura.
• 13:29
  Barry Bostwick: He had and everything he did, w whether it's Spamilot or whether it's the Pirate King on stage or uh or clue, uh he had a confidence and uh you couldn't look away, you know.
• 13:44
  Barry Bostwick: Um and it all started with Rocky Horror.
• 13:47
  Barry Bostwick: He created this whirlwind of energy and created this such a unique character.
• 13:57
  Barry Bostwick: And I think the people who try too hard to change the nature of the piece and the nature of his character, uh I think they fail at um exploring the the real undercurrents of the of a Rocky Horror picture show and when it becomes the Rocky Horror show.
• 14:18
  Barry Bostwick: It um the the Fox version of it was just so candied up.
• 14:24
  Barry Bostwick: It was it was they they could they couldn't they couldn't deal with the darkness, they couldn't deal with the SM side of it, they couldn't deal with the even with the overt sexuality of it.
• 14:36
  Barry Bostwick: Uh and a lot of that was hidden and taken away from the experience.
• 14:41
  Barry Bostwick: But uh, you know, Tim Tim uh he is one of the bravest actors I've ever known.
• 14:50
  Barry Bostwick: You know, he he never pulled back and and also he was a guy who wasn't so interested in becoming the star.
• 14:59
  Barry Bostwick: You know, he he always wanted to disappear uh into roles uh because he was basically a shy guy.
• 15:08
  Barry Bostwick: Witty, funny, you know, he could have been a stand-up, but I don't you know, and uh so every role he played, I think he it was a real different part of Tim.
• 15:20
  Barry Bostwick: But in the reality, he was sick for 14 years, he was in a wheelchair for 14 years, he was having 24-hour care for 14 years, barely could get out of bed the last five, six years, loved his fans, and the only thing that he would he could really muster the energy up for was either a meet and greet or a fan convention or a something that just brought uh such joy to his life.
• 15:51
  Barry Bostwick: And uh that's one of the real losses, because people who would meet him, even though he was incapacitated in some ways, he looked at you and gave you the whole Tim Curry experience, you know.
• 16:05
  Barry Bostwick: Yeah, I guess that's I'm saying that.
• 16:08
  Barry Bostwick: But I but I you know I so what I'm saying, I I think I saying it's hard to say, but what would you do if you were sitting in a wheelchair for 14 years, you know?
• 16:17
  Barry Bostwick: I uh and struggling with different illnesses based on that.
• 16:22
  Barry Bostwick: It's it it has to be, I don't know what your religious beliefs are, but it has to be a relief in some way that he can relax and not feel the the daily moment-to-moment pain that he was feeling.
• 16:38
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I am very sorry for your loss.
• 16:40
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: And I think that a lot of us are feeling that loss, even those of us who who didn't know him, because like you just explained, he was such a a unique and wonderful individual.
• 16:50
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: So thank you so much for sharing your well, you know, it's not my loss.
• 16:54
  Barry Bostwick: I mean, it is my loss, but it's all of our loss because of what he brought into the world and uh the joy and the entertainment and the fear.
• 17:02
  Barry Bostwick: Uh I mean, he he was he knew how to he knew how to turn you on proudly sexually, he knew how to turn you on uh as somebody looking down a sewer, you know, and and just frightened the hell out of you.
• 17:17
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: And um he excelled at playing villains.
• 17:19
  Barry Bostwick: Villains.
• 17:20
  Barry Bostwick: That was his yeah, that was his thing.
• 17:21
  Barry Bostwick: He loved his villains.
• 17:22
  Barry Bostwick: He always said they were the most interesting characters in the piece.
• 17:26
  Barry Bostwick: And he's right, and he brought that to it because of his energy, his voice.
• 17:31
  Barry Bostwick: I mean, his voice was an amazing voice.
• 17:34
  Barry Bostwick: That's why he even even if he was ill for the last dozen years, he still did voice work and and still was able to enjoy creating characters in in that very specific way.
• 17:48
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Well, I I wanted to ask you, uh, because we've been talking about how iconic he was in that role and Dr.
• 17:53
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Frankenfurter, what it began on stage.
• 17:56
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: It was the Rocky Horror show on stage.
• 17:59
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Yeah.
• 17:59
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Had you seen it on stage before you became affiliated with the movie?
• 18:04
  Barry Bostwick: Yeah.
• 18:04
  Barry Bostwick: Tim went from the broad from London, he did it uh in LA um at the Roxy, which is a a club on on uh and uh he the only reason he did it there is because Lou Adler, who saw it originally in London, had this club, the Roxy, and he was trying to figure out how he could pull people into it uh rather than just getting the the weekly uh uh Rock Act, you know.
• 18:32
  Barry Bostwick: So he decided that he would uh mount the Rocky Horror Picture Show in basically what it was a club atmosphere.
• 18:40
  Barry Bostwick: You know, I don't know how many sat, maybe 300 people or 400 people, but he could recreate the sort of trashiness of what it was and how it had been conceived.
• 18:52
  Barry Bostwick: So Tim came over and did it for six months or so, I think.
• 18:57
  Barry Bostwick: And uh and then they were recast with Americans and the other parts.
• 19:01
  Barry Bostwick: And then uh and then Lou Adler was able to convince Fox that we we should do he should do a movie.
• 19:09
  Barry Bostwick: And uh, you know, the story is that uh Jim, uh the director, said he'd only do it if he could use the original cast.
• 19:18
  Barry Bostwick: He didn't want to do a low a big budget movie with uh Jagger, you know, or Bowie, because they had offered him that option uh to go yeah, to, you know, let's pack it with uh you know big rockers, and he goes, No, this is this is something that we've created on a small scale, and people have worked hard, and each character is so well delineated because of the actors who played them.
• 19:44
  Barry Bostwick: But then he was forced to cast a few Americans, and I was uh fortunate enough to be offered the part of Brad uh and Susan uh Janet because we were at the time, I guess, in the business we were considered up-and-comers, and uh we just had that essence of purity, of uh, you know, 50s uh straightness, you know.
• 20:09
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: And you'd already been nominated for a Tony before you got yeah.
• 20:14
  Barry Bostwick: I I thought I got in Greece, because I did Greece originally and I created the part of Danny Zuko.
• 20:19
  Barry Bostwick: So we got nominated for that, and then I actually won a Tony, I think in 77 for The Robber Bridegroom.
• 20:28
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: So right after the film.
• 20:30
  Barry Bostwick: Yeah, yeah.
• 20:31
  Barry Bostwick: And it um and I got another Tony nomination somewhere in between there for Best Supporting Actor in a Play.
• 20:38
  Barry Bostwick: What was that?
• 20:39
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Was that they knew what they wanted?
• 20:41
  Barry Bostwick: Yeah, that's what it was.
• 20:42
  Barry Bostwick: And um, I don't know what year that was, but I think 76.
• 20:47
  Barry Bostwick: So the 70s was my New York year.
• 20:50
  Barry Bostwick: I mean, that was my New York decade of uh you know doing uh as much stuff as I could do on stage.
• 20:57
  Barry Bostwick: And then I got attracted to um California and uh TV movies and miniseries and films, but um but basically the the move to California was done with a number of like a community.
• 21:10
  Barry Bostwick: John Travolta, me, Swayze, we were all had the same manager, a guy named Bob Lamont.
• 21:17
  Barry Bostwick: And he wanted to get us all away from New York and just start creating California careers.
• 21:23
  Barry Bostwick: And um and he did.
• 21:25
  Barry Bostwick: Uh there's there was a whole handful of us.
• 21:27
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: And um uh seems like it worked out for you guys.
• 21:31
  Barry Bostwick: Well, yeah, it did, I think, you know, and he and he was a great manager and he knew how to he was but an old-style manager where he would groom an actor, you know, he'd he'd tell you what you should wear to an audition, you know, how you should audition, uh, and uh uh he you know, he'd say, cut your hair, do this, you know.
• 21:52
  Speaker: That that kind of care uh doesn't happen anymore.
• 21:55
  Speaker: It's we're just actors are just through thrown into the mix and the They have to fend for themselves in terms of what they think is commercial based on their personalities.
• 22:06
  Speaker: Um I wouldn't want to have to start these days.
• 22:10
  Speaker: I'm because I'm that means I would have to do all this internet stuff, you know, all these all these YouTube things and uh I don't I don't envy the up-and-comers now.
• 22:21
  Speaker: It's tough.
• 22:22
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 22:23
  Speaker: Thank God they're up and coming because a lot of actually a lot of people starting out in show business now were in shadow casts around the world.
• 22:32
  Speaker: They sort of cut their teeth on being in front of an audience and uh uh acting up, acting out, and um perhaps finding who they were in the world by challenging themselves to to be in front of the world, you know, which is to me that I think that's it's fascinating because the way people have changed when they they start being in a shadow cast, and it's it it's it you know, they start moving props around, and then they start and they become a Transylvania, and then they audition and become Frankenfort or somebody.
• 23:11
  Speaker: And it's a progression of um self-awareness and self-comfort, I think.
• 23:16
  Speaker: And um, you know, it's not just a bunch of people standing up on stage anymore like it was back at the Waverly, uh, you know, in the mid-70s, you know, where they everybody said, Well, well, this is fun, let me just dress up and go up there and m mess around, you know, and then it became more cohesive, and uh, and then it was sort of formed into some kind of a well, let's do it let's do it this way.
• 23:40
  Speaker: But you know, the shadow casts were originally just shadows.
• 23:44
  Speaker: You know, they were they were in front of the screen, behind them, and they would mimic everything on the screen, but you really couldn't see them because the film was playing through them.
• 23:56
  Speaker: So there they had to be very specific if that was the the goal of being a shadow cast.
• 24:03
  Speaker: Now it's something different.
• 24:04
  Speaker: I'm now they've taken over and uh they are not so concerned about being per picture perfect.
• 24:10
  Speaker: Um, and uh so they're bringing their own personalities to it and finding bits and jokes and things that their particular audience has encouraged them to do.
• 24:21
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Well, I guess uh half a century will give you a bit of evolution.
• 24:24
  Barry Bostwick: Yes, exactly.
• 24:25
  Barry Bostwick: Yeah.
• 24:26
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: When you put it that way, I mean uh we're saying 50 years, but I just hadn't thought of it in terms of half of a century either.
• 24:32
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: And when you think of it that way, that is really overwhelming.
• 24:36
  Barry Bostwick: It is overwhelming.
• 24:37
  Barry Bostwick: You know, it's as overwhelming as when you have to fill out a form and they say, What year were you born?
• 24:42
  Barry Bostwick: And then you got to go click, click, click.
• 24:45
  Barry Bostwick: Oh shit, I'm still not there.
• 24:46
  Barry Bostwick: Click, click, click, you know, and you go, My God, does anybody live this long?
• 24:52
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Yeah, but you know what, it is a blessing to be here and uh I'm glad.
• 24:56
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: But I I kind of want to ask you, because this is uh such a huge part of the zeitgeist, what have you learned?
• 25:07
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: You know, maybe a life lesson that you can take away from being a part of this film, or maybe just from fan encounters, what have you taken away from it?
• 25:16
  Barry Bostwick: Um probably a sense of discomfort being around different people, different attitudes, different sexual out sexualities.
• 25:29
  Barry Bostwick: Um probably a uh uh people that I would never have met and and and engaged with if if Rocky Horror hadn't uh been there.
• 25:39
  Barry Bostwick: And it and it's not it's not just all the sexual stuff, because as you uh you know the movie, that's it's it's more it's not outwardly, the few moments in it, but and also with the with the profanity.
• 25:52
  Barry Bostwick: I I think there's only one bad word in it.
• 25:54
  Barry Bostwick: It's the audience that's created this this um tone.
• 25:58
  Barry Bostwick: But uh I'm trying to think of the word that it's an acceptance for the differences that we we have.
• 26:06
  Barry Bostwick: And I and and because I'm around them, uh I can explore their world uh a little bit because I'm communicating with them, and I see I I see why.
• 26:18
  Barry Bostwick: I see why.
• 26:20
  Barry Bostwick: I see this, I we hear the stories every every week.
• 26:23
  Barry Bostwick: We hear stories, we we hear uh wonderful stories about family, their families and how they related to the movie, stories about their loss of sometimes the loss of their families, because and and and that connection with their personal families was so strong based on Rocky Horror, because the grandfather took the mother, the mother took the child, the child is now waiting to take their baby, you know, and it's it's a a continuation, it's a tradition.
• 26:58
  Barry Bostwick: And so um well it it's just it's just me experiencing the world in a whole different way than I thought I would ever have to.
• 27:09
  Barry Bostwick: And um uh or I would uh be subjected to uh the these um people who not only dream it but are it, you know?
• 27:23
  Barry Bostwick: Because my trajectory in life has been pretty steady, pretty steady, pretty just like mmm, you know, a little bit of a little bit of growth, a little bit of stagnant, a little bit of you know, and then occasionally I get something else, boop, you know, and boop.
• 27:40
  Barry Bostwick: But this this experience has it's it's it stays with me 24 hours a day because it's become part of my education, my life education.
• 27:51
  Barry Bostwick: As I think it's been as affected me as it affects people in the audience when they see what we're doing.
• 27:59
  Barry Bostwick: Boy, that's all I got on that.
• 28:02
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: No, that's I think it's a really beautiful experience that so many of us don't have the opportunity to to live.
• 28:11
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: And that's I mean, that's where hate comes from, right?
• 28:13
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: It's it's ignorance, a lack of understanding of other people's lived experience.
• 28:18
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: So the fact that you get to be a part of that and also to help other people, you know, find their way in the world, that's huge.
• 28:26
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: It's it's something that so many of us will never experience.
• 28:29
  Barry Bostwick: And would you what you're just saying, would you put it as if it came out of my mouth?
• 28:34
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Yes, I'm gonna do that in the edit, absolutely.
• 28:36
  Barry Bostwick: Okay, please do because that's that's so much more articulate than what I groof around with, you know.
• 28:42
  Barry Bostwick: It uh no, because sure, it that is what it's about.
• 28:46
  Barry Bostwick: I mean, and it's um politically, socially, it's bad again.
• 28:51
  Barry Bostwick: And and and uh that's why we're still here, I think, and why people are investing time and energy into uh doing it on stage and uh uh because it's not just a drag show.
• 29:05
  Barry Bostwick: You know, if you want to go to a drag show, go to the bar down down the block.
• 29:09
  Barry Bostwick: This is not that.
• 29:10
  Barry Bostwick: But you know what?
• 29:12
  Speaker: You I always forget how brilliant the music is.
• 29:15
  Speaker: Lou Adler, Lou Adler, the pre original producer who was a musical producer, he always said that this was basically a musical film, uh, with some scenes in between, you know, but uh not getting not getting in the way of that rock and roll, raw, punky energy, you know.
• 29:36
  Speaker: And um the songs are well, Richard O'Brien himself says, I only know three chords on a guitar.
• 29:44
  Speaker: And uh and probably if you looked at the genesis of so many of these songs, it's three chords.
• 29:51
  Speaker: And then uh and then Richard Hartley took over, who was also the one of the writers of the music, and he would like expand it and and create an arrangement that was but still the arrangements are simple.
• 30:05
  Speaker: Everything is simple.
• 30:07
  Speaker: Any garage band could play any song in this show, and I think that's part of the attraction is that you go, you identify with one of these characters, uh, and you and you uh you can sing the songs, uh, and you can remember the songs, you know.
• 30:27
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: That's true.
• 30:27
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: They're they're simple but so fun.
• 30:29
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Yeah and at the risk at the risk of embarrassing myself, I will admit that for a very long time I genuinely did not understand the plot of this movie because I was so focused on singing the songs.
• 30:43
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I had no idea what was going on.
• 30:44
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I just wanted to say, damn it, Janet, like over and over.
• 30:47
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: And yeah, that was that was the fun for me.
• 30:50
  Barry Bostwick: That's the fun for more most people, you know.
• 30:53
  Barry Bostwick: Yeah, I mean, if you don't want to understand the plot, watch uh the watch shock treatment, his other his next movie.
• 31:00
  Barry Bostwick: That plot is is brilliant because it's so different and and and you can't follow it.
• 31:06
  Barry Bostwick: But the music is great in it, and you know, it had so many of the same actors in it.
• 31:11
  Barry Bostwick: But uh he had a he was he he was tapping into what was just starting to happen with reality TV.
• 31:19
  Barry Bostwick: And um, I gotta watch that again.
• 31:22
  Barry Bostwick: Shadowcast do that too, but uh it's it's not a it's not a big seller.
• 31:28
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Well, one day it probably will be.
• 31:29
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: You know, the way the world is cyclical, some things just find their life afterwards.
• 31:34
  Barry Bostwick: Yeah.
• 31:35
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: But yeah, the catchy music, that's that's the uh the genesis, I guess, of of the love for this project.
• 31:42
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: And yeah, I just I'm so excited every time, you know, every Halloween, like you said, I think people should enjoy it throughout the year.
• 31:50
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: But Halloween is fun because that's an easier excuse to get dressed up, right?
• 31:55
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I went once as magenta.
• 31:57
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Good.
• 31:57
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: And I feel like at some point I need to go as Janet, maybe Columbia.
• 32:01
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I don't know, I gotta switch it up, you know.
• 32:03
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: But I am looking forward to go as riff go as riff rap.
• 32:07
  Barry Bostwick: I always love it when women go as riff rep.
• 32:09
  Barry Bostwick: You know what?
• 32:10
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I hadn't even considered that, but I should.
• 32:12
  Barry Bostwick: Yeah, you should go as riff rep, you know.
• 32:14
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: You'll have two opportunities to see Barry Bostwick in New Jersey alongside the Rocky Horror Picture Show with Shadowcast this October.
• 32:21
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: First, he will be at the State Theatre in New Brunswick on October 3rd.
• 32:25
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: And the next night he will be at the Scottish Rite Auditorium in Collingswood on October 4th.
• 32:29
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: For more information about the Rocky Horror Picture Show with Barry Bostwick, be sure to visit the venue's websites at either scottishriteauditorium.com or stnj.org for the State Theater.
• 32:40
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: And if you're curious about Barry's documentary that I mentioned earlier, check out makingmegaforce.com.
• 32:46
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: If you liked this episode, be sure to review, subscribe, and tell your friends.
• 32:50
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: A transcript of this podcast, links relevant to the story, and more about the arts in New Jersey can be found at jerseyarts.com.
• 32:56
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: The Jersey Arts Podcast is presented by Art Pride New Jersey, advancing a state of creativity since 1986.
• 33:02
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: The show was co founded by and currently supported by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.
• 33:07
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: This episode was hosted, edited, and produced by me, Gina Marie Rodriguez.
• 33:12
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: The executive producer is Jim Atkinson.
• 33:14
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: And my thanks, of course, to Mr.
• 33:16
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Barry Bostwick for speaking with me today.
• 33:17
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I'm Gina Marie Rodriguez of the Jersey Arts Podcast.
• 33:20
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Thanks for listening.