"I would like, if I may, to take you on a strange journey..."

"How strange was it?"
"So strange they made a movie out of it. No, not the book. The movie!"

And so it goes...every Saturday at midnight during a screening of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show." There would be toast and toilet paper flying and people shouting everything imaginable as comeback lines. As you may already know, this show was my livelihood during my college years. I started going during my senior year of high school and then got caught up in the swing of things. I started making friends at the theater I attended and then decided to try my hand at performing in the stage shows. I first went on as Janet during an audience night show. That was quite a wild ride, but so liberating and fun. Then I decided I'd rather be Magenta, as I had the right kind of hair for the role. It was fun putting on the costume and make-up and getting to perform "Time Warp" and other songs. I loved being part of the cast that I performed with week after week during the summer of 1994 (and every so often after that). There was a special camaraderie involved that I didn't feel with my friends in high school at the time. (I had some good friends, but a lot of the time there was fighting involved.) Some of my favorite "Rocky Horror" memories include:

*Congregating at the Rainbow restaurant for hours afterward and getting to sit at the cast table
*Bringing friends who have never seen the show live and having them participate in the virgin ceremony...lucky for them, no one got picked to do anything embarrassing
*Ringing in the new year at the show and then the cast party afterward
*Learning more in detail about how to play Magenta and then singing along with the "Little Shop of Horrors" soundtrack while driving [the guy who was playing] Riff Raff home
*Going to some conventions in Wisconsin
*Learning this really long name that one of my friends liked to say before the show each week
*Attending a very "Rocky" wedding for two of my friends
*Making a costume that came pretty close to the real thing
*Getting to perform as Magenta for a cast I wasn't even part of (also in Wisconsin)
*Coming up with new lines and getting laughs
*Going to Peoria with a near stranger (who became a friend afterward) to see it because I was going through withdrawal in college
*Getting to put together a performance for my campus but playing Columbia for the first time
*Most importantly, the friends I've made through being in the cast and being able to find them again on Facebook

For me, "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" wasn't just about going to a movie at midnight. It was an experience that I enjoy thinking back upon. Would I let my kids see it when they're older? I guess I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. Something tells me the show will still be around entertaining and making memories for new generations.

This is me as Magenta and my friend John as Brad: