What do you get when you spell B-r-a-d? Asshole. Something this crud could mean only one thing: someone’s showing The Rocky Picture Horror Show.

On Sept. 26, 1970, The Rocky Horror Picture Show opened across the nation and flopped everywhere but New York City. Nice boy meets nice girl. Nice boy and nice girl get stuck in a castle full of insane crazy weirdos, one of whom is Tim Curry in a sexy, little black teddy. Curry creates buff muscle boy and buff muscle boy decides that Curry is not his kind of person. Buff muscle boy sleeps with just about everybody in sight and Curry gets upset. Everybody dresses up in sexy lingerie for no apparent reason and the maid and the butler (who are really aliens) go in to shoot them. END OF STORY!!!

“It’s a hell of a good time and Richard O’Brien I think said it best. He said it was a combination of sex and rock and roll and that’s what works,” said Ruth Fink-Winter, grad student in chemical engineering at ISU who also acts out the part of Magenta, the maid/alien in the movie. “My father went to the play a long time ago. He liked the music, bought the record; I liked the voice. He never would tell me what the film was about, and I understood it the first time I saw it.

“I’m a different person when I’m here. I can do whatever the hell I want. I can scare virgins which is actually a kind of fun hobby,” Fink-Winter added.

Speaking of virgins, the most unusual part of the evening is the auctioning off of virgins. You can get de-virginized if you’ve never been to The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Don’t worry — no one gets hurt and you have an erotically great time.

The movie characters are usually acted out in front of the screen. One of the tricks to getting these parts down is practice, practice and more practice. Not only talent and hard work go into the acting, but the costumes and wigs must be just right.

“I can know everything about [Magenta]. I can show up in gold lam‚ and hair three feet tall and people can be really impressed. It’s hard to do that in most other fields that I’m aware of, unless you’re a fantastic scientist or you’re Albert Einstein,” Fink-Winter said. “It’s just my little way of trying to be a big fish in a little pond, I guess.”

This just isn’t an American phenomenon, but an international one as well. “It’s a lot of fun. I’ve performed in two different countries now, and I’m hoping to add a third when I go abroad. I’m going to be performing with the cast in Germany. You find someplace that’s showing Rocky. You’ll make a roadtrip, dress in costume and watch the film,” Fink-Winter said.

Normal is as normal does, but when Rocky hits the silver screen, the reality of fitting in is lost because everyone is welcome and feels at home in the unusual environment of fun and family. “It’s more like everyone getting together and having a party, having fun, doing different things, a lot different from normal society,” said David Fisch, Urban DMACC student.

Playing Janet would be a dream come true for many Rocky die-hards, but for one Iowa State student, the task is flawless and done to perfection. “Janet’s a lot like me. I can be uninhibited and that’s what I really love about it,” said Jen Hoffman, a freshman in prebusiness.

“I’ve been doing this since junior high. Do you remember Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer? Do you remember the island of broken toys? This is the island of broken toys. You spend enough time out here, you see people out here. This is the place where people who don’t have anything in common, find something in common,” Dennis Hoffman said.

“I found that at first I didn’t understand the movie, but if you go see it enough times like I have, like over three hundred, you still have the spirit of the movie, but it becomes more of a social thing. It’s just great because I met my future wife here and a lot of people have,” Brian Andres said.

Tonight marks the 25th anniversary, so get your Rocky bones to Billy Joe’s Picture Show in West Des Moines by midnight for a fun-filled night of surviving the time warp again.

Single tickets are $12.50 and survival kits are ready to go that include rice, a horn, doctor’s latex gloves, a party hat and a newspaper for that wonderful scene of Janet running in the rain. Billy Joe’s is located at 1701 25th St. in West Des Moines, so put on your Rocky rags and high-tail it down before it hits the witching hour. You can’t get anymore retro than Rocky.