“I, Rocky Horror virgin scum do hereby admit in front of all of these people that I am a Rocky Horror virgin. I am willing to lose all of my morals tonight and accept decadence into my heart.” 

As I arrived at the Risley performance, I surrendered the remains of my dignity, raised my right hand and shamefully recited the above statement along with dozens of other Cornellians who waited in “antici …  pation” for the rest of the night’s events. Looking around the converted cafeteria, dozens of students sat with red “V’s” on their foreheads, segregated from the corrupt, “experienced” crowd, right from the start of the Rocky Horror journey. Forcibly shoved in uncomfortable seating positions with a very bizarrely dressed crowd of Cornellians, I realized that I was in another world (or dimension) from my safe haven of Collegetown. Many corset-wearing girls and boys lined the rows beaming with self-confidence and lack of shame for their all-too-revealing outfits. To my right was a man sporting a blonde wig, pink fishnets, chains wrapped around his body, and six-inch platform heels. 

The show opened with the “virgin games” in which eight Rocky first-timers volunteered to go on stage and were then separated into girl and boy couples. Tasks included girls eating kiwis off of the boys laps and boys placing a condom on a banana using only their mouths. Another portion of the “virgin games” involved contestants faking an orgasm while dancing around a stripper pole. While none of the contestants came close to the infamous scene from When Harry Met Sally, some of them did have me chuckling for a bit due to their uncomfortable attempts to woo the crowd. Now that those of us marked with V’s had officially been corrupted and scarred for life by the scandalous occurrences on stage, we were finally at a mature enough level to observe and understand the truth behind the cult classic The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

While there are many adaptations to the Rocky Horror live performance, the annual Risley tradition involves the characters lip-syncing to the movie as it plays in the background and incorporating some clever props throughout the show. The performance began with the infamous red lips appearing on the screen mouthing the words to “Science Fiction, Double Feature” while two girls in revealing lingerie proceeded to dance around a stripper pole to further entice the audience. The plot begins with the engagement of ignorant simpletons Brad and Janet who later encounter car trouble and are forced to go to a nearby “castle” for help. They are then confronted with the alternative world of Dr. Frank-N-Furter, leading to a vast array of bizarre occurrences throughout the rest of the movie. 

Overall, the actors did an excellent job engaging the audience and were cast extremely well. Specifically, the actress playing Janet perfected Susan Sarandon’s ditzy mannerisms throughout the performance. The clear stand-out of the show, however, was Frank-N-Furter, the transvestite who steals the spotlight for the majority of the movie. The actor playing Frank-N-Furter was spot on appearance-wise and looked extremely comfortable in his platform heels to say the least. The cast was well-prepared and included some of the finest lip-synchers I have ever seen in my Cornell experience. 

The most intriguing factor of the Risley Rocky Horror experience was the cult followers who chanted an alternative script throughout the entirety of the film. According to Wikipedia regarding the Rocky cult following, “what were ad lib responses, more commonly known as ‘Call Backs’ by followers, from the audience are now, in a few locales, as tightly scripted as any screenplay.” On the sides of the auditorium about 10 students stood the whole time chanting special phrases that were not included in the movie. From screaming about “elbow sex” to “four years at IC and I learned to do this?!,” (as a character fumbles with manual buttons)  it seems as though quite a few Risley students have mastered a Cornell-specific script which has stuck over the years. While at times the chanting became extremely annoying and interfered with my ability to hear the movie, the amount of memorization committed by these loyal fans was extremely impressive. 

While I do not plan on seeing Rocky Horror again in the near future, it was an experience which allowed me to see a much more alternative side to Cornell. When else can I see a vast amount of men wearing corsets, sequins and heels on a Saturday night? Yes, at times, I was a bit disturbed and uncomfortable in the tightly packed seating, however I was glad I could be part of the annual tradition and finally remove my title as a Rocky Horror Virgin.