Hello Chieftain!

Part 7: Have You Met God's Son Steve? His Ears Don't
Work

You get a gaggle of geeks together on a regular basis,
they're going to come up with all kinds of inside
jokes. Of course, there'd be the usual assortment of
quotes from Monty Python, John Hughes films, Star
Trek, and Red Dwarf. But then there'd be the REALLY
esoteric stuff, the weird shit that would just issue
forth from the mouths of those affected by sleep-deprivation
and Mountain Dew. In honor of the old gang,
I present the following random sampling of
inside jokes from my Rocky Horror Days.

POCKET CHEESE: From the days of the Lewis and Clark
cast: a packet of parmesan cheese, preferably from the
Pizza Haven at Seattle Center (though Sea-Tac Mall was
acceptable), to be kept in the pocket of one's coat at
all times. One person would take out their pocket
cheese and begin shaking it, at which point all
conversation would cease, as everyone had to join in
shaking their pocket cheese. After a "Hand Check"
(where you drop the packet and hold up both hands, to
show everyone that you HAVE both hands), conversation
would resume as if nothing had happened.

ICKNO-ICKYES-GASP-EMPHATICALLY-TO FILL-THE VOID-OF
NOTHINGNESS: To be said by a succession of people,
each one taking a part of the phrase. The "ickno"
part was a line from Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, that
someone said one night at a party. Someone else
responded with "ickyes" and it built from there.

LOBSTERS: Ever play the Star Wars Pants game? This
was kind of the same thing: just take a well-known
sentence and replace one (or more) of the words with
"lobsters."

"It seemed a fairly ordinary Lobsters, when Brad
Lobsters and his Lobsters, Janet Lobsters..."

The moment of overkill came when I posted to a local
BBS with a parody of the opera section of "Bohemian
Rhapsody," with "Lobsters" as damn near every other
word. After that, it was just too much.

DROP THE SPOON: A handy way to check for
under-the-table shenanigans at the diner after the
show. Want to know if Jeni's giving Mike a handjob?
Drop the spoon! Is Rich wearing underwear? Drop the
spoon!

WATER-LOTS OF IT: From a video John and I made when
Danetta moved to Kentucky. We were showing things
they have in Tacoma that they don't have in Kentucky,
and that was one of them. Sure, they have some
water-but we have lots of it!

GABE: It was a tradition after the show to go to a
diner. Usually one of the many Denny's (such as the
Forgotten Denny's, or the Denny's At The Center Of The
Universe) that Tacoma had to offer, but
occasionally we would shake things up by going to the
less common, but slightly better quality, Shari's. It
was one night at Shari's that we were served by Gabe,
the king of all waiters. Tall, blond, thin, and clean,
Gabe was the lust object of all the girls in the cast,
which was a bit of a waste of time, really. Think about
it. Thin? Clean? I had a better chance with Gabe
than any girl.

I could share more with you, but I'm afraid I've
overtaxed the patience of the three of you who
actually read this entire section. I'll just stop
now, and leave you wondering what (the fuck) a
"winking wicky-aid appliance" is.

Copyright 2004 Rich Bowen