Blog – Page 5 – JOHNNY HAS THE KEYS

I met David Horton in 1978. We were teenagers, both cast in a community production of Carousel by the Morristown Theatre Guild in Tennessee. He was playing the villain, Jigger, and I was a dancer/chorus member. He was a little older than me and we didn’t become close friends until four years later…

Within one of these four years David found himself thrust into behind-the-scenes production on Sam Raimi’s The Evil Dead. The movie was filmed near my parent’s house in Morristown, on a mutual friend’s property. Of this affiliation, I will be eternally jealous.

In 1982 we were cast in Agatha Christie’s Ten Little Indians and what began a streak of several mutual productions over the next nine years (including One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Greater Tuna, Macbeth, and Little Shop of Horrors), many of which he was director. You can find these some of these here.

In that span, we easily consumed hundreds of movies, most of which were horror and science fiction. The final 2 years we shared a house and our movie intake likely tripled. People would come and go (talking of Michelangelo?) but we were the constant, always selecting the evening’s viewing entertainment from a vast collection of our own videotapes or rented oddities.

Other than writing and performing onstage, we worked with a local television station, skirted the fringes of movie production, staged charity events for the oldest community theatre in the state, drank tremendous amounts of alcohol, and still found time in the wee hours to watch tons of movies.

And though our opinions are not always bilateral, our obsession with the genres has been constant.

In 1989 I moved back to my home state of Georgia. David and I have probably not seen each other in person more than 5 times in the last thirty years. David since has married, has several children and grandchildren, and still works in the entertainment field. I came out of the closet, married, have several four-legged furry children, and work in retail management.

Through the magic of the internet and social media, we have found each other again. And, rather than keep our humble opinions to ourselves, we—much like the kids we once were—have decided to put a show on for you! We hope you enjoy our company as much as we enjoy each other’s.

–Tim

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I must say, the thought of doing a podcast was something I had thought about, but never with any real conviction. I thought “that might be cool”, but then would remind myself I also think it would be cool to be an astronaut. Having a podcast to me was like all of those “Youtubers” – there’s a video out there for everything from changing the brakes on your car to creating a tiny kitchen out of Play-doh. And, even though I may watch a variety of videos, I never thought of doing one myself. In fact, I am constantly mystified that people actually have the time and resources to create this plethora of video information. I mean it’s one thing to know how to do something. It’s another entirely to get he camera, shoot it, edit it, add titles and music and post it – let alone creating the Youtube page, doing any kind of marketing or tagging or whatever you have to do to get it out there. That’s a commitment. I always thought – “I don’t think I have that commitment for something that is about me.” But I was drawn to the idea. I’ve always been a person with lots of opinions about entertainment – especially movies, television and books. Friends used to talk about my “soap-boxing” – standing at parties or gatherings and just “going off” on something I was passionate about – sometimes for hours. So having opinions and talking has never been an issue. Did I ever have something worthwhile to say? Something that might even remotely be interesting to anyone else? Usually not. I mean, I had my opinion and I think I could debate that opinion fairly strongly. But was it important? Did it make a difference? Nah.

But a couple of years ago I started listening to a few podcasts. Usually ones that were reviewing movies or tc shows I was interested in. I wanted to see what others thought – if they agreed with me – or if they didn’t – why? Some of them were good – very professional and slick. Others were more like a couple of friends (or sadly only one lonely guy) sitting in a basement trying to feel important. Still others were so over-produced and spent so much time either stroking themselves or reading ad and sponsor copies the the entire thing was a waste of time.

Still I listened in and followed a few. The idea crept back in that – maybe i should try my hand at it. If so many other were sharing opinions, and I had a lot of opinions – maybe I should add my voice. This idea was usually drowned out by more pressing matters – family, work, the latest sci-fi series I could fine, etc. And then I heard from an old friend: “Hey, do you listen to podcasts?”

“Sometimes. Why?”

“You know, we should do that shit. I think we’d be great.”

And thus began the initial foray into making this podcast…….

Tune in next time as the idea starts to take shape.

–David

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