ISSUE #7 - December, 2000
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Well, it took hours and hours cramped in a small car, about 1500 miles, and some unfathomable planning and coordinating; but I actually made it from Colorado all the way out to West Virginia just to see the Rock-afire Explosion. When I told people that I was planning on making the trip just to see a bunch of singing robotic animals, I got some of the strangest looks I've ever recieved in my entire life. People looked at me like I was some kind of idiot. But it's not as if this trip was as bizarre as you may be thinking. My friends and I once drove 5 hours out of our way just so we could eat at the riverboat McDonalds and then be able to say we've eaten at a floating McDonalds.

But anyway. This trip took an entire week - I got to see my out of state friends and do alot of other stuff which was cool. It took a little persuasion to get them to go to the Billy Bob locations. We stopped at some other locations in Kentucky on the way to the Ashland store, which got us lost. I guess now is a good time for me to say that Kentucky is the most GOD AWFUL state when it comes to interstates. If at all possible aviod Lexington at all costs. Anywho we got lost on some backroads, and the local people at a rural church couldn't even tell us where we were when shown a map. So this put us behind and I got to the Ashland store late, about 7:00 pm. I wanted to visit both the Ashland store and the Barboursville store that night so I had to plan my time carefully. The location was on the outskirts of town, but an internet map made it fairly easy to find.

My friends went into the restaurant first as I was outside trying to find the rest of my film. I tried to hold back my excitement and compose myself, but it was hopeless. I went to the door and was able to walk right in, so nice to not have to stand in a kiddie check corral like a cow. The store was open and roomey and my friends were watching me from the show room to see the expression on my face - part of the "Homely for Christmas" show was being preformed.
Now, there have been a few epiphanies I've expierienced over the course of my ShowBiz obsession. Like the time I broke out the old record player and listened to the songs I remember playing as a kid, or the time I listened to Dook singing 867-5309 (the first new RAE song I'd heard since my childhood), or the first time I got an email from Aaron Fechter, or the first time I saw the RAE in action on a video someone sent to me. This was another one of those moments.
The stage in Ashland was raised up a few feet, and was about twice as deep as it should have been, but the show was still great. The animatronics were in pretty good working order, there were several things wrong, but only someone as anal as me would even have noticed. It was no worse than some of the retrofitted RAE shows in CEC stores. The shows had to be blurped everytime "Showbiz" was said, and the restaurant was unlike any Showbiz I could remember. But even though it wasn't like revisiting Showbiz, it was better in several ways.

One of the coolest things I witnessed there was when the walk-around Billy Bob came out for a birthday party. The poor costume was battered and looked as if it hadn't been cleaned since the 80s. But surprisingly the kids didn't seem to notice, they just huddled around and seemed perfectly happy that Billy Bob came out to visit them. It was at that point when I realized just how magical Showbiz was to kids - something that growing older has caused me to lose sight of.

The one thing that I left there feeling great about was the hospitality of the crew. Everyone there that night was so nice to us, even in sight of that fact that I was snapping pictures left and right like a Japanese tourist. I was able to get some free balloons and almost a free hat. The technician working there that night offered to give me her hat, but had to get it back after being told she'd be written up for it. It was still a very sweet gesture (something no one else has ever done for me), and she even managed to get me a hat anyway. :)

Carla, our cutie hotestess was awesome too. She dragged the walk-around Billy Bob over and was nice enough to take my picture with him. She was definitey what my friend (who spent more time watching her than the show) will remember most. So Ashland definetly has my approval for friendly and courteous service. If anyone can make the trip, it's definetely worth your while.

So in the morning we went to Barboursville. Now this store was much different from the Ashland store. The store looked and felt like an old Showbiz Pizza Place. The showroom was the highlight of that trip. Aside from the Show Selector, it was nearly identical to the old Showbiz setup. It only got better from there. The room had the old lighting effects, where the lights would dim when a show came on and then come back on afterwards. And the audio was nice and loud. The sound was almost deafening - completely drowning out the noise of the robots moving and the television in the back corner of the showroom. Luckily the Show Selector system was set to play old familiar SPP shows and not newer ones. I got to hear some Homely for Christmas tracks and Mitzi's Venus.

The atmousphere of the Barboursville restaurant more than made up for the condition of the animatronics. The biggest problem was Dook's face which was melted, and the show here had more technical difficulties than I want to think about, but the dark room with all the noise and lights made you forget about the problems pretty quickly.

The thing that was totally cool was that I was able to show my friends how different SPP was compared to the new CEC stores. I could never quite explain it to them - it was one of those things that a person just needs to experience to really understand. The first obvious thing was that BB's was meant for the entire family and not just toddlers. There were 2 Televisions going constantly - one in the showroom and one in the games area - both set to cable news stations. This gave parents the opportunity to keep up on current events (when we were there they had election coverage). And the game room had games for all ages - everything from the tiny Billy Bob's Musical Ferris Wheel to an updated version of Mortal Kombat 4.