Prop Characters

The Rock-afire Explosion was designed to be an entertaining and immersive animatronic show. This extended beyond the "larger than life" main cast of characters, and all around the stages were a supporting cast of Prop Characters. These characters were sometimes static, sometimes in motion, and some even had speaking roles and could interact directly with the main characters. This is a listing of the other characters that you might discover while watching the Rock-afire Explosion perform.

Antioch

The 'Birthday Spider' Antioch was a supporting character for the Rock-afire Explosion. He was Fatz's pet spider and would drop down from the ceiling above the stage (between Dook and Fatz). He was named after the 1st ShowBiz Pizza Place¹ that opened in Kansas City, MO - in the Antioch Shopping Center. He spoke in a garbled voice and was mentioned in showtapes beginning in 1984². While working at Creative Engineering, artist David 'Billy Bob' Irvin also had a pet spider that was named Antioch - and although long dead still exists preserved in a jar.

Choo-Choo

Choo-choo was the baby bear located in the stump near Dook's drum set. From time to time, he would pop out of the stump, and bounce to the music. Choo-Choo was named very early in the development of the Rock-afire Explosion, and in his earliest 'beta' design even had a bib with his name embroidered on it. Although Choo-choo never had a speaking voice, on the Trivia Night showtape he was named and introduced by the Rock-afire as the only character who had "never introduced a show before"³.

Sun and Moon

The Sun and Moon were two prop characters that often had background vocals in songs, and also quite a few speaking roles. Because they were utilized for specific parts through the years, they had several voices and personalities - which was dependent upon what they were needed for in a particular show. The original cut of "School Days" had the Sun as a female, and the Moon as a male⁴. In the "Abbey Road Medley", Rick Bailey played the singing voice of the Moon⁵. The most prominent and widely used personalities for Sun and Moon were given to them by Burt "Sal" Wilson around 1984. They both had very defined speaking roles in both the Uncle Santa showtape and Senior Citizens showtape. The Sun had a mellow, peace keeper type of attitude, whereas the Moon was snippy and obsessed with propriety. During the Cyberstar era of the late 1980s, the Moon was used for song intros and emceeing shows. Interestingly enough, the Moon was the only character to survive Concept Unification - he was given a new paint job, but remined as part of Munch's Make Believe Band for several decades beyond the Rock-afire Explosion's tenure at ShowBiz.

Frog

The Frog is another prop character. Early on, he was positioned on Beach Bear's surfboard. This was done for a specific reason - early versions of Frog had eyes that were attached by springs. When Beach Bear would rock back and forth the Frog's eyes would bounce around⁶. Originally Frog had red eyes but were later changed to blue. He was also moved to the stage floor and became a static decoration.

Birthday Bird

The Birthday Bird was the little yellow bird sitting at the end of Billy Bob's guitar. Although he had no voice or recognition in any Rock-afire Explosion shows, he was initially regarded as quite important. The original Billy Bob walkaround character had a Birthday Bird perched on his shoulder⁷, and an early ShowBiz Pizza marketing exec even proposed making plush Birthday Birds to market to the birthday children having parties at ShowBiz⁸.

Owl

The Owl was a static prop character that was discontinued very early after the creation of the Rock-afire Explosion. He sat on the same stump as Dook, near his bass drum. Aside from appearing a couple of early Rock-afire promotional brochures⁹ and videos, the only other image depicting the existence of the Rock-afire Owl was in a coloring book page from the 1982 Billy Bob's Busytime Book¹⁰.

Bad Frog

The Bad Frog was a character present only in the Classic Mini Stage version of the Rock-afire Explosion. He looked similar to the regular Frog, except he had gnarly teeth poking out of his mouth, black furry eyebrows, and darker markings painted on his skin. He was chained to a sign on the "Used and Abused Tars" prop that read - Beware Bad Frog. The gag was that instead of having a guard dog protecting Smitty's, Billy Bob would instead have a "guard frog"¹¹.

Singing Flowers

Another scarce set of characters were the animatronic Singing Flowers included with the Classic Mini Stage Rock-afire. There were two distinct types - an alstroemeria flower with painted eyes and mouth, and the strelitzia flower (bird of paradise). Both types had animatronic mouths allowing them to sing background vocals and were located next to and around Mitzi. The Singing Flowers had one known usage beyond the Classic Mini Stage, when some of them were recycled by ShowBiz in 1987 to test a concept called "Surprises" - random objects that would unexpectedly animate to catch guests off guard and by surprise¹².

References
1 - Pizza Place Purveys Pizzazz - Kansas City Star
2 - Trivia Night Showtape - Antioch Sound Clip
3 - Trivia Night Showtape - Choo-Choo Sound Clip
4 - Video Clip - School Days Full Version
5 - Showtape Review - Tribute to Abbey Road
6 - Video Clip - 'On The Go' Clips
7 - 1980 Franchise Brochure - Wolf Pack 5
8 - 1980 ShowBiz Pizza Place Ad Ideas
9 - CEI Rock-afire Explosion Brochure
10 - Billy Bob's Busytime Book
11 - ShowBizPizza.com correspondence with Aaron Fechter
12 - Entertainment '87 - Franchise Convention