Radio8Ball
One of tonight’s most interesting and unique events is about to begin: Radio8Ball, featuring cast members from the “Nightmare On Elm St.” series. The show was created by Andras Jones, who has a strong connection to the Nightmare series for the fans, having portrayed ill-fated ass-kicker Rick in the fourth installment, “…The Dream Masters”.
Andras sits with a row of Nightmare veterans, having arrived a little late to the table, presumably from getting the technical aspects of tonight’s show ready. He happily agrees to share a few words for the blog while he preps stills and headshots, many of them from his time on the “Nightmare on Elm St. 4…” set.
“Radio8Ball is a musical divination show based on the concept of synchronicity,” he describes, “In the show, we answer questions by picking songs at random, and then playing them as musical tarot cards.” He pursues different musical guests for each show, with tonight’s music brought by Rodney Eastman, best known at this convention as the mute yet hormonal Joey in “Nightmare…” 3 and 4, and also a member of King Straggler. Rodney has been playing music for many years, a bonding point between he and Andras, who is a musician himself.
The audience provides various life questions, which are then chosen at random, and answered by the “Wheel of 8”, an impressive spinning wheel which helps choose which of 8 songs provided by Rodney will best answer their query. After the song, they discuss how the song answers the question.
Also a staple of the program is the celebrity Skype in, where a notable figure, often from film or music, asks their question via live internet video feed. Past guests include… “For tonight’s show, we’re going to have Robert Englund Skype in for the celebrity question.” Andras happily shares. This is a great way to involve one of the most iconic actors to the horror community when they can’t make the fest himself. Andras gestures to his right, where his fellow actors reside, noting that the cast members of the series will also participate tonight’s festivities, asking their own questions.
As the son of a dream psychologist, he is not only a natural fit for the Freddyverse, but comes across very interested in the mix of subconscious and coincidence. He’s also a natural fit for Crypticon Seattle, having grown up in Olympia.
We’ll have more about his and Rodney’s experiences both on set and with fans in future blogs. For now, Radio8Ball is getting underway, and this blogger has to go see the show in action.
Radio8Ball wraps up its home run in Seattle this Sunday, and will resume again in fall. For more info, hit up Radio8Ball.com, or seek out the wisdom of the wheel on Facebook.
- Doug W
