Rosie’s Enchanted Halloween show was a total treat! The curtains pulled back to reveal an enchanted wonderland with Rosie center stage as Little Bo Peep…minus the sheep. The entire audience was in costume…and it looked just like Let’s Make a Deal as RO pointed out. The air was festive and it was clearly a party. She began by introducing her Halloween costume designer of 20 years and Broadway’s own Tony nominee…Bobby Pearce. He took to the stage as Ole’ King Cole – AMAZING! Clearly they were going down the fairytale road.
Okay so I totally spoke too soon….Little RO Peep found her sheep and they were the magnificent Broadway boys! Dancing to “It’s Raining Sheep” shirtless of course…it was too awesome. Soon more of the cast was revealed – Katrice as Little Red Riding Hood and represented as Hollee, the Cowardly Lion from the Wiz.
After the musical number, Illusionist Criss Angel was welcomed to the party. Apparently he grew up in the same stomping grounds as Rosie. It didn’t take long for him to start grossing us out though. Within minutes of taking root, he placed a piece of thread in his mouth and pulled it out of his EYE. I had to look away! I’ll post the videos a little later today. Otherwise, he seemed like a real down-to-earth guy. They talked a little about past illusionist, the importance of skepticism and his dislike for those who take advantage of others. He then performed the art of muscle reading. He has a random audience member, Jennifer, place a box of cereal in one of 13 suitcases on the stage while Rosie covered his eyes and made noise to distract him. He then had Rosie place both of her arms on him as he led her past each suitcase. One by one he knocked them down until he found the one. It was pretty cool. To top it off, Criss gave Jennifer a trip for two to Vegas to see his show with a suite and $500 to spend. VERY COOL! However she barely cracked a smile. So what does Rosie do??? She gives away two more trips to audience members who were FAR more excited. Let’s just hope that the Luxor Hotel is cool with that!
Then RO brought on creepy bugs just to make our skin crawl. An adorable brother and sister hit the stage. First up was a black scorpion. Good to know- the larger the claws, the less venomous they are said to be. I say…don’t test that! Next was the king snake and I must mention that I HATE snakes. I mean I have a serious phobia. I happen to live in a beautiful preserved area that has snakes and it has taken me forever to learn to take the garbage cans to the curb on garbage night without hyperventilating. In fairness, we have found a couple of dead snakes at the end of my driveway. I am telling you…I would NOT have done well in that audience. Luckily they followed with a bearded dragon. Whew! I thought it was getting better until the camera spanned to the little boy holding a COCKROACH. Seriously? I will never sleep tonight. The technical name was a peppered roach. The best was saved for last….a Brazilian black tarantula. I am not even going to bother to close my eyes tonight. Did you know they get 5 to 6 inches in diameter? Oh I learned more than I ever wanted to. At the end of the segment the children informed Rosie they are raw foodist vegans and don’t eat candy. Rosie was shocked…but it was more than about the candy indulgences. She had commissioned Ace of Cakes Duff Goldman to make a special for the show and wanted to surprise the kids. Yeah, well it seemed RO was the one surprised. It was a spectacular cake- a red and white topped mushroom with a green beetle on top. Duff joined them on stage with a high five. The kids were great!
Caroline and Albert Manzo followed the bugs dressed as Alice and the Mad Hatter. They talked about the drama of the Housewives of New Jersey, getting remarried after 27 years, and three pound apples by Rachel Dunn.
As the show began to close, Rosie cluttered the stage with cute kids in costumes. Cameras then took us to a small town in Highwood where they set a record for carving pumpkins….over 31,000. Check out the video here. Then Rosie wrapped the show with big bars of candy and paper jazz guitars for the kids. But they weren’t the only ones to have their bags full! Everyone else left with….monster cereal from General Mills, Criss Angel’s “Mindfreak” magic kit, 3 pound apples from Rachel Dunn and 3 lucky people got trips to Vegas to see Criss Angel’s show “BeLIEve”.
The show was great and now…I wish I would have dressed up. Maybe next year I will coordinate with Rosie and her crew!