I first saw The Rocky Horror Picture Show in 1978, and I didn’t understand it. When I went in ’79, everyone was dressed up. My friend and I went with rice and toast. I GOT HOOKED. We started showing up in costume on Friday and Saturday nights at the Exeter Street Theatre. One Friday, somebody grabbed me and said: “HEY, WE DON’T HAVE A BRAD. CAN YOU DO IT?” She pulled me onstage, and I was horrified. That was my first show. Then I started being a regular Friday guy.

In 2000, I started performing at the Harvard Square theater full time as a volunteer. I’m a police officer at the veterans’ hospital in Jamaica Plain. I was a Boston cop for 10 years. If you’re doing Rocky, cops don’t really consider that manly. THE MACHISMO ATTITUDE DROVE ME CRAZY, because these actors were nice people, not a bunch of freaks. These were friends. I met my wife there; she was the tech director for the show.