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[0:00] Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Ariana Grande, Hi, I'm Cynthia ARIBO, and you're listening to the Broadway Podcast Network, visit vpn.fm to discover more.

[0:27] Mike Abrams: the wrong cat died. The podcast, breakdown, the cast, atrophy, I'm your host, Mike Abrams, and today we have a special bonus episode. If you are a Swifty or have been on the eras tour Tiktok, or a fan of the 2019 cats movie, or just a tick tock power user. You might have seen him go viral. Last weekend, he went to the New York New Jersey Taylor Swift eras tour, dressed up as the 2019 movie bomb Valley arena. And not only that, but Taylor Swift acknowledged him on stage. So I cannot wait to hear the story. So welcome. Nick Rosen, thank you for joining me.

[0:59] Speaker 2: Oh my god, thank you for having me. This is such an exciting day.

[1:05] Mike Abrams: I love it. I saw the, it was probably the first thing that happened on my tick tock, like, when I opened it up, because, yeah, it's, I'm curated for cats content to begin with. And I saw the the like, do your thing, first post that someone made that you then responded to. And I was, I was just like, blown away, because your costumes was incredible. So let's start there. Like, how did you decide I think you went multiple nights. How did you decide I'm gonna go as bomb Valley

[1:30] Speaker 2: arena? Yeah, so I was very lucky. I mean, as you know this Taylor Swift concert has been a fiasco with Ticketmaster. I was lucky enough to get tickets for night one of MetLife through a friend of a friend, and then night two, because I personally did not get tickets. About a month or two later, Ticketmaster emails me out of the blue and says something along the lines of Taylor feels so awful about what happened, we would love to give you the opportunity to purchase a pair of tickets specifically to the Saturday night show. And I was like, great. Gave them my credit card info. I didn't know where the tickets would be. All of a sudden, I get the confirmation, and they were aisle seats, literally as close to the stage as you could possibly imagine. And my mind was blown. And so I knew I was going to be in, just enraptured in all of these Swifties, these obsessed fans around me, and I'm also a huge Swifty as well. And I was like, I need to, I need to bring it for this concert. I need to. I always love dressing up for concerts and doing different looks. But I was like, after going through Tiktok for her earlier shows, I was thinking, I was like, I'm seeing a lot of the same costumes and I and looks, and I wanted to do something different. And I was thinking to myself, What is something that I have not seen yet on the tour? And I am a huge fan of the 2019 movie cats. I think I saw it four times in theaters, and I immediately it just hit and I was like, I have to dress up as Taylor Swift's character from and from there, I just started spelunking online. And turns out it's really hard to find a cat's body suit, that is, that replicates what they looked like in the movie. I kept scouring, and all of a sudden I found this. I found this random it was something I think the website was like costumes, millennoo.com and it was this ginger cat body suit, and it looked exactly like Taylor Swift's character at Babel Arena in the movie, and I immediately purchased it, even though the website did look I wasn't sure if I was going to be getting this or not. The costume actually shipped from Wuhan China. It took a month and a half to get delivered. I truly did not know if I was going to be getting this. I got it maybe a couple weeks before the concert. It shows up, and it looked just absolutely perfect. I was like, I have to wear this. That is

[4:10] Mike Abrams: amazing. So there are, there are, like, a, there's a big cat's cosplaying, but they're very traditional. So it's not going to be the 2019 movie. And I'm so glad that you did it because, you know, I did not get to go to the show. I I haven't been out of town. Anyways, wow. I mean, I'm in New York, but also the tickets, like, to your point, you got lucky. You had these, these, like, face value opportunities, whereas, like, they're going for $2,000 for bad seats on the secondary market. So you had the opportunity, but I had not seen anybody do it. And look, Taylor Swift is a legend, and her music's amazing. But I'm like, I still develop like she's still to me now, partly bomb ballerina, like I've made a lot of jokes about her and stuff with that related to cats, because she took that role on she I thought she actually did a really good job of that part of the movie. And so I was so happy someone did it. And to see, not only that, you did it. And then also to get her to react to you on stage, of her see you and like someone to catch that moment. Like, what was, were you? Were you just kind of a fan at the moment? Were you really trying to get her attention? Of like, hey, look, look at, look at what I'm doing here.

[5:13] Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, this is probably, it's one of the closest it's out of all the concerts I've been to in my life, it's definitely one of the times I've been the closest to the stage, and so seeing her so up close and in person, it was overwhelming. I was losing my mind, having so much fun. And then about halfway during it through the show, she was singing her songs, August from folklore, and she's just running around the stage, and she is just, she has this flowy dress, and she's just whipping it around, and she comes right to the right to the edge of the stage, and that's where we were, and it really was right place at the right at the right time, because I was on an aisle seat, and then there were these stanchions that were blocking anyone from Standing in front of me. So if she looked out in the crowd, the first thing she saw was a yay man in a giant cat suit. So it was very easy to see me, I think, from her vantage point. And so she's doing her thing, she's singing August, and then all of a sudden she looks and then she like, kind of does a double take and sees me, and then there's a beat in the song where she isn't singing, and she just mounts to me, Oh my God. And we just lock guides, and I'm like, Holy shit, she just saw me, like we're having a moment right now. And she keeps singing, but then she goes back to me, and she makes a little like purring, clawing motion. And I was that, to me, was the ultimate confirmation that she loves cats as much as we do for all of its imperfections and campiness. And I loved that. I could not believe it, because I did go into the concert thinking, Oh, if she did see me, I hope she knows that this is purely out of love and I'm not trying to troll her or make fun of her in any way, because movie was such a but I I love that movie so much that I'm just so happy that she got such a kick out of it. And then immediately, immediately after the concert was over, all of these Swifties were running over to me, and they all had different POVs of the moment that were trying to airdrop me videos, and everyone in our section was just freaking out that she acknowledged it. It was so much fun. That's

[7:31] Mike Abrams: so cool. I do appreciate that she is like, she's one of the few in that movie that hasn't, like, denounced it, whereas, like most the rest of them have kind of stepped away. She's just kind of ignored but hasn't been like, oh, I can't believe I was a part of this type of thing. So I'm glad to see, like, I didn't notice that same moment of like, oh, it looks like she's at least enjoying this. Like, it's kind of like novelty, probably for her a little bit, but also like, respect. It seemed like, of like, wow, you went the extra mile here. Like you're the only one that's done it in the recognition of like, you went for it, you did it, and she appreciated it like, and you had the seats that she could see you, which is, it's so fun because she's like, I mean, she's crushing this tour for, yeah,

[8:10] Speaker 2: everybody. And it was so fun to see all of the fans that were there. I was having a blast with. They were freaking out over the cons, the costume. But the other thing too, that I was noticing is half of the people knew who I was. They were like, oh my god, Macavity. Cats did that. And then the other half of people, they just thought I was dressed as a cat, because Taylor loves cats, and they didn't even make the connection. And then also her recent song from Midnight's karma. There's the Lyric, Karma is a cat. So I was getting a lot of people that were just like, pointing at me and being like, Karma is a cat. And I'm like, yeah, no. But also, McCabe is not there, and trying to item, you know, bring them into my world and be like, hey, no, this is actually bomb ballerina from the cats movie, which was so fun. And then, yeah, this, this girl from my section, she posted a video. She got such a good video of Taylor reacting to it, and she posted it on Tiktok, I believe, Saturday night, right after the concert, I was on such a high. I went to bed, I woke up the next morning, and then it popped up on my for you page, and I saw that, I was like, Oh my God. And then it already was going viral, and all of the comments were just asking, Where's the cat? We need to see the cat. Where we need the POV the cat. I was like, I barely make tick tocks. I think I've made six or seven in my life. And so I decided I need to make a tick tock of my POV. So I pulled it together, and then it just started. It just started blowing up. And then to see that Taylor Swift herself likes that original Tiktok, that blew my mind, because to me, that just it was the idea of her the next day after the concert, sitting on a couch. Coach, you know, in her trailer, going through tick tocks and remembering that moment and like her liking it is just, it's the cherry on. It was amazing.

[10:09] Mike Abrams: So that was that night one for you. That was night two. Yeah, okay, yeah. How are you gonna follow up night night the second night? If that's the first night. And

[10:18] Speaker 2: I was so happy that this was on night two, because night one was incredible. It was very emotional for me seeing Taylor for the first time in five years. I was sobbing a lot. And then second night was great, because after this happened, I was basically comatose for the rest of the concert. I was just in such a state of shock. So I'm happy I at least had the full concert the night before to really take in and process, because I was just beside myself for the rest of the concert. It was, it was insane.

[10:48] Mike Abrams: And how, like, what's that feeling like for you? Is, like you mentioned Taylor liking it, but also the with the whole it going viral, and just like the amount of someone who does not post much, even for me, like we don't, I don't I don't do a ton on Tiktok, and we just do a little bit on social media. When one goes and starts to go, if you don't have it set up right, your notifications are going crazy, like, it's almost overwhelming. What was that like, knowing that, like, this incredible moment of your life, that experience that you had, just like, minutes later, just amplifying to the world.

[11:20] Speaker 2: It was, it was nuts. And I kept toggling between the original video and then the response video that I made, where I was showing off the cat's outfit, and I had some friends that were in town, and I posted the video. It started getting a little bit I it started getting maybe 5000 views, and at that point, that was the most amount of views I've ever gotten on Tiktok. And I was, I was just flabbergasted. We go to brunch, and then by the end of our brunch, I'm looking and it's at 100,000 views. And then that's when I was, I was like, oh no, oh my god, this is actually blowing up right now. And then for then to it cross I and I think now it's at like, 1.5 million views. And the, the crazy thing is, it's at 300,000 likes. That just seemed like such an insane number to me. Yeah, can't believe it.

[12:15] Mike Abrams: I mean, it's a it's a fun moment. And I mean, the if, if we've learned anything, the, I mean, the amount of Taylor Swift content on Tiktok in general from this tour has been incredible. So that when, when these moments are happening, and people, you know, everyone's capturing everything, it's these things are going viral, which is so fun to see, because, you know, there's a lot of people who can't get tickets and they're going to be able to do that, are getting to experience through other ways like this,

[12:39] Speaker 2: absolutely, yeah, no. And I feel so lucky that I was able to go, not only once, twice and it this was just the most perfect weekend. I truly cannot believe that this happened. I

[12:51] Mike Abrams: also love you know, one thing you said a little bit ago, I still kick it out, is that half the people didn't even know what you were doing. And yeah, they spent $100 million on this movie. Included her. She recorded a separate song. So like, her fans should know this. Like, if anybody should know this, it should be her fans, and more than half have no idea. Is not a good sign for this movie. But let's movie. You are a fan. There are not that many people that are fans of this movie. So are you? Were you a fan of cats and musical before the movie? Like, how, like, I know you were a musical theater fan.

[13:25] Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm a huge, I'm a huge musical theater fan, so I always view of cats. I mean, I was never the biggest cats fan, but then once I saw the trailer for this movie, I was just ready because I'm also the biggest fan of anything even remotely campy and and I knew that this is going to be a fun ride, and it's such a good time. Um,

[13:49] Mike Abrams: okay, so you went in with the right mindset. That's the difference. As you went in thinking this is going to be campy, it's probably not going to be great, but it'll be fun, and that's why, yeah, so that's that explains everything. That's great. I wish many people went in with that mindset.

[14:03] Speaker 2: And I think it really helped, because the first time I saw it in theaters, it was a packed, packed AMC theater in 40 on 42nd street, and it was the day it was coming out. It was just filled of days, and everyone was just, we had this collective experience together, and we were all just crying from laughing so hard at the movie with all of the the random. You know, none of these cats were the same size. Sometimes they were sometimes they were the size of rats. Sometimes they were the size of large dogs. You there was no depth perception there it. It was just such a wild ride. And then while I was home on Long Island for Christmas, I convinced all of my high school friends to go see it together. And they were all like, Are you sure we have to see this? I was like, No, we have to see it together. It is a communal experience. You need to experience this on the big screen. And then Alamo Drafthouse started doing Ra. Cats screenings. So I had to go to one of those, which was just delightful. And from there, then we got COVID, and we had this pandemic. And as I as we were running out of things to watch in the pandemic, I was begging and pleading all of my friends in my bubble in Brooklyn, let's just get wasted and watch cats. Please, please, please. And for the longest time, they refused, and I want to say about August or so was when they I broke them down enough for them to be like, fine. You know, there's literally nothing to do. We're in the middle of this pandemic. We will watch cats with you. And that was also another wonderful experience. So I have so many fond memories of watching that movie, I feel like I'm one of the only people who bought it on, you know, iTunes. You own

[15:49] Mike Abrams: you own it. I, I It's funny to hear you say that during the pandemic, because so I saw a press viewing when before it was done, you know, like, probably a couple days before you saw that on 42nd street. Then I didn't see it again until it probably post Tiger King pit, part of the pandemic, where I was with my family, and that this podcast was still going, and I was actually doing really well because everyone was home, and so I could record with everybody. And I was like, Y'all probably just need to watch this. Finally, same thing. It's like, there's nothing that we watched. Everything else, yeah. And they got about halfway through, and they look at me, they Does it get any better? Not really. It's like, it's gonna be this for the next hour. And they're like, Yeah, we're gonna go, we're gonna turn off. They just, they just quit. They quit halfway through, and I've seen it, so I was like, that's fine. I can just fast forward to the parts Island. Yeah. So let's do a little bit of catch rapid fire, and then I want to hear, if you you know, your Jellicle choice. But so if you were in cats, and I'll take this as the 2019 movie or a stage production, who would you want a performance?

[16:54] Speaker 2: Ooh, I feel like bombal Arena does have a great, great part. So that would be a choice. But also, I do love Mr. Mistoffelees too, because his song is just so iconic.

[17:08] Mike Abrams: Yeah, I mean, it's hard to beat, yeah, it's number and just, you know, a very memorable one. I agree with the bond by the arena. I think she has such a fun track, like, you get to sing a very sexual Macavity song, but you get to be the confident version of that, versus playing the very skittish Demeter version of it. So I think bond Billy and Tugger are the two where you just get to kind of own being confident and fun. So yeah, I agree with there. What's your favorite song from cats?

[17:37] Speaker 2: Ooh. Again. Mccavity is amazing. But also skimble Shanks the railway cat obsessed, and you can't go wrong with the opening. I just love Jellicle songs for Jellico, yeah,

[17:53] Mike Abrams: if Taylor Swift was gonna add a non bomb Valley arena because she was bomb ballerina cat to the eras tour, which one do you think should go with her? Which one do you think would perform with her best? With her best on stage? Oh, skimble

[18:04] Speaker 2: Shanks, because he would just tap dance the night away. Yeah,

[18:07] Mike Abrams: I love it. Okay? And then the million dollar question this whole podcast centers around me thinking Grizabella is not the right Jellicle choice. So the movie is a tough one. I'm not sure the movie makes the best case for Jennifer Hudson, but do you agree or disagree? And if not, who is your Jellicle choice and why my

[18:26] Speaker 2: my Jellicle choice would probably be Mr. Mistopolies, because he just works so hard, and all of the cats rally around him in a similar way to Grizabella, but also he's not as sad. And I feel like, Grizabella, like, I agree with you that she probably isn't the right choice. And Mr. Mistoffelage really turns the entire show around. You know, it's not until his song that everyone starts feeling like, Oh my God, these cats, they're you know, there's upward momentum here. Yeah.

[18:59] Mike Abrams: I mean he also, without him, there is no like, I'll do it around me to make the choice like he saves him exactly. So as a mistoff, always fan What did you think of the movie misto police? It's very different than the show most athletes.

[19:11] Speaker 2: I loved the Mr. Misto police in the movie. Oh,

[19:15] Mike Abrams: interesting. I did. I know. Oh, okay. I thought it was too I got he's very, I always think of him as, like, very magical, very like, showy and fun and like, yeah, he seems very timid and kind of shy. And I like awe, though, because

[19:31] Speaker 2: then once he was able to really express himself, that you saw that there was that there was like a celebration. I enjoyed that, but I get

[19:42] Mike Abrams: Okay, okay, so you what? You like that? He got a story, basically, versus, yeah, musically does a

[19:49] Mike Abrams: How can people stay like, I mean, you know, this is you had your you had such a fun viral moment. Like, are you gonna keep posts and stuff like, how can people stay in touch

[19:58] Speaker 2: with you? Oh, yeah. I mean. I'm on Twitter, Instagram, and Tiktok is Nick Rizzo, 815, I do I actually I should work on this ASAP, but I want to make another Tiktok because I did take a lot of footage of me maneuvering around the stadium. So I do need to do a Tiktok set to Macavity, or something, of me in that cat suit. Because, God, it was just such a journey to get to that stadium. I also had to go through public transit dressed in that cat.

[20:28] Mike Abrams: Oh, yeah, Alan, did you go to Penn Station and the New Jersey Transit and everything? Yes, bomb Valley arena. I

[20:35] Speaker 2: got ready my friends a place in, like downtown Brooklyn, and then we had to take the subway to Barclays Center, where there was a bus waiting for us, and literally getting off the subway and walking through Barclays is very crowded. So walking through that I had a child. I heard a child ask his mother, like, Mom, is that a furry then there was a Shake Shack over there, and as I was walking by, all of the delivery guys waiting for their orders start, cat calling me like literally, and I, I was just, oh, God, what is happening? What did I decide to do with my life? We get on this bus that's supposed to take us to MetLife. Turns out it has no air conditioning, which does not bode well for me in this cat suit, luckily, my face, I had stickers on my face for my look, and I used electric glue, which was a huge help, because otherwise they would have been melting off my face. But honestly, I was sweating so hard, it it was rough, but it was all worth honestly, it was all worth it. I

[21:38] Mike Abrams: it's so funny because I didn't even think about that part about, you know, like, I'm originally from Indiana. I live in doctor. I live in New York now. And I was just at the Indy 500 which is a separate version of people watching, and I kept thinking, like, oh, you know, this is the same thing. Like, it's a unique experience. That's why these people are dressed up this way. And then I'm like, what the menu starts saying. I was like, you know, in New York, you see a lot of stuff to begin with. I've seen I ride the subway almost every day. I see things. But there's a, like, when you get out and you are the one in a very unique outfit, especially in, like, the Alan station,

[22:11] Speaker 2: yeah, like, if you see someone that's you know that, oh, it's New York. But then if you're the person who's in the weird outfit, I was like this. I don't think I like this as much as I should. I was like, I need to do Shannon, yeah, let me get to the stadium. Once I got to the stadium, people were just obsessed with it, like, there's this tradition at the eras tour where people are trading friendship bracelets. And so people were just flinging bracelets at me. They were just, they were like, can we take pictures with you, they were giving me all these friendship bracelets. I did get a couple of Macavity bracelets, which I was very excited, amazing that the fact that people actually had Macavity bracelets that to give out. So I was

[22:53] Mike Abrams: very excited one that's fun that people have, that it's fun that, you know, like people are dressing up for this tour, but again, in most places you're going in a car, or like you're parking and in New York, it's like, no, you're taking a train or a bus or some public transportation to get there. And you don't realize. I remember when Harry Styles was here at the garden, every time I would be on the subway bag, what is going to oh yeah, styles concert. You know, it's like Zach because there's like, very unique outfits. But in downtown Brooklyn, at the Barclays Center, at that terminal that is gonna definitely and probably midday, right? Because you had to go early. Oh, yes,

[23:28] Speaker 2: yeah, we were leaving around 230 ish, yeah, I love it. 230 on a Saturday. So, yeah, you

[23:34] Mike Abrams: were somebody's story to their friends that night, when you're not gonna believe what I saw at the Barclay Center today, yes,

[23:42] Speaker 2: and also during the concert. Another thing that I loved is the stage is huge. So as the show was going on, all of Taylor's dancers and her band members, they would come over and they would notice me, and then we'd start like vibing and having moments, and we'd be like, dancing and having fun. And I just hope that all of them after the show were all Kiki, and we're like, oh my god, did you see that cat? That's my hope and dream that actually happened. So hopefully that happened.

[24:13] Mike Abrams: You got the, you got the like, already from Taylor. That's, that's the exact thing that you need. It. Well, for everyone else that hasn't seen this. It's on tick tock. You'll you can find it. I've shared it. The graphic has the picture of you that's for the podcast episodes, a picture of you we'll put on social too. So you can see this, this amazing moment that you had in New York at the Aeros tour, the legend that'll live on. Well, thank you so much for coming on and sharing the story. It's been a blast to hear it. I'm excited for the world to hear kind of a little bit of the back story. The backstory of some of the fun moments that you got

[24:44] Speaker 2: to have. Oh, my God, of course. Thank you so much for having me. I mean, this was it. There was a lot of time and effort put into this, and I made a lot of sacrifices honestly, trying to go to the bathroom at MetLife Stadium in a cat. Body suit is something that I don't think I ever want to do again. It was absolutely awful, but it was all worth

[25:07] Mike Abrams: all worth it. So fun. Well, thank you for for joining me today, and thanks everyone for listening to this episode of The Ron cat die the podcast. Break down the cast. Testify to follow along. You can subscribe on Apple podcast, Spotify, Stitcher, or anywhere else to listen to the podcast. Follow us on Twitter and screen talk at their own cats dive, or check out our website. Their own cat died.com. You.