Last night I had the opportunity to watch,quote and sing along with one of my all time favorite movies and about two hundred fellow fans at Troop Beverly Hills:The Experience. The party went down at The Bell House in Brooklyn and it was FABULOUS! It was amazing to be in a room filled with people of all different ages and walks of life who love Troop Beverly Hills just as much as I do. This movie has been one of my go-to classics since I was a kid and its one of the things that could cheer me up on even my worst day. I can’t even count how many times I have seen the movie in my life and I pick out new things each time I sit down to watch it. So when I heard about the Troop Beverly Hills:The Experience,I freaked out. Erika Brooks Adickman,from Pop Waffle,created the event as a celebration of the film and its odd pop culture stranglehold over ladies in their late 20′s and early 30′s in Los Angeles last year. The film would be screened,but like a hybrid of a midnight showing of Rocky Horror Picture Show and Pop Up Video,with IMDB info captioning,booing and cheering prompting and karaoke style singalongs when it came to the ever popular Cookie Time and French Kissing in the USA. Prompted with a few beers,good friends and an Ivanka Trump spotting,this was the perfect way to spend a snowy night in February.

The director Jeff Kanew did a small Q&A session before the festivities began and gave us the real deal on how he came to direct the film (was fired from Dead Poets Society),how Shelley Long became Phyllis Nefler (Bette Midler pulled out),why Blossom was not a Wilderness Girl and why he thought NO ONE could get behind this anti-underdog story of rich girls winning in the end. He also gave little updates on the Wilderness Girls,like Jenny Lewis,Carla Gugino and Kellie Martin. When the movie began rollingk you could hear a pin drop,well that is over the quoting along or pointing out things not noticed before. We all got up to dance the Freddy,sang along and made sure Phyllis and Troop Beverly Hills beat the mean Velda and the dasterdly Red Feathers at the end. Overall,it was an amazing experience to realize you are not the only adult who is head over heels in love with Phyllis Nefler and nerdy enough to sing along to Cookie Time. So let your Wilderness Girl flag fly,get out of your chair and sing along!

Thanks to the folks over at the Village Voice for securing me tickets to this awesome event! And thanks to Erika for putting together a FABULOUS event!