"There is always an audience for different individuals, but critics sometimes stop the audience finding the show and the show finding the audience"
About this Quote
O'Brien is speaking like someone who’s watched art succeed not by consensus, but by chemistry: the right weird thing meeting the right crowd at the right time. The line is a quiet defense of misfits, niche tastes, and the kind of work that doesn’t audition for mass approval. There is always an audience, he insists, even if it’s scattered, late-arriving, or hiding in plain sight.
The bite is in the second half. Critics don’t just review; they can reroute attention. O'Brien frames criticism as a gatekeeping mechanism that can interrupt the matchmaking between performance and public. It’s not an anti-intellectual tantrum so much as a pragmatic complaint from a performer: cultural intermediaries can shrink possibility by telling people what they’re supposed to like, or by turning discovery into a referendum on status. The verb choice matters. “Stop” suggests blockage, not guidance. The “show finding the audience” flips the usual hierarchy; it grants the work agency, as if art has its own homing instinct that can be jammed by bad signals.
Context matters because O'Brien’s signature legacy is cult logic: The Rocky Horror Picture Show didn’t become a monument through glowing early notices; it became a ritual through word-of-mouth, repeat attendance, and audience participation. His quote reads like a veteran’s field note from that ecosystem. It’s a reminder that taste isn’t only made in print; it’s made in rooms, at midnight, by people who feel seen.
The bite is in the second half. Critics don’t just review; they can reroute attention. O'Brien frames criticism as a gatekeeping mechanism that can interrupt the matchmaking between performance and public. It’s not an anti-intellectual tantrum so much as a pragmatic complaint from a performer: cultural intermediaries can shrink possibility by telling people what they’re supposed to like, or by turning discovery into a referendum on status. The verb choice matters. “Stop” suggests blockage, not guidance. The “show finding the audience” flips the usual hierarchy; it grants the work agency, as if art has its own homing instinct that can be jammed by bad signals.
Context matters because O'Brien’s signature legacy is cult logic: The Rocky Horror Picture Show didn’t become a monument through glowing early notices; it became a ritual through word-of-mouth, repeat attendance, and audience participation. His quote reads like a veteran’s field note from that ecosystem. It’s a reminder that taste isn’t only made in print; it’s made in rooms, at midnight, by people who feel seen.
Quote Details
| Topic | Art |
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