Recently I was going through my attic when I stumbled onto dolls that I remembered from my childhood trips Showbiz Pizza.I was hoping to find that they were extraordinarily valuable, but instead I discovered they had been reincarnated.

When I ran a google search on them, I came across something amazing. I searched for Showbiz Pizza dolls, and discovered that they had another name, Rock-a-Fire Explosion. The dolls were toy versions of the animatronic band that performed at the restaurant.

Showbiz Pizza was the forerunner to Chuck E. Cheese's, and combined games, pizza, entertainment and beer for the adults. It was the original place, 'where a kid [could] be a kid.' I have fond memories of Showbiz Pizza, and photos of me spending time there with my parents and grandparents.

I became more curious and kept searching. I discovered that a former DJ named Chris Thrash, and huge fan of Showbiz Pizza, sought out the inventor of the Rock-a-Fire explosion, Aaron Fechter, and gave them new life. He programmed the band to perform to current pop and hip-hop songs like, Huey's 'Pop Lock and Drop it' and Usher's 'Love in this Club.'

The Rock-a-Fire Explosion gained new life on YouTube with Thrash's videos, and two Houston filmmakers created a documentary about Thrash, Fechter and the fan base that was shown at film festivals in the fall of 2008. They DVD was released in 2009.

I felt like I had fallen down Alice's rabbit hole into Wonderland. This whole story is so bizarre, and unusual. The band gained enough of a following to join Cee-Lo Green on stage in Las Vegas for a performance of his hit song, Forget You... the NSFW version.

How's that for a trip down memory lane? Am I the only one who remembers this experience at Showbiz Pizza?

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