Woods of Terror in Greensboro NC

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Woods of Terror is entering their thirty
second year. That's coming up on today's

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show from the Hontented Trastion Network.
I'm Bilip and this is our sixty one

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day hantedon where we're counting down to
Halloween by celebrating haunted houses daily via videos,

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podcasts, and VIP in person experiences. Since this podcast is only one

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part of our Hantathon this year,
the best way to follow everything is by

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subscribing to our newsletter or by checking
the updates on our website at hanted Attraction

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Network dot com. Remember that the
best way you can support us this season

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is by sharing our Hantathon with someone
you think we'll enjoy it. Woods of

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Terror in Greensboro, North Carolina is
celebrating their thirty second year this season,

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and I sat down in person with
Eddie McLaurin to learn all about it and

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about his history leading up to this
monumentous year. So here's Eddie and I

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at his office in person at Woods
of Terror in North I'm Edie McLaurin,

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owner operator of the Woods of Terror. We're going into our or we're actually

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doing it now, our thirty second
year. So Woods of Terror is obviously

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in the Woods. We're located in
North Carolina and the deep Woods in the

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South, and it is a linear
show. So you would come into the

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Midway and this year we're pushing seventeen
attractions and you would be going through those

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linear show. It takes right at
fifty five minutes to an hour to go

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through it. And that's it.
Yeah, I can verify it does take

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that long. I literally timed it
so it's exactly that long. And we

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were not you know, we were
not running. I mean, you know,

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I mean some places we were running
the chainsaws. You know, the

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girls were kind of chainsaws are But
tell me to me, I think,

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you know, really the Midway stands
out, the actors stand out, you

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know, the parade, all of
the excitement that the team has, and

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you know, I think you have
a diversity in actors too. You know,

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it's not just kids, it's not
just older actors. It's a great

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and there's a lot of them.
And it's all the prades. So you

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tell me about your your Midway and
your opening ceremony and why that's important.

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All right, Well, I guess
I guess pushing about twenty five years ago,

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I had thought in my mind and
my image was my mind would be

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like somebody's hitting the power on a
power box. The show lights come on,

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and what could I do to make
to let everybody know, hey,

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man, not only do it?
Was it tear? The show is open.

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So I thought about it. I've
always been a patriotic guy. I've

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always been in sports. I thought, man, you don't want to bring

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him in. I want to sing
the national anthem, And so we paryed

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the monster's end. I think tonight
it was one hundred and twenty two of

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them prayed them in, letting them
know, like, I don't know how

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if you know how many actors are
here, but we're showing them to you.

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So they definitely come out with we
got some great makeup artists and the

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costumes, and it just goes on
and on. So once they come in

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here, you know, I say, who are we Wood's a tear,

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and I say pick a victim,
and man, these actors pick somebody,

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and everybody's scatters and and they know
the show is open. So we do

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the national anthem, and then we
do a couple of songs, and the

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actors parade out and we come back
here in the back and it's like a

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like another sports thing. We get
together and we get in the huddle and

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man, we get them fired up. And we definitely do have a diverse

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crowd, young, old, I
got some older actors that are incredible,

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and I got some young actors.
Uh, these gen zs are coming in,

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but they're full of energy. I've
got some very committed actors and this

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could be the best show that the
best actors we've had and probably the last

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five years. So it's just our
second night open, so I think we're

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well on the way. Yeah,
you know, tell me a little bit

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more about you said the connections with
like sports and with that, because it

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strikes me that, you know,
some shows the actors kind of just you

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know that they're there to be creepy, or some shows are theatrically, you

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know, like they're they have lines
or they're they're performing them onlog It strikes

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me that here the midway, everything's
high energy. You know that the mini

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actors are fantastic. They have snakes
and they're going up. They're high energy.

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I mean, they're just popping out. I remember the clown areas are

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like jumping up and down. I
mean it's like, you know, we

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know that's I guess. You know, do you see a connection between that,

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like, are you trying to make
it a physical experience like that?

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Yeah, we definitely do. I
mean we want to get as close to

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I guess a touch home as we
can. Of course we're not a touch

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home, but I am definitely an
actor driven home. I don't have a

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lot of amatronics. Well I do
have more than I used to, but

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I want it to be about the
actors. I don't think amatronics can scare

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people as good as my actors.
And we definitely have some good leaders here

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six footers one. He gets the
hype circle going, and I want it

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to be high energy. And I
know the sets look good, but you

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know, we got to scare them. So startle scares, high energy scares,

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and that's what we've trained. That's
the culture we're trying to train here.

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And I think that you can see
as my my leaders have trained that

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in so we have it throughout the
woods. Yeah, yeah, I agree.

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And let's give the context of the
spaces. It's quite a long linear

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walkthrough. Tell me a little bit
about the zones or what you've added for

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this year. Okay, Well,
after you leave the midway you'll go through

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the Phobia House. And the Phobia
House has changed over the years. It

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used to be a really dark,
mazed, pitch dark. This year we

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added a lot more decoration in it. I did have a corn field for

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years, but these hurricanes coming up
the coast hair of that corn all to

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pieces, so I put all my
cornfield stuff in the woods. And this

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year that was brand new called Jack's
Revenge, very pumpkin driven with Jack is

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taking his revenge on the kids that
took all the candy. So then we

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go into Hardwired, which is the
best way I know describe it as a

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nineteen eighties like terminator robot attraction.
So then you go into the funhouse and

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obviously that's where the clowns are.
So we had our vampire house was there

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for sixteen years. We tore that
out and now that is Stranger Things,

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so that's a Vecna's house. And
then we go into the Mortuary. So

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we've had a graveyard for years,
but we put in a huge building there,

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put in the mortuary, church and
bombing room, incinerator room, really

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one of our best sets. And
then we go into Harwood Cinemas. After

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a lot of exit polling survey.
Everybody wants to see Jason and Freddie and

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they all want to see all the
acon so I said, okay, I'll

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give it to him. It's crazy. I spend the least amount of time

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in that attraction and people love it. So after that we have the Pirate's

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Cove and that leads into the Calypso, a treehouse that I built a couple

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of years ago. Really great,
probably twenty thousand objects in that house.

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And then you'll go into the Cave
or the miners Cave, and then you

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lead into the Texas House. And
then we have Purge and that is my

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StepShot attraction, and but high energy
actors make that set really good. And

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then we have Century Overload, which
is back to dark Maze with some shock

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pads. We try to shock them
a little bit, leads you right into

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the asylum. And then after the
Asylum, we put an attraction called the

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Scrubber, so we send them to
a bus full of foam, and the

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older people definitely don't want to do
it, so we made a pass by,

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but the kids love it and go
through the foam. And that's the

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fifty five minute show. Yeah,
that's that last section is just hilarious,

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you know, especially when you're just
going through a school bus and it's I

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like, I like always when people
play with elevations, so you're like crouching

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to get into the bus and you
get into the bus and they're just completely

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surrounded by bubbles and soap, Like, it strikes me. It's such a

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it's such a wide range of themes
on here. You know, when you're

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looking at a theme, what are
you looking for? And you know,

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like like the bubbles, like how
did you how did you get to the

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scrubber? Well, you know,
we're always looking. You know, in

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my mind, I want my right
my show to be a roller coaster ride.

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I can't scare them out of their
mind for ten attractions. It's too

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hardcore. So we try to scare
them a little bit. We get to

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the funhouse. Maybe it's funny for
others, and maybe they're screaming because they

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hate clowns. But I also look
at that. I want that thirty five

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year old male to come in here
and say, well, you know,

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I didn't get scared that much,
but man, the sets were amazing and

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I was definitely entertained watching the kids
laugh and scream and go through the bubbles,

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and I have a lot of older
males seek me out in the midway

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and say, ain't you the owner? I said yes, and they said,

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man, we just want to tell
you the craftsmanship was amazing. So

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I'm looking to go from you know, the Funhouse or to the Pirates where

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you go to Vecna's house, where
you go totally to purge. It's a

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totally different theme. I'm trying to
theme it totally different in each attraction because

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to entertain somebody for fifty five minutes
in today's world is a little bit of

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a challenge. So if after ten
minutes, you've kind of lost their mind.

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So that's why I do have a
lot of attractions, and they're short,

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so about that time they think,
they don't even get a chance to

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say, oh on board, they're
right into another attraction. And each attraction

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obviously has its own sets, it's
own costumes, its own sense and everything

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like that. So I think it
makes for a good experience. Yeah,

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yeah, yeah, I just well, obviously I just went through it.

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So it's just even as you say
it, you know, there's things I

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forgot about because it's so much,
you know, it's a a big all

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of experience, and also, of
course you're in the experience. I think

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you lead the midway of the monsters
show that comes out. Talk to me

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about I know you've been doing that
for a while. Talk to me about

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that. Well. I'm married a
second time and last time to my beautiful

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wife. But I was married one
time, went out to Vegas, got

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home and I said, I miss
you like crazy, as she did.

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I didn't miss you at all.
I'm moving out. So I've been trying

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hard. I was going into my
fifteenth year, I think, and this

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was the year that I started working
for myself, and I said, man,

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my wife left, I'm gonna cut
a mohawk, I'm gonna get a

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snake, and I'm walking around midway
and I'm gonna take pictures. It was

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all a joke. And next season, I go to Myrtle Beach Bike Week,

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I seen my bone jacket, and
the next thing I know, Bondaddy

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was born. People were calling me
bone Daddy. So I don't know how

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many years now I've been doing that, sixteen seventeen, but it's really turned

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into something amazing. It. I
used to have to help a lot with

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the maintenance and all that, but
I've got the best maintenance manner I've had,

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Devin Sler, and he has given
me the freedom to do what I

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do, to be bone Daddy and
to interact with the people, which is

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really great. To take that earpiece
out and not listen to all the drama

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going on or everything breaking, so
I go out there and interact with the

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crowd. So it's really got something
that I really look forward to seeing the

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people year after year, or twenty
years ago, meeting a kid that was

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twenty coming back now with his twelve
year old son, and that's really amazing.

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That's really makes me happy to see
these people coming back. Or they'll

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pull out their phone and show me
a picture from eight years ago where they

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took a picture. This is actually
my second snake. Don was the first

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one, spawn as the second one, and they actually showed me a picture

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with Dawn and say, man,
I was here ten years ago. Something

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that started happening over the last couple
of years. As man, we've been

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here seven years a row, eight
years in a row, ten years in

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a row. Really just amazed,
and you know, my biggest question always

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is was it better than last year? And they're like, oh, yes,

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by four so I'm wondering when we're
going to reach the peak. But

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I don't think we're going to reach
the peak for at least five more years.

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We're still going up. Yeah,
I find it fascinating that you are

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in the show, and for the
reasons you just said, because so many

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you know, I know, I
go to haunts all over and so many

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owners. You know, it's it's
like, you know, generally it's like

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hunters are they build the mouse trap
or they want to be the actor,

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And it seems like most of the
owners are in the first camp where they

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they're they're the builders. I mean, everything falls on them, right,

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I have the excise with them,
so it's like they can't enjoy themselves almost

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right. So yeah, So and
I like this because you know, I

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think sometimes maybe like we forget why
we become hunters, or you know,

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it can be a lot. Yeah, yeah, I think that. You

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know, it was funny, it's
probably been sixteen years somebody said, hey,

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we want some pictures. I think
it was on a attraction magazine,

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and I sent some pictures in of
all my sets and stuff, and they

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said, no, we want pictures
of you. And at that time I

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had a normal haircut, and I
said, okay, I'll put on a

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suit and tie. I took some
pictures with some zombies, but now the

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bondetti look is what I think they
were really looking for. So it all

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happened by chance. But when Devin
came in, I was able to step

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away from that probably five years now. I don't wear radios, don't wear

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your pieces, And really I work
all year to have twenty two nights of

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fun and to be the owner.
And I know some guys are doing this.

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It's working all year and then for
twenty two nights living through the hell

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being open's and for me it's my
favorite time because I get to see the

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people, meet to people. You
know, we sing songs with the band

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and it's really that's what's really energized
me even more for people to come through

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and tell me how much they enjoyed
it, how far they drove. Actually,

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tonight I was putting the snake up. One of the guest actors coming

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got me and said, Heeddy,
you got to come back in. These

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people drove three hours to come see
your show. And saw I'm like,

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okay, I'll go back out,
so you know, then won't just take

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a picture with me is really the
fun part. I like that, And

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then that's really well said. I
think I remember Alan Hopp said something similar

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where you know if he's like,
if if you have a well managed show

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with delegation, then it's no different
than any other day because it should run.

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You spend you spend the whole year
preparing for those days where you can

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enjoy it. Yeah, and actually
we've spent a lot of time over the

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last two years making the show.
You know it. It ain't never gonna

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be maintenance free, but I do
a ton of stuff in the off season

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to make it where I I know
that I won't have to stop what I'm

219
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doing. You know, Vortex motor, we got two motors, we got

220
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double everything. But yeah, we've
worked on it and it was a process.

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But Death is a great maintenance man. And us working on the off

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season on things that are the biggest
problems, I've made it smoother and easier

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for me to be bum daddy.
Yeah, yeah, excellent. Well I

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want to go down that vein a
little bit because thirty two years it's a

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while. Where do you see the
haunted developing? You know, I mean

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you said earlier you kind of We're
like, well, we're hoping each year

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is better than the last. But
you know, I mean, I mean

228
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audiences these days, you know what
is horror, And you know, I

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like that you're leaning more in personally. I like that you're leaning more into

230
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entertainment because I think that there's a
ceiling and how much you can free people

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out. You know, but you've
been doing this for so long, and

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now that you're delegating, where do
you see the show evolving? You know,

233
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like you definitely want you to lead
to I guess I call it pe

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the Stranger Things. You know,
that was a big move for me,

235
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something ten years ago I would have
never did. But what I find amazing

236
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about that show is that people will
not let their ten eleven and twelve and

237
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thirteen year old watch insidious or conjuring, but they will let the watch Stranger

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Things. And I thought, man, I can reach out to another whole

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group of people enthusiasts and check this
and come in and see stranger things that

240
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just be blown away something that you
know, maybe I'm a year late on

241
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that, but I think there's a
writer strike, so I think they're going

242
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to back that up a little bit. But you know, they got there

243
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saying the last season is going to
be two seasons. I think broke into

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two maybe, But you know,
I probably got three or four years for

245
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Stranger Things that'll really play out over
the next couple of years. But doing

246
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that and into the future, hired
a new set designer, Ron Visinguarde Amazing.

247
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Hopefully he'll be here a couple more
years. He's a rising star.

248
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I don't know that I can keep
them here forever, but we've already got

249
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plans for three new things next year, a total tear out on one and

250
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a total replacement on one. And
I think that this attraction will be bigger

251
00:16:07.919 --> 00:16:11.639
and better than a Mortuary or Stranger
Things. So right now I've got three

252
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or four years laid out ahead of
me. And but you know, I

253
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think that I'll probably always try to
keep attraction tied in the pop culture.

254
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I call the Stranger Things a pop
culture thing, but keep people tied in,

255
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and then of course we're gonna throw
in stuff like Mortuary in the cave

256
00:16:29.080 --> 00:16:32.799
that's totally haunted, house, totally
scared. So I think that's where we're

257
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headed. So it's so basically you're
thinking entertainment is evolving in a way where

258
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you know, you're going to keep
the idea of heavy actor and heavy you

259
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know, high energy and just keep
an eye on the ips that are evolving

260
00:16:47.799 --> 00:16:52.480
out there. Yeah. You know, I've got one costume this year from

261
00:16:52.480 --> 00:16:56.200
Alan Hobbes that was the Clickers from
Last of Us, So we got that

262
00:16:56.320 --> 00:17:02.000
out there, and I think that, you know, it's crazy. The

263
00:17:02.039 --> 00:17:03.640
movies used to be awesome. I
mean, me and you, younger man,

264
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go to the movies. Man,
that was part of it. Now

265
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they're not making good movies. They're
not making a lot of movies, and

266
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you can buy them on Netflix.
But now I think for everybody, it

267
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doesn't matter who your haunted house is. The harnted house industry is going to

268
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continue to grow. It's entertainment that
is live that you have to be here,

269
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and man, that stuff is going
to go through the ceiling. Like

270
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you know, I think there's some
guys out there trying to do this where

271
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you can log into a game and
go through a harnted house. Well that

272
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kind of defeats the purpose, you
know, and I'm all for that.

273
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But these people getting out of their
seats, getting in a car, taking

274
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an experience, and you know,
COVID is probably driving that a little bit,

275
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and that you know, we were
on lockdown and our lives were really

276
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affected by that, and hey,
you better get out and enjoy life.

277
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So I think with the entertainment,
and of course I will always try to

278
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keep three or four original attractions that
are something I thought of, whatever came

279
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up with. But mixing the entertainment
with the stuff and the original stuff and

280
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the quality sets and the actors that
I'm going to always want to be an

281
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actor driven home, I think will
keep us rising to the top. Yeah.

282
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Yeah, I was going to say, it's like there's so much about

283
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AI. Even the writers Strike has
that element of it, right, but

284
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you can't you know, you like
these physical experiences. You can't replace it

285
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as a matter. You know,
you could in theory. You can generate

286
00:18:22.759 --> 00:18:26.519
so much, you know, online
media with AI and with all this generative

287
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AI stuff, but it's the in
person experiences you know, can't be applicated.

288
00:18:30.960 --> 00:18:36.000
But yeah, so I think the
in person experiences are I agree with

289
00:18:36.039 --> 00:18:37.319
you. I think they're going to
be continue to be. I mean,

290
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so I was going to ask,
I guess what do you see as the

291
00:18:42.839 --> 00:18:47.079
purpose of a hot attraction and It
seems like a simple question, but it

292
00:18:47.160 --> 00:18:48.880
kind of you know, I don't
know. Yeah, I think a lot

293
00:18:48.880 --> 00:18:52.039
of people will think, well,
to be scared, but I think for

294
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me, the number one thing is
almost entertain people. Yeah, and that's

295
00:18:56.200 --> 00:18:59.000
what you're doing. I mean,
you're out there like, so I think

296
00:18:59.000 --> 00:19:02.759
of that thirty five year old,
how can I entertain him? And when

297
00:19:02.759 --> 00:19:06.559
he comes in and he sees the
singing and the parade and we man,

298
00:19:06.599 --> 00:19:10.000
it's like the Midway. You can
get funnel cakes and you can get food

299
00:19:10.039 --> 00:19:12.680
and hot dogs and go through and
see all these attractions, with all these

300
00:19:12.680 --> 00:19:17.960
different attractions. These guys are even
like the stranger things we got. It

301
00:19:18.000 --> 00:19:19.319
was funny. I put pee Wee
Herman in the room and then a week

302
00:19:19.400 --> 00:19:22.599
later he died. But we got
these eighties things, and you got all

303
00:19:22.720 --> 00:19:27.599
these I got these VHS tapes in
therea with old Predator and Platoon, and

304
00:19:27.960 --> 00:19:30.319
man, I can remember when all
the movies came out. So we're doing

305
00:19:30.359 --> 00:19:34.279
this nostalgia thing. So the older
generation comes in, they're like, wow,

306
00:19:34.319 --> 00:19:37.359
I loved all the old stuff.
And the kids are like, I

307
00:19:37.400 --> 00:19:42.119
love stranger things. So number one
thing, by far entertain them laughing giggling.

308
00:19:42.880 --> 00:19:45.039
You know. Yeah, of course. Second, I hope we scaled

309
00:19:45.079 --> 00:19:48.759
a hell lot of them. But
number one thing is to entertain them and

310
00:19:48.759 --> 00:19:52.079
that'll keep them coming back. Yeah. Is that why you think that you

311
00:19:52.279 --> 00:19:55.559
stuck with it this whole time?
Is because of the love of entertaining people.

312
00:19:56.279 --> 00:19:57.000
Yeah, you know, for me, a lot of people. You

313
00:19:57.000 --> 00:20:02.319
know, I grew up in the
South and was old Baptist kid believing Jesus,

314
00:20:02.400 --> 00:20:03.960
and I didn't get to see a
lot of hard movies when I was

315
00:20:04.000 --> 00:20:07.640
younger. I had to play catch
up. But for me, it's about

316
00:20:07.720 --> 00:20:11.920
building a show and the love of
building a show and what I can do

317
00:20:11.960 --> 00:20:15.599
with my hands. And on a
night like tonight, set back, watch

318
00:20:15.640 --> 00:20:19.279
your people go through and go wow, man, it just makes me feel

319
00:20:19.319 --> 00:20:23.160
so good inside to know that I
built this in the city's people laughing and

320
00:20:23.200 --> 00:20:26.519
giggling. And for me, it's
about the build. It's not really necessarily

321
00:20:26.559 --> 00:20:30.960
about Halloween. It's about what I
can build and taking one hundred and twenty

322
00:20:30.960 --> 00:20:37.359
two misfit kids, whether nowadays,
and this is just being straight on as

323
00:20:37.599 --> 00:20:40.319
it's a black kid or a homeless
kid, that we got a homeless kid,

324
00:20:40.359 --> 00:20:45.240
as you're working for us white kids, all these Spanish people, transgender

325
00:20:45.400 --> 00:20:48.799
gays, all coming together, and
it's like, what's so amazing to me

326
00:20:48.880 --> 00:20:52.480
is that if the world could be
like my haunted house here, we would

327
00:20:52.519 --> 00:20:56.640
all get along. We get along
so good. We're family, doesn't matter

328
00:20:56.680 --> 00:21:00.240
to color, the race of the
creed. We're all family. And when

329
00:21:00.240 --> 00:21:03.400
you stick these guys, it's like
going to war, you know. I

330
00:21:03.440 --> 00:21:06.279
open the show up with a battle
cry. I'm like, we're going to

331
00:21:06.359 --> 00:21:10.519
war and we're going to blow these
people away. So this, this bond

332
00:21:10.559 --> 00:21:15.519
of these family people is and that's
amazing too because the people that I met

333
00:21:15.599 --> 00:21:21.119
running it's on at house, this
amazing industry, just all the people I've

334
00:21:21.119 --> 00:21:22.839
met, all the kids that have
acted for me. Had a girl come

335
00:21:22.880 --> 00:21:25.880
through tonight. I said, Rachel, my god, I hadn't seen you

336
00:21:25.960 --> 00:21:27.240
in five years. Where have you
been worked for me for five years?

337
00:21:27.319 --> 00:21:30.119
She goes in, I got three
kids now. It's just amazing to see

338
00:21:30.160 --> 00:21:34.279
these kids come back. But the
building part of it and entertaining the people

339
00:21:34.400 --> 00:21:38.680
and the bonds I'm building with these
these kids. These kids, whether they

340
00:21:38.680 --> 00:21:41.440
work here one year, ten years, will never forget the year they worked.

341
00:21:41.440 --> 00:21:45.400
It was a tiar it's an amazing
experience. Yeah, it really is

342
00:21:45.440 --> 00:21:48.640
a sentiment that I hear echoed a
lot that listeners this year will hear from

343
00:21:48.680 --> 00:21:53.559
a lot of different owners. I'm
wondering, you know, we can tell

344
00:21:53.599 --> 00:21:57.039
you have the love of the entertainment
in the show aspect, why do you

345
00:21:57.039 --> 00:22:00.319
think you chose the hunted house house
route instead of like, you know,

346
00:22:00.359 --> 00:22:03.319
you could put on a rock show
or you know, I mean, I

347
00:22:03.319 --> 00:22:06.920
mean you could. I could see
I see you doing like doing a rock

348
00:22:06.960 --> 00:22:10.559
concert or something, doing some other
like a summer festival. You know,

349
00:22:10.720 --> 00:22:15.000
like why why the spooky Halloween thing? You know? I you know,

350
00:22:15.319 --> 00:22:18.400
I tell everybody. Right out of
high school, I had a buddy invited

351
00:22:18.440 --> 00:22:21.599
me to a hole of house.
We went and man had a great time,

352
00:22:21.680 --> 00:22:22.720
and he said, man, I
didn't make enough money doing this.

353
00:22:22.880 --> 00:22:26.480
I said, well, I'll do
one. Let's make one together, and

354
00:22:26.519 --> 00:22:27.920
I'll pay you. Pay you one
hundred dollars. He said, he made

355
00:22:27.960 --> 00:22:30.559
forty. I said, I'll pay
you one hundred. I remember, man,

356
00:22:30.599 --> 00:22:33.839
I think it was one hundred and
eighty four people at two dollars in

357
00:22:33.880 --> 00:22:37.279
nineteen ninety one. I'm like,
oh, my lord, but you know,

358
00:22:37.359 --> 00:22:41.640
I don't know I feel like some
of that stuff was you know,

359
00:22:41.680 --> 00:22:44.720
I said, I'm a Jesus guy. I think some of that stuff was

360
00:22:44.759 --> 00:22:48.119
guided. Man. It was like
for for me to be where I'm at

361
00:22:48.599 --> 00:22:52.039
it. Obviously, I worked hard, and you know, I tell people

362
00:22:52.119 --> 00:22:56.039
like, you can you only have
to work half a day to be successful.

363
00:22:56.039 --> 00:22:59.279
It's first twelve or the second twelve. You know it. It ain't

364
00:22:59.319 --> 00:23:03.759
eight hours a day. But a
lot of things have fallen into place that

365
00:23:03.799 --> 00:23:06.759
have left me here. And yeah, you know, some days I look

366
00:23:06.880 --> 00:23:08.319
like, go man, I could
have been a rock star singer. But

367
00:23:10.480 --> 00:23:12.240
I think, honestly, this is
where I was supposed to be. In

368
00:23:12.240 --> 00:23:15.559
two thousand, I was introduced to
trans World. Didn't know anything about it.

369
00:23:17.440 --> 00:23:19.119
I remember talking to Ben Armstrong like
it was yesterday. I said,

370
00:23:19.119 --> 00:23:22.519
what do you do for a living? Ben? And he goes, well,

371
00:23:22.519 --> 00:23:23.799
I do Halloween. And I'm like, I said, no, I'm

372
00:23:25.079 --> 00:23:26.359
heat in an air, man.
I do heating an air forty hours week.

373
00:23:26.440 --> 00:23:29.680
What do you do? And he
goes, no, I do Halloween.

374
00:23:29.759 --> 00:23:33.359
I was like, okay, I'm
going to do that. And lord,

375
00:23:33.400 --> 00:23:34.480
I think that was two thousand and
one. So I made up my

376
00:23:34.559 --> 00:23:38.160
mind. So in two thousand and
nine. I think it was. I

377
00:23:38.200 --> 00:23:44.400
went full time and been full time
ever since. Yep. You know,

378
00:23:44.640 --> 00:23:47.359
we have a lot of younger people
that listen to the show, and they're

379
00:23:47.400 --> 00:23:51.799
like going through college and graduating,
and they're always asking like, how do

380
00:23:51.880 --> 00:23:53.920
I do this? So I'm curious
what would you tell them? What would

381
00:23:53.920 --> 00:24:00.559
you tell maybe someone who's in high
school or college that wants to do Halloween,

382
00:24:03.759 --> 00:24:06.920
I would pick another career. Yeah, I'm serious, That's what I

383
00:24:07.000 --> 00:24:10.880
tell them. I would pick another
career. Well, because I always I'm

384
00:24:10.920 --> 00:24:14.720
like, look, it is harder
than restaurants. You know, every time

385
00:24:14.720 --> 00:24:18.119
you open your losing money. The
infrastructure, Like, look you have I

386
00:24:18.119 --> 00:24:22.039
can't even calculate how much you put
into your show, and you keep adding

387
00:24:22.039 --> 00:24:23.400
you after year. So it's like
if you were to make a new one,

388
00:24:23.759 --> 00:24:29.839
essentially the competition would be places like
you guys with thirty two years of

389
00:24:30.079 --> 00:24:33.160
sets that are built in and then
every time you open, Yes, it's

390
00:24:33.200 --> 00:24:38.000
you know, I'm gonna tell you
that is a that is a that's a

391
00:24:38.079 --> 00:24:42.279
stumper question right there. You're gonna
have to lay out on a geographical map

392
00:24:42.759 --> 00:24:47.440
whether go to Virginia and pick out
No hand house was in you three hours.

393
00:24:47.519 --> 00:24:48.720
That's the way you gotta do it. But man, I'm gonna be

394
00:24:48.720 --> 00:24:57.200
honest. I think that I would
have to say probably, I don't know

395
00:24:57.240 --> 00:25:00.880
the numbers. One out of five
hundred thousand some people can do this,

396
00:25:02.160 --> 00:25:11.160
or one out of maybe five out
of a million. Because this is it's

397
00:25:11.200 --> 00:25:17.279
tough. I had some days I
wanted to quit and I got my shirt

398
00:25:17.319 --> 00:25:19.200
on. The hater's gonna hate because
boy, let me tell you, if

399
00:25:19.240 --> 00:25:22.720
you just have a little bit of
success, somebody wants to beat you down

400
00:25:22.759 --> 00:25:27.640
and tell you you can't do this, you can't do that. And it's

401
00:25:27.680 --> 00:25:32.359
been tough, man. I mean, I mean my dad was up there

402
00:25:32.440 --> 00:25:33.440
fifteen years ago and he said,
what are you doing today, Addy?

403
00:25:33.440 --> 00:25:37.319
And I said, well, I'm
working on the woodsitear and he said,

404
00:25:37.720 --> 00:25:40.400
I don't know why you're doing that. It won't ever be nothing, you

405
00:25:40.440 --> 00:25:44.799
know. And that's the way a
lot of people think. So you gotta

406
00:25:44.839 --> 00:25:48.559
be tough, and I tell you
I don't know. I honestly, I

407
00:25:48.559 --> 00:25:52.000
would say true was another career.
I would say, go work at a

408
00:25:52.200 --> 00:25:56.359
go work at a haunted house and
worked there every two or three years and

409
00:25:56.400 --> 00:25:59.160
see if you think you can do
it. But man, you gotta be

410
00:25:59.200 --> 00:26:02.160
tough. You got to get up
stuff. Man, I'm gonna tell you

411
00:26:03.119 --> 00:26:07.279
I drive a two thousand and four
Excursion and last year I went in order

412
00:26:07.359 --> 00:26:11.920
to nineteen. You know, I
ordered a twenty twenty three Denali brand new.

413
00:26:11.960 --> 00:26:17.119
It was loaded and it came in
and I went and talked to my

414
00:26:17.160 --> 00:26:18.079
banker. I said, I'm gonna
pick up my truck and said, I'll

415
00:26:18.119 --> 00:26:22.160
make sure my loan's gonna go through
for all business. And she said,

416
00:26:22.160 --> 00:26:23.000
I'll tell you, EDDI, if
you buy that truck, you won't get

417
00:26:23.000 --> 00:26:26.519
you loan. So I had to
give up the truck. And I've done

418
00:26:26.519 --> 00:26:30.759
that all my life. And you
know, even my stepson said to my

419
00:26:30.799 --> 00:26:33.839
wife, she goes, you know, Eddie bought a Bobcat two years ago,

420
00:26:33.880 --> 00:26:37.400
and he bought a Lyft three years
ago. And he never ad buys

421
00:26:37.440 --> 00:26:42.480
anything for her self. And it's
tough. You gotta you gotta be willing

422
00:26:42.480 --> 00:26:47.799
to give up. And right now
I live in my old grandparents's house.

423
00:26:47.839 --> 00:26:51.480
I'm remodeling the house I grew up
as a kid. But I've been remodeling

424
00:26:51.519 --> 00:26:55.960
that house for six, six or
seven years because I've had to stop to

425
00:26:56.000 --> 00:27:00.799
put all my money in time and
effort into Wozitar, and it has probably

426
00:27:00.799 --> 00:27:04.400
the last three to four years that
has started paying off. But I'm gonna

427
00:27:04.400 --> 00:27:07.720
tell you, for the first twenty
years, I didn't take a dime of

428
00:27:07.799 --> 00:27:11.799
profit. I put it all back
into my home. I can tell you

429
00:27:11.839 --> 00:27:15.759
this. In the last thirty years, I've only owned two vehicles, and

430
00:27:15.200 --> 00:27:18.920
one of them to two thousand and
four. And that's what you got to

431
00:27:18.960 --> 00:27:22.640
give up. You got to be
pared to give up. There's some other

432
00:27:22.680 --> 00:27:26.160
people doing it different ways. They
take their profit and they buy their nice

433
00:27:26.160 --> 00:27:27.799
houses, and they buy their cars, and their hont's not as good.

434
00:27:29.960 --> 00:27:32.480
I've chose to do the different.
I'm gonna make my home the best I

435
00:27:32.480 --> 00:27:33.799
can. If I have to change
a little bit, I'll drive an older

436
00:27:33.799 --> 00:27:37.440
car. I am hoping to buy
me a new car this year, but

437
00:27:38.960 --> 00:27:42.079
so I got two new Bobcats and
I got a lift, so I'm hoping

438
00:27:42.119 --> 00:27:45.640
I can buy me a truck.
But it's a lot to give up,

439
00:27:45.640 --> 00:27:48.720
man, It's a personal sacrifice.
And I mean, and I'm gonna tell

440
00:27:48.759 --> 00:27:52.119
you, I always make jokes.
My first wife left because I had a

441
00:27:52.160 --> 00:27:57.039
mistress and it was called wizard there
and suck Joe. Yeah, I mean,

442
00:27:57.880 --> 00:28:02.480
but I worked forty hours a week
on my job, and I worked

443
00:28:02.480 --> 00:28:07.640
forty hours a week on Wi the
Tear for twelve years, and my wife

444
00:28:07.200 --> 00:28:11.160
just didn't like it. I guess
it was crazy she met me I had

445
00:28:11.160 --> 00:28:15.000
the HONT, but I guess she
saw it that I would always love the

446
00:28:15.000 --> 00:28:18.359
home and spend the money on the
HONT. Maybe she wouldn't have the biggest

447
00:28:18.400 --> 00:28:21.640
house if she wanted to, but
a big house doesn't make me happy.

448
00:28:22.799 --> 00:28:29.359
But I live on my family farm. That was the goal to It had

449
00:28:29.400 --> 00:28:33.160
been sold off in pieces, and
I've only got ten acres left about back,

450
00:28:33.200 --> 00:28:37.440
so I'll have sixty when I get
done. But very slowly, I've

451
00:28:37.759 --> 00:28:41.240
methodically bought each piece of property back
in each house back, and it's been

452
00:28:41.279 --> 00:28:45.920
an amazing road. I wouldn't trade
it for anything, but it is a

453
00:28:45.039 --> 00:28:49.279
very tough road to hoe. And
so if you're thinking about this career,

454
00:28:49.359 --> 00:28:52.160
like I said, you better go
practice somewhere a couple of years and make

455
00:28:52.200 --> 00:28:57.720
a decision. I honestly think that
you could go somewhere and be a actor

456
00:28:57.759 --> 00:29:03.920
coordinator, team leader and make more
money and be happier, because this will

457
00:29:03.920 --> 00:29:10.000
consume your life and you know,
I'm all in or nothing, and I

458
00:29:10.119 --> 00:29:11.160
tell people here, we're going to
do it right away and going to do

459
00:29:11.200 --> 00:29:17.160
it. And I do a lot
of attention to detail a little hundreds of

460
00:29:17.200 --> 00:29:19.720
things that other homeowners. So I
can say to this, there was three

461
00:29:19.720 --> 00:29:22.200
haunted houses that used to be around
me. They all spun off when I

462
00:29:22.240 --> 00:29:26.039
opened, and they didn't pay attention
to the little things in the details,

463
00:29:26.039 --> 00:29:27.680
and they all closed in the six
or seven years and they're all gone.

464
00:29:29.240 --> 00:29:33.200
But you have to pay to the
little attention of details. But I sincerely

465
00:29:33.240 --> 00:29:37.480
think you could go somewhere and I
know you're going to hush, but man,

466
00:29:37.519 --> 00:29:41.920
you could get involved with hush or
maybe being done in another world or

467
00:29:41.759 --> 00:29:45.319
field of screams and Pennsylvania. Man, get involved with those guys. You

468
00:29:45.359 --> 00:29:48.400
could be a team leader, a
manager, and you'd be happier, make

469
00:29:48.400 --> 00:29:53.559
more money. Yeah, that's I
think. That's exactly what I tell people

470
00:29:53.640 --> 00:30:00.160
usually. You know, It's like
I used to teach a theater, you

471
00:30:00.160 --> 00:30:02.119
know, and the kids would always
say like, I want to be on

472
00:30:02.160 --> 00:30:06.319
Broadway, and I was like,
look, you will make it if you

473
00:30:06.720 --> 00:30:10.640
Anyone can do anything, if they
sacrifice everything else for that one thing.

474
00:30:11.359 --> 00:30:14.680
That's what I did. Yeah,
And I mean it's you know, it's

475
00:30:14.880 --> 00:30:17.759
kind of like you have to want, you have to need it, like

476
00:30:17.799 --> 00:30:22.519
you need air, or it's probably
not going to work because it not,

477
00:30:22.799 --> 00:30:26.720
is it not? This is not
yeah, yeah, own in woods.

478
00:30:26.759 --> 00:30:30.920
The terror is there's probably two things
in life. I love my wife,

479
00:30:30.960 --> 00:30:34.519
being with her and man owning the
woodsd terror and that's what I live for.

480
00:30:34.720 --> 00:30:37.279
So I get up. I do
it every day, probably work.

481
00:30:37.839 --> 00:30:41.519
I probably work on average twelve hours
a day, and if you factored that

482
00:30:41.599 --> 00:30:45.519
out, I'll probably get paid you
know, ten bucks eleven bucks an hour.

483
00:30:45.000 --> 00:30:48.960
But it's the love of it,
and of course living on my family

484
00:30:48.000 --> 00:30:52.319
farm, and that's that's a big
part of it. But you got to

485
00:30:52.359 --> 00:30:56.599
be willing to give up, like
you said, everything, and you know,

486
00:30:56.720 --> 00:30:59.359
for me, I had to give
up. What worked out. I

487
00:30:59.359 --> 00:31:02.720
give up my first wife never intended
that. I really hated that that happened.

488
00:31:02.799 --> 00:31:06.640
But things are better now, and
you know, thirty two years later,

489
00:31:07.319 --> 00:31:11.519
we're getting ready to have our biggest
season. The numbers are going already

490
00:31:11.519 --> 00:31:14.920
through the roof for what we normally
do, and so I think we're having

491
00:31:14.880 --> 00:31:18.519
an amazing year. And you know, I'm just letting everybody know. So

492
00:31:18.599 --> 00:31:22.079
I own fifty acres now, I'm
leasing ten. Hoped to buy that in

493
00:31:22.119 --> 00:31:25.599
a couple of years, but I
have seventeen more years on that lease.

494
00:31:25.720 --> 00:31:30.000
So I'm hoping we're going past that
seventeen And people ask me, what,

495
00:31:30.079 --> 00:31:33.079
where's my exit strategy? I ain't
made one. I'm just gonna keep I'm

496
00:31:33.079 --> 00:31:37.200
gonna keep rocking until I can't as
long as I don't go bald and rock

497
00:31:37.279 --> 00:31:41.319
my mo hope, I think I'm
all right, amazing. Well, I

498
00:31:41.359 --> 00:31:42.839
think that's a perfect place to end, all right, man, I mean,

499
00:31:42.880 --> 00:31:49.960
thanks for coming out. Today's episode
was produced and edited by me Philippernandez,

500
00:31:51.000 --> 00:31:55.519
with post production by David Swape and
original music composed by Chris Thomas.

501
00:31:55.759 --> 00:31:59.359
We're counting down to Halloween with daily
podcasts, videos, and events in our

502
00:31:59.400 --> 00:32:02.240
sixty one Hauntathon. Follow along at
the link in our show notes. Our

503
00:32:02.279 --> 00:32:07.160
Hantathon is made possible through generous support
from Gantum, Lighty and Controls. Gantum

504
00:32:07.160 --> 00:32:12.559
illuminates attractions worldwide with the world's smallest
intelligent spotlights. See what you're missing with

505
00:32:12.640 --> 00:32:16.319
a free demo. Sign up at
d'antum dot com. Slash demo That's gantum

506
00:32:16.359 --> 00:32:22.480
dot com slash demo. Our Hantathon
team includes Daryl Plunky, Emily Luis Rua,

507
00:32:22.640 --> 00:32:28.799
Megan Spells, Gavin Burns and omni
Adventures, and our content partners for

508
00:32:28.839 --> 00:32:34.079
this year include Attractions Magazine, Creepy
Kingdom, Freaks of Ajgen, hont Topic

509
00:32:34.200 --> 00:32:39.079
Radio, Kevin Heinbach News TV,
Omniadventures, Scare Track, Sharp Productions,

510
00:32:39.279 --> 00:32:44.519
That Halloween Podcast, The Horror of
Being, Emily The Scare Factor, and

511
00:32:44.920 --> 00:32:47.839
This Weekend with Nick Pelliochini. The
best way you can support us this Halloween

512
00:32:47.880 --> 00:32:52.599
season is by sharing our hauntedon with
someone you think we'll enjoy it, and

513
00:32:52.680 --> 00:32:55.279
to follow along to our Hantathon.
Sign up for our weekly newsletter at hant

514
00:32:55.359 --> 00:33:00.839
Attraction Network dot com. We'll catch
you back here tomorrow, Row and every

515
00:33:00.920 --> 00:33:08.720
day until Halloween until next time.
Please Gary. This is a Haunted Attraction Network production