Mhc

[xxxdirk]

For whatever it is worth, I LOVE Sheldon, though I do worry about his safety at times. He has more guts thatn I do. I also find it funnty that I hear the words immature, and distasteful written by those in this industry. We are all immature, and shoking and distasteful and controversial.
Also, though the 47 yera old in me loved the toppless girl in the zombie walk, I was amazed that there were several, YOUNG kids, like 10 or so walking around. Gosh, where were these women when I was that age? All I had was National Geographic!

[Kevin Dells]

Kevin,

I remember your characters too, and I was equally disgusted by those. A grown man wearing a diaper and spearing "crap" on himself? C'mon man it makes no sense. What's wrong with being a Grim Reaper?

talent.


Darkangel

Darkangel just for your information and maybe learning experience. That character gave me a name in this industry. Before Babyman NOBODY knew who i was as i was just starting out in the haunted attraction world.

Now there are a crapload of people who know who i am(no pun intended) not only in the feild of haunt but the city's i haunt in as well. I would say at least half of the people i meet at conventions and haunts who see me in plain clothes still address me as babyman and not as Kevin so the image sticks gross or not.

How did that character come to be we ask, am i really that sick in the head to dream something like that up? Well thats a funny storyactually.

It was dreamt up by a group of haunt owners one late night after closing our haunt back in Illinois, i just happened to be part of that group. If i recall we had owners visiting, we finished up and got together for a few beverages and talked haunting. One of them said (and i won't list names but he is very well known) asked whats the nastiest you have ever had in your haunt or seen. They chatted about different storys for awhile and then like actors do with improv they kind of went around and created this character.

That following weekend Babyman was born and entertained in our midway for two years every weekend. When we lost our haunt i had many haunts contact me to come act for them so myself along with a few of our best spent the following two seasons on the road touring the biggest crowd drawing haunts in Illinois and Wisconsin.

xxxdirk was one owner and Ken Spriggs another just to name a couple. Sorry it was cold Ron i would have loved to do Babyman for your crowd as you requested but 20 degree's and 40 mph wind gusts are kind of my limit of scantily clad.

So Angel i wouldn't just write my characters off, they have intimidated crowds many nights. Not scary you say, i beg to differ. Yeah he comes on all gross and nasty but i first play him as cute and funny and innocent, then when the group gets comfortable i pounce all over their asses.

But hey maybe i"ll take your advice and hang up the diaper for a cloak and sickle this season as every Halloween store stocks them,shouldn't be hard to find but hey i"ll at least be traditional as i walk around silent not scaring anybody because there are only what 50,000 Grim reapers in this world come October!

Did i say traditional or should i have termed it very overused. Or hey i could be a clown with a chainsaw or Freddy or Jason or a zombie or a ghost! Yeah you don't see that 10,000 times a year!

And since were kind of on the subject of distastful i may as well not build the schenes i have for this season to go along with the hillbilly having sex with the archery dear we had last year. Yeah our crowd favortie schene last season!

My new schenes are a Go Go dancing cage, and an alien with a huge meniacle ray gun anal probe and an actor strapped to his table sceaming, no that won't get their attention!

So welcome to my little screwed up world of Shock and AWE, seems to be pretty cool to draw the huge crowds we do and yes parking is a problem for us. Seems our four parking lots are always full! Good problem to have!

[Darkangel]

Tater, you winning a competition with your gross out acting style...OK, who might I asked were the judges? Oh that's right it wasn't the public, the people who actually pay money to enjoy a show it was judged by Haunt people. You can't say everyone likes it because you won a competition, judged by other haunters.

Dirk, we as an industry do not have to think of ourselves as distasteful and immature. I happen to subsribe to the select few in this industry who consider themselves business people. Hark working, decent, family oriented in most cases, intelligent business people who could be successful in other types of business because they see the big picture. This is yet again another example of how we dig our own graves and why people look down on haunters rather than respect them.

If you guys need to do the childish gross out dirty diaper shock routines then by all means do it. I'll be down the street entertaining the mainstream folks doing press interviews because the press would rather speak with a normal person first, haunter second, then a weirdo who is stuck in 70's era techniques doing whatever to get some reaction while not even realizing he's embarrassing himself/herself and making the show they are employed at look bad and low class...

[Kevin Dells]

Thank you it meens the world to me to have your approval!

[Darkangel]

Kevin, if making a name for yourself constitutes a grown man wearing a diaper with crap smeared over you then you can keep your name. For me, I'll be a played out reaper but I'll maintain my dignity and self respect. You build amazing sets, and you have a strong passion if you decided to do that alone you can build a name for yourself. I've seen your "act" before I believe it was at Deamreapers. Obviosly you went to the same school for acting as Sheldon as you both like to get in peoples way and not move, annoying them, not letting them pass and not intimidated them or scaring them. There is nothing a slight guy in a diaper can do to intimidate, sorry...I know you moved down South, might want to leave those acts up North is about the best advice I can give....But again you do a great job with building sets Kevin.



Darkangel

[UndeadProd]

One of the reasons why MHC was such a great and uplfting experience was the limited exposure to drama, ego, and feuding. There was a great, positive vibe that seemed to fill the air -- and the 4 of us left Columbus feeling envigorated and ready to meet the challenges of the coming season.

Any chance we could keep some of that groovy vibe going for just a little longer, and avoid another flame war on the boards? Can we just agree to disagree on the cultural significance of dirty diapers and bloody nose pickers?

I consider myself to be a business man. I try to run our haunt as professionally as possible. And yes, there are definitely styles of haunting and acting that would not fit in with our marketing and mission for ScareHouse (or our intended audience) ... but that doesn't mean that I don't appreicate the highly creative and entertaining antics of the more extreme characters and actors in the business.

The ScareHouse folks all loved watching the antics from the DreamReapers guys ... their quick wits and improv skills are remarkable and highly memorable.

[hauntedhousenut]

Wow

You folks need to settle down. Darkangel correct me if i'm wrong, they way i'm interpeting your analogy is that your saying sheldon, and kevin were like the fat girls that never got any attention, so they became punk rockers, that's kinda of like professional teams that use gimmick offenses to hide their weakness.

on the other hand kevin is a pretty cool dude.

[Tater]

Darkangel

you know your right...it wasnt judged by the public...because if i was i sure as hell wouldnt of gotten second place...let me post alil video and you can see my reaction when the crowd came to a rawr. Now it is a long video so you might have to go the bathroom between times but listen they actually chant for me and the first place winner.

[SHELDON]

Quick to Judge.

I'm just curious. Have any of you actually met the guy that plays me? Do you know anything about him at all, other than the given?

[Tater]

I know that sheldon is kickass...and works for DreamReapers...and i have nothing but love for Ken Spriggs so therefore I have nothing but love for Sheldon and the rest of the DreamReapers Crew!!!

[badass]

Hell Yeah

Kevin it sounds like you have a kick ass haunt there...my kinda place..

and Sheldon..I loved your bit...and some other actors i have seen at dreamreapers....like the guy in the hospital robes pickin stuff..hell yeah my kinda entertainment..

and Tater....I was one of em yellin....you had m at hello..haha

[drfrightner]

I watched Jackass the movie and found the skits with the old lady 110% funny, they do a lot of those things. I think I even seen on Jackass where they do a wheelchair skit and it is funny. But again that is a movie so ...

If someone did something to make the industry look bad, or jeopardized a function or event I would be upset. I wasn't there so I don't know...

But clearly MHC people went to have fun and just party...so maybe it got a big carried away. These kinds of things don't happen at Transworld or IAAPA, at least not that I've ever seen. People come to those shows to buy and sell and do business.

Doing business takes time, it takes time to make decisions
that affect your business. When you watch the videos of all the people dressed up in costumes, or running around in wheel chairs, or the overwhelming amount of enthusiast, home haunters, actors or whomever, clearly this show is a very social experience first and foremost.

So when you get a bunch of people coming together to hang out, drink, party, dress up things might get a little wild. I think it is to be expected.

I personally would agree with who ever said it that we should conduct ourselves as professionals at our industry tradeshows. I think people are consider haunt fans, horror fans, or gothic people or whomever or haunters as weird people...we don't have to be perceived that way for sure.

We can be perceived as professionals for a professional industry, an industry that now deserves more respect, and should hold itself and its industry to a higher standard.

The only way you put your attractions on the top of the heap is to view this as a business first, a passion second, otherwise you'll go broke, make bad decisions and never achieve the ultimate goals.

We all have passion, and we all love to have a good time, and there is a time and place for that...but we as an industry need to first and foremost start respecting ourselves, our industry, and come together if we expect the major sponsors of the world to back us or the general public to take us as legit entertainment worth of the prices we want to charge.

I am on a soapbox, and I'm not slamming anyone because I wasn't there and I didn't see anything and I'm NOT refering to this specific situation just making a general statement.

This WHOLE industry needs to stop the politics, and come together and then and only then can we achieve greatness.

Larry

[lurker]

"Here come old flattop, he come grooving up slowly
He got joo-joo eyeball, he one holy roller
He got hair down to his knee
Got to be a joker he just do what he please

He wear no shoeshine, he got toe-jam football
He got monkey finger, he shoot coca-cola
He say "I know you, you know me"
One thing I can tell you is you got to be free
Come together right now over me" -The Beatles

[actiondeath]

As far a jeopardizing future zombie walks... ask the two cars of Columbus Police who were absolutely rolling with laughter. Ask the people at the outdoor diners that were jumping fences to take pictures with me. Ask the passing motorists who actually slowed down so I could hitch a ride on their bumper. They all looked very upset.

Thank you. From where I was standing it looked and sounded like total chaos. I wasn't aware that the police got a chuckle out of it. Watch me as I sing a new tune. mememememememememeeeeeeeeee... Funny what a reasonable response can accomplish. I still think it was ignorant and dangerous though. LOL

BTW, I don't hear any complaints about all of the half naked women walking around in public with their boobs hanging out. (Sorry Maddi and Kara I still love you both) "That's considered art." you say? Well one of them was a minor. I call that illegal.

They were asked at the park to throw something over their goods. I dunno if I'd call it "art", but I was informed that being topless in Columbus is 100% legal. I was too busy to check ID's though. If one of them is a minor, I know about a dozen photographers who should probably yank some pics off of the internet right quick. If you don't mind me asking, how do you know that one of them was underage?

As far as ActionDeath goes, I would have loved an award for the biggest dumbass at MHC... are you kidding me? In fact, I'd like to see something like that next year. It will give me something to strive for. And thank you for posting those pics... they made my day.

I can't award anything for MHC, but you would certainly have my vote. Takes some serious sack to pull that kind of stuff. If you want more photos, google search "zombie walk columbus" and look around for some recent stuff. There are a LOT of pics of you. Someone got you on video too. It's on youtube.

[SSP]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/derdrache/2579057823/

wwaaaahahahahahahaha. Wish I could have gone, I was told about the happenings of a great event, and also this unfortunate fiasco. It's a shame how some pride and a false sense of "responsibility" can really over-shadow a good time. After all, this wouldn't be a message board without blowing up miniscule and pointless issues.