Episode 94-East Coast Haunters Convention Recap

Music. Coming to you live from the Chamber of Haunters studios, this is Haunting You.

I'm your host, Leslie Reed. And I'm Keone Hutton. Welcome, everyone, back to the Haunting You podcast, and happy May. Holy smokes. Yesterday was halfway to Halloween. Les, yesterday was halfway to Halloween, April 30th. That can't be right. Right? Like, we are literally halfway through the year, six months to go until the big night, which means five months to go until we are, like, set up and running.

Which means like three and a half months to go before i have to start or four and a half months to go before i have to start setup and let's be honest three months three and a half months really more like three and a half months that is accurate oh i don't know what it is like it's really a difference of a day but now that we are on the backside of halfway to halloween it feels so much more real i'm freaking out yeah and being not ready yet not ready very

very not well I take that back. We are a little bit ready. We're a little bit ready. We have a lot of the things that we needed. Like we have most of the haunt. Yes. And all my crap is here. Like we're probably not as far off as I think we are, but I'm still freaking out. Well, and I think the other thing that's kind of adding some additional pressure is our desire to use this as a test run for next year and trying to turn it into a paid.

So that piece certainly adds some additional stress and anxiety to the situation, because we really do want to treat this as kind of a dress rehearsal style. Right, right, exactly. So the pressure's on, but we have six months to go. We're going to do it. On that note, I had a very interesting conversation today with my neighbor.

Really? who would just happen to be out walking the dog she she just happened to be out walking the brand new dog they just got a rescue it's a i could not tell you what it is but it is adorable and sweet and let me rub her belly she was very sweet anyway they love halloween and yes they do want to want to help not clear yet how they want to help but at the very least they're going to be doing concessions of some sort in the vicinity sweet yeah so they're we're talking we're talking

more and they have a teenage daughter who is interested in haunting potentially so like we're we're starting to get some the help is trickling in oh oh oh and jazz just got her orders she is going to be assigned to a naval base an hour away from us for a school from september to december. And then where are they then here? Say again. Then where are they sending her? She got orders to a ship in Norfolk, Virginia. Okay. So four hours per month, which is not bad. So relatively close.

Yeah. But the fact that she'll be an hour away at Halloween, she's helping. Yeah, she is. So I've got the family down the street. I've got Jazz. We'll see who else I can wrangle. But the help is starting to trickle in. Cough, cough. Mine will depend on how many more things. how many more emergency vet visits you have yeah oh because kaylee also is ready to be spayed oh yeah it is that time it is that time poor thing so that also has to be.

Oh my gosh you guys are just gonna be living at the vet for the next couple months that's literally been this past like three weeks yeah yeah i'm so sorry give all the pets lots of cuddles for us like oh they've been getting a lot of them like right now alan's got three of the four, at some point he'll probably send somebody into me i've had all four of them in my office at some point with knowledge great so she can sleep and not have

anybody eating her food it is it in a merry-go-round poor things poor things yeah but we get them taken care of because they are, absolutely we love them and we need them exactly yep and this is also why we have pet insurance which i need to go that helps that helps yes it does so what i really want to talk about today is uh why i am so freaking energized and that is of course because we were at east coast hunters convention last weekend oh

my god it was a blast i had so much more fun than i was expecting this was in pennsylvania right this was in pennsylvania it was at the, hang on let me let me pull it up so that i have the actual proper name of it we're gonna get accurate information we are gonna get accurate information john's not here to keep us in check so like i've got to make an effort, Yeah. That's going to be risky. Indeed. The Greater Philadelphia Expo Center.

It was at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in Oaks, Pennsylvania. And honestly, it was a much smaller venue than I was expecting. It kind of reminded me of like the where the stock show was in Denver. Like it's not a convention center. it very much felt more like stock show-esque than convention center. I mean, that makes sense given where you are in the world. Definitely true. Like, definitely a much more rural area.

But holy crap, they packed a lot into it. Like, I was impressed. I was surprised. This is only the second year for East Coast Hunters Convention, but it's, you know, it's put on by Transworld, the same people who do the biggest trade show in the industry in St. Louis every year. So you mean people with a budget? People with a budget, yes. This is their show. And, you know, there was a little bit of head-butting between Fear Expo and

Transworld for a variety of reasons. Some of them personality-driven. There was a lot of, we don't need two trade shows. And so, like, I really, I have a lot of loyalty to Fear Expo because they did a lot for us. And so I went in kind of wanting to hate it because just out of a sense of generic like loyalty to an organization that no longer exists. I understand it's silly. Don't judge me. I hear you. But that's how I went in.

Yeah. I mean, and there's definitely, you know, trans world has a reputation it has rightly and wrongly for a variety of reasons. But the thing is, is it is the industry trade show. It is the industry. And, you know, anytime that you're kind of tweaking the status quo, there's going to be conflict.

There's going to be. absolutely and that's not a bad thing like that no it's not that will help people do better in many cases but all of that all of the politics aside i went in wanting to hate it and i couldn't like i couldn't they put on such a freaking cool show i was very impressed my only critique of them was they didn't have obvious signs showing what row you were in so it was very difficult to like to find an address to find an address of a booth and find that specific

booth like i spent my about 20 minutes first thing trying to find the chamber of hunters booth because i had to go see robert nolton president of the chamber of hunters who i have spoken to for years on zoom and never once freaking met in person so i had to do that first yeah.

But i had a very hard time finding it because i could not figure out where the 200 row was which is this direction 200 is this direction or like which way is it going i couldn't figure it out i eventually found it that was a little bit frustrating but like if that's why we don't put you in charge of navigating boats accurate that is accurate but like if that's the only critique i had.

That's i take it back there were two critiques the other one was all the classes cost money uh, $35 if you buy it ahead of time, $45 at the door. And oh my God, they had some awesome classes that I could not pay for. Yeah. But let's come back to that. What I want to do today is talk all things East Coast Hunters Convention, talk about my experience there and lessons learned, go through some of the vendors that we met.

I've got a ton of videos posted up on our YouTube channel at Hunting Universe, at hunting you on youtube as well as our instagram at hunting university please go check them out because even though you're going to hear some of those interviews here the audio cannot do it justice you have to see the props that these people these companies brought with them because they are so freaking cool yeah yeah i was definitely watching a bunch of the videos over the weekend and there's some very the heads

in jars the heads and jars were so freaking cool Those were amazing. Let's start with the basics of the convention, and then we'll dive into what we saw. So the convention that we mentioned took place at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center from April 25th and 26th, Saturday, Sunday, just two days for the show. Although they did have a ton of pre-con haunt tours. Two days worth of pre-con haunt tours on Thursday and Friday.

There's a lot of haunts in Pennsylvania. There are a ton of haunts. So fantastic. I'm trying to find where. So on Thursday, yeah, so on Thursday, they went to Brighton Asylum and Fright Factory. On Friday, they went to Field of Screens and Dark Nights at Hershey Park. Huge names. Yeah, chocolate. Huge names of haunts out here. And I heard that they were phenomenal. I did not go because I work and could not get the time off. So what I did was instead drive up on Friday night right after work.

You know, I'm three hours away from from Philly. It took me four hours to get there because traffic on Friday night leaving DC, but I went straight from work. I didn't even come home. I just went straight from work and was driving North for four hours, got to the hotel, passed out.

And then next morning I was there bright and early to check in, check in took a bit of time because you know, everyone, you had to go and get your wristband first, and then you could stand in line to actually get onto of the show floor and so big line there big line there i should have gotten there earlier.

I was very much at the end of the line i got there at nine o'clock show floor open at 9 30, yeah you should have gotten there earlier i should have gotten there earlier i wish i had gotten there earlier because then i would have had more opportunity to like walk the line talk to people get interviews there i i i failed is what it comes down to uh so we forgive you i appreciate that instead I was standing in line waiting for my wristband and by the time

I had my wristband show floor was open so like it actually kind of worked out because I went from getting my wristband basically onto the show floor immediately but I didn't get to talk with anyone waiting in line like I'd hoped to right but the moment I walk in, It's just like heavenly angels, a chorus of angels singing in my ears as I smell the fog from Foggy's Fog and hear the screams from Poison Props and see Doug with VFX throwing eyeballs at people already.

Like, yes, I'm home.

It very much felt like a homecoming like i have not been to a convention in a while so it it was great to to have the opportunity again and catch up with a lot of friends from the industry so, i loved that so yeah back to the basics though if you ticket sales you could get a 65 ticket for saturday and sunday which gets you access to the entire show floor or if you have just one day 50 for saturday 40 for sunday same thing it gives you full access as well as access to the east christmas

show which was a i'm gonna say an annex off on one side it had its own little hall that was definitely separate from the the rest of the show but a surprising number of vendors like it It was larger than I expected. Light-O-Rama was there. X-Lights was there. They were doing seminars about programming Christmas lights. They had a ton of LED vendors and light vendors and prop vendors in the Christmas site as well.

Plus, Santa and Mrs. Claus were there to say hello to the children. Of course. Which was... Amusing? A thing. Yeah. It was... Exactly. It was amusing. It was funny. I didn't spend a ton of time over there, but... I love using my Christmas lights controllers to do stuff to do lighting stuff for the haunt. I use Lightorama. A lot of people use X lights, very similar like programming style.

But I think it is it makes perfect sense to have these two shows co-located together because there's a ton that I can take from either side to use for either one. Yeah, so there's definitely a good bit of crossover. There is definitely a good bit of crossover. My only regret from this weekend was I didn't get a chance to interview anyone from Lightarama. I would have loved to. Well, that would have been fun. It would have been fun, but I got very much trapped on the show floor.

That's okay. Because I was doing a lot over there. So we just talked ticket sales. Let's talk about the seminars for a moment. Because here are some of the names. Ben Armstrong from Netherworld. Patrick Barbary, Legends of the Fog. Randy Bates, Bates Motel and Haunted Hayrides. Yeah. Mandy Gibson, Laurel's House of Horrors. Alan Hopps, Dark Hour, Haunted House. John LaFlamboise, Hell's Gate. Like...

Brandy Morris, Brandy B Studios. These are freaking huge names in the haunted attraction industry. And they were giving classes here at East Coast. Like, holy shit. The opportunity to learn from these legends of the industry. What an opportunity. Like Alan Hopps, From Ceiling to Floor, Rooms to Die For. Deep theming, wild characters and haunt design. How the stories we tell mold our creations and shape the guest experience.

20 mega tips for amazing haunt design. Alan Hobbs taught three classes. Three. Like that right there. A master, a master class. Yeah. In haunt design right there. I really think you would have enjoyed this one less. Upcycling clothing into costumes. Katie Lane taught that.

Stand up and stand out. Creating an original character. Brandy Morris This one was interesting Hayrides of Horror The ins and outs Of the haunted hayride business Not something I have Any interest in But a lot of people do Right Yeah, Keep your staff motivated Ideas for staff engagement And retention Chris Schrader From Halloween Nights At Easter Day Penitentiary You want to talk about A big haunt That's a big haunt Yeah,

And a very Very important topic A very important topic And I really wanted To take this one, My computer's doing Crazy stuff kinetic creativity using motors to bring props to life i'm pretty good with motors but what i'm not good at is translating the circular motion of the motor into a linear motion or you know making it do other things that would be super helpful yeah so like huge names teaching classes, but it annoyed me that they cost money and that was something that i think fear expo.

Excelled at because every single class was free unless you were taking something home and you had to pay for the materials which is totally reasonable absolutely 100 so that was a little bit frustrating and especially like for you know home haunters those who do not have a ton of money, you got to choose and ultimately on this one i chose to put my money into stuff for the haunt rather than education. And that's such a hard decision to make. Like, it hurt a little bit. Yeah.

That being said, I'm really excited with what I got. I am too. We'll get there. We'll get there. So that's the seminars. We talked about the Haunt Tours. And yeah, they were in their second year and absolutely freaking packed. So I'm excited to see what happens for year three. I would not be surprised if they sought out a new venue.

Because the show floor was packed with vendors. but on top of that it was packed with people like there were easily over 10 000 people in that room on saturday no no doubt in my mind like absolutely freaking packed and especially for a show in its second year i think that's that is an incredible return yeah and again you know on the one hand we are talking transworldal funding.

Huge written name recognition. They have the budget, they have the capacity, and they have that deep recognition to make those things happen in a way that, you know, smaller conventions that we've been to and supported certainly have to work a little bit harder on. Exactly, exactly.

With that said, it's nice to see, you know, some of these big names supporting these, let's call them more regional conventions and acknowledging that, you know, hey, not everybody can go to Transworld who wants to go to Transworld. Like, it is very much industry pros, whereas, you know, with these types of things, anybody can go and get in. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. Something else that they did that I thought was super cool, they had a whole section of,

dedicated to local haunts. So local haunts were able to set up a booth and I didn't see any like walkthroughs set up, although there were a couple of like mobile escape rooms that set up little mini escape rooms in there. But there were haunts there selling their merchandise. They were recruiting actors. They were handing out flyers with their calendar for the season, you know, getting their name out there to exactly the clientele that they're trying to get to come to their attractions.

Right like absolutely the best idea i have seen getting local haunts to come out and promote themselves and they had a whole area dedicated to just that it was super how much that's of their marketing budget that took i don't know i don't know like like one two three four five six seven eight nine ten eleven twelve there were probably 15 haunts there with booths like it was awesome it was awesome.

Otherwise like the show floor was insane every that's packed it was absolutely packed the big names were there I saw Froggy's Fog I saw Fright Props I saw Poison Props but there were a ton of tiny vendors as well and like I spent way too much money at the fudge shop, they had like gourmet chocolates and the fudge was oh my god it's so good and then chocolate covered almonds is what i bought because i love them it was so good but there were they weren't even the only chocolate vendor there there

was another one that had the most freaking realistic, horror chocolate that i have ever seen they had like organs they had a severed foot with the, grossest on top they had like bones all made out of chocolate but painted to look so freaking realistic that's awesome it was so freaking cool the name of that it was chocolate treasures chocolate to die for take a bite into fright like.

That's solid marketing skills right so so so solid marketing if you want to check them out chocolate treasures oh.com to find it oh fingers ears and then a whole section of like black light respondent chocolate as well so like glowing skull hearts a skull with a snake like weaving in and out of the ice sockets and everything it was it was very well done it was super cool and the chocolate just looks absolutely freaking delicious oh like uh head

chocolate headstones and cookies and i love the chocolate foot oh my gosh like less i don't know how well you can see this, but that's awesome definitely go check out our our instagram because i have pictures of all of these up there it's it was so freaking cool so like that kind of stuff on top of everything that you can imagine for for your haunts as well of course had to catch up with some of our absolute favorite vendors and first and foremost

have to talk about vfx because vfx is a sponsor of the show but we partner with them because we love their products i own like five of their products i want more of their products constantly yeah.

And like i just cannot recommend them enough so let's take a moment and listen to the my interview with doug from vfx talking about what they did if you can't tell where i am as i am standing here in the midst of all of the goodness i am at vfx i am we are at vfx our favorite show like our favorite business they've been a longtime sponsor of the podcast patrick is here as well doug is going to take us through and show us all the cool new stuff and holy crap they have a lot of cool.

Doug, I cannot even believe what you have brought with you today. Made a lot of stuff. No kidding. I did. You're talking about like 17 different puppets. 17 new puppets. Heads. Yeah. Take it through it. 17. 17 new puppets. That's insane. So, Jordu Shell sculpted like five new things for us. We turned him in a bunch of other stuff because, you know, I can't do it without making clowns out of things. So, I make him in clowns. Always. So, we got, you know, we got Boggle's the clown here.

And he's, his brain actually pops out. You can play with it. It's on a little bungee.

We've got the new goblin so he's a full size goblin his mouth moves that's also a jorduse sculpt we've got dangles the clown his eyeball pops out you can walk around and it fits in his mouth so when you're doing it you can put it in his mouth and stuff gross people out we've got our poster child which is z-bork the alien it's probe backwards with an x on the end z-bork that's amazing and a creature over here so it's the same it looks like a baby version

and they grow up and grow their appendages and stuff so they're much more creepy when they're so much more creepy as children. We got some old stuff on the floor, but we have a metal head Boris there, and you can get him with the scrubs, like a metal experiment. You can get him with other stuff. There's, oh, brainless Boris. His head pops out. The brain's popping out like all day. Yeah. I need to ring him out. Okay. Pat, you're going to have to show him the rest of the stuff here.

Or Keoni can take him around because I showed him everything before we started talking. But I got to ring somebody out. Yeah, well, Doug is doing things. Give me a microphone back You're not, no, I want to talk to somebody. Exactly. Yeah, Doug got pulled away. Doug had to go do business. That they are showing here. Yeah, if you want to see more, definitely go check that out on our YouTube page.

I go around the rest of the booth and show it. You don't want to listen to me talk about it because I'm nowhere near as good. But like 17 new puppets. They had five new sculpts that they turn into 17 new puppets. And like the level of creativity that they continuously are able to achieve amazes me. Yeah, Z-Borp is amusing. Z-Borp is super amazing. Doug didn't even show it. He showed it a little bit, but you know, the bungee heads, right? They have now circular bungee heads, like perfect spheres.

Talking with Doug, that was quite the effort to sculpt a perfect sphere. It took some effort because it kept trying to float in the, when they were trying to make the mold, the mold just kept floating, which is a problem. But anyway, now they have like a giant eyeball. They have a bowling ball that you can throw at people and it bounces back. I'm like, oh, I freaking love it. So VFX, you can find more about them at VFX creates.com.

Go check them out for their attack line puppets, their bungee heads, their crate creatures, their what else do they have? The lunging boxes, the illusion boxes and all of those. Everything everything they do I just absolutely adore, I got to talking with them, though, because, you know, we built kind of a good professional relationship. I consider them friends. And so we got to have some, like, real talk while we were here on the show floor.

And I asked them, like, what challenges they're experiencing right now. And the terrorists are hitting them kind of hard, particularly on their electronic side. So like all of their puppets have the puppet master speaker system inside, which does, you know, you program it with four different phrases or sound effects and the components that they need to make those are becoming more difficult to find. So like I really wanted to pick up a Minion FX sound system.

This is basically the same Puppet Master system that they put inside the puppets, except it has a microphone on it as well. And I wanted that for my Wendigo costume so that I could, you know, program some Wendigo sounds into it, but still have the ability to say things. I have to. I don't know how I can do it because she won't do it on command.

But kaylee has started doing this husky talking oh geez we need a recording of that it's like i can't even do it's hilarious she's done it to me a couple of times when i've come home from work and it's just like you were gone how dare you be gone i'm having words to say and i've got to get it on on audio because it is one it's hilarious because she's just like.

But it's the capitals just eliminated montreal from the playoffs and we're surprised by this we're not but like oh okay i mean i wanted the canadians to win but i'm not surprised the capitals eliminated them for the same reason i'm not surprised that the canes eliminated the devils. Indeed. So, well, there's the first one out. At least it wasn't us. Who was the first? Who was the first? I forgot about the devils. I'm pretty sure the devils were out, like, yesterday.

You're correct. The devils were out yesterday. Okay. Devils were first, then the Canadians. Yeah, devils were first, then the Canadians. All right. We'll see what happens tomorrow. Yeah. No comments. Yeah. Exactly. The ads are fighting for their lives. Again. Again. That's how we roll. But, oh, Captain, my Captain. Yeah. But anyway, so they are having, they're experiencing shortages of the parts that they need for creating their electronics, which is going to affect them.

And it's probably going to affect pricing as well. It's going to affect pricing. Yeah. And that was something that I heard kind of consistently as I was talking to vendors. Everyone was saying the same thing. Get your orders in early because they cannot guarantee pricing the closer we get to Halloween because there's just so much unknown right now.

Yeah. And everything's changing constantly. I mean, And I'm literally having to rewrite contracts at work to put in verbiage that says you're the price of your because we get materials from Canada. One of our, you know, it's going to be affected by the tariffs, depending on if they're ever so. Not 100%. Absolutely. Let's be clear on that. I'm not saying they're going up 100%. I am saying, yes, it is definitely making an effect.

In some cases, they are. In some cases, they are. China, 145%. Yeah. Are we 45 now? It's 145 now. Oh, mother shit. Yeah. So, again, this is affecting everybody and everything. I have seen a growing number of, you know, independent and small companies announcing, you know, that they're having to close their doors. Because they can't afford their materials to continue to do business. And the pricing that they'd have to increase their sales to is just, it's not feasible.

Yeah, exactly. You wouldn't have customer base. And even when talking to haunt owners, haunt owners are concerned about having a significant drop in attendance this year because if cost of living goes up, people have less disposable income to spend on things. And can you imagine a more like unnecessary purchase than going to a haunted house? Well, especially when you can just read the newspaper and be just as terrified. Dun, dun, dun.

Indeed. So, yeah, it's going to be an interesting year. I think the big takeaway is if you want to buy something, buy it early. Do it now. Get the pricing while it's locked in right now. So that was VFX. And also, in addition to that, you know, if you know of, you know, small independent companies, you know, buy from them as much as you can. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Support your local companies.

You'll love the cheap crap that we can buy at Spirit. But, you know, these local, these small, you know, pop-ups, they're not going to have an easy time surviving. Yeah. Absolutely.

Absolutely. you know once they close it is highly unlikely that they will reopen in the future and that's that's not anything against any of them every single one that we've ever worked with and know are amazing it's just i mean it's a lot you put your heart and soul into these into these businesses and these companies into these products and then things completely out of your control just prevent you from continuing on and it's a lot to try and restart that seriously you mentioned

rebuild you mentioned spirit and i haven't heard anything specifically out of spirit yet but i have seen previews of home depot and lowe's and in both cases they're talking about raising prices like 150 on some of the biggest props i'm trying to find the post again it was in Hunters Hangout. I think it was in Hunters Hangout. It was in one of my groups. But halfway through the year, there's a big show that shows... Gets everybody revved up. Not even revved up, but for buyers to...

Get their orders in for Halloween. And yeah, I'm not finding the post. But yeah, pretty much across the board, all of Home Depot's props are going up about $150 this year on the big stuff. Yeah. So that was what we saw at VFX. The other huge name that I absolutely had to talk to, of course, Fright Props was there. And they had not only a massive booth that took up the space of four booths to showcase all of the props that they have, or not even all the props, all of the components they have.

But also they had a cash only store where you could go and, you know, pick up components for all of the bills that you're doing. So let's hear from Scott with Fright Props to hear what they brought to the show. All the things. They brought all the things. I am at the Fright Props booth. We make a ton of our own props. We use Fright Props products to help us do that. And I am here with Scott to talk about all of the things that they can offer to help you build your own props as well.

So, Scott, it is an absolute pleasure to meet you. I love your products. Please take us around and kind of tell us what you do. Sure, thanks. Well, yeah, nice to have you here. Thanks for coming by. I think we'll start with what we're probably best known for, which is pop controllers. Absolutely. We have a full line of pop controllers, starting with the FeeCaboos here.

So let's go from kind of your basic one output, no audio controller, all the way up to adding features as you go along, adding additional outputs, adding sound, adding all sorts of other features. And as we come around the corner, we'll get into the flex controllers, which are the next sort of level up. This is where you have lots of outputs, lots of features. If you're doing an advanced, like a full show control.

Yeah. A lot of escape rooms use those. We use them on some of our more advanced props because we also own and operate poison props. Uh-huh. So a lot of the props we build will have flexes on them if they have a lot of movements. Sure. So all this stuff is just all about controlling the things that you make, making cool stuff. And then we go into some of the props that we actually make here. So the mechanisms, like our swinger mech gear, motorized flinger, some of our flopping arms and legs.

I love the movement on the arm. That is fantastic. And so, yeah, we're also known for maintaining a lot of those pop mechanisms that sort of move things around in the hot. Either motorized or pneumatic. So there's a motorized picture turner, motorized arm swiper. We also love lighting effects, of course. So this is a fluorescent lighting fixture simulated that can have different patterns on each bulbs. And then another product more widely known for our talking skulls.

We have several different models. Some that just have eye and mouth movement. Others of them will have head turn. And then the most advanced is what we call a three-axis skull. And that's a skull that has full motion. So it's got tilt. It's got pan. It's got up and down. Jaw movement. These all sync automatically to audio. They're super useful. And you can program them if you want. Most of our users just sync them automatically to an audio track so that it can change out what it says.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then, of course, lighting. Lighting is huge. You can do everything you want in your home, but if you can't see it, no one's going to know. You got it, yep. So we have anything from the little nano spots to the high-end precision Z floods and spots, and then tons of flickering devices as well. So lots of flicker controllers with different types of outputs for different types of lighting. Yeah. And then, you know, we're also kind of known as a parts shop.

So if you have an idea, you want to film something, we like to try to sell the parts to do it. So we have pneumatics, everything you could ever need for any pneumatic effect, solenoid valves, cylinders, tubing, fittings, everything. And what I really appreciate about what you guys do is you offer kits that have everything that you need in one solid package to build props with. That's right, exactly. So you're not having to like, oh, what size is this?

Match it up. It all comes ready to go. Exactly. We love to have starter kits, especially for people who are just getting into working with pneumatic. Yeah. You can get a kit, they can start to learn the basics, and then they can go from there. Exactly, exactly. Motors as well. Of course, another big thing in building Halloween props, We have the motors we sell individually, as well as dedicated motor controllers like the Peekovolt. Yeah, I love this Peekovolt. Yep, exactly.

More often more for escape rooms but we do also do linear activators which are like a motorized cylinder they can sort of extend and retract on you know with a controller a little bit slower than pneumatics but you don't need air exactly exactly and they are mostly like i said using escape rooms so they can't operate continuously like pneumatics do and yeah because they have duty cycles so they need to rest but there are some haunts where that might come in handy in some areas as well

sure and then of course the big wall of triggers here is always exciting so So, you know, how do you get this stuff to actually activate? This is all the different, you know, motion sensors, beam sensors, a wireless control, wireless triggers. So, step math, of course, our classic. So, basically, we try to go from start to finish of any project. It's like, I want somebody to do this. Then this happens. What do I need to do that? Everything that you could possibly need.

We try to make sure you can supply it here. And then part of my job is actually taking care of that customer service end of it. It's where, like, people email me, like, hey, I want to do this. And my job is to break down what you need to do that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I have not seen your laser triggers before. That's awesome. Yeah, again, kind of more of an escape room thing more often.

This one, a lot of times in an escape room, they'll like unlock a laser from a case and they have to aim it to hit a target to open up a secret room or whatever it might be. And then we have the swipe player, of course. Triggerable media player. Yeah, exactly. Playing videos. Gotta hit this. Actually hit it. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.

Yeah it's super awesome for doing integrated video effects say the props and stuff and that's what we sort of have on the banner over here is showing how you can connect a sprite to a peekaboo and a pneumatic prop so you can actually trigger a video and then you could sync up effects to that video yeah yeah i've seen a lot of cool things with like zombies trapped in boxes you have the video of the zombie and then you have like a hammer mechanism banging on the box right or maybe it's shake

up and down yeah or fog machine goes off so yeah you can sync all that up with the video as Well, the only limit is your imagination. Fright Props applies everything else. That's our goal. We are here to try to do that. Love it. Can you tell people where they can find you both here at the show as well as online? Yeah, so we're at the show here. I don't know our booth number, but it's right when you walk in. You can't miss it. We got the big sign hanging up.

So we're at East Coast Honors Convention this weekend, today and tomorrow. Always reach us at FrightProps.com or send us an email, sales at FrightProps.com. I see pretty much every message that comes in there. If you have questions or anything like that, reach out to us. We'll help you out. Awesome. One other thing that I absolutely love about Fred Props is you have how-to guys and videos that describe how to use all of the things that we're seeing here. Talk real quick about that.

Yeah, that is another part of my job at the company is I sort of try to put together as many tutorial videos, step-by-step stuff as I can. Because when I started in this business, I was like a mold maker and a sculptor. I didn't know technology at all. So I still have that kind of built into me of like, I really understand what it's like to not know how things work. And I take a lot of joy in trying to help other people get to a level where

they kind of feel comfortable with it. Yeah, absolutely. Right now I'm trying to do maybe like close to a video a week on our YouTube channel, just a random how to stuff. Just people ask questions. I try to answer them on the YouTube. So yeah, anything like that tutorial videos for our product, I just really get a lot of pleasure out of doing that and sharing it with people. Thank you so much for taking the time to talk about today. You're welcome. It was nice to speak with you. Yeah.

So we talk about them all the time. I have a ton of videos showing how-to stuff that I've done with Fry Props products, particularly if you are just getting into building your own props. Fry Props is a phenomenal resource, not only because they have everything you need, right? It's a one-stop shop, literally one-stop shop, everything you need to build a prop, but also all of the guides and tutorials and education that goes along with it on the back end.

So they've they've thought through their operational model and their materials in such an amazing way because everything works with everything else and they will show you exactly how to make that work. And like you said, you know, you have any questions, something's not working, or you have an idea, but you don't really know how to get started. You can, you know, reach out to them and, you know, they will, you know, give you the information and let you know what materials you need

to do to really bring everything together. Yeah. And I want to point out, we are not being paid by any of the vendors we're talking about here today, except VFX. VFX is the only one that does sponsor us. So everything that we're saying about it, we are not paid. We talk about it because we love it. We work with it. And we would not be recommending it if we did not believe in it. Yeah, so those are the two big, big vendors that I knew and absolutely had to talk to while we were there.

But I was very impressed by the number of small vendors that I was seeing as well. And there were a couple of super cool ones that I absolutely have to point out.

But before we do, let's take a moment to hear from our sponsors, and then we'll jump right back into our coverage of the East Coast Haunters Convention. Les, let me introduce you to Screen Tees. This is a company that does screen print t-shirts at a lower cost than I have seen anywhere else. Really? Really. And the way they keep costs down is they have set designs that you can then customize with your own text or other things around it. But like, we're talking $10 a shirt.

When I went and bought the Haunting You shirts from Office Depot, $20 a shirt. I found another place. If you get the order quantity high enough, I could get $18 a shirt. I've seen one as low as $15 a shirt. I have never seen $10 a shirt. This is the absolute lowest customizable t-shirt I have found anywhere for screen printing.

So let let me let's listen to to my interview with scream tease hey everyone keone back on the show floor at east coast hunters convention of course we are always looking for more ways that we can advertise get our name out there and you know bring a little bit more money for the haunts and i think i just found a company that hits all three of those so i am here with zach. Tease to tell you all about their products. Zach, how are you doing today? Good. How are you? I am fantastic.

What caught my eye here was, of course, your banner behind you that says your slot and hot gear, your spooky location, which tells me that you are doing some level of customization. Tell us what Screen Tease is all about. So we decided to make it really easy for hunters and on a pro level and at a home level to be able to sell merch at their location and get their name out there. So you guys pick the design. Let me drop in your name, location, tagline, whatever it is.

And then we ship the shirts out to you. We've got about a 10 day lead. So everything is real quick. We don't have to wait on anything. You're not trying to find artwork. You're not trying to find the right files or trying to find a designer. We just wanted to get it out there so that you guys can get your months out there really easily and make some money, put some money back in your pocket. Absolutely.

I think you and I were talking before the video about how t-shirts are like the best form of advertising. It's the only form of advertising that you can get out there where you can actually make money on, or at least just make your money back. So you're not spending any money getting it out there and you want a good quality t-shirt that people are going to want to wear all year round and putting your name out there. Yeah. What style of t-shirts do you offer? What material?

So tell me what you got. So what we got is a 100% free-strung cotton tee, 100% screen printed. So these are going to last about 100 watches before they start being even tried to fade. Yeah. Which if you think about that, I mean, that's two, three years. You know what I mean? Unless you're wearing it every single day. So these are going to last a long time. They're a good quality, lightweight retail shirt that people are going to want to wear. Now, I think that makes a big difference. Absolutely.

What amazed me, though, was the price point. What's the price for a t-shirt? So from the black and white designs, they are $10 a piece with 24 a piece minimum. And the full-color designs are $15 a piece from the 72-piece Venmo. That's absolutely unbelievable. What's your secret? How do you keep costs so low? We do everything in-house. Biggest thing. At vScreenPrint, we did the designs. We do all the work for it. We don't outsource anything. And that's what makes a big difference. Absolutely.

If people want to find you here at the show, what's your booth? And of course, for those who can't make the show, where do they find you? So, StreamTees.com is where you're going to be able to find us. You can order everything right from the website. I honestly do not know my booth number. It seems to be a theme. Yeah, exactly. None of us did. Well, awesome.

Zach, thank you so much for taking the time i appreciate it thank you yeah so one less this is where we're getting t-shirts from from now on yeah no kidding because i cannot beat that price anywhere else, and i asked him if he has any wendigo designs you know what he told me he's working on one what's a wendigo.

Exactly so i'm going to try to work with him to come up with a wendigo design that they can then use for you know their own and then we can take advantage of yes definitely but yeah, screamtees.com if you want to check out for your own spooky t-shirts and yeah like black and white $10 a piece, full color, $15 a piece, 24 order minimum to make that happen. So yeah, super excited about that. Moving on. You know I love jack-o'-lanterns. Do you now?

I've never noticed that. I really love jack-o'-lanterns. I love jack-o'-lanterns so much. I have an idea for a tattoo that is a jack-o'-lantern. And one of these days, I'm going to get it. Probably sooner than later. Anyway, the... You should. I agree. I came across this booth called Reaper's Harvest that had just some absolutely freaking cool jack-o'-lanterns and kind of a cool story behind the company as well. So let's hear from Reaper's Harvest.

Hey everyone, Keone here on the show floor at ECHC, getting bumped. It is very busy today. Tons of people, lots of energy, and lots of new vendors showing off their wares. I just doubled on one. This is their second show, just launched this year at Transworld, Reaper's Harvest has some absolutely sick stuff. And I'm here with their owner, Todd, to tell us about it. Todd, how are you doing? I'm doing great. How are you today? I am fantastic.

What drew my eye here was, of course, your jack-o'-lanterns. Can we go in and take a look around? Yeah, let's go in from the beginning. Love it. You can catch some of the signs. I absolutely adore these hanging ones with the pumpkin guts hanging out. Like, what are they made of? Tell me about the process. So it's foam and latex, and we put in the guts part, and then the batteries are in with magnets, so they're real easy to take out and change the battery life.

And actually, my daughter designed that one, and that's our number one seller. I love that. How old's your daughter? Well, she just turned 12. She's killing it. Start them early. Yeah. So you mentioned that you just started the company, launched at Transworld this year. What was your inspiration? What drove you to do this? So this is my second career. I sold a business that I had started, and I've always been a Halloween enthusiast.

And I used to make all my own stuff for the yard and just get the kids excited about it. And then a lot of neighbors always wanted things. So I said, well, let's just turn it into something. So this is what we came up with so far. I am digging it. Talk price for a second. Kind of what's the price range of what we're seeing? So all the pumpkins, the hanging ones and any that sit on the shelf, the retail is $125. The shelf price is $115. Solid. These guys on the spikes are $229. Yep.

And so we try and be a reasonable price, but the stuff's got a lot of custom detail. You can see there's some barbed wire in there. There's staples up in here. We've got stitching. We've got some blood. And the level of detail on each one is just absolutely fantastic. Hand-painted?

All hand painted and hand stitched so these are stitched here that's just the barbed wire we try to uh try to keep the price reasonable yeah we also want the product to last several years you're definitely not going to throw it away in a couple years this will last a long time absolutely and these egg sacks are giving me the heebie-jeebies yeah tell me about them so i wish we got a little darker setup because the green ones glow in the dark you can kind

of see a couple of them yeah I have black lights up there. And you can get them in two colors. This one's got the red. So this is kind of a feeding sack for a fighter. And then the green ones are more of an egg sack. So a little different. You can go either way. Absolutely love it. Tell me, where can people find you here at the show? And for those who can't make this show, where can they find your product? We are booth 628 here at the show.

My website is DarkerSideOfHalloween.com. That's the same for socials as well. So Instagram, Facebook is Darker Side of Halloween, which is our slogan. We always like to make things a little dark and creepy. I don't know if you caught the torso lantern up in the corner. I did not catch the torso lantern. He's got lights in his gut. There's candles in his gut. Oh, hell yeah. And he's a 360-degree prop. His back has also got some real... Oh, I love the spine.

But that is real lightweight, but it's got lights in it. That's also very cool.

Absolutely love it. Todd with Reaper's Harvest. really appreciate you taking the time out today yeah thank you one love brand new company two it's a family company his daughter's in there his wife was there at the show as well and they're just making some super cool stuff darker side of those are intricate they were super intricate like the you people listen go to youtube find my page hunt at hunting you and look for reaper's harvest because

you cannot get over the detail you have to see it for yourself the staples the barbed wire stitching like they're wonderful they were so wonderful. Another new vendor that I just absolutely died for traumatic studios is the name of it. And what? No, this was not heads. We'll, we'll get them next. Traumatic studios had wind to go props. So of course I had to stop and talk to them. It's a necessity.

And I have come across the coolest brand new premiering at the show company that has some absolutely wicked props that are right up our alley. I want to introduce you to Shane with Traumatic Studios. Shane, how are you doing today? How's it going, guys? I'm Shane, president of Traumatic Studios. Tell us a little bit. You mentioned you just started this company in 2024. Tell us a little bit about the company and what motivated you to start it.

So we started in 2024. We're based out of Holly, Michigan. I've always been in the haunted attraction industry from ever since when I was a little kid to now. I've always built props, and I was like, hey, I think there's a niche that I need to fill. We're going to make stuff, and we're going to back our customers with quality. So I'm super excited to debut all of our products for this year. We've got everything from Midway Games, motion animatronics, static characters.

A lot of our stuff is based around, obviously, quality and to fill a need. A lot of people love the pumpkin stuff and love the Wendigo line, especially our Woods Walkers. I'm really excited about the game. That's been the hot one this year. That's a midway game. It's essentially like a beanbag toss. You cost the pumpkins at the crows to knock them down and win a prize. It's been a big thing this year. Take us around and let's talk about some of these props.

What really drew my eye was, of course, the Wendigos, because we have a Wendigo-based haunt, and these guys are just absolutely fantastic. Tell me about them. Absolutely. So with these guys, obviously they're going to be bulletproof. So these are weather-resistant, coated with weather-resistant coating in a paint. So these things can be outside for years.

Things are really budget friendly and something that'll last you for years and be super reliable we also i mean took no shortcuts with detail everything is hand painted hand detailed everything's done in house this has been a really popular electric character for us and in the back there i'll show you guys this is going to be our jack-o-man pumpkin totem he's also been a big one people are loving the pumpkin it's a highly detailed pumpkin character there that is has adjustable

heights so if you can't sand them up all the way and you want a little bit shorter a little bit taller you can do that as well so he's very he's very user-friendly what are these made of so those are constructed with a heavy duty steel base and then the whole thing is full latex and then it's a two-part system so the face is one piece and the body is another so they cut apart for easy storage as well absolutely solid do you do custom work What was that? You do custom work? Absolutely.

So we do custom work. You can email us at traumaticstudios at yahoo.com or just go on our website and put an inquiry on there. We've done custom stuff for haunts all across the U.S. and Canada. So anything that you could dream up, we can probably do. What is the price range of your props? So our price range is from anything. So this is probably our more budget-friendly

character. You're looking at $698.98. That's all the way up into probably the down-to-pro complete package there, or our dual-motion woodswagger. Each of those is going to be sitting around $1,400. Perfect. And that's about our most expensive piece of the show. Love it. And you did the facade for your booth here as well. Absolutely. So that's all made in-house. So along with the props we produce...

And houses and pull attractions as well that we can custom build to fit your knees and floor plans. If people are coming to the show, where can they find you here? And then for those who can't make it to the show, where do they find you elsewhere? Traumatic Studios, booth 329, and you can find us at traumaticstudios.com and on every other social media. Perfect. Shane, thanks so much for your time. Listeners, you all know I love a Wendigo. I am a Wendigo. My son constantly reminds me of it.

But the The level of detail that they are putting into their props, absolutely phenomenal. Absolutely beautiful. They are hideous. They are gory. They are spooky. I adore them. And the price point, honestly, for the quality that you're getting, it's reasonable. Exactly. I was impressed. I'm super excited to see where these guys go in the future, and I hope to see them at a future show. Okay. Oh, one more. Yeah, there is there is one more that we absolutely have

to talk about. One more new vendor. This is the water they were doing. They had. So what really drew my eye was heads and jars. And I don't mean heads and jars. I mean, heads and like fish tanks. Right. And sure, lots of places have done heads and fish tanks. These had bubbles coming out of them. And that's what caught my eye, because I don't think I've seen that anywhere else.

This the woman who runs this company her name is una and the the company is called circus una she is a former circus performer or actually i think she's still a circus performer but is trying to bring that into haunted attractions as well and like well let's just hear it from her hear from una with circus una just came across a brand new company that is offering some super cool products i'm here with una from circus una and she's gonna show us around una how is the show going for you today it's

going so good it is off the chain here at east coast honor for having a really really great time now what go ahead i'm really here to make to network to uh to meet new people and get involved in other houses and stuff like that and it's super it's really happening what popped my eye and i don't think i have seen anywhere else are your these water tanks yeah Tell us about them. Yeah, these poor girls are captured mermaids, so they tried to keep them alive. She didn't do so well.

But yeah, they're still drunk, and they're motorized in water, and they're bubblers. She's trying to breathe, but it's a lost cause. I love the bubbles. Like, it gives it so much more light. Yes, she's still trying. Can you show us the guts behind it? Yeah. This is a recidivated filter, and obviously there's a hole in the tank, and I made a silicone shield. And these are all on batteries today. I'm having an experiment to really see how long an RV battery will last. Yeah.

I've loaded the transformer. And then this is from Spider-Prox. Yes. It's a windshield wiper, and it's really working beautifully. No kidding. Yeah. And for the bubbles, it looks like you're using an aquarium bubbler. A bubbler is just like a fish tank. Uh-huh. At the same bubble. Yeah. That's okay for now. But I'm going to really build this out. And I would like big gas bubbles like you're breathing. And then here, the people who came to the circus and they got splashed with

the mermaid too. So they're in big trouble. And these are mimes in monkey costumes. And they really got too close to the mermaid. They're losing it. Absolutely. Not a great day. And yeah, I painted the banners.

You painted those too? Yeah. Absolutely fantastic yeah no what you mentioned tell a story here you know like that that doesn't got horribly wrong at the circus yeah you mentioned that uh you're just getting into this tell us a little more about what inspired you to try to get into the haunted attraction exactly i live right next to hershey park and dark nights opened at her park and i got what i thought was just a sort of goofy dog being a scare actor and i love him i love them i can't believe

it i've made so many great friends and i just i just love dark nights is amazing and it's so successful yeah like every year it gets longer more weekends bigger houses and at first you're like i grew up in hershey they know what to do they do everything right there get beautifully run there's beautiful people there and it is it's wonderful and i recommend everybody to go to dark night at a fancy car place to work and it got me started

i mean if you had a hot air balloon factory i'd probably make We've had air balloons right now, but it's not. It's a haunted house. And this industry is often saying, I can't believe it's convention. It's just like a place for everyone. I'm a little bit different. I've been a circus performer my whole life, and I am definitely trying to book my circus act in the house.

But I also, you know, I'm an artist, and I like to make all this stuff, so it just really feels like there's something for everybody and a place for everybody. Absolutely wonderful. I absolutely love it. If people want to find out more about you and your company, where should they go look? I'm easy to find. Dot com. That's Una, U-N-A, CircusUna.com. Thank you so much for taking the time today. One. Those are awesome. They are so awesome.

Like, there's motion, there's bubbles, all in a water tank, real water tank. And, like, that's a level of complexity that you don't see very often with props. The setup looks super straightforward.

Super straightforward. Like, you look at it you're like well yeah of course that would work there were home haunters out here who could do this like there are people listening to this podcast right now who could build something similar to this for their own haunts but if you don't want to go check out circus una because she will do it for you and they are super cool i also love that like her whole booth is a story there is a story behind everything that is happening here and is

that not like what we just freaking preach with our haunts.

Yep you gotta have a story you gotta have a story you gotta have something to tie everything together exactly una at circus una phenomenal so glad to have met you cannot wait to see what you do in the future so there were a ton of other vendors that we got the chance to talk to there are more videos up on our youtube definitely go check those out but i do not have time to go through them all here so at hunting university on instagram at hunting you on youtube at hunting

you on youtube go find them there there are two more interviews i did though that i absolutely have to share here the first is our good friend drew badger from the big scary show every time every time i run into Badger at a show.

Just have so much fun talking and catching up and comparing notes and giving each other leads and, he's such a wonderful human being and and he's been in the industry so long like he knows so many people he's just he's he's a bedrock quarterstone of the haunt industry yes absolutely freaking lootly so here is my interview sitting down with with drew badger we were actually at one of his friends booths because big scary show did not have a have a booth this

year uh so we're sitting on badger's still visiting everybody that's it he's still more likely to find him everywhere else yes accurate than in the big scary show booth but we were sitting down at the ticket leap booth because uh he's good friends with the owner and they had inflatable couches and things so it was it was honestly it was kind of nice to get off our feet for a few minutes and chat, So here's my interview with Drew Badger from The Big Scary Show.

Hey, everyone. Keone here on the show floor at East Coast Haunters Convention in Oaks, Pennsylvania. We are chilling here at the Ticket League booth because they have wonderful inflatable couches. And it's nice to get off our feet for a few minutes. I am here with one of our good friends, Drew Badger of The Big Scary Show. Drew, how are you doing? Tired. Been walking around since, oh, got here at 730.

Yeah. Now, doors didn't open until 830, stood in line, got my wristband, then went and stood in another line until 930 when they opened the door, and it's been nonstop ever since. It's probably about 130 in the afternoon around now, maybe two, somewhere in that area. It's been a blast. The crowds have been unbelievably busy. You're probably hearing a lot of background noise right now because there's a lot of background noise out here, a lot of fun.

Came out here last year for the first year, completely blown away. Second year, bigger and certainly better than ever because, I mean, the results speak for itself. I mean, look at all the people out here. Absolutely. There are easily somewhere between 1,000, 2,000 people on the show floor right now at this moment. And that amazing thing, especially for a show in its second year. How are you seeing it compared to last year?

It is the cool factor is still here. Yeah. Still got that really cool vibe. It's still a fresh and new show. Yeah. It's just bigger. It's louder. It's more boisterous.

There's more kids. you know there's there's young kids like five feet away from us but there's lots of neat stuff happening there's classes going on i see more seminars and classes offered this year yeah there's a christmas show over here i walked through the christmas show over there i cannot believe how many things they had over there too i mean that's my that's one of the cool things about trans world you can go over to the christmas show sit down and

just you know and that allows And it allows you to do that here, too. Yeah. The tuning may be limited, but the quiet factor. When you get tired of too many clown horns and too many whatever that noise is, then you can just kind of go geese out over there for a while. And it's very nice. Totally. And I'm impressed by the number of lighting companies that are over there. I see a lot of potential things that I can bring into the haunt as well.

So having those two shows co-located, super helpful. And with all the people who take their 12-foot skeleton November 1st and then put a Santa hat on them and stick them out in the yard or don't even move them out of the front yard, you know, it's perfect. Yeah, yeah. Now, this show is owned by Transworld, but it is a convention. It is not a trade show. This is a haunter's convention. It's not a horror convention. You're not going to meet the guy that played victim number seven in the 13th,

Friday the 13th, whatever, like you would at some other show. Made $80. This is a haunter, haunter, enthusiast, Halloween enthusiast, actor, home haunter, makeup artist type show. This gives off for those of you who are old enough like me. Do you remember Midwest Haunters when it was in Columbus, Ohio? Had a really cool laid back, just kind of cool Halloween vibe. Yeah, this show absolutely has that vibe. It's a lot of fun.

It's not stressful like a trade show. I mean, I'm sure the people want sales. There's a lot of people buying. And there's just that real mellow, let's all just come here, have a good time, talk Halloween stuff. Yeah. And that's what's happening. And that's what makes this such a cool show. There's a good subset of education that is happening here as well. I saw Alan Hopps is doing a couple of seminars. I wish I jumped on one of those earlier, but didn't realize until too late.

But lots of good education happening on top of everything that's happening here on the show floor. I've never taken a class. Well, obviously, second year. I didn't sign up for anything like that. I don't know how the class sizes are going, but I assume they're very well attended. The level of experience with the people who teach it is off the charts. Absolutely. You mentioned Alan Hopps, probably the best in the business for teaching everything.

Yeah. You want to make blood. You want to build a face mask. You want to build a probably working chainsaw that'll cut heads off from 50 yards. He'll probably know how to build it. Yeah. But, you know, the level of expertise of people who are even local, you know, why, you know, you don't need to bring in somebody from the West Coast, which you could, obviously. But, you know, there's so many, there's what, 50 million people within a five-hour radius of where we're sitting right now?

Sure, sure. Or more, I don't know. But, Jesus, you know, somebody's good at something. And they're out here teaching this stuff. There's lighting, like you said, makeup, costuming, distressing costumes, all sorts of really cool things. And people are going to the things. I saw people walking in towards the seminar rooms and everything. Somebody's going and learning some cool stuff. And that's just one of the things that makes a haunter's convention that much cooler. Absolutely.

And something I'm seeing here that I have not seen most other places, They have a whole row of a whole row of the show floor is dedicated to haunts that are local to this area showing off their wares. I'm not the youngest man in the world, but for many, many years, I have told haunted attraction owners. I have told convention owners, horror cons primarily.

You need to get together. If you're running a horror con in wherever, Arkansas, Idaho, New York, Florida, wherever, find all the local haunted attractions, get them to come to your show. Absolutely. Every single person in this building right now, all thousands of them. Probably love to go to a haunted attraction in October. This is the key demographic in this room. And I have been telling haunt owners, open up a row of nothing but those local haunts.

You know, there are horror cons that will, you know, I go to Jays of Dead in Atlanta. There's two or three haunts there. Yeah. I go to Carolina Fear Fest. There's a handful of haunts from the Carolinas there. I go to shows all over the country and there are local haunts. You go to Midsummer Scream. You've been to Midsummer Scream. You've seen the Hall of Shadows. Oh, yeah. The Hall of Shadows.

All the home haunters and semi-pro haunts that put little teaser haunts in that room in the complete darkness. Greatest thing in the industry, in my opinion. But I walk in and I hear the rumors and I hear the rumors are happening here. And I walk in and I go against the far wall over here and there's nothing but haunted attractions from Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware, New York. There's one from North Carolina. They're just from all over the East Coast promoting their haunts.

They have scanned here to apply for a job. Actors, you need a job? You want a job? Come here and apply. That's the whole thing. This is your demographic. This is where you find your actors. Oh, and you're selling a t-shirt with your haunt on it? I'll buy one of those. You got a hat? That's advertising in April and May and all through the summer.

Your haunted house. so if whoever put that idea in the head of trans world people if they got it from me you're welcome if you didn't great i've always thought that's a great idea anywhere absolutely now we just got to work on getting a row of podcasters ah seriously because if you get a row of podcasters often a little quiet section of the haunt of the haunted convention floor. They're going to be talking about it on their shows for six months hey i'm coming to this conventions.

Come get an interview. Let me talk to you. Every show you have. Oh, and don't forget to see me at this convention. Free advertising convention owners. You're welcome if you do that, by the way. You can guarantee we'll be there. Yeah, hopefully. I'm old, but I still travel. Absolutely. Absolutely. But that's what we do. You know, we come to shows like this. You and I, we interview a bunch of people. We put it out on our respective podcasts.

We've been doing it. We just had our 13th anniversary show. Congratulations. Longest running industry podcast for Halloween in the world, as far as we know, until proven otherwise. Otherwise, there's other people who've done it longer, but they've never been consistent. They shut down for a year or five or they just don't put it out consistent, which is fine. We're not bragging, but we enjoy what we do and we're going to continue to keep doing it for as long as we can.

As long as there are shows like this, haunted houses to cover and cool people to talk to. That's a great segue. Let's talk about Big Scary Show. What do you guys have to talk about? We're talking haunted houses obviously our next show will probably feature a lot of east coast interviews maybe one featuring a particular podcaster don't know we'll just have to wait and see if he makes the cut but.

Obviously convention season is in full swing maybe Jim will go off to a show maybe Jonna will go to a show I know there's some rumors about you know Some particular person going out to Midsummer Scream on the West Coast again. Maybe that's going to happen. It's going to happen. It's going to happen. You know, my first three weekends in August, I'm going to be in Tennessee at CreepyCon in Knoxville. I'm going to be at Honors Against Eight in Louisville, Kentucky.

Then I got Midsummer Scream out at Long Beach. There's just a whole lot going on. Halloween is not just October anymore. Yeah. It can't be. Yeah. We're halfway there. After this weekend, we basically rounded the corner towards October. Yep. Build season. Build season is starting. We're been going on. Been going. Yeah, why are you talking? Oh, that's right. You haven't started, maybe. But those other people certainly have started. There's a lot of people out there

working on stuff right now. It's a year-round business. And, you know, half the people in this building probably don't think about it until maybe September. Yeah. And they start seeing the home, the Spirit Halloween's popping up. And they start seeing the big 12-foot skellies popping up in people's yards.

But the other half are the people that live it yep you know and and maybe they just dress up with spooky t-shirts and watch a lot of horror movies maybe they you know come to shows like this maybe they have their house painted all black with all sorts of crazy maybe they dress up like that thing whatever that thing is or that other thing over there and they just kind of like do cool stuff like that i don't know. Halloween. It's not just for October anymore. Absolutely. Absolutely.

So we talked about Big Scary Show. We talked about where you're going to be. What did we miss? How to get a hold of Big Scary Show. How do you get a hold of you? Yes, we are. Bigscaryshow.com. Very easy to remember. I'm never going to remember that. We're on every media platform that I know about. I mean, we're on the Spotify's, we're on the Amazon's or whatever those, all of them, all of those streaming platforms. Just look for Big Scary Show.

We're not video, we're audio only, so you don't have to waste a few hours staring at people talking to each other on a screen like other podcasts. No offense for any of you other podcasters that do that. You're great. I watch an awful lot of you while working on our show, which is audio only. So you just got to put your earbuds in as you're working on that build and you're hammering and you're trying to figure out how to make your fire marshal happy.

And you're clearing out that new section of Haunted Trail and you're doing all that. And then we get to hear about it and we put it out there with our new, with our roundtable discussions, with our music, with our rants and interviews and all sorts of really cool stuff that makes Halloween truly the greatest day of the year. Absolutely absolutely drew it's always a pleasure to see you thank you scary show.com.

Always a pleasure sir always great to see you yeah we're just chilling out here with some beverages and my feet are almost i almost have feeling back in them so it's probably time to start walking around and talking to more people seriously if you are here at the show go check out you know look for badger look for me check out i'm the one in a black shirt so i'll be easy to find oh yeah thanks all i adore that man like he's one he is he's a delight he's absolutely.

So much fun to talk to when you're at conventions and to see him there and to catch up it's it's just wonderful he is a wealth of knowledge he is a wealth of insider information if you ever run into badger take a moment stop and chat with him it was actually kind of funny because you know i I was chatting with the owner of TicketLeap, did an interview with them. You can find it on YouTube. And while I'm doing that, Badger is just chilling, resting his feet.

And he's scrolling through his social media and looking at coverage of East Coast and finds a guy who posted a picture of himself being at the convention. And then he looks up and the guy is standing there. It was absolutely freaking ridiculous. So I'm on social media, sees him up there. and then they stopped and chatted for a bit because he was a fan of the show. So it was hysterical and pretty cool. Well, we are, I think we're over an hour at this point. We're well past an hour.

We're well past an hour. But of course, we cannot finish out an episode until we have The Chamber's Corner. And because for the first time in my life i was in the same place as mr robert knowlton president of the chamber of haunters we had to record a chamber's corner right there on the floor at east coast hunters convention so check out the special for lack of a better word live version of The Chamber's Corner from Rob Knowlton.

Rob, how are you doing? I'm doing good. It is so great to finally meet you in person. We have talked so much online. This is actually the first time we've been in the same place at the same time, which is super exciting. You just recently announced, though, that you are stepping down as the president. Tell us a little bit about it and who's replacing you. So we got to a point where, like I said, especially me, I'll be honest, it's going to sound corny, but I'm being honest.

I love the George Washington mentality. you leave for a little bit and then you give the opportunity. It's been five years at least at this foundation. We're in a good place. We got a lot of exciting things coming up. So, I mean, there's some good things happening. Some new benefits coming fast. So, I just felt like this was a good time, if any, while we're on an up swing, especially like that we're way past COVID. I hate to mention that. See where to get.

But, I mean, we're way past that now and things are looking better and it's a good point. So, I just feel like it's an opportunity to give someone else the opportunity to have that fresh look, the fresh ideas, the fresh things. Who's replacing you? Um. Lily Grant. She's from Florida with Finafax. She's been phenomenal. She's been out there, you know, for the last few years. She's awesome. Previously on the board? Yes, she's still on the board.

So we recently had a small change to the layout of the board, but she was one of my vice presidents. Okay. She did a phenomenal job. Once she's still on the board, she'll be switching me out here July 27th at the Texas Honors Convention. So that'll be my last day and her first day. So we'll be switching.

Great timing. Great timing. On that note, where else there is the chamber going to be during the season during the convention season this year yeah so obviously here at east coast we're we're once again we're looking at midwest we're not sure just yet we're looking just because once again we're trying to see about you know logistics like who's gonna go yeah um but definitely at texas uh we're looking into galaxy con which is one of our members okay so we're trying to expand into other areas

yeah other people but those are the main ones we would like to experience we're out here in the future we're not sure exactly which year but definitely one the couple back a couple years if not next year the year after so i mean we're definitely expanding and getting there so those are the ones for right now but transworld's definitely on the horizon perfect how uh what are you doing here at the show what do you how do you like how do you

interact with people what are you telling them um man it's been awesome we've been very busy uh we've gotten some member signups so that's awesome and it's been totally worth it i'm more of a people person so i like to be with the people talking to them and trying to figure out how can we help them uh so that's been pretty awesome and i don't know the little side note like that'll be the nice thing about me stepping away is i'm not leaving the board i'm gonna stand on the director at

large okay but this will allow me to do some more of the personal communications and not have to worry about the stresses uh kimberly and the rest will have to worry about that yeah but i'll still be there to really help out and like the chamber is awesome and it's been a great way for me to bring some not like some key benefits but that family centered kind of mentality sure uh to the to the chamber to the industry and just really

help people like we're there for them i mean we don't get paid for this it's a volunteer that's right so yeah so i mean like i said there's a lot of opportunities. A lot of things we're going to do, like the convention.

Coming up we've got a lot going on i think they're gonna do a great job with it i and the rest of the board too yeah but like i said it's been really nice here because i mean we've been able to see a lot of current members from our vendor members here we have hauntay you know vfx down here you know several others that are here taking spice so i mean we've got some vendor members here plus our attraction members have been here a lot of people stop before you know people come to see

us so it's been great to catch up but also see the new faces and make new friends and be like hey how can we help you so yeah no it's been great i mean we had corpology which they're here today, they're doing social media and they're awesome we've got to talk to them so we're looking forward to working with them uh and like i said many others so it's just it's really been a wonderful opportunity to really show them what we can do for them and what they mean to us absolutely.

As always if people want to learn more about the chamber where should they go and look www.chamberhonors.com like i said they can get all the information there i will let you know we They are doing a website update. We're trying to freshen it up. You know, we've got to do that. But like I said, you can go on there, join there. The memberships are up. Now we've changed that too. It's $150 straight price. We're trying to align ourselves more like a chamber than we are. We're Chamber of Commerce.

So we're trying to do a lot of things online as such. We're putting benefits on the pricing. So it's a one straight pricing for all the benefits. And we help you, any member, in any way. So like I said, www.chamberhonors.com. You get information. Or you can reach out to us at chamberhonors at gmail.com for more information.

Perfect. rob always a pleasure thank you thank you rob and of course it was such a pleasure to meet with you and chat with you we've got dinner after the show just so we could talk a little bit more kind of about what the chamber is doing and i'm kind of excited to talk about that less. I haven't told you i haven't told you this yet no and i'm disappointed that john's not here he's gonna find out when he listens to the podcast if he listens to the podcast In six months. Exactly, in six months.

John, we love you and we miss you, but you miss things when you miss things. Accurate, accurate. So the Chamber is getting ready to kick off a, he's calling them like lunch and learn sessions. We're talking about starting maybe once a quarter or once a month, maybe once every couple months, something along those lines.

And the idea is that on a weekend day, middle of day ish, you know, got to find a time where it's good for the entire country to invite people on to this lunch and learn where they'll bring in an expert to talk about a topic and help people learn skills. It's all virtual. So anyone from anywhere in the country can participate and. And it's open for questions like it's an opportunity. for people to interact with experts and learn some new skills.

And I'm very excited to say that the Haunting You podcast will be hosting these Lunch and Learn sessions. Yeah, exactly. So we have tentatively scheduled the first one. I'm a little bit afraid to say anything because it is tentative. But we're shooting for May 18th at 3 p.m. For the first Lunch and Learn session. So mark it on your calendars, but please mark it on your calendars with pencil because it may change.

And then tune in to the Chamber of Haunters on all of their social media to keep up on announcements of when the Lunch and Learn sessions will occur. Do they have a topic for the tentatively scheduled round one? It's probably going to be more of a vendor spotlight. Okay. But I don't want to reveal who because it's not locked in yet. Got it. Perfectly reasonable. I think so. So I'm very excited about these Lunch and Learns.

If you're not able to make it for the actual event, it will, of course, be put up on YouTube, no paywall or anything, so that everyone can see what happens and go back and reference it after the fact. Okay, where does that leave us, Les? With a lot to do and a lot coming up. And I love what we're doing. I love the industry that we're in. I do, too. I am so excited for this year.

There is so much potential. there is so much I have planned now it's time to start executing so we need to get to it.

Of course go check out the haunting you podcast on our website haunting you.com just the letter you you can of course find the podcast there as well as any podcast streaming app we are available on it if you find a podcast streaming app where you're not available let me know because I would like to get on it and I need to know things like that uh and of course check out all of our social media facebook.com slash haunting you just the letter you at haunting university on instagram

and at haunting you on youtube but those are the best places you can find us all that is available from our website haunting you.com as well as any updates from the chamber of haunters we will also be including those so if you miss it on their social media it will be on ours accurate accurate so let's wrap us up all righty well we have just had a wonderful review of the east coast haunters convention and while i am firmly planted in mountains clearly next year i'm going

to have to try and use a lot more traveling to be able to join you at these little adventures indeed so with all of that said thank you all from us here at haunting you to all of our listeners to all of our sponsors and to everybody in the industry and happy haunting. Music.