Episode 96-The Haunter's Toolbox Part 2

Music. Welcome, everyone, back to the Haunting You podcast and part two of our Haunter's Toolbox episode.

Now, if you listen to episode 95, what we released in late May, you'll know that we are doing a series on the tools that we have found most useful as haunters, the things that we have invested in and we use constantly as haunters to help build our haunted house.

And when we did that initial episode and I was done with the editing, that episode was over two hours long so we ended up splitting it up into two so this is part two of that hunter's toolbox and we're just going to continue the discussion that we had from before in part one we talked all about construction tools everything that i use on a regular basis when i am building my haunt this part two is going to get into other things more specialized tools,

everything from electrical to what i'm using while i'm running the haunt to even like makeup tools So get ready, get set, and let's roll right back into the discussion from our previous episode. Take it away, Les.

All right. So we have spent a good bit of time talking about your basic tools. Now we're going to kind of up the level a little bit, and we're going to start talking about one of my favorite things and one of the few things I'm not allowed to play with, which is electricity and tools that you want to have when doing anything with electrical. Yeah, so I am an electrical engineer. I'm an amateur electrician. Amateur meaning I don't get paid for it, but that does not mean I'm not knowledgeable.

I know a lot about electricity. If you have questions about electricity, please, God, reach out. I am more than happy to have walked people through things because I don't want people to get electrocuted. As hazardous as tools are, and as much of a risk to your fingers, toes, and arms as they can be, electricity is...

More so. Please treat everything electrical as life until you have, without any shadow of a doubt, proven otherwise by using these tools that we're going to talk about, not by sticking your tongue to the damn wires. And you know what? There are certain things that I do test with my tongue. Nine volt batteries are about the extent of that. Anything else? Yes. Beyond that? No. I'm bringing up the appropriate tools.

If if you're an amateur electrician because i was assuming that that that title means you just kind of mess around i thought you had a higher what am i dangerous you're a walking electrician, no no no no no you're not an electrician you're a walking electrical hazard yes accurate i love you john but you're walking electrical hazard i like that i can go with that i want to be very clear on how i'm using this word the word amateur does not mean not skilled the word amateur means not paid they

do it for the love of it i do electrical work for the love of it i do not get paid for it i am a i am a licensed electrical engineer i have the knowledge i have the experience, again please reach out to me if you have questions that's fair because when i hear like the phrase amateur nuclear physicist i i get concerned it makes me nervous too you should be yeah so i just Okay. So for starters, how do we determine that it is safe to work on this electrical thing?

And there are a number of tools that can help you do that. I have a couple different types of voltage testers. They look like big fat pencils. And all you do is hold it up to a, you know, turn it on, hold it up to a wire. It will flash green if the wire is cold, no voltage, or red if it's hot. There's voltage there. Don't touch it. And it stays in my tool belt. And it's just a quick and easy way to say, is this hot or not? Yes.

Easy to test. Let's do a quick rundown of, so we're talking home haunters. So if you're doing anything electrical, it's either attached to your house or you're doing something with props or, you know, things that you have not yet plugged in.

Fair. Yeah. So, with that in mind, everybody, as you're looking at this and talking about potentially doing anything with electricity, first thing you want to do, just after having all of these tools that we're going to talk about, is make sure that you know where your breaker box is in your house. Yep. And if your house is anything like mine, there may be things in your house that are cross-wired over multiple breakers. Yep.

So, even if I have all of my breakers for my office turned off, and I know they're turned off because my computer is off, I am still going to check every single wire on the light that I need to change out in my office at one point. Because when we did my husband's in his office and everything was turned off, we still had a live wire. And we had to go through and find out which circuit breaker that wire was tied to before I could do anything.

Yeah, I was working on an outlet at my mother-in-law's apartment. She's a landlord, has a couple of apartments and needs some electrical work done. And I found the outlet, isolated it inappropriately, and then started working on it and got shocked by a white wire.

White is neutral there should never be current carried on the white wire what i found out later was the dishwasher had been wired into this junction box and so i was getting the hot from the dishwasher coming back through the through the neutral into this junction box, That was my ground wire. My ground wire. Very annoyed. Was flashing red. And I'm sitting there going, this is a fucking ground wire. Ground wire should not be flashing red, ever. Yeah, I know. Your house gives me. My house, again.

I am an amateur on all of this. I can get myself out of most trouble that I can get myself into. Too but when it comes to electricity i triple check everything yeah because not only could it kill me i could burn out everything in my house by doing something stupid and then we have to pay a shit ton of money for an actual electrician to come in and redo all the wiring in my house and what i like what

i like to tell people is not only can this kill you but it will hurt the whole time you're dying. Yes. So keep that in mind. This is not an electrical episode, though. I want to keep this focused. Now that we have given you all of the, you know, don't be dumb.

Be forewarned. Be forewarned. We're not going to go into the details of doing electrical work. This is just about tools that I have that I like for doing my electrical work. Safely. Safely. So voltage tester is the first one. A multimeter.

Multimeters are great because they can let you determine what the voltage is at this point they do ac they do dc they do depending on the one that you get all at a variety of of voltage levels and the one i have it's a craftsman if you want like a really high quality one fluke is the like pinnacle electricians carry fluke meters they are wonderful they're everything you could need and more i have a craftsman because i love my craftsman.

This is one of those. It doesn't really matter the brand on at all. Fish tape. What's a fish tape? Fish tape is a wire in a coil, usually a piece of metal that you can run through walls. If you were running wires through walls, you want a fish tape. Get a fish tape. Probably not going to do that for haunts, but just saying. Might want to run it under floors or something like that. And a fish tape makes it very easy for you to run the fish tape,

attach the wire to it, pull the wire back through. because it's rigid. You can run it through things that you cannot with a soft wire. Screwdrivers. You're definitely going to need screwdrivers for electrical work. I use my basic construction screwdrivers that are not special in any way. They do make very specific screwdrivers for electricians that are coated with a dielectric material, meaning electricity will not pass through it. I do not have any. They're insulated. It's not conductive.

I do not own any of those. I don't. But if you feel the need, they're out there. It is an option. Wire strippers. You need to just have some way to be able to installation off quickly and easily. And I have a couple of different wire strippers because I have one for very small wires that I do for like electronics work when I'm doing prop building. I have a different one for doing like household electricity or running power to my various parts of my haunt.

Very different sizes. We're talking 22 gauge versus 16 or 14 gauge, sometimes 18 gauge. and so like, Now remind me. Multiple. As the gauge number goes up, the size of the wire goes down. The higher the gauge number, the smaller the wire. Yes. Okay. That's what I thought. Diagonal snips. Diagonal snips are great wire cutters. They do not necessarily, they will not strip the wire. You can, but you often end up damaging the wire underneath. Yeah, you have to be very careful.

But they are great for doing quick cuts. And I like that better than my wire stripper usually. Yeah. Needlenose pliers are super helpful here for bending wires around, especially if you're attaching to a switch or an outlet. Bending it so you can get around the post. Needle-nose pliers, very helpful. They're also really useful for connecting two wires before you put your cap on. Yeah. Oh, your wire nut. Exactly. Your wire nut.

Potentially, a circuit breaker tracer. In Leslie's case, she should probably own a circuit breaker tracer because she's going to use it a lot.

This is something that you can actually, you take a piece and just plug it into an outlet and then you go back to your circuit breaker box and with kind of a pen looking device and you hold it against the different breakers and you're listening for a beep when it beeps you will find that that is the circuit that you've just plugged into so that makes it very easy to figure out which breaker these things go to i do not own one and it means i spend a lot of time trying

to figure out which breakers to try and figure out.

We have we have three circuit panels in our house we have the original we have one in the garage and we have a new one in the basement yeah yeah so and the guy who did our electrical lived here before my understanding is that he was an electrician but not as diligent with things well i mean what i tend to find is tradesmen working on their own homes are much less less careful than they are working in job sites yes oh yes let me let me know listeners if you have

seen the same or different i'm super curious yeah no my i love my house it is absolutely amazing it is definitely cobbled together by people who knew what they were doing and didn't quite know what they were doing and i dread doing any actual work on my house because i am 99 sure that the people who put on our addition probably did not pull all the permits they were supposed to indeed so oh yeah on that note, a stud finder potentially very useful and then.

Maybe not necessarily for hunt building but could be very helpful and then a stapler not necessarily for electrical but it's good for stapling wires down it's good for stapling tarps down it's good for stapling John to the wall so that he can't reach things stapler very helpful, Have you seen my stapler? Exactly. God, office mess. It's a great movie. Yeah, until you work in offices and you're like, oh, fuck. Way too accurate. Yeah, exactly.

Oh, zip ties. I don't know if you would necessarily call this a tool, but I use zip ties freaking everywhere. It's a multi-purpose everything. It's a multi-purpose everything. Exactly. Also useful for zip tying John to chairs so that he does not get in the way. I also like keeping them in my car so that when i see a jackass who has parked across multiple uh spots at a like the grocery store i'll zip tie a cart to their door handle that's.

Yeah so those there's my my quick version of electrical tools anything else you thought of less electrical tape oh my god electrical tape absolutely which is useful for so many things outside of electrical like electrical tapes actually what's holding my piccolo together i have questions about that we'll come back to later but like the nice thing about electrical tape relatively waterproof compared to other tapes so like when i have when i'm running,

cords that are gonna be sitting outside for a long time i will take electrical tape and just wrap up the connections to make sure water is not getting inside. Super helpful for like my Christmas lights that are sitting in snow. It does a much better job of keeping the water out than just a regular plug. So yeah, electrical tape, absolutely.

All right. Prop building tools. Everything that we have talked about so far, I use for prop building constantly. But here are a couple of other things that I have found necessary. Tiny screwdrivers, particularly with like prop controllers. They have really itty bitty little flathead screws to hold the wires in that you are that you have to hold the wires in. You need small screwdrivers to handle that. And I mean like teeny tiny electronics type screwdrivers. Check the link.

Check the show notes. I'll have a link to one that I like. A hot knife. All of my. That is indeed a piccolo that has electrical tape on it. I'll explain that. After the show. After the show. So a hot knife. When I got into foam carving, I bought my first hot knife and I have never looked back.

I have a very specific hot knife that i adore that i absolutely recommend let me find it real quick and i have not picked this thing up in far too long damn yeah so it's good it's called a warrior brand hot knife 130 watt hot knife available at harbor freight and like this thing gets super hot it cuts foam very quickly i use it for a knife through butter like a hot knife through butter or a hot knife through foam in this case for like all of the straight lines that I'm doing for brickwork.

Again, this is the knife that I use for that because it is so freaking effective. And you know what? It's 30 bucks. Like, absolutely.

This is the one that I recommend. If you're doing anything with foam, I. Get a hot knife you're going to make less of a mess it's going to go faster you're going to have more precision and your life is going to be much much happier than trying to go at this with a chisel we've definitely talked about chisels chisels very useful yeah you know what i don't use them as much i did i thought about it i deliberately left it off because i use them so little for haunting leslie just give me a

skeptical look i i love a good chisel. I find it's a much finer tool than i need for most of my haunting this is true i would definitely put chisels more in the prop building realm that could be because as you're doing you know let's talk you're trying to do carve out names on a or a design on a tombstone chisel versus especially if you don't have like a scroll saw which is way beyond what i would recommend really anything unless you're really really really wanting

to get in and do a lot of detail stuff yeah yeah the other side of hot knives or the other type of hot knives that i own and love hotwire foam factory. Hotwire foam factory makes a ton of different types of hot knife type tools. And... So they have crafter tools, which allow you to do like fancy designs in foam, which are very cool. But they also have bows. And I freaking love their bows. Yeah. The bow is exactly what it sounds like. It is exactly what it sounds like. A wire between.

It's a bow. It's a wire held between a U. Yeah, exactly. Picture like a bow for shooting an arrow.

Like and you're you're in the vicinity except the string that you're shooting the arrow off of is a hot wire and so like when i'm cutting big pieces of foam the bow is the only way to do it because it has the space to do so i could do it with the hot with the the hot knife from harbor freight but my line is usually a little bit wavy because i just can't be as accurate the other way you know take a your utility knife and set a two by four along the whole thing score the entire

thing and then break it also an option always to to work with foam but i have found like the bows that hotwire foam factory makes made my life so much easier when i was doing a lot of foam work and if you're working with large blocks of foam and you're trying to cut off yes it is so much faster so much faster you also have less waste so as you're cutting off these big chunks you can use those big chunks those for other pieces for other pieces

as opposed to trying to do anything else where you get all those fine pieces and you just end up with foam everywhere yes and you know what shop back right back here for scooping up all the foam bits that you are leaving everywhere.

The other thing I use for carving foam constantly a Dremel a rotary tool I freaking love my Dremel I should have bought it years ago, All I have all I can say about that. And you know what? It's useful for other things as well. Like it came with cutting discs that I can use for like cutting chain or this stupid ass nail that I can't get out of this palette. Well, fine. I'm just going to zip you off with my Dremel. Suck it. And then pop it open with the crowbar.

Exactly. Exactly. So Dremel, super useful. Crowbars are fun. As you're making all of these things, you're going to have to paint it. at some point, right? So a variety of different painting tools, you know, paint brushes, paint stirrers, roll on, what do you call it? Rollers, paint rollers.

But what I bought a couple of years ago when we did Sanguine last time for doing large scale painting, like the way I, I built the haunt last time is I set up the entire, all of the walls and then went through and painted. So that paint was consistent across all the walls and it, you know, it, actually looked like a real place, right? What a freaking concept. But I bought my first... Paint gun. Oh, that thing was so nice to you. It's so freaking nice.

Wagner. It's a Wagner paint gun that they sell at home Depot. It's electric, which is super cool. So I don't need compressed air or anything else. You just pour the paint into the, into the tub. I didn't need to thin it or anything else. It would have helped a little bit for it to have been thinned out. I did a lot of the, I did a lot of the painting on the facade using this tool and it was, than freaking tastic.

I definitely would say a little bit of thinning with the paint would have been helpful because the nozzle did get clogged a little bit. But I also, again, we're using recycled paint. There's a whole bunch of other pieces with it. If you're using like fresh, brand new, you've spent lots of money on paint and I wish I had your budget, you probably don't need to. If you're using recycled paint or, you know, whatever's left over and mixing things up, might not be a bad idea.

It's also nice because it is going to help your paint go a little bit further so you can use less paint to cover more area yeah exactly exactly so like this wagner they call it the electric handheld hvlp paint sprayer it's 125 bucks at home depot right now and it changed the way that i paint like i love this thing we basically went from painting with rollers with all of the you know panels on the ground and trying to roller them which worked but definitely

had a lot of issues to everything could be up and put together and you're just standing there going spray spray spray move on to the next panel spray spray spray and it's really really great wide areas at a time it's so much faster than trying to roll it yeah we would not have finished if we tried to roll it all. Oh, God, no. Not with that. So yeah, highly recommend that right there. There are plenty of other tools that I use in my prop building.

We've covered most of them already, though, so I don't really want to get into it. If you have the skills, like I really want a welder because I keep coming across things that I want to make that I just can't do any other way. But welding would make it really easy. I don't have the skills. I don't have the tool. Oh, I want it's on my list of skills I want to learn down the line somewhere. Yep.

So yeah, that's kind of what I've got for prop building. And then, Les, let's talk makeup tools. Yes. So, you're just getting started.

Again, as much as we love to have our high end and we've built up to these things, if you're doing anything with more than a couple of people and you're doing the makeup for them, the biggest thing that you want is you want a spray bottle with isopropyl alcohol because after every individual that you do makeup on you want to spray down all of the makeup that you're using to disinfect it makeup is harbors bacteria there's a reason why we're all told as

growing up as girls and women and guys who are into makeup never share your makeup the bacteria it can cut through and ruin everything so my biggest things are figure out what makeup you want to use drugstore makeup costume makeup all of that works perfectly well for 90 of what we do yes. Get disposable makeup sponges and makeup applicators. They are ridiculously cheap. They're easy to use. You can train anybody on them. And as soon as you're done for the night, you throw it away.

Yeah, I would love to say get your makeup brushes, be reusable, take care of the environment. But with the speed at which you're going to try and get everybody done and with the health and well-being of your actors, get disposable. Use them once. Throw them away at the end of the night. And between each of your actors, spray down all of your makeup kits with isopropyl alcohol, let it dry, and then get started on your next person. That is going to be the key of what you're going to use.

Another great tool for all of this is Q-tips. Q-tips can apply a good 90% of your makeup and are really, really great for detail work. They make pointed Q-tips, so you can use those. They're great for cleaning up lines on your actors. So again, there's a lot you can do with really, really basic stuff to get started. So that's one of the big things I would start with is disposable makeup tools and an alcohol spray bottle.

Now, Les, I know you really want to talk about more advanced makeup tools, but let's take a quick break, hear from our sponsors, and then you can jump right into it. Music.

If you want to start expanding and as you decide this is what you want to do, as you want to get into special effects makeup so again this is a place where you can start racking up the dollars really really quickly there are other ways to do it you can do a lot of special effects makeup with literally latex um skin sense or skin approved latex and toilet paper if toilet paper is incredibly versatile it is super versatile and if you don't know where to get, you know, skin-friendly latex.

I was having to say, if you don't know where to get toilet paper. No, that one should be. If you don't know where to get toilet paper, we need to have a larger conversation, people. Well, not necessarily. Bidets are fantastic tools. But you can't use them for makeup. No. Do not use your bidet for makeup. Unless you really are desperate and need to wash it off. But again, there's better tools for that, too. Yes, this is a family-friendly show. We are all adults here. Maybe. Maybe.

Quick way to get skin-friendly latex that you can use with toilet paper to create special effects makeup is actually eyelash glue. Most eyelash glue is a form of latex or a latex-type product that you can use. And we've done, I've used it very, very effectively. One thing, it does take for freaking ever to dry, so have a hairdryer on hand to help it dry faster. But all that said. I never thought of that. I like that. Yeah.

So remember when we did the zombie and I was trying to do that and it was taking for freaking ever to dry. I wish I had a hairdryer on hand. I learned that trick later. So learn from me. Have a hairdryer on hand. Helps you dry everything so that way you can make layers, build everything up and get everything, get everybody moving. Thank you for that. I completely forgot a very important prop building tool, a heat gun, which is a more powerful hairdryer that's great for like melting

the foam just a little bit to add detail. Do not use a heat gun on your face. Do not use a heat gun on your face.

Absolutely. your face off but hair dryer heat gun not interchangeable but in desperation you can use a hair dryer as a heat gun in small areas and for certain things for certain things what i find is it doesn't get as hot as i need it to for like the melting foam but for drying stuff to dry your hair exactly exactly you can use it to do shrink wrappy stuff on really really basics it's going to take 10 times as long as using a heat gun but again do not use a heat gun on your makeup accurate,

bad things will happen bad things will happen and if you're using it with toilet paper your face is going to be on fire and we are telling you now, do not do that the Haunting You podcast is not responsible for you setting your face on fire please do not set your face on fire. Practical makeup effects I love them that is not the way to go it's bad enough when he hits his head and hits his face with my hammer. Indeed. So yeah, keep going.

Okay, so if we've done all that, and then you want to step it up, and you want to speed up, or you want to use a new technique, next up is very much going to be airbrush makeup. And I'm getting mine out, so I can tell you exactly who it's by, because it is delightful. I got a full kit of Pro Air Airbrush Mini Air Compressor from Pro Air Hybrid Makeup. And it is fantastic. I got the whole compressor, all of the tools that I need. I've got paints.

And it is a very, very great place to start if you're wanting to learn airbrush makeup. And this was, what, 150?

Or no, this was not even that. no i think it was somewhere around that we found that one at a conference and they were doing a deal on it exactly so like conferences great place to pick up stuff conventions great place to pick up stuff on sale to pick up kits to see how things work and get demonstrations so it is something that i have not spent nearly enough time learning how to use and i need to but it is kind of again that next level it is not necessary

by any stretch of the imagination for you to be able to do very, very good makeup for your haunt. It is something that, you know, as you're doing this, as you want to do more of it, it is the next tool to look at trying to purchase. But again, nothing that is required. Get your drugstore makeup, get your colors, get your, you know, grease paint, any acting store is going to have what you need.

And, you know, as much as it's going to destroy your skin anything that you can get it and at the halloween stores at spirit come, september it's going to work one thing that i will say from a protect your skin is get a very very good professional makeup primer that is going to keep your skin healthier especially if you're doing multiple shows over multiple nights hey les legitimate question here i like to buy stuff when it goes on sale at the end of a season.

Can I do that with makeup and then save it for the next year? Yes. Is there anything that I can't do that with? Not necessarily. So makeup, all makeup, has recommended lifespans. Shelf life. That said... I have makeup that is easily, I think I've gotten rid of everything from high school. So maybe not. I have makeup that's easily 10 to 15 years old. I was going to say, I'm coming up on my 20th anniversary. You're not far behind me.

Yeah, I know. I do have makeup that is 10 to 15 years old that still works perfectly well for what I need it to do.

The formulation of the makeup is going to help determine its shelf life so powders tend to have longer shelf lives than liquids so i have eyeshadows that are ancient that still work, perfectly acceptably for what i'm doing with them yeah the big thing with makeup is you buy it on sale at the end of the season to use next season great when you get it out and when you're getting ready to use it do an evaluation of it so what you want

to do is you want to look to see if the color has gone off which might be good depending on what you're uh not necessarily the color has changed from what it's supposed to be that means that there's likely some degradation of the makeup, so you want to check for funny colors you want to check for funny smells and you want to see if anything is growing on the makeup i can actually i'll take a picture and cake and post it on our website or wherever i have some lipsticks that have

things growing on them you that's basically some kind of grease right it's a grease it's a mold it's a crystallization i i'm saying the lipstick is a grease yes yes the lipstick is oil-based yeah so ways to make your makeup last longer. Avoid light, and avoid heat. So keeping it in cool, dark, dry places is going to help your makeup last longer.

If it smells funny, if the texture of what it is, so if you have a makeup that's supposed to be a liquid and it's kind of clumpy, it's not good, you're going to need to throw it out. If it's supposed to be, you know, greasy and it's liquidy, throw it out.

So do this with all of your makeup regardless again 90 of my makeup is beauty makeup and i can use that very very effectively for haunts again it's just it's what i have so i make use with what i have but always check your makeup and from there make the decision as to whether or not it is safe to use if it has a funny smell if it has a funny color if there's things growing on it if the texture is not what it's supposed to be based on what type of makeup it is throw

it out and get something else but for all of the mascara is three months lifespan foundation is i think six months six months to a year lipstick is supposed to be i don't even know it's all on the internet you can go look it up i don't abide by that mostly because i keep my makeup in dark dry cool places and as much as i buy very very expensive makeup i don't want to have to replace it every six months because i don't

use it that often yeah yeah yeah so that's really where the baseline is is keep an eye on it bad smells bad colors bad looks dump it cool uh other tools.

Stabby things stabby things indeed indeed what about like sculpting tools so with sculpting tools you're doing anything with foam like malleable no no i'm talking like oh oh like if you're working with say gel or or something like that so if you're doing anything with that q-tips popsicle sticks and q-tips toothpicks and popsicle sticks will get you through a good portion of what you need to have and what you would need to use if you feel like you need to move

beyond that the next place that i would recommend looking for tools is, incidentally enough, nail art tools. What does that mean, nail art? So nail art tools are all of the tools that professional nail artists use to make all of their designs. And if you're doing raised designs and things like that, one of the big ones is going to be their little, and I can take pictures, I'll take pictures of all these because I have a bunch of them. It's little pins with a little metal knob on top.

So you can make little tiny dots so that's a way that you can use and they're different sizes to make different size dots so to push material up or to make divots in the material anything any nail equipment so that's another way that you can use to create textures sponges are a really really good way to create textures in makeup or gelatin. And another good thing, so gelatin is a very, very useful, cheap way to do buildups for special effects makeup.

And there's a bunch of recipes and things online. I believe Ralis Khan's website probably has a whole bunch on gelatin. He actually taught me how to do it. But one of the things that you can actually use as well, in addition to the gelatin, to give it, to start giving it structure is again, toilet paper, cotton balls, Q-tips, all of those things you can break into smaller pieces.

So one of the things that we did was we did a very, very cool experiment, scratched out eye on me when i took his class and so he just did that by running gelatin up and down between my eye if you want to have something that's a little bit more structured you could actually put pieces like a broken q-tips and hold them there and then build it oh so you know a lot of the things it's it's trial and error and the big thing that you want to do is

you want to make sure that what you're doing is safe for your skin the right temperature the right size and that there's no sharp pokey things. Indeed. Indeed. Okay. So these are all the tools that we've talked about for like building your haunt, but what about running your haunt?

Now we are into the presentation phase. You're open for business. What do you keep on hand to help you do that effectively?

And so a couple of thoughts. In our operating your haunt episode a couple of years ago, I talk about your to-go bag and that's just like the basic tools that the basic toolbox I carry around for fixing shit that breaks while we're open need to do a quick repair it has you know zip ties it's got a few screws it has my drill it's got a hammer it's got a variety of different sized like metal brackets that are used for reinforcing

broken pieces of wood in many cases you know that that kind of stuff oh it's it's my basic toolbox plus some ready to go.

Items to help me do quick fixes the but then like there's just a whole bunch of things you're going to need to do in the haunt from a just from like operating do you have a bathroom you're going to need tools to clean the bathroom you're going to need you know your scrub brushes and and all of that all your cleaning supplies a push broom you want to clear out the halls pretty quickly of debris get a push broom and guess what

shot back coming in handy again here use your push broom to gather all into a corner suck it up with the shot back quick and easy cleanups right uh but a push broom can't get into every corner so having a regular broom that you can get into those tight corners also kind of necessary um, Some kind of kitty litter, keep some kitty litter around because if someone poops themselves, if someone wets themselves, if someone throws up because they

got sick, because they weren't feeling well when they came, kitty litter, super quick to clean that up and a flat shovel. So not like the spade that you would use for digging, but a flat nose shovel for scooping that up and disposing of it quick and easy. And then, you know, various types of disinfectant as well. Yeah. You have, have those handy.

And then one big tool that people don't think about is actor management and how are you communicating to your actors when stuff is happening how are you scheduling them making sure that they have all the information that they need there are a variety of different tools out there to help you do that and i want to talk about one that sponsors the haunting podcast called sithon s-i-t-h-o-n you can actually get 20 off your first year with them if you

use the code haunting you 20 and it's just actor management software that is super intuitive super easy to use very powerful and will make your life easier as you are managing you know all these various people cython and use the code haunting you 20 to get 20 off your first year other other tools for while you're running the haunt less have a good flashlight on hand oh yeah and you know what, a headband flashlight yes headband flashlight

that way you don't need to use up an extra hand while you are doing stuff you just throw it on your head you can put it where exactly where you need it and and then do your repairs absolutely and if you have a colored one so much the better like if you can do it with a red light instead of a white light less likely for you to you know disturb the patrons around you or make it known that you're there if you're using red versus white. I've got one that does both colors and I like it.

Red also will not damage your actor or your patron's night vision. Night vision or yours for that matter as you're walking through the dark. Yeah. Maintain your night vision. Use red lights. If you use white lights, your pupils will dilate and then it takes up to a half an hour to fully undilate. Or I guess it will contract. It'll take up to half an hour for it to fully dilate again in the dark. So yeah, preserve your preserve your night vision.

Okay. I think we have summed up our toolkits pretty thoroughly. We are not experts. We are amateurs. We are amateurs. We do it because we love it. This is just kind of what we have come up with based on our experience. If you think of other things that you think our listeners would benefit from, shoot us a message, leave a comment on any one of our posts, send it to us, and we'll put it out on our social media so that everyone else can see that as well.

Speaking of social media, where can you find it all, Les? You ask me this every time and every time. I don't freaking remember. I know. That's why I enjoy watching this. For those who don't know, Les doesn't really use social media very much. I do all of the social media work. I don't know how that happened because John used to do it all. I have somehow taken over. Yeah. Probably because I'm doing all the builds and it's just way easier to take a picture and post it. Yeah.

Yeah so definitely go check out our website hunting you.com just the letter u and that will link you to everything that we have available definitely or i recommend most uh youtube at hunting you just the letter u again instagram has a ton of content on it at hunting university facebook facebook.com slash hunting you just the letter u those are the main places where you can find everything that we are putting out and as we get closer to hunt season there's going to be a lot more

coming out right now on youtube we just put out a whole bunch of stuff on the east coast hunters convention all of that is of course every convention we've ever been to is up in our library you can check it out to see the cool vendors that we've met and talked to and showed off their products and then all of our builds as well end up on youtube and instagram primarily so go check those out and you know like and subscribe so that you can be notified when we put out more cool.

Content and if you have questions if you have comments if you have feedback for us we'd love to hear it we will absolutely you know again we we do take what you guys bring us and you know we take it with value because this is it's not just us i mean it is absolutely us speaking into the ether but we'd love to hear for those of you that you know do find us entertaining or terrible or inspiring let us know.

Yeah i mean this whole episode was inspired because someone reached out and asked a question and so like that's what we love to hear like we want to tailor our content to make it as useful to you the builders the makers the costumers all of that we want it to be as useful to you as possible so absolutely reach out and help us make sure the haunting you podcast is exactly what you need to help build the haunt of your dreams so that

is one thing as you said costumes we did not talk about costuming tools we did not talk about costuming tools a couple of things off the off your head less like what what do you have in mind i so i mean again sewing machine sewing machine that's going to be your big thing a good pair of scissors oh yeah and you know what really good pair of scissors and whatever scissors you use for fabric do not let anybody use them for anything else or you will stab them

in the heart with it is exactly what i was about to say my mom is a huge seamstress loves to sew and she nearly murdered my brother and i both on multiple occasions when we were kids because we stole her good shears for sewing and use them for other things and told them yeah don't do that i i that was never even an option i knew that death would happen if i ever touched my mom's finger scissors and i have my good scissors i have my not so good scissors that i love but the good

scissors are for fabric and yarn only yeah yeah big thing with costumes, is a good sewing machine, a good pair of scissors. And a decent set of needles so that way you can do quick hand stitching. Yes, absolutely. I have... So I do a ton of hand stitching, primarily on my uniforms. And it's a very thick material. I need a hardy needle to get through that. Hardy needles. Don't buy the cheap stuff. Get good needles. Yep.

There's a lot more, especially when you start talking distressing and other tools and techniques with costuming. Every tool we talk about today can be used for distressing as well. Yes, it can. Quite effectively, too.

And also nothing for distressing nothing beats giving it to your dog and playing tug of war outside in the dirt or giving it to your children and telling them to roll around in this go to town and go to go roll around and run around the forest and throw it around yes great ways natural distressing natural de-stressing as well as entertain your children of course before we go though we have to give an opportunity for the chamber of haunters to tell us what is happening So let's take a moment

to have the Chamber's Corner. The Haunting Me podcast is, of course, the official podcast of the Chamber of Haunters. And so every month we like to give them the opportunity to give us the latest and greatest of what is happening within the Chamber. So, Mr. Rob Knowlton, I believe this might be your last. Maybe one more. Maybe this is your penultimate Chamber's Corner. But what have you for us this month?

The Chamber of Haunters serves as the Chamber of Commerce for the Haunted Attraction Industry. We have many events coming up. First off, we have our first virtual Lunch and Learn. This is for anyone to attend. If you're interested, please email us at chamberofhaunters at gmail.com so we can have you RSVP and send you the Zoom link to participate. The Lunch and Learn will take place via Zoom on Saturday, June 7th at 12 p.m. Eastern Time. We look forward to having you there.

We will also be attending the Texas Hunters Convention on July 26th and 27th. We hope to have you with us as we celebrate five years in operation and see a new incoming president take over leading the Chamber of Haunters. It will be an amazing time. If you are interested in joining, please visit our website at chamberofhaunters.com. Join us today. And I am super excited to say that the Haunting You podcast is going to be hosting

these Lunch and Learns. And each and every one will be put out on our YouTube page after the event. So if you're not able to make it to the live event, go check out our YouTube and you can at least catch the recap there. All righty. And as always, the Chamber of Haunters is doing everything they can to bring information and resources to all haunters, professional, home, amateur, and everybody in between. And we are so grateful for what they are putting together and providing to us

as a community. So thank you for that. Exactly so like less said this episode is running very long but i hope you got a lot of value out of it and i hope that it helps you build out the toolkit that you need to help build your haunt this year again reach us out to us on any of the social medias we are more than happy to chat and provide whatever information that we have available we'd love to share with you, but in the meantime we will see you next month from all of us here at hunting. Music.

You happy hunting. Bye, everybody! We are incredibly grateful to all the sponsors who make this show possible, especially our premium sponsors, the Chamber of Haunters and VFX. You can learn more about our premium sponsors by checking out their websites at chamberofhaunters.com and vfxcreates.com Check out our website at huntingu.com for more information on everything that we do. We'll be right back.

Haunting you can be reached via facebook at facebook.com slash haunting you with just the letter u or on instagram under the handle at haunting university and youtube under the handle at haunting you haunting you is a production of sanguine creek entertainment all audio clips and sound effects are used under a creative commons attribution or public domain license from purple Planet Music at purple-planet.com or the Sound Bible at soundbible.com.

Please see the show notes for more information on all the clips used in this episode.