Why do you do what you do...?

[Keith "Zomketh" Newsome]

Ok, I will start, Why do I do what I do in the Haunt industry..
Easy... I like attention.. I love art and Effects, mix those and you get me. I love makeup (monster stuff not the beauty kind) and being able to transform yourself into something that people can't tell if it is real or not. (which always baffles me, I can't recall ever meeting a real zombie)
So Why do you do what you do in the haunt industry?

[HauntedHotSauce.com]

Greetings Keith,

Like all of us, I've been totally consumed by monster movies and Halloween since as far back as I can remember. I was born in October so every birthday I can remember had a monster or Halloween theme. I remember one of my early favorite (and highly flammable) costumes was a silly nylon wolfman costume w/ the plastic wolfman mask. I was so excited when my father presented a tube of fake blood so that I could drip it down the sides of the mask's mouth. I was 6 years old and I remember it like it was yesterday. Anyway, I've spent the last 37 years looking forward to the next or remembering the last Halloween. I've been responsible for decorating every Halloween party that I've ever attended, I've always gone way too far in every costume contest I've ever entered and have driven everyone around me totally insane by my year-round Halloween enthusiasm. So, in answer to the question (finally) I want to continue doing what I do now...love the haunt industry each and every day...make costumes, paint masks, listen to scary music and sound effects, build creepy props and displays, build fun, scary Halloween websites and continue to drive everyone around nuts w/ my year-round Halloween enthusiasm. And oh yeah, I also run a business called HauntedHotSauce.com where I make zombie-themed hot sauce products sealed in handmade cedar coffins. I want to refine that business and perhaps expand into selling custom props of my own design. Time will tell. I am honored to be even a small part of the haunt industry and am even more honored to be able to converse w/ all of you fine folks. Fell free to contact me anytime about anything.

Stay Rotten,

Victor "The Undertaker"

[e-mail]

[Keith "Zomketh" Newsome]

Thanks for the reply Undy... I know what you mean about the haunt industry. I have been doing home haunts for as long as I can remember. Getting involved with Terror Park and MHC is due to my nephew... and I am more than happy to have joined along with these other great people... what a great time to be in this industry...
Always Rotting...
keith "Zomketh"

[HauntedHotSauce.com]

I agree...thanks in no small part to Jonathan and RottingFleshRadio. Before RFR I had no idea that there even was a haunt industry. I thought that I was just weird. At least now I KNOW I'm weird...I just have lots more weird friends.

[Midwest Haunters Convention]

I guess I am probably the odd one in the industry. LOL I did not grow up loving Halloween or horror movies. I never liked getting into costume. However, once I was talked into acting at Terror Park I was hooked! I found a whole new industry and a group of people that make great friends. We started MHC as a way to bring these like minded friends together and now I cannot imagine life without all of you.

Barry

[HauntedHotSauce.com]

There is absolutely NOTHING like that adrenalin rush is there? The preparation...the waiting for just the right moment...the scare! And then the ideas for next season start to hit you. I'll be the first to admit that I'm a total newbie in the professional aspect of this biz...I'm just excited to have discovered that I've finally found my calling...or maybe I've finally found what's been calling me.

[Tater]

awww....barry cant imagine life without me...isnt that sweet

[Jonathan Frost]

The short and naive answer to your question "why do what you do in the haunt industry?" is that there is nothing else out there for me.

Many of us Haunt as a way of clinging to a world of fantasy that was stolen from us as we lost our innocence. I was seven years old when I started learning the secret arts of magic. It was a way for me to have power in a world that wasn't paying any attention to me (Hell I was seven years old lol.) By the time I was seven I was already thoroughly engrossed in monster movies like King Kong, Godzilla, Killer Klowns From outer Space, etc. I have always been a horror junkie and that is something that is difficult for me to explain.

Naturally my two interests blended together and by the time I was in high school I was using my magic to gross people out and not blend into my surrounding's. Since then I have done away with a lot of the shock and looked rather to instill my show with deeper, although still macabre, meaning.

When people want to hire a magician they aren't necessarily looking to be chilled or spooked. What I do is far from "commercial" however there is this one magical time of the year when fear is socially acceptable and commercially viable as a product. Naturally I grew closer and closer to the Haunted Attraction Business.

That might sound a little callus. I should mention that I was visiting haunted houses when I was very young. I remember waiting for 3 hours to get into Kevin Mccurdy's Haunted Mansion when I was still in kindergarten. I remember going to Headless Horseman Hayrides before it was anything some 13 years ago. I am so emotionally attached to the industry that there is no better a place for me to display my talents.

I wager that all of us are big children....

J~F

[Keith "Zomketh" Newsome]

All in all, You are right... big children... I could make at least 4 outta me.. ha.. I will try to look you up at MHC..
Keith

[Nicole]

I love being able to be creative and helping to design something that gets *such* reactions out of people - and the people on our production team are like family. I think if it wasn't for them, I may not be doing this - we work so well together and have such a good time throughout the whole process - it's not even "work" to us!

[Keith "Zomketh" Newsome]

I feel the same way, when you make something out of, well really nothing, just an Idea you have and it makes people not just jump, but run screaming.. I don't mean to hurt anyone, but that really rocks... everthing from just plain latex makeup or facepaint to creating an entire scene or prop.. I love this stuff... thanks for commenting..
Keith

[Chad Savage / Sinister Visions inc.]

Sinister Visions combines everything I love: Art, design, marketing, horror, Halloween and haunted houses. I did what I do for a living pretty much for free for 10 years or so before I turned it into a business. :)

[Keith "Zomketh" Newsome]

Sounds like something I would love to do for a living.. It is alway nice to do something you love..
peace..
keith