| The 2000 Transworld Halloween, Costume and
Party Show was everything that I expected it to
be. Exciting, unpredictable, and enjoyable. To
open the festivities on Wednesday night was the
Crazy Bob Social. A lot of the big names in the
industry showed up once again for this one. From
Cydney Neil (Rockey Point), John Denley (Boneyard
Productions), Larry Kirchner (Halloween
Productions and Hauntworld.com), to Gail "The
Frightmistress" Cohen, D'Ann Dagen (Hangman's
House of Horrors), Jim O'Rear (Underground
Entertainment), and the man himself, Crazy Bob
Turner (Haunted Hydro). It was a good ice breaker. Thursday
was seminar day, a real test of stamina for those
not used to enduring long conferences. Briefly, I
will highlight some of the seminars that I
attended. Cydney Neil held two seminars on
Budgeting and Advanced Budgeting. She conducted a
very compelling seminar in the afternoon session,
and revealed very important aspects on creating a
budget for a haunted attraction such as basic
construction, obtaining sponsorships, advertising
and promotion.
Adrian LePeltier, Director of Show Development
at Universal Studios Escape in Orlando, Florida,
explained about the many aspects that makes
Universal stand out from all the rest of the
haunts in the creation of their characters, make-up,
and costuming. Their acting is somewhat
choreographed, but he allows the actors the
freedom to express what their character is doing.
Bloody Mary, from our own Dear Bloody Mary
column (a.k.a. Bobbie Weiner), conducted a very
basic seminar on bruise and abrasion make-up. Her
subject in the chair was none other than Jim
O'Rear of Underground Entertainment Magazine. Jim
was a good sport as I took several in-stage
photos of the make-up application.
The last seminar of the day was an Interactive
Acting seminar presented by Joe Jensen of Haunted
America. Joe's presentation was all about
different techniques in acting. He demonstrated
what kind of acts could be used in an attraction
such as the stalker, an actor who seeks out their
victim through eye contact and movement. There
was the pleader, an actor that pleads to the
audience not to go inside the show and run to
save their lives. All of the techniques were
based on emotion. The actor's ability to abandon
all of their inhibitions and really BE the
character. To get inside the psyche of the
customer and convince them that the act is real
WITHOUT touching them. It was a very well thought
out presentation and made me proud to be an actor.
Joe has a real actor's intellect. I just wish I
had the opportunity to see him in action.
On the eve of opening day, Larry Kirchner held
a meeting at the Holiday Inn to announce
Hauntworld's Sponsorship Program. Hauntworld
plans a consolidation of haunted houses across
the United States, under the hauntworld label, to
promote marketing dollars through sponsorships
from national product manufacturers. The contract
for haunters to commit to has since been revised.
The show as usual, was intense. The most
impressive booth this year in my opinion, was The
Scarefactory in the Dark Zone. They had rooms of
animations and a rocking tunnel with all sorts of
corpses and demons inside of it.
Saturday night was the 2nd Annual Meeting for
the International Association of Haunted
Attractions where the Board Director elections
were held for 2000. A new crop of 18 board
members were voted in, and the annual meeting
went quickly and painlessly. For more information
about IAHA, log on to their website at:
Overall, the 2000
Transworld Halloween show was very entertaining and educating and I highly recommend to all of
you that did not make it this year, to make it a
point next year to be there!
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