[My first time as a "professional" scare actor. I'm in the middle]
Pranks have been a part of my life for as far back as I
remember. I was blessed with family and friends who all had a great sense of
humor. If you were a friend of my dad’s and you ever ended up in the hospital
for any reason, there was a good chance that my dad and a few of his friends
would put on the most ridiculous stereotypical nerd costumes (they all had them
ready to go at a moment’s notice) and show up at the hospital just to embarrass
you. Oh, you have a company Christmas party at a fancy country club? You’re not
safe there either- don’t put it past the nerds to show up and make a scene, and
of course have someone with a VHS camera to record the whole thing.
The “Nerd Attacks” (which is what they called them) were
just the tip of the iceberg. I could talk for hours about the hilarious pranks
that I’ve seen or been a part of during my life. I think these pranks are a
major reason why I enjoy scaring so much. Scaring to me is basically a prank,
whether or not you think it’s funny doesn’t really matter to me because I
personally think it’s hilarious. It’s a good thing I wear a mask because I’m
laughing after just about every scare (especially if you fall down).
The first time I recall being scared (and I don’t mean like
being afraid of a thunderstorm as a kid or afraid I’m going to get shanked in
an alley [I grew up in Long Beach, CA so it wasn’t that far-fetched]) was one
night when I was pretty young-my guess is 10 at the oldest. For some reason we
(myself, my younger brother and probably some of my cousins) were led into our
backyard behind the garage under our gigantic avocado tree where it was pitch
black. Once we got back there, my dad’s friends jumped over the brick fence
into our yard wearing scary masks (I remember one of them was wearing a pig
mask with blinking red eyes) and scared the living crap out of us. After the
sheer terror quickly passed when we realized it was just our dad’s prankster
friends who we knew very well, I thought it was the greatest thing ever.
It was probably shortly after that when my older cousin Matt
(who I idolized at the time) started scaring people at his parents’ house on
Halloween. This was before everybody had fog machines and strobe lights, so I
don’t think it was very elaborate (I never got to see it because our family
usually went to our church Harvest Festival [which was actually super fun-all
kinds of fun stuff that would never be allowed to happen today due to injury
liabilities]) but I always thought it was so cool to hear him talk about
scaring people at his house for a few years.
One night in the 1990’s, my parents and a few of their
friends went to Knott’s Scary Farm. I’m
sure my parents told me a lot of details about Knott’s, but the only thing I
remember is them saying that at night they turned off the lights on the Kingdom
of the Dinosaurs ride (which I loved when I went during the daytime) and as you
were slowly riding along, scare actors would reach in and grab your leg (that
would never fly nowadays).
Finally in my early teens, I was allowed to go to Knott’s
Scary Farm with some friends from my church youth group. I only have one
distinct memory and it was from the first maze we went in, called The
Underground. A few people jumped out and scared me pretty good at the beginning
of the maze and once we were too far in to turn back, I remember being in a
dark hallway (most of Knott’s mazes are constructed with plywood walls so it
wasn’t like I could just run and jump through some corn stalks and be out
again) and thinking to myself “I am legitimately afraid and I need to get out
of here”. It was pure fear in its most literal sense. I don’t think that fear
lasted very long because I was back to enjoying myself shortly after. I made it
all the way through, but I was sure glad to see the exit of that maze. After
that I went to Knott’s Scary Farm almost every year and couldn’t wait to turn
18 so that I could be a scare actor (or “monster” as Knott’s calls them) there.
When I was 16, I borrowed my dad’s friend’s chainsaw and
went to my buddy’s house where we chased trick or treaters up and down the
block for a few hours-that’s when I knew I was hooked. When I turned 18, I
didn’t work at Knott’s Scary Farm even though I was dying to do so. At age 19 I
got a job at Knott’s as a ride operator (another dream of mine since I was
young). That year they put makeup on some of the ride operators so that they
looked scary too and as soon as I got out into the public area with my makeup
and felt the fear on customer’s faces it was like a rush of adrenaline (even
though we were instructed not to scare people-we were there to operate rides
only).
Luckily for me, the ride I operated (a 252 foot drop tower
called Supreme Scream) had a rotating schedule, so every hour I got rotated to
a new position-and one of those positions was just standing at the gate near
the railroad tracks behind the ride to make sure nobody snuck behind the gates.
We were literally just supposed to stand there with a broom and one of those standing
folding dustpans that amusement park custodial people use and do nothing unless
there was trash to clean up. I quickly learned that people thought I was a
scarer because as they walked past, many would cower or just look terrified. I
did my best (really, I did) to just stand there but eventually I started
abruptly lifting up that metal dustpan (it made a loud noise) and quickly
taking a few steps forward causing people to scream and run. I was only
scheduled to work 3 or 4 nights (I usually worked days) so I didn’t get many
scares but I knew that I absolutely had to work there as a monster the next
year.
Unfortunately the next year I had a “big boy job” and I
wasn’t able to make the scheduling work between that job and scaring at
Knott’s, so I asked some family and friends to help and scared people at my
parent’s house on Halloween night. We all had a blast and talked about all of
us working at Knott’s Scary Farm the next year.
The following year (in 2003) I, along with my younger brother, three
cousins and two friends got hired as monsters at Knott’s Scary Farm. I was in
the Carnival of Carniverous Clowns maze, which is what I was hoping for.
Since then, I have worked at six other haunted attractions
between Colorado and Nebraska. Every year I have a blast, but every year gets
harder on my body…but it’s worth it.
