Podcast: The Ride - Halloween Horror Nights & Knott’s Scary Farm

Episode Date: October 19, 2018

The Good Boys go behind the scenes at two of the biggest haunts in the country: Universals Halloween Horror Nights and Knotts Scary Farm. Featuring special guests: Universal Creative Director John Murdy Knotts Show Writer Jeff Tucker The Season Pass Podcasts Robert Coker and Doug Barnes Listen to Podcast: The Ride Ad-Free on Forever Dog Plus: https://foreverdogpodcasts.com/podcasts/ FOLLOW PODCAST: THE RIDE: https://twitter.com/PodcastTheRide https://www.instagram.com/podcasttheride BUY PODCAST: THE RIDE MERCH: https://www.teepublic.com/stores/podcast-the-ride PODCAST THE RIDE IS A FOREVER DOG PODCAST https://foreverdogpodcasts.com/podcasts/podcast-the-ride Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

FOREVER! DOG! spots. Can the good boys survive? Also, can they remain humble in the face of being granted increased theme park and media access? We'll see on today's Hauntcast the Fright, a show hosted by two scaredy boys that are afraid of theme park Halloween mazes and one big brave boy who overcame his haunted maze fear at Not Scary Farm last night. I am said big brave boy, Mike Carlson. Joining me as always, two Scaredy boys, Jason Sheridan. I had some excuses.

Alright, that's fine. We'll get into all of this, but I'm boasting hard up top here because I'm feeling very triumphant after my night at Not Scary Farm. And also Scott Gairdner is here. And Scaredy. I got no excuses, but whatever. I'm my own man. I can do what i want to do

i feel alive for the one of the first times in my life going through six mazes last night scary farm can you believe that it's a lot and i'm not this wasn't a fake thing that i was afraid of these mazes i was just as scared as you guys were i don't like this i don't like college students jumping out and putting their hands in my face you know here's a thing uh you you might be correct to phrase it as as scared i could see that take but there's another take that is i don't want to do this even if i wasn't scared it doesn't sound like pleasant i did a single maze we will get into that yes i did it i wouldn't describe my feeling during it as being scared and describe it more as annoyed and irritated rather be at home well i think that the thing is you got to get used to

the people throwing their arms at you and yelling and then once you get used to the mazes then you start to enjoy all the things we like about theme parks the theming the design all that interesting stuff the effects i can get used to my couch and a bottle of wine that's a good excuse to not go anywhere then isn't it that's better than anything really truly is and uh scott garddner at 33. Yeah. I mean, that's where I'm at. Why should we do anything? Let's all just become drunks. Let's not go nowhere. Wait, now that drunk is a fart.

Sounds like Scott's going down the Jackson, Maine route. I know he wants me to stop talking about a Star is Bored. The junk to drunk from enjoying a glass of wine. You were drunker than me. You were the drunk one at the event. But last night? Weren't you? No the drunk one at the event but last night weren't you no you drank more than i did last night i had a mango beer and then i had a stella stella art or art i can't even you're drunk right now uh so let's start with this episode this is uh

we're talking halloween horror nights and knott Berry Farm. And this is not a comprehensive one. A little peek behind the scenes. We got to look at how some of this stuff got made. We've been saying for a long time that we were doing this podcast and we wanted invites to things. We wanted people to invite us theme park journalists to different events, to different happenings. And we wanted to get free things and we wanted to look backstage peek behind the curtain and we've been very lucky now and we've gotten a couple cool things that we have gotten to do uh number one we're going to talk about here is that universal invited one of us to go check out their new maze which is based on the

tv show stranger things and we sent our cub reporter jason sheridan my mother will be thrilled that i finally put the two years of an unfinished journalism degree to work yes what was your college press badge well i switched to tv production uh halfway through but you actually did like you would call from college you would call like hollywood people like agents to get confirmation on stories for your local papers like i did a like a long like 30 page feature for like an assignment where i like talked to the editors-in-chief at the time of oni press and uh top shelf productions a couple journalists who covered you're saying what is top shelf production

yeah your comics publishers there was a big thing you had to call an agent about yes there was so uh this yeah i i was an intern at the philadelphia weekly uh weekly news kind of philadelphia's equivalent to like the village voice uh i was an intern there one summer and i had already changed my major but i had already been offered the internship and i they were just like yeah you know any any work is as good as the like any internship at this point uh i think it was coming out of my sophomore year and i i was just kind of interested in doing something in the media that summer so um i worked at phil weekly and they i thought in a very smart move the interns were mostly there there was like six to ten of us and we were the fact checkers we would fact check articles and call sources

and double check stuff that was in the articles one thing that i had double check was uh there was they it's kind of in a way that didn't mesh with the rest of the paper there were horror scopes that tried to weave in like gossip like us weekly kind of gossip to like well taurus you're you're in for a romantic week uh much like uh who would have the star of like 2005 been like romantic couples savari i don't know yeah you're in drew barrymore married to yeah drew barrymore justin long just drew barrymore and justin long are a good example of this like that sort of thing right and one of my uh one of the ones was that uh you know about sandra bullock and jesse james oh right so that's you called her agent so but what i found was like i was

trying i asked the writer like where did you source this from and i found the article and the article was from that week, but the previous year. So they fucked up. And I told the editors and they're like, well, call Sandra Bullock's agent for comment. And how old were you at this time? I was 19 years old. And at the time, E, I don't think it was on IMDb and we didn't have imdb pro but e like e.com indexed uh the television network indexed like who's repped what people so i called the main line for like either william morris or cia

i got through to an assistant and i said hey i'm calling from the philadelphia weekly and they're like oh okay well let me put you on with the yeah they're available let me ask and i did the same hi i'm calling from the philadelphia weekly we're a weekly paper in philadelphia pennsylvania the person went i know where philadelphia is uh and i said is there any uh truth to this and they're like what no where are you where do you call and i was like look i'm just an intern i'm just fact checking a little pop culture part of it like there's no truth to that rumor so then whatever libra or taurus for that week did not have a pop culture they just stripped out that sentence that unnecessary part yes so when we were deciding which the three of us should go this is why i decided jason should be the guy to do it he deals

with hollywood big wigs all the time you're it's you're essentially you were a little like kid ronan farrow yeah i was i used to drive the uh american gladiators i think i drove one of them to their physical like they flew in an american gladiator that's what a reporter's job would be i don't know with stars that is a scoop though that one of the american gladiators has some health issues it was illegal it was just a basic physical before they could you know get in the arena oh they made it okay so you waited in like the waiting room for one of the American- Of a Beverly Hills doctor and then drove them back to the airport. Which American gladiator was it? I don't know.

They were a prick. I don't want to talk about it. Oh, okay. Most of them were nice. Was it like another glacier? No, this was not one of the main ones and they were really weird. And they leaned out of the car when like the police there was a lot of police at the airport and they're like hey this guy's up to no good about me driving and i'm like i am not i'm being

paid dog shit wow i don't think i've actually heard the story of you driving an american gladiator to a doctor's office yeah that's great all right anyway we got to get back to universal anyway so yeah i went up there to tour the Stranger Things maze. I got to go in at Walter's Gate and get a little, you know, Vizzer's badge. Yeah, Walter's Gate. It was like me and like 10 other outlets. And, you know, they put us, we met our contact.

Did you talk to them? Who were they? Yeah, who were the other 10 outlets? Bumper Car Boys. It's Bumper Car Boys and it's like, he looks exactly like you, but with a mustache? No, I didn't. I don't know. It was kind of like we all got there, and they put us in a van, and they got us in the

toy. It was pretty quick. Oh, you got to go in a van? To go from the city walk down to the soundstage so because the so the stranger things maze this year uh is in soundstage 29 which is a huge soundstage they said it was used in uh like late uh the grinch and jurassic park when i was an intern at universal on the backlot uh i just remember the tour guides going like and that soundstage was used in a movie we shot recently called land of the lost uh so this was it was huge probably used in evan almighty i feel like

they were talking about evan almighty when i worked there there were a lot of like arc pieces yes my first summer yeah that was like two or three sound stages for that that was a real that was a real production. All-a-lot endeavor, and then also giant sets in North Carolina. Most expensive comedy of all time at the time. Yeah. That worked out. But so this is interesting that Universal's really spreading onto the back lot.

If you don't know the layout of universal studios, there's this upper part up on the level that a city walk is. And then you take escalators down to the bottom and that's a much smaller area of the theme park. And it's really literally right next door to the sound stages where your favorite movies and TV shows are made. And they're like really spreading out a lot more recently onto the back lot, including, uh, Ooh, is it the poltergeist maze one of them is like very deep into the new york uh back lot sets

yeah a really long walk oh yeah yeah they've kind of built the the mazes are built up uh around the part sort of wherever they can get the space because um uh as as they pointed out on the tour and i got the tour from universal creative director john murdy who's like a longtime universal employee really kind of oversaw uh on kick-started horror nights coming back to hollywood um oh was it open in the 90s a little and then closed i think that's yeah i think they did a little halloween stuff but i think 2006 is about when they really started going all out with horror nights out here once it really started to like cook in florida um gotcha well because by the time i in 2007 uh my second year with the tour guide program i got to i worked on the terror tram

yes which was my favorite thing ever because you didn't have to do the tour it was all about time killing and all about bullshitting and it was like for sure it could be tedious and you might go like oh i'm like stuck in one place for 40 minutes with like no material but man i did like i did so much dumb stuff there used to be a video of me on youtube and i don't know of doing it i don't remember what happened but uh i was very proud you talk about john murdy i was i believe john murdy himself emailed me and said i saw your video of you doing the tour and i was very scared of what was coming because people had been fired very quickly from that event for using too foul of language.

And I was worried I'd done something fireable. But instead he said, you know, most of your thing, I don't think would work for wouldn't translate to other guides, but there was one thing he said, I liked so much. I'm going to put it in the scripts next year wow do you remember what it was i do it was that i kind of did the whole thing in sort of uh even like all the functional stuff i did in like a devil voice that would sort of fade awkwardly as a mumble through uh boring parts of a don't smoke and uh and and at the beginning i said something about like like halloween is a frightful time when chaos reigns and there are no rules that being said

there are a few rules and um and i that tended to go over well and they put it in the script and i was really honored but then i went back the next year and just got to hear people just plow through that and do that with no timing and like halloween is a time of chaos where there are no rules that means there are a few rules like it was pretty funny watching the line get like just steamrolled by but i was still that's a really solid like theme park joke hey thanks yeah that one's not i wasn't always like doing things totally counter to the spirit of the place i like trying to think of like a good real like doesn't offend anybody yeah we are good boys yeah yeah yeah no i didn't i may have like you know i'm they they said you could be like pg-13 what do you think the sauciest thing you said was oh um i i think i made might have made an

abortion joke oh wow i don't remember what it was but i i remember getting kind of a ooh which then like this guy that john murdy like watched whatever this abortion joke was put me in the bill and ted uh oh my gosh the spectacular for these yeah that's that's pretty dicey if i can remember what the abortion was joke was well we'll post that if there's a video of it uh yes if i can please take that 12 year old abortion joke like go back in your files i'm sure it'll hold up uh just fine but the story i remember that i liked a lot was that you know they told us you could be a little more racy. You could swear and stuff.

And so here's a profanity warning for anyone listening who doesn't like when we use profanities. But I feel like I have to for this. But I remember a female tour guide pulling out of the area and saying, like, well well now we're no longer in earshot of my bosses and they said we kind of do what we want on this thing so uh fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck oh and she was wrong they were we were she was still completely within earshot of the bosses and when the tour came back around people were waiting for her and she was escorted out of the lot again that but that to me seems like copacetic for horror nights um yeah but i don't know i don't i think it's not if you watch any of those like the bill and ted show which we'll get into later but

the there's maybe you get shit i don't i think okay maybe that's the line it's in the weird it's like in the weird american like censorship like what gets censored and what doesn't and it's like certain words i don't it's not i'm not turning into a george carlin routine here but like those two words are off limits but you can make a lot of offensive uh jokes about gay people or something that's fine but you cannot say shit. Baby boomers do not like profanity, even though the sky is on fire. Even though the world is eating itself and heating up.

Yeah, and they're more mad when... They're not mad at Trump for using awful language and saying awful things. They're mad at the channel for talking about it but like but they he said it it's weird to why are you mad at the why are you mad at the person who said the bad word yeah yes there's yeah there's a lot of a lot of twisted values in this country here in this halloween season but let's talk about something more fun sure jason sherman on the scene my other hard nights experience was that i when i interned in at a production company in one of the bungalows on

the back lot i had to park like i had a little bit of a walk to where my parking assignment was and it was i i got to go through i would go through the new york streets to take a shortcut and i i was there like a late one friday like when horror nights i knew horror nights was starting in like an hour and i was like i want to get the hell to my car because it is dark now and i know the ghoulies and goblins are coming out uh so and and that would have been one of the first years they were really going all out, yeah. So this person is a big, Oh, sorry. And I may have jumped in rather.

Yeah. John Murdy, a big deal in universal world, like probably really helped popularize, uh, this events and oversaw it and like, and kind of like primarily overseas this, this is like the main thing he does.

And he only, he comes to LA for this only. He mentioned in the tour that he lives in Ireland now and telecommutes, uh, uh, uh for this but like for the right leading up to our nights he was here uh working on it um excuse me and runs the runs himself i'm sure other people use it too but runs the horror nights twitter account so you can tweet directly at john murdy on the official horror nights twitter account and he is very open he was very clear about like you know we like that the fans tweet at us and that's

where we pull ideas from uh every now and then including the stranger things maze he said like as soon as that was up on netflix people were like you have to do a maze of this and uh it i have to say it was very cool to go through that he said very rarely are they given access to a full-size soundstage to build the mazes in that's that's a whole other stuff sometimes these mazes are jammed into like where the line is for another attraction and to have an entire yeah an entire sound stage and what is happening is they're demolishing a lot of the sound stages that are right up against the theme park for future expansion and you can really see how much they've cleared uh although we were told please do not take pictures of construction uh uh and i i have some pictures

that i'll post on the show accounts. Of the construction? No, of the maze construction. We were told there were parts of the maze we could take pictures of. You can show us those other pictures later, though. I didn't take any. I'll show you on a map. Okay. So this was a funny detail about that soundstage. Two months before we were there and before they did they started the build

out it was the family feud set like they were filming family feud and then emptied it out and started building the stranger thing maze in there wow cool fact player yeah steve harvey might say um it is a full soundstage with like the rap with the catwalks and rafters uh um uh they they talked about using they they were able to use part of uh stage 747 uh one year which uses airplane like your interiors um i think they got it the airplanes oh really okay yeah but but they they were able to get access to some of that but horror nights is fascinating because um i mean a lot of haunts have to share space with operating theme parks but this is sharing space with operating theme parks and a full working movie studio and then they essentially build a theme park within the theme park and

movie studio that runs for 31 nights of the year yeah and so much and this this was kind of recurring when we got to talk to the knots people which we'll get into later but you that you it all the amount of effort that goes into this single month begs the question how do you do the park for the rest of the year because they were saying the knots people were saying we're already thinking about what's going on in 2019 we're not even close to through 2018 it's such an immense layer of production on top of the the typical theme park stuff the knots people were saying that they are secretly starting to put up christmas stuff and you can't see what it like in the background christmas stuff

is going up like in knots already so like it's such a like everything they have to be on top of everything so far in advance to get all this stuff done and to get stuff built as you're saying in either or just a working theme park or a theme park and a movie studio and tv production like it's it is crazy to kind of have to manage all of that some of the mazes he said like a lot of them they start to build sometime between like late may and fourth of july and then they kind of stagger so they're not starting them all at once but yeah the stranger things maze like two three months out from opening and this is kind of the marquee maze this is on all the uh promotional material a lot of the merchandise

there's stranger things based food at horror nights wow um and uh yeah so the the gist of the maze i i mean i don't want to it's horror night's been running for a little while by the time this is up uh i don't think i really have any spoiler spoilers but it's basically like the set pieces from season one so you go through uh the buyer house the house that winona rider and the two boys live in and the letters are on the walls and the um christmas lights are strung up that he uses to communicate with from the upside down they were talking about having to get why are these lights because christmas lights are like on a strand and if one goes out they all go out and they're like oh we

need we need to be able to control these lights into so they had to figure out how to wire these lights so they could control them more individually so oh so what should be like the easiest effect potentially just go by it's crazy it has to be manipulated in this crazy way well yeah and then the attention to detail in the house is is really impressive because you know you're thinking like the show takes place in the 1980s but the buyer family doesn't have a lot of money so a lot of their stuff is second hand from the 70s so there's like kind of uh bicentennial sort of wall wallpaper of like colonial people in the boys room or something and like there's a very shat like orangey couch in the one thing um uh uh yeah so that's it were they uh were like the

production designers of the show uh involved do we know i know a lot of i mean horror nights has their own like production staff and they're able to pull from some stuff from like the universal prop department but then they're just like also scouting like yard sales and estate sales all around southern california to find like period appropriate stuff for this maze and all the other bases so cool and then like the um i'm not so up on stranger things was it like a like just was it accurate that it really it's all it is like walking onto the set and there's some stuff where what i think in the like so you go through the house and then you go into like um you go by like the little uh castle buyer the little fort the kid builds in the backyard you go through the upside down and uh uh that is an interest that room is like a black room

with like some props and and like hanging fiber optics and there's also they were putting in projection effects later to make it look like this weird trippy experience and he's like there's stuff in here from the set there's stuff in here from the stranger things set and like murty had to you know write a treatment send it to the duffer brothers to get their okay and they apparently have like approval like jk rowling yeah they have approval and like first pass got approved by one duffer but not duffer two yeah duff one and duff two i he made it sound like this one i i know some like they've they've had to i'm sure the shining bay is working with like the kubrick people and whatever studio owns that was insanely complicated um but this one it seemed like the duffer brothers

like no we know horror we come to horror nights every year we're into it so we're very excited yeah um but like the attention to need like murty talked about just going through and like he said it took him eight hours to go through each episode to like pulse to like pick sound cues it's like i need that i need that and then we're able to get um access to the actors to record like some audio okay and use audio because in the past they have not been able to uh get people so john has been like i have done the voice of freddy krueger before he has done freddy krueger or like they got people in house to do stuff what well i'm assuming this is a similar but uh when i was about the and we'll get to knots but when i got about to my third or fourth maze and i calmed down a little bit more

uh i started to notice that they have these cues like the scares are on like music cues which i didn't quite notice until i was in like four or five and i my brain was less worried uh and then i was like i noticed in a room like a sting happens and then somebody jumped out like right on the sting so like they're timing stuff like that in these mazes you got ahead of it a little recognizing that pattern yeah i mean not yeah it was in this maybe it was more so in the specific maze i was in but i noticed i did just that was the first time i had noticed that that they're like a whole there must be like every 45 seconds that sting happens and then this one scare happens so like they're timing stuff like what you're saying like with with vote

people saying things and dialogue and music to match up with uh 25 year olds jumping out at you and scaring you and here's another thing that you all may have noticed uh they're scaring you from from an angle from the left or the right they are not getting directly in your path this is a thing that came because someone else on the tour asked has anyone ever gotten punched and they're like jumps out again punches them in the face and he's like the way we work around that is we scare from the angle pop out pop back or like yes from the angle below this is all stuff that after maze three or four your brain starts getting a little more used to of like okay they're not gonna come at me dead on they're really not gonna block me i'm gonna get maybe jumped a little like i'm gonna be a jumpy but yeah it's it's very

interesting this to sort of figure out then the mechanics of the whole thing after yeah because because really for the first couple of maces i was just like oh it's just like that noise in my brain for you know yeah five minutes of the main sure other big thing they cannot touch you right they cannot touch you the way when they audition actors once as scare actors one thing john said they do they put a chair in the center of the room and they say scare the chair and they just kind of have you just kind of have to like act like it's a person and scare around it and he's like if anyone touches the chair they're cut they're out of there wow you have to get as close as you can and get as committed as you can like this is like a real actor like theater exercise that's like in uh is it the first ninja turtles with the bell where the ninjas have to go and get the bell without it making it ring.

They attach like a bell to a dummy and you have to prove that you're worthy ninja by removing the bell. And then I think it's yeah, this is the first one because Raphael helps that ninja kid. And then they remove all the bells without making a sound. So it's like this weird precision where you have to get as close as possible but not disturb the actual chair yeah so the guy who who tried to gnaw on the on the chair and tear it in half with his mouth uh did not pass we should all audition to be scare actors not maybe do it but i'll audition to see if we can pass or maybe do it fine we'll do it i don't care i mean they they were very clear actually at both knots and universal

that it's like scare the people who do the scare acting are from all walks some of the people are professional actors some of the people have nine to five jobs john was talking about a guy who's like i work all day at my job and then i sleep for a couple hours under my desk and then i come to universal and do it and he's like how do you keep this up? And some people do it for five, 10, 20. They just love doing it. And there is a real camaraderie among everyone doing it. The way he described it sounds very familiar. It sounds like a theater company, sort of like,

we're all in this together. We're all putting on the show. And the last night of the haunts, people are very emotional. Because it's's like they well we all did this we all put this show on we all went through this and sometimes there's a all screamed wedding proposal um will you do me the honor being my wife and only matchable angle they don't touch each other they jump back and forth at angles yeah yeah the ring is not actually touched um what else yeah so you go through like i said a lot of the set piece you

end up in the lab um the the and this is all with we just clarify it's with the lights on so there's no scare actors in there this is lights lights on. When I went through it? Yeah. Yes, yeah. So this was, yeah, it was a press tour. Oh, this was, yes. Well, we should say, because we also, at Knott's Scary Farm, we got a preview of some mazes, in which we slowly walked through them without actors and with all of the lights on.

And I'll tell you, I had a wonderful time. Very impressive. Very impressive. I'm just there to see the molding and you know i did go on the mazes in the dark with scare actors yeah both of them you sure did uh good for you i'm gonna brag about it as much as i can you see the lab you see the upside down um and and they're working like up until the you know night before it was still a construction site basically it was still a construction site as you will hear in a few minutes because i

got to talk to john uh do a short interview with john and you may hear some construction sounds in the background but there's like dust in the air we could hear hammers and drills and everything did you have to wear a hard hat uh no they just closed toed shoes was the only request closed toed shoes yeah okay i think that was in the uh email request but that's any shoe no like no flip-flops or sandals oh yeah oh no not those but yeah it's a sneaker is you didn't have to wear boots that's what i'm saying um what else okay uh this i thought was interesting so the monster and stranger things the demogorgon which uh uh the very they very quickly showed us the pictures of like the mask that the actors would be wearing it's insanely detailed uh there's like because they have to rotate through actors like you know you're

not an actor is a scare actor is not it's not there's not one there's like 15 to 16 demogorgons every night because they show up in different parts in the maze depending on what they're doing they maybe they're running like a 30 minutes on set, 30 minutes off set to recover from that. Although some are just impartial makes, so if they're just the hand or just the upper half, they may be able to go a little longer. Yeah. Should we play the interview?

Yeah, I'm just trying to think if there's anything, any other context. Yeah, so we went through the maze, asked some questions everyone kind of chimed in tell us more about the van ride yeah what kind of van was it oh just just squeeze in within a row three i guess there is a van service that's like for universal employees that goes from the upper lot to the lower lot especially with horror nights running and they're working all over the property.

Was the driver entertaining? Like, does he do any jokes like the tram tour guide would? Or was it just a quiet driver? No, they were very nice. I mean, there was also like PAs and office workers and stuff. Sure. The thing that was interesting to me, the talent building. There was dozens and dozens of people.

Like, filling out their start work. Like, scare actors and temporary seasonal hires so crazy time over there yeah and you weren't but you weren't inspired to jump into the fray and say you know i like it this is my home sign me up well it felt like a conflict of interest so but maybe we'll conflict that interest if we all become scare actors if you can find us in the park next year yeah uh so yeah like i said so at the end of the tour uh i got to talk to john for a few minutes and we'll play that right now uh john thanks so much for talking to me today i guess just to get started uh what do you think sets halloween horror nights apart from other uh haunts i think first and foremost it's the attention to

detail that we put into everything we do whether it's a horror movie or a horror television show our ultimate goal is always the same it's to make our guests feel as if they're living that particular horror movie or horror tv show uh the thing i always say is it should feel as if you got up off your couch and step through the tv screen or you got out of your movie seat and step through the movie screen and now you're in the world of the horror movie and you're living it and it's coming for you and and that's what we try to do with everything that we do for the Horror Nights so we put an awful lot of attention into the the scenic the props the you know the set lighting, the audio, everything to serve the story of what we're telling. Great. This question is very specific to our show. Myself and my co-hosts are what's known as little scaredy cats who are easily startled and frightened.

What advice would you have for us for overcoming our fears and attending event like this uh good luck no but uh there's you know i always think halloween is and things like this are very similar to like riding a roller coaster for the first time it's it's facing your fears much in the same way as when you're a kid and you're looking at that big roller coaster that you've never ridden before and um and the other thing i've noticed over time is that people who go through our our mazes at horror nights uh it's very much the same experience as riding a whole you know roller coaster when people come off a roller coaster what do they usually do they usually laugh you know because it's that release of nervous energy and a lot of times when you see people come out of a maze even though they've been terrified they start

laughing because it's the same release of energy so you know i i would in your mind think you're going to ride the craziest roller coaster that goes you know upside down and has 400 foot drops and you'll be in the right mentality for horror nights and just do that like eight times yeah pretty much all night long um some uh some other haunts in the southern california area have kind of uh up the ante with things like putting a burlap sack over your head or simulating kidnapping any desire to get into that uh area no no no i mean every the the great thing about the haunt industry is that they're you know particularly if you're in los Angeles, there's so many different places you can go and experience. And there's so many different flavors to the art of scaring people.

What we do is a very specific thing where we're trying to bring to life movies and television shows. But no, I don't have any desire to put a bag over your head. Yeah, I don't have any desire to put a bag over your head. Yeah, I don't have any desire to do it myself. One last thing I noticed looking at the Horror Nights websites for Orlando and Hollywood, why are they called haunted houses in Orlando? Why are they called mazes out here? Yeah, Orlando calls them houses, and we call them mazes,

and recently we were both, Mike Aiello, who is my creative counterpart in Orlando, and myself and my art director chris were speaking at a convention called midsummer scream and i solicited on twitter you know i asked the fans hey send me questions you like to ask you know mike or myself or chris and one of the first questions i got was that same question why are they called houses in orlando and why are they called mazes in halloween the answer is, we don't really know. They've always been called that.

And as long as, you know, as I've been around, I've been doing Horror Nights since 2006. And, you know, it had a history prior to me, going back to even as early as the mid-1980s, they did it. And back then, they were called mazes out here, and they were called houses in Orlando. And we have no idea why. Wow. So I know that's an unsatisfactory answer, but it's the truth. No, that's great. Frankly, I think mazes sound scary because you could get trapped in a maze forever.

Well, we call them mazes a lot of times because the physical construction of them is like a maze. And when you're walking around in these things, you can easily get lost if you don't know your way around. So that's always been a way we refer to it orlando since the beginning of horror nights in orlando has called them houses so it's just a weird east coast west coast thing sure well thanks so much john sure my pleasure okay so john's advice you know you just kind of overcome it uh and again. Scott and I overcame it once. One time. You'd technically call that overcoming?

I wouldn't call it that. Why not? We went through it. What do you want from us? I mean, I want us to be fans of the haunt now. I'm now a big haunt fan. You're a haunt guy? I'm a haunt guy now.

So you're there. Are you going'm a haunt guy now so you're there like you're like are you well you're gonna go to the hall of fame horror nights i will go to horror night you're gonna go to all right my friend luke uh he a couple weeks ago he was like you know we went last year and he's kind of a scared guy too he goes you know we went last year it was kind of fun you go have a couple margaritas before and i go i like the sound of that he goes you know it's not so bad it's not actually as scary as you think but when i drink it's not okay in the i'm a drunk for drinking all right before we go down this path thanks to universal that's a relaxing drink wine is an alcoholic's drink uh uh thank you record all right just shut

up for a second just trying to be nice to the universe thank you to the universal people for having me uh thank you to john murdy for talking to us uh yeah tweeted him on twitter uh yeah and so we took that advice of yeah so so we again when we were calling for people to invite us to things, which this is all about us getting stuff, this podcast, um, uh, we were invited by another podcast, a long stand, 11 years, I believe is what they said. They, how long they had been doing the podcast. It's called the season pass podcast.

We've mentioned it many times before. Uh, they do great series of interviews with Tony Baxteraxter and other imagineers and this is like the nerd stuff our podcast is like mostly about us and our lives yes smart times making uh we talk about the rides we like those but this is season past like if you're a nerd for this stuff this is it uh you know the real yeah the real info and they they really delve in and they they you know we've now because of them we've had a couple of actual uh theme park people on i guess now with john murdy and the and the folks we talked to yes and not now we've talked to actual industry insiders as well as tony bexter in our live show they've this is who they have uh all the time

instead of some ucb knucklehead describing his vague memory of a ride. Right. Nick Money doesn't know the ride systems at Astroworld. He doesn't know what company built those rides. He's just going to tell us stories from his life. Stories about stealing candy from an actual baby at Astroworld. That's what he did. It's one of his trademark moves at Astroworld. So Doug Barnes and Robert Coker from the season pass were nice enough to invite us to a thing they do every year.

They get to go and hang out, get tours of mazes, get to interview people backstage. They get the red carpet rolled out for them. And they've done this every year, so you can go back and hear episodes that they've done in the past about old mazes and stuff but they invited podcast the ride to join them and this is really i guess our first theme park podcast crossover because if all things go well we're both going to be releasing episodes where each other appears on the others podcast on the same day when this comes out you go over to season pass hear us on the season pass podcast hear us interrupting the theme park industry people with garbage to make wise cracks they're saying like about pig pen in a dirty barn that might be i forgot all

about that oh yeah we addressed pig well we got to like bring up some of our little like uh you know particular knots fascinations like yeah like the freedom center and like studio k their uh their their nightclub and i got to talk i got to ask about the raven a lot from the mystery lodge this is a great tease for there because we we are on this episode a lot so like yeah in the episode i've if i had to ballpark it based on the the time it took to record it i think their episode will be like about four and a half hours i don't think that's uh any sort of joke suggestion of how long it'll be i do think it's going to be that long that's right on the money yeah we hung out and talked to a bunch of knots folks so if you finish

this and you want to hear more head over to season pass podcast and i like the trade that's happening where now we are starting to have theme park professionals on the show and they are starting to have jackass pseudo comedians we're trading back and forth robert and doug kept talking about they had heard the astroworld episode and they thought that nick mundy was funny so if we get mundy on season pass, I think that's a win for us. If we can really cross over the universes. But we're not going to ask if he wants to. We're just going to send him over to where they live.

We're going to send him a forwarded email with an address. And then I'm going to be like, hey, you're doing this podcast. And then the same way that he may had us do this, make this podcast. Oh, yeah. Hey, you're doing the theme park podcast. You're doing the theme park podcast. We're going this pop make this podcast podcast uh you're doing the theme park we're gonna just be like hey you're on the season pass podcast you're just gonna be a guest so like well that'll that'll be when we finally start getting all of the universe all

the characters and monday around yeah finally so uh so we got to yeah we we hung out at uh the backstage at not scary farm this was exciting for me because i probably my highlight of the night was passing through a weird little backstage area and seeing some spare dry rapid ride vehicles just sitting around uh you lit up we're getting rusted out end of a tired day because we've been in the conference room for so long but there were these old just like mildewy ride vehicles and you were like hey you made a noise it's the most excited you wow i got all morning zoo yeah uh i was very excited uh um i was also i was excited to sit at a knott's berry knott's berry farm conference room as well and walk around their offices and see what the decorations that knots people have in their cubicles and we got to go to the company store and peruse exclusive

cheaper jams than a typical just tourist riffraff could look at right they were not uh i was asking if they were um exclusive to employee jam like there's no preserves that are specific there's no employee which they should do employee berry cast member berry yeah but uh yeah we got to go in that we were very excited on the gift shop that's only it's like mickey's of glendale like an imagineering but it's for only employees at knots in a similar way where like you can't normally get into this place and this is this was very unique for me because i really have not been to knots before we went to the chicken dinner restaurant for scott's birthday but i had not been in the park proper so to have the first experience be in their creative department's offices and then backstage at mazes and then dumped into a back door into scary farm in a maze that was built

into the uh what is typically mystery lodge where that prankster the raven lives oh the raven if you want to hear more about the raven there's a lot of raven talk on season pass i kept hammering the raven for sure because who okay so who did we talk to that you'll hear on the other podcast and not this one? We talked to a merchandise gentleman. Yes. About the pins that they've started to make. Mr. Bush. His last name was Bush.

Carl Bush. Carl Bush seems right. Yep. He was a nice, very nice man. I asked him to do, I wanted Barry Tales merch and I wanted Raven merch. He was right on that. He was right on Barry Tales. And it sounds like, I think I wanted Berry Tales merch, and I wanted Raven merch. He was right on that. He was right on Berry Tales. And it sounds like, I think he confirmed Berry Tales merch.

And if you don't know Berry Tales, Google Berry Tales Knots Berry Farm. But Google it with B-E-A-R, because there's a different kind of bear, and different kind of berry. And we're going to, I think we'll start breaking knots off into smaller bits. I think we'll talk Berry tales for a full ep sometime. Because one thing that he brought up a lot is we are two years away. This is crazy. Knott's turns 100 in two years. Yeah.

That's wild. And that's from the very original. He buys the property, sets up a chicken stand. Highs in the chicken stand. And it evolved into a theme park very slowly over the course of that hundred years but for sure that is the roots of that's the earliest roots of the theme park uh i mean he didn't confirm it but i asked about cloud nine and studio k the videopolis of knots the cool dance club merch and he said that there's a lot of people asking about it so he didn't confirm it but i feel like it's pot is very possible this is exciting in the drive for retro stuff which

disney should offer more yeah and i didn't realize that cloud nine had come back for last year's boysenberry festival they like arcade thing which obviously not the full cloud nine there was some like cool teens there there were regular, but they weren't specifically cool. So they're doing a little more of it. I'm happy to see that they're embracing their history. Yeah, because they're retro. I mean, we got some of it. They gave us some shirts and buttons and stuff. And it's like, oh, yeah, the 60s and 70s stuff was cool here, too.

Like a very scratchy kind of hand-drawn illustration style so before we get so before we get into the maze let's you want to throw it to us and backstage at knots oh yeah so yes we got to uh and you'll hear more of this if you check out the season pass podcast but for our podcast for podcast right exclusive we got to talk to a gentleman named jeff tucker who works in entertainment at knots has been there for a long time uh is a show writer there has worked in a ton of capacities i don't think we mentioned this uh on our podcast we mentioned it on the other but uh i was excited to learn if you go on the ride ghost writer uh the the wooden uh western themed roller coaster at knots uh that if you watch the pre-ride video that there's a

like a confused cowboy on it and it's this guy jeff tucker who we talked to and as an obsessive of uh pre-ride videos i became starstruck though i haven't seen this particular video but a cool context for this man he seems to have a dozen jobs yeah he performs in the park still he's doing like an old medicine show he was telling us that's right yeah he's also in your favorite attraction at knots he had performed he had performed at the mystery lodge strange mystery lodge performers oh he was doing that at at current right he was like i gotta yeah i've been working hard i'm training a storyteller right which is what i think that was the first thing you were excited to show me at knots oh yeah yeah because if you go in there that's maybe a little under the radar thing that

you don't know about um so yeah uh jeff does a ton at uh at knots and knows a lot about scary farm is very passionate about it so uh we're going to talk to him over at Knott's Berry Farm. Take it away, us. Okay, thank you, us. And now we are, this in and of itself was pretty historical. This is the first time we've recorded Podcast the Ride from on an actual site of a theme park. We are in a conference room in the bowels of Knott's Berry Farm, and we're here, as we said,

with the season pass guys. What's going on, fellas? Hey, guys! Thank you for having us. Robert, that was like the worst. I thought it was fun. You just mistold our show. Nobody's going to listen to the season pass now after they just heard you do that. That implies

they're still listening at all, Doug. Our guy does a podcast? Whatever. In the past and after, they just heard you do that. That implies they're still listening at all, Doug. Guys, like, whatever. That's true. That guy does a podcast? Whatever. Hey, guys. Thanks for having us. Well, yes, this is a theme park podcast crossover event, and we are also joined by Jeff Tucker from Entertainment here at Knott's Berry Farm.

Welcome, Jeff. Thank you. It's great to be here. Thanks for coming to Knott's Berry Farm. Oh, so excited. Yes. Thanks for having us. Well, to be here. Thanks for coming to Not Scary Farm. Oh, so excited. Yes. Thanks for having us. Well, we're here.

We're in the middle. We're learning about the history of this event, of Not Scary Farm, and what you guys are up to this year. So let us know. What can you tell us about the- Well, I have a question for you. You guys are all terrified of this event? Is that what I'm getting?

Yes. Very terrified. Why are you here? You're terrified. Because Doug what I'm getting? Yes. Very terrified. Why are you here? You're terrified. Because Doug was nice and wanted to hang. It's all the blame on Doug. He'd be like, hey, Jeff, do you want to come do a show about avocados? I'd go, no, I'm good.

I don't care for avocados. You wouldn't like the avocado festival. Oh, God, no. I wouldn't go anywhere near it. I would totally go to the avocado festival. That's where my wife goes every year. I don't like any fruit or vegetable enough to want to go to a festival of any kind. You get to see dioramas of avocados in little costumes.

You're not selling it to me, are you? You know, you work for an organization that does a thing called a boysenberry festival. You'll get paid to go to that one, though. All right, fair enough. John McCluck. Well, I feel like it's a good opportunity. Not only do we want to come and hang out. We just want, I want a me purse.

I only speak for me. I feel like today maybe is the day where I can conquer my fear. Maybe there is a situation today where I get over something that's been stressing me out. We will put you in infected special ops. Okay. That sounds bad. There is a zombie apocalypse aiming for you.

The difference is you have a gun and you get to fire at them and when you hit them, they fall away. Really? So you could conquer your fear by actually mowing them down with a gun. We will get you in that attraction. We should mic you up for that. Alright, let's mic me up.

Hopefully the gun won't jam or something. You're going to be like Animal Mother in Full Metal Jacket. Get some! Get some! That's the character I've always wanted to be. Right, man. Your hero. The great Adam Baldwin. My hero.

Okay, so yeah, I'm thinking maybe this is a growth moment in my life is what I'm saying in your life. Perhaps. I don't know anyone, anything. And I was more interested in sitting in a Knott's Perry conference room. This is what I came for.

Jason, where do you stand? 50, 50. The appeal of behind the scenes and free food brought me down here. So, yeah, I don't know. Uh, we could try it. Uh, well, you, that was a good sell.

That sounds really exciting. And we got to walk around, uh, some of the mazes with you guys from season pass. And that was, that was a blast. Um, but, uh, but yeah i'm we're we're told that you know much about the about the history of this event and uh um or if you if you want to talk about that or how you how what role you play uh this no we can talk about the history the events an amazing event because you're talking about an event that has almost a worldwide reach in that i always i always preface it the same way. Uh, when I was a

kid, I loved Halloween. I loved Halloween. Uh, the problem is that Halloween is one night, right? I used to, I used to agonize for weeks over which version of Luke Skywalker I was going to be for Halloween, right? Is it a black robed Jedi Luke or white robed farm boy luke or x-wing luke right so you put all this work into it and halloween is one night and not only is it just one night but it's about 5 30 p.m to 9 30 p.m right yeah it winds down that's all you get as a kid yeah you got to get out there and get your candy and get home before your mom starts it i still trigger there was no cell phones when i was trick-or-treating so we just had to gauge time to go right so and then if you if you extrapolate that and say that uh what's the first halloween you remember like how old were you eight nine ten

yes because uh i remember there was a front yard there was like where the candy bowl was at this house and there was like a man-sized creature sitting next to the candy bowl not moving and i thought oh it's one of those straw stuff scarecrows that are so popular like we've gone to three different houses that had these man-sized scarecrows. This one lunged at me because it was not a man-sized thing. It was a man. How old were you?

Probably like eight or nine. We'll say nine. I have a better memory. A better memory. Because I was the ghost of E.T. You know how E.T. was in the ghost? I did that. You were E.T. and the ghost? I was acting as E.T. in the ghost i did that you were and the ghost well i was acting as et in the ghost i was actually just a ghost but in your head i think that my parents were really cheap that year and we're like you know you're et inside the ghost as as should we buy the et mask no just

get the sheet yeah that's just the sheet and that that's so i remember that because i was like yeah i was like no no no no. How old were you? I think I was like four years old when that happened. Yeah, because E.T. was brand new then. It was like E.T. was the thing. So I remember that, but I also have a really ridiculous memory as a child. But the average is like nine. And then when do you stop trick-or-treating?

Five. Oh, I'm sorry. About 13, right? Oh, yeah. About age 13, you're like you're like i'm a little too old to be doing that so if we go 9 to 13 we get four years right and if halloween's four hours a night we get 16 hours of halloween your whole life your whole life that matters right so the not family had this idea what if we extend it a little and when they say extend it the first scary farm in 1973 was only a few nights three or four nights at the most and it was the park closed they went up they put some cobwebs around they had people dressed i'm not kidding as the planet of the apes characters walking around yeah because they just

surely they have the rights absolutely not they went to this a few makeup guys and said like what do you got and this is all they had there was no halloween industry in 73. halloween was one night you went and you went to save-ons and you picked out whatever costume came in a box, right? Except for Doug, whose parents were cheap. And you went out trick-or-treating. But the Nod family was like, we can extend this a little. So the park was done up. They played some sound effects records.

And it was a huge, massive hit. So the idea was, is it coming back? It was a no-brainer. And they just kept adding to it, adding more value to it, adding the first walkthrough mazes a couple years later. Originally, the Pekins had monsters in them where if you looked in, they tried to get you. Well, then they said, let's let the monsters roam around. So that became the first Roaming Street Monsters. Then they added more mazes, and then they added Wolfman Jack, who did a

show here. The first show here was Seymour, who was a late night horror host. Now another horror movie. And he actually hosted a movie in the theater, right? He came out, he introduced it, and then there was a movie. Then they had Wolfman Jack, and I've actually seen footage of that show.

It was 1977, I believe. And it's Wolfman Jack in our theater, and he's dancing with Darth Vader, Chewbacca. Wow. Some Jawas. And the clip I've seen, he's just like, everybody, take a look in the audience. Carrie Fisher, Princess Leia herself. And it's Princess Leia. It's Carrie Fisher.

I would have died, right? Wow. Wow. I'm sure they got a big cease and desist. So the event kept rolling and they kept adding more nights. And then they added the the ingredient that really solidified they originally added um elvira that was the big event when they added elvira she was a local uh channel nine horror host she movie macabre she introduced movies she did a lot of

breast jokes and it was a perfect fit putting her in a big vegas style show where she could sing and dance. She's gorgeous. And that rolled through the eighties, man rolled through the eighties. There were a couple of years. We had Weird Al Yankovic here. Elvira brought along John Paragon who played the breather on her show. He was also Jambi. Yeah.

Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. And the Terry there. Yeah. yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah. Mecca Leckahai. And Terry. Yeah, Mecca Leckahai, Mecca Haneyhoe. Yeah, yeah, wow. Great guy. Really great guy.

Oh, really? Oh, that's cool. Oh, yeah. And then the family owned it up until 97. And Haunt was the moneymaker. I mean, it's like printing money. And they created the theme park Halloweenlloween event and they created extending halloween we were talking earlier halloween began in florida at disney world in august

the mickey's halloween treat was in august right that's how much they stretch out halloween halloween is beyond i mean it's crazy because it used to be growing up. Christmas was the big event. Christmas was two weeks off. Man, I ain't going to think about school, and I can't wait to get more Star Wars toys for Christmas. Right? Christmas was the event. And now Halloween has become just as big, and it's huge, and people plan parties, and they have lawn decorations that are amazing. And it all traces back to Knott's Scary Farm in 1973.

It's unbelievable. This is crazy, the level of how much opened up because of this. And you're making me realize that it preceded everything Universal does. It preceded everything. As far as the idea of a hard ticket event where you go and they're going to scare you. That must have been a hard sell back in the day. We're like, wait, wait, wait. People are going to what?

Well, we're going to bring them in and then terrorize them. And they're going to pay for it. Oh, yeah. They're going to pay a premium for it. I don't understand. It still doesn't make sense to us. Yeah, right. So you mean to tell me I'm giving you money for fear? Yes. I don't understand it still doesn't make sense to us yeah right so you mean to tell me i'm

giving you money for fear yes i don't know like that's crazy right yeah it doesn't yeah and it all goes to if you don't psychologically uh we're all going to die it's inevitable we news to us i know right and so if we can face a little slice of it on our terms where we know we're going to face it and we're going to come out, OK, have a big laugh with all of our friends. That's how you bond with people. That's how I mean, that really is. It's not scary. Farm has become because we've been here so long. It's a rite of passage.

You know, your older brother got to go. You counted the minutes till you months till you got to go. And then you have kids and then you wait for your kids to grow up so they can go and so on and so on and so on. And it used to be a predominantly adult event. Kids weren't. Why would you bring a kid? And then then, you know, things like Nightmare on Elm Street happened. And if you during the 80s, Freddy Krueger was on everything but breakfast cereal. I mean, he's a cereal killer.

He kills children, right? Here's a wacky toy of him. Here's a doll. Oh, so now horror is mainstream. Chucky is a literal doll that comes to life. So then we started seeing preteens. Teens and preteens come to the park, right? This year, it's 2018.ens come to the park right this year

it's 2018 I've seen more strollers this year wow than I ever have and people are that's ridiculous

I don't know I've seen strollers and what are those things those baby baby orbs I've seen those in the park

but you know I gotta say every year since we started coming into we always see at least one stroller which blows my mind and I always say the same thing I you know, I gotta say, every year since we started coming into it, we always see at least one stroller. Yeah. Which blows my mind. And I always say the same

thing. I go, nothing says I love you like a lifetime of therapy. Exactly. I'm telling you right now. Yeah, these kids are fucked up for life. Or they're like stronger and hardened by the... De-sensitized. You don't end up with three wimps like us.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think it might steal them up and you don't end up with three wimps like us. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think it might steal them up, and you don't end up with Mike Scott's and Jason's. To a lesser extent, Jason's. If we had been scared shitless when we were babies, we would be fine now. We would have no problems psychologically. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Scare your baby is what we're saying. Yeah, get some chainsaws in your baby's face.

Well, that's the other thing, too. I mean, for all those Strollers we've seen I've never seen one Baby crying In that stroller Like for some reason They're drunk

There's no concept Yeah they don't know What's going on So you know Maybe it is a good way To like slowly ease Them into the whole hunt Well

It might be an easier way To ease them into The state of the world too Truly like Can't is your future get used to it we're all living in a scary farm increasingly uh jeff when did you uh come aboard the organization and what and i started in 1994 wow wow the family still owned the park it was a much different place to work for uh The first Scary Farm I worked at, Scary Farm 94, I think it started the second or third week of October. It only ran for about 10 nights or 11 nights.

Because they didn't have any idea that people would venture out into a scary event earlier than that. The first haunt I worked, I worked at the Silver Dollar Saloon, which is in Ghost Town. It's not a saloon anymore. Now it's a shooting gallery. But we were the only safe place you could run to when the monsters got you. We would be serving drinks, and people would run in. Oh, my God.

Oh, my God. Save me. You're welcome to stay in here, but they're just going to come in here and get you anyways. So what would happen is we'd have girls at the door peeking, and monsters just going, waiting save you. You're welcome to stay in here, but they're just going to come in here and get you anyways. So what would happen is we'd have girls at the door peeking, and monsters just going, waiting for you. I got all night. Is he supposed to do that?

That's what we pay him for, yeah. Well, he's being ridiculous. No, he's being a monster, and you came here to get scared. So it was a weird moment. And the first few scary farms that i worked uh were in the silver dollar saloon uh it was a weird weird time but i used to go watch uh there's a big show we do called the hanging and i used to watch the hanging i'm excited to learn i don't know a ton about the hanging and it's a big pop culture it started out in the early

days as an actual witch hanging where they would parade a witch through the town, and she would be screaming, you can't do this to me. They'd get her up to the gallows, read the charges, put her in the noose, and then there'd be a big puff of smoke, and she would turn into doves and fly away. Oh, okay. We got nasty letters from all of the local witches covens saying that was terrible to do. So then it got changed to we hung a gypsy. Okay.

But then. Got the same letters without the return address. But of bugs. So the show eventually morphed into a pop culture celebration of all the people that entertained and irritated us over the years and i used to watch it and say i could do that i could write that that's my dream i'll write that and a few years later i got an opportunity after showing some writing samples and writing some peanuts shows for the park with charlie brown and Snoopy They said you want to take a crack at the hanging With the writing team and I was like

That's all I've been waiting for So I got to exercise all of those weird demons Of characters I wanted to see in the show And writing that kind of dialogue The first year we did it The Crypt Keeper was in the show The actual Crypt Keeper From the TV show

And this was like this is this was a licensed situation yeah yeah we had the Crip Keeper wow so I got to write dialogue that was sent to New York for John Kassir to the read in the Crip Keeper voice I was like that's the coolest thing ever you know and you know we made it was a very elaborate puppet that would talk and do would do things and we got to do all these jokes like what the hell is that it looks like jim henson took a crap but then you know he fights back and but it was great because like i'd grown up watching tales

from the crypt and like i'm writing dialogue for the cryptkeeper like that's cool right and then uh i've done a lot of writing over the years at the park, all kinds of, hundreds of shows. I did shows in the birdcage where it was like a melodrama of a mad scientist show. I did one that was a fake children's show

called Professor Freak's Funhouse for Kids and then an asterisk that said not for kids. Then I took over Mystery Lodge, and we did two shows in there using that technology where you can really make the audience believe there's a ghost coming to get them. Oh, sure. Yes, because if you don't know that show, that show is built on what the Peppers... They use Holovision, it's called. Okay, okay.

It's a very uh advanced version of that and we did a show where i cast my daughter as a ghost and she interacts with the actors on stage things move and she ends up killing everybody on stage and then she turns to the audience now you've seen mystery lodge you're 15 feet from the stage and then there's a layer of glass separating you from the stage and then beyond that are the the ghost images in that so it's what i'm meaning is there's a big disconnect right and then she turns to the audience at the end and says now i'm gonna play with all you. And we had grown men erupt and scream, you're not playing with me.

We actually have it on season pass. We actually have the audio of the guy screaming, you ain't playing with me. I sat with Doug and I said, I said, that guy right there is going to lose his mind. Yeah. He pointed them out.

And at the end he goes, you ain't playing with me. I like that phrase. Oh, it was great. If we were in there, would you have pegged any of the three of us as losing our minds? At the end, he goes, you ain't playing with me. I like that phrase a lot. Oh, it was great. If we were in there, would you have pegged any of the three of us as losing our minds? It depends on how you're acting and how you were sitting. Okay.

It's the people that are sitting really overly calm, trying to will themselves into being at peace. And then the finale of that show was the exit, excuse me, the pre-show doors opened. If you go through Mystery Lodge the traditional way, you go into a little room where you hear somebody talk and the doors open then you come into the theater well we went in backwards so you never you never went through the pre-show doors so at the end of the show the pre-show doors opened and we had an oversized cutout of my daughter looking demonic and the audience got to see that for about three or four seconds and you hear people on all the videotapes going oh my god and then we had 10 live monsters run through the audience and we had people lose their minds and it was a lot of fun so i've done a lot of really cool things wait wait not to not to interrupt but didn't you say

on a couple of occasions, instead of the cutout, you actually had Josie there? Yeah, there were a couple of nights that she wanted to, because, you know, the images is not her. We filmed it on a green screen, so she was never there. Okay. She didn't have to do five shows nightly. Oh, gosh, no. It's an awful thing to do.

She was seven. Probably not a precision performer. You can go, yeah, if you go on youtube and type not scary farm possessed it comes right up parks and cons put it up that's cool but uh uh there were a couple nights where the doors opened and instead of the cutout it's actually her and those that had seen the show are like oh cool and then she moves and steps off the platform. And that's where we had grown men running, running for the door. Awesome.

Out of here. Yeah. But no, Scary Farm is, in my opinion, it's the greatest event on earth. It is so much fun. I have had more memories created working this event than any other thing that I've done professionally. Like we were talking, you get to terrorize people.

Look at me. I'm 5'6", maybe. I'm chubby. I look like Sean Astin in Stranger Things Season 2. A little bit. Which has been pointed out. He got one on. I'm like, seriously? He's an actor. It was pretend.

There are only so many eligible single people of age in the town of Hawkins. That's right. I know, right? And just to let you guys know, Jeff is like a diehard Winona, right? Oh, yeah, absolutely. Oh, yeah. Important context.

Yeah. So I've gotten to do things here that are amazing. And then I'm probably most well known. I came up with this concept for a maze called trapped, which the idea was you would go, if you go, you're going to go into mazes tonight and you're going to see that you're going in as a, as a communal event,

you are going in with 20 other people and there's 20 people ahead of them and 20 people behind them. So you have to find your spots to get scared, right? Trapped was you go in and the doors closed behind you and you never see anybody else from the public yeah and you awful man this is before the explosion of escape rooms there were other singular type attractions like that before us trapped what trapped did was it proved you could do it on a large scale where you're funneling

thousands of people through a night through these carefully orchestrated locked doors and and and tasks that you have to do and it culminated in trapped year three was the last we did it for three years the third year was my baby me and gus the guy that you met earlier we sat down and said let's make the ultimate halloween attraction unlike anything we've ever done before there were no ghosts no goblins it was all designed to really mess with you um we we had people lose them and you had to pay extra for it. It was $60 extra above the ticket price for a group of six to go in. And if you didn't like what was happening,

you had a safe word. Oh, weird. If you said Boysenberry, the attraction ended and you were escorted out. And you and all your party. Everybody's out. Yeah, so you are and all your party. Everybody's out. Yeah, so you are not a friend at the end of that. Oh, wow.

No. Oh, 60 bucks. You ruined it for everybody. Yeah, see, I'm naive. I thought no one would ever use it. I'm very cheap, right? I'm very... If I spend $60, and it means getting hit on the head,

I'm getting hit on the head, okay? Because I've paid for it. So the idea that somebody would come in and use the safe word, totally alien to me. And when they started, people would use, I go, really? You, you, you, you, you, I go meet him personally. You guys want out? Oh, we have to get out of here now. There's no refunds. We know we just went out. Okay, cool. Hey, we're really works. This thing refunds. We know. We just went out. Okay, cool. Hey, it really works. This thing really works.

We learned a lot of lessons. And the other lesson we learned is that people want to have these interactive attractions up to a certain point. Like in Trapped Year 3, you had to figure out how to get yourself out of handcuffs. You had to assemble a corpse to get a key from a clown. You had to face... Absolutely not. Yeah, right. You had to face a guy in a dress who eventually would put you under a bed, a real bed, that

then would open up behind and slide you into the next room. We did stuff that was crazy. It behind and slide you into the next room. Like we did stuff that was crazy. It culminated in you had to drink urine. Hang on. Oh boy. We had a room that smelled of urine, was filled with jars of fake urine, and we would serve you apple juice with vinegar and salt served warm.

No. Oh, I mean, I'm glad it's not real urine, but that in and of itself is... It's psychological. My wife almost puked. Yeah. Yeah.

She's like almost puking. But you drank the urine, Doug? Oh, hell yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I drank that urine. Everybody would do these tasks up until the last task. And the last task was there was a girl that you kept meeting in the maze who was lost she had a knott's berry farm guest sticker on her and she's like i've i

can't find my boyfriend i and she'd go another way and as soon as she went through a door it locked behind her now she's in on it but people bought it hook line and sinker that she was real so at the end of the maze she's in a noose and you get to pull the lever to hang her and i thought this is great people are gonna love this because it's not passive anymore you're the bad guy you're the villain you're will smith and i am legend right you're not the hero anymore i'm this character yeah and uh was very ballsy of you guys though to set that all in independence hall very confused i'm surprised you didn't get more flack from that yeah well it was a period piece okay that means all the girls all the girls were bitchy um all right okay so we had a lot of people that either boysenberry or simply refused to do it right

so it didn't matter what the outcome was. Somebody would pull the, one of our people or would pull the lever. And I mean, it was very graphic. You went through it, Doug was very graphic and it felt like this is the end. Right?

And then the curtain would open and then we have enough nooses for your whole party. So you get up there on a platform. There's a black cloth Over your head There's a weighted noose on your head The music builds And then the floor drops

And we actually had people Piss themselves Yeah Sure The end of the story isn't Then they're dead So what mazes are we walking through The cross went off But then what? The end of the story isn't, then they're dead. So what mazes are we walking through?

Yeah. The cross went off the list. The biggest compliment I got, and Doug knows where I'm going with this, is we sent Doug and team through with an audio recorder to record it because we didn't allow any cameras in the maze. We didn't want to spoil it for anybody that was going to pay the money for it. And Doug goes through the recorder, and he had gone through the first two incarnations of the maze. We didn't want to spoil it for anybody that was going to pay the money for it. And Doug goes through the recorder and he had gone through the first two incarnations of the maze. The first incarnation was about 17 minutes. The second one, not so good at about seven minutes. Really short. So I said, we're going above and beyond. We're going

to give the guests at least 20 minutes, maybe 25, which if you're under that, because the maze wasn't about terror. It was about stress. We were putting you under duress. You were very stressed out trying to figure out what they wanted from you to get to the next room. And there were people yelling at you and you would have a success. And the very next room, there would be like a success is they hand you the keys. You've done it.

Here's your keys. The next room is you're not getting out to give give me your keys and the next room is we need the keys where's the key and it was very designed a literal nightmare it was to it was a nightmare of anybody who like we we stressed people out until they said boysenberry right so doug goes to and i'm i get out i'm waiting for him at the end like Mr. Rourke, how was it? How did you enjoy? And Doug goes, Jeff, we got a problem here, man. I'm like, Doug, what's the problem? You said it was

going to be like 20 minutes and it wasn't. It was like 10 minutes and we're, what do we do? I go, Doug, what are you talking about? He goes, we were in there like 10 minutes. I said, Doug, you were in there like 35 minutes. No, we weren't. I said, 10 minutes. I said, Doug, you were in there like 35 minutes. No, we weren't. I said, you were.

I said, check the tape, like in contact. Check the tape. And it confirmed you were in there. Not for 32 minutes. 32 minutes. So it was so stressful. You were thinking. It was just so intense.

It was just so tense. It was so engaging. And it just seemed like everything was so impactful, that whole moment. It just flew by. It just flew by. And then when we got out, yeah, I thought it was like 10 minutes. I'm like, I can't lie to my audience, man. I don't know what to tell them.

Yeah, he was really concerned. And I just didn't understand. Because I'm watching Jurassic Park. We have all the monitors of the maze. They're entering the pedophile paddock. You know what I mean? Right. So like I,

I watched the whole time. I, I'm timing it. So it was really, it was the ultimate compliment, the ultimate compliment. So, you know,

long story, endless. I've had amazing adventures at scary farm. And the weird part now is with, we have new creative new creative teams in place that I'm a part of. It seems like the best is yet to be. And that all the successes that we've had in the past are just the tip of the iceberg. Because we have people now that are telling us, think outside the box. Find new ways to scare people.

Find new ways, like he said to engage people and that's where the future is gonna be and I'm so excited to be a part of it and the team that I'm part of is just amazing because we have these think-tank meetings where it's like nothing's off the table no no ideas too crazy you know and I'm like I've been thinking about scary farm my whole life you know I first went in 88 when I was 16. So I'm ready, man. There were ideas in the first year that I said, you're going to let us do that?

Oh, awesome. Really? Yeah. Because at the finale of first year, we actually got morgue drawers. And we pulled them out and put people in them and closed you up in a mortgage drawer. This is beyond the pale. And a casket. And a casket.

This claustrophobic man got pegged to get into the casket. Oh, wow. And you went to, like, wouldn't that have been, that didn't trigger you? Oh, no. I felt the boysenberry in the back of my head. It was starting to move a bit more. But Jeff was with us and we were actually recording. I'm like, I can't. You can't boysenberry out. back of my head it was starting to move a bit more and but jeff was with us and we were actually recording i'm like i can't you can't push out i can't push out oh yeah

when i'm recording like i was saying earlier content yeah yeah yeah that content how long did i lay in that coffin oh three or four long minutes in the dark there's a there's a side that you find out on the side that you can actually get out of that coffin. I just laid there for like four minutes straight. Jeff opened it up twice. Dude, get out of here. I couldn't move. And then finally Jeff opens up.

He goes, Doug, scoot to the left. And he closes it. And I'm like, oh. Yeah. And then what was really cool is. I did it. You guys would be a puddle at the end. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

At the beginning, probably. You were led out to the arcade where there's a big sign that says, I survived trap. Yes. And there's a guy taking a souvenir photo. There's people playing video games. The maze is over. Except you're still in the maze. So when he takes the picture picture all the lights go out

and the people playing video games turn around and they're in on it too oh it was fantastic there's so many times i was like i can't believe we get to do this right this is great geez yeah this is all crazy but if i could pitch you an idea that is like the ultimate like you know just fear psychological stress test if you could create an experience where somebody had to complete a four-course meal at a colonial themed restaurant in 15 minutes yes yeah yeah yeah yeah people are yelling at you you have to you're getting alerts about your plane pudding Red pudding is coming. Isn't that one of the sequences in Seven? I mean, isn't that?

The ultimate. It would have to be an upcharge. Oh, definitely. $40. Now, were you on a raised dais or just at a table? Because in my head, you're like on display. No, no. It was a tiny table yeah no that's

how it felt like i was exactly watching me but no it was a tiny table uh in a crammed uh old timey hole of you ever seen that when we talked about this this was if you missed this this is a previous of mike's uh disney world nightmare uh yeah i had i ate an all-you-can-eat meal for four. And also, because I was waiting 45 minutes, I forgot to get the table also, so that cut down my time. That was another wrinkle to it. At the door, the Rabinowitz family from Michigan is like, is that guy by himself?

Yeah. We're waiting for a table. Where is that older man's children? Where are they? But you were totally right when you said, if somebody did that here in California, we wouldn't bat an eyelash no yeah no we'd assume he was a blogger of some sort yeah yeah or a podcaster we just automatically assume it's content for something that nobody would really do that by no one enjoys themselves in this state or we're all just making content

welcome to california um what's up guys uh uh well jeff thanks thanks so much for being here and for uh sharing all this info uh uh about all the the nightmares yeah check out knots.com there's a scary farm link there go on any social media and put in hashtag scary farm and you can see thousands of pictures of people being terrorized what a dream it brings a tear to my eye that's all i've ever wanted um well yeah thanks so much for for having us and uh doug and robert thanks for being here you you all survived podcast the ride which but not the audience yet because they aren't done.

We have more to say. So we're going to take it back to us in the studio with the magic transporting safe word, boysenberry. Boysenberry. Thank you, past us, and past Doug, Robert, and Jeff. Yeah.

That was us also. That was a little undersold. You heard them chiming in a little bit. Our friends now from the Season Pass podcast. So, I mean, that's a pretty good history. There's a lot of history there of, like, Knott's. And honestly, I didn't realize that all of, like, all of the influence Knott's has had just on Halloween in general

and, like, expanding and how long Halloween lasts at these places. And yeah, not, not an innovator in a lot of ways that I don't think people always realize, but I certainly think so. And we've, now we've talked about not very far in before, and we've talked about the,

uh, the, the mine ride and the, and the log flume over there. And, uh, but, uh,

Jason had not been on these rides and it was a pleasure last night to go on these to watch you go on these rides for the first time and there is so much undeniable influence on other rides on disney rides in all of those like super crucial absolutely delighted by the calico uh mine train and the timber mountain log ride halloween hootenanny edition yes yeah oh wait did you guys write down the details of who the like what was added to the the timber mountain well i i mean i have the stuff burned in my mind uh there was a frankenstein there uh because this is a there was a sign on the outside that says like that there's a band because it's a halloween ho says like that there's a band because

it's a halloween hootenanny that there is a band playing and i don't remember offhand the name of the band i looked it was we come around that corner so fast on the thing i because i that's what i was looking i was looking at the drum head okay and i was like what's the name of that we're gone yeah i wish i knew offhand there was an alien yeah Einstein. There was an alien. Yeah, a couple aliens. There was a cute little gray alien. And then my favorite thing, at some point, there's an animatronic bear who looks right at your log and goes, trick or treat. Yes.

That was so good. And I didn't know it was coming. He kind of talks right at you. Yeah. So exciting. It was so delightful. And also, that log ride goes so fast like we go so fast that was a log of five that was the three podcasts right guys there's four full-sized

adults and one jason-sized adult in that log sitting in scott's lap imagine that listeners the delight was in my lap doug was in robert's lap we were all this that was the ultimate crossover of groins of groins uh yeah and then the final drop like you are you like don't see it until you're doing it there's a little bit of a bump there that almost launched me out of the law a little geez yeah so you I was in the back of the log and I heard you heard you exclaim because I don't think you realized it was such a big drop no I got like what was it the bump you were reacting to I see like maybe it was because I was the first one like I really felt it but like it felt

perfectly safe it was just startling out of nowhere they're also like blasting a strobe light at you that was an interesting thing about i'd done the ride during the day i didn't know how they modified it uh for halloween and it's uh it's great it's it's it's a lot of fun i was expecting scaracters the whole time and they haven't passed have had them apparently maybe not now after the first minute i was like seems like it's just gonna be a delightful band friends so uh I like this. I think what happens, because I've watched video with this characters, the actual human beings.

And the thing is, these rides were not built for that. So the only place they can put humans are in all the exit hallways. So it's like, you can see where all the actors are coming. There's no way to get a really genuine scare out of people because they can't let them get too close to the water because they're gonna fall in the water they're like there's no it's really kind of pointless they tried it i think and i think it seems like what's really the point of this so like maybe they retire they have best characters uh best used in other places like everywhere in the park everywhere in the darkness yelling at you

through the fog scraping the ground scraping the ground we learned that they have metal on their knee pads and on their boots to like make these horrifying scraping sounds i got the name of the band for you here the calico coffin creepers delightful yay that's like the name of what would play a monster mash type song a novelty song in the 60s the mine train too also like i think robert pointed this out like this ride is grandfather because you are so close to the walls and see a link he was just touching the wall because it's so and i was just the lighting in there and the end of this the number of of animatronics and just the scope of like this giant like is truly incredible that primary like so there's a kind of a room that you pass through on several in several different ways in several different layers this main uh

big mind scene with so many animatronics a jaw-dropping amount of animatronics and i was saying to jason it reminded me a lot of the main room in the Indiana Jones adventure. Because you get, you, you pass through it this way and then weave into another place, but then you're back in the main room, but you're lower now. And,

uh, you can, and it's, and obviously an influence on big thunder. And obviously the, the log flume of the influence on splash mountain, there's just so much Disney DNA there, which I'm sure

tony baxter would tell you um so i don't yeah if i feel like there are a lot of theme park fans who have never taken the time to go to knots and you you there's you can get a lot out of it but uh you could a lot to appreciate there um those two rides are really great um and so yeah as we were saying before though uh earlier we toured two mazes with the lights on. Yes. Much like you do with Stranger Things. And those are the two new mazes. One's called Dark Entities and the other is called The Depths. Yeah.

Let's talk about those. So let's talk about those real quick. The Depths is a, it's aquatic themed. You end up facing a sea monster, of a kraken thing yeah there's a bunch of miners on earth uh an ancient evil oh that's fish based ancient evil even though it's a mine yeah it's fish it's fish it's a seaside town that's right you enter the lighting effects weren't up and going for us but you enter like a you enter a shaft uh like an elevator shaft and you're supposed to recreate the effect that you're leaving and you enter a shaft uh like an elevator shaft and you're supposed to

recreate the effect that you're leaving and going into a different room we didn't do that i don't have that working okay so we just walked we just walked through all fine obviously all fine with me lights on lights on no scare actors because i remember we're so we're walking through this in my brain and i'm sure it's similar to your guys's or you're like oh i'm imagining i'm walking through this with people jumping out and i'm trying to remember things i'm trying to remember oh this looks like a little cubby hole for a human to jump out at me and they're also showing us fun stuff first of all it is very cool it's cool to see the effects they have these big practical monsters they have also spoiler alert i guess if you're going to knots uh they

have yeah as we're saying a giant octopus they have this like i'm trying to remember maybe that's actually the other maze they had that no that's the other maze there was an alien head that pops through like a window at you oh this had like fish this had uh like fish monsters and yeah you could go it could show up at any one of three windows. So people wouldn't know where it was coming. Yeah. So, and there's a shark, there's a crazy shark at the end. Yeah. It's really bloody and like is giant. Like it's very cool.

There were dozens and dozens of people. And then there's, so we're going through the depths and there, I'm trying to really keep a mental note of the scares for later. Like, cause I'm like, I'm going to have to do this later. You want to outsmart it. And I'm going to outsmart it. And, and the one thing that was disconcerting or the one thing that I thought I was

not going to be able to do was that they explained there was this one room and that later there's going to be laser and fog, which is going to make it feel like, or at least look like you're walking through water. And they were like, there's going to be actors under the fog and lasers. Right. And I was like, Oh shit. fog and lasers right and i was like

oh shit and it is legit i was like that sounds awesome oh my god i don't want to deal with this because that's terrifying and i don't like people i can deal with i think the people coming from the left or right ago but i don't want top or bottom scares that sucks but i was like okay so you gotta remember they're gonna be like walking on the ground when you're here later so we did that and then we did um wait well so what then did you do it what is that does that factor into the later story well yes i did it i i did it and well i'll get to that in a second i'll get to that there's a little more of an arc you know hero's journey really of me getting to go onto the depths uh so then we did dark entities and it's like a very aliens uh type maze and we're still going through the previews and that's very cool because there's robots they build a robot or two robots really and they're like old school

50s robots and there's a giant alien at the end of it and again i'm like okay remember the alien is here at the end he's gonna be moving giant puppet like giant yeah crazy i was kind of blown away that that even existed at knots because i was like this seems i don't know i don't know why i just didn't expect giant puppets yeah those everything we saw in that Avenue was so impressive. And again, this is made for like less than two months. Yeah.

The attraction is like, and not, I thought this was really clever. Uh, the big, not a billboard outside of knots. They listed this year, they listed all the dates it was running.

And when a date, like a day ended, like you would write on a physical calendar, they put a slash through it. So like if you were driving by, you know, like a day ended, like you would write on a physical calendar, they put a slash through it. So like if you were driving by, you know, like there's only 15 days, there's only 10 days left. So, yeah, so we, so we did those two and it legit, we got to walk through with one of the lead designers.

I think the guy from dark entities and you can hear again, all this on season pass where there's a live walkthrough of us doing this. So go over there if you want more details about us walking through a thing uh and my concern about what the uh national labor relations board would have to say about all jason is a good runner yeah there's a theme of you like throwing people off all day at knots yesterday they weren't prepped for the wit and wisdom little like don't make it sound like i'm just trying to derail funny good jokes let's let the listener decide

fair enough the season past people might be more serious theme park fans who is this guy and what does he think he's doing we will be the bug main of their podcast the same ratio

I tried to go back and forth between jokes and then like a question i thought might be legitimate yeah um so yeah we'll see how that comes jason did that too look i know i'm just being silly i guess i'll say here now that we went out for drinks for my birthday the night before oh yes this is good context yes yeah so if you'll recall um the i believe it's the small world episode from last year a similar thing happened where uh i was in a bad way oh yeah that was after your birthday too yes that's right uh so um i you know i had some french fries at portillo's and i drank a of water, and I sort of perked up once I was on microphone and just did a marathon for hours and hours. You were very concerned before this.

You're like, oh, it's going to be probably a long day at Knott's. Like, my birthday's the night before. I better take it easy. There was a whole discussion about it. And then when we were talking at your birthday, your birthday was very nice very low-key nothing wild the thing the place closed at midnight and then like we hadn't talked for maybe 45 minutes and i was talking to other people there are and then it closed down and you walked over and i went oh shit he's really drunk and like you like you you were like and as mike as always the arbiter of very drunk no yes you weren't as drunk as

scott as any given night i lost track of time it would i lost track time i at some point in the evening i was like oh i closed at midnight we got lots of time and then the more drinks i had i was like i time is moving weird and also like that like, that night, there was, like, lightning strikes going on and, like, rain going. You were having a great time. Yeah. I was just, I wouldn't have been concerned other than I knew that tomorrow was a long day. I, but, you know, I'm a professional. I showed it up, ready to work.

I know, I know. I did it. I texted you in the morning. I was a little worried I was going to have to wake you up. And you were like, I am showered. Oh, can I read the texts you sent me at night? Oh, yeah, I guess. I sent mike some very uh you know i just want to say i love you guys so much and i'm afraid to say it to scott sometimes but like i just think he's the best and uh

haven't i complimented you enough like uh apparently not i guess not michael's got an alcoholic and i i had like i was that that is that used up all my energy of like i'm going to text michael and i'm going to text my friend lorraine who gave me a ride home i should also say i uh while walking up the driveway to get home, I ate it very hard. I really attacked the ground and have a large scabbing gash on my arm and my right

thigh is still occasionally in pain. So, I'm going in hot. Happy birthday to you. I was ill Saturday morning. I texted you. in and out of sleep on the drive down to knots yes you've nodded off we were driving a couple times you were closing your eyes i was like you asleep and you're like i'll be fine uh as we're listening to

the new elvis costello album yeah which to me sound i just chalk up to being dream music now like you made it up there is no album there is no out yeah all right so this is the text i texted you at like 1 a.m and i said did you make it inside and you said yes i'm good period thank you for your concerning which reminded me of like the tiny tiny for your concerning yeah and then you, this is just a demand or a command. You're driving to knots. I'm still collecting myself, but I'll be good to go once I have a live mic. And that was right.

Put me on and I shine. It was a little difficult getting out of the house and into a lift to your house you're taking a lift i still had the dizzies when i woke up so oh the anyway i do this like twice a year like this is not i'm not like a problem like scott does yeah no i'm not with my full bottle of wine each night yeah uh so yeah so that's where you're coming from so i'm coming in hot so yeah so we do these two mazes and then we go and do what felt like uh six hours of interviews um so then they're like they're basically saying then you're gonna get to go out in the park and they're gonna give you like this is great like we're getting wristbands that are front of the

line wristbands they're like so nice to do this for these guys and then for them to invite us so we go out in into the park and immediately we go to one of the mazes we're first the plan was kind of like maybe we have a drink maybe we have a beer uh and then that eases us into it but it was like you know what acceptable amount to an acceptable amount one or two that's the way to drink but logistically that did not really work oh yeah to drink before we went into the park what do you mean just yeah we were backstage and we had to go to our cars and and that sort of thing so um yeah yeah so we so they were i think jeff was like well the zombie one is right here you may as well go right here to the zombie one the only way reason i got on i was gonna try

to slip off right out of any guy was the one i was like he's gonna peel off he's been telegraphing it all day jason told me i will do one or two earlier so i was like okay scott is gonna leave quickly jason is gonna stay him for one or two maybe, but then I don't know how he's going to get back because I drove him. So he has to go with Scott if he's going to leave. I felt more confident when they're like, oh, we'll go to the zombie maze first. In that one, you are given a gun. Yes, you have recourse.

Then they lunge at you, you shoot a target, and it'll fall back. And I'm like, that, I am into that. Although some of those zombies did not have targets so they just kept coming regardless yeah so it was like it was more of a maze i actually thought it was gonna be more of a game but it seemed like just a maze with a gun pretty much and i didn't even check my score at the end i forgot that was a thing to be done somebody said i had nine kills but i for sure shot a lot of the people on our side so i should have had more kills yeah yeah yeah i guess i was just shoot i was just every which way

and here's what i so i'd be it's probably been a very long time since i've done anything similar to similar to a or amaze and what i i was i was pleased that i never went like ah i didn't like shriek but what i just what decided to do, kind of inspired by that now I've been doing Splash Mountain and I did that log flume last night and I did the Incredicoaster. And I think I described previously that launch coasters, I get this weird shortness of breath or something that happens. And I realized, oh, the way to overcome that is to kind of project and yell. And maybe that's how I get over it.

I combat that by just letting a big sound out. And I decided to employ that in this maze. So at every possible turn of a scare, I was just going, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no no no no and that i that did it for me it made me feel like a i felt like a dog who is a little scared but trying to going overboard to prove that no i own this this is my territory i was doing i i don't i was sort of doing a similar thing and i sort of settled into a rhythm of it later um where it did feel like that you can kind of like take ownership of the of the situation a little bit or like you're not you're not a victim you're gonna come so i was like kind of commenting i was like sort of trying to be a little funny and then like when robert

would get scared legitimately i'd be like yeah take that robert like i would i would say stuff like that and like try to make douglas so i'm trying to distract myself you're shaming our new well it was such good natured it was good natured like the alcoholic joke you know i wasn't being serious i didn't really want to see my new friend robert get scared you know i'm just razzing i'm just breaking balls that's what we do on podcast the ride you guys we break each other's balls like the cellar right exactly like the great place the cellar yeah we all did a set last night so we um so we did this thing but to contextualize like scott was saying how he reacts to this stuff when we were backstage uh scare actor um we were all going to the bathroom and uh i was waiting outside and a scare actor went into the bathroom without his mask on and when he was coming out he had the

mask on and i had looked away and i looked up and was startled uh by this monster coming out of a bathroom it was fully lit like backstage fully lit office office building a monster casually walking out of a stall scared you so you know that the actual jumping and banging on a wall yeah and we were look there was people we saw monsters on their lunch break like we saw the people yes behind the seat i wasn't afraid of a monster eating a sandwich that was great i love that i love seeing monsters eating under a tent and i think i've said this on the show before one of my favorite comic-con memories is seeing the flash villain captain cold going to the bathroom like in a big parka going to the bathroom at comic-con yeah i love

that um so yeah so so we went, we went through the zombie thing. It's called Special Ops Infected. And there's a cool part where you go through like kind of a subway car, which stressed me out because it's closer quarters than the rest of it. But it wasn't so bad. So, we get out of there. And my first feeling about it wasn't because I was hoping I was going to go through it and go, not so bad. You like this now. I was hoping that was what was going to happen. it and go not so bad you like this now i was hoping that was what was going

to happen and it wasn't really it was more what you're describing where i was like do i need this do i mean it's like i like the subway car part but like the game wasn't that fun it wasn't that satisfying to blow away zombies because it's like they're humans and they're trying to pretend but they're not going to fling themselves against walls over and over again so like we got out there and i was like okay i don't know i want to do more but i had the same feeling of like why do i need this necessarily but then then we said let's go get a drink we sat down at a i don't know what restaurant it was but it had a giant two giant pictures of mr and mrs not on the wall which i loved cordelia walter and cordelia regular pictures their eyes did not follow you anywhere right so we did that and then we went on those two

dark rides that we mentioned yeah um and at that point we got the peace out tapped out tapped out because as i we were in line for uh uh we all had one beer some some people got back in line for that too and i leaned over to mike and went i think i'm crashing i have the shivers like when i start to get real tired i start to like you had the disease earlier the disease and the shivers and i this sometimes this happens after comedy where it's just like oh the the the adrenaline is wearing off and i am crashing and like certainly after hours of podcasting when i was not a hundred percent and then being scared i mean we went through scare zones i didn't know they were so dark but then it's also very crowded but the scare actors get

in between the crowds but there's also a lot of teens they're doing teen bits and i'm like is that a teen goofing or is that a ghoulie or a goblin so i was you clutched my arm at one point that was adorable that is anytime i've had to go through a haunted house like i think i did that there was like a haunted house at like a school dance once and i was like clutching the arm of like a teacher or a friend like it was embarrassing i went embarrassing the house of horrors a couple years ago i told it on the show with my friend with my friend at universal before they got rid of it obviously um and i was just embarrassing i was dodging and yeah making weird noises and especially when i was a kid and we went i went through like a very mild version

of it and it was just i couldn't i couldn't deal with it like what you're saying and they have these they were telling us that they have like metal on their shin like or their knee pads and their shoes to make like louder noises so they're encouraged to slide and make these yeah and it's it's very effective but it's hard it was it's kind of hard to tell where it's coming from but it's very unnerving and and they'll just pop up at you i that didn't bother me so much as or that actually didn't bother me as much as i thought it would because there's so many people around and even though there's like a giant scary masked person like it's not close quarters the close quarters i think is the thing that especially

freaks me out about it sure so like that i didn't mind as much so we get on those those two rides and i will say that i was already i was feeling what your i was tired and the first maze didn't do much for me but when we went on those two dark rides and the lighting that's a really nice beautiful cool looking piece of uh real estate all of the uh that whole area is so great and after we got off the log ride i was feeling very good again and i felt really like we got it i got to do it so you guys so we tapped out especially once raw once they reminded us like oh yeah don't forget this park has multiple entrances and x like you can go out the back right right around the corner and we're like

great because that part of the park has a lot of attractions so there's not a lot of scares back there because they need to get people on and off those attractions we didn't see anybody on the way i didn't see anyone right yep so some yeah some zones don't have much and then we went through his own later and it was like clowns everywhere and like there was not many there were not many people around we almost went on hang time the roller coaster wow we almost did it but i was so we were sort of running out of time and i had to come back at a certain point I couldn't be a hero all night I want to do a full day there and get the

full experience I mean Hangtine seems cool I'm so psyched to do those rides again Knott's Mary Farm is coming up which again that just sounds delightful we should tease it at the end but we will be back for the Boysenberry Festival I think we can confirm this now a tease that is gonna be very exciting listeners but we will be back for nots

berry farms everybody's got there he's got the shivers at home now and the dizzies and the dizzies so the next thing so doug is like you gotta go on dark ride you gotta go dark ride maze and i was like okay because at first it sounded like we were gonna just do the other two mazes and then go home because that's sort of what we were discussing. Doug's like, you know, you got to do Dark Ride. It's like an old carnival that's shut down. And I was like, okay. So we go in Dark Ride.

And there's a lot of clowns on Dark Ride. And we go through Dark Ride. And I'm still feeling the same way I was feeling about the zombie one. Where it's like, I don't know, people are jumping. And you get to the last room and there's a big kind of clown, almost like Joker style, like, you know, an old carnival. It's been converted into the lair. And I remember going, okay, this is kind of cool. I kind of like this.

And it's, again, open air, which is, I think, a big deal. Like not feeling like you're claustrophobic. So we left that. We then, it's clear like Doug is trying to very, and Doug is a very nice man, but he's trying to get me to go on all of them. And then'm like okay you know you're you can do this you can it's fine you made it through two we go into shadowlands and shadowlands here i'll show you the art of it cool it's kind of cool like oh yeah it's a whole different it's like a samurai motif and it's like there's like zombie geishas and like guys with big swords and we're getting better

i'm get i can feel i'm getting better on it so i'm walking through and i'm like oh this is cool the art direction is kind of cool and there's some like interesting things and i actually kind of look at a person that's trying to scare me for the first time as opposed to like darting my like i don't want to even look at what you're doing. And then you start to be like, okay, maybe I'll just look at the actor and go, oh, yeah, you're like 28. Like, maybe then it'll start. So, I'm starting the wheels in motion. Now, I don't fully love Shadowlands. I'm not fully, like, enjoying it.

But I'm like, I can feel it getting better. So, we go over to, I forget the order. We go and do the depths, which we went to earlier. Yes, which we saw in the order. We go and do the depths which we went to earlier. And we went through it and I knew where all the scares were, which was good. Very good. And we get to that room with what I was saying

with the water and the lasers to make it look like you're walking through water. And I see there's just hands coming up through the fog. And the thing is though, once I up through the fog. No, no. And the thing is, though, once I got through the room, I was like, okay, yeah, no one's going to grab you because they can't. They can't.

So once I got through the room, I was like, by the way, that's maybe the first time where I was clear-headed enough to be like, this is awesome. Like, it is a truly very cool visual thing. There's like weird hands, like fishy hands coming up through the water. And I'm like, all right, that's cool. So then we go into dark entities. And dark entities, we saw with the lights on. Dark entities with the lights off is awesome. Like the lights, because they were saying it's 12,000. Yeah. Like it's like quadruple the amount of lights they have in a normal maze so it looks like an alien ship and the robot is working

the robot is talking i walk in there and i feel the first time in these mazes i feel some joy coming from like my brain for the first not not that I didn't like appreciate the lab, the depths. Cause I was like, the depths is cool. I like the effects of ship rocks. I get on dark entities and I go, this is cool.

So the robot, there's this fifties style robot and you see another version of it later. And we walked through there and I was like, this is awesome. This legit. And it's, there was still scares. I still was like,

Oh, like a lot of times, but then I was like, ugh, a lot of times. But then I'm like, okay, I got this. Yeah, you're doing it. And then it's like this feeling of riding a bike or something. I'm like, I think maybe I'm good and maybe this is good now. So then the last one we did was, let me see. It's called Paranormal Inc.

And again, this is spoilers for if you want to go um and it's very much like paranormal activity like uh like hospital with people that are tortured by ghosts or whatever so they have a whole pre-show now so this is the final thing i did this is the final thing we did uh they have a whole pre-show of like a fake show that's a paranormal investigation show so now it's even more like a theme park ride they have a pre-show video oh i should mention too there were like video displays in that alien ship too with clearly like people that work there just for that and all that stuff is very cool and makes you feel very it makes it so much more immersive so let me go to paranormal inc and there's a whole pre-show

with like a girl who's showing like i'm on this show and i'm talking to this and that's very fun and then something goes wrong i'm like ghost so so robert i think goes hey look up there so i look up there and there's a really cool video effect of like a girl appearing in this glass and all of a sudden the girl breaks through the glass and on a wire she shoots across the ceiling and i was like whoa and i wasn't it wasn't it was far enough away where i wasn't like scared i was like this is awesome so then we went through this paranormal which is like you're going through an asylum and i'm leaving out so many details uh you can look at all these on youtube um but the coolest thing i think that was that the last so you're going to the hospital people scaring you you're're going through people in hospital beds and stuff.

The last section is a long corridor in a hospital, and it flashes back and forth. Somehow, I do not know how they do it, you'll be walking down a regular hallway, and then a flash of light and a noise, and it's like you see through the walls, and it's hell. And there's monsters and there's monsters there's a giant monster and then the flash happens again and you're back in a normal hallway

and i was like holy shit like i and like that was legit as cool of an effect on any ride that i ever see like any like seeing like shanghai pirates where he captain jack turns into a skeleton or something stuff like that legit i was like i don't know how this is happening i'm in the middle of this this is awesome so like we left on a high note and i truly felt so it's so embarrassing how triumphant i felt for doing six mazes and then i do think they were stacked almost in the perfect way to like the stuff that i would really be like interested like i love alien shit and like and then ending with probably maybe the most most spectacular of all the illusions and all these mazes and then by then you could just appreciate that aspect of it and not be freaked

out and yeah so like i kind of i that's why i'm saying like i would like i probably will try to go to horror nights before the season's over i kind of wouldn't mind going back to knots and doing because we we did a lot of podcasting but it would be kind of fun now to go back and just do the night and have a good have a good time with it so i yeah it was great honestly by the end i was like these are great i don't know if i love those first few as much but yeah so go to knots if you're around it's fun there's a lot of teens you know there's some of that but i i i'm in i'm a haunt guy yeah the biggest fear still is the presence of course but besides that and i just like i mean they we get into this a little on the season past

podcast but it is nazis like essentially a need they refer to it as a neighborhood park because there's like houses so close right and it it is uh very intimate very small and you know they have talked about like oh we have to get creative because we don't have like the insane budgets that like Disney and Universal do, but they've got very cool people working there and they do have some money and there

is some like very cool stuff going on down there. Paranormals, especially that one, and that one's the most popular for that reason, I would assume, but like the money went into that and like there is, they are still pulling stuff off there that like you would think a place with a bigger budget would have would only be able to do so yeah certainly also at halloween they put the charlie brown characters into costumes such as one of them in a frankenstein head and uh snoopy in like a sheet and uh i think

that's great too i just want to give some uh vocal some uh air time to that yeah look you you said it on the show yesterday i think you said on the season pass we can't remember i don't know what was what which is going where no idea but yeah that is look i love the peanuts i love them with the costumes on too so yeah i, I get what you're saying. That's what you get all the flavors. Things for everybody. I also want to say, and I, I, this is just a thing that like I love and I talk about all the time.

If you tread, if your taste trends more towards the whimsical part of Halloween and you are in Los Angeles, uh, the local haunt Boney Island, which is a bunch of delightful skeletons doing fun tricks. And there's a little water show. It used to be in someone's yard in Sherman Oaks. And then that got too big and too popular. And they took last year off as they kind of had to reset and figure out what they were going to do. This year, it is in a section of griffith park and it is bigger and there is like a nominal

admission fee but i'm so happy it's back i'm so happy to go i believe it's also right next to the ghost train uh uh which is another fun like whimsical thing that i i know our past guests justin michael and mr strickland are big fans of um these are very different and family friendly than like say the haunted hayride uh i was that scary maybe i'll conquer the haunted hayride that is i think yes supposed to be there's a limit for me here as far as being able to do scary stuff so yeah but you're no you're no longer what is it you're a no you were a no frights queen no frights queen but i'm now a fright school you're a fright queen yeah yeah uh so but yeah bony island and ghost train uh i'm excited to

to check those out this year uh we are not being paid to say that no yeah we're not being paid to say any of this we're not but they to say any of this. We're not. But all these places gave us things and keep giving us things. Sure. Please. And I hope you're all happy for us listening that we got the things. Yes. Are you happy for us? Let us know in the comments.

If you could both say that Michael Carlson, you survived Podcast to Ride while you look into my eyes, that would be really good. Michael Carlson. Both at the same time. you look into my eyes. That would be really good. Michael Carlson. Both at the same time. How do you look at both of us, though? All right, well, I'll just shift back and forth. Michael Carlson, you survived podcast to ride. Yeah, that's actually the better

way. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. We're proud of you. We're very proud of you. That's what I wanted the seven dwarves to say to me. Now you look at me and say, Scott, you don't have a of you. We're very proud of you. That's what I wanted the Seven Dwarfs to say to me. Now you look at me and say, Scott, you don't have a fucking problem. Scott, you have no problem. I was just riffing earlier. Having one glass of wine a night is fine.

That's what Patrick Stewart does. And he's 77 years old. He looks great. He's in great shape. Everyone loves him. Okay, great. I'm clearly every bit the physical specimen of Patrick Stewart. I'll take that.

And thanks for looking at me in the eye. Thanks for listening to us in your ears. Keep checking out. We got more spooky delights and scary frights coming up all month of October. Yeah. The big one next week and a big announcement coming next week too true yes yes let's let's uh let's tease that um yeah next week's gonna be a great one and uh but all the stuff stayed the same we didn't switch the name on all the socials

like at podcast the right on twitter or instagram or podcast the right at gmail.com um and we got the shirts around this is a haunt cast the fright shirt available as well as all our regular ones i survived which you should now wear with pride uh i really did impressive you know we we got to support each other here you were you were y'all were supportive about splash mountain for me i will be uh supportive about this for you um i don't know what you need support on jason but uh just all of my life choices that's fine general all the things yeah um uh he needs support on your arm that you've cut up uh yeah sure it's mending you're doing my jeans and my sweater i liked were fine though that was that was my concern oh yeah those don't heal

naturally no they don't now if you have more of your day to kill go to season go to the season past podcast and hear the more of this incredible multi-podcast crossover event uh and been more content done from a knott's berry farm conference room yes and thanks again to those guys thanks to everyone at knott's thanks to everyone at universal uh it's very fun to go behind the scenes of all this stuff yeah yeah no kidding uh all right we'll check us out next week more fun goodbye bye Yeah, yeah, no kidding. All right, well, check us out next week. More fun. Goodbye. Bye. Forever Dog. This has been a Forever Dog production. Executive produced by Mike Carlson, Jason Sheridan, Scott Gairdner,

Brett Boehm, Joe Cilio, and Alex Ramsey. For more original podcasts, please visit foreverdogpodcasts.com and subscribe to our shows on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Keep up with the latest Forever Dog news by following us on Twitter and Instagram

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