[0:22] Hello, everyone. I'm Jonathan. I'm Crystal. And this is Haunt Weekly, a weekly podcast for the onto-attracted and entertainment community. Whether you're an actor, owner, or just plain aficionado, we aim to be a podcast for you. And we return to you this week happy that our city is back to normal. Mostly. As normal as New Orleans ever gets, we'll say. That is a very true statement. Yes, we'll say that. We're sorry we're a day late this time, but we have reasons we'll get into in a little bit. But mostly right now we're in a celebratory move just because we got our city back. Because we've been surviving some interactions with some of the worst fucking neighbors. You can fathom, the NFL. Ooh. Yes, indeed. We're going to be talking about being a good neighbor as a haunt

[1:08] and some of the ways that being a bad neighbor might impact those near you and your haunt itself. If that doesn't sound like your cup of tea, hey, I understand there's 474 other episodes. Go check them out. We're at HauntWeekly.com, Haunt Weekly on Facebook, YouTube.com, slash Haunt Weekly, and wherever you get your podcasts from. All right.

[1:32] Well, just to do the quick work we did for the Haunt update, we did acquire some tools that we're going to use. Right. Including a very, very cool electric screwdriver, which sounds like something weird to be very happy about. This is a really cool one, guys. It is. It's engineered very well. Yes, it is. I'm actually looking forward to getting out and actually testing it, but I am still injured, though my bruising has almost gone away completely. Yeah, so next we'll be testing small amounts of weight. Yeah, sometime, I think next week or so, testing some resistance bands, making sure that I have decent strength in there. I'm still a little worried about my shoulder. It feels a little loose, but not bad, not like it's in danger of collapsing again. So my hope is that I'm on the mend and like we talked about last week, we're hoping that we will be able to go and purchase a crap ton of wood from a local wood retailer sometime before the end of this month is the goal right now. That's what we're shooting for. Um, so yeah, still injured, but other than that, we're still making some progress and some preparations.

[2:41] Um, on that note, moving to the question of the week, every week we try to ask a question of the week and last week, well, we talked about tariffs and made everyone sad.

[2:52] Sorry. Well, it is what is going on right now. And as we discussed in the episode, it was what is in our head. This episode is very similar. Right. You know, it comes from our active conversations. And I think a lot of our conversations this past week went, if we did this as a haunted house, we could shut down in five fucking seconds. Well, and it's also, I don't want to go outside. There are people out there. Yeah. Lots of them. Yeah. So, you know, we ended up bringing it back to haunting, as we do with just about every topic. And it's how we got to $475, if we're honest with one another.

[3:26] But anyways, last week we were talking about tariffs. So we asked, are you planning on stocking up on anything ahead of the possible price increases? Chuck Morrison said, would.

[3:36] We're right there with you. Right there with you, man. Good luck to you. Kevin Hopkins said, we already purchased this a lot for our gift shop already, like plushies and stainless steel drinkware. Looking to get a few extra backup prop controllers at Transworld. Discount prices to offset increases. You know, this got me thinking, though. Transworld is really well-timed this year. I know everyone bitches when Transworld, it's like Mardi Gras. When Transworld comes early, people, bitch. And it's coming a little bit early. It's not as bad as the year we went, but it's coming. I think it's like the last day of February when it starts. And so it's a little bit early, not much early, though. And some people, I know there's some grumbling about that. But honestly, that means you're getting to the trade show floor. You're getting those trade show discounts, and you're in before the tariffs, other than the...

[4:29] 10% of the China tariff has had a chance to take effect. Yeah. So, you know, you're actually a really good time to be making haunt purchases. I think Kevin's on to something here, as is surprisingly Craig Watt, who said Red Bull. Now, when he said that, I thought it was obviously just a joke. Yeah. Now, I mean, I know a lot of haunts run on Red Bull, but come on. Well, then I looked it up, and Craig, I'll never forgive you for making me look up something on the Internet. But it turns out Red Bull is actually an import. It is made in the EU, which is another area the Trump administration is talking about putting tariffs on. So, yes, if the tariffs go through, your precious Red Bull could get a lot more expensive. And that sound you hear is hundreds of haunters running to the store upon realizing this. Well, and it's not only that, but the aluminum to make aluminum cans for all drinks. Yeah, it's got to come from somewhere. Yeah. And the 25% tariff was passed today, as we're recording. Yeah, on aluminum and steel, I think it was.

[5:34] So, yeah. Yeah, that's going to be fun. Yeah. All right. And finally, for this week, Johnny Andy Glass said, would buy some chickens. Oh, that'd be very Nordlennian of you, I would say that. It actually is a very popular thing in this city to own chickens. And so if you want to become a chicken tender, that seems like a very, very good thing to do. All right. All right.

[6:01] So, yeah, honestly, with all of the tariffs and all the issues going on, I think Transworld's in a good place. I think our listeners got their heads in the right space here. I'm just so surprised about Red Bull, though. I thought it was canned here in the U.S. Yeah, I thought that they had a San Francisco or something, or California location, but maybe not.

[6:24] Oh, this week's question of the week, piggybacking off what we're talking about this week is, Is there a big event that disrupts your area or your town frequently? Let us know. Obviously, we have a ton. We have a ton. But let us know what goes on in your neck of the woods, literally or figuratively, depending upon the nature of your haunt. Let us know at HauntWeekly.com, HauntWeekly and Facebook and YouTube.com slash HauntWeekly. Love to hear your thoughts on that.

[6:52] All right. So I don't know how many of you knew this. maybe you don't follow football considerably, but we had a slightly large event this past week in New Orleans. Just a wee bit. A little bit of one. It was, of course, the Super Bowl happened this past Sunday. And the world was treated to watching the Philadelphia Eagles absolutely crush the Chiefs. An amazing performance by Kendrick Lamar. Yes. And apparently there was a puppy bowl too. I know less about that. Yeah, I don't know about that either. Anyway, so it was apparently for, it was a big deal, and it brought a lot of people into the city. But here's the thing. The Super Bowl always happens during Mardi Gras season.

[7:43] Or what we call carnival season. Yeah, because it overlaps. Because carnival season starts January 6th and goes sometime through February or March. Yeah, basically, Mardi Gras is such a weird holiday. Because the start of the season, as you said, is definitive. Twelfth night, boom, January 6th. That's the day. But where it ends is based upon the start of Lent, which in turn is based upon Easter. And so that fluctuates wildly within the year. It hops around. Oh, boo! Eject this woman from my podcast. Boo! No. Your podcast. Yeah, exactly. I thought that's what you were going to bite my head off about.

[8:29] Anywho. But, yeah. So it jumps around a lot. This year, fortunately for us, it's a later one. It's coming actually mid-March. Early March. Oh, early March. Yeah, it's like March 4th. But still, any in March is considered later. Yeah. But we do regularly get them. In fact, there was one year it overlaps with Valentine's Day. Yeah, that was terrible. There was so much less king cake that year. Yeah, you only got like five weeks of king cake, and this one you're getting like seven or eight. Yeah. So, yeah. So, yeah. It always is going to overlap a carnival season. Luckily, this year it doesn't like kiss Mardi Gras itself. Because realistically in terms of the absolute bat shit insanity everyone's in the city yeah it's the last week that really matters i would say it's the friday i would say it's two fridays before fat tuesday through fat tuesday so like a week and three days or so yeah would be the really really crazy bit it doesn't overlap with that mercifully but it has in the past um so So basically, the Super Bowl came into town, and it was utter chaos.

[9:36] And a lot of local businesses, in particular, any business owner I know who was not in the French Quarter on or very near Bourbon Street, really struggled. And I say, and I get that as specific as I can, so we know someone with a French Quarter business that's on, like, I think Decatur or something that's toward the river. They had it rough. Yeah, and that's crazy because usually with events like this, the tourists go out and they explore and they don't stay in one small area. Yeah. Maybe they were just scared of our city. You know, and I will say the tourists might have had some reason for that, as was noted. No, no, no, hear me out on this, because we had a terror attack five weeks before. And the response to that, I think, was way overhanded and that there was soldiers everywhere. Yeah, no, that was my frustration. That's where I'm getting at. I'm getting there. I know. I just jumped ahead of you in my brain. Yeah. Yeah, because seeing pictures of the French Quarter with people in full military garb with, you know, machine guns...

[10:44] That isn't my French Quarter. That isn't my city. They're not here usually. It makes people uncomfortable to roam away from where the crowds are. Yeah, it makes people uncomfortable to roam away from where those are, apparently. Yeah, yeah. And, like, Ellie's Yarn Store was way down. We have a friend who runs a restaurant, a very popular restaurant, I might add, in the Marigny. He was way down. Like I said, friend who runs a French Quarter boutique type thing. Yeah. They were down. And for those not local, the Marigny, his restaurant is walking distance from the French Quarter. Yeah, the far side of the French Quarter. If you are able to do like a mile and a half. Yeah, well, realistically, if you're in the far side of the French Quarter, like you're at the end of Decatur, near where it meets Esplanade, you're not that many blocks away. Exactly. Yeah, the problem is the French Quarter, most tourists think about the Canal Street side. Right. Canal to like maybe halfway or two-thirds the way through the French Quarter. I think Lafitte's Blacksmith is probably where most people think the French Quarter ends. Fun fact, no.

[11:46] But yeah, so it caused a lot of chaos. It hurt a lot of local businesses. And then on top of Carnival season, on top of the Super Bowl... President Trump decided to become the first sitting president in history to attend a Super Bowl. Just apropos of nothing. That was a title that they could grab. So, basic, and here's the thing about it. We, as people who live on the West Bank side of the river, we can, sometimes in what we ended up doing largely, was saying, that's an East Bank problem. Right. We're on the other side of the river from the bullshittery and the tomfoolery. We can stay here. Now, we avoided some of the places we like to go in the Point because a lot of people will get Airbnbs in the Point and take the ferry across. Yeah, and we saw multi-hour lines for the ferry. On Saturday, but not Sunday. Right. It was weird. Yeah. The Saturday before the Super Bowl, the ferry had multi-hour waits. On Sunday, apparently, everyone just gave up on the fucking ferry. Friday night was the same with the ferry. Yeah. It was really long lines. But Sunday day. Yeah, we can't go down to that area. And then we found out, you know, when he landed that he went over to the Belchase Air Force Base. Which is, Belchase, I'm trying to explain the geography. Okay, as weird as it sounds, the West Bank is south of New Orleans. Just trust me here.

[13:15] Belchase is next south. Yeah. Is the easiest way to think about it. Right, because New Orleans proper is not the most south you can get. No. No, not by a pretty long shot, actually. So he flew into the Belchase Naval Air Station, which meant his convoy went up the West Bank Expressway and toward the center of the city, blocking off all West Bank traffic. Yeah. So directly impacting us. Now, luckily, we weren't trying to get around at that time. No, we had already decided we were staying home Sunday and not doing any of that shit. Some very smart person made a picture of mimosa first thing Sunday morning, and that ensured I had zero reason to leave the house all day. Mm-hmm. So, that was actually very wise. I had no desire to leave the house at all that day. But, yeah, basically, it was a fucking nightmare. Businesses were hurt.

[14:14] Everybody was inconvenienced. Yeah, traffic was horrible.

[14:18] All of the times that I was driving in it, because I had to go across the river three times last week. And then we had the epiphany that we often do in these situations, which everything we just said about the Super Bowl is things that people have said about haunted attractions. Other than President Trump going to one. Well, yeah.

[14:39] Presidential cavalcade is a little bit much. I'm going to admit that one. But the blocking of streets, the heavy traffic, the unpredictable schedules, the noise, the inconveniences. Especially in smaller towns that aren't used to having an influx of people. Yeah. So we decided to actually sit down and talk about how haunts can be more neighborly. Be better to those who live and work around them. Mm-hmm. And to that end, we have to start with a better truth. And that is haunted attractions during a season are repeated large crowd events, you hope. Yeah. You kind of hope you're getting hundreds of people there. Yeah. Kind of the goal, right? It is the goal to be popular, yes. You want to get hundreds, if not many thousands of people there, damn near every night you're open. And that is a large crowd event, especially, like you said, in places that aren't used to seeing crowds. If you're in a small town of 500 people, an influx of another 500 people effectively doubles the fucking population. Right. So, be thinking like that, you know? So, yeah, it can be very, very disruptive. And that can cause a crap ton of problems. As we learned this week, access to the streets, streets can get blocked off either intentionally or unintentionally.

[15:57] Trash people are fucking disgusting yes they are i do not wish to explain that any further but people are fucking disgusting and no matter how many trash cans you put up trash will be an issue.

[16:11] Noise yeah there was a lot of extra noise in the city and you know oh yeah well and especially i was thinking about it i mean i looked at the videos people shared of the lines of the fairy Right. And one of the things I immediately noticed was how loud it was. Oh, yeah. Everyone talking, everyone shouting, trying to be heard. And I kept thinking if we were on the patio at Crown Anchor, that's the bar we took some of y'all to when you came to New Orleans. But the patio there, right near the ferry landing, we would probably barely be able to talk, you know, over that loud noise. Right. People bring noise. Yes, they do. And haunted houses are, you know, a place that noise is created on purpose. Yes. Yes, and it's not in here. You're not dealing with just people noise. You're dealing with actor noises. You're dealing with, hopefully, some screams and some chants. Yeah, animatronics. Maybe even a chainsaw, too. Yeah. Yeah, a lot of noise. And also, dear God, air compressors. Mm-hmm. I swear to God, air compressors are somehow the noisiest thing based on volume of device. They compete with babies in terms of noise per cubic inch. It's crazy. Yeah. It's just amazing. And, of course, you know, there are safety issues around. You've got all these people roaming around. It becomes a haven and a concern for pickpockets and other crimes of person and or property. And it's a general disruption.

[17:33] And we've been doing a lot of news episodes. Yes. And when we talk about haunts getting forcibly shut down, i.e. The city or some official is shutting them down, ordering them closed, there's two reasons that come up over and over and over again. First is safety, which, good, obviously. Yeah. Unsafe haunts need to be shuttered. Yeah. I'm not going to defend unsafe haunts. And the second is being a bad neighbor. There were several haunts at the start of the pandemic, for example, who got these massive crowds, were unplanned for them, caused chaos in the local area, and then suddenly permitting and other issues that had been kindly ignored by the city became issues. Exactly. They suddenly looked at the paperwork and said, oh, we can shut you down legitimately using this. Yeah, exactly. They were trying to find a way to shut this haunt down that they saw as being a nuisance. And that was the way they found. Yeah. It really comes down to that. Well, and it's also, there was one case in Florida that really pissed me off. Because it was a haunt that had, a home haunt that had been there for years. And they said that they were being shut down because of crowd size. But the Christmas show that it was able to still go. Yeah. Even though it drew many more people to the same area. Yeah. Same street. You know, it's just, it's crazy.

[19:01] Yeah, don't expect to get a fair shake here. No. Is what you're saying. Pretty much, yes. It's going to be unfair, and you will be judged more harshly than events of similar size. There are always going to be people who are against haunted houses. Yeah, and the thing is, even people who like and are fine with haunted houses view them very differently than any other event. And Christmas is the obvious one. But, I mean, think about, like, you know, the 4th of July fireworks that happen here. That brings thousands of people to areas of the river that don't normally see that many people. Right. There's always discussion about how much trash is left over after the 4th of July. And no one seems to be questioning the trash or the crowds or the safety of that. But, yeah, a haunted house, as you just said. Oh, yeah. It's key. I get woken up at 6 o'clock in the morning on a Sunday to go pick up trash from candy we didn't even hand out. In defense of those neighbors, they did apologize to us. They did not realize it was not us who handed the candy. I know. We explained it to them. They went, oh, we're sorry. Yeah. Yeah. Because they brought candy from some Halloween party elsewhere. Yeah. We didn't have our street crew or our trash cans out. No. Because we didn't expect a whole apartment full. Like 400 kids, literally. Yeah. Like 400 people. No exaggeration. No. One of the fucking worst.

[20:27] Anyway, moving on. Now we prepare for that even when we're not expecting it. That was a lesson learned. That's a mistake you make once. Exactly. You make that once, you're an intelligent person still. You make it twice, you're a fucking moron. So anyways.

[20:42] So, we're going to spend the rest of this episode talking about ways in which haunts can be better neighbors. And in the end, we're kind of going to talk about how we do it. How we tie all this together. Right. The most important thing is location. Yeah. Basically, the best way to be kind to your neighbors is to have neighbors that are easy to be kind to. Yeah. Either they aren't there or they're into it. No, neighbors are the easiest kind. Exactly.

[21:13] And the thing is, like I say that, but I remember a trail home we went to in Mississippi that had an issue because the neighbor on the backside of the property was complaining about noise. Technically, they were like half a mile away. Yeah. But that's another question. But theoretically, yeah, having no neighbors is, from this standpoint, ideal. Well, I would also argue that having a strip mall type haunt where you're used to having a lot of people and a lot of noise is also okay. Yeah, especially since haunt hours and regular business hours don't share a lot of overlap. No. Unless you're an LA store. Or you're, you know, well, yes, for the normal business hours. But we've also been to tourist towns that have year-round haunts that are open during the day. Yeah, exactly. And their neighbors don't complain. No, because they're set up and configured, and a strip mall should have all the resources it needs to handle a decent-sized crowd. Yeah.

[22:15] To that end, my view is that most haunts that do really good with this traditional seasonal haunts, either open in very relatively rural locations or they open in like warehouse locations where their neighbors are not likely to complain about noise and foot traffic much. To that end though, you do need to make sure you have ample parking day or night. And then people shouting, howdy neighbor.

[22:44] Yeah. Sorry, I can't say the words ample parking without fucking thinking of this all. Well, I can't hear it without thinking of the episode that went gangbusters on parking. Yeah, that was crazy. Go check out the parking episode. That is apparently like our second or third most popular. I'm not even kidding. We did that thinking there's no goddamn way. People are going to get in the weeds on this one with us. And yet, they did. Whoa, did they. So, yeah. Basically, you want to make sure you have parking cleared out somehow. Now, that can mean making arrangements with nearby businesses. It can mean having a lot of your own. But you've got to have a way to have parking sorted out so no one's going to get pissed. And make it clear that it's your parking. Yeah. And also clear signage. Yeah. Yeah. Because that's actually what hurt Netherworld at their old location.

[23:39] Their old location was weird. They were in like on a strode is what I would describe it as. Like one of those old retail weird things. But most of the places are closed. Right. They were realistically the only thing open some quite large distance around. And so there's all these parking lots but none are theirs right yeah and we had no idea because we rolled up and we saw parking and so five dollars or something so then we go and we park there and in our defense this was part of one of our haunt rush trips we're trying to do like four haunts in a night so paying the five bucks was worth it oh yeah totally totally worth it because that got us in and out timely and we actually saw four haunts that night it was great um but yeah we hadn't i still don't know where the fuck we were supposed to park there yeah i don't know if some people just showed up and didn't even own the property with like cones and just said five bucks to park here and and yeah it was a huge parking lot they had tons of room but regardless yeah you got to make sure you have ample parking around and or have deals arranged for it and make sure that the place has space for everything you need the queue line the actor area the entirety of the haunt basically ideally these should not be visible.

[25:02] From other businesses nearby, especially open ones. Right. This is something the 13th Gate has struggled with, because even though the road they're on is largely devoid of anything else, there is that restaurant there. There is, and they do have a small parking lot, but it's not nearly enough for the amount of visitors they get. Well, and it's especially, most of the parking goes into the lot that's underneath the freeway, which is also parking for LSU Stadium. Right. And so they run into real trouble on Saturday nights where LSU plays home. Yeah. Because now you have two huge events taking up the same parking space, and that's chaos. That's a hell of a challenge. So, yeah, your location is crucial, and it's important that you have enough space to contain everybody, their cars, you know, everything that's going on, or agreements to house it. Because otherwise shit's going to go funky whenever, you know, people start using your neighbor's parking lot or when they're standing around in the neighbor's property or on the sidewalk in front of them because they don't have anywhere on your grounds to stand on. Some neighbors might be understanding and cool with that, especially if they're closed. But don't be shocked when neighbors aren't. And to that end, the next item. Communication. Yay!

[26:30] We should be pretty good at this. You would hope so. Yeah, if you're a pro haunt, a lot probably happened during permitting. Yeah, because they send out the thingies. The flyers and, you know. Posted signs and all that shit, yeah.

[26:46] But don't assume that. And don't assume that, you know, your haunt is going to, that your promotional materials are going to reach your neighbors. Yeah. Don't assume that. Yeah, no matter how good at canvassing you are. Yeah. To give an example is we actually worked at a haunt in which the 24-hour restaurant functionally across the fucking street did not know there was a haunted house there. Yeah. Yeah, it was ridiculous. So don't, yeah, like you said, don't have faith that they'll just catch it from the ads. Do it yourself. Yeah, but... Get the bricks. But go and, you know, talk to the businesses in the area. Introduce yourself. Maybe try to make a deal where if somebody brings a ticket to their haunt from your haunt to them, they get a small discount for eating at your restaurant, if it's a restaurant or a store. And vice versa, yeah. And vice versa, yeah. If they come to you and you hand out a flyer, then the haunt can give them a discount because they got a receipt from you in their flyer, you know? Yeah. Work out if you can. And that works out great, especially if you do share open hours. But even if you don't, you can probably still work something out. Exactly.

[28:06] But, yeah, the main thing is be proactive. Get out there. Hit the bricks. Talk to these people. Get some FaceTime with your neighbors. And no grammar checker. I don't mean FaceTime on my phone. I mean FaceTime as in actually talking to fucking people. Yeah. Basically, yeah, talk to them and tell them what you're doing. Ask how you can help. Strike any reasonable deals you can. And basically keep them in the loop. Yeah. And offer them free tickets. And if they don't want free tickets, offer them lights on walkthrough just so that they can see and have an idea of what you do. Yeah. We have neighbors, in fact, our direct next door neighbors, and we'll get more into this later, never wants to go through the lawn when it's open. Nope. But is endlessly fascinated by what we do. Yeah. And will come on multiple times a year, or at least once every year, I should say, to see the design with the lights on and no actors in. So like a day or two before we open, we bring them through. Exactly. And then they sit outside and listen to the screams all night, and they have a great time. They drink wine, and they have a good time. Yeah. Exactly. Everybody wins. Yeah. So yeah, basically...

[29:18] Press that flush, make those names, and then have someone that they can contact when you're open if any situations arise. If kids are lingering on their property, if their driveway is blocked, or anything like that. Have someone on your staff. They can call and get a fucking answer right then and there. Yeah, a dedicated person. That's key. We call this person the resident adult, the household adult. House adult and our haunt, that's Ellie, and she does an excellent job with it. And I recommend having someone like her who is not in the haunt, in costume, scaring, that can address these issues as they arise. Yeah. And not necessarily security. Yeah. Not security either. This needs to be someone... Because security, usually you're bringing in outside people anyway. Right. Needs to be someone who works with you directly.

[30:11] All right. Hours of operation. This is important. You need to have reasonable hours of operation. And the thing is, that's not the same as your open hours. You can say, oh, yeah, we're open just 6 to 10. Right. That's pretty reasonable sound. And that's very reasonable even. But if you don't get all your customers through until 1.30 a.m., your hours of operation went all the way to 1.30. Yeah. That means you're making noise. That means there's crowds. That means there's inconvenience. All the problems we just discussed are continuing until way late in the night.

[30:42] Um most places have strict noise ordinances that begin at midnight or just a stricter noise ordinances yeah like even new orleans has that where theoretically after midnight you're supposed to have volume unless you're a grandfather club just a whole bunch of weird rules but in general you're supposed to have you know minimal noise after about midnight yeah unless it's a week day and then it's 10 p.m yeah for bars yeah which is stupid, And we know this firsthand because we mentioned Crown and Anchor earlier. They have a patio and they have radio that plays on that patio. And that radio shuts the fuck off at 10 p.m. on the dot. They have it automated somehow. Yep. So, yeah. Basically, just be aware of your local noise ordinances and make sure that people are not there. And that takes effect. That's what I'm saying.

[31:37] Focus on throughput. Focus on getting people into the haunt, through the haunt, and off the property in a reasonable amount of time. Now, you're going to, wait a minute, don't you guys yell at people to try to make it the whole evening? Yes, we do. Which is why, if you're going to do that, which you should do, it should be in a contained space on your property. You need to have room for them. If you don't have space for that, which a lot of haunts don't, I'm thinking the mortuary here is an obvious one. Yeah you the focus needs to be getting them in getting them through and getting them gone yeah which i think the mortuary does but not by choice yeah yeah because there's no room to to hang out or do anything and the mortuary is kind of interesting because there are businesses near ish by that overlap with business hours yeah but not really they're also literally on main street of new orleans on canal street but they're not in the main street part of main street if that makes any sense it does they're about as far away from the river as you can get on canal street and the riverside is seen as the much more main street it's what you see all the pretty photos of and stuff oh yeah and if i had you know if if they did ghost tours and stuff at the uh.

[32:55] The cemeteries right around the mortuary, I'd be pairing up with them and running those the same nights that I was open. And yeah, you could do the ghost tours before you go to the mortuary. Okay, now we spend time with the real ghosts, now we're going to go see the fake ones. Yeah, or vice versa. Or vice versa, you know. But yeah, I could see that working really well. But yeah, they're kind of in a weird position with us. They don't have the space to hold people, and even though they're in a busy area, there's not really anywhere to direct people to. Yeah. Yeah, so if you do have neighbors and you are trying to be a good neighbor, then In-N-Out is probably the best thing you can do. That's what we have to focus on as a haunted house, as a home haunt. We focus on that. If you want to keep people on there, which you should, you've got to have a place for them and things for them to do. Right.

[33:44] And probably a wall or something to help dampen the noise. Well, one thing I did like, I'm trying to remember which haunt it was we went to in Georgia. Georgia, the one, no, it wasn't Georgia, it was Houston, that had the really good fire pit and all that. Yeah. And the actual haunted houses, like, formed a ring around it. Right. And that's also kind of what Scout Island did the year it was open. You were surrounded, I mean, A, it's an island, it's a literal fucking island. Yeah. And so you're surrounded by water, but even beyond that, the buildings and things surrounded and you had, like, an open area in the middle that had the rides and the foods and the odds and ends. Yeah, exactly. And so, yeah. The carnival stuff. Nobody, and plus they're in the middle of the city park, so no one was going to, they weren't going to disturb anyone anyway. No. But it was an interesting layout, and it would have protected everything well if there had been other businesses nearby. Right. That's what I'm trying to say. All right. Next up, have security presence. Yes.

[34:43] You know, I, so they should be visible and easily recognizable. Mm-hmm. You know, and a lot of people go for the black pants and the black shirt with the yellow security on the back only. I don't agree with that approach. I think they should probably be in high visibility vest or something to say, hey, I need that person. Yeah. Especially outside.

[35:13] Yeah, you've got to strike a tough balance here. And this is something we learned in the French Quarter when we were talking about earlier. Yeah. Too much security, too heavily armed, too aggressive makes people really nervous and scared. Yeah. For the wrong reasons. Yeah. Also, the threat of police and jail makes people really upset because there was that one haunt that we went to with Ellie. And it was like, if you touch our actors, we will call the cops. And it was, you know, we found out later that it was actually run by cops and people. And you've got to find the balance here between having adequate security so that problems are prevented. Because that's what security does. Security doesn't stop problems. No. It prevents problems.

[35:58] That's the idea. So it needs to be visible enough to do that, but not so intimidating that people aren't comfortable being there. And as we saw in New Orleans, if your police presence is too strong, too heavily armed, too intimidating, people aren't going to feel very comfortable sticking around. Exactly. And so you've got to find a balance here, enough to assure people and your neighbors, but not so much that you make people uncomfortable. And I like your idea of the high-vis vest. Yeah. I really do think that security should be in high visibility garb just because you want them to be seen. I mean, yes, you're going to have hidden security elements, but those are called cameras. Yeah.

[36:45] You don't have to put a reflective vest on your cameras. I don't think that's good. Someone's going to send me an image of a security camera and a reflective vest now. I just don't know I'm going to get one or two of those in my inbox now. Yeah. But the point is, strike that balance. Reassure both your customers and your neighbors without intimidating. Tough balance. Get it right, though. Finally, get all of your actors and employees on the same fucking page when it comes to your neighbors. Make sure everyone knows what their jobs are and how it relates to those around you. I don't let actors who aren't trained or given permission to be in the front of house where they might be visible or have neighbor interaction be in that position.

[37:30] Limit who can be in those spaces and make sure that those who are are cognizant and aware of the neighbor's existence what they want and how to uh steer the crowd so that they do not negatively impact your neighbors i think that's a pretty rough guide on it um now so real fast because we do have a few minutes but not that long i want to talk about how we tie it in together for our haunt first location yeah we have a house that's on a court and it's called vivian court and the long and short of it is the only traffic that's on this court is our actual direct neighbors yeah and there are you know.

[38:17] Yeah and it's also interesting because it's a horseshoe court which means that if for some reason, the side nearest us gets blocked or inaccessible, which it hasn't happened yet. But if it did, you can just go around the other way. Right. And that also means that people could park on both sides either direction and still get close to our house. Exactly. It means there's a lot of parking and the street itself has a lot of space for people to use and any traffic disruption will be very limited in the number of people it affects. Yeah, and there are very few neighbors who are driving around on our court that late at night when we're open. Yeah. And we're not open late. We're open 7 to 10. Yeah.

[39:02] Typically, 7 to 10 hours of operation, I would say the latest we're open is 10.30ish. Yeah. Yeah, we're pretty good about having everybody in and out. And honestly, yeah, we're very good at having people in and out. And oddly enough, people just stopped trying to come at 10. A, because we put it on the marketing. but b i think that's just kind of the natural drop dead time well in the past we've had a couple of people come in you know like 15 minutes after yeah but we had been dead for a while so we closed at 10 and then they were sad so they came back the next day before 10 and i i think that that messaging has gotten out that no they mean 10 yeah when we say 10 and we mean if you're in line at 10. You will go through. We will bust our ass to get you through, but we will not be taking anyone on after them. And that is for our neighbors. Because we want to be completely clear by 11. And by completely clear, I mean not just have all the visitors gone, all the customers gone, but have trash picked up, things in order, signs taken in, all that stuff that we have to do.

[40:13] So we want to be completely clear by 11. so yeah the first but yeah the first thing is the location we chose a house and a place that really doesn't get a lot of traffic even though it's on and adjacent to a very highly traffic street yes second the garage itself has a great location because it is set way back on the property almost to the back of the property line right and so there's no house like a room in a house that people would be in yeah butt it up against it one way or the other butt it up against it and our queue line can go a long fucking way before it hits the street yeah and i would say that the garage is probably more than 30 feet from any room in any house including i think i think you go 50 including the ones behind us yeah i think you can go 50 because i know the room in margaret's house that you're this The actual closest room is not occupied. It's more of a laundry space. And the neighbors behind us have a garage. Shedded their own. Yeah. Yeah. But then there's like a big yard between their garage and the back of their house. Nobody is in a room.

[41:22] There are no occupied rooms within 50 feet of our garage. And that does help a great deal with noise issues and noise complaints. And it also is a great position because it gives us a chance to use a full queue line and ensure that unless we're having, even when we're really busy, like on Halloween night lately, we have not had the line out to the street. And I consider that a point of pride. Yeah. Because that means we fixed the throughput issues. Exactly.

[41:47] It's like, oh, we ran a line that went six hours long. Well, fuck your throughput. Yeah. Right? Exactly. That is not a brag. No. You need to understand what to be proud of. I hate to say it, but it's true.

[42:04] Yes. So that is a big, big help for us. The second thing that we are big about is that communication we talked about. We haven't done it in a couple of years. We probably need to redo it. But our neighbors have been very static. Right. So we haven't had to. But we used to go around sometime late September with, whenever we got the flyers in, and bring little goodie baskets to everyone. They had a couple of flyers with it and say, look, this is what's happening. This is Ellie's phone number. You know, please let us know if you have any questions or concerns. We'll happily address them with you. And that has gone so far to buttering things up. It really has, because people know which days to expect us to be open and which hours and who they can get in touch with. And they get goodies. And they get cookies. And Ellie's cookies are fucking amazing, so I think that really is a significant chunk. Bribery is not as unethical as people make it out to be. Yeah, and I think that we'll probably do little bags or something in addition to the cookies. we might do, you know, put in some.

[43:17] Little prizes for all of our neighbors like that sounds like a good idea bugs or, well crafty things maybe yeah that'd be fun yeah especially for 20 because this is our 20th coming up um we talked about hours of operation already in terms of our haunt and how we play it basically we were trying we stopped taking new people at 10. We've never been open operating past 10 30. And especially now that we got our throughput issues cracked yeah we haven't really been open past like 10 10 realistically so that's i'm really proud of that i'm really proud of how much we've been able to cut down the crushing line because as cool as it is to see these all these people here for you as cool of a great feeling that is the goal should be to get them in the haunted house get them in get them out um and as far as security presence uh i run front of house, On Halloween night, we have a five-person front-of-house crew. Other nights, we have two, which is me and Farrell. Right. But other nights, we have the trick-or-treat team, Ellie, and others running front-of-house. And a lot of their job is just to be adults with authority. Yeah. In front-of-house. And I'm really digging the idea of getting them high-visibility vests now. Well, at least Ellie. Yeah. She looks smashing an arm. Shut up.

[44:40] They make hot pink high visibility yeah that's true that you do you do that so getting something like that so people can easily identify her as quote-unquote staff or whatever yeah would be a big help but that's basically their job is to be the front of house team and we equipped them with walkie-talkies last year and made them the happiest people on the planet i know i did not expect that to have such an impact but the main thing is we have them there on the nights we're busiest and they do a great job and and with the very specific instructions get people in get them candy get them in the line get them out get them gone yep and it's a very specific set of instructions and honestly, We do far better on security because everyone who's working it other than Feral is ridiculously nice. Like OP niceness. And basically, you know, it's like, okay, if the nice doesn't work, we bring in the seven-foot monster. And if that doesn't work, we bring in what the seven-foot monster is scared of, which is namely Ellie.

[45:46] Which is, that's actually true. Yeah. But all in all, it's been a pretty good system, and it's helped us operate for 20 years without as much as a single complaint to police or authorities at all. Yeah. No. No. We had one neighbor. Yeah, right.

[46:03] One neighbor get annoyed because somebody had blocked his driveway, and this was pre-Elly. Yeah. So he didn't know who to get in touch with in order to get him to move. Yeah, and that's just it. Some of these neighborly suggestions we came up with are lessons we learned the hard way. Exactly. Putting out the trash cans every single night instead of just on Halloween when we're expecting the big crap. That was a lesson we learned the hard way. Ain't nothing like being up at 7 a.m. with a push broom sweeping the street. I know. It was like maybe 10 rappers. And Willie wasn't that bad. Not for the amount of kids we had. Yeah, we were blasted that night. I don't mean drinking blasted. No. We were blasted by humanity. Yeah. Anyway. But anywho.

[46:48] So, yeah, some of these lessons, we're coming at you saying, yeah, we fucked this up.

[46:53] Don't be like we were. Be like we are now. Yeah. On that note, everyone, thank you very much for joining us. Next episode is 467. That is an episode of Visible by Four. It means we will be doing the news. Should be an interesting episode. But until next time, check us out at the places we exist. We're at HauntWeek.com, HauntWeek on Facebook. and youtube.com slash Haunt Weekly. Find us wherever you get your podcasts from. Until next time, I'm Jonathan. I'm Crystal. And we will see you all next week.