[0:22] Hello, everyone. I'm Jonathan. I'm Crystal. And this is Haunt Weekly,

[0:27] a weekly podcast for the honored attraction and honored 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 to talk about a cartoon. It's always kind of nice when we get the episode ideas dropped in our lap halfway through the week as we're kind of just trying to think about what we want to do. And then someone comes on and goes, splat! Right here on the left. That's exactly what happened this week. We're going to be talking about the Fox animated sitcom, The Great North. And specifically, the latest episode, which focused heavily on a, I guess we'll say, a family-created haunted attraction. Exactly. And some very relatable pressures that I think everyone listening to this is going to understand just about immediately. But we'll get over that in a minute first things first we got to do the business and that includes be sure to add us at all the places we exist we're at hauntweekly.com hauntweekly on facebook.

[1:27] Hauntweekly on youtube um that is a great way to catch up on previous episodes and searcher episodes you may have missed but if that doesn't work you can also catch us wherever you get your podcasts from on pretty much every podcast provider all right um so we don't have any housekeeping this week and as far as work we did for the haunt uh we did not do much this week no no i don't think we did we both actually were quite ill and the weather in new orleans was quite shitty we had some personal things happen that we're not going to talk about on the podcast happened last friday and we were heading into the weekend when we would have done the work and honestly we just were not in the headspace for it it was a really rough weekend last week nothing was going our way we were not mentally or physically well enough to uh do a significant amount we i do hope to get in sometime this coming weekend and take care of that closet we've been talking about for a couple of weeks now that storage area.

[2:33] But I know that this weekend is also tax weekend. Yeah, and we're going to be doing that because we are on the ball, as every year. You know, I always say I have the excuse I have to wait to make sure I get all my tax documents in. Because as a sole proprietor, everyone's supposed to get their 1099s. Like, what, the end of January is what the law says? Bullshit. That never fucking happens. I've been doing this for damn near 20 years. That has never happened that I can recall. I got a few as late as mid-March this year. So I had to wait. And this year, especially with the new 1099 rules, I really had to wait. So I have a little bit of an excuse, but yeah, I still put it off like a month.

[3:18] And I don't know what Ellie and you are doing, because you all have simple ones. Yeah, I had told myself I was going to do it at the beginning of the March.

[3:26] And since I told myself, my brain goes, okay, that's done. Yeah you have a weird relationship with procrastination that it's not procrastination it's outright forgetting yeah so yeah as soon as i say that something will be done it is done, even though it's not so well still we do have a pretty open weekend otherwise so we'll probably find a little time and maybe we need a little break from the frustrations of tax work so we will come out here and take you know tools to wood it might be a nice reprieve right especially as to whether actually supposed to be pretty nice yeah well on that note every week we try to ask a question the weekend last week well we covered the game the card game screen park yes um had a great time with it even though we had some suggestions that i think should have been should be implemented to improve it. But yes, indeed. So we asked you guys, what haunt-related card or board games do you recommend? And of course, it was like flashing the bat signal.

[4:35] Japes showed up to say uh betrayal at house on the hill and is a must and gloom and yes and betrayal at house on the hill is actually one we already own didn't we like kickstart that one too no okay we didn't know no we bought it from the gaming place that was going out of business, i'm like no this looks spooky and it's only ten dollars on their going out of business sale Yeah. Let's get it. We actually took it over, and we're going to play it after the card game, but we played the card game for so long, the scare part, the screen part. Between learning and taking the two times through it. Yeah. We were all peopled out by the time we got done with just two. And so were our friends. Yeah. So we've got that for next time. Yeah, that actually is on the plan. And it was like you said, it was kind of funny. I remember it now, because there was this game store not far from our house that we went to a couple of times. We bought some things from. Yeah. We enjoyed, but I think they just had a crap location. Yeah, and I think they needed some marketing help. Yeah, but regardless, they were not open very long. No. They were only open like six months or so, and we actually ended up going by, went and by there for something completely different.

[5:47] A desk. Huh? A desk. Yeah, because we had heard they were going out of business, and we wanted one of the desks. Yeah, and to look and see if they had any of the nice gaming chairs still left. Yeah, and they did not have any of the chairs. No. But we did get a desk, and we ended up perusing their games and got that one, as you said. And the other answer we got? Sean Fenner said, oh, the horror. We had a lot of fun with that. I've never heard of that one, honestly. Nope. We're going to have to look at that and Gloom up. But Betrayal at House on the Hill, we do have, we do own, and yes,

[6:21] we will be playing it sometime soon. So expect an episode about that upcoming shortly. now this week's question actually deals with a future episode that we're going to be doing we're actually working on, But what horror films were shot at haunted attractions other than the houses October built? Please leave that one out. Yes, we know that one. We already did an episode on it. Yeah.

[6:47] Yeah, we've already seen that one. We already did an episode on it. No, I'm not going to tell you what number. A, I don't remember. And B, I didn't particularly like the film or the episode. Yeah. There you go. I'm not going to recommend it. But yeah, we know that one. In fact, we know that one was partially filmed near us at Rise. Um so yeah what other horror films were shot at haunted attractions let us know on bookie.com haunt weekly on facebook youtube.com slash haunt weekly and wherever podcasts are distributed all right well this is also an episode number divisible by two which means we get to do conference reminders and i have gone through an updated conference reminders even though not a lot is new this week um we are set up for the next you know few months so on that note crystal will you please kick us off east coast haunters convention is going to be april 24th through the 27th at the oaks pennsylvania um the greater philadelphia expo center jesus christ okay pre-haunt tour features brighton asylum and fright factory friday night haunts or tours are featuring Hershey Park and Field of Screams, paired with the East Coast Christmas Show.

[8:05] EastCoastHauntersConvention.com. All right, April 25th through the 27th in Los Angeles, California, it's Spooky Swap Mead at the Heritage Square Museum. Great place to buy the gently loved items, including costumes and decor, created by the co-founder of Midsummer Screams, SpookySwapMead.com for more details. Okay, halfway to Halloween Expo is going to be May 10th in Ann Arbor, Michigan at the Washtenaw Farm Council Ground... There'll be a hearse show, food trucks, local haunted house collaboration, halfway to HalloweenMI.com. And finally this week, the Midwest Haunters Convention is coming June 6th through the 8th at Rosemont, Illinois, the Donnelly Stevens Convention Center. Find out more details at MidwestHauntersConvention.com. I'm just realizing every time we watch a movie where they don't do a retake of a line flub, we can't really make fun of them. Because we do that all the time. Yes, we do. But, A, we're not shooting a movie with a budget. I know. And we don't have other people working on it. Nope. Like a whole crew dedicated to make sure we get our shit right. Nope. Nope, nope. We can absolutely make fun of it. We're two idiots and a recorder.

[9:26] That's pretty much it. Yes. But anyways, that's the upcoming haunts. And, yeah, there is a lot of neat stuff coming up.

[9:35] Future haunted attraction events include the Michigan Haunted Fest Texas Haunted Convention is coming back and they've relocated we'll have more on that soon, and Hauntmare Expo just to name a few I'm excited to talk about these when they come up in the next few weeks, All right. Well, on that note, everyone, let's see. We wanted to talk about this episode for kind of sort of two separate reasons. One is because representation of haunted attractions matters. Now, right. We about to say something. Sorry. No. OK. One of the things, as most of you know, in my day job, I do copyright and plagiarism related issues.

[10:16] I have an entire series of posts called plagiarism in pop culture right take a look at how plagiarism is used as a plot point or is used as something in a pop culture event and pop culture of an episode of a tv show a movie something similar and i cover it and i analyze it and i see if it's a good representation or a bad representation so the first reason we wanted to talk about it was representation matters yeah and we've talked about that idea before when we've done movie reviews and such and how they sometimes get haunted attractions just wrong like when we reviewed the houses that october built you know for not wanting to give them more publicity you sure are mentioning them a lot sorry um it's just bad representation yeah i know but the point being yeah last week um we were treated to an episode of the great north that focused on family haunted attraction and the other reason by the way we wanted to mention this is because i think a lot of us are going to identify with the characters on this one yeah it and and we want to talk about what we would have done differently even if the representation i think is still overall pretty good spoiler the representation was pretty fun and pretty good yeah for considering it's a silly animated sitcom all right i'm sorry no that's okay it the represent the show was called the great north and if you hadn't heard of it.

[11:43] I can't honestly blame you yeah it's been around since uh it premiered january 3rd 2021 and.

[11:51] And it's part of the Fox Sunday lineup, but it's always, like, the fourth one. You know, there's four shows in it, usually. But they're up against, like, Simpsons, Family Guide, and Bob's Purse.

[12:02] And then there's the fourth one. That's been the Great North for a significant chunk of the time. Yeah. And it was created by Wendy and Lizzie Molyneux and Minty Lewis. Um wendy and lizzie have our sisters and they worked on uh bob's burgers so it's kind of that same kind of family atmosphere yeah it's a very similar family dynamic just in an extremely different location as we're going to get into well and it's a single father and instead of a full that is true yeah but yeah but the family but the dynamic among the siblings is still very identify as being similar to Bob's Burgers yeah it reads genuine yeah oh yeah and that's that's exactly where I'm going with it reads like a very genuinely loving albeit exaggerated caricature of a family and in that family is the Tobins and basically the Tobins live in a rural town fictional rural town in Alaska no that part of their uh and their theme song is from the uh longest night to the darkest day yeah.

[13:13] Um, so talking about how, you know, they don't get sun necessarily for extended periods of time. But yes, they, they live in a small town in Alaska where their primary business is, as a lot of people in this town seem to have, fishing. Yes. They are a fishing family and all of them pitch in and contribute to the fishing family normally.

[13:35] But season five, episode eight, they attempted to find, we'll say, a side hustle. Well, okay, so Wolf Tobin, who's voiced by Wolf Forte, and Honey Bee Shaw, who's voiced by Dulce Sloan, they are always coming up with money-making ideas. And to be clear, Wolf Tobin is the eldest son of Beef Tobin, who is the patriarch of the family. Right.

[14:00] And Honey Bee is his wife. So she's not actually a blood relative to the family, but she's very much embraced as a member of the family. Oh, yeah, definitely. She just totally embraces a member of the family and totally fits the dynamic, too. She is knuck and futz in a wonderful way. Yeah. I mean, that nicely. Well, yeah, and she's actually the one that brought Halloween celebrations to the Tobias. Yeah, there was that whole episode about that. She was really passionate about Halloween before she ever moved to Alaska. She moved from California. Yeah, exactly. And moved to Alaska to be with Wolf. And as a result, literally, she's the fish out of water. Uh-huh even but it's still well loved which is great to have around because you go she's the one that can go what are y'all talking about exactly and they have to explain shit to her that's the whole yeah beauty of having bunny be there yeah but anyways moving on yeah but they come up with to do the idea to do a ghost ship tour after hours adventure which actually sounds kind of cool yeah i'm not sure about the practicalities and the safety laws of doing anything on a boat i'm sure that they checked it out as much as any small town attraction does, and then there's that element.

[15:19] Although um lone moose which is the town does seem to have a lot of codes because there was that whole episode about breaking codes yes but it's also worth noticing they have like one law enforcement in person. Yeah, and and she does all the law enforcement. What is... There's like a town mayor or something that's a bird? Yeah, the town is really a confusing entity. I think that's by design. It's a lot like Springfield in that I don't think you're supposed to understand it. Right. So that way, whenever they want to pull something out of their ass that's weird about the town, they absolutely can and do and will again, I'm very sure. Yes.

[16:04] But yes, they do the ghost boat, as they call it. And the idea is fairly straightforward. Or you go, you as a customer in this scenario, go on a boat, assume you wear a life jacket, and they take you through the harbor. I don't think they had life jackets on. They should have. Well, yeah, but like, you know, you miss say that, but I don't think anybody on it was wearing it. In fact, ironically, one of the kids was wearing chains. By the end of it, we'll talk about that. But the point is, the family will give you snacks and food and put on a show that includes both things outside the boat, little displays they put up. Very curious how they pulled that one off. They have a boat. They can get to land that's surrounded by water. Yeah, true. But yeah, so they had displays outside the water, and the family on the boat acted in it as well, playing various characters and telling a story. And of course, Beef was piloting the boat. and providing some artificial turbulence, we'll say, the entire time.

[17:09] Exactly. Those extra effects. Yeah. And that was really kind of a neat thing, because literally every member of the family was doing something.

[17:19] Except for moon which is who's the youngest yeah well i mean okay but you know every everyone old enough yeah moon's job as we found out a little later was to pee himself we'll get to that in a minute yeah but yes basically everyone is contributing that includes wolf um wolf and bee who are the honeybee who are the producers ham who provides guests with desserts because he's the middle child uh beef tobin the dad once again is the ship's captain judy tobin um i forget she's roughly the same age as ham right i think that they're twins yeah i think they are twins um plays the ghost and jerry shaw this is um honeybee's brother i believe correct um plays the abominable snowman of course that comes up in a minute or two yeah but yeah anyways they go off on what seemed like it was their first voyage.

[18:12] And everyone had an amazing time. Everything went off without a hitch. Customers loved it and left rave reviews online. And most importantly and most especially, the local newspaper covered the attraction because this is a thing that a local newspaper in town and local news 100% would do. Yeah, definitely. Because they didn't have an attraction like this before, even though there are a lot of boats. And even though they seemed to actually get a fair amount of tours, Yeah, but it's not for any kind of haunted attraction. This may be the first and only haunted attraction in this imaginary town. That is true. Then again, Lone Moose seems to change size as well. True. Between episodes. Like I said, they keep a lot about the town very vague.

[18:58] Which I think is for the purpose of the plot. But anyways, the review's coming out. I loved the review. The review part where they're sitting around reading the review, it's a short segment but it reminds me of what we used to do when we were doing the garbage horror reviews yeah and that we would try to hit every point of every type of person in the haunt, and you know at least you know say something that could be improved or say something you know what i mean touch every head touch the design touch the you know i mean yeah we had categories that we wanted to get through and make sure that we we talked about i wanted everyone who had worked on that haunt in any significant capacity to hear about it from us yeah and and that also helped people who were going to go to the haunt educate themselves about it right and we wanted to you know if there was something that was outstanding um we wanted to call attention to that especially actors who were putting in extra effort and work um and or if they had beautiful sets now if it was.

[20:02] You know, and just give an overall feel for what the haunt was like. Yeah, exactly. But they did this great thing where they touched on every member of the family, even little Moon Tobin, who did not actually contribute to the haunt. No, he was actually scared. Yeah, he was actually with the customers. Yeah. He was on the ship with the customers. Yeah, the customers thought he was some random kid that was just doing it. He didn't, they, which I don't know how that is because it's a small town. So they should have rugged. And he's the kid in the goddamn bear suit. Like, he should be immediately recognized. Yeah. And he provided the pee. Yeah. Is basically it. Yeah, on the first strip. Yeah, on the first. Which is like, you know, so part of the review was,

[20:47] one kid got so scared he peed himself. And Moon just like beamed with delight. So I guess that's one thing you can learn from this. Find a tactical peer. No, don't do that. No. Don't. Get a pee plant. Oh, wait. No, no. That's wrong. I think you and I misinterpreted that scene differently. Yeah. Because I think Moon was actually scared and was trying to cover. Oh, I think he was too in trying to cover. Okay. But he was also proud of himself for contributing. Okay. Because as soon as, like, the next... Because for the next voyage, he shenanigans his way out of it and wound up drinking coffee all night. Yeah. All right. So let's move on. Because...

[21:32] That review ends up attracting the attention of a different review. Yes. Yes. They get word that this influential reviewer. Alaskan reviewer. I think that he went all over.

[21:47] I think they said he was Alaska's most, but whatever. Some big influential reviewer. Yeah. Was going to come and do a review of their attraction. And they were losing their minds about whether or not to like they really want to get the good review yeah because this is a guy who does thumbs up thumbs down style reviews and a thumbs up apparently can elevate you to the highest of heights and a thumbs down can tank your business to which i ask why did this super famous influencer book it underneath a name that was immediately recognized? Yeah, I don't know. There's a lot of questions about this. You know, actually, it might be a situation where he didn't know he was famous enough to be recognized because we ran into that in our early days of garbage horror. That's true. And to be clear, those reviews did not get a huge amount of views. No. So when we would rock up somewhere and especially in another state and people would recognize us, we'd be like, how do you know us? And they were like, we have the internet. But that's not it. That video's got 400 fucking reviews, dude. It's got, like, negative reviews here. Three people on a goat saw that. Are you friends with the goat? Yeah.

[23:06] It's like, Jesus Christ, you know? Yeah. So, yeah, it wasn't like we thought you guys were some backwater hillbillies or anything. No. It was that we thought nobody saw it. Yeah.

[23:18] Then we were two idiots with a camera and a microphone. Yeah, we got rid of the camera. It was too much work. No. But point being, so this reviewer is coming on the ship, and they both immediately, and by both, I mean Wolf and Honeybee. Yeah. Flipped their shit. Yeah. Absolutely 100% flip their shit and obsess with how to impress them. Yeah. Going to the point of reading every review he's done, researching everything they can learn about him, finding things he likes. Yeah. And immediately trying to change their show. And creating an entire binder.

[23:56] Yeah. That is shared with the family. And now the family is like, are you sure you want to make all of these changes last minute? Yeah, because we just pulled off the first one, you know, without a hitch. We could probably do it again. Yeah. And then literally the day of they're leaving, they're still making fucking changes to it. Yeah. And you just know it's going to end an epic disaster. Yeah. And Judy, you know, Honey Bee says, Judy, are you on book yet? And Judy's like, you keep changing the script. Yeah. Like, stop changing the script and I can be on book. Yeah and judy's a performer yeah she's probably the biggest performer well i guess yeah we mentioned that yeah but anyways yeah so it obviously and we'll spare the details on how things conclude no but some spoiler here it is a fox lighthearted animated sitcom yeah things do work out in the end yeah that's not really a spoiler that's kind of the expected and if not required ending for one of these episodes yeah now one of the things you do want to keep him that they do find out is that this reviewer has been kidnapped by a reviewee that he gave a bad review to in the past.

[25:20] So that's something to keep in mind because they're doing all this crazy-ass shit, and he is somebody who is afraid of the people he's reviewing. Yeah, and one of the things they unintentionally do is because they're trying to stack the deck of the rest of the guests. Yeah. Is they bring on people they know in town who are another business owners who just happen to all be people he gave reviews to. Yes and they all turn out to be people he gave bad reviews to they didn't know that when they did it no which is kind of weird you think they would have known after reading all the reviews which they did do when they're but still they uh did not think that way they were just trying to make the audience as friendly as possible yeah but yeah and they made so many changes to it that predictably everything fell apart but like i said things do actually uh work out at the end for them and they they get a satisfactory conclusion we'll say yeah um like i said i won't spoil it i really do think it's a good episode worth watching and i think the great north honestly is a good show in general it's one of my favorites from fox sunday lately especially of the newer shows yeah because like i said you've got the core three and then they keep rotating that fourth one out and there have been some gems in that fourth slot like duncanville that got taken away from us.

[26:44] Um but yeah great north is a good one too and i do recommend the show in general and i do recommend this episode yes and i do want to mention one thing about the episode before we go into what haunts can get from it yes um and that's that the costume change for for judy changes it from lightweight chains you know like plastic plastic to actual chains because they want to impress the reviewer with their you know authenticity of costumes, Please don't put your actors in real chains. Especially ones like Judy, who are like 50 pounds soaking wet. Yeah. A stiff breeze could take Judy away. Yeah, it's just one of those safety things. Like, I saw that part and what happens to her in it. And it's just, it's like I'm cringing the whole time because I'm like, you know, I could totally see somebody thinking, that's a cool idea. And running with it and not even thinking about the safety of the actor. Yeah, and give the episode their credit, they did make it very clear you shouldn't do that in line. Yes. The episode did make that abundantly clear because basically Judy nearly killed herself. Yeah.

[28:00] Once again, lighthearted, fat-laked, silent sitcom, Judy's not going to die. Yeah. But they did put her in enough danger to make you realize, yeah, you probably don't want to actually do that to you. You don't want to actually Bob Marley, your actors. Mm-hmm. Wait until they're ghosts, then do it. Gosh, okay. So, yeah, definitely an episode worth checking out. So what lessons do we think Hawners can get from this? Mm-hmm. The first, and I think the most important, is you cannot please every customer. Nobody bats 1,000. Mm-mm. And it's so, like, I understand this. And it's kind of funny, because we just got done playing Screen Park, the game. Yeah. Which has such a heavy focus on VIPs attending haunts. Right. And one of the things you're doing in that game is you're trying to build your haunt to appease the VIP so you can get them through more rooms and get more points. Right. And that's a mechanic that, yeah, a lot of haunts can relate to, wanting to appeal to the local haunt review team, the two idiots with a camera that go to haunts in the Gulf Coast region. Right.

[29:11] You know, whatever. But reality is that's not practical. Right. It's not a practical way to do a business, especially a haunted attraction, which is always going to be a mass, you know, a mass ticket sale industry. You know, as far as like traditional walkthrough haunted attractions.

[29:31] You know, appeasing a reviewer can be great and good publicity can sell a bad haunt one time. Exactly it can not it will never sell it twice or three times because if i go to a haunt they've got a good review on the back of that good review and i have a shit experience i'm going to change how i'm feeling about that reviewer now it might not be i dislike that reviewer and think they're a liar or whatever it might just be okay okay this reviewer clearly likes these things more and i like these things more i need to adjust my expectations right which is one of the reasons why when we did reviews one of the things we tried to do was explain what was in the haunt as much as say what we liked and disliked because we wanted people to pair themselves with the haunts they liked yeah basically how they feel and um what type of experience it would be without giving anything away yeah and and i felt like that was important because people disagree with us about what a haunt should be like they're fucking wrong.

[30:42] But they disagree anyway and you know what they have money too so they get the they get to voice their opinions yeah they they get to waste their money the way they want to it will waste the money we want so the point i'm trying to make though is there's no haunt no i mean nothing is for everybody except for maybe oxygen except there's that one dude that's allergic to oxygen my grandpa was oh christ, So, I guess not even oxygen is for everyone officially. So, fuck it. There's nothing that's for everyone. Get over that and understand that you're not going to please every customer. And if you're not going to please every customer, you're not going to please every reviewer. Right. And if you are so focused on one customer or one reviewer or one review team.

[31:32] Then the customers around that person are going to have a lesser experience. Experience now we've had this experience in haunts before yes uh we actually one time and i think this was might have been a decomposed no well i can't remember which one it was but we went ended up going behind a haunt review team that was videotaping inside the haunt oh that was a single guy yeah but there was but basically we've been behind review teams and people that were doing that kind of thing right well and on the atlanta trip we were behind another review team and um and we're we are great at not being recognized like we are so good when people don't recognize us um and the the review team and was put in front of us in line fine whatever we see that they're all wearing the same shirts um but then they put us all together at the same time like with them and we got you know we were not targeted at all we didn't see half of the stuff in the haunt um yeah and it was just a really bad experience we've had multiple experiences like that where we've been paired with a vip yeah and we've had experiences where we've been the vip yeah and i don't like that either i know i i don't like that either.

[32:52] Because, you know, to me, like, the best way for me to go through a haunt personally is me and Crystal, because we always go together. But we get paired up with a couple of regular customers. Right. Or if we have people that we know that like haunted houses but have not been to one that we like going to, we'll bring them so that we can get genuine reactions. Yeah, every year, if we can, we couldn't do it last year, but every year if we can, we'll drag someone new to the 13th gate. Yeah.

[33:25] Often by force. Yeah. Well, and that's something that I liked about this episode was that that reviewer booked their ticket online. Like, they paid for their thing. And we always try to pay for ours. There are a few haunts that we haven't been as successful, but we always disclose them. Yeah, we disclose it. But, yeah, for us, one of the things is, like you said, we try to book our tickets online in advance when we do those. A, it expedites getting through the line so much. B, it ends that, no, no, no, it's a free ticket. No, no, we already paid. It ends all that. And C, it actually makes it cheaper sometimes because we can apply coupons and discount codes and things. Yeah. But that depends wildly upon the haunt, actually. Some haunts are more expensive online, but it also makes it easier for us to budget and play our finances rather than just rocking up with tons of 20s and making it rain at the haunt ticket booth. Exactly, because a lot of time we will buy our tickets in August.

[34:27] But I did like that the show showed the reviewer doing it that way instead of reaching out saying, hey, can I have a free ticket to come on your boat to review you? I still found it interesting he used his real name, even after having been kidnapped, after knowing that there's. Well, it could have been, you know, a credit card transaction because you can't put in a fake name on your credit card. I don't see credit card data. I don't. Well, not names and stuff. I only guess the last four. Oh, true. I don't see credit card data. I don't think that. I don't know. I think he did it or used a name that was predictable enough that they knew it. And that's obviously a mistake. One of his pseudonyms that had gotten out of monks.

[35:12] Yeah. Because they see. But the thing is, they also seem to recognize him physically. Yeah. Which raises. Because I think he was supposed to be like the equivalent of TikTok or something. A TikToker, which. You know. Some kind of influencer. You know. And that may be the other issue. He may not have been able to hide. Yeah. So why not just use his real name? If he can't hide, what's the fucking point, right? But yeah, it was, but we have been in that situation on both sides where we were the VIP and we were paired with the VIP. And in both situations, I felt like playing directly to someone made it lesser for everyone because half the joy of going to a haunted house is seeing other people get scared. Yeah. Because, yeah, I'm there to get my adrenaline up and get a little startle or two in. Yeah. Definitely. But I also love seeing and feel that camaraderie with other people when they get scared and seeing their reactions. Mm-hmm. That's the fun. It's getting both of those things. And when you try to center everything on one person, you sacrifice that experience completely.

[36:16] And here they were, like, rigging the entire attraction around a person, which obviously in a major haunt is not practical. Yeah they they changed out the desserts and the drinks and the story got shifted around eight billion times and they costuming as you mentioned got made super dangerous well so did the boat itself with the waxing of the floors oh yeah i forgot about that yeah so yeah basically they they change everything in attraction that's obviously not practical but we have seen how haunts and numbs react when a vip is going through and you you see that on a smaller scale and it's frustrating i remember when uh leonard pickle went through chamber of horrors yeah and it was a similar situation i didn't do anything different no i didn't do anything different when um.

[37:04] He or house of shock came through yeah um i i was stuck in a shitty place that night i wasn't in my usual place so i guess i did do something either yeah because some idiot decided to rearrange the entire fucking hog for the celebrity i just realized that happened well no people didn't show up oh that's right that was the problem so they wanted their best scares you know covered yeah i was in a drop panel like there i'm behind the court yeah i was from said drop panel to the bathroom um and made that work better than anybody had yeah not a not a high bar for yourself though.

[37:44] Considering nobody had made it work you made it work quite well though in fact you were there the next week too when we came back no they took it away but had the other guy doing my shtick yeah regardless it was so yeah that's frustrating and yeah and trying to and the thing about trying too hard to target someone is you can really piss them off yeah because i know there have been a few times going through a haunt where i know i'm being tardive like dude i get this feeling sometimes in new orleans nightmare at least not not the last couple years but in previous years oh no i i um i get most aggravated when they target me specifically thinking that i'm the one that's gonna be the scaredy cat no it's like yes i'm.

[38:38] Was born with female genitalia, that means that I am more scared than someone born with that. Helps my uterus quaketh with fear.

[38:49] Yes, exactly.

[38:52] That is not... Like, if you knew anything about me from childhood on... No. You would know that that's not going to work. Yeah. I am gettable. Oh, anybody can get God. Yeah. but it's yeah we're both gettable it's not like we're impossible to get but what you need is really good tactics and an unexpected scare you don't need to be super aggressive right because super aggressive makes you too obvious yeah like one of my favorite scares that we got um uh not that when we were uh i can't remember which haunt it was but they had something moving low to get you to look at your angles and then they came at you from the other some the other side while you're looking down it's like jesus that's perfect yep you got me looking and focusing on this rat or snake or whatever the fuck i thought it was it was on the ground i think the best god i've seen for you is um because we can see each other's reactions better was at netherworld with the tall tree versus the short one was always because you go into the room We went into the room and there was this big giant tree and there were projections on the ceiling. And you're just looking around at all of the decorations. And then one of the fucking trees on the wall just goes, ah, just barely moves. Yeah. Didn't have to do a lot of shit. And that's just it. It didn't have to be super aggressive. Didn't have to grab me. Didn't have to hold me. Didn't have to gill in my face.

[40:21] Yeah, you're right. That was one of the best gods. I also enjoyed there. No, it wasn't much of a god. When I put my hands up in the laser swamp, I got a high five on the flyer. That was fun. Yeah. That was just fun. I just wanted to highlight that again. Yeah. It wasn't really a scare, but it was fun. I enjoyed that.

[40:37] Well, and, you know, speaking of fun, that's kind of the point of this is that in the show and whenever they were focusing on entertaining and just having fun with it and seeing how it went, they had a lot of fun and got great reviews. Yeah. And they almost tanked their business because they were trying so hard to be

[40:59] perfect for this person that everybody had a shit done. And I think one of the other things that they were doing in the first one that they were clearly not doing in the second one, because that's really what this is about is comparing the first voyage of the SS ghost ship to the second, is they were also playing to everyone's strengths.

[41:20] Everyone had a job that they, A, enjoyed, and B, were very good at. Yeah. And yeah, it comes together as a little bit of a hodgepodge. Okay, a lot of bit of a hodgepodge. It's a mishmash of different things. But they tied it together. They wrapped the haunt and the experience around those different elements.

[41:44] Yeah, and they had a cohesive story, and it just worked. Yeah they floated all around they looked at what they wanted to do they looked at what they could contribute and they built the story they built the experience around that yeah and i think that was incredibly smart because when they tried to do the same thing around what they thought this influence won't it fell to shit exactly it's better to build the experience around your strengths what you do well i mean than it is you know to try and and go with what someone else wants or even necessarily a large even a portion of your audience wants i mean a good example is if we found out that we had a big vip come into our tiny home haunt and found out that they don't like haunts longer than the shorter than like in the 10 minutes or whatever well we're fucked yeah there's no way to stretch that out we're six times we need so what are we going to do we're going to go out and buy a shit ton of lemon sloppily build on rooms afterward yeah i mean that's that would be the equivalent for what they did yeah exactly and and that's just insane that's insane and it's going to be like and it's going to be like the human digestive tract it's going to start out fine then it's going to be a bunch of shit at the end yeah well and you know it's like when we did have um honk con.

[43:10] Come by yeah that was a lot of VIPs for us yeah we didn't change a damn thing we didn't have time to no we barely had time to clear the fucking wall talking bathroom.

[43:21] No, that was the year that we were close to finished. But yes, we did move everything that was being stored in the haunt to the backyard for a couple of nights. Yeah.

[43:32] So, you know, we did have to do that, but we didn't change anything. And we didn't, like I said, we didn't have time to. So it wasn't even like a conversation about it. No. But I'm glad that there wasn't because we didn't fall prey to that temptation. Right. Yeah. Because we could have gone on and added more detail or done this or done that and created a different experience. But no, this is what we do. This is how we operate. And part of the joy of that Hong Kong tour, at least for me when I was on a similar tour, is seeing how other people do it. What they do different. What they focus. What they emphasize on. Because no two Hans focus and emphasize the same things. Right. some haunts pay almost no attention to detail but put heavy emphasis on acting and heavy on interactivity costuming and makeup and you know and others do it the exact opposite where they want to build this theatrical or movie set like experience but the actor experience comes second some put heavy focus on animatronics some don't use animatronics at all every haunt puts their focus and their time on different things because nobody has the money time energy space and everything to do everything right there's just no way you can do that and still build a cohesive experience.

[44:53] So yeah um we pray and honestly people loved it yeah people loved our little tour and honestly i was surprised and i'm very very glad but i was surprised because i felt like we were a fish out of water yeah well we didn't expect it no uh there was not a whole lot of warning no um and even when we had people come that first year um before the big tour buses which is you know people who know us from here they came by we did change up the lines a little bit because i knew i wasn't scaring anybody um so i focused on entertaining yeah well and that's the thing there are some obviously if you are getting a criticism repeatedly and it is hurting your business yeah then maybe you should look at changing something up but but not just one person even if they are a reviewer yeah it doesn't behoove you and honestly it's i i honestly don't think haunt reviews matter quite as much as some haunts think they do i think word of mouth is way more important in the long run yeah well i.

[46:08] Think that's everything yeah on that note everyone thank you very much for joining spending the past 45 minutes or so with us hope this was interesting go check out the great north it is a great tv series and as we said season five episode eight ghost boat um is super relevant to us as haunters kind of weird that it came up in april but whatever right hey it was our halfway to halloween episode uh halfway to halloween still a little ways off please check out more haunt weekly at hauntweekly.com haunt weekly on facebook and youtube.com slash haunt weekly also wherever you get your podcasts from. Until next time, I'm Jonathan. I'm Crystal. And we will see you all next week.