[0:22] Hello everyone, I'm Jonathan. I'm Crystal. And this is Haunt Weekly, a weekly podcast. Well, hopefully weekly podcast again soon. But for the Haunt Interaction Entertainment community, whether you're an actor, owner, or just plain aficionado, we need to be a podcast for you. And we return this week, after completely fucking up the intro, to apologize for missing last week. We'll go into it in a little bit, but suffice to say, shit got a little crazy around here. Yeah. No one's fault. Okay, it is actually someone's fault, but they're not in the room. Oh, okay.

[0:56] They're not in the room. But yes, indeed, if you want more Haunt Weekly, check out all the places we exist. We're hauntweekly.com, hauntweekly on Facebook, youtube.com slash hauntweekly, and wherever you get your podcast from. Now, this is episode 484, which A, is kind of interesting because the middle digit is the sum of the two outer digits put together. But it's also a number divisible by four yes which means it's time to do the news and we actually have a lot of news this week that's the good part the bad part is not a lot of it's good news no so yeah uh i'm sorry if it's a bummer episode if you don't want a bummer episode a as usual we put something fun at the end very excited to talk about that and like i said i just listen to all the places you can get other episodes. Yeah. Check out one. That's maybe going to be a little more upbeat. I wouldn't blame you if you did.

[1:53] So yeah, we missed last week. Um, sorry is the first thing, but the reason it's just that work got in the way of both of us. Yeah. And, and, and a lot of it is due to reasons that, um, I'm sure you can figure out on your own. Cause we believe we have the most intelligent listeners in the world.

[2:16] Because, I mean, who else would listen to this stuff, other than people whose minds are going too fast and need to slow down? Well, I have heard from sources that we are often listened to on one and a half times. No, I don't blame you. Not at all. Don't blame you. Please feel free. But yes, a lot of federal requirements came due at once, it seems. Yes, which made it to where last Tuesday and Wednesday, I worked more than 24 hours in less than 40. Yeah. Yeah, basically, you've been doing 12-hour days with a frightening regularity over the past couple of weeks because your job is getting a lot of these documents that the public needs out there. And, yeah, basically, you know, I'm the one that prepares it so that it's accessible for everybody. And the designer, the in-house designer, so I do all of the design work for them, too. And as someone who's done federal government work before, it's a business of hurry up and wait a lot of times. Yeah, that's the state that I'm in now after having two other 12-hour days this week already. So you're getting a free Friday off this week is what I understood.

[3:40] But yes, indeed, it's just been absolutely nuts. And that's one of the things we've been trying to talk about and try to figure out is how we're going to balance this podcast with HerJob, which has moments like this from time to time yeah they're usually at the end of the month yeah so hopefully we'll be able to get something sorted out moving forward maybe we'll record a few episodes that we can keep in the can and get us ahead when we're having slow times we're.

[4:05] Looking at things but yeah we just we were caught flat-footed last week and you didn't have time for fucking sure and i was pretty busy too actually yeah well and then we had social engagements all every day so far since last the friday yeah and i uh yeah and it's kind of wild because it's like we don't have a social life the pandemic murdered what was left of it yeah and now all of a sudden we're popular again local yeah everybody that i haven't seen in years is suddenly in town and wants to meet this week yeah which is fine which is fine and it's fun and great even yeah but man the hangovers are gonna fucking kill me yeah well and you know one of the things that i did was i went to brunch on sunday with someone i used to work with and i haven't seen in about a year um she is is leaving the horrible job that i used to complain on here about yep so she is leaving it i am so happy for her um so just pop a little thing with confetti yay Yay!

[5:11] Celebrations! Yes. It's an audio podcast. Pretend we did that. No. You can picture it in your head. Unless you're Ellie.

[5:21] Anyways, but yeah, so work we did for the Haunt in the past two weeks. Actually, we had some very productive time here, though. We did. Because when you finally got a minute to break, we actually went to the local bar with our laptops. Proof we're working when we really shouldn't be. Right. And we put together our list of skeletons for this year's yard display. Yeah, because the QR codes were such a big hit last year. We're doing it again.

[5:51] Yeah, it only took us 19 years or so to find a fucking yard display people were interested in. Yeah, that they wanted to interact with. Yeah, 19 fucking years, and our Hail Mary desperation idea ends up being the one that works. Yep. Who the fuck knew? But anyways, go ahead. Sorry. So, yeah, I think we've already discussed, we're doing New Orleans history, basically famous people who were born or have really strong ties here. Yeah, the standard we used for it to qualify, basically, was you had to have either been born or otherwise grew up in New Orleans. Yeah.

[6:27] Or you had to do a significant amount of whatever you're known for here.

[6:32] We also said that you had to have been dead a certain number of years. I can't remember the amount we settled on. Yeah, so there's some recent celebs that have really strong ties here. Yeah. And I may reach out to one of the estates. Yeah, I don't know. I think we're probably going to avoid them. I think we're going to go truly historical.

[6:55] But we've got some recent ones in the list just in case. And honestly, one of them, I really believe the estate would be totally cool with it and actually would have a fun time with it. Yeah. Because of this person's reputation and notoriety and how they were. So i i would like to um show homage to them and i think that was how it would be a skeleton of them would be seen as such not taken the wrong way yeah is what i'm saying so yeah but yeah we got our definitions in um and we also listed defining characteristics what we need in order to represent this person and it's hopefully going to be a lot of fun i mean we have 20 skeletons we know we're going to do 12 as the minimum we're shooting for 15 ish but we wanted that longer list so that if for one reason or another we had to pull someone out we can swap them in with someone else yeah exactly and so i'm actually really excited about this year's yard display it's going to be a lot of fun and we got some easy ones we do because you've got to have those you got to have oh yeah that's so and so they can instantly tell but we've also got some very difficult ones and some uh I guess you would say.

[8:08] Uh deep cuts from new orleans history well we want to make it not all easy because we want people to actually learn something when they're exactly and you know and there it turns out there are a lot of i mean shock of shocks i know a lot of interesting people from new orleans that either you didn't realize they were from new orleans or um that did amazing things that history just kind is sort of buried yeah and that's what we kept running into but i will announce one of the skeletons here because this one i'm really looking forward to this one as a wrestling fan of old school we get to do junkyard dog yes that's gonna be fucking awesome yeah that's probably one of the most recent uh passings but it still was a while back yeah and yeah it's fucking junkyard dog and i'm excited as hell i was such a huge fan when i was tiny um i think that's the match that i was yelling at the referee so like five or six about the the bad guys you know screwing them over somewhere i've got a polaroid photo of me and jyd or my dad does rather i should say because the very first time i went to a wrestling event it was boxing day in Columbia, South Carolina, and it was a WCW event with JYD there, and he was posing with everyone because there was like five people there.

[9:31] Why not? It was great. So I am so excited to have JYD because that just makes

[9:39] me so happy. It's ridiculous. I should not be as happy as I am about that. But anyways, moving on. Every week we ask a question. Last week we were talking about our own pending retirement. By the way, that's like the dickiest time to miss an episode right after that. Are we or are we not retiring? Then we accidentally miss an episode. I swear that wasn't planned. We just ghost you. Yeah, we're just going to leave on that. Guess so.

[10:09] No, we will not do that to you. That was completely unintentional. Like I said, blame nature of working with the federal government. Yeah. But yes we asked you guys how many of you were thinking of retiring and of course a lot of people said no right including victor ruellas said i'll always have a yard display even if i move to antarctica which a if you move to antarctica i want to see this display i totally think an antarctica themed yard display would be kind of well cool.

[10:41] Yes, you have to get, um, anyway. Next, Haunted the Roxbury said, in the immortal words from Broke Mountain, I can't quit you. Tim Fowler said, I don't think I'll ever quit. Maybe not go as big as some years, but not quitting. Ryan Greger said, I'll always home haunt. And, you know, if you know anything about Ryan Greger, that's the least surprising response. Um chad savage did uh never and referenced uh home alone and finally for the well nevers uh tommy sanchez said not me i've been doing it over 35 years congrats and i don't know what i would do during halloween if i didn't have some kind of haunt set up all right that's part of our you You know, potion pull on that, too. Yeah, I agree. I mean, Max Schick said, the other side of the fence, of course, people were contemplating slowing down or even stopping. Max Schick said, after 10 years, I decided to throw in the towel. Too much wear and tear on my physical and mental health. Funny part is I'm not even 30.

[11:50] You know what? Good on you. Yeah. I'm going to say the time to take care of your body is in your 20s. Yeah. Because I regret a lot of the stupid shit I did in my 20s because I'm paying for it now in my 40s and 50s. So, yeah, good move. Yeah.

[12:08] Jinx Midnight said, after eight years, this possibly is the last year for my show due to the property potentially changing ownership. That's never a good reason to have to quit. Yeah. And this might be coming up a little bit later, not the specific one, but that theme. Yeah. so as much as I love running the haunt I'm really looking forward to enjoying other events in September and October and we'll continue character acting via cosplay and I've seen some of your cosplay and it's amazing yeah so you know that's awesome but I mean it's still a terrible reason to have to leave yeah but it is we're going to be discussing in just a minute shockingly common yeah uh Maximum's Christian Bryant says since getting married and trying to start a family i'm considering it i might just act on thursdays and spend friday and saturday visiting the ohio haunts i haven't gotten to see yet you know one of the upsides of uh being forcibly closed in 2019, as much as that sucked yeah um, One of the upsides was we were able to go to other haunts and not be thinking about hours the whole time we were there. Exactly. Because, yeah, we enjoyed our Chicago, Atlanta trips and all those trips we took to other towns. But there was always a thing in the back of the hair going, okay, we've got to fix this. We've got to do that. We've got to get this. There's always the checklist. Did we put the order in the candy? Did you put the candy order in, Jonathan?

[13:31] Yeah. It's October. No, exactly. It's cool enough to have it shipped now. Exactly. Because you can't ship it too early, because then it'll melt. And finally, for last week's question of the week's answer, Terry Mannix said, after over 20 years, I'm trying this year. To which James jumped in and said, no! But there was some discussion about why that's not complete quitting. Yeah, but effort is made. Yeah. so this week's question of the week is how confident are you that 2025 is going to be a great season as we're going to discuss there's a lot of potential reasons to be pessimistic but maybe some good one maybe there's some reason to be optimistic i'm not aware of so please let us know facebook.com hunt weekly on facebook and youtube.com you have a prediction i know that we've talked about this before i i'm not an optimist you're not an optimist no.

[14:31] I mean, I'm really an optimist to begin with. Yeah. Yeah, no, I think out of the three of us, I'm probably the most optimistic. Yeah, that's downright frightening knowing you're... Yeah, knowing me. So the optimist in me says that people might be looking for an escape, but the other side of that is I don't think people will be able to afford it, which will come up again later this episode. Yeah, well, we might do an episode not too distant future looking ahead to this 2025 season. I think that'd be a great topic. Yeah. But yeah, I'm not an optimist right now for various reasons. And most of them are economic in nature. Most of the reasons are economic in nature. So imagine that. You've seen the news.

[15:20] I walked briskly past a newspaper stand once. Those don't even have papers in them anymore. I know, which is, that used to be a funny way to convey that, but it doesn't work in 2025. You walked past either Ellie or I as we were watching some podcast about it. I stood over someone's shoulder as they were surfing social media on their phone. I walked into any place and the news was on. Yes, oh God, help us all. Anyways, let's do conference reminders. Let's get out of this. Let's get out of this. This is killing us. Yeah. So anyways, we do have conference reminders and kicking things off. May 10th through May 10th, so just one day, it's the Halfway to Halloween Expo in Ann Arbor, Michigan. On the Wattenshaw Farm Council grounds, we'll include a Hearst Show food truck and a local haunted house collaboration. Halfway to HalloweenMI.com for more information. May 10th and 11th you will also.

[16:25] If you're not going halfway to Halloween Expo or you're in Tennessee instead of It's a big country alrighty. There's plenty of room for two things on the same day. I know. Anyway, ShutterCon is going on May 10th and 11th in East Ridge, Tennessee at Camp Jordan Arena. Haunted attraction seminars a scurry face character contest tickets are only 25 bucks shottercon.com for more info yeah absolutely and that's a new addition to our conference reminders always nice to have those come up um then june 6th through the 8th it's midwest hunters convention in rosemont illinois the donnelly stevens convention center uh no details yet but midwesthaunterconvention.com for more information and finally for this week june 20th through the 22nd it's michigan haunt fest in munith michigan at the Oaks Campground. Demos and make-and-takes, Saturday raffles, costuming, makeup classes.

[17:26] Michighanhauntfest.weebly.com. I gotta say, if you are in Michigan, you are a want, you are not want for choice. Haunted attraction-related events. Both of those sound like, all these sound like a lot of fun, but definitely Michigan is spoiled for choice. At least this week. At least right now. Alright. Right so anyways as we discussed at the top of the show it is time to do the news and starting off with a a good string of bummer stories yeah that i'm not happy about but you know what are you gonna do uh fear farm halloween attraction will be seeking a new home for the 2025 season this is an article by jennifer goldberg at the phoenix new times fear farm which is based in glendale arizona is actually looking for a new home for this season and future seasons owned by the 13th floor they found out after the 2024 holidays that their lease was being canceled yeah that's not a lot of time no um so yeah basically according to the owners the point of contention was that fear farm wanted to do more events throughout the year and that's kind of a contention when you're on someone else's farm. Right. And you are historically a corn maze attraction and you need fucking corn, which only is.

[18:54] Corn maze height at a certain time of year right um so yeah the family that owns the property has entered into an agreement with a local production company to manage the existing facility so something will be going on at that location probably come um halloween but fear farm itself said they have several potential opportunities but no new location to announce yet yeah and it won't be their first move they moved in 2021 after 20 years to this location yeah um so hopefully one of those other areas will you know pay it out for them be another long time huh yeah because.

[19:38] It's always rough to move a haunted attraction even one as well known as fear farm yeah i keep wanting to call it fear fair for reasons i cannot fathom yeah i may have said that accidentally once twice and if so i am sorry it's fear farm yeah um but yeah they're a big name well known i mean we've heard about them i think we've talked about them before on this show but i i can't remember to what and but yeah it's it sucks and they found this place in 2021 so you know that they found it during the middle of the pandemic years and now after not after just you know three years they're giving the eve hope yeah it sucks and hopefully they find a better forever home sometime soon because maybe they can find some vacant land yeah i mean that would be nice you know it's.

[20:34] One of the things we've talked about a lot on this show is the importance of owning the land and the building that you're in if you want to have a longevity at that location. Yeah. Unfortunately, that does not help the next haunt we're discussing. No, it does not. Oh, God. So we talked about this back in January that the Hammond Common Council, say that three times fast, passed. The HCC. Yeah. They started looking at eminent domaining Reaper's Realm, located in Hammond, Indiana. Yeah. And they just recently passed that. This article is by Molly DeVore at the Times.

[21:21] And they were there for 34 years, and they're being forced to sell the land. They returned last year after they were forced to close for COVID.

[21:36] Yeah. I mean, this is a really frustrating story for a lot of reasons. They did everything, quote unquote, right. They purchased the land, they owned it for a long period of time, and they closed for COVID.

[21:54] Yeah. They respected the seriousness of COVID and stayed shuttered. And they operate both the haunted attraction and a firework stand on the property. But now the council has just decided that this isn't the best use of this land yeah the government claims the building is deteriorating um i don't know how much of that is facade and how much of that is true uh yeah because i mean i was saying a haunted house is deteriorating it looks like it's deteriorating a lot of haunts go thanks yeah we did our job we put a lot of hard work into that Exactly.

[22:30] Yeah, but they're claiming it's not being used to its maximum ability, and it's just that it's a dumb reason. Yeah, and they're looking to put two sit-down restaurants and a hotel on the site and possibly an office building. Yeah. Because it's land near two major interstates.

[22:51] One question I have to ask immediately, though, is if this is such poor, underutilized land, why hasn't some private enterprise scooped it up? Yeah, or is this one of those New Orleans-style backroom deals where the government's working with the private enterprise so the private enterprise can underpay? Because we've had that happen here. Oh, yes. And the problem, I mean, I hate eminent domain. Yeah. Full stop. I understand and recognize that sometimes it may be necessary if you want to have a highway, for example, you got to go through some people's backyards. Yeah, but even that is, you know, questionable because we look at what happened with the Maroney area. Yeah, exactly. No, there's, you know, there's a lot to unpack in that. But yeah, the main thing is like if you shut up at our house tomorrow and you looked up our house on like Zillow or one of those sites and say, here, I will hand you whatever that value is in cash right now to buy your property. I tell you to fuck off. This is my house. And even if I make a profit on it or whatever, even if I make money on it, which we don't, which we don't. Well, I mean the home, I meant the sale of the house.

[24:07] Even if it's more than we bought it for, you know, an investment, which we don't. We're not going to make a significant amount. Our value has gone up, but not like by a huge amount. No. But yeah, it doesn't offset the cost of moving. It doesn't offset the memories we've made in this place. No. Or the fact that it's almost paid off. Yeah. Like we'd have to start over and that just doesn't sound like something I want to do. No.

[24:34] Yeah, that's the situation. It's really frustrating because we would tell you to fuck off. And now, thanks to eminent domain, you can be forced to sell the property at typically whatever the value of the land is appraised at. No. Whatever the property is appraised at. And take it from me, appraisal value is never the actual market value. No. It definitely isn't. Because you want your appraisals to be low for property tax reasons. No. Yeah, our appraisal is I think about 20,000 30,000 lower than the actual estimated Oh, it's that much lower Than the actual estimated value but the actual estimated value is what I'd be willing to sell it for and the amount I'm willing to sell it for is fuck you. Yeah You put that on the fucking check. All right.

[25:27] That's what that's what the actual sale price is fuck off yeah but but yeah in eminent domain though you can't do that and it sucks and to tear this down with the hopes that you'll get a couple of restaurants and a hotel there yeah that that's fucking bullshit yeah there's got to be some kind of there's something going on okay so obviously it's just conjecture we're just like talking out of our ass about this but it really feels like there is something else going on here yeah because they're not not building a road or bridge they're not building infrastructure they're not putting the new sewage treatment plant there or something they're hoping to get other businesses there and that just that's bullshit that's absolute unadulterated bullshit because like i said if those businesses were viable a good use of that property, it would have already happened. Yeah. Someone would have come along and made them an offer they can't refuse, and.

[26:35] And been done with it but that didn't happen so why does the local government seem to think that they have the magic sauce to make this happen and i don't know it pisses me off and it frustrates me and i'm we're going to move on to another depressing story um gotham which is a long island gothic event and entertainment venue is how they describe it uh was sadly had to close its doors personally this is an article by chris boyle at longisland.com um i had never heard of this space uh before this article i've got to be honest but it was described as a goth-inspired entertainment venue it featured a dance space escape rooms and an indoor backyard for things like axe throwing cornhole various other backyard games and they also hosted the year-round hot chambers of hell whose final theme i shit you not was mardi gras murders yeah it was in march um but yes they say they've been forced to close due to economic challenges and judging from the tone of this article they are far from alone in this in that area yeah it seems to be like a lot of businesses are being hard hit just in general yeah and, And it's been difficult for in-person businesses like this for some time.

[28:03] I mean, this is not a unique problem to the haunted attraction industry. But it still sucks to see, especially since, like I said, they were doing a pretty solid year-round haunted house by all accounts. They had a lot of interest, and they were doing the very smart thing of keeping the themes fresh as the year went on so you could go multiple times per year and get a new experience.

[28:28] I mean yeah but it sucks uh the last event was held april 12th they are currently holding or have recently held warehouse sales to try and sell the rest of the items so if you're in the area, this might be a way to get some stuff for i don't know maybe your own axe throwing place or whatever but still that this really sucks and yeah just another sad story we got a report on yeah and Continuing with the upbeat news, this comes from an article by Chris Morris at Fortune.

[29:03] The $20 Halloween costume that was the price last year is now going to be $40 in 2025, warns an industry group. The Halloween Costume Association is talking about the tariffs about China. Could double the prices of Halloween costumes and impact other decorations. Yeah.

[29:28] And I know that everything is still in flux here. Yeah. And honestly, we're going to record this episode and probably upload it almost immediately after. Yeah, this is April 30th, just in case anybody's playing along at home. Yeah, it's actually kind of worrying that we may, you know, things might have changed while we were recording this. And they could have. They could, legitimately, totally could have. But here's the problem. Major buyers like Home Depot are putting in the orders now for Halloween. And this could seriously impact the haunted, home haunt industry in particular, the prosumer level haunts, According to this article, 87% of Christmas decorations are produced in China. And I'm assuming, and it seems logical, that the percentage would be similar for Halloween decorations, too. Yeah. Seeing as how there's so much overlap there. Exactly. And we talked about, you know, how none of the Halloween candy really comes from the U.S. Yeah. Everything's imported from somewhere. Yeah.

[30:35] Decorations, costumes, everything. So we've talked about how the tariffs could impact the industry. I think that we are going to see higher prices just in general. Because even if the tariffs don't go into effect, the threat of them. Well, the ones against China are in effect. But the other countries, we don't know what's going on yet. Everything's topsy-turvy, man. Yeah. Well, you know. Anyway. But some people are pausing their orders and some people are going ahead and putting it in now so that maybe they can have stuff out for Halloween. And they described one manufacturer here who's had eight of their 10 big U.S. Clients either pause or cancel the orders, even though they were offering discounts to try and offset some of these tariff charges. Yeah. So I don't really know what this means for Halloween this year. Because.

[31:35] If the economy is rough and it's looking increasingly like it will be, and you couple that in with these price rises, that's not a good combo. It's really not. And I've seen a lot of people start posting the rally cry to buy secondhand.

[31:56] And so maybe people will be able to find things like that or hire a local seamstress or something. Yeah, maybe. I guess we'll see if we go more toward homemade or secondhand stuff. Yeah. But it's a difficult position to be in right now. And these companies that have to place these orders soon in order to guarantee the stock arrives with enough time to get it on shelves come probably early September, they're stuck between a rock and a hard place. That they can sit here and hope that maybe the tariffs will be eliminated or reduced before they after they order or before they order but there's only so much time they can sit on their hands and time's running out quickly for both Halloween and Christmas yeah I know so yeah I did this it really is

[32:55] a frustrating situation and one and this is one of the big reasons. I'm not an optimist. And we've already been seeing people complain that stuff like on Teemu, like, I mean, obviously Teemu's its own shade, but it's kind of a canary in the coal mine because people are talking about how everything on Teemu just doubled in price. Yeah. So, yeah, this will be interesting.

[33:22] This one, now this actually is interesting, and this is local news to us. The Mortuary is hosting Tales of the Macabre. It's a live event held every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday until June 14th. My guess is they're probably ending at June 14th to start setting up for the actual haunt. Yeah. That would be my guess. But it is described as an immersive theater experience that takes visitors through four tales, the vampire, the serial killer, the Rougarou, and the Voodoo Queen.

[33:55] It includes drinks. There are cocktail and mocktail versions of this. And there's a VIP version, which includes special lounging, more drink options, and so on and so on and so on. Yeah, and you get to choose. It sounds like you get to choose which adventure you want to go on. Yeah. You don't have to, like, they're not all four the same thing. They're four different rooms set up.

[34:19] And I know that because one of our friends went, got a pass early and went to it and reported on it. Yeah. We are probably going to go, but we kind of cooled off a little bit. We went from hot and heavy wanting to do it as quick as we could to, you know, after hearing about the Marie Laveau stuff. And we've talked about the risks of voodoo, using voodoo, even historical voodoo as a haunt subject. Yeah. Because A, it is people's actual religion. It is an actual religion that people do practice.

[35:02] And b it also comes with some racial complexities that i'm like the least qualified person in the world to discuss you know yeah it's it's not it's it's it's rough so we've pulled off a little bit after learning about the topic but we probably still will do it if nothing else so we can report on it here to you guys yeah so like the rougarou one looks fun rougarou does look fun and actually the serial killer is about the new orleans axeman yeah so that one that's a good example of using hit history very famous serial killer yeah maybe we'll go to that one so we can see um how much history is put into it yeah the root but the rougarou is a local legend yeah um the Axeman is also a local serial killer from, I think, the 1800s. Yeah. So way, way far back in history for us. Yeah, it was talked about on...

[35:59] American Horror Story. Yeah. And the vampire, I'm not quite sure what that one's about, but New Orleans and vampire lore have been besties for a long, long time. Oh, yeah. Any tour you go on, walking tour, they'll show you the vampire house where, you know, supposedly a vampire lives there. And I know the owners and have been in the house. And they will, if they see a tour, they'll go out on the balcony and drink red wine and make sure that you can see it. Because they play along. Yeah, that's awesome. I bet it reduces break-ins. Yeah, probably. I'd be more hesitant to break into the vampire house. Yeah, yeah. They look good for their age. All right. Well, moving on. Woods of Terror calls for influencers. Yeah, this is a bizarre one. Yeah, this was a post on their Facebook.

[37:03] And basically they want people to come out for a private invitation-only event. Yeah. Experience will be ultra-exclusive behind the scenes and just for that group. Yeah. So I don't know, like, did they say what makes you an influencer? Well, all they said was if you want to apply to Go, you send an email that includes your, you have to format it a certain way. We'll link to the instructions. Show your social media links to prove you've got followers. Yeah. Like, I don't think we're influencers for this purpose. We would be very well targeted. We are not. I don't think we meet their qualifications. No. But that said, it's fun. It looks like a fun event. It's just it's it's kind of interesting this i've never seen this approach to using influencer marketing not so heavy-handed and this was ahead of their halfway to halloween event which is by the way coming up this weekend um so you know.

[38:08] Yeah, it's definitely something to think about if you want to get, you know, people in. Yeah, I, you know, I've never seen it done quite this heavy-handed before, but it certainly is an interesting approach, and I'll be curious to see if it pays off.

[38:23] All right, so you sat through all the bad news, and now we're going to give you something fun to send you home with them. And this is a youtube video um by brick thunder on youtube and he's highlighting halloweencostumes.com 50 foot stay puffed marshmallow man from ghostbusters you heard that right 50 feet five stories yeah i know look we have long criticized inflatables on this yeah i mean some of them are cute they've actually gotten a lot better as part of it they have. They've genuinely gotten a lot better. But, because let's be honest, the first inflatables did look like absolute dog shit. But they've gotten a lot better. But this one is 50 fucking feet tall. Yeah. And you can buy it right now. It is available literally right now on HalloweenCostumes.com. It's $1,000. Plus $200 shipping. Yeah, plus $200 shipping. There is no free shipping with this. No.

[39:26] It's $200 and you'll get it in like a week. So for $1,200, that's not bad for something that's going to literally take up your entire yard if you have a yard. Or be a giant thing in your parking lot to get attention for your heart. Now, before you do this, I do highly, and I mean this highly, encourage you to watch the fucking video. It's not long. It's only 10 minutes. You can do it. I highly recommend it because they go through the process of setting it up so you will see how much space you need to set this up. Answer, a fuckton.

[40:06] Um, and also the process and basically, um, the guy does a lot of inflatables. He's big into them. He said this was too big for him to set up by himself. He needed the help of two other people basically. Yeah. To get this set up. And you know what? After watching him set it up, I believe him. Yeah. He seems to know what he's doing very well. And even then really did need multiple people to get the son of a bitch vertical. Yeah. I don't think that that would survive in New Orleans wins in October. Yeah.

[40:40] I don't know where he's located. I have to admit, I had the thought that if we got rid of the actor's area and cleaned out the backyard, we could put him behind the house, reaching over it. Yeah. But I don't think our backyard is big enough full stop. No. To set this up. I don't think it's physically possible because of the size you need. They basically set it up in a big parking lot, and it took three or four rows of a parking lot to set up. It was huge. Now, if you don't think the 50-foot is completely manageable, and honestly, that's probably some smart introspection on your part. They do have a $25 version for $600. 25-foot version. 25 version that's for $600, yes. Yeah. Yeah, and so half the height. The other thing that he emphasized is if you're going to do this, also be sure to bring your own lighting. Because even though it does have some internal lighting, it looks like shit. Gotcha. So you want to put the spotlights on it like in the movies. Yeah, exactly. So figure out your lighting situation in advance, too, is what I'm saying. But, yeah, I mean, a 50-foot, I mean, I'm glad when they filmed this, they had a drone to help them out.

[42:00] Because Jesus Christ, you know? It's absolutely insane. But yeah, if you get this, make sure you've got the space and the people to put it up. You're going to need both.

[42:13] On that note, everyone, thank you very much for joining us for the past 45 minutes or so. Greatly appreciate having you here.

[42:20] This has been episode 484 of Haunt Weekly, covering the April news. Check us out at hauntweekly.com, Haunt Weekly on Facebook and YouTube.com slash Haunt Weekly. And wherever you get your podcasts from, we're there. We're following you. We're stalking you in your podcast. Do you think you can go to one? We're not at it. No, boom! We're there! Okay. It's a trap! So you didn't watch you, but I did. So, there's that. Okay, on that note, thank you very much, and we will see you all next week.