The Road to Scarefest Weekend with Wes Forsythe

Scarefest Weekend 17 is just a few weeks away and Jeff and David are scaring up conversation with Scarefest's Media Director Wes Forsythe! Wes offers up details about the history of the convention, his favorite moments, his favorite scary movies, and details on this year's guests and attractions! As the sinister side of comic con, Scarefest Weekend is one of the largest horror and paranormal pop culture conventions in the U.S. and we'll see you there! 

Find out more about the event at Scarefest Weekend 17

Check out Wes Forsythe on Scarefest TV

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello everybody. I'm Jeff Johnson. I'm David, and this is
a film by podcast with a special commn episode Dave.
The listeners seem to love the common episodes. I wish
we could be doing a lot more of them, but
we've got a special treat from today we do.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
I'm excited.

Speaker 1 (00:16):
We are just three weeks away from the return of
Scarefest weekend in Lexington, Kentucky and West Forsyth. The media
director of Scarefest is with us today.

Speaker 3 (00:54):
And hello, and thank you for having me. Wes.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
It's awesome, man, awesome that that you're here with us today.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
It is just close to Scarefest. We know you must
be very busy, so let us be on my thanking
you for making time to join us today.

Speaker 3 (01:06):
You know it's weird. Honestly, I don't feel less as
busy as I have in years past. Some of the
things I've been helping them with, Like I don't do
any of their graphics anymore, I don't do some other things.
But just like this month is the we finish up
the film festival, and every spare moment I've had, I

(01:28):
forgot how busy I got in that last month to
do the Film Festival just to get all that done.
So yeah, busy as all get out, but it's coming together.

Speaker 2 (01:38):
Good, good, Well, we're.

Speaker 1 (01:40):
Gonna talk all about Scarefest from its beginning some eighteen
years ago to the Camp Miss horror event it is
today that sees tens of thousands of horror fans from
all over the world coming together for one weekend in Luxington, Kentucky,
every October. But before we get into it, let's get
to know west Ford Stifle a little bit, shall we, Dave, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:01):
Let's do that. I can imagine you become the media
directors of Scarefest without having the proper credentials.

Speaker 3 (02:08):
Tell us about let me tell you, let me tell
you it works. Now. I did the I did a
podcast for him, and the podcast it started out as
part of another show called The Paranormal Icon. And then
I said, hey, Patty, let's do a monthly thing just
about Scarefest. And that was Patty Star, the previous owners,
and yeah, yeah, so anyway, so that's how I get

(02:30):
started podcaster, Okay, and then I showed up one doing
that show for him. Then I showed up scare Fest
I want to say eight or nine. Basically, I walked
in and they handed me a stack of T shirts
and said, you're the media director that was the pomp
and circumstances involved in my rise to power.

Speaker 2 (02:53):
Oh well, welcome to the party. Apparently.

Speaker 1 (02:57):
Yeah, Wes, it's not just horror films, it's it's paranormal stuff.
Uh can we talk about paranormal filler for a bit?

Speaker 3 (03:07):
Oh my god, you duck that one out of my
my the history of archives, I've watched it now. I
was doing paranormal filler back when podcasting was hard, and
if you could really dig out the really old episode
inside episodes, it shows. But yeah, because I'm out here
in the country, five miles out of town, and at
the time, by the time we got what they would

(03:29):
really call high speed internet, I was convinced the rest
of the nation would have telepathy. That's how that's how
bad my internet is out here. Uh finally the cell
phone companies, now I'm on that five G stuff, so
I'm I'm there just barely. But anyway, but yeah, I
was doing it back up, but I you know that now,
doing paranormal filler. I got into it because I like

(03:52):
stumping around dark buildings at night. I wish there was
I watched too much TV. Wanted to do it. Uh,
And then I started one I need to share what
I'd learned. That was just you know, And somewhere along
the line I found out I'm not gonna say I'm
a good interviewer, but I have a unique approach to it.
In words, it's just very very let me see me here.

(04:14):
I used to wave my hands when I was all audio.
I said, I had you know, I was doing thocts
on audio, so so video came very naturally to me.
But yeah, Paranormal Filler I started independently. Then I went
to Live Peranormal and I got several shows there. They
kept every time they have a new project, Ay, Wes,
you want to do it. I didn't want to pay
me to do it, you know, but I did. I

(04:38):
gained a lot of experience there, including working with co host.
I started one show there for him. I don't remember
which one it was, but uh, they h I said, Okay,
I'm gonna do well. Actually I did on Paranormal Filler
for a while. I said, I'm gonna have a co host.
I've never worked for the co host. I'm just gonna
do it. And so then I learned I like working

(04:58):
with co hosts. It gives me a as to catch
my breath. And then uh, and so I did that
for you. But then when Brandon Brandon Griffith that bought
Scarefest and I was doing at the time, I was
doing both shows, Paranormal Filler and Scarefest Radio, and he said, uh,
how about if you just give up Paranormal Filler mmm,

(05:20):
and and and I'm thinking it was the very same
time he said, I want you to go video and
so and basically he sponsored me to go to take
from Paranormal Filler, which I'd played with video not much,
and then went and I said, when if I'm gonna
do this, I'm gonna do it my way. You understand
I'm not a I'm not a blow smoke up your

(05:41):
ass kind of guy. And so, I mean the rest
is history. But yeah, he Brandon Griffith talked me into
going the video and launching Scarefest TV and bringing it
to what it is today.

Speaker 2 (05:53):
Was it easy to go paranorma filler?

Speaker 3 (05:55):
You know what I want to see it? Actually it was,
but in my mind I thought I should just go
ahead and quit. While I was at like the high
middle I wasn't at the top. I'm not gonna have
no illusions, but you know, but I did before the
quality of the show started because now that was really
when everybody was getting into podcasting. It got easier and

(06:17):
easier to do, so there's more and more competition. And really,
here here's a good example. When I started it, and
for several years I was getting booked at conventions around
the country because podcasting my reach was not that common.
And then by the time I got done, it got
to well why should we fly him in when Bob
has a podcast He's just down the road and I

(06:40):
could see that. So, I mean, my popularity was stagnant,
I'll put it that way. I wasn't getting any bigger,
wasn't really getting any smaller. Same people want, you know,
listening week after week. So I was looking for a
new project that I could dig my teeth into, and
and so letting that go. I still like to revisit
it every now and then because it's still in my roots,

(07:02):
my soul, if you will. But but yeah, I'm not
sorry that I gave it up.

Speaker 1 (07:07):
Okay, now, tramping around in the dark, I hope you've
been to Waverley then.

Speaker 3 (07:12):
Oh yeah, Yeah, I've been to Waverley three times, four times.

Speaker 1 (07:16):
Scariest place on earth as far as I'm concerned.

Speaker 3 (07:18):
Well, yeah, it's I'll put it this way. As far
as just wanting to be scared, yes, great place. And
when you walk what always say about Waverley when you walk,
when you pull in the parking lot, that place, the
history just drips off you. It does, of course, one
time I went in August, and that's an all that's
dripping off you. If you go in August. They built

(07:41):
that hospital. Nobody they don't tell you this in the
ber sures. It's built on the face of the sun.

Speaker 2 (07:50):
Yeah, I went there in October. If I didn't experience
the that heat that you're talking about, it gets.

Speaker 3 (07:56):
Pretty gets pretty pretty roasty. But I've had some good
experiences there. I never felt like it lived up to
its hype as far as a haunting part of it. Now,
once again, I don't want to put it down in
any way, and I did have some experiences there. But
when you hear people, you know, oh there, you can't
get through that building without getting scratch or pushed down
the flight of stairs of the little creeper is going

(08:16):
to run across stealing. First time I went, I don't
even remember if I got any good evidence the first
time I went. Now, later trips, I did get some
evidence I would call good, but nothing nothing to any
although now we'll say it, I had one of my
biggest jump scares there because there's a door in the
hallway that goes to the death Tunnel and whatever they

(08:39):
call it, the Death Tone. There's a swinging door and
if you walk up through it and it go, it'll swing.
And we were actually we were cleaning up equipment getting
ready to go, and I was trucking down through there
and I created enough breeze to make that thing swing.
And it's scared to live in help and I'm going
to admit that. But but beyond that, like I said,

(09:00):
nothing's fury there that I've ever encountered. I did actually
see an apparition there, but it was one of those
say I was walking down the hallway setting up sold
out of the corner of my eye, and then I
walked past the door. It was like, wait, that was
a person. It was gone, of course, of course, you.

Speaker 2 (09:18):
Know, yeah, that's frightening. I can't imagine having experienced something
like that because I would be trucking out as fast
as possible.

Speaker 3 (09:27):
Honestly, it was so fast, and you know it ain
could be my imagination. The place does have rough walls. Uh,
you know, the light will play tricks. But I saw
a human figure standing over in the corner looking down.
Uh that's what I thought I saw.

Speaker 2 (09:40):
Yeah, no thanks, they have no thanks. I've got nothing. Yeah.
So I've got a question for you regarding the genre
of horror. What do you think is the best horror
film of all time? And what is your favorite.

Speaker 3 (09:51):
I'll tell you what my favorite is. Now. I'm not
gonna pretend to try and tell you what the best
one is, because these people have things on DVD that
I've never even now that said, the two, I'm gonna
give you two, the two that left the biggest impression
on me. My favorite is probably still Nightmare on ELM Street.

Speaker 2 (10:08):
Good one the.

Speaker 3 (10:09):
Series as a whole, Yes, But that first one I
remember the first time I watched that and saw him
do that little creepy thing where he's walking down the
next to the gate or the fence, and you know
as irone stretches out and you know, and and that
that had an I remember that had an effect on
me when I watched it. Yeah. Now the other one
admitted it is completely different the first Well I can.

(10:31):
Now I've seen three of them. I think hell Raiser,
Oh yeah, he chills down my spine. Now, it's but
it was the psychology of it. It wasn't the grossness, it
wasn't anything. It was just the whole trying to psychoanalyze
the connection between pleasure and pain and all that kind
of blew my mind. But those that's that's my personal

(10:54):
little dirty sacreds.

Speaker 2 (10:56):
I guess it's too choices. I gotta say, the first
Nightmare in Elmstreet, you know, that's when Freddy wasn't funny,
he was scary, I mean, frightening scary. So I completely
agree with you. Both both Choices were fantastic. I love
both of those films.

Speaker 1 (11:09):
Yeah, Wes, how do you feel about the state of
horror films today? Is there is there a director or
a studio that stands out to you? Now?

Speaker 3 (11:17):
Uh no, Now, I'm gonna tell you honestly, I'm a
movie fan. I don't get into the nitty gritty of it.
And if you want to get Joe Lewis on here,
he's the one that can approach you the cast and everything.
My take on the horror in Okay, Terror Fire, love
the series. Yes, so there is some fresh faces out there,
there are some fresh ideas. But every time one of

(11:38):
these goddamn studios announces another remake, I just want, I
just want to pull my ears off my head, you know.

Speaker 1 (11:46):
And in the outbox they're talking about Amityville. Now they're
gonna remake. Yeah, the remake.

Speaker 3 (11:51):
I mean, come on, go back and get bad movies
and remake those, yes fast, the case could be done
much better for you.

Speaker 2 (12:00):
Yeah, yeah, you know.

Speaker 3 (12:02):
But to take classic movies like that and just reomaking
for that, now, I'm not just like Halloween when it
was remained. I did watch the remake, and I said
that was a good remake. It wasn't needed, but it
was a good remake. I'll give you credit for that.
But I saw no point in it. You know, it
was just another telling of the same story.

Speaker 2 (12:22):
Yeah, I agree, it's ridiculous anymore, some of the things
that we get. But I agree with you, they need
to go back some of those B titles that could
use a good reason.

Speaker 3 (12:29):
Yes too, if a director's out there any once ideas,
I think it's on Gosh, I think it's on Amazon Prime.
But it's like the one hundred worst movies of all time,
and fifty of them are horror movies at least. And
it's not that they were bad concepts. Some of them
are considered classics, but you know, yeah, let's let's let's

(12:53):
do some of the ones that had an idea but
just didn't quite rise to the occasion the budget was
too low. There's a lot of stuff done back in
the late seventies and early eighties that the soundtracks loan runs.

Speaker 2 (13:06):
Yeah, maybe a twenty four will listen, which I love
A twenty four of the studio because they feel like
they're doing original stuff and at least trying to get
away from that studio stuff. Maybe they're listening though something
like that. We'll see. Yeah, So let's talk about your
first con experience. Do you remember which show you attended?

Speaker 3 (13:25):
My first convince and this was actually I guess, well,
I've been to some little para cons, but my first
experience with Scarefest was the second one. I didn't even
hear about it the first year. I had no idea
that existed, and a friend of mine in Louisville said, Oh,
you got to come to this. It's great. It's all
kinds of paranormal people. You'll be networking, because back then
paranormal was like almost half the the footprint. And so

(13:49):
I went and I was hooked, the crowds everything about it.
And then the next year I said, I can't wait
to go by and then the son of a bitch
that invited me didn't like it. It had already got
too big for him. Oh God, it's lost his character,
and I'm like, dude, you know so yeah, but I've
been since. I've been there every year since the second one.

(14:11):
I missed exactly one.

Speaker 2 (14:13):
Wow, that's impressive. Any anyone you were excited to seeing
meet at at these before you became the media guy.

Speaker 3 (14:20):
Oh gosh, well when I Yeah, when I was big
back early, I was big into the paranormal field. So yeah,
there anybody they had I was happy to meet. I mean,
I remember Amy Rooney, I kind of met a Ghost Adventures.
Aaron's great Zach. It wasn't that. But I'm just gonna

(14:42):
say it wasn't that great of a meeting because I'm
not a good one about spending money when I go
to these things. I'm a tight one. But you know Aaron,
you see him out, he'd be out on smoking around
lounge and cutting up. You know, he'll talk to you
for an hour. But so they really that's where it
started was me is going to see the people I've
seen on TV from the paranormal field and getting to

(15:04):
talk to them network and having some good conversations over drinks.
Because that's one thing about Scarefest when they when we
close the convention doors, we're still going for another four
to six hours, sure, And that's been like that from
day one. It still goes on today now as I've
got to do the show for him, and they occasionally
helped me get ahold of a celebrity and bring in

(15:25):
I've made some really good friendships with some of these
celebrity guests. Now I'm not saying they would, you know,
invite me to their next wedding, but you know we
we are. You know, I've got the actual on my phone.
I could call them if I needed to. So, but yeah,
so there are some favorites.

Speaker 1 (15:43):
I'll tell you. I think I think some of some
of the people in the business, especially in the in
the horror movie industry. And you've said it like, there's
some of the most genuine people you're ever going to
talk to, you ever gonna meet. You know, we've we've
you know, Dave and I have made some some pretty
tight friendships over the past two seasons, just reaching out
and then you know, we've met some people at Scarefest,

(16:05):
We've done some interviews, and then you know, they're like
you said, they're in your cell phone, You're you're talking
to them, They're they're commenting on your your up to
your Facebook posts. You know, it's it's it's a it's
a family. It's a cool community.

Speaker 3 (16:16):
I think the the the celebrities over the vast majority
of them are the most down are just down to earth.
The people they'd live in the double wide next door.
You'd never know the difference. The fan now, we'll say,
horror fans are absolutely rabid. These people on earth they
are too. I I mean, I've watched, okay huge a

(16:39):
couple of days. I've watched I've watched fans go up
to celebrities and quote their movies, saying, you know, repeating
their lines to them, and you can tell the celebrity
don't remember the damn script by now, Yeah, it's been
twenty thirty years. And then last year we had Matthew Lillard.

Speaker 1 (17:00):
Oh yeah, yes, great guy.

Speaker 3 (17:02):
Okay. I worked. I helped his photo ops lines on
Saturday night, so I got to see everybody, you know,
before they got their photo op with him. I watched
fourteen year old girls come out of that faux op
photo op just absolutely sobbing with pleasure because they hadn't
met this man. And I'm going, the dude is my age.
We could be on the same bowling team. Geeze. So yeah,

(17:27):
it tight, it is. It's a tight community. Matthew is
special because he has fans from eight years old to
my age and beyond. He's been in the industry. Robert
England actually he's like that too, but the words got
around that he's just he's gotten to the age. You know,
he can't sign it as fast. He doesn't build as
much excitement. People don't go to the convention with the

(17:49):
high expectations of meeting him. But you know, Robert, you know,
you go back to the eighties and then just stranger things,
you know, a year or two ago. So he is
still getting that new fan base, but he's not he's
a hot ticket. But I think people have lowered expectations
because words out and around, you know, yeah, and he

(18:13):
just can't sign that fast.

Speaker 1 (18:15):
Do you think part of that that lowered expectation is
coming from just I mean, we've seen him at a
couple of shows and his lines are just massive, and
you kind of wonder like, well, I'm not gonna get
a chance. You know, he's just he's.

Speaker 3 (18:27):
Just too well, and you won't. You won't. That's the point.
First time we've had him, this is this will be
the at least the third time. The third time, I'm
pretty sure first time we had him, we let roughly,
I'm gonna throw out a number. I don't know what's right,
probably eight hundred people getting got in his line. Seven
hundred ever left man on Friday if you were on Saturday,

(18:51):
you know, because but you know, people just wanted to
get in and they'd waste the whole day standing in
his line. Now, let me be clear, a lot of
that is that he he spends five minutes with every signature.
He doesn't crank him out. He just you know, he
stands there, he talks to you. It's a great fan experience,
but that means when you spread it out, not as

(19:11):
many fans are going to get that opportunity in a
day's time. So there's that now. We came up with
a system. When he was coming back, we said we
can't go through that again. Well you know they were,
they were ready to come at us with torches because
they stood in line all day. So we were the
ones that came up with the system that so many
places are using now where you go up, you get
a ticket given approximate time you get then you don't

(19:35):
have to stand in the line. You just show up
when we call that group of tickets.

Speaker 1 (19:40):
So it's like the celebrity photo ops.

Speaker 3 (19:43):
Yeah, very very very similar to that.

Speaker 1 (19:45):
That's brilliant.

Speaker 3 (19:46):
Yeah, but we we have we got we follow him
around the country. We see about how fast he can
sign and other celebrities too. We did it for Matthew
Lillard last year. The thing on him is he'll stay
till midnight. If he's got people in his line, he'll
just he'll stand there till he drops dead. I think, wow,
you know, we were chasing people out of the building
with with brooms and torches and he's he's still signing.

(20:11):
Mister England, he's older than me. He's not gonna do that?

Speaker 2 (20:15):
Ye makes sense?

Speaker 1 (20:17):
Wes Uh you mentioned Brandon putting some T shirts in
your hand and dubbing you the media director. More more
than that, Uh, can you share some details about the
role actually, like because I got it? You know you
talked about scare Fest TV. What all goes into being
the media director for an event this big?

Speaker 3 (20:36):
Okay, the I'll put it this way. There's been a
lot of mission creep since I took it over. When
it started, you was podcast and then the enemy T shirts.
As the media director, I was in charge the main thing.
I was in charge of checking in media. In other words,
when you do you know, we do give up media
piece passes and so I was in uh charting out

(20:58):
at that particular show. All I do is hand them
out at a list. Now. Then, so the next year,
being media director, I had to figure out who wasn't
who wasn't media and I was I started from scratch. Soever.
You know, we'd put links on there. You know, they
give me links and I make sure they were a
real podcast or real magazine whatever.

Speaker 2 (21:17):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (21:18):
Now that the TikTok's out, everybody with a thousand TikTok
followers think thinks their media that's made of toughness because
I hate hurting people's feelings. But when you sign up
for TikTok, they give you a thousand followers. You know,
it just comes with the package. So it takes people
can't understand why don't jump at influencers because I put

(21:38):
my time in, had to do this. You know, I
know what goes into presenting a quality podcast. Just because
you can wiggle your butt in front of a webcam
don't impress me.

Speaker 1 (21:54):
So let's talk about Let's talk about planning though, Like
when the doors closed on a Sunday night, are do
you get some time off? Or are you already pause
Best Week at eighteen?

Speaker 3 (22:05):
You know?

Speaker 2 (22:06):
No?

Speaker 3 (22:06):
Start? Okay, now I don't because okay, first of all,
when we shut the doors on Sunday night, now this
is a running joke. I shouldn't call it a joke,
but it's our little dig at Adrian the show manager.
All the volunteers leave when we shut the doors, except
for a handful of us hardcore, you know, devoted staff members,

(22:29):
and so we're packing all that shit up. When you
go in and you see those set pieces that we've
set up, the twelve foot skeletons, the Stranger Things set
piece that we packed around, the Chucky Barbie doll thing.
All that stuff has to go in storage and the
convention center wants it out there by midnight. So but

(22:52):
for some reason, Okay, it was really tough. I think
it was three I want to give my story straight.
Three years ago, it just like kill us because they
just went Brandon went nuts on how many set pieces
that he brought. So the next year he said, no, no,
it'll be easier. This year, we've got pods and I said,

(23:14):
that doesn't change anything. They're just down the ramp so anywhere. Yeah,
And because he thought that he didn't even have as
many volunteers, so it did go a little faster, but
it was just the same number of people doing more
or different number of people, fewer people doing more work.
Then the last two years they've decided to something we

(23:35):
never did before. They've decided to schedule big events on
Sunday after the con big events that our volunteers would
sure damn well like to go to. So it's basically
now it's me Adam and j W. That's that's our
that's our Low Douck group. And and and they did
it again this year, they're having the Nightcap on Elm Street.

(23:57):
Start right at the end of the con. Everybody, I
one my volunteers called the other night, Are you going
to that? How can I go to that? Somebody, somebody's
got to get this crap loaded.

Speaker 1 (24:09):
Sorry, Yeah, hey, we might have to bring our gloves
and you know, so we might have to help this
guy out.

Speaker 2 (24:14):
I know, right, and.

Speaker 3 (24:16):
I get to actually trade somebody free tickets. Last year. Yeah,
he plowed up good girls. Yeah, I knew what was coming.
And I'm a doer. I'm a you know, I'm a
problem solver.

Speaker 1 (24:27):
Yeah. Well, Dave, I think now's a good time. We'll
take a quick break here from some of our sponsors,
and when we come back, we got more Wes, and
we got more about Scarefest. Welcome back. We are talking
with Wes Forsyth, the media director of Scarefest Weekend. What

(24:48):
has got to be the biggest horror convention? Yeah, ever, Dave,
do you think?

Speaker 2 (24:55):
Yeah? I mean, Scarefest is known as the Senator site
of Comic Con and has been called the ultimate horror, paranormal,
pulp culture convention. So Wes take us back to the beginning.
Can you tell us what the where the idea of
Scarefest came from. Who was involved in how it was
initially put together.

Speaker 3 (25:10):
Yeah you mentioned Patty, Yeah, Patty Starr and Jeff Waldridge
where the originator, Jeff Walder was a big horror fan.
He knew Patty had some money and some connections, and
so he went, he said, let's have a horror convention.
She said, I don't know anything about horror. Well what
if we mixed paranormal with it? At the time a

(25:30):
very novel idea. So she launched it in the Lexing convened.
We've already been a convention center show. But over the
years it did. It grew very organically. Now it kind
of leveled off at about ten thousand people. I'm not
gonna make any bones about it. Go up one year,
down one year. I think the biggest year was fifteen thousand,

(25:54):
before Brandon got hold of it, but yeah, it was
then they I think it by year three it was
already it basically gained on average probably one thousand people
a year. Then he bought it in Scarefest ten. That
was twenty sixteen, I want to say twenty seventeen, right

(26:16):
around there, and it was tough for a couple of
years because convention center. He's not he's he's got a
good job, he owns his own business, but he really
he's not a rich man, and it takes some real
money to put on these hotel or one of these
convention center conventions. So that first year it was hard

(26:36):
on him. I mean, he has house mortgage. He was
he was sweating. And then well we had a great crowd,
but the bills just were so high from the convention
center because nobody was watching the money. He came into
the organization, gave, you know, handed it over the checkbook,

(26:57):
but there wasn't anybody at that level that was really
watching the money. So the next year he started tightening
down and what he made sure he knew where every
penny was going, to find out where he could cut costs.
First year lost a lot of money. Second year he
owned it. It was roughly I think that was either
broke even or just went a little bit in the hole.

(27:19):
And by the but by the third year he started
showing a profit on it. And it wasn't by doing it.
He was just watching his expenses. And in the meantime though,
still the crowd was fairly flat. So he knew what
what he had to deal with. Then twenty twenty came
and COVID and he and of course we had the

(27:41):
year off yep. But it did give him a chance
to kind of get his take a breather, build a
bank account back up, and uh, and think about the
organization and you know, and how to put on a show.
So he had to really at that time he was
able to think about the kind of show that he would.
He liked the things he liked about other horror conventions,

(28:02):
but you couldn't find any one horror convention that did
them all right, and he would He started doing that.
Plus in the meantime he kind of became a wizdom
in internet marketing. Got to give him credit for credit
for that. And then he was scared to death in
the year after COVID had calmed down. Uh, we were
still under masked. They weren't mandates, but nah, it was mandates. Yeah,

(28:28):
and uh, Brandon was scared. He said, I don't think
people's gonna come out. I said, Brandon, people will come.
They were wanting out of the house so bad, you know,
don't even now that was one I called, right, I said,
people want out of the house. You don't even need
to have celebrities, just have a big party, don't show up.

(28:48):
But he did. He had celebrities, We had the convention,
and yes, we pretty much doubled our normal attendance that
next year and every year since we've grown on about
fifty Now we're not going to grow another fifty percent
this year because we're out of room. We're at capacity

(29:10):
we were and even though we've got more of the building.
That's one thing I want to get the word out
to people. Yes, we rented finally the entire The only
thing left is Rupperina and twenty five thousand seats and
no four space. Yeah, so we're not gonna rent that yet.
But we got every We've got every other inch of
that building. But we are did not add to the

(29:31):
number of tickets we're selling. That's to make room, make
it kind of get it back to that easy flow
that we were always known for.

Speaker 1 (29:39):
Well, it's like you said, it's grown bigger year after year,
and it's not just about meeting your favorite fiend or
scream queen. It's it's it's more than finding that vendor
that has the rare sealed copy of Halloween two on VHS.
Can you tell us about some of the great activities
that you guys provide, because there's all there's a bunch of.

Speaker 3 (30:00):
I knew you were going to ask me that I
should have wrote them all down. Okay, after ours events gorgeous.
We have a launch party.

Speaker 1 (30:08):
Yes.

Speaker 3 (30:09):
Now, if anybody ever been to Scarefest before or five
years ago and the launch party sucked, we got it
fixed now, Okay, but I've never been to a convention
that had a good launch party. Just they just just
and we didn't. They just always sucked. And then uh,
basically we said, well, let's quit putting so much energy

(30:29):
into it, and we just said horror trivia in a bar.
Place is packed. So yeah, that's our that's our launch party.
Then on Friday night, let's see, we've got of course
the War in a Cult Museum, Yeah, is coming this year.
We'll have a ghost hunt basically with that you can
actually buy a ticket to ghost hunt. Uh, bring your

(30:52):
little gadgets and and and lighty flashy things and they're
going to do what's called the with the headphones. Gosh,
that shows you what all out of an eye am
on ghost es ESTCE Experiment. Yeah, the ESTES method. They're
going to be doing that. They we have a celebrity

(31:14):
that night, Shane Pittman's coming in on Friday night to
Actually it's more of a participation with you, it's not
even his event. But then I also talk to Jericho
with Chris Jericho is one night, Worn Museum, War Museum
of course at Saturday night. Also we're doing two of them.
We have a ghost hunt schedule. We just scheduled it

(31:35):
for Friday night off site in case somebody doesn't want
to spend that money. We've got actually one that's fifty
fifty five dollars maybe down at the Living Arts and
Science Center. It's over it's well over one hundred years old.
It's almost two hundred years old. That'll be going on
with Aaron Seger's talk Scary to Me Live is coming

(31:59):
up on.

Speaker 1 (31:59):
They're coming back.

Speaker 3 (32:01):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah they may bank. No, they're
coming bay. I'd love to say it's for the fans,
but no, you know, it's it's a very popular event.
We've got of course gallery readings during the day, Psychic
gallery readings, War Museum, another ghost on Saturday night down
to the Italian Winery and Killers on the Rock now

(32:22):
this is another Lonch activity. Killers on the Rocks is
on Thursday, and basically it's whiskey tasting with celebrities and
hodd Ari mahailof felicea Rose. They go on a whiskey
tasting with you. We put a lot of effort into
making this our weekend a destination weekend. In other words,

(32:45):
he gets a horror convention, but we want you to
have something to do the entire time other than get
signatures and shop. Of course, we do have the film
festival I mentioned, we have the pan panels seminar. Seminars
usually lean towards the per normal still, but the panels
are greatly tilted towards the horror end of it. So

(33:08):
there's lot of seven of course, and we have our
VIP party on Saturday night, and then we have the
new Nightmare and I'm sorry Nightcap on Elm Street event
that we've just added this year and honor Robert England
and basically it's a or dervs and drinks with Robert England.

Speaker 1 (33:25):
Nice which sounds amazing, but we'll all miss because we
got packed the show up right wise.

Speaker 3 (33:34):
Yep, I'm I don't get in on that one. I
didn't even make the VIP party last year because I
volunteered for Matthew's line building for his photo ops. I
got out of there at eleven thirty and I said
there and I actually give it to give our security guy,
a logistics director, Adam credit he went to the party. Okay,

(34:00):
I did not go. I did not go to the
FB party.

Speaker 2 (34:04):
You're a busy man. I'm sure you get hardly know.

Speaker 3 (34:06):
I was tired, I was flat out. I was doll
as tired.

Speaker 2 (34:09):
I'm sure you are.

Speaker 3 (34:10):
Went over setting from the height a few minutes, had
a cocktail, went to bed.

Speaker 2 (34:16):
I don't blame you on that at all. So I've
noticed you're very active on the social media pages for
Scarefest weekend.

Speaker 1 (34:22):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (34:22):
You responded to comments about everything from guest request the
little things that can be found on Scarefest faq link,
and you're doing Scarefest TV. Are the interactions online ever
helpful in guiding your decisions for the next year's event.

Speaker 3 (34:35):
I will say we are one of the conventions and
this isn't okay on Facebook. I'm in charge of where
I shouldn't even have them in charge of it. I
get it's in my Wheelhouse. I answer most of the
questions that go on the so called business page now
the group. I do answer some of those the fan group,
but largely we have some volunteers that do that because

(34:57):
we get a lot more interaction on that page. Now,
on that I will say that we actually people don't
believe we do this, but we put a guest post
up right after the show that it'll go out there
a week do later request your celebrities here, and we
try to drive everybody rather than just make random posts.
You know, I want so and so put it on there.

(35:18):
They keep a spreadsheet. We have somebody that actually goes
through every day and sees what's been requested and keeps
a spreadsheet. Now I'm not saying it's shoe in, but
it really does affect the direction we go in the
next year in booking.

Speaker 2 (35:31):
That makes me feel that's one way. Yeah, I like
that you guys do that. That makes you, you know,
fan friendly basically is what it is. You're listening to
the people who come to that convention. You may not
get everybody that people request, of course not, because that's
just not the way it works, you know, But it's
not that to hear that you keep a spreadsheet like that.
That's impressive.

Speaker 3 (35:48):
Well, now, another thing I want to point out to people.
We are basically an eighties nineties horror movie convention. Okay,
on that end of it, that's when the classics came out.
We dipped our toes in the years into the more
modern stuff, and sometimes we got our toes bit off.
So I just want to have people to understand that's
why we don't try We don't go after uh some

(36:11):
of the current stars is because they first of all,
they don't want a conventions. But we even though they're popular,
we can't count on them drawing our fans in uh.
Here's here, there's a quick example. Tobin Bell. Yeah, we
had him six seven years ago. I had a fan

(36:32):
walk up to me and said, you mean Tobin Bell
is your headliner? You all got to do better? What? Wow?

Speaker 1 (36:38):
Come on?

Speaker 3 (36:40):
He'd but he I mean he's and he's I like
the movies, but said, he's not a horror star. And
now we can hardly get Tobin Bell because he's always
so busy doing horror conventions and he is one of
our most requested guests. I do want to point out
we tried to get him this year, but he was
already booked elsewhere.

Speaker 1 (36:58):
Well, yeah, that's aside from Tobin Bell.

Speaker 2 (37:01):
Though.

Speaker 1 (37:01):
Is there a specific guest you've had in mind over
the years that you'd like to see attend or perhaps
someone that you'd love to see make a.

Speaker 3 (37:08):
Return Evil Dead guy.

Speaker 1 (37:12):
It's Bruce Campion better.

Speaker 3 (37:14):
Yeah, Bruce Camble. Yeah, he's He was actually scheduled to
come back originally this year, but something came up and
couldn't do it. Because we thought that would be really cool.
I have Robert England and and him, so I look
for him to be back anytime. He's very popular with
the fans and the man is an autograph machine. The

(37:35):
thing I'll say about him, and really it's a lot
like Matthew, but he whips out autographs incredibly fast and
every fan walks away from him going that was such
a great experience. He has somehow just found that perfect
balance between engaging the fan and cranking out autographs. But really,

(37:57):
there's nobody we've really tried to now. We've tried to
get some, we had some we wanted this year. To
be honest, I'm not gonna drop names because hey, if
I dropping somebody say oh he said they're getting them,
you know, that'll be the first thing happens, or I'll
say we're not getting them, and then they come to
find out we end up with him because we were
waiting on filming commitments and we just never got them done.

(38:17):
But we had a couple of more really big big
stars this year that I hope we do get in
the near future. That but I'm afraid I would love
to drop the names to you, but it would just
backbur on me, so I'm not going. Oh. Yeah, Colic
s Cooper is one we finally gave up just trying
to get We get his agent says, yes he wants

(38:39):
did the show. Yes, I'll talk to him. Yes, Well,
we just got to wait on his touring schedule, and
every year it falls through. We finally just quit asking.

Speaker 1 (38:48):
Damn, that's unfortunate.

Speaker 2 (38:50):
I need him on my Friday the thirteenth poster, Part
six on Alice Cooper.

Speaker 1 (38:55):
Yeah, come on, Alice, listen. Uh, just because you mentioned
Bruce Campbell, I'm gonna shoot my shot right here. Uh.
I'll tell you something. If you could reach out to
Sam Rami at some point and just have him bring
in the Delta Classic, you know, the car from the
Evil Dead that shows up in every Sam Rami film
because you guys, you guys have some amazing cars that
show up, you know, some of the greatest vehicles from Hore.

(39:18):
You know, there's always gonna be anc that one. I've
seen the DeLorean. You know, you guys had the Kuda
from Phantasm last last.

Speaker 3 (39:24):
H Yeah, I never made it to in the building.
I forget what they have every year, but yeah, that's
the dead opposite end of where I'm stationed through most
of the convention. But yeah, I mean and even some
of the more frivolous ones. Supernatural, Oh gosh ya, the
Mystery Machine. We used to have the Mystery Machine every year.

(39:45):
So yeah, it's of course Christine. We get Christine about
every other year. Christine doesn't like to do same conn.
You can count on Christine next year.

Speaker 1 (39:58):
Now now west for for the first time a heading
to scare Fest. Are there any dues and don'ts you
can offer about meeting your favorite celebrity or maybe what
to expect on the convention floors?

Speaker 3 (40:11):
Well, first of all, anybody that has not been and
this actually you can use our website and then apply
what you learn to where we want to go read
the FAQ on our website, which incidentally I wrote, you
can tell there's a little snarky remarks in it every
but uh and then they put but they have put
together a lot of information on the website just has

(40:33):
to do with going to conventions in general. But the
main thing I would wear comfortable shoes. That's rule number one.
Rule number two is actually deodorant just for the sake
of it. But beyond that, I don't can tell people
is be patient in our case, expect your crowd. But
we do everything we can. Last year week we uh

(40:56):
jacked it up Friday night. We weren't expecting the mad
rush of uh Matt Lillard Lillard fans. Yeah, and data
hit is brought on and we did we got we
we dropped the ball fright. We had it fixed by Saturday.
You know, the line was back to moving the way
it should. But so we've actually instituted instituted a new

(41:16):
plan this year just to get people in the building early,
just to make sure there's stage ready to go even
if the tickets mess up. We've got extra time now
to work out the problems because we'll have you in
the building good. But as far as the We're an
easier one. As far as meeting celebrities, Robert England is
still is gonna be very, very difficult, But we have

(41:39):
found the magic number. Everybody thought Brandon was crazy crazy
when he went north of eighty celebrities because there was
always a tipping point there where you could the celebrities
couldn't make money. That is, it's spread it out too much.
But we was able to, or I shouldn't even say we.
I was not responsible for it, but he did manage
to keep the crowd growing and grow that number of

(42:00):
celebrities with it. And by doing so, now when you
walk up if you look at Oh my God, Pelissa's
line is ten people along. Oh look, Cane's it, you know,
and you go to and you've got another celebrity. With
that many celebrities, there's gonna be more than one you
want to meet. And so you get to you get
to choose your line that you want to stand in,

(42:22):
and it keeps it really keeps going smoothly.

Speaker 2 (42:26):
Well, one thing I'd like that you guys are doing.
You guys are getting groups of people from particular films
so you can just basically go down the line and
fill up a poster because you've got so many people
I love that I really do.

Speaker 3 (42:37):
Well. See that was once again, that was Brandon. We
were the same as every other convention. We just took
the who the agents threw at us. We'd have a headliner,
we'd try to get some supporting cast behind a headliner,
but we just really didn't put a lot of effort
into getting reunions. But Brandon once he bought it. Now
this Brandon's a horror fan. That's why he bought it.

(42:58):
He honestly was up to him. He closed the paranormal down.
But his wife is a paranormal fan, so that's what
keeps that into uh involved. But he knew what he
wanted out of the convention and he will and he's
one of those guys that will buy a poster just
to take it to the convention to get five signatures

(43:21):
on it. Yep. And then somewhere it occurred him, wait
if I could get the entire cast here, and in words,
you're looking at a fan building the convention that the
fan wanted mm hmm, and rather than just being all
over the map with the celebrities.

Speaker 2 (43:38):
Yeah, you can see it. I mean, I'm telling you
I'm gonna get as a kid seeing the Monster Squad people,
and how many of you all got what eleven?

Speaker 3 (43:45):
As far as we know, we're the biggest Monster Squad
reunion ever. Yeah, yeah, I read that.

Speaker 1 (43:52):
This is there's not been one this size ever and
you guys got it.

Speaker 3 (43:56):
Yeah, and and a lot of that that Once that's
I'm of this dumb luck because once you get so big.
As far as the convention you mentioned before, we don't
know we're the biggest convention in the country because when
we were I went to a couple of the ones
that said they were the biggest, and I'm like, you,

(44:18):
you couldn't fit our line for the bathroom in this convention.
So yeah, so you know, so I don't. But at
the same time, Texas frightmark great convention. They've moved a
convention center now, and I think, you know, we're on
we're on par with them. So I'm not gonna say
we're the biggest, but I'm saying we're we're, we're in
the team, We're we're still running for it. Uh, I'm sorry,

(44:40):
go ahead, No, I was just about to say, now,
what was I even talking about? When I start went
off on that tangent and.

Speaker 2 (44:46):
We were talking about reunions and stuff like that.

Speaker 3 (44:48):
Oh yeah, yeah, so.

Speaker 1 (44:49):
Getting getting the whole whole cast together.

Speaker 3 (44:51):
Yeah. But so I was talking about dumb luck of
it a lot of times. You know, we'll he'll have
a reunion in mind, and then the agents find out
that we're booking that reunion, and then of course they
started contacting and saying, hey, I've got the you know,
I've got the person that you know, customer number three
that was standing in line, I've got the dead lady
for you know, the caterer is really but they do,

(45:14):
really they find us a lot of times what what
have people? And He's like, that's never done a con before.
And they said, oh, I saw you're doing it. I
was in that movie and yeah, we know you were.
Where the hell have you been that way?

Speaker 2 (45:28):
That's awesome? Hey, I love that. And you know, you guys,
I think when we went to you guys what three
or four years ago, we fell in love with you.
We really did. We we love this convention very much
and we find we look forward to it every single year.
So we're starting to come back again this October for sure.

Speaker 3 (45:45):
But if that is that's a lot of our goal
is and this one thing I've been I'm in business
the repeat customers or what makes your business. You can
get new customers, but you've got to get people a
reason to come back to you. And I'm hoping that
we we we've done that. We Like I said, now,
some people first if they were last Friday last year

(46:07):
on Friday, if that was their first con experience with us,
they went away parties and wall I'll never go back there.
I'd love to say, give it to another shot, because
we'll we will do it right. We will fix it. Yeah,
I mean we it's we want people to come back.

Speaker 2 (46:22):
We were in that line on Friday and you know
those things happened. You know, it didn't FaZe us one bit.
You know, you know we're fans. We understand what you
guys have to go through to run a convention like that.
So but to hear you guys recognize that that and
are fixing it, that speaks volume. It really does.

Speaker 3 (46:38):
Well.

Speaker 1 (46:38):
It was a quick reaction to last last year too,
with that Friday, because I know when we got got
to the doors, I was like, man, they they kind
of course corrected quick, there, didn't they? They you know
kind of fixed it right on the spot, you know, so.

Speaker 3 (46:51):
We know what we know. Yeah, basically I think of
what that was. Some got screwed up, and then they
tried something that made it worse, and then finally they
kind of got it under control. Now I wasn't there
Friday night. Brandon was all a panicky and everything, and
and well I shouldn't say that he was. He was upset,
and so I said, okay, I will be there Saturday morning.

(47:11):
I'm not a morning person, but I said I'll get
up bright and early. And I did. I want I
do like my breakfast. But I got over there and
I took the reins and I got the best compliment.
Somebody went, uh uh, posted on online, well they got
the line working. It was going great until Wesley left.

(47:34):
I don't think that was true. But but I was.
I was out there. I was greeting people. I had
a postcard all the way from France. Somebody came from
France and saw me directing traffic and greeting people and
getting them across the street. And he said, you don't
see that. It conventions. The guy that it's not even
my damn job, the media director, the guy that does

(47:54):
her podcast is out there bringing fans into the building
making sure the lines are right. And that's and I'm
not and I don't want to take credit because that
is why the way our volunteers are our staff. That's
one thing we get a lot of compliments on. When
you walk up to one of our staff and ask
them a question, they're instructed they are not allowed to say,

(48:15):
I don't know. Goodness, if they don't know the answer,
they're going to escort you to the person they know
that will.

Speaker 2 (48:21):
And you know, I experienced that last year. I went
up to some at work because I had a question
for them and they didn't know what they said. Hold
on a second, let me go, let me go find
such and such, let me get this answer for you,
so I know exactly what you're talking about. That's exactly
what happened to me. So kudos to you for that.

Speaker 3 (48:35):
Well, we we think it's very important for the fan experience.

Speaker 2 (48:39):
And it is and that's why we keep coming back.
And that's why you guys keep growing because obviously you
care about it. You care about the fans, and you
care about the guests. They are there. You can see
it because the guests are having fun. I mean, everybody
we met last year and the year before that is
just or having the time of their life. You know,
you want to sit down with them. I mean you
could sit there for hours with them if you could
have the time, and they had the time, you know,

(49:01):
to listen. It's it's a great experience for fans. It
really is a question you do you do? So I
got a question for you. I mean we had many
questions for it, but I got another one for you.
If you guys thought about inviting anybody from like cryptids
and stuff like that, you know that genre. Have you
thought about that?

Speaker 3 (49:19):
Yes? Okay, how can I explain this? We actually had
some people from the cryptozoology booked last year. I'm in
I'm largely in charge of booking the per normal side,
and we we pulled that in that new apology into
the into that side of the building and I had

(49:40):
a couple We announced them and then they called me.
We had them out like a month and they called
and said, we got to cancel, we're filming. Then just
let me know we're filming. So we lost them. Then
we had another convention in Lexington that's a month after us.
That the minute they were on the phone the minute

(50:03):
we announced the cancelation and booked them, and now what
that they're going back this year, I'm pretty sure they're
just trying to keep us from getting them. That being said,
we have the Mountain Monsters coming. I realize it's not
the serious side of it, but we do. We do
look at that and like now our speakers, there's usually
somebody that will be speaking about it. They may not

(50:25):
be famous, but there we do try to make sure
that they're an authority. You might say, sure, but we
are trying to get like we we want to get
more into the cryptozoology and in UFO type fields and
it probably I'm not gonna say it's be easier to do,

(50:46):
but paranormal. As far as paranormal TV, it's slim pickens
now and a lot of us went to streaming. But
as far as what's on TV in the for the
wide audience, they've canceled everything. Aaron Sagers as other than
Ghost Adventures. Aaron Sagers and his paranormal caught on camera.
I believes the name of it. He's that's one of

(51:08):
the last paranormal shows left on TV.

Speaker 2 (51:11):
That's crazy.

Speaker 3 (51:12):
But there are still UFO shows and I believe the
crypt the some of the the Bigfoot shows are still going,
so we're we'll we'll work on that harder. Yeah, just
try to stay current with that. It's funny and horror.
We don't have to stay correct, right, paranormal we did do.

Speaker 2 (51:29):
Yeah, it makes sense. I'm a big Crypti guy. I
love bigfoot sasquatch, anything to do with that. I'm a
huge fan. I have been since I was a little kid,
and I would just love to be able to get
some of those groups who I see on YouTube and
stuff like that. There's a group called small Town Monsters.

Speaker 3 (51:44):
Yeah, no, we we had what's the guy's name that's
in charge? That on top of my head right now anyway,
But yeah, he's from Ohio. I've known him for years.
We actually had him two or three three years ago,
four years Yeah, he so we it is on our radar.

Speaker 2 (52:07):
So yeah, okay, good deal. So, looking back over the
yours of scare Fest Weekend. As the media guy, do
you have a favorite moment you can share with us
besides being busy all the time?

Speaker 3 (52:19):
You know, that's a tough one. I'm gonna give you
a generic answer first, and then I'll be more specific generically,
I make really good friendships with the slibs that come
on my show. Melanie Kenneman, we kept in touch. I've
known Dustin Perry from the paranormal side forever. We keep
in touch. Beatrice Buffly, who incidentally, I am absolutely in

(52:43):
love with that woman. I would murder my wife to
but then felicita rose. Of course, every she's everybody's friend,
but every time, you know you, when she sees me,
you know, she will jump out from at her table
and give me a big hug. But I think she
does that with like everybody she's ever known. But so

(53:03):
in generically, it's just the friendships I made and getting
to see those people again. But specifically, and this fell
mostly towards the felicita side of the argument, I basically
made a bet that I said I will dress up
as the what I called the douchey eighties character from

(53:25):
sleep Away Camp, which Ina didn't laugh, metting he's not
He's really hell. He's a hell of a guy. But
so yeah, cut off shirt, daisy do shorts, the works,
and some of a bitch found a somebody found a
loophole in the way I made the bet, and I
and I said, no, I'm gonna stand up to it.
So yes, I actually did cosplay sleep Away Camp cause play.

(53:50):
It was just two years ago and I was sucking
my gut here, so yeah, but that's probably the right now.
That is probably most memorable experience and the reception it got. Honestly,
he was Catherine. Uh hope, I don't mess pronounce her name,
gosh v I hope she didn't watch this anyway, but

(54:14):
one of the other stars was there, and uh, Catherine Cammy.

Speaker 1 (54:19):
Yeah all right, now she's a listener.

Speaker 3 (54:21):
Dave ye, you saved it West, thank you, Okay, Uh yeah,
I got to take pictures. I mean that, you know,
she wanted a selfie with me. Felicia got his selfie
with me, all because I was in my little type
bans and tucking my gut in my cut off shirt.

Speaker 2 (54:36):
I was about ready to ask you if there's photo
evidence of this, but.

Speaker 3 (54:39):
Oh yeah, it's it exists on the internet.

Speaker 1 (54:47):
Well, as we wrap things up, let's talk about what's
next for Scarefest, because, uh, if this event wasn't big
enough next year, uh twenty twenty six or is a
midyear event planned? What what can you tell us about
Spawn of scarefest.

Speaker 3 (55:03):
Not a lot, just because we've been so tied up
in the planning for this that they haven't let me
in on what any of the planning that they made
on on that show. It's going to be a hotel show.
It's going to want to where it's going to be
much smaller now. I mean we're talking twenty thirty celebrities tops,

(55:25):
just because you know, that's about a hole we can
fit in the hotel. But Brandon kind of wanted he's
wanting to do an extra event, and he wanted to
do something to take us back to our roots. That
smaller crowd, the more intimate, you know. Uh, we're not
gonna get thirty thousand people, forty thousand people in this hotel.

(55:47):
Matter of fact, when we told him how many we
were expecting to show up, they went white. So we
might have to work on that. Because I told Brandon
when he bought the business brand, you had nine thousand
people that if you bolted the door shut, they would
break the windows and come in. You've got that covered.
But uh, but yeah, that's uh, it's gonna be a

(56:09):
a smaller version. Uh, it's gonna be more of a
I want to say a party atmosphere most of the
after our stuff will be more geared, like we're already planning. Uh.
They've got fire pits at the hotel and we're gonna
be sitting around the fire pits and and and just
see what all we can get into outdoors. It'll be
in June, so I don't have a lot of details

(56:32):
on it, but I can tell you it is gonna
be a completely different animal from what we are now.

Speaker 1 (56:37):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (56:37):
It takes me back to when we first started going
to conventions back in the late nineties, where you had
those hotel events and they're very intimate. You know, they
weren't gigantic crowds, but they're you know, decent crowds and
you you had more time to like sit there and
talk to the guest and take your time with them
and stuff like that. And I am absolutely a static
that you guys are gonna do that, and I would
definitely be there for that. I I can't wait.

Speaker 1 (56:58):
Well, I can't wait, Dave, I know we got three
weeks to go. Uh. Scarefest Weekend is taking place this
October seventeenth through the nineteenth at the Central Bank Center
in Lexington, Kentucky. Tickets. You're on sale now, so head
to www dot Scarefest Weekend dot com to get your tickets.
Secure those celebrity photo ops, find out all about the

(57:20):
great things happening during the.

Speaker 2 (57:22):
Weekend, and listeners, are you heading to Scarefest Weekend next month?
We'll be there all weekend long and we hope you
see you there. Who are you hoping to see? Let
us know on social media. You'll find us on Facebook, Instagram,
and x. You can check us out at www dot
film by podcast dot com for our film and TV
articles and our entire library streaming free. Write to us

(57:43):
at a film by Podcast at gmail dot com with
your questions, comments and concerns. We may just read your
response on the show and send you some a film
by swag.

Speaker 1 (57:52):
Well, So, I gotta tell you, man, this has been
a blast having you on and talk to scat talking
scared movies, talking, talking paranormal anything. Uh where can our
listeners if they want to, if they want to find
out more about uh your side of the business, like
you know, like with the with the paranormal stuff. Any
anything you can you can offer us.

Speaker 3 (58:10):
I don't do paranormal anymore. I got I got tired
of watching. I got tired of reviewing evidence, watching sixteen
hours of myself talking to walls. Uh it so I
I do a little bit of that now on the
uh we'll call it the celebrity side, if you will.
But as far as actual ghost stuff, now, I I

(58:32):
I couldn't even lay my hands on most of this
stuff I collected. I will say, if you want to, uh,
find out more about Scarefest TV. Uh. We got the
website now Scarfest radio dot com because Brandon never offered
to buy me a new domain, so it's still under
Scarefest Radio dot com. But we've got the full archives
up there. It's searchable and you can kind of see

(58:54):
how I cut up every every goddamn Fridays.

Speaker 1 (58:57):
I like you said, well, that's fantastic.

Speaker 3 (59:01):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (59:02):
We appreciate you being on here. We thank you, and
hopefully we run into you at the show. You'll be there, right, I.

Speaker 3 (59:09):
Mean, oh yeah, yeah, all right, whether you're right in
the traffic, you'll either see me outside line building or
now if you get if it's later in the day,
just wait at the top of the escalator. I spend
ninety percent of my time going from the scare FIST
TV booth, which is you know where the big column is. Yep, Okay,
that's where our booth is. From there to the second floor,

(59:31):
back and forth because I run the second floor and
so yeah, just stand at the escalator and eventually you'll
fuck catch me.

Speaker 1 (59:37):
Okay, Well, remember that we'll be on the lookout for you.

Speaker 2 (59:40):
Was uh.

Speaker 1 (59:41):
This has been great and for those of you out
there listening each week, following us on social media and
subscribing to our Patreon, we thank you and we'll see
you at Scarefest.

Speaker 2 (59:53):
See you then,