Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Come joined up fun.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
That'll make just come joined up fun s, come chinned
up fun.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
All right, welcome to this week's episode of The silver
Wood Show podcast. I'm your host s j Sarah Jean,
whatever you want to call me, and I got Jordan here,
and uh, we have really awesome guests this week, and
we're kind of kind of split this thing up, right, Yes,
so let's just get into the meat of it. Because
this guy was on The Walking Dead, which is like
(00:33):
super cool. We were like in the midst of a
celebrity during this interview, and uh.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
We're really lucky to have him in this apartment.
Speaker 4 (00:41):
You probably have seen him walking around doing his zombie
drool and all that, maybe.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
Even on TV.
Speaker 5 (00:46):
Yeah TV here in the park. Either way, now's your
chance to meet him.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
Let's bring in Robert Dixon, also known as Bubb the Zombie.
Speaker 5 (01:00):
Big Drum, and we are back with another very spooky guest.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
And I don't know that I've really seen you out
of makeup, but we've got Robert Dixon here. He is
bub the Zombie and you probably know him from his
mouth goew because the jul jewel is just absolutely it's.
Speaker 5 (01:21):
The one thing that can actually make me go. He
so good at it. He's so good at it. But
he's here with us.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
And so tell us, how long have you been perfecting
your zombie art here at scary.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
I started doing this back in nineteen eighty four.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
Nineteen eighty four, So you were a zombie before I.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Worked with Elvira at not Sperry Farm.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
Okay, so you've been in the parks industry and that's
why you're so so good at this?
Speaker 5 (01:48):
And when did you start at Scarywood?
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Last year? Last year? Last year was the last year?
Really was awesome?
Speaker 5 (01:55):
Wow?
Speaker 3 (01:55):
So when I met you last year, that was your
first year here here here, Yes, I know, but like, yeah, well.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
When you've been doing it, it's a little different normal
first year liyan blown.
Speaker 5 (02:09):
And so you plan on sticking with us for like ever,
we're keeping you right?
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Oh yeah, I can just be buried somewhere.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
Perfect, perfect zombie everywhere.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Yeah, exactly, even during the regular yeah, pop out somewhere.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
So what do you do in the regular season in
the off season, what's your.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Your compete professionally in Spartan races?
Speaker 5 (02:30):
No, huh, that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
I've been doing I've been doing that for over thirteen
years now. Wow, yeah, I play I played semi pro
rugby for twelve I could see that, and then I
jumped into the Spartan races. And then in between all that,
I was working in the movie industry.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
Okay, because you have some zombie movie background too, right, Okay,
go ahead and tell everybody.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
I worked in the Walking Dead series seasons one and two.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
Yes, I tell everybody that. That's my my bragging right, So.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Like, how was that is it?
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Like?
Speaker 4 (03:07):
How much of that inspired who you are today with
your zombie one hundred percent?
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Yeah, because one of the characters I did in season two,
uh was similar to what I do here. It's exactly
you know that character that I brought to life.
Speaker 5 (03:25):
I could recognize it. That's why.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Yeah, and yeah he was he was in season two.
He was like the main roamor so every time you know,
shots were taken or there was you know, they were
going into certain areas or whatever, you would always get
a glimpse of me walking path. That's so cool.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
It makes me want to pull up all my walking
down and just like get all the clips.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
But the makeup was it was just phenomenal. How long
would it take that would Gay just for prosthetics and
makeup alone, it was over close to four hours.
Speaker 4 (03:58):
My goodness, a little bit different than what we have
to do here. Yeah, I mean the fact what they
do and like, what how long does your makeup take care?
Speaker 3 (04:06):
What?
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Thirty five? Probably maybe forty minutes. I kind of like
tell them, yeah, to keep going, keep going, keep going, and.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
They do such a great job and it looks so
amazing here. I can't even imagine after four hours.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Oh I did the character for Universal probably in ninety
five and that makeup and costing me alone just to
get ready took me almost five hours.
Speaker 5 (04:32):
Oh my god.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
And then how long were your days on set? What
was a typical day.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Like six eight hours?
Speaker 4 (04:41):
Wow?
Speaker 5 (04:42):
After makeup or with makeup?
Speaker 2 (04:44):
No, that's you come in pre and you're you sit
and you have your own spec Yeah, you have your
own private or special makeup artists. That does because they
know the prosthetics they're doing, they know your character inside.
Now they tweak it, they do any like that. So
you're you sit with them and they do everything and
it's costamine and then it's on set and then obviously
(05:07):
we know how you know how that runs, right? You
know you fil for maybe an hour, and then there's breaks,
there's you know, do overs, there's yeah. So yeah, like
twelve hour days.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
Wow, so he's got some background and then you definitely
spent a little bit.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
Yeah, that's what you call a great resume.
Speaker 5 (05:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
So we basically had our clown who's now a clown,
and you're basically a zombie in real life too.
Speaker 5 (05:33):
So I mean that's fantastic. I love seeing something work
out like that.
Speaker 4 (05:37):
How about like going back to what got you into
this business.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
I was twelve thirteen, I guess, and my brother was
working at Knotsberry Farm when they first started not Scary Farm, Yeah,
back in the seventies, so that was like seventies six,
and I went with them one day and that was it.
(06:06):
Plus I had an aunt that worked for Disney. She
was one of the Mermaids and the Lagoon back in
the sixties, okay, and she did character work and she
was also in tons of movies. Yeah, yeah, she was,
that's right cool. Yeah, she was involved in I couldn't
even I couldn't even count them from the sixties into
the seventies.
Speaker 5 (06:26):
That's amazing.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
So and she would take me to set all the time,
back then.
Speaker 5 (06:31):
So that's me.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
I just you know, I was I was the little
guy that was just like in awe. So I got
to meet like so many people from back in that era.
That was just amazing, I'm sure phenomenal.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
And then going into I mean you said eighty four
was your first year and that was was that at
not Scary Farm?
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Correct?
Speaker 1 (06:52):
And what was your character back then?
Speaker 2 (06:54):
I was one of the original sliders, so yeah, it
was me and three other guys and that was it.
Speaker 5 (07:00):
Wow, he's a slider too. Yeah, well but we were.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
Yeah, we wouldn't be running Spartan races probably.
Speaker 5 (07:07):
We were still a slider. But yeah, yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
If the grandpa needs you could teach our young bocks.
Speaker 6 (07:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Yeah, that was the first characters they developed, in fact,
because they never had anything like that, and for some
reason that year they're like, we gotta, you know, this
is something that we want to bring out.
Speaker 4 (07:28):
So how did how did that whole thing start? Because
now it's so iconic everywhere has sliders, but I mean
it started really with you guys correct. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Yeah, there was really no one ever heard of, Like,
as far as I know, I don't remember any sliders
back because that was yeah, that was season eighty three
eighty four. Yeah, so I don't remember ever. Yeah, and
I used to go to tons of you know, all
the home haunts and stuff like that. You never saw anything.
Speaker 5 (07:56):
I wonder who the person was.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
It was just like, I'm gonna create this character that
slides and sparks and does all the things.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
I have no idea because, yeah, we when we went
in for what our characters were going to be, you know,
because they mold and they cast everything for us, they
were kind of throwing the idea like, hey, you know,
these guys are going to be like sliding and stuff,
and we were like, you know.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
We were all, yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
We all skated and everything like that. So to us
it was like cool, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, we do
this every day. But you know, and then it just
spawned from there. And like you said, it's just you
can go any you know, any haunt and they're sliders. Yeah,
just like chainsaw right, Knots never had a chainsaw a
person ever until I think it wasn't until the mid
(08:46):
eighties that I saw like the first guy with a saw.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
Wow, that's and now it's mean it's like, yeah, you
have to have it.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Yeah, you have to have a crew now.
Speaker 6 (08:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Yeah, So when I was up at Universal doing HHN
and all that, you know, I was I was the
sergeant for the Chainsaw crew, and yeah, it was just
it's the best when you get when you you know,
and we had free roam at the park back then,
so we just they were just like take your team
and off you go. That's awesome, that's so funny.
Speaker 5 (09:19):
I mean just literally like the Horror Master.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
The background here.
Speaker 4 (09:23):
Well, and then you throw out a name like Alvira,
I mean, how iconic is that name?
Speaker 1 (09:27):
What was that whole experience?
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Like, she's amazing, She was amazing. It's like the sweetest
woman in the world. So, yeah, she did the show
there at Notts because she did the original starting the show. Okay,
I think what is it the Good Time Theaters or
whatever it was. Yeah, so myself and five other guys.
She had her stage characters, you know, the creatures that
came out for a show. We weren't that. We were
(09:51):
like the VIP characters that would walk with her around
the park on her breaks, because she loved walking around
the park and meeting everybody and pictures and I mean
that that's how she was back then.
Speaker 5 (10:02):
Yeah, so character bodyguards.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Yeah, so that's what we did, you know, and then
we were part of the hanging. So wow, back in
the old days when the hanging was really good, when
the witch was brought down you know in the Yeah, man,
there's so much history.
Speaker 5 (10:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (10:23):
So and coming to Scarywood now like that transition. I
know you've talked about it. You're like it feels like
old Knots, Like what described that?
Speaker 2 (10:30):
What does that mean to you? Well? Like last year
when I first came and we walked around and stuff,
I was just like it was like memory lane to me.
I thought it was back in Knots again. It was
just just the atmosphere, the people, the way people are
super relaxed, you know, just open for all kinds of ideas,
(10:52):
you know, just all that stuff, and right there was
that's how it was. You know, everyone put their input in.
If you had ideas or anything like that. It was
like extremely well taken and you'd see it. Yeah, you'd
see it, you know. Yeah, and that's yeah. When I
walked in, I was just like oh wow, like total
(11:14):
manor Yeah. Just sitting down there right now, it was
just like my head was just going like you know,
I was thinking like back in the eight you know,
I was going that far back. Just this place is
so much like, yeah, that's so cool.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
That's it's so cool.
Speaker 4 (11:31):
And to see just where you were where you are
now and all the interweaving stories that happened, and now
that you're here and you're there's such an iconic character.
I mean, it's so funny to watch people take pictures
of you, and seriously and we love taking video of
you because far like the.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
Most photogenetica of anyone, those ones that you guys did
for the advertising, like and that's when I had to
step out because of the goo and I was like,
I can't, I can't.
Speaker 5 (11:59):
It was just so good at it. It's just incredible.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
But I'll be like going through photos for social media
and things like that, and just everything that anyone's ever
taken of you is just perfect.
Speaker 5 (12:10):
All I need.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
It's good. Great.
Speaker 5 (12:12):
So, yeah, you do just a phenomenal job.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
At your even even the front you know, before opening. Yeah,
it just that just totally reminds me of you know,
I walked up there the other night and I was
just like yeah, wow, I had to like stop and
pause because I'm like am I Mike going back because
it was so much like that.
Speaker 5 (12:36):
Well, that's a great thing about it.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
You have to give this guy so much credit for
everything that I mean, honestly, it's incredible the way that
his brain works. And just even watching him throughout the
season before Scary would even starts.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
Ye see all the stuff.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
Yeah, I mean it's NonStop and this was really the
passion behind it.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
Yeah, definitely, And it's so much fun.
Speaker 4 (12:59):
And I feel like horror and in a sense is
like true storytelling correct because you can go into these
areas where people really can't touch besides in like this
one vein of storytelling and you look at people like
Jordan Peel and all these these stories that are like
really creepy and really really good, but they are they're
(13:21):
down this one avenue that is so unique. And I
would say maybe comedics, like stand up comedy is very
similar in the way that you can you can get
across what like I don't know, I don't even know
how to really explain it, but you can you can
really say what the people are thinking. And I think
with horror you can really display what the people are thinking, right.
Speaker 6 (13:42):
And you do a great job fantastic. It's really it's
really fun and that's what it should be. It should
be and that's and that's what we tell everybody. If
it's not fun, what are we doing? Like we're scaring people.
Speaker 4 (13:55):
That's always fund right, and.
Speaker 5 (14:00):
That's why this guy's scaring people around.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
So yeah, you'ren't been proud of me.
Speaker 4 (14:04):
There was there was a time where I dressed up
as a coat rack coat rack right next to her desk.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
He literally took the coat rack from next to my
desk and became the coat rack and had the coat
everything dressed all in brown, full on.
Speaker 5 (14:18):
Like it was the one.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
Time, you know, like you have those nightmares we you
can't scream because you're so scared.
Speaker 5 (14:24):
Just nothing came out.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
It was just like like I pretty much had a
heart attack and almost died. There was that.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
That's phenomenal, so good.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
So for you when you're out there in the middle
of the night. What's your favorite thing about it?
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Yeah, the interaction with the people, it really is. Yeah,
you know, it's an interaction. It's that when you know
somebody just walks by and then they turn and they're
in awe just like and that's you know, it's rewarding. Yeah,
you know, and it's like it makes you work even harder.
And you know, I, I mean, all the characters that
(15:01):
I've done for all those years, I still never you know,
to me, it was like every night was like a
new night. No matter how many times I did that character,
no matter how many times I was going to be
that character, it was a new night, and it was
a new beginning, you know, And I just love that.
But the people, it's the people, you know, that interaction
(15:23):
and just seeing their you know, their faces and they're
just in awe and like you say, you know, they
walk by and they're like, oh my god.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
He's.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
You know, and you know, it's just like it's hearing
that kind of stuff is like it's it's rewarding.
Speaker 4 (15:40):
You know, it's like a pat on the back. Yeah, sure,
oh it for sure is. Yeah, it's a five star review.
That's what it is. Truly like in real time.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
Yeah, it's so cool. It's such a cool feeling. And
if you really enjoy doing this, or you really enjoy
you know, working in you know, atmospheres like this, like
it's one hundred percent rewarding. You know, when you have
a good crew, a good staff, a good everything, a
good backbone you know that's there with you. It encourages
(16:11):
and everything like that. It's like, oh my god, you
don't want to stop. Yeah, so true. You know.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
The first time I saw you guys do the heartbeat
before everything kicks off, you know, and then the flat line,
and that for me it was like, wow, they are
a family.
Speaker 4 (16:28):
For those listening, we do this thing called Heart of
the Haunt and at the end of each we do
notes and we talk about what's coming up and all
that stuff, and we do this Heart of the Haunt
where we do like a heartbeat and a flat line
and we all carpet knocked them, which mean sees the night.
Let's started before I was here. So that's been going
for a long long time. But I think it does.
It's one of those things that just unites people. They're
like at first they're like, man, this is kind of silly,
(16:49):
but at the end they're like, we're together, let's do it,
and we're all we got because we're going to create
our energy and we're going to scare everybody out there.
And you got to have that mindset because I mean,
how many times as it like you see people that
just get defeated because they don't scare everybody.
Speaker 5 (17:04):
Yeah, my favorite.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
It just becomes like a big family, and the family
looks out after each other really do. Like everywhere I've worked,
even when I was on The Walking Dead, everyone was
like a family. Cool, you know, everybody kind.
Speaker 5 (17:20):
Of was like, you know, there's a whole different sense
of understanding it.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
Really is unless you're unless you're in it, or you're
developing it, creating it like you you know, and all
that kind of stuff. It's just like you don't know
until you were in the middle of it.
Speaker 4 (17:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:36):
Absolutely, That's definitely what I love to so yeah, but
it's so fun watching you.
Speaker 5 (17:41):
Do you ever get to be a guest? Are you
always working?
Speaker 2 (17:45):
But you haven't been a guest?
Speaker 4 (17:49):
He's moved to He's like tonight he's going to be
in the Swine. Oh so's he's done some other okay,
the other positions. And the thing is we trust him
so much. We're like, you're a Romert, just do whatever
you want you in.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
The most random places.
Speaker 5 (18:05):
And I'm like, is there a zombie huh?
Speaker 1 (18:07):
Well, a funny story about him?
Speaker 4 (18:09):
Last year we we sent him on a loop, right,
and he's like in his zombie yeah costume outfit, and
he doesn't break character. He is who he is. And
I don't know, it took you like four hours to
get around I think it was.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
It took me four hours and I still I didn't
I didn't get to the end.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
I will say this.
Speaker 3 (18:27):
For producer Jay since he can't talk right now, but
you got him. It was like the things hadn't even started.
This is how much he does not break character. Was
it backstage Jay entrance to Swine Entrance to Swine and
nobody's around and you're just coming at him slowly, you know,
doing your zombie walk, and Jay's.
Speaker 5 (18:47):
Like looking around like this guy actually coming.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
But I think that is a good point.
Speaker 4 (18:54):
Like there's so many people that like they tried to
depend on the speed right. Well, for you, it's more
about the slow pace that is scary. So can you
talk a little bit about that, like that difference for
you your mindset?
Speaker 2 (19:07):
Well, I mean for that I was you get trained
Like when I was on the on the series, I
was basically trained because they had they have characters for
you as walkers. You know when they look and they
kind of have Okay, he's going to be one of
the main top ten or whatever like that. You literally
get trained with that character, so they you know, they
(19:30):
show you all the ins and outs what they're looking
for and stuff. So I just developed that. Yeah, and
they said the slower you are, the more menacing you're
gonna be. Yeah, and that's where.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
I got it works over there.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
And I did the same thing. I drooled anytime there
was close ups or anything like that. You know, I
just I drew. I drooled out. Yeah, you know, no noise, no,
because that's the most scariest thing. It's like you don't
know what this guy's gonna do, and he's moving so slow.
What you know, you almost get in you know, you
(20:06):
get memorized by him, you know, because you're just an
awe staring Yeah.
Speaker 5 (20:10):
Yeah, and it's true.
Speaker 4 (20:11):
It is.
Speaker 3 (20:12):
It's like looking at a flame, honestly, like when you're
at the campfire or something and you just kind of
get lost in it.
Speaker 5 (20:17):
Watching you the same way.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
Yeah, So you know, it was like it was taught
to me and then I just you develop it like
any other character you're gonna do. You know, you study
it and you understand and you're like, I'm going to
perfect it.
Speaker 5 (20:31):
If you couldn't be a zombie, what would you be?
What would be if.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
You could be, if you could be anything maybe that
you haven't done before.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
What haven't you done before?
Speaker 5 (20:42):
Anything left?
Speaker 2 (20:44):
I don't know, because I've done so many different characters,
just you know, and like I said, I when I
get assigned a character or they pulled me aside and said,
you know, this is what we're going to do. You know,
this is our idea. It's like I just I immerse
into it and I and I study it and I do.
I mean, I've done so many. I one of my favorites, though,
(21:07):
was this demon character for I think that was Paramount
Studios and uh just insane costuming and makeup that was
another three hours.
Speaker 5 (21:20):
He would make a great demon.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
It was just like a full body suit with the
hands and the hoofs and the and I had. I
had the big horns, and I mean it was just it.
Speaker 5 (21:35):
Was just yeah, extravagance.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
I I even like kind of stood there in awe
when I was like in full costume, wait wait a second,
but then to step out and become that character, you know,
it was the same thing I didn't. I wasn't a
speed demon or anything. Like that. I walked it gradually
and I just kind of just roamed around the hoos.
Speaker 4 (22:00):
I know.
Speaker 5 (22:02):
Yeah that's crapy.
Speaker 4 (22:03):
Yeah, I mean I I think some of that is
the scariest part is just like someone who knows I
don't have to run. I'm going to get you no
matter what. Right, So I applaud all of that. It's
very good.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
It's true, you know. I mean, that's you know, it's
it's it's a stalking technique. Yeah, that's really what it is,
you know, And even when with the zombie character whatever,
you know, it's like, yeah, I'm not running, I'm not screaming,
I'm not yelling, I'm not verbally making any noise. It's
a stalking stocking and you don't know what you know,
I pause and you don't know, like what's happening. But
(22:41):
then you, like you said, you come around the corner
and it's like.
Speaker 5 (22:43):
How did you get Yeah, exactly, that's the stalking. Well,
if any of our listeners would like to come get stocked.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
Bub the Zombie bub bub bubbs bub bub the Zombie.
Speaker 5 (22:57):
I love that name. It's so Bob Zombie.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
You got to come on out to Scarywood. He is
roaming often, but most times you can find him over
by Corkscrew.
Speaker 5 (23:07):
Correct, that's where I see you the most.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
Or super round up that area.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
So yeah, come on out. Yes, we have a celebrity
in our midst.
Speaker 5 (23:17):
Come check him out, Come out to Scarywood.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
And Joran, is that our final that's our final guest.
Speaker 5 (23:22):
Yeah, it's you, guys, So we save the best for lasts.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
Right, don't let.
Speaker 4 (23:30):
Mad.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
Yeah, but with the one Zombie, we had a lot
of clowns and then we had our zombies. So thank
you so much for joining us and for everybody listening.
Make sure that you sign up to be a loyal listener.
We could be calling you next at Silverwidth themepark dot
com slash podcast. And that's a wrap on this week's ride.
Thanks for tuning into the Silverwood Show. If you had
(23:53):
a blast to make sure to subscribe, leave us a
review and share the fun with your fellow thrill seekers.
Got a question, story, or suggestion, send it our way
to podcast at Silverwood themepark dot com for a chance
to be featured in our mail train segment. Until next time,
keep your hands and feet inside the podcast and stay thrilling.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
Go come time that fun