October 26, 2024 • 28 mins
Derrick of Van Oaks Props talks about what we can expect this Spooky season. It's all on KFIAM-640!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, it's Neil Savedra.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
You're listening to KFI EM six forty The Fork Report
on demand on.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
The iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
KFI AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
Hey everybody, it's the FOROK Report. All Things Food, beverage
and beyond is what you hear me say every single Saturday,
basically three hours that we get to kind of shake
off the heaviness of the news, whatever's going on in
the world, and celebrate food, the people that make it,
(00:29):
the culture behind it. The difference today is we're talking
more about the beyond. I thought, you know what, there's
been a lot going on. It's been a big The
minute we get into September, my life changes and it
gets incredibly busy, and I thought, I want to do
something different. Let's talk about the beyond. And I want
to introduce you to some people that I find interesting
(00:50):
and I hope you will as well. We just finished
up with mister Bob Gerr, original imagineer for Disneyland and
the creator of the Doom Buggy, which puts right smack
in the middle of Halloween. My next guest I'm thrilled
to meet in person. I'm a fan of his work
and I watch it all the time on YouTube. His
name is Derek Young. He's the creative force behind the
(01:12):
YouTube channel Van Oaks Props. He's got a massive passion
for building and he loves Halloween. That displayed his own
house that's very well known. He does replica Star Wars
props as well. So you know, I love that he
has this unique perspective, lot of varied skill set that
(01:33):
I learned from all the time. And since the age
of eight, he's been curious about this and he's always
telling us to now go make something. So welcome, Welcome,
Welcome to the program, Derek, How are you good?
Speaker 3 (01:47):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
It's my pleasure. You know what's funny is my buddy
Clay Row is our He does our imaging for the station.
He does, you know, all this stuff for the station
to make us sound great. Couldn't be here today. I
asked him come down and he just heard the lineup
and he's like, man, I'd love to meet Bob Gerr.
And then he sees and he goes, wait, you're having
(02:09):
Derek on two because he also is a fan of
yours like I am. And to kind of put this
in perspective, you have your YouTube channel under the name
of Van Oaks Props and this is like your super Bowl.
Right now is Halloween time and putting together your yard.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Are you doing your yard this year? No, we actually
decided to take a break this year because we've done
our Halloween display for the last thirteen years now. I think,
with the exception of COVID year one, we thought it
would be nice to actually take some time for ourselves,
(02:54):
get out and see all of the cool stuff that
people are doing. Which, as someone who enjoys decorating their home,
part and parcel with that is getting to meet other
people and kind of talk shop. Sure, and so I
thought instead of people coming to us, we would go
to people and have that same experience while getting to
(03:16):
enjoy other people's work for a change.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
You know, it's interesting because that's got to happen sooner
or later. You need it's hard to give unless you
get Sometimes you have to have information in right. You
got to be consuming stuff all the time. And friends
of the show, the Stanley House, they're in Orange County
that do beautiful work.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
I was just.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Texting with them this morning. Is unfortunately due to a
family death they're not doing it this year, but you
know they're also on a positive spin, are taking the
opportunity to do exactly what you just said and going
to see other people's haunts and get inspiration and cheer
other people on. Because around this time you're normally con
(04:00):
assumed with it all. So normally, okay, what is if
it's twenty six today, Normally by today your eyeball's deep
and done and maybe tinkering or adding little things. But basically,
typically would how would your month start? When would you
start preparing for Halloween?
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Because our display has been more or less the same
since we started. It's pretty much just a setup. I
may add something new and remove something old. As my
skill set changes and evolves, I will remove something that
I may have made in a hurry that now doesn't
kind of pass muster. But generally speaking, our setup is
(04:44):
two days. We're then up and ready for public viewing,
and then I just like to go hang out in
the front yard and just mess with things until Halloween.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Tinker.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
So much of what it is for me as a
former musician, it's hearing the soundscape that we use, It's
the general atmosphere of it all is really what makes
the holiday for me, and it's kind of the reason
why we keep doing it.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
Year after year.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Selfishly, it's for me, you know, as a creative person
who has always loved Halloween from birth. I love setting
up Halloween because I enjoy being in that atmosphere. Sure,
but in hanging out in my own Halloween display means
that I get to have conversations with people too. So
(05:36):
it's a lot less work now because we haven't changed
a lot, but I still like to tinker and I
think I always will.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
It's just sort of part of my nature.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
I'm just curious about stuff and how could.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
This be better tweaking it or for sure something And
some of those are some of my favorite videos on
your YouTube channel. Again, you can find it by looking
up Van Oaks Props on YouTube.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
Is Sometimes you're going.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
The dreaded We're going to take apart this perfectly good
working apparatus and I'm going to tinker with it and
maybe make it better and maybe not.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
Yeah, you don't always bring home the w but you
definitely learn some stuff along the way, and.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
I like that you actually are very big with Hey,
I film this, it didn't go the way I wanted to,
but I'm leaving it in because I want you to
see it and the way that it and that helps
me as much as you know any win that you're
putting forth.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
We come back.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
I want to ask you another thing, and we'll get
into people's start if people want to start a little
haunt in their yard for the neighborhood, some things like that.
But I want to find the S word. You're a
solution to the S word, which is storage, probably the
most difficult thing in the world. I wish your wife
was here because I usually wives of haunters, although she
(06:59):
does participate, are the ones that will tell you the
truth about the storage situation. But we'll talk more we
come back. Derek Young is my guest. He is the
creative force behind the YouTube channel Van Oaks Props.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
I encourage you to go check that out.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
It is a very inspiring and even if you aren't
going to make anything, any of these things yourself and
I have, it is very soothing.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Derek does a great job.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
He's got a great voice, very soothing to walk you
through complex things and making them fun and approachable. But
also it's just inspiring to see people creative and I
love that.
Speaker 4 (07:35):
You're listening to the Fork Report with Nil Savedra on
demand from KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Normally all things food and beverage, and then beyond today
is the beyond part.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
You know, what is it? Fourteen years ago or whatever.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
When I pitched this idea, one of the segments that
we never quite got to was cool people eating things,
and it was just going to talk to people that
I find interesting because as they eat too, and we'll
talk about food things and the like as well. But today,
being our Halloween show, I'm introducing you to people that
I find fascinating and I find interesting, and I hope
you do as well. Right now we're talking with Derek Young,
(08:13):
creative force behind the YouTube channel van Oaks Props.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
It's one of my favorite things listen.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
I love podcasts, all of that, but I really nothing
is joy outside of the immediacy of me hanging out
with my family and of course doing what I do here,
then sitting in my shop tooling around and listening to
creative people and curious people teach me things, and Derek
is at the heart of that. I watch his stuff
(08:40):
constantly at Panoakes Props and so I enjoy I purchased
things from you. I've purchased many of the things you
had at hand. I'm a big believer that if you're
taking from somebody and their information, support them, use their
affiliated links, go to their et csores if they have them, Patreon,
whatever it is.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Do what you can to support them. Otherwise it goes away.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
And so watching a lot of your stuff inspired me
this year when I had to do a Haunted experience
for my son's school is I used a little pop
up prop with the infamous reindeer motor. Now, a reindeer
motor is what Derek.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
It is the salvaged mechanism that moves the Christmas light
up reindeer props that were so prolific about I don't
know fifteen years ago.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
So those white wire reindeers with the white lights on it,
where the head would bob up and down. Correct, they
had a synchronous motor through a basic motor that is
wrapped in a white waterproof carriage of some kind. Correct,
and haunters use them all the time because they're weatherproof,
they're simple to use. And I don't know what you
call this, but they will reverse motion if they are
(10:00):
maximum Yeah, if their network.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
Resistance, they will reverse and go back in the opposite direction.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
So you can make something wave just by yeah, yeah, to.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
Move back and forth weirdly, uh, using the fault protection
of the motor to achieve something completely different than what
was actually intense.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
So I think I think something that that somebody might
notice in their own home would be in a microwave.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
You're the spinning plate. If you've noticed, if if you
have food on it and it hits the wall, it
will go in the other DIRECTIONE. That is a synchronous
motor inside that. Okay, so those are one of the
tools now that a newbie would probably want to learn about.
What's kind of the first step if somebody says, you
know what, I want to take my decorating for Halloween
(10:47):
up a notch, where do you think a good step
is to start?
Speaker 3 (10:51):
My go to for anyone that's interested in doing Halloween
decorating outside of picking a theme, because that really is
sort of like that will inform all of your decision
making moving forward. But assuming you are anything like me
and kind of air more towards a classic Halloween approach,
something more like the Haunted Mansion, is to learn how
(11:13):
to make your own tombstones out of foam, because it's
something that you can walk into your local hardware store
and purchase, and you probably already have the tools on
hand to do it.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
When you say foam, explain what kind of foam they're
looking for at your local lows or hardware home depot.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Sure.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
So it's called XPS foam and it's used for home insulation,
which if you're in California it may be harder to
find just because we don't have seasons. But it's a
pink extruded foam that comes in a variety of sizes,
but more often than not, I found that there's a
(11:52):
two inch foam that is absolutely perfect for making your
own tombs.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
They're beautiful, it's dense, it's got that same weighted low
that a tombstone would have.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
Yeah, And what makes it different from the type of
foam that you would find maybe inside of, uh, you know,
protecting a television or something, you know, in its shipping box,
is that it doesn't have the little white beats. It's
a solid chunk of foam all the way through. So
you could take something like exacto knife and you can
carve away at it in a way that very much
(12:24):
looks like someone hand carving a piece of stone. So
for the average person, I think a lot of us
probably have some kind of razor, blade, box cutter, utility knife,
you name it. We probably have some kind of a
saw and that's sort of all you need.
Speaker 4 (12:44):
You're listening to the Fork Report with Nil Savedra on
demand from KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
It's the Fork Report on Neil Savedra hanging out with
Derek Young from Van Oaks Props talking about decorating Kyla
Heyla all get the hose. She's like like a spray
in the face. She loves to start eat any food
that comes. It's always been picked through before it gets
(13:16):
to me. Look what kind of pie is that?
Speaker 3 (13:19):
I don't want to gass up missus van Oaks's head
too much. Uh, this might be one of the greatest
pies I've ever had. The fact that it's in plastic
right now is saving everyone from within like fifty miles
from coming to get this pie.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
That is, so it's not only for the pies protection,
it's for our protection as well.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
Yeah, I mean, you want to talk about an angry
horde of people and only like, really, you know, six
or eight pieces of pie to share.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Oh, how generous you are. Yeah, that's a two bite pie.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
Yeah, I mean, look if we want to take it
out of the bag and what is and you can
enjoy the smell in the room. Is that a crumble
on time? It's like a Dutch apple pie? But it
is not a Dutch apple pie. She calls it the
Grandpa pie.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
Oh my gosh, I just did two twists of the
little little bag closure thing and oh my, oh my gosh. Seriously,
that's going to summon the dead.
Speaker 3 (14:29):
Now here's the thing. I actually left a place that
smelled like that to come here, to come here today.
You're not as smart as you look, son.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
Oh no, I'm smart. I married her. Yeah, there's more
pies where that came from. You could cut this up
if you would. I would like to do. Is that right? Okay,
you're gonna wait? Okay? Good.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
At least you weren't disturbing the show. Derek Young my
guest right now from Van Oaks Props. You can find
his channel there. We've been listening to music from dead
Air dot Co. Deadair dot Co. My buddy Clay Rowe
who you know here, he does all the imaging here,
who happens to be a fan of Derek as well,
(15:13):
and Van Oaks props. He made me laugh today that
he kept looking at who my guests were and he's.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
Like, oh my gosh, Oh my gosh, Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
So we both talk about geeky building things, and you
do Star Wars props as well, not just Halloween I do.
Speaker 3 (15:29):
I mean, I'm a generalist prop maker, so if you
have a prop need, I'm your guy. If I was
left to my own devices, it would just be me
splitting my time between making Halloween props and making Star
Wars props.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
You and me both, brother.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
I think it's just you know, growing up in the
era of Star Wars it was hard to get away from,
and knowing in the seventies and eighties that there were
these things that just seemed completely unobtainable, unattainable, I should
say that now can be yours. Like if I wanted
(16:07):
a lightsaber, I can get a lightsaber. And that is
like kind of what I think really pushes a lot
of people, even as hobbyists, to get into prop making,
is because it's an opportunity to sort of make the
things of their youth that they found exciting.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
Okay, pause there, and Elmer, go ahead and take that
clip out and send it to my wife for.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
A couple of reasons.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
One so she can understand me better and to know
that I'm not the only one.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
Roger, Yeah, that was exactly. There is something about that. Now.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
When I was a kid, I remember my parents, for
one of the Christmases got us some light sword thing
or whatever, which was literally a red ever ready flashlight
YEP with a tube attached to the lens part and
if you dented them, you'd get these brighter you'd get
(17:05):
these brighter parts in it, and then it would ruin.
But that was the closest thing. And I constantly look,
I mean, right now, no joke. In what would be
a dining room, we don't have one. It's it's the
play area for.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
My son.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
Is a full sized Stormtrooper and Darth Vader. So it's
like and then and that's not even my shop. So
and it's it's not about going backwards in life. It's
about they just bring me joy. I mean, what you
do with van Oaks props brings me joy, genuine joy.
(17:43):
And and one of the reasons why I wanted people
to meet you here on the on the show. Now
you were talking about making tombstones. There's a technique you
do with water and a torch, uh, that I think.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
Is brilliant and it looks so amazing. Explain it so.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
A haunter who's been doing this much longer than I have,
stumbled across the fact that if you beat up water
on the surface of this insulation foam, that when you
hit it with like a propane torch or a map
torch or even a heat gun, it creates a pebbled
texture because wherever the water is the heat doesn't impacts,
(18:28):
and wherever there is not, it slowly melts away. Now,
fair warning, this is extremely toxic to do, so please
wear proper protective equipment. But I will say this, nothing
makes a blank sheet of foam look more like a
piece of stone than to wet it down and heat it.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
Up with a torch. Now, and you talk about these
things a lot, and.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
Ninety eight percent of what you do is done outside correct. Yeah,
there's a large amount of it. We're very lucky as
people like to make props is especially larger props to
be able to be in southern California have the ability
to go outside and do these things. So, yes, you're
working with flame. Yes you're working with something that is
(19:11):
not toxic in its current form, but when you burn
it it becomes toxic. Correct, But it is something very neat.
Now there's something that you seal. You use to seal
your tombstones. To explain what that is.
Speaker 3 (19:26):
So again, a haunter who's been doing it longer than
me shared this with the haunt community at large, that
you can use masonry sealer, like if you wanted to
paint over cinder blocks to help waterproof sure basement, which
for Californians, basements or places underneath your home. I actually
have one because you live in an old house, because
(19:48):
I live.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
In a house built in nineteen twelve.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
So if you were looking to make those cinder blocks
are honestly kind of anything a bit more weather resistance,
I wouldn't say waterproof, you would use this masonry sealer.
And what's nice about it is that it's got a
nice thick consistency and it kind of looks like if
you can imagine house paint with like playground sand mixed
(20:13):
into it, so it has a gritty texture to it
that when it's applied to kind of anything, really, it
sort of helps to make it look a bit more
like stone.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
Yeah, which is good when you start to weather it.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
We'll talk about that we come back too, because it's
probably one of the most important parts of making something
look realistic, sure, is aging it or weathering it.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
We'll come back more with my guest Derek Young.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
He's the creative force behind the YouTube channel van Oaks Props.
If you're thinking about decorating your house for Halloween or
any season for that matter, learning these basic tools is
super important and I use his tips all the time.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
So check him out there.
Speaker 4 (20:52):
You're listening to the Fork Report with Nil Savedra on
demand from KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
Long time alum here at KFI.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
Clay Row, who does our imaging that you are laughed
to all the time, is brilliant. He really is a
very very funny man and smart man, and his radio
station plays Halloween themed stuff all year long. But it
runs on donations only and it's not even that much
to keep it running. But I looked and it was
(21:26):
only at like, you know, thirty eight percent for the year.
So if you can throw a couple of coins his
way or folding dollars would be great as well, but
definitely give it a listen because he's been curating all
the music. In today's program as we do our special,
it is the fourkport on Neil Sevader. We're talking with
(21:46):
Derek Young our conversation about doing you know, haunting your
house for the holidays. Do you have a spend what's
your go to We talked about tombstones. If you didn't
hear the interview, please go back and listen to the
podcast that will be up after the program at iHeart Radio.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
What are your set of tools?
Speaker 2 (22:10):
Like we talked about cooking here, and I always tell people,
you know, your chef's knife, eight to ten inch chef's knife,
your pairing knife, and maybe a bread knife. It's about
all you really really need. What are your go to
tools for making? For creating things?
Speaker 1 (22:29):
Tough? Hitch your mike? Will you there? Bob? There you go?
There we are.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
It's tough because oftentimes I find myself shifting tools just
to keep it interesting, sure, but also as someone who
essentially does like instruction.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
Holy crap, I just been into the pie you brought
that your wife made.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
I tried to warn you.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
I tried to warn you.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
Since she's not here, I'm gonna punch you in the face.
So you will bring that bruise to her and let
her know how delicious this is.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
Okay, and I will take that punch. Wow, only f word.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
She is so gifted when it comes to baking.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
It's it's crazy.
Speaker 3 (23:14):
She should I should be lived twice as big as
I am based on the quantity of stuff that she makes.
But we've gotten to be really good friends with our neighbors.
Because she will make something, we will have some and
then she will just like start dropping care packages off
at the neighbors' houses because she already has an idea
for something else that she'd like to make.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
That crust and that crumble on their good night Irene.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
Yeah, good for you, buddy, I'm telling you, good for you,
telling you okay.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
Sorry.
Speaker 3 (23:43):
So tools, gosh, it's so tough.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
It really does change on your maker island. You can
bring no other tools? Oh, an exact a knife number
eleven blade, a paint brush.
Speaker 3 (24:06):
Gosh, what else would I bring with me? Some kind
of like maybe a Japanese pul saw, something with a
very fine blade.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
I will tell you that I only recently got a
Japanese pulsaw, probably within the last year.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
It is now one of my favorite tools.
Speaker 3 (24:23):
It's a game changer, and it doesn't seem like something
that would make that big of a difference.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
And they're not terribly expensive.
Speaker 3 (24:28):
They're not the entry for something like that, like you
can walk into a hardware store and buy one for
fifteen dollars. Oh yeah, that it's crazy, but man, they
really do make a difference. It's weirdly, so much easier
to pull than it is to push when you're trying
to like cut through some material. I don't know why
that is, it just is.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
I made a decking recently for an outdoor solar shower
for my wife, you know, gets out of the pool
once just rints off the chlorine, and I made it.
I measured twice, or at least I thought I did,
but it was like an inch and a half off,
so I had to pull it apart and adjust, and
(25:09):
that one tool made it so because once you build
something's really hard to use power tools to resize it
because everything's built, so you know, the blade depth, all
that stuff has changed. Yeah, So okay, so that's that's
a great one as well. What's what's one of your favorite?
Speaker 1 (25:27):
Do you like?
Speaker 2 (25:28):
What comes is starts the aesthetic you know, making these things,
and then you go, now I want to add a
little you know, life to it. Yeah, and you get
into now music or electronics or movement. Is that the
way things worked with you had moved into that part
(25:48):
and then you start learning electronics as well and everything else.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (25:53):
You know, I think we share kind of a similar
background where when you were a kid, if you wanted something,
you probably just had to make do with whatever you
could make yourself.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
Oh, absolutely right.
Speaker 3 (26:04):
And so I think a lot of that, and my
parents always encouraged both my sister and I to be
creative in whatever way worked for us.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
And so.
Speaker 3 (26:16):
I think I'm just naturally curious. And so if I
see something, my first thought is I wonder how that's made.
I wonder how it works. And even if I'm making
stuff for my own enjoyment, now, if I have an idea,
it will definitely send me down the rabbit hole. So
because of that, I've learned how to use like micro
(26:36):
controllers like Argentino and stuff like that. You know, my
background is in music and graphic arts, so you know,
coming up with the right esthetic was easy for me,
and figuring out how to set the mood right came
very naturally as well, so it wasn't tough to kind
(26:56):
of get there. But I'm definitely one of those people
that just always wants to know how, why, what's what's
making that thing tich? What makes it eye catching to me?
Speaker 2 (27:06):
Well, that is the voice of Derek Young. You've got
to check out his YouTube channel van Oaks Props. We
barely scratch the surface, and I didn't even get to
go down all the paths I wanted to, But you
can look up things like weather ing and the like
on his YouTube channel van Oaks Props. I encourage you
to do so. Say hello to him on there, say
that you heard about him here. Fascinating guy, fun to
(27:28):
watch and incredibly learned and can pass along a lot
of fun tips to you. Come back on the show
sometime well and we'll talk those it and talk pie
and all those good stuff. But I've really enjoyed. I
enjoy it you do, and I enjoyed you taking the
time to come on today. No, it's my pleasure and
I really appreciate you having me. It is the fork
Report on Neil Savager. This is KFI heard everywhere on
(27:49):
the iHeartRadio app. You've been listening to the Fork Report.
You can always hear us live on KFI AM six
forty two to five pm on Saturday, and anytime onto
Man on the iHeartRadio app
Hey, it's Neil Savedra.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
You're listening to KFI EM six forty The Fork Report
on demand on.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
The iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
KFI AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
Hey everybody, it's the FOROK Report. All Things Food, beverage
and beyond is what you hear me say every single Saturday,
basically three hours that we get to kind of shake
off the heaviness of the news, whatever's going on in
the world, and celebrate food, the people that make it,
(00:29):
the culture behind it. The difference today is we're talking
more about the beyond. I thought, you know what, there's
been a lot going on. It's been a big The
minute we get into September, my life changes and it
gets incredibly busy, and I thought, I want to do
something different. Let's talk about the beyond. And I want
to introduce you to some people that I find interesting
(00:50):
and I hope you will as well. We just finished
up with mister Bob Gerr, original imagineer for Disneyland and
the creator of the Doom Buggy, which puts right smack
in the middle of Halloween. My next guest I'm thrilled
to meet in person. I'm a fan of his work
and I watch it all the time on YouTube. His
name is Derek Young. He's the creative force behind the
(01:12):
YouTube channel Van Oaks Props. He's got a massive passion
for building and he loves Halloween. That displayed his own
house that's very well known. He does replica Star Wars
props as well. So you know, I love that he
has this unique perspective, lot of varied skill set that
(01:33):
I learned from all the time. And since the age
of eight, he's been curious about this and he's always
telling us to now go make something. So welcome, Welcome,
Welcome to the program, Derek, How are you good?
Speaker 3 (01:47):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
It's my pleasure. You know what's funny is my buddy
Clay Row is our He does our imaging for the station.
He does, you know, all this stuff for the station
to make us sound great. Couldn't be here today. I
asked him come down and he just heard the lineup
and he's like, man, I'd love to meet Bob Gerr.
And then he sees and he goes, wait, you're having
(02:09):
Derek on two because he also is a fan of
yours like I am. And to kind of put this
in perspective, you have your YouTube channel under the name
of Van Oaks Props and this is like your super Bowl.
Right now is Halloween time and putting together your yard.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Are you doing your yard this year? No, we actually
decided to take a break this year because we've done
our Halloween display for the last thirteen years now. I think,
with the exception of COVID year one, we thought it
would be nice to actually take some time for ourselves,
(02:54):
get out and see all of the cool stuff that
people are doing. Which, as someone who enjoys decorating their home,
part and parcel with that is getting to meet other
people and kind of talk shop. Sure, and so I
thought instead of people coming to us, we would go
to people and have that same experience while getting to
(03:16):
enjoy other people's work for a change.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
You know, it's interesting because that's got to happen sooner
or later. You need it's hard to give unless you
get Sometimes you have to have information in right. You
got to be consuming stuff all the time. And friends
of the show, the Stanley House, they're in Orange County
that do beautiful work.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
I was just.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Texting with them this morning. Is unfortunately due to a
family death they're not doing it this year, but you
know they're also on a positive spin, are taking the
opportunity to do exactly what you just said and going
to see other people's haunts and get inspiration and cheer
other people on. Because around this time you're normally con
(04:00):
assumed with it all. So normally, okay, what is if
it's twenty six today, Normally by today your eyeball's deep
and done and maybe tinkering or adding little things. But basically,
typically would how would your month start? When would you
start preparing for Halloween?
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Because our display has been more or less the same
since we started. It's pretty much just a setup. I
may add something new and remove something old. As my
skill set changes and evolves, I will remove something that
I may have made in a hurry that now doesn't
kind of pass muster. But generally speaking, our setup is
(04:44):
two days. We're then up and ready for public viewing,
and then I just like to go hang out in
the front yard and just mess with things until Halloween.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Tinker.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
So much of what it is for me as a
former musician, it's hearing the soundscape that we use, It's
the general atmosphere of it all is really what makes
the holiday for me, and it's kind of the reason
why we keep doing it.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
Year after year.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Selfishly, it's for me, you know, as a creative person
who has always loved Halloween from birth. I love setting
up Halloween because I enjoy being in that atmosphere. Sure,
but in hanging out in my own Halloween display means
that I get to have conversations with people too. So
(05:36):
it's a lot less work now because we haven't changed
a lot, but I still like to tinker and I
think I always will.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
It's just sort of part of my nature.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
I'm just curious about stuff and how could.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
This be better tweaking it or for sure something And
some of those are some of my favorite videos on
your YouTube channel. Again, you can find it by looking
up Van Oaks Props on YouTube.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
Is Sometimes you're going.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
The dreaded We're going to take apart this perfectly good
working apparatus and I'm going to tinker with it and
maybe make it better and maybe not.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
Yeah, you don't always bring home the w but you
definitely learn some stuff along the way, and.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
I like that you actually are very big with Hey,
I film this, it didn't go the way I wanted to,
but I'm leaving it in because I want you to
see it and the way that it and that helps
me as much as you know any win that you're
putting forth.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
We come back.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
I want to ask you another thing, and we'll get
into people's start if people want to start a little
haunt in their yard for the neighborhood, some things like that.
But I want to find the S word. You're a
solution to the S word, which is storage, probably the
most difficult thing in the world. I wish your wife
was here because I usually wives of haunters, although she
(06:59):
does participate, are the ones that will tell you the
truth about the storage situation. But we'll talk more we
come back. Derek Young is my guest. He is the
creative force behind the YouTube channel Van Oaks Props.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
I encourage you to go check that out.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
It is a very inspiring and even if you aren't
going to make anything, any of these things yourself and
I have, it is very soothing.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Derek does a great job.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
He's got a great voice, very soothing to walk you
through complex things and making them fun and approachable. But
also it's just inspiring to see people creative and I
love that.
Speaker 4 (07:35):
You're listening to the Fork Report with Nil Savedra on
demand from KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Normally all things food and beverage, and then beyond today
is the beyond part.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
You know, what is it? Fourteen years ago or whatever.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
When I pitched this idea, one of the segments that
we never quite got to was cool people eating things,
and it was just going to talk to people that
I find interesting because as they eat too, and we'll
talk about food things and the like as well. But today,
being our Halloween show, I'm introducing you to people that
I find fascinating and I find interesting, and I hope
you do as well. Right now we're talking with Derek Young,
(08:13):
creative force behind the YouTube channel van Oaks Props.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
It's one of my favorite things listen.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
I love podcasts, all of that, but I really nothing
is joy outside of the immediacy of me hanging out
with my family and of course doing what I do here,
then sitting in my shop tooling around and listening to
creative people and curious people teach me things, and Derek
is at the heart of that. I watch his stuff
(08:40):
constantly at Panoakes Props and so I enjoy I purchased
things from you. I've purchased many of the things you
had at hand. I'm a big believer that if you're
taking from somebody and their information, support them, use their
affiliated links, go to their et csores if they have them, Patreon,
whatever it is.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Do what you can to support them. Otherwise it goes away.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
And so watching a lot of your stuff inspired me
this year when I had to do a Haunted experience
for my son's school is I used a little pop
up prop with the infamous reindeer motor. Now, a reindeer
motor is what Derek.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
It is the salvaged mechanism that moves the Christmas light
up reindeer props that were so prolific about I don't
know fifteen years ago.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
So those white wire reindeers with the white lights on it,
where the head would bob up and down. Correct, they
had a synchronous motor through a basic motor that is
wrapped in a white waterproof carriage of some kind. Correct,
and haunters use them all the time because they're weatherproof,
they're simple to use. And I don't know what you
call this, but they will reverse motion if they are
(10:00):
maximum Yeah, if their network.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
Resistance, they will reverse and go back in the opposite direction.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
So you can make something wave just by yeah, yeah, to.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
Move back and forth weirdly, uh, using the fault protection
of the motor to achieve something completely different than what
was actually intense.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
So I think I think something that that somebody might
notice in their own home would be in a microwave.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
You're the spinning plate. If you've noticed, if if you
have food on it and it hits the wall, it
will go in the other DIRECTIONE. That is a synchronous
motor inside that. Okay, so those are one of the
tools now that a newbie would probably want to learn about.
What's kind of the first step if somebody says, you
know what, I want to take my decorating for Halloween
(10:47):
up a notch, where do you think a good step
is to start?
Speaker 3 (10:51):
My go to for anyone that's interested in doing Halloween
decorating outside of picking a theme, because that really is
sort of like that will inform all of your decision
making moving forward. But assuming you are anything like me
and kind of air more towards a classic Halloween approach,
something more like the Haunted Mansion, is to learn how
(11:13):
to make your own tombstones out of foam, because it's
something that you can walk into your local hardware store
and purchase, and you probably already have the tools on
hand to do it.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
When you say foam, explain what kind of foam they're
looking for at your local lows or hardware home depot.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Sure.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
So it's called XPS foam and it's used for home insulation,
which if you're in California it may be harder to
find just because we don't have seasons. But it's a
pink extruded foam that comes in a variety of sizes,
but more often than not, I found that there's a
(11:52):
two inch foam that is absolutely perfect for making your
own tombs.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
They're beautiful, it's dense, it's got that same weighted low
that a tombstone would have.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
Yeah, And what makes it different from the type of
foam that you would find maybe inside of, uh, you know,
protecting a television or something, you know, in its shipping box,
is that it doesn't have the little white beats. It's
a solid chunk of foam all the way through. So
you could take something like exacto knife and you can
carve away at it in a way that very much
(12:24):
looks like someone hand carving a piece of stone. So
for the average person, I think a lot of us
probably have some kind of razor, blade, box cutter, utility knife,
you name it. We probably have some kind of a
saw and that's sort of all you need.
Speaker 4 (12:44):
You're listening to the Fork Report with Nil Savedra on
demand from KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
It's the Fork Report on Neil Savedra hanging out with
Derek Young from Van Oaks Props talking about decorating Kyla
Heyla all get the hose. She's like like a spray
in the face. She loves to start eat any food
that comes. It's always been picked through before it gets
(13:16):
to me. Look what kind of pie is that?
Speaker 3 (13:19):
I don't want to gass up missus van Oaks's head
too much. Uh, this might be one of the greatest
pies I've ever had. The fact that it's in plastic
right now is saving everyone from within like fifty miles
from coming to get this pie.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
That is, so it's not only for the pies protection,
it's for our protection as well.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
Yeah, I mean, you want to talk about an angry
horde of people and only like, really, you know, six
or eight pieces of pie to share.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Oh, how generous you are. Yeah, that's a two bite pie.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
Yeah, I mean, look if we want to take it
out of the bag and what is and you can
enjoy the smell in the room. Is that a crumble
on time? It's like a Dutch apple pie? But it
is not a Dutch apple pie. She calls it the
Grandpa pie.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
Oh my gosh, I just did two twists of the
little little bag closure thing and oh my, oh my gosh. Seriously,
that's going to summon the dead.
Speaker 3 (14:29):
Now here's the thing. I actually left a place that
smelled like that to come here, to come here today.
You're not as smart as you look, son.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
Oh no, I'm smart. I married her. Yeah, there's more
pies where that came from. You could cut this up
if you would. I would like to do. Is that right? Okay,
you're gonna wait? Okay? Good.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
At least you weren't disturbing the show. Derek Young my
guest right now from Van Oaks Props. You can find
his channel there. We've been listening to music from dead
Air dot Co. Deadair dot Co. My buddy Clay Rowe
who you know here, he does all the imaging here,
who happens to be a fan of Derek as well,
(15:13):
and Van Oaks props. He made me laugh today that
he kept looking at who my guests were and he's.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
Like, oh my gosh, Oh my gosh, Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
So we both talk about geeky building things, and you
do Star Wars props as well, not just Halloween I do.
Speaker 3 (15:29):
I mean, I'm a generalist prop maker, so if you
have a prop need, I'm your guy. If I was
left to my own devices, it would just be me
splitting my time between making Halloween props and making Star
Wars props.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
You and me both, brother.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
I think it's just you know, growing up in the
era of Star Wars it was hard to get away from,
and knowing in the seventies and eighties that there were
these things that just seemed completely unobtainable, unattainable, I should
say that now can be yours. Like if I wanted
(16:07):
a lightsaber, I can get a lightsaber. And that is
like kind of what I think really pushes a lot
of people, even as hobbyists, to get into prop making,
is because it's an opportunity to sort of make the
things of their youth that they found exciting.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
Okay, pause there, and Elmer, go ahead and take that
clip out and send it to my wife for.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
A couple of reasons.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
One so she can understand me better and to know
that I'm not the only one.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
Roger, Yeah, that was exactly. There is something about that. Now.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
When I was a kid, I remember my parents, for
one of the Christmases got us some light sword thing
or whatever, which was literally a red ever ready flashlight
YEP with a tube attached to the lens part and
if you dented them, you'd get these brighter you'd get
(17:05):
these brighter parts in it, and then it would ruin.
But that was the closest thing. And I constantly look,
I mean, right now, no joke. In what would be
a dining room, we don't have one. It's it's the
play area for.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
My son.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
Is a full sized Stormtrooper and Darth Vader. So it's
like and then and that's not even my shop. So
and it's it's not about going backwards in life. It's
about they just bring me joy. I mean, what you
do with van Oaks props brings me joy, genuine joy.
(17:43):
And and one of the reasons why I wanted people
to meet you here on the on the show. Now
you were talking about making tombstones. There's a technique you
do with water and a torch, uh, that I think.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
Is brilliant and it looks so amazing. Explain it so.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
A haunter who's been doing this much longer than I have,
stumbled across the fact that if you beat up water
on the surface of this insulation foam, that when you
hit it with like a propane torch or a map
torch or even a heat gun, it creates a pebbled
texture because wherever the water is the heat doesn't impacts,
(18:28):
and wherever there is not, it slowly melts away. Now,
fair warning, this is extremely toxic to do, so please
wear proper protective equipment. But I will say this, nothing
makes a blank sheet of foam look more like a
piece of stone than to wet it down and heat it.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
Up with a torch. Now, and you talk about these
things a lot, and.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
Ninety eight percent of what you do is done outside correct. Yeah,
there's a large amount of it. We're very lucky as
people like to make props is especially larger props to
be able to be in southern California have the ability
to go outside and do these things. So, yes, you're
working with flame. Yes you're working with something that is
(19:11):
not toxic in its current form, but when you burn
it it becomes toxic. Correct, But it is something very neat.
Now there's something that you seal. You use to seal
your tombstones. To explain what that is.
Speaker 3 (19:26):
So again, a haunter who's been doing it longer than
me shared this with the haunt community at large, that
you can use masonry sealer, like if you wanted to
paint over cinder blocks to help waterproof sure basement, which
for Californians, basements or places underneath your home. I actually
have one because you live in an old house, because
(19:48):
I live.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
In a house built in nineteen twelve.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
So if you were looking to make those cinder blocks
are honestly kind of anything a bit more weather resistance,
I wouldn't say waterproof, you would use this masonry sealer.
And what's nice about it is that it's got a
nice thick consistency and it kind of looks like if
you can imagine house paint with like playground sand mixed
(20:13):
into it, so it has a gritty texture to it
that when it's applied to kind of anything, really, it
sort of helps to make it look a bit more
like stone.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
Yeah, which is good when you start to weather it.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
We'll talk about that we come back too, because it's
probably one of the most important parts of making something
look realistic, sure, is aging it or weathering it.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
We'll come back more with my guest Derek Young.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
He's the creative force behind the YouTube channel van Oaks Props.
If you're thinking about decorating your house for Halloween or
any season for that matter, learning these basic tools is
super important and I use his tips all the time.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
So check him out there.
Speaker 4 (20:52):
You're listening to the Fork Report with Nil Savedra on
demand from KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
Long time alum here at KFI.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
Clay Row, who does our imaging that you are laughed
to all the time, is brilliant. He really is a
very very funny man and smart man, and his radio
station plays Halloween themed stuff all year long. But it
runs on donations only and it's not even that much
to keep it running. But I looked and it was
(21:26):
only at like, you know, thirty eight percent for the year.
So if you can throw a couple of coins his
way or folding dollars would be great as well, but
definitely give it a listen because he's been curating all
the music. In today's program as we do our special,
it is the fourkport on Neil Sevader. We're talking with
(21:46):
Derek Young our conversation about doing you know, haunting your
house for the holidays. Do you have a spend what's
your go to We talked about tombstones. If you didn't
hear the interview, please go back and listen to the
podcast that will be up after the program at iHeart Radio.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
What are your set of tools?
Speaker 2 (22:10):
Like we talked about cooking here, and I always tell people,
you know, your chef's knife, eight to ten inch chef's knife,
your pairing knife, and maybe a bread knife. It's about
all you really really need. What are your go to
tools for making? For creating things?
Speaker 1 (22:29):
Tough? Hitch your mike? Will you there? Bob? There you go?
There we are.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
It's tough because oftentimes I find myself shifting tools just
to keep it interesting, sure, but also as someone who
essentially does like instruction.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
Holy crap, I just been into the pie you brought
that your wife made.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
I tried to warn you.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
I tried to warn you.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
Since she's not here, I'm gonna punch you in the face.
So you will bring that bruise to her and let
her know how delicious this is.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
Okay, and I will take that punch. Wow, only f word.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
She is so gifted when it comes to baking.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
It's it's crazy.
Speaker 3 (23:14):
She should I should be lived twice as big as
I am based on the quantity of stuff that she makes.
But we've gotten to be really good friends with our neighbors.
Because she will make something, we will have some and
then she will just like start dropping care packages off
at the neighbors' houses because she already has an idea
for something else that she'd like to make.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
That crust and that crumble on their good night Irene.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
Yeah, good for you, buddy, I'm telling you, good for you,
telling you okay.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
Sorry.
Speaker 3 (23:43):
So tools, gosh, it's so tough.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
It really does change on your maker island. You can
bring no other tools? Oh, an exact a knife number
eleven blade, a paint brush.
Speaker 3 (24:06):
Gosh, what else would I bring with me? Some kind
of like maybe a Japanese pul saw, something with a
very fine blade.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
I will tell you that I only recently got a
Japanese pulsaw, probably within the last year.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
It is now one of my favorite tools.
Speaker 3 (24:23):
It's a game changer, and it doesn't seem like something
that would make that big of a difference.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
And they're not terribly expensive.
Speaker 3 (24:28):
They're not the entry for something like that, like you
can walk into a hardware store and buy one for
fifteen dollars. Oh yeah, that it's crazy, but man, they
really do make a difference. It's weirdly, so much easier
to pull than it is to push when you're trying
to like cut through some material. I don't know why
that is, it just is.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
I made a decking recently for an outdoor solar shower
for my wife, you know, gets out of the pool
once just rints off the chlorine, and I made it.
I measured twice, or at least I thought I did,
but it was like an inch and a half off,
so I had to pull it apart and adjust, and
(25:09):
that one tool made it so because once you build
something's really hard to use power tools to resize it
because everything's built, so you know, the blade depth, all
that stuff has changed. Yeah, So okay, so that's that's
a great one as well. What's what's one of your favorite?
Speaker 1 (25:27):
Do you like?
Speaker 2 (25:28):
What comes is starts the aesthetic you know, making these things,
and then you go, now I want to add a
little you know, life to it. Yeah, and you get
into now music or electronics or movement. Is that the
way things worked with you had moved into that part
(25:48):
and then you start learning electronics as well and everything else.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (25:53):
You know, I think we share kind of a similar
background where when you were a kid, if you wanted something,
you probably just had to make do with whatever you
could make yourself.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
Oh, absolutely right.
Speaker 3 (26:04):
And so I think a lot of that, and my
parents always encouraged both my sister and I to be
creative in whatever way worked for us.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
And so.
Speaker 3 (26:16):
I think I'm just naturally curious. And so if I
see something, my first thought is I wonder how that's made.
I wonder how it works. And even if I'm making
stuff for my own enjoyment, now, if I have an idea,
it will definitely send me down the rabbit hole. So
because of that, I've learned how to use like micro
(26:36):
controllers like Argentino and stuff like that. You know, my
background is in music and graphic arts, so you know,
coming up with the right esthetic was easy for me,
and figuring out how to set the mood right came
very naturally as well, so it wasn't tough to kind
(26:56):
of get there. But I'm definitely one of those people
that just always wants to know how, why, what's what's
making that thing tich? What makes it eye catching to me?
Speaker 2 (27:06):
Well, that is the voice of Derek Young. You've got
to check out his YouTube channel van Oaks Props. We
barely scratch the surface, and I didn't even get to
go down all the paths I wanted to, But you
can look up things like weather ing and the like
on his YouTube channel van Oaks Props. I encourage you
to do so. Say hello to him on there, say
that you heard about him here. Fascinating guy, fun to
(27:28):
watch and incredibly learned and can pass along a lot
of fun tips to you. Come back on the show
sometime well and we'll talk those it and talk pie
and all those good stuff. But I've really enjoyed. I
enjoy it you do, and I enjoyed you taking the
time to come on today. No, it's my pleasure and
I really appreciate you having me. It is the fork
Report on Neil Savager. This is KFI heard everywhere on
(27:49):
the iHeartRadio app. You've been listening to the Fork Report.
You can always hear us live on KFI AM six
forty two to five pm on Saturday, and anytime onto
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The Fork Report w Neil Saavedra News
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