Rich Hanf
01-26-2010, 08:07 AM
Since I am the day long “Ghost Host” for the Speed Seminars I decided that I will need to speak with each of the speakers personally before the seminars. This is so I have some insight into who they are and what they are bringing to the table for y’all (since the Saints won, I am an honorary son of the South…Southern Jersey that is).
Had the unexpected pleasure of talking to Allen Hopps yesterday. Allen is the artistic director of the Screams Halloween Park located in Waxahachie Texas (home of former WWF Tag Team Champion Big Dick Murdock). Screams is apparently a show that stays pretty much below the radar but does BIG numbers. Allen started haunting almost 25 years ago beginning with the Jay Cees, then moving on to working year round at the legendary Terror on Church St. in Orlando(John Denley’s favorite haunt of all time btw). After Terror, he moved on to Skull Kingdom, then to Spookyworld, and now Screams.
Allen is a Haunter with not just experience, but RELEVANT experience. After speaking with him for a while I predict that his will be the Dark Horse seminar of this event as he brings almost 2 ½ decades of large haunt experience to the show. Although he will be speaking about stilts, acting, and crowd entertainment…he will be an excellent source of information and I wouldn’t hesitate to pick his brain.
After speaking with him for some time, the quote I walked away with is “Stilts are a portable stage. If you have no business being on stage, you have no business being on stilts”. Mark my words, this will be surprisingly good.
Later Rich Hanf
Had the unexpected pleasure of talking to Allen Hopps yesterday. Allen is the artistic director of the Screams Halloween Park located in Waxahachie Texas (home of former WWF Tag Team Champion Big Dick Murdock). Screams is apparently a show that stays pretty much below the radar but does BIG numbers. Allen started haunting almost 25 years ago beginning with the Jay Cees, then moving on to working year round at the legendary Terror on Church St. in Orlando(John Denley’s favorite haunt of all time btw). After Terror, he moved on to Skull Kingdom, then to Spookyworld, and now Screams.
Allen is a Haunter with not just experience, but RELEVANT experience. After speaking with him for a while I predict that his will be the Dark Horse seminar of this event as he brings almost 2 ½ decades of large haunt experience to the show. Although he will be speaking about stilts, acting, and crowd entertainment…he will be an excellent source of information and I wouldn’t hesitate to pick his brain.
After speaking with him for some time, the quote I walked away with is “Stilts are a portable stage. If you have no business being on stage, you have no business being on stilts”. Mark my words, this will be surprisingly good.
Later Rich Hanf