Odd scares.

[EngineerofFear]

I've heard many posts about people scaring in no costume or no make-up.

This idea is strange as an actor manager because I see it like an employee not coming to work in uniform.

With that disagreement stated I do know that most of the out-of-costumed scares, which I'll be referring to as "un-uniformed scares" probably have an interesting back story.

I invite everyone to share their "odd scare" moment.

Were you out of costume?

No Make-up?

Dressed as something ridiculous?

Did you use something not scary to scare? (i.e. a burger, soda)

Did you goof up and still get the screams?

I'm going to record my story in a podcast and link to it later, but it involves me charging at full speed with a chainsaw in hand and slipping.

-mciii

[Allen H]

One Night at skull kingdom I was a Michael Myers like character. Part of the rooms scare was to kick a garbage can as a distraction and then go for the group. After a while the cans get pretty beat up, when I went to kick the can my foot went through the metal garbage can. Not hitting the concrete floor my foot slid out from under me (can still attached) and I fell out of hiding landing half way between where I was and the group. That scared them, but after falling flat on my back I did not move, I laid there horror movie style. Then they did the inevitable, they approached me to see if I was dead. I did the classic Myers sit bolt upright and it was the best scare of the month, I never had a chance to catch up to them again despite my efforts, they were hauling butt!
Allen H

[evilmanor]

Great story Allen H!

Did you try to duplicate the scare again?

[Jim Warfield]

Mr. "Engineer ", I have never done a clothes off tour here, I might threaten to do such a thing for the extremely scary tour, but their tickets would have to have been marked a certain way to allow this.
Is this what you meant by a non-costumed actor?
Sorry, my mistake...

I do a long front room routine and this gives me so many opportunitys to get all kinds of strange scares. I do many scares here that are very unusual and I am not screaming in someone's face .
I believe in providing anticipation time to brew up the eventual reaction, and of course my sense of timing seems to be working pretty good, usually, maybe because it is a length of time not normally found in such a venue. "Different" is Scary.

[Allen H]

I have duplicated it since then, in several different fashions. It was especially helpful when I was in a scarecrow costume and someone set me on fire (loads of fun that!) I was able to walk to one of our fountains and fall in, once again a crowd gathered I stayed still and got one hell of a scare. I looked really cool....till I had to clamber out of a fountain on stilts. not pretty.
Allen H

[Jim Warfield]

Old saying:"The bigger (taller?) they are the harder they fall."
"The taller they are, the easier they are to set fire too!?"
What would have happened if there was no fountain around? Heat rises, smoke goes up, it might have been a very hot experience as if it wasn't that way all ready?
A week or two ago I tried severely understating my acting and voice and the results were more extreme from the customers
! Maybe because it was "quiet" it played as being much more real as I confessed to the three bodies behind the wine cellar walls as belonging to my first three Wives.

[Allen H]

Ive always treated my sets with flame retardent, and since then I treat alot of my costumes too! In all fairness it was made of burlap and raffia, I was a walking tinder box.
If no fountain.....stop, drop, and roll.
Allen H

[Jim Warfield]

There was an ancient "Bilko" TV show in which he was trying to sell the US Army new uniforms that looked real good but were made out of burlap.
His two cronies suffered the weather test box with rain, snow, heat all within a very short time as we all got to see them through the large window in the box for humor's sake.
No actual open flames though.
The Egyptians used a burlap material within their mortarwork for extra strength and some still survives to this day, at night it becomes a vampire and sucks the life out of nylon and dacron.