One of the most popular features of Theme Park Adventure's coverage over the past years has been Whispers in the Fog.  An online "blog" from the "inside" of Halloween Haunt, Whispers has been read by thousands upon thousands of curious Halloween Haunt fans from around the world through the years.

In 2005, Theme Park Adventure put Whispers in the Fog on hiatus for the season to make way for a similar and very successful feature - Monster X.  It was the journey of one TPA reader from fan to monster - a fascinating blog that we were very pleased with when all was said and done.  Although our readers seemed disappointed at first with the change in line-up in our Haunt coverage, our Monster X quickly captured their hearts and imaginations - and we all followed this rookie through Orientation, his first night as a maze monster and all the way to the final minutes of Haunt '05.

Now, as the veil lifts yet again in Buena Park, Theme Park Adventure invites you to listen once again to voices whispering in the darkness and the fog.  As usual, we thought long and hard about how to bring a new twist to an already-popular feature.  With the blessing of Knott's Berry Farm, TPA has been given the opportunity to peel back the mystery just a bit more for our readers and let them peer a little deeper into the beautifully crazy world of Halloween Haunt.

This year, Theme Park Adventure has conjured up three distinct voices that you will connect with, bond with and hopefully, have delicious nightmares about for the next month or so.

Our first voice comes from Silver Bullet Mine Town and represents those ghouls and goblins that roam the streets and scare zones of the ol' Scary Farm.  Not only is this voice a seasoned "vet" of Haunt, this voice has also helped create this year's event as part of the 2006 Build team.

The second voice comes represents the many maze monsters that dwell within the confines of the Farm.  This particular personality comes from one of the event's new mazes - The Grudge 2.

And now, the moment you've all been waiting for (okay, at least for the past 30 seconds or so since finding out that there is a twist this year).  The final voice that will be featured Whispers comes not from the streets or the mazes, but behind the scenes; this voice belongs to one of the make-up artists that helps create the world's finest Halloween event nightly, bringing monsters to life and transforming folks just like us into the Haunt 2006 scream team.

The fog's billowing once again, kids.  Turn down the lights and gather 'round.  Listen to the wind howling through the eaves of Ghost Town and you too, will hear...

PROLOGUE: ONCE UPON A NIGHTMARE...

11 months have pased since we heard the wind from Ghost Town, saw spider webs covering the park and heard the screams of terror.  Those 11 months seemed to pass in a heartbeat for me.

I have spent these past few months preparing for Haunt 2006 by working on Knott's Build crew.  I've seen the mazes go from barren spots on the ground to the scare factories guests walk through every night.

It is amazing how much work goes into each one in a very short amount of time.  Two to three weeks may seem like a lot, but if you consider how much construction goes into one maze, followed by lighting, audio, paint, props, effects, safety inspections and countless other finishing touches, a Haunt maze is a living miracle.

This all gets done over long hours, both day and night.  Much of the work is done after hours and around the clock backstage.  We are blessed to have such talented people who create this event.  Carpenters, painters, sculptors, lighting, sound and effects technicians all work in harmony to try and scare the bejesus out of thousands each night.

But now, the long hours are over, and it is time for a short, well-deserved break before the carpenter becomes the creature.  You've read the descriptions of this year's line-up, but that's only part of the story.  What new terrors await you for this year's Haunt?  That, my friends, remains to be seen...

So finally, it is here.  I have been waiting for Haunt to come around again since it ended last year.  When Rick asked me to do Whispers... well, I admit, at first I was confused.

I came across TPA within this last year and when I first found the site, I had read the '04 Whispers... and promptly forgot what they were.  But Rick reminded me, and then I was excited, and I have been anxious to start... or as Rick so eloquently put it, "excited as a Chihuahua with a full bladder."

As I said, I have been ready.  I got a new Haunt bag for my b-day and have stocked it full.  I don't think I forgot anything, but I am sure that I have way more than I really need; better to be safe than sorry!

I am excited to be in The Grudge 2 this year.  I get to be a part of something special, that will only be around for one year.  I have to say that the maze (even unfinished as it was during Scare School) is amazing; it creeped a few of us girls out when they walked us through.

Scare School was definitely an improvement over last year's scare school because management had a better feel for what they wanted to accomplish.  One difference this year from last is that we were not video taped.  I know a few people as well as myself are glad for the change.  And I am happy that some of my family from my maze last year are in my maze this year!  I'm also glad that there are new people to add to my family.

This week we had Orientation.  It went very smoothly.

Wednesday is my dress rehearsal... and then Thursday, it starts.  I look forward to seeing you all there.  But remember, once you step into my house... 罵倒される。.

You are cursed.

Voice Three

For a few of our make-up artists, Haunt doesn't begin at rehire in August, but many months before.  The summer is spent designing new characters, running foam, ordering supplies and creating schedules.  For others, it starts the weekend before Haunt at Orientation.  As a make-up artist, I'm definitely excited to jump in with both feet to the five weekends of haunted hijinx, and the kind of fun that comes only from an event as unique as Haunt.

We have such a great time at Haunt; almost as much fun as the monsters – if not more.  We get the benefits of Haunt (the camaraderie, the jokes and the bond that only Haunt can create), without all the nasty side effects (aches and pains, accidental injuries, harassment by guests).

Welcome to the side of Haunt where the lights are bright, and the only fog you'll see is coming from an airbrush!

September 19th:

I'm coming to the park today to process my paperwork for rehire.  There are about 25 people outside of the Hiring Center, as is expected two weeks before Haunt, so I have to wait my turn.  I see a couple of familiar faces while waiting for my name to be called, and I hear that four other make-up artists processed earlier today.  Looks like we're all getting it done at the last minute!  After about a 45-minute wait, my name is finally called!

The anticipation of the actual "run of Haunt" still brings flutters of excitement as I process my paperwork for rehire.  Signing here, initialing there, handing over copies of IDs; "Stand here… and… smile for the camera."  Another ID to add to my collection from years past!

This part isn't terribly glamorous; we still process just like everyone else.  Sunday we'll have our Orientation, so there will be more to tell then.

September 24th:

Today, we had our Make-up Artist Orientation.  It was so great to see everyone's faces, hear about what they've done over the past year, and how excited everyone is to be back.  We've also got some new artists this year, so it's always nice to meet them before the run starts.

After orientation, we were given the prosthetics that we'll be working on.  Some of us pre-paint, so it's nice to have them before the run starts.  Everyone got to scope out where they'd be for the run, as the configuration of the make-up rooms changes ever so slightly from year to year.  It's funny, because even though there are slight differences here and there, it feels like time has stood still.  It feels like even though 11 months have passed, the feeling of "being at Haunt" is invoked as I walk through the passage from the Crypt to the Chamber, past the bathrooms. 

Even though it's only 3:00 P.M. in the afternoon, the smell of freshly-hung convention taffeta fills the spaces, the glow of the fluorescent lights high above us, and the distant sounds of guests screaming as they ride GhostRider – it just feels like Haunt.

When Haunt is in full swing, these rooms become the centerpiece of the Haunt process.  Inside jokes start here, pranks are pulled here and the telling, and re-telling, of stories from Haunt's past can always be heard amongst the din of rumbling compressors, hissing airbrushes and the mishmash of music coming from the stereos positioned throughout the space.  The pre-Haunt energy is tangible, and I'm really looking forward to it all starting again on Thursday!

I'm home now, and as I write this, my blank prosthetics are staring at me, and I'm realizing I only have three days before Haunt starts.  I'm off to paint, which will help the time pass between now and Thursday.

Haunt is finally here!

SEPTEMBER 28TH - OPENING NIGHT!

Voice One

The months I have spent helping to build the 2006 Haunt have passed.  I have had two days to rest my tired body and enjoy the mazes.  Now, the time has come to destroy my body all over again at Haunt.

The Haunt box has been packed, checked and rechecked - and rechecked, and rechecked about 1,000 times now; hope I remembered everything!

I drive into the parking lot, unload, and gaze at the orange sky.  I know it's from the fires, but it just helps it feel like Haunt.  I walk through the parking lot and stop at the light.  "Walk sign, is on," the metallic voice snaps me out of my daydream.  I walk to the employee entrance, do the customary show-ID-and-open-box-for-inspection routine, and head in.  I laugh at the small hill behind Big Foot rapids, that will become a mountain as we walk out of the park 25 nights from now!  I can see Warehouse P growing larger in the distance as I make my way in.

I check in, head for Wardrobe for my costume, and head out to begin the ritual of getting dressed.  I have to hurry, as my make-up time has been moved up.

Once dressed, I head for the chair and get to settle down while my make-up artist works magic.  I'm done, and wait for the evening meeting.

All the formalities are done and it's time to head into the area.  I see people lined up and I begin to pace like a caged animal.  As soon as that rope drops, they're mine! 

The night was good.  I realize that after a year off, the timing is about a split second off, but it'll be back soon enough.  We have a big group of rookies so there are quite a few new faces to learn, and I need to learn their scares so we can work together; a feeling-out process, if you will.

Our most important member was missing.  GAWD, the chainsaw.  He is now an 18-inch wonder, up from last year's 14 inch "Gerty."  But we were blessed with a loaner from Ghost Town for a few minutes and oh, what a wonder it was!  An entire crowd simultaneously ran through the area out toward the old Swamp area!  It was breathtaking.  Moments like those is why we do Haunt!  We had a lot of neat moments with guests; pictures and the like.  A good start to the season.

Tomorrow, everything should be in place and things will really get cranking in the 'ol SBMT!

Voice Two

It came at last; the first night of Haunt.  I have been waiting for this night since last November.  Once again, I smell the fog and lurk in the darkness, waiting for you.  Once again, I hear that sound I love so much -  the beautiful music that are the screams of guests.

So tonight was awesome.  It seemed rather busy for an Opening Night... but then again, I am sure that every single guest who was there went through our maze, giving the illusion of more guests than there were.

I got some really good scares tonight.  I took the most annoying sound on our soundtrack and found a way to imitate it exactly without harming my voice.  Not only did it scare the guests, but it also spared my sanity of having to hear that stupid thing over and over!

Make-up is very different from a mask; much cooler and much more freedom.  I had better use of my eyes with the make-up than I ever did with a mask.

Now I can't wait till tomorrow night!  This is what I love.

Come visit me in my condemned house... your soul will be mine.

Voice Three

When I arrived in the Warehouse, the signs were up and the stations were anxiously awaiting the personal touches of the artists that fill them.  I got to my station and started my set-up process, which usually takes a lot longer than one would think; with all of the returning monsters filtering in and out and all the "hellos" and hugs exchanged, it's easy to get distracted.  But I was ready by the time my first monster hit the chair.

There was some confusion amongst the make-up rooms, as this year the structure of how make-up works in the Crypt has changed.  Last year, it was on a "first come, first served" basis, and this year everyone has scheduled time spots and artists, which seemed to cause a lot of confusion.  Once the concept was understood, things seemed to settle down a bit, and order was restored.  Our Crypt leader had the whole room working like clockwork in no time.

Things in the Chamber were in full swing too; because there are two doors, it becomes kind of a thoroughfare, so a lot of new folks who aren't familiar with the process wander in and out, usually surprised by the bustling activity in there.  I helped a couple of new people find their scheduled times and their make-up artists, and then headed back to my station.

I have to say, that although I've been doing make-up for Haunt for several years, the first night always feels like the first time ever.  It took me a while to get into my groove and remember how things work.  My characters have specific routines, and I seemed to forget everything as I went along.  But by the time they left my chair, they were ready to hit their areas and work their hearts out.  Most of my people are returning vets and know the drills, but I do have a new guy, so it's always fun to teach them the tricks of the trade and develop new friendships.

Toward the end of the night, Jack Falfas (the Chief Operating Officer of Cedar Fair), and a few of the other guys in upper management at Knott's, came through the room and gave each of the make-up artists a long stemmed red rose, and said, "Thank you" to each of us for the work that we do.  I thought that was very kind of him to take the time to greet each one of us.  It's not every day that the "big boss" makes an effort to personally show his appreciation to the seasonal employees, so it was a very nice gesture.

As the end of our shift wrapped up, I clocked out and cleaned up my station.  Sure, it was a hectic night, and sure, not everything was on schedule or according to plan, but we all got through it and I hope my monsters were happy.  I really enjoy the creative process of creating make-ups that not only am I proud of, but that my monsters are proud to wear.  I look forward to going back in tomorrow to hear how Opening Night went for my monsters, and to take another shot at getting my monsters ready to scare again!

How do I sum up tonight?  All I can say is, WOW!

Tonight was simply amazing.  Gawd made his appearance early in the evening and the fun was on from there.  Before Pre-Scare was over, we had already had two guests... um, how do I put it?  Lose control of their bladders.

Another one was ready for the exit about one minute into their night and it just got better from there!  We had one vomit as well.

Everyone in the area was clicking; it's like the Haunt gods smiled upon us with our timing.  Guests were cool with us - no real loud-mouth problems.  There was the occasional, I'll-run-up-and-grab-a-monster-to-try-and-scare-them, but they were quickly exposed for the scared little children they were and promptly were sent packing.

We had several people pull up spots on the picnic tables just to watch us.  We have a good scare, and get cheers and applause.  That was cool.  I love it when guests "get it."  They appreciate how hard we work and that this isn't an easy thing to do.  Nights like this make it very hard to want to take a break.  It's just so good; you don't want to leave it!

Our rookies came out and picked it up tonight as well.  I know it's a lot to adjust to, but they fed off the energy and they are figuring out where they fit in.  The added people in our area this year is a big help; there's constantly someone to feed to.  One guy gets them going and you pass them down the line.  By the time they get through the area, they don't know what hit them!  I can only see it getting better from here.

There were so many memorable scares tonight, I can't pick just one.  We had a bunch of pinball scares - where one monster sends them one direction, right into another waiting monster.  Back and forth they go, like a pinball!  There were the girls I corralled toward a bench and thought, please let someone be there, and he was!  BAM!  They got it from both sides by us!

Or maybe it was the time I saw a crowd of people look like they exploded once the saw came in; it was awesome!

Now I'm paying for it.  Everything hurts, and I've rubbed the bottom of one of my feet raw.  So, I'll soak, hit up the Tiger Balm and the Ibuprofen and get ready to do it all again tomorrow!

My night at Haunt was awesome.  Guests were terrified of me!

Toward the beginning of the night, I caused a guy to fall to the floor.  The coolest thing was that I found out that I could take a guest who was just a little spooked and make them terrified.

The highlight of my night was that I received complements from a few Ghost Town street monsters.  I was told that I was creepy because whenever I am out on the streets because I am going to get a make-up touch-up or to get some Berry Punch, I stay in character.

So my night over all was awesome!

But then something happened on the way home.  I had dropped off my carpool buddy and was driving to my house, and I guess I dozed off for a second.  My car went up onto the sidewalk.  A fire hydrant shaved the side of my car and I knocked down a No Parking sign.  I'm not hurt at all; just shook up.  The car is a whole different story.  Now I need to find rides to and from Haunt for both myself and my carpool buddy.  I hope I don't have to quit because I have no way to get to and from Haunt.

I hope to see you in the darkness of my house...

It's the second night of Haunt, and it feels like clockwork.  Now that the dust has settled and the schedules are understood, our night went much smoother than the last.  The talent now knows who their artists are and where they're located.  The artists know who their people are and what to do with them, and now it's all about getting the timing down.  

For me, I was much faster tonight, and I was actually early in finishing up my make-ups.  I actually had time in between to refill some of my paint, check in on other artists and catch up with some of the talent about the past year's events.  It's nice to be able to come in, do my job, and have time left over to breathe!

Tonight I signed up for "Touch-Up," which means that I, along with two other artists, stay until a half an hour after the park closes.  From 9:00 P.M. to 12:00 A.M., if a talent with make-up needs assistance (i.e. their piece is falling off or their make-up has been sweated off), we will fix them up so that they can go back out looking like new.  After midnight, we shift from Touch-Up to helping the prosthetic-wearing talent remove their pieces to keep the pieces in as good of shape as possible.  We have some down time in between to continue to pre-painting our pieces, so it helps the time go by.  To be honest, it's a really long night – especially considering that I come straight to Haunt after working my day job!

There wasn't a lot of excitement during Touch-Up tonight, but it was still a long night.  I'm happy to be heading home to sleep, so I can turn around and do it all over again tomorrow!

SEPTEMBER 30, 2006

OWWEEOWWEEOWWEEOWW!!!!  Sorry... had to get that out of the way.  I hurt like you wouldn't believe.  Took everything that hurt from last night, then re-hurt it again tonight, just for fun.  Other than that, it was another good night!

Things are definitely falling into place for us now.  We're learning each other's tendencies and getting some really good team scares.

It was another night of many memorable scares.  We had one girl who we played a weird version of Ring-Around-the-Rosey with.  She went 'round and 'round the Bottle House trying to get away from us, but we found her everywhere she went!  I take a sadistic glee in giving people the impression that they're going to get away, only to snatch that dream right out from underneath them!

Of course, later in the evening, things started to turn.  Usually after about 10:00 P.M., the crowd starts to get "scared-out."  They're over it.  It's also about that time that the teenagers get rambunctious.  Eh, what can you do?  Knott's doesn't run a child care service, but some parents believe they do.  That's fine; just remind them to behave themselves while they're out.  You take the good with the bad, and like Super Chicken said to his faithful sidekick Fred (for those of you old enough to remember), "Fred, you knew the job was dangerous when you took it!"

I just remember the times when people would take one look at us standing in the alley, facing towards the Hotel, and decide, that ain't the alley they wanna go down!  That makes me smile, and if I'm smilin', you're in trouble!

Wow... the first Saturday night.  We had a constant flow of guests going through all night long.  My voice is pretty much shot from the sound that I make.

I'm still in a little bit of shock from the accident, but nothing that interfered with my performance.

The night went pretty smoothly.  I even got to scare someone from my Sign Language class!  There was a misunderstanding with my breaker, but all in all, a successful night.

And that is my entry tonight, for I am tired.  Time to sleep till noon. 

See you if you dare come and visit me in the burned remains of my house...

For the first time in a long time, there was a sense of calm in both make-up rooms, now that everyone has a place and time and can budget their schedules to accommodate.  Two of our supervisors commented today how smoothly everything seemed to be going, and in looking around the areas tonight, I noticed that a lot of our make-up artists were done with their folks early tonight.  I think we've finally hit our stride!

Tonight we had a special media guest come in for make-up in the Crypt.  She's doing a piece on the whole Haunt experience as a talent, so one of our artist turned her into a zombie to prepare her for a night in the Asylum.  Hopefully, she was able to get a lot of material to work with out there!

It's another late night in Touch-Up, so I worked on more pieces for my monsters.  We also do touch-up for The Hanging, so I headed over to the stage to help fine-tune some of the make-up for our star character, "The Executioner."  They do three shows a night, and with all the stunts and fight scenes, they sometimes need a little extra help in keeping their faces in show-ready condition.  It's always funny to go backstage behind The Hanging; even though it's in the heart of Knott's, it seems like a world unto its own as a full-blown production.  The cast and crew are very friendly and always welcoming, and it's a lot of fun to visit them in their world.

Back in the make-up room again, it was time to help the monsters remove their pieces and start shutting down for the night.  We have a lot of monsters who come in and out during this time, so we hear a lot of the stories about what happened that night.  Thankfully, it was a pretty good night – no major injuries were reported, and the general consensus was that it was a pretty nice-sized crowd – lots of people to scare and good scares, at that!

After all of our pieces were in, we finally shut off the lights and locked the doors, and made the long trip to the car.  It was a good night overall, but again, I'm looking forward to some beauty sleep!

Well, we've come to the end of the first week.  My body, like most of the other monsters is stiff, sore, and very angry with me right now.  It's funny; I've been on several road marches carrying a weapon and a 120-pound rucksack, and never felt as sore and tired as I have during Haunt.  Who said scaring was easy?  They never worked Haunt!  Anyway, on to what you guys came for - the review of tonight's action:

We started off the night by getting the "Game Off" sign.  Another monster and I were standing in the street like a couple of outlaws when these three girls started walking up.  They got about 50 feet away, looked at us, and went the other direction.  When we called out to them, "Where ya goin'?" they ran in to a nearby store.  At that time, we were joined by two Ghost Town Monsters and we watched the doors.  All the while, the girls were inside, crying and refusing to come out!  The storekeepers called for a certain Entertainment manager that those of us on streets know very well.  When "he says so," you listen!  It was at that time they were walked out of the store and out of the park.  He came up and gave us "The Big X" sign, and the game was off.  Pretty cool to have Him tell you to turn it off! 

After that, we and the Ghost Town monsters took turns handing guests off to each other.  It was like a game of monster pickle!  Guests would run one way, Ghost Town would head them off, they'd turn and run then we'd get them.  Some friends visited and brought one of their girlfriends; we made her vomit.  Can't say she didn't get her money's worth!

We were having so much fun, we were soaked through our costumes by our first break.  It was fun.  But, by 10:00 P.M., a lot of guests were over it.  But we still had some good scares.  I got a girl with a slide and she dropped like a lead balloon.  Another leaped like a kangaroo!  Some people do some crazy things when they get scared.

Next week should be even better.  Bigger crowds, and we've got our scares down!  Now it's time for the three Rs - Rest, Re-hydrate, and Rehab the equipment.  Two days off to get the body to stop being mad and get it ready to do it all over again!

See ya on Wednesday!

Tonight was a really good night.  I was not able to use my voice tonight to make my awesome cat sound due to the fact that doing the noise for three nights in a row destroyed my throat.  Instead, I found new ways to scare the snot out of people.  It really is amazing how people freak out when you go any where near their feet.

My best scare tonight... probably even so far in Haunt, was the girl that I scared out of the front of the maze.  I scared her through my room, to the first room of the house itself, through the graveyard, out the entrance and down the line.  It was such a rush!

Well, time to go to bed and get up for my 7:30 A.M. class in the morning.

Good night.  Sleep well for now, because on Wednesday, I will be back and will torment more guests.

It's the first day of October, and the fourth day of Haunt.  I'm always glad to turn the page of the calendar to see October, as it's always been my favorite month.  Not just because of Halloween, but because it means that the cooler weather is coming, all the big holidays are just around the corner, and for some reason, good things always seem to happen in October (for instance, my husband and I had our first date in October)!

Driving in to Haunt today, I noticed that the weather was strange; it was really warm the first night of Haunt, then cooled off the past couple of days, and today, the cloud cover is low and the humidity is high.  It's unusual weather for Southern California, and I don't envy the monsters who will soon be donning their costumes, as I'm sure they will be sweating tonight with the added humidity.

As I walked through the warehouse, I noticed some gifts left on some of the artists' stations.  We do a "secret pal" type exchange during the run of Haunt to make things fun for the artists, and the antics of gift-giving have begun.  It's a great way for the new artists to get involved and meet the returning artists, and gives people something fun to look forward to every weekend.

My chair went smoothly tonight; two of my characters were on their second piece, as they wear their pieces for three nights each.  It's kind of exciting to debut the new paint job to the character, and it's always a gamble on whether or not they like it.  I know that for some, how their piece looks really impacts their performance on the street.  But on the flip side, I was told once by a very wise talent, "If I depended on my make-up to have a good night, then I'm not a very good actor."  I thought that was a very poignant statement.  Either way, I still want to do my best work to let the talent shine through and give them something to work with.

At about 6:00 P.M., I walked outside of the warehouse, and although the humidity had dropped a bit, the atmosphere outside was still really odd.  I could see blue sky peeking out from between the speckling of clouds, but even stranger, was the sound.  I looked around, and there must have been 200 monsters out there in various forms of dress, mask and make-up.  What was weird, was how quiet it was.  In fact, I could hear the birds chirping, which is really unusual.  I guess that with it still being the first weekend, the talent are still in the early bonding stages.  I also think that with it being the last day of the weekend, people are probably pretty tired and trying to save their energy.  Whatever the cause, it's really strange for it to be so quiet with so many monsters in one place.

Tonight we had some additional guests come to the warehouse.  The American Coaster Enthusiasts ("ACE") came through in small groups led by our marketing/media team to see the make-up rooms in action.  They stopped, took pictures, asked questions, and got to see firsthand how our process works.  The monsters are always ready to give a "mini show" for the video cameras and pose for pictures.  As artists, most of us just keep on painting away, as the monsters are the "show" that the guests and fans come back for every year.

I was just about finished with cleaning up at the end of my shift, when we had a last minute make-up to do.  There were some changes to the talent lineup of characters in Lore of the Vampire, so I had to do a quick make-up to get our new "Lost Girl" out and on her way to her maze.  After finishing up, I cleaned up my area, and was very happy that I was not signed up for another late night, but leaving at the more decent hour of 8:15 P.M.  I have to work my regular job tomorrow, so it will give me a little time to reset and prepare for life back in the "real world" as opposed to the "Haunt world."

Until next week…

OCTOBER 4, 2006

Voice One

Well here we are; back at it again for a five-day run.

Just as all the hurt goes away in the body, it's time to go put all the hurt right back in!  We must love doing it, because nobody in their right mind subjects their body to this much abuse for something they just "kind of" like.  Or possibly, we're just plain nuts; could be a little of both!

Okay, so we're fired up and ready to go, the rope drops, and a trickle of people come through.  Yup; slow Wednesday night.  That's fine; it happens.  I guess you could look at it from the standpoint that we would be able to take it easy and rest a little for the weekend - but that's not how most monsters look at it.  We'd rather have a steady stream of people every night to keep the evenings moving.  That, and sporadic groups coming through breaks up the rhythm.

Frankly, fear breeds fear!  For instance, if you get a group of people screaming with several groups behind them, everyone else's anxiety level begins to climb wondering what awaits them just ahead.  Their minds race with horrible possibilities and they get so worked up, that by the time they get there, anything will set them off!  Not saying I hate slow nights, but busy nights do have their advantages.

The night did pick up later on, once people got a little more evenly-dispersed throughout the park, and we got things turned up.  It's funny to scare the same people several times with the same scare tactic.  You wonder, "How many times are they gonna fall for this?"  I felt like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day.  But it was fun; the chasing, the screams.

We had one girl who would do anything to get away from the saw!  She sang "Jingle Bells," "White Christmas" - anything we asked, just to get away!  We tormented her anyway and she was in tears by the end!  We chased her from the Hotel in Ghost Town to the entrance of Silver Bullet.  At one point, she looked like she was having convulsions, trying to wriggle away from the saw!

Tomorrow should have more people, which means even more scares.  I can't wait!

Friday should be interesting, as it is also a full moon!  Anything can, and usually does, happen on those nights.

Until tomorrow... pleasant screams!

What could be said about tonight?

Well, it was a slow night - as Wednesdays are - and the guests were 50/50.  There were some good scares, but then there were the guests who went in with a bad attitude, and just made it a bad experience for themselves and us.

About four of the make-up artists were not there tonight, including mine, which created a hectic feel to the room.

Well, I have school in the morning so I need sleep.

'Night.

…and we're back!

After two days off from Haunt, I'm ready to come back and be creative again.  I get there early to open up the warehouse and prepare for my day.  We've got a lot of artists out because it's a weekday, as well as a lot of monsters, so we've got to move a few people around to be sure everyone gets taken care of.  Almost everyone in the room ends up doing an extra monster or two, and we help out the other room as well.  It's times like these when we all come together as a team to get the work done, even though we're shorthanded.

Not a lot of excitement tonight; as I clocked out at my regular time and was getting ready to head out, I saw a lot of monsters coming back in to turn in their costumes.  On a slow night like this, sometimes they'll send home some of the monsters so they can save their energy for another night.  I said my goodbyes and headed home.  Hopefully tomorrow, we'll have more guests and the monsters will have more to work with!

Okay kids, here we go!

It started off as another slow night, but it was actually kind of fun.  Just after rope drop, the good doctor from Ghost Town had his eye on a new "patient."  Apparently, she did not want to see that doctor, and had a mini-breakdown.  By that time, she was over in our area where we sent her over the top.  She said "That's it!  I'm going back to the van!" and the group promptly left the park.  It was only about 6:35 P.M., so they had maybe been in the park five minutes.  That's an expensive five minutes!

Just after that, I got another lady to call it quits for the evening.  All I did was slide up at her from out of the fog; oh well.

From there on out, things got kind of slow.

We had fun tormenting other members of our area and Ghost Town who aren't big fans of the chainsaw, and then turning back on the guests.

We had one group walk right into the hornet's nest of scares and one of them, well... made a "fear nugget."  Not to be confused with a "fear fart," which is pretty rank in its own right, the nugget has substance.  Wow!  The smell hung for a good few minutes.  Pretty amazing!

Freak went bench bowling with the saw and got a strike!  About 10 guests were sitting on a planter when we spotted them.  He asked, "Think I can get 'em all?"  He laid the saw down on the planter and revved it.  They all jumped up and ran like they were on fire!

Later in the evening, we got some help from Outlaw and Red Wolf.  We had a lady running through the picnic table area and she almost cleared it.  Almost.  Red Wolf appears out of nowhere and blocks her, as Outlaw jumps onto the table next to her!  She scooted by a gap that was too small for a human, so I dunno how she got past us.

I like having Ghost Town on our border; it's fun to pass guests back and forth like hot potatoes!

So, the night was mostly a slow one, but I still managed to hurt at the end, along with most of us.  I guess that means we've done pretty good.  Tomorrow night, FULL MOON FRIDAY!  BRING IT ON!

Well, I am tired and sick, so this will be short.

Tonight was good.  We are all starting to get a feel for each other and figuring out how to set up and pass on scares to each other.  We are becoming a well-oiled machine.

A Spanish news station came through today, and we scared the hell out of the reporter!

Well, that's all for tonight.

'Night!

We had most of our make-up artists back tonight, so our rooms flowed much more smoothly.  We still had a few monsters out, but all in all, we were on time and getting people out to their areas on time.

Our make-up areas were a lot more crowded tonight than normal, though, as we had a make-up class visiting to see how the magic happens at Haunt.  One of our former make-up artists teaches a make-up class at a local college, so she brings her students back each year to soak up some "hands on" knowledge.  They seemed to have a good time watching and asking questions.  These might be our future make-up artists!

I finally ventured into the park tonight for the first time since the beginning of Haunt (aside from my runs to The Hanging stage for touch-up), as a couple of people from my day job came into the park tonight.  We met up at the Fireman's BBQ area and I took them to Hatchet High for their first maze experience.  This maze simply cracks me up – I love the whole creepy cafeteria section and the prom area.  I think the graduation area is kinda funny too, with "Pomp and Circumstance" being played on kazoos.

We headed out of there and over to 13 Axe Murder Manor, and although I love looking at this maze, I wasn't terribly impressed with the scares in there.  It seemed that we hit that non-magic moment when people were either on break or resetting for their next scares, and there were many places in the maze that we should have been screaming, but instead, it felt like we were just looking around someone's old decrepit house.  But the bungee jumper did get us all as we were exiting the maze, so that was pretty fun!

I walked them up "Fog Street" where we saw Red Wolf and Outlaw, who did an amazing "drop dead" in front of us, which made everyone laugh.

Some of the monsters out in front of Goldie's did some scaring and sliding, and there was a guest appearance of the "pumpkin monster" out in front of the windmill, which was strange, because he sounded an awful lot like Dusty… hmmm…

After that, I led them over to the queue line so they could go through Feary Tales and The Asylum.  At that time, I was ready to go home and headed out for the night.

All in all, it was a fun night!

Well, it's another Friday night and the moon is full.  That promises a night when anything can happen.

The crowd was a lot bigger than last week.  At rope drop, there were people at all three entrance points to our area; fun to mess with them beforehand, too!  The rope drops and they come flooding in.  Nothing gets you more pumped than standing in front of a wall of people and you're dodging and dashing through it, almost like you're covered in razor blades and you cut through them.  It creates havoc and fear, and fear breeds fear!

Later in the evening, when the crowd was nice and thick, we fired up a little thing we call the "Fear Pit."  Picture a swirling mosh pit like you'd find at say, a Slayer concert, but there are monsters in the middle, causing the crowd to circle and just plain go nuts.  Those walking into it have no idea what is happening and before they realize it, they're caught up in the frenzy!  It's an awesome thing!  Your head is on a swivel and while you're scaring one set of guests, your eyes are tracking several more.  It really fires you up and keens your senses!

Later on, of course, things turned dumb; the usual stuff.  Most of us came out with no problems, mainly by moving quick and keeping the intensity up, but some of our females were harassed, pushed, spit on, and the other usual stuff that comes with the territory.  It would be nice if people could behave like human beings, but for some, it may be asking too much.  That's the way it goes, I guess.  Nothing new; same has happened every Haunt since 1973.

Now, my feet hurt, so I'm gonna hit the shower and rest up for an even bigger Saturday night!

It was a decent night tonight.  There was a steady flow of guests, and I got some pretty good scares.

The crowd was a little touchy-feely tonight, but that may have something to do with the fact that it was KIIS FM night.

Sunday gets closer, and I feel that it could be fun.  But we still have another night in between.  The more I do this, the more I love it.

I will be waiting for you.

Just watch out for those fog clouds in the maze; if the monsters don't get you... they will.

It's Friday night, and we have a full crew of artists and monsters alike.  The energy of the room tonight is very high, and everyone seems excited to get out on the streets tonight.  The make-up rooms are buzzing with conversation, and the stereos seem to be getting louder and louder as the politeness and newness of the first few days wear off and we settle into the comfortable groove of familiarity.  Our bowls of candy get lower as the sugar rushes kick in, and we're all working seamlessly to get the talent ready to rock.

I had another late night scheduled, so I used that time to paint more of my pieces.  Tonight, it was an assembly line paint production for The Executioner, the star of our Calico Square show, "The Hanging."  I was able to complete four more pieces, so that gets my pre-painting almost done for the rest of the run on that character.

Of course, I did some touch-up on some other characters, a couple of our Prom Queens from Hatchet High, some glue for the street characters in Ghost Town and The Gauntlet, and one or two of our Kayakos from The Grudge 2 maze.

As the street characters started coming in to get their pieces removed, I got mixed reports about the evening's crowd.  Some said they had the best night of Haunt so far, as there were a lot of guests in the park.  Others talked about how "touchy/feely" some of the guest were, not necessarily being offensive, but the guests touching the talent's costumes, hats, and grabbing at their hands and arms.  It's hard for the characters, as I know they do their best not to make contact with the guests, but when the guests handle the talent, it's hard for the talent to stay in character and not offend.  No one wants a guest complaint for being rude, or worse.

Finally, it was time to close up and clock out.  I check the time clock – it's 2:27 A.M.  Boy am I tired!  I know, I don't scare all night and run around like a crazy chicken, but it's a pretty long day for anybody.

Every Saturday night brings an odd mix of things.  You have large crowds with tons of scares, and you also have people that have no idea what they're getting into, get in a bad mood and ruin everyone else's good time; that was tonight.

We started off pretty good.  We had two girls hiding in the bushes behind the teepees.  Apparently, their parents got spooked at rope drop and bolted.  They were about 12 years-old and were scared out of their minds.  We got them out of the bushes and back on track to finding their parents.  It was a weird start!

The night picked up steam and we were coming at them with everything.  The body fluid score for tonight, if you're keeping track, is two people peeing from the same family, one fear nugget incident, and one hyperventilation/vomiter into a fountain.  The "Fear Pit" was on again tonight and a few of our rookies got banged around in it pretty good.  It's like fire; pretty to look at, but one wrong step and you'll get burned.  You have to be willing to go in and out of it at full speed with seemingly reckless abandon if you wanna make it through alive!

Probably the funniest moment tonight was when a lady came up to our chainsaw guy and started cussing him out.  At first we thought, huh?  But she kept on cursing him, followed by, "I've tried to kill you for three weeks on Resident Evil but you got me every time!  I guess he did kinda look like the chainsaw guy from the game tonight, but it was funny that she drew that conclusion and cussed him out for it.  We all had a good laugh and she was actually a really good sport when we chased her with the saw.

But soon after, things got dumb.  People start to get frustrated because they have had to wait in line for everything.  They rode coasters instead of walked through the mazes, now they want to vent, so it usually falls on the monsters; we can't help you.  We're not Guest Services, sorry.  Take it up with them.

While I understand your frustration, I can't do anything about your plight.  Also, when going to Haunt, IGNORE THE COASTERS!  They are there all year.  You can go in this time of year during the day and ride them all you want with no crowds.  During a Saturday Haunt night, there's so many more people, just seeing the mazes, a show or two and going through the scare zones is a feat.  Concern yourself with the special event stuff, then, if you have time, hit a coaster or two.  Also, I'd recommend paying a little extra and getting a Pre-Scare Dinner.  You get to eat and get let in 30 minutes early; gives you time to hit a few mazes, or the two re-themed rides (Log Ride and Mine Ride) before the big crowds get in.

Also - and this will probably come up again - if there's any doubt that your children may not be ready for Haunt, don't bring them.  We have many adults that cannot handle the event, much less young children.  I'm a parent, and I can't believe how many people are bringing children in strollers to the park!  Maybe the kids are too young to know what is going on, but there're people running around every direction, loud noise and other elements that make it not an ideal setting for children.  I would hate to see a frightened guest bowl over a stroller carrying a young child.

I think I've rambled enough and given my two cents, if anyone is still reading.  Tomorrow is a big day with the premier of The Grudge 2.  Could be amazing; could be chaos.  Guess you'll have to check back and see!

Well, tonight was very busy.  Lots of people and quite a few problems with people beating on the maze.  Luckily I have cool blackouts, and I had the people who decided to hit the walls kicked out.

Lots of good scares tonight!  I also had a woman who was telling me to get away from her seven or 8 year-old daughter, when all I was gonna do was stare her down.  That lady needs to realize that if you bring a kid, you need to be sure they can handle it.

I am looking forward to tomorrow; should be fun!  I'm not sure which celebrities are coming, but I really don't care much for celebrities anyway.

Well, I am off to bed.  Sleep is a good thing.

And please don't bring little kids in... bring them during the day for Camp Spooky.

After some-much needed sleep, I got to the warehouse a little early today to get set up for the night.  I have another late night on my plate, and as much as I enjoy being here, I'm really glad that this is my last mandatory one for the run.

We had some more scheduling changes, so I helped to get those cleared up with some of our artists, and it was time for my first talent to arrive.

He sits in my chair, and as I prepare his piece, he asks, "Can I be green tonight?"  Sometimes, we paint our characters differently to make it interesting not only for the talent, but to stretch our creative muscles as artists.  In this case, I had him in a maroon and copper piece, but his normal color palette is green.  I already have one pre-painted, so I say, "Sure, you can be green."  I apply his piece and his ears, take a few pictures, and send the Goblin on his way.

During touch-up, we got a call from The Hanging show.  They needed some touch-up, so I headed over there to help out.  I gave the Executioner a little bit of extra glue, and touched-up the highlights on the Hangman.  I checked in on Jack Swallows, and headed back to the warehouse through Ghost Town.

Bobo the Monkey blew me a kiss from high on the tower as I walked past the windmill, and I passed the Green Witch in one of her most amazing hiding spots.  Every time I see her, I'm always impressed with the scare tactic she has perfected over her many years at the Farm.  What a talent!

Back in touch-up, I worked on my fellow Whispers in the Fog talent from The Grudge 2, getting her skin tone perfect again so she could get back her maze.

Touch-up finally ends, and the piece removal process begins.  I hear more stories from the street talent about the rougher crowd.  Aside from a few close calls, most people seemed to have a good time tonight, and I'm ready to head home.

Voice One

Here we are; the end of another week.

I woke up this morning sick.  Fun stuff, to be sick at Haunt.  But, I get geared-up and head out into the park about 6:00 P.M.

Tonight was the premier of The Grudge 2.  Areas were blocked off in the park for the event.  Not that it mattered to me all that much, since I'm on the opposite side of the Farm.

Before rope drop, we spot a young girl named Sam.  She travels in every year from out of state to see us.  Sam's great, and it was nice to see her!

The rope drops and we get to work.  It went pretty well; a good-sized crowd and lots of scares.  I spotted one group near our border with Ghost Town and was heading for them when I saw Squirt slide out and get most of them.  I slid on the one that got away; it worked out nicely!  I love when we get the chance to share scares with the Ghost Town crew.

Later on, we had a girl with her screamer stuck.  She was in the fetal position behind the picnic tables screaming over and over again.  You ever see the episode of The Simpsons when Homer relives seeing a dead body as a child?  It was like that!  I called Freak over with the saw to try and unstick her sceamer.  I think we made it worse.  Oops!  She began sobbing so loudly, I could hear her over the saw!

I had quite a few scares where people just dropped in front of me.  There were two girls in particular, that I scared.  One of them took off running, the other dropped.  She was then dragged about 10 feet by her hair from her friend.

The saw had two girls pinned and one of them was choking the other.

As usual with larger crowds, things went south later in the evening; the usual stuff, but without going into detail, big thanks to Dusty Geezer and Monstar for saving the day while wearing an inflatable Frankenstein and an 8-foot-tall pumpkin!  You guys are my heroes!

Now, I have two days to try and kick this cold so I can be rested and well for the big TPA visit next week!

So tonight was the big night.  It wasn't much different, except for the fact that our maze didn't open till like 8:00 P.M.  To be honest, it was a lot of hurry-up-and-wait.  These sorts of things always are.

I scared a few celebrities, but that's not a big deal to me.  To me, celebrities are regular people.

The other difference was that it was rather busy for a Sunday night.  Surprisingly, we had a constant flow of guests, which probably had something to do with the premiere.

That's all for now.

'Night.  And have a good two days of rest!

As we drive up to Knott's, we can see that the preparations for tonight's premiere of The Grudge 2 are already underway.  Much of the employee entrance has been blocked off, extra security guards are strolling about, and several large satellite trucks line Western street, as do several members of the paparazzi waiting to get that perfect shot of one of the many stars scheduled to arrive tonight.

I get started on my make-ups, and when my second character arrives, I take some extra time to work on her to be sure she's perfect.  By special request, Ghost Town's very own Bride and Green Witch will be helping to entertain the masses during the pre-premiere festivities, in addition to the Grudge girls.  I put the finishing touches on her make-up, and after getting dressed, we touched-up the spots that got a little smudged during the process.  With a perfectly-painted red pout, she headed off to the premiere to thrill and chill the guests to get them into the mood.

As I finished up my goddess character, the Executioner came to sit in my chair.  Sadly, he reported that he wasn't feeling well - and let it be said that these guys are tough; with all the stunts that they do, the hits, the bruises, the falls that they take, if a stunt man complains about being ill, you know it's not just the sniffles.  Concern was most definitely in the air about The Hanging show.  His fellow cast mates, the stunt coordinator, the Wardrobe head, the director, and first aid all paid visits to check on his condition as he sat in my chair.  But, being the true professional he is, he refused to bow out of the show.  We put him together, and as he hobbled out of the warehouse to the Calico stage, I wished him well and could only hope he'd made the right decision, and hopefully, not put himself in further danger at the expense of going "on with the show."

My husband and I decided to take the night to go into the park and see a few shows and mazes.  We had dinner at Johnny Rockets before heading in to Lost Vegas.  Although I've heard mixed reviews, we went in with an open mind.  I thought it was very fun, and some of the ideas for the rooms were very creative.  Of course, as everyone has mentioned, the strippers were the highlight of the maze, and I took many pictures of them working the pole.

We decided to take in The Hanging, so I stopped in backstage to see how Mr. Executioner was doing.  Thankfully, he was feeling much better, and was resting comfortably on the couch in the moments before the show, saving his energy.  He still wasn't 100%, but was ready to go on.  We watched the show from in front of the sound booth, and after a false start with the audio, the show took off and was a riot.  The Hangman really brought the action to the forefront, and set up the show nicely.  I really like seeing the show with the live mics – it makes it more fun, in my opinion, as it gives the actors more freedom to enact the comedy aspects of the show.  The fight scenes were entertaining, and I really enjoyed seeing one person do all of the eliminations than seeing a bunch of random "offings."  The actor who plays Jack Swallows really seems to have invoked the spirit of Johnny Depp, as his movements are, pardon the pun, dead-on.  What a scene stealer!

We finally got to make it into The Grudge 2 maze.  I saw Scott Broad from Haunted Media coming out of the maze as we were going in, and the line was about an hour and a half long, what with the premiere going on and the VIP party next door in the Beer Garden.  Once inside, we admired the detail of the sets inside, and marveled at some of the really cool props.  As has been previously reported, the Kayakos throughout the maze were very creepy, and they've really perfected the moves from the movie.  With the music and the lighting, and especially all the hair walls and curtains, it really lends to that creepiness you'd expect.

We made our way past the Dark Realm (where, by the way, the guy with the yellow trash can – you got some really great scares), over to The Gauntlet for the first time this Haunt.

We had planned to hit up Lore of the Vampire, but ended up getting distracted by some of the street characters who were tearing it up in front of the birdcage instead.  Imp, Chief and KB were all in full-force, wreaking havoc on the guests.  We watched for a while, and then we realized it was getting late.  So we headed back to the warehouse, making a quick pass through Silver Bullet Mine Town, where we witnessed two girls being playfully terrorized in the center of a monster ring.

It was quite an evening, and a lot of interesting events to describe.  Now, to head home for a nice day off to relax and prepare for the week ahead!

Voice One

Okay, I spent my days off sick.  Felt pretty good today - not 100% - but good enough to start another week.

Tonight was another slow Wednesday.  The crowd was about 50-50.  Either they were scared by everything, or they seemed like they couldn't care less.  It happens.

Our Own Rick West and Shea Foley were finally here checking things out.  It was good to see them!  They snapped a few photos in the area, and then went on their way.

All in all, not an eventful night.  Had a lady wait around just to watch me slide.

Best scare of the night for me was a group of girls who walked up into the area; I slid up on them and the middle one immediately dropped to the ground.  When she did, she pulled the others on top of her like a house of cards.  Two got up and started to run, but were caught by the saw.

Other than that, there was a lady who was terrorized by most of the group for at least 15 minutes!  She tried everything she could to get away from the saw but was trapped everywhere she went!

That's about all for tonight; we'll see what tomorrow holds!

Tonight was a pretty good night, although it was crowded for a Wednesday... and also a little hostile.  Guests hit the walls in the maze so much that two lights went out in my room.

On the plus side, I created an awesome new scare.  Even though my joints are complaining already, it's worth it.

I finally met Rick tonight.  He made me feel good about my maze overall; he told me that everyone in there was going strong all night, which makes me feel good to know that the whole maze works hard... that doesn't happen all the time.

Well, time to rest my aching limbs.

'Night!

Another two days off have come and gone, and we're back to the Haunt grind, if you can call it a grind at all.  As will happen on most Wednesdays, we've got a lot of people out, both artist and talent alike.  Luckily, there are more talent out than artists, so we're able to pick up the slack pretty easily and get everyone out on time.

I'm happy to report that our Executioner is feeling much better after feeling so ill on Sunday.  Seems to have been a nasty bout of food poisoning, which makes me very relieved.  One of the downfalls of doing make-up during Haunt is that it's easy to catch the colds that other people may have, being in such close proximity to others.  I've been taking my Airborne and washing my hands consistently, so hopefully I'll be able to avoid whatever contagious ailments that come with doing Haunt.

We had a visitor tonight – none other that Rick from TPA!  He came by the warehouse to say hello and take some pics, so it was nice to see him right here in Buena Park.  I know that drive from Las Vegas can be so daunting!

It was a good night, even though it was slow, but a pretty good start to this week.

I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it.  People can be terrified of a 10-inch toy chainsaw!  We got one on loan from Dusty Geezer and tried it out.  The final count was four girls floored, 10 runners, two runners into the store at the Hotel who wouldn't come out, and way too many that were completely freaked out to mention!  The best part is after they're done freaking out, they're completely embarrassed by it!

Other than that, the night was slow, but the crowd was pretty good.  Some TPA regulars came through; always good to see them!

The night went by pretty quickly.  We got the occasional freaked-out lady whom we would get her name and call her over and over again.  One of them must have run 5 miles within our area; she just wouldn't stop!

Tomorrow will be a mixed bag.  All you nice TPA readers will be there; it will probably be a sold-out night, and most likely, it will rain.  So I guess tomorrow, you'll need patience and your umbrella.  See everyone soon!

Well, tonight was slower than last night.  It was a pretty good night.

My new scare is awesome, even though I am sore everywhere.  I am really getting a feel for my maze and area.

The whole night was awesome except the very last part of it.  I was told that I couldn't do something that I have been doing since day one - that I got compliments from street monsters for - and it says in our handbook that we are supposed to do.  But oh well... when a yellow shirt speaks, there isn't much you can do.

With our fearless Make-up Head out on Wednesdays and Thursdays, I've been stepping in to help lead our crew when she's out.  I got to the warehouse early to open up, and found that we've got some lights out in our area, so I make the call to get them fixed.  Thankfully, the techs at Knott's are quick to respond, so we'll have sufficient light to work by tonight!

Just as I was done setting up my station for the night, I saw Bill Meier (my supervisor and one of the Wardrobe supervisors) come through the door with a big smile on his face, and an even bigger bag of Woochies (Woochies are some of the purchased liquid latex appliances that we use in our makeup)!  We had a delay in the shipping, and although we've got a small stock already, there were a lot of pieces we needed for our characters.  So it was with much happiness that we sorted, counted and distributed the pieces to the artists.  And the make-up artists rejoiced!

We also had a special VIP go out in make-up tonight; one of the talent captains from The Gauntlet made a special appearance as a Voodoo Priestess, and got to scare alongside her minions in what I'm sure was a great night!

Voice One

Happy Friday the 13th!

The night started off great.  Rope drop had a lot of action, the crowd was into it and there were tons of good scares; people running every direction, dropping to the ground - it was just a blast!

It stayed good right on through until about 8:00 P.M., then the first round of rain hit.  Cancel the sliding, the chasing, and the saws.  Now, all these fired-up monsters have to kick it down into a lower gear and switch tactics.  Different types of scares get used, and if they run, we don't chase.  Shaker cans come out, as well as some fun and ingenuity.

Tiny drink umbrellas were passed out by one monster in our area along with an apology regarding the rain.  Only the first 144 lucky people got one.  We take more pictures and the mood shifts more from scaring to entertaining.  Most people get a little wet, and then they are scared-out for the rest of the night.  There were still quite a few good scares, so it balanced the night out quite well.

Overall, not a bad night, considering the rain.  I was soaked with sweat (sexy, huh?) from the few good hours before the rain, so I didn't notice much difference when the wet stuff fell.  The rain should clear up for tomorrow and the crowd will be HUGE!

Voice Two

Wow!  It was packed tonight!  We were sold-out and is was KIIS FM night again.

I am still sore everywhere, but not quite as bad.

I'm kinda sad that I missed the TPA breakfast at the Chicken Dinner Restaurant.  I didn't know it only went to 3:00 A.M., and I was taking off make-up till 2:30 A.M.

The Haunt night wasn't too bad.  I got pushed a few times, and some 8 year-old grabbed my butt, but nothing major.

Well, that's all for now!

Voice Three

I kept my fingers crossed all day, hoping that it wouldn't rain tonight, but obviously, that didn't help.  As soon as I started driving in today, there were big, fat raindrops on my windshield, so all I could do was hope that it would be light.  Not that there's anything that we do differently – make-up still goes on, but it's just a pain for the monsters, especially the street monsters, as it changes their whole strategy.

It was new faces for everyone in my chair tonight.  The Goblin is yellow, the Goddess is green, and the Executioner, well, he's still grey, as always.  And the Bride - well, she gets a new face every night because she doesn't wear a prosthetic, just paint.

My stack order got a little switched-up, as the Bride was called to do an event this morning, so she got to come in a little late.  In my down time, I started to paint a piece for another VIP that was going out tonight.  Normally, I would try to help out anyone who was "in the weeds" or behind, but everyone seemed to be moving along very quickly and getting their people out ahead of schedule – in both rooms!  Our artists really rock!

I heard through the grapevine that we were completely sold-out tonight, which is great news!  They were actually turning people away left and right at the ticket booths tonight.  I believe this was our first sold-out night of the season!

I stayed a little late to paint some more of my pieces, and because I stayed inside, I missed most of the rain.  I also heard that there was some really amazing lightning and thunder, which added to the fact that it was Friday the 13th.  Sometimes, all the elements really do work together to make a creepy night even creepier!

Okay, so we have a Saturday night with no rain, in the middle of October; expected attendance - around 40,000.

This is the point in the run where everyone needs to be on their toes.  Scare them and get outta there is the motto.  Speed and aggression will save you.  So, how did it go?

Tonight was one of those nights you dream about.  It was simply AMAZING!  The night started off good with rope drop, and the more people they funneled in, the better it got.

We took the usual Fear Pit, and turned it into a full-scale fear riot!  No kidding!  It was like the place was on fire and everyone was trying to get out!  People were falling down, nearly being trampled, people running through planters, over, under, around and through the picnic tables, into the crowd; it was pandemonium!

At one point, three of us moved the entire crowd back toward Ghost Town.  We would bob and weave in and out of the crowd just piggy-backing one scare onto another.  It stayed like that all night; we never wanted to leave for our breaks and lunch, it was that good!

All of us were sucking serious wind and completely drenched, but it was just too much fun to stop.  Several people tried really hard to find their "Happy Place" but I don't think all of them succeeded.  There were quite a few who I think went bye-bye and may not be back for a while.  They were last seen lying on the ground in the fetal position, sobbing.  It's nice to get inside their heads; it's the gift that keeps on giving!

I should buy stock in G.E. - I predict the sale of night lights going up sharply!

So now, I get to rest my tired, sore body.  Tomorrow is Sunday; the crowds will be lighter, and we'll see what kind of fun awaits!

Tonight was very busy.  There were lots of good scares, though nothing out of the ordinary.

After Haunt, many went to Monster Broomball.  I didn't play, but I sure had fun watching!

Sorry this one is so short; not much to report.

It's another Saturday night in The Chamber, and we're busily painting our monsters.

To keep things lively, we've scheduled a "dress-up night," and tonight is, "Bikers and Bumpkins."  Most everyone has donned a handkerchief for their head, and is wearing a leather biker jacket or boots, and we're all in the spirit of Halloween.

We also had our first "official" potluck, so the food table in the Crypt was overflowing with yummy treats.  These are some of the things that make Haunt so much fun for us!

Thankfully, the rain cleared up from last night, so the monsters are much more excited to get out there and do some damage.  Again, I hear the park has another sold-out night on their hands, so I can only hope that people will be kind and the monsters will be safe.

An exciting and bizarre thing happened tonight; one of our artists was working on his last character, and when he went to grab for a paint bottle, the plastic on the bottle was so brittle, that he put his thumb right through.  Thankfully, it wasn't sharp enough to hurt him, but he did manage to splatter the brightest color of fluorescent Pink Raspberry all of over his black shirt.  We got him to the sink quickly, and were able to avoid a total loss of the shirt by rinsing it immediately (that stuff doesn't come out once it dries).  While he was cleaning himself up, I finished off his character so that he could get out on the street.  What a mess!

I stayed a little late tonight so that I could work on the last of my pieces.  I was having some trouble getting focused on a particular piece, and after several attempts to be creative, I decided to scrap my idea, wash out the piece, and start over.  It's hard to let go of a piece after putting time and effort into it, but at some point, you just have to realize it's time to cut your losses.  I felt much better after gaining a different perspective and starting in a new direction, and I think I've come out with a pretty cool concept.

Imp, my goddess of the Gauntlet, will be going out emulating a piece of antique British blue and white china, so I'm hoping it will play well in the dark of the Gauntlet.

All in all, I'm glad to have a Saturday night to myself, so I'm heading out for the night at the ever-so-decent hour of 10:45 P.M.

I can't believe we're at the end of week three!  Two more weeks to go until Haunt 2006 is put to bed.  I want to thank all the TPA friends and staff that visited us this week.  You guys all rock!  Thank you for everything.

Moving on, here we are at another Sunday.  I was pretty sore today, but it was a good sore.  Tried something different today, character-wise.  I can't really tell you more, or it will give it away.  But, it was fun!  My character affected people on a deeper level than I usually do.  This version is able to get inside peoples' heads and mess with them psychologically.  That's fun, because it stays with them a lot longer than your run-of-the-mill, pop-out scare.

The crowd tonight was smaller, and it was a bit of a mixed crowd.  People were either really into it, or seemed apathetic; can't win them all.  But, we had fun, still kept the energy going, and had a fun night.  It gave us a chance to try new things.  They may find their way into our bag of tricks for Fridays and Saturdays, and who knows what they'll do to unsuspecting guests?  *insert evil laugh*

For now, this monster will take the much-needed rest and catch up on the things I have missed and/or neglected these past five days.

Well, it was a Sunday.  A little slower than other nights but still fun.

Plus, Rick and Shea came through and taped the maze... so that was cool!

Even though it was a Sunday, we still had our share of idiots.

I had a stroke of genius; when I thought I lost my keys, they turned out to be in my purse where I had looked four or five times already.  And, I found them after AAA unlocked my car, 'cause I thought I had locked them in the trunk.  I was freaking out.

That just goes to show how blond I am!

Before I even get to Haunt tonight, I get a phone call from my supervisor informing me that we've got a total of 8 make-up artists out for the night, and not enough substitutes to cover them all.  Half of them are out ill, so we've got to come up with a coverage plan.

Once I get in, I find out that we've gotten a few of our backup subs to come in, but they'll be late, considering we called at the last minute.  But with a couple of our monsters out (also due to illness and injury from Broomball the night before), we're able to sufficiently cover.

I've taken on an additional Feary from Feary Tales, and as I'm working on the chainsaw-wielding "Jailbird" from GTS, our very own Rick West joins us in the make-up room for a final tour around the area for some pics.  Sadly, although we get many visitors, we've got a lot of work to do, so our socializing time is cut to a minimum if someone's in our chair.  But we do get a chance to say our hellos, and before I know it, they're gone.  I hope they got some good stuff!

Just after I finished up my character, I headed over to the sink to wash my hands.  Just yesterday, I brought in a cute little Halloween-themed ceramic container for soap, and as I grabbed it, the nozzle came apart and the container crashed down to the ground in a million tiny pieces, mixed with a full helping of soap (at least it wasn't fluorescent pink paint, right?).  I've had some pretty clumsy moments over the past couple of days, so this was just the last straw of my bumbling run!  All I wanted to do was finish up the Executioner and head home.

Luckily, I made it through my last make-up without incident, so I cleaned up and headed home.

Hopefully, next week will be less accident-prone for all of us, and we'll have more fun things to report on instead!

What a way to start a week; Scion Night, Power 106 night, and an Xzibit concert, all rolled into one!

Okay, so everyone in the first 2,000 Scions gets in free.  Sound like fun?  Nope.  It seems that when people don't have to pay to get into an event, they just don't seem to care.  Early in the evening, things got dumb.  Seems every third person tried to scare the monsters by pushing them.  I spent most of the night running interference for people sneaking up on monsters.  I really didn't like it.

I wasn't into it tonight because of the crowd.  Hopefully, tomorrow will be better.  My apologies to those who paid and tried to have a good time, only to have it ruined by people with no manners.

It was pretty busy for a Wednesday; the reason being that it was both Scion Night AND Power 106 night.

I luckily, was not hurt in any way, or even threatened more than usual.  I was very angry when I heard about the stunt that Power tried to pull on CarnEVIL tonight; that is on the same level as the stunt they pulled two years ago.

Well, off to bed now... school in the morning.

Another typical Wednesday is here with a lot of holes in the make-up schedule.  Our artists are getting faster and faster as the run goes on, so we're able to pick up the slack without issue.

Tonight, I brought my sister-in-law backstage to see how the make-up rooms run.  She had a really good time, and even expressed interest in becoming an artist someday!  Seeing as how both my husband and I do make-up, it would be really neat to have her join the Haunt family, too!

Tonight was Scion Night – a promotional night where they do a drawing for a new Toyota car in conjunction with Power 106.  Because the drawing was being done in Calico Square, they cancelled the first Hanging, so we weren't in quite as big of a rush to get the Hanging cast done.

The Stunt Coordinator for The Hanging came over to the make-up room to pass the time, and we ended up having our very own Make-up Room Stunt Show!  He and I were horsing around, and ended up doing and impromptu stunt fight, which entertained both the make-up artists and monsters in the room.  It must have been pretty silly, considering I'm certainly no stunt girl, but it was a funny moment nonetheless!

We stayed in the park to have dinner at Johnny Rockets.  Xzibit (the rap performer) was on hand to help do the Toyota giveaway, so the crowd was very thick in Calico Square.  Earlier in the evening, I had heard the talent captains advise the monsters in Ghost Town and Silver Bullet to stay away from the stage area, as the crowds were pretty rowdy.  As we passed through it all on our way to dinner, we walked quickly to avoid getting caught up in the excited crowd, as the announcers were riling everyone up.  Although I can understand that it's exciting to win a new car, I don't know if doing it at Haunt is a good idea – only because once that moment is over and the winner is announced, what are those people going to do with that energy?

We finally made it over to Johnny Rockets for dinner.  During Haunt, they play a bunch of Halloween themed songs, like "I Put a Spell On You," "The Addams Family," and "Purple People Eater."  It makes the dining experience fun and keeps you in the mood.  Just as we were finishing our dinner, Michael Jackson's "Thriller" came on, and as soon as the chorus began to play, you could look around the restaurant and see some of the patrons doing the moves!  About halfway through the song, they really cranked up the volume, and a few moments later, a bunch of the servers formed a line in the front of the restaurant, and broke out the zombie dance moves that Thriller made famous.  What a great way to end our meal!

My sister-in-law and husband decided to stay in the park and take in a couple of mazes, but I was tired and ready to go home.  I headed back to the warehouse, checked in on the folks doing Touch-Up for the night, and headed out for the evening.

After last night's not-so-fun evening, I was really hoping tonight would be better.  Thankfully, it was!

We got back into the groove right at rope drop, and it got better from there!  By the end of the night, we had four people pee, one person drop another "fear nugget," one vomiter, and several that have gone bye-bye now.

It's kinda like if you move a pinball machine too much, and the signs says TILT.  It's sort of like that with their conscience.  It's a weird feeling to pretty much steal someone's soul; not sure how I feel about it.  Wait.  Yes I do.  I LIKE IT!  *insert evil grin*  They'll be seeing us in their dreams for a while.

The two scares of the night were probably one girl we had on the bench, getting inside her head.  I mimicked the sound of her friend and kept telling her, "Don't look up!"  She pretty much shut down after that and was gone.  The other was watching Freak chase a lady with the saw and watching the stream of pee follow her in a neat little trail, everywhere she went.  At first, I thought she may have had a cup in her hand and was spilling it, but, NOPE!  SHE WAS PEEING!

Tomorrow should be a lot of fun.  It will be packed, and that means another night of the FEAR PIT!

Voice Two

Tonight was a lot slower than last night; it wasn't too bad.

I still have not been hit yet at Haunt.  *knocks on wood*

When my make-up artist isn't there on Wednesdays and Thursdays, I get bounced around between make-up people; not fun.  Oh well.

I am so tired.   I am gonna get sleep...

Voice Three

Tonight was pretty uneventful, although we were at a more normal crew size.  Unfortunately, as the run goes on, sickness begins to take hold and spread from person to person.  Although we started with a full crew, two of our people went home sick.  I know Haunt is a lot of fun for people, but when you're sick, please stay home and take care of yourself – monsters and make-up artists alike!  I know some don't want to "call in," but I'd rather someone stay home and get better, than come in sick and spread the illness!  I've been taking my Airborne like crazy, and knock on wood, I've been holding up pretty well.

We had an unfortunate incident tonight; one of the things that's very bothersome to me as a make-up artist is when talent make changes to the work that an artist did.  We had a talent in the ladies' restroom removing her make-up because she "didn't like it," and she got caught.  In this case, the talent was reprimanded and reported to her talent captain.  A word to the wise: Never tick off your make-up artist.  A repeat offender can find themselves reassigned out of their make-up and into a mask for the duration of the run.

I'm going to go on a rant here, so bear with me.

Make-up artists are paid to create designs for talent.  For talent to go in and ruin it, or to complain about it, is an insult.  As always, if there's really a problem with the way a certain character's make-up is done, that can be resolved by talking to the head of the make-up room or Wardrobe, but to take it into your own hands is bad form.  I have heard talent say to guests to "leave it to the professionals;" I'd like to pass that same advice on to those talent who like to play make-up artist out of the chair.  Having a make-up spot is a privilege - there are those who long to sit in the chair and experience what it's like to go out in make-up rather than a mask.  Please, my dear monsters, don't abuse the privilege!  We respect what you do as talent, and we ask that you respect what we do for you, in kind.

Ok; end rant.

I stayed a little later tonight to work on cleaning my airbrush, as it seemed to be getting clogged.  After taking it apart and giving it a super-thorough cleaning, I looked up and realized it was way past my bedtime.  I put everything back together, checked in one last time on our Touch-Up artists, and headed out of the warehouse into the artificial fog-filled night.

I have been able to judge how a night is going to go by watching the Shake and Bake prop near the Wagon Camp.  If he fires up and scares people, it's gonna be a good night!  He was scaring the bejeezus out of people tonight, so I knew it would be good.  Shake and Bake was right again!

We got them whipped-up at rope drop and it built up as the night went on.  The scare opportunities were almost too many.  We'll take that any day - people running every which way, through the back of the picnic area, everywhere, and there was always at least one monster waiting for them on the other side.

I must have gone after these two girls on and off for a good half hour, screaming, "Shoe!" at them.  Several of them broke down and wept.  The head games are fun.  One girl wasn't sure if she was awake or if this was all a nightmare, and I wasn't gonna help her make up her mind, either!

We had a few from Ghost Town come over and play.  That was fun, and they had a good time.

We had a lot of great scares tonight; I can't name just one.  Once we get the Fear Pit going, you can scare the same person three or four times before they ever know what hit them!

We also had an old friend, security, and even Voice Three stop in for a bit and watch us!  Voice Three gave us a really nice compliment and I wanted to say thanks again!  It means a lot to us when we hear that we're doing a good job.

We tend to be overlooked by others, but those whose opinion matters most are happy, and that's all we can ask for.  Everyone is welcome to come back and play or watch any time!

It was a bit of a rowdy crowd tonight.

My final score was two slaps to the face, two accidental boob grabs, one accidental hit to the face, and one shoulder to the eye; actually not too bad!

The scares tonight were really good and the idiots were not out in as great of numbers as usual.  Either that, or the screams drowned them out.

I love this job.  My only regret is that we only have two more weeks.

Well... 'night!

Tonight's dress-up night in the make-up room was "Catholic School Daze."  Although I didn't dress up, there was much fun to be had in the room, as we had several boys and girls running around in plaid and jackets, and a threatening nun with a ruler to keep everyone in line!  Having dress-up nights gives the make-up artists a chance to be silly, and even though not everyone dresses up every time, it's fun to see who dresses up for which nights and how creative they can be in their costuming choices!

My make-up stack has been a little light the past few days because the Bride has been on hiatus, so I've been using that time to help do make-up from the Crypt.  Tonight, I did one of the Fearies from Feary Tales, so that was fun.

The characters that I do on a regular basis don't need UV paint, so it's fun to mix it up and use some of my fluorescents on the maze characters.

My third character, Imp, was put in a new piece tonight, but her piece was a little thin, so when she smiled, it gave her some funny little bunching around her mouth.  Hopefully, it wouldn't be too uncomfortable to wear.  She's a pro, so I'm sure she was able to work with it just fine.

After my make-ups were done, I went into the park by myself to check out the scares in the different areas.  I haven't been able to get out into the park as much as I'd like to this year, so tonight was my chance.  Another artist was waiting for friends to arrive, so she walked with me through Ghost Town, then out by the front entrance.  You could tell this was another sold-out night, as the people were streaming in through the turnstiles in a never-ending line.  It was so crowded up there, that it was hard to maneuver through to The Gauntlet.

We sat in front of the bird cage in The Gauntlet for about half an hour, watching the monsters work the crowded streets.

We saw Psycho, Jabberjaw, Chief, KB, Spaz, Imp and Bizkit going to town on the big groups of people, dodging in and out of them, sliding like maniacs and working people into frenzied mobs.  The King even passed by a couple of times, usually sneaking behind a group of guests and freaking them out with his Chinese yo-yo! 

Eventually, we walked back up to the front where I dropped off the other artist with her friends that had finally arrived.

I headed over to Silver Bullet Mine Town and watched for about 10 minutes just next to the Stagecoach bridge, but I realized that the real action was further over toward Ghost Town.  I found a great spot to sit and watch next to the water fountain, and enjoyed some great teamwork.  Wench, Uncle Skittles, Vaseline, Andros, and Freak were just tag-teaming this area like crazy.  Wench had really great energy dodging through the crowds, and Vas would come up from nowhere in a lightning fast slide.  Of course, Freak had his chainsaw in hand and was sending the masses scattering as he cut through the crowds.  

After a good 45 minutes of entertainment there, I wandered over to the north side of Calico Square, avoiding the huge crowd that had lined up for The Hanging.  There, I was surprised by Tweak, who was seamlessly blended into a hedge, and I'm hardly surprised by anyone anymore, so that was a pretty good hiding spot!

I ended up watching Twitch and the Gargoyle not only scare, but entertain some of the crowd with their silly antics, and then ducked back behind The Hanging stage to check in on my Executioner.  I said my hellos to the rest of the cast, then snuck out the other side of the backstage area and strolled through Fog Alley in Ghost Town.

I saw some of the usuals there; the Goblin and Deets, and the Hangman and Jack the Ripper - and of course, many screaming guests!

All the fog was starting to get to me, so I headed back the warehouse and called it a night.

Didn't go by the Shake and Bake tonight; if I had, it probably would have told me what to expect.

Tonight was another jam-packed, sold-out Saturday night.  Three-hour-plus lines for everything, it seemed.  People jammed in like sardines, and they were extra-grabby waaaaaay too early in the evening.  It didn't make things all that fun.  Most of the night, something seemed to be missing.

There were plenty of great scares, though.  One person had a double-whammy; they made a #1 and a #2 in their pants at the same time!

Two people went over the rails and into the bushes, and we caused at least a half-dozen to have a breakdown.  One person vomited pure alcohol.  I guess booze and running from the monsters isn't a good mix.

But, all the while, we had to watch our backs and the backs of our fellow monsters because apparently, bear hugging a monster or shoving them full-force is called "scaring" as far as the guests see it.  I dunno; haven't they noticed that monsters always manage to scare WITHOUT TOUCHING?  Yeah, how about you be the guest, and leave the scaring to us?  That's kinda what we get paid for.  I wish we didn't have to watch ourselves so much, because it takes away from our first job, scaring.  But, it's a necessary evil, and I doubt it will go away any time soon.

All in all, an okay night.  Not the best we've had, but not my worst night, either.  Sunday will be far less crowded.  Hopefully, the guests will be well-behaved and we'll all have a good time.

Well, it was a decent night tonight, I guess.

Oh yes - I have been hit at Haunt now; twice in one night.  Of course, both were slaps and weren't that hard, but both were to the face.  The shock is what got me the most, especially with the first one.  I stood there for a little bit just staring at the girl with a look of utter shock on my face.

After Haunt, we went bowling.  The theme was cross-dressing... and many of those guys should not have worn dresses!  I dressed up as well, and I guess I really looked like a guy, 'cause the guy who worked at the bowling alley gave me men's shoes the first time.  Oh well!

Voice Three

On my way in to work tonight, I got a call from my supervisor that we were going to be down five people, due to sickness.  Luckily, we had a couple of subs on-call who were able to help, but we were still down a few, so we all had to help pick up the slack.

In my downtime, I did one of the Itako characters from The Grudge 2 maze, and I also did another Feary.

In the remaining downtime, I took an inventory of the characters and the pieces they wear so that we could be sure we had the right information when Haunt comes around next year.  We haven't even finished with this year yet we're already thinking about next year!

It's been pretty warm here in Buena Park over the last few days, and I really feel badly for the monsters.  It's barely cooling off at night, and with the humidity, they're out there just sweating like crazy with little relief.

I had considered heading back out into the park tonight, but I had only two more of my pieces to paint, so I decided to stay late and do that instead.  It was a pretty quiet night inside the make-up room tonight, so I was able to finish my painting for the rest of the run.

Not a whole lot to report, except that on my way out, the screams from 13 Axe Murder Manor were deafening, and as I drove out onto La Palma, the fog was rolling in thick clouds across the street.

I hope the weather cools down enough so that the fog from the park melds seamlessly with the real fog; until then, I'll settle for the Haunt fog while it lasts!

Voice One

Here we are; the end of Week Four.  19 nights down, seven more to go.  It's gone by really fast; seems like just yesterday, we were coming in for the first time.

Tonight was pretty busy as far as Sundays go.  The crowd was very mixed.  They were either really into it, or seemed as though they were forced to come.

Tonight, I was asked how come guests can't try to scare the monsters.  Well, because that's not how things work.  It would be like going to a professional sports game, and asking how come you couldn't play too!  Also, when you are actively scaring and someone wants you to tell them where "the maze" is.  You ever go to a concert and try and stop the artist to ask where the beer is?  Just two things that bug me.  Now that all that is out of the way, here's tonight's rundown:

Pretty good scares overall; quite a few were pretty much done for the night after we got to them, and they went home.  Lots of chances to creep people out and mess with them psychologically.  Other than that, not a fantastic night, but the guests were pretty well behaved, so I can deal with the hit-and-miss on scares.

The seven-day run is coming next; we'll see how the body holds up.

Voice Two

Well, I'm sad now.  My make-up artist quit.  so now, I will get passed around like a whore every night instead of just on week nights.  LOL... oh well.

A lot of us just weren't feeling it tonight.  Maybe we burned ourselves out... or maybe the day in general was just a gloomy day.  Who knows?

Fox 11 came through and filmed the maze tonight, so we will be on the news.

I have bruised my thumbs from crawling all over the ground.  Hopefully, they and my voice - which is injured once again - will heal by Wednesday.

Voice Three

The Bride is back!  After being gone for a week, she was back in my chair and ready to rock!  She was so excited to be back after a week-long "vacation," and she told me that she was really happy to get back out there.  Our Bride is such a lovely woman out of her character, that it hardly seems possible that she can portray the spurned temptress of Ghost Town.  But we got her picture-perfect and sent her out to spread fear amongst the unsuspecting guests in the park.

Tonight was Pajama Night, so there were many of us in our PJs.  Some wore the comfy kind, others wore the sexy kind (lingerie), but all in all, we were having a good time with the theme.

We also distributed the last set of prosthetics to the artists tonight to paint for the upcoming final week.  It's sad to think that in just 9 days from now, we'll be doing our "Strike Night" and turning this whole space back to the empty warehouse it was when we first came in five weeks ago.

These past weeks have been a lot of fun, so I will enjoy and savor these last few days before the lights of Haunt go dim.

Well, here we are.  The beginning of a seven-day run and the end of Haunt 2006.

Tonight was very slow.  Most times, it seemed as though there were more monsters than guests.  You would get a scare, then wait, and wait, and wait; oh, and wait some more before the next scare came.  On the one hand, it's nice, because we have energy saved up, but a slow night is bad, because we wanna get out there and scare!  We feed off of crowd energy, and if there's no crowd, there's not much energy

Tonight was nice in the fact that Rick was back at the park gathering last-minute pictures and video.  Everyone, make sure you give him some love!  He's dog-sick, makes the nearly-300-mile-drive to Knott's, films all night, goes to his room, crashes for a bit, then turns right around and heads back out to Vegas; the guy's a trooper!

We also had out last visit of the year from our friend, Mia.  This is her first year visiting since the '80s, and every time she's come, we have scared and chased the bejeezus out of her!  She's a real sport, and we love her!  She gave us candy tonight and took pictures.  We had the time of our lives with her, and hopefully, she had fun with us too.

The crowd was pretty good; only one major knucklehead tonight.  Funny - he goes through being a jerk and screaming in everyone's ear, thinking he's funny.  But a little later, he comes back through with his bladder full from all the "liquid courage" he's consumed and wants us to tell him where the bathroom is.  Well, all of our ears were still ringing from earlier, so we didn't really hear what he was asking and walked away.  Strange how things work out...

Tonight was a fairly slow night, probably because it was a night that was added just a few weeks ago.

But, it was fun tonight.  I was just having a blast chasing people and terrifying them; it was awesome!

Well, sorry for the short one this time... school in the morning.

It's the beginning of the last week, and although I'm excited to get back to painting faces, I know that these next seven days will go by quickly; I'm trying to relish the little time we have left.

Tonight, my mom came backstage to watch the make-up.  Unfortunately, the Goblin and the Bride were out tonight, so I didn't get to do my regulars.  We had a couple of VIPs go out tonight, and the make-up artist who does the Witch was over her head with preparing some of the pieces, so I painted the Witch in her stead.

As the night wore on, we ended up having six VIPs out on the street tonight.  Three talent captains (one each from SBMT, GTS and The Gauntlet) all went out, along with three other VIPs who hold high positions throughout the park.  It's nice that they're going out tonight, as a lot of monsters are out, and the park isn't expected to have very high numbers, so it's a relatively safe night for them to be out there.

Not a bad night; good warm-up to the two nights of fun and utter chaos that await us!

Tonight was good; nothing really special.

We get more and more packed as it gets closer to Halloween.

Well, I'm sleepy... 'night!

Today was my last day of work at my "regular job," as I have scheduled my vacation to coincide with the last few days of Haunt.  It will be nice to be able to sleep in tomorrow morning before heading in to Haunt!

I have new pieces for everyone to wear tonight, and all of my monsters are back.

Although the application of the pieces went smoothly, the painting was a little trying.  I've been having some trouble with my airbrush the past few nights, and tonight was no exception.  It kept clogging up on me, and at one point, I had to take it completely apart - again - and that made my stack run a little late.  I think I might pick up another airbrush tomorrow.

Things never really got rowdy tonight; that was a relief.  But we all know that tomorrow will be as busy, if not busier.  We'll be on our toes and ready to send the last weekend before Halloween out with a bang!

Well, it was a sold-out night; wasn't too bad.

I had fun scaring in one of the other rooms with some of the guys a little.  I like that room so much better than my hallway!  I hope I get to play around in there some more before Haunt is over.

Well, if tonight was sold-out then tomorrow should be as well.  Hopefully, it will be fun.  We will see!

'night all!

How nice it was to get to sleep in today!  I spent my morning working on piecing together my costume, as tonight's dress-up theme is Pirates and Wenches!

On my way in to Knott's, I made a quick stop and picked up a new airbrush!  It's the same model as the one I have now, but it's just a newer version, as my other one is now 9 years old.  I'm pretty excited to get it hooked up to my compressor and try it out!

The make-ups went smoothly tonight.  Everyone went out in their traditional colors: the Goblin was green, the Bride was lavender, Imp the Goddess was a lovely peach, and the Executioner was grey, as always.  Everyone seemed really excited to get out there tonight and bounce off the energy of the crowds, so I was happy to get them out there.

I decided to stay in the park tonight to walk around, so I made stops in SBMT and CarnEVIL.  I had a really great time watching the SBMT crew mix it up, but the CarnEVIL stop was a disappointment.  I know that there is a lot of ground to cover over there, but I only saw two talents during the 45 minutes I was over there.  I started out over at the fountain, where I found one of the chainsaws, then headed down the boardwalk toward Supreme Scream, but I think my timing was just off.  As I walked back, I saw one other clown working the people at the fountain, but even he ran off after someone after only a moment.  Overall, I had really hoped to see some fun, but I think I just hit an off-moment.

There's always tomorrow, I guess.

Now, I hurt like you wouldn't believe, and I have to go set about 30 clocks back one hour and sit in a tub of Tiger Balm Red.

So tonight was... not fun at all.  Sure, there were some really good scares, but everything else overshadowed those good moments.

To start, the park was sold-out... so we were packed to the bursting point.

Then apparently, people were jumping the gate.

There was some sort of problem in CarnEVIL, and the monsters there were sent home two hours early.

Someone apparently was stabbed with something over at Red Beard's Revenge.

There was a mini-riot in our line for some reason.

My friend got knocked out cold over in Asylum.

And I am sure there is probably much more that I do not know about.

After I got pushed and then my wig almost yanked off (which they pulled pretty hard... my wig was pinned in and they pulled so hard it almost came off), I did not feel comfortable in my room with no one else there but me and the other girl; we are hardly ever in each other's range of vision anyway.  So, I went into the other room again where I knew there were guys who could watch my back.

All in all, tonight was not a good night.  I honestly hope this was the worst of it.  It couldn't get too much worse, and I hope it doesn't

It's the last big night of the run, and the energy is palpable in the make-up rooms.  We have several artists out tonight, and not enough subs to cover them, but we're making do with what we have.

I took on a "Lady of the Night" from SBMT in addition to my regular stack to help out.

Tonight was Halloween Costume Night in the make-up rooms, as many people were heading to parties afterward.  We had the Gravedigger from the Haunted Mansion, Freddy Krueger, a Dark Crystal character, a pirate, and a cowgirl.  Although not everyone dressed up, it was fun to see what everyone came up with for the night.  I took the easy way out and put on some kitty ears, so I wasn't nearly as decked-out as my fellow artists.

We went into the park again tonight and walked around.  We hit up Ghost Town first, where we heard reports from the yellow shirts that, being sold-out, there was a rowdy crowd awaiting entry to the gate.

We headed over to The Gauntlet where we found out that one of the talent captains in one of the mazes had been assaulted and taken to First Aid.

We made our way over to SBMT, where we found another yellow shirt and heard that the front gates had been rushed and our security teams had their hands full.

At that point, we decided at that point that we'd had enough of the huge crowds and headed out for the night.

On our way out the gates and down Western Avenue, we saw that one of the gates to the Boardwalk was open to the street, with about six police cars.  We would learn the next day that there was some trouble in the Boardwalk which turned into a mini-riot.

It's too bad that something that is supposed to be so fun can turn so rowdy, and even violent.  Why can't people just come out and enjoy themselves instead of causing trouble?  It's a question that we'll never be able to answer.

God, did I hurt when I got out of bed today!

All the fun of last night plus the fact we're 22 nights into a Haunt run, caught up with my body in a big way.  Lots of Tiger Balm and Ibuprofen was needed to get this monster up to speed.

Tonight was fairly busy, considering it was a Sunday.  They expected 24,000 guests, but I think it may have been more.  We had another good rope drop; not as good as last night, but a pretty good one all around.

The night went well; no real problems in our area to speak of, which is always a welcomed event.

Freak went for a record tonight.  At last count, he had in the neighborhood of 20 people he dropped from the chainsaw.  The rest took off running, screaming, crying; anything they could do to get out of our area!  What he doesn't get, the rest of us do!  We like to make sure everyone gets the feeling that no one is ever safe in Silver Bullet.  Just trying to live up to the Haunt slogan; "Everyone has to go sometime!"  With us in the SBMT, that sometime may be tonight!

Tonight was so much better than last night!  I felt safe and had fun.

I actually made a guy fall flat on his face when I scared him; it was awesome!

So, bed time now, because I have school tomorrow.  But that class will be awesome.

In the aftermath of last night's melee, some of the monsters were licking their wounds and hoping for a much less "eventful" night.  Others still were recovering from the after-Haunt roller skating event.  Stories were floating around the room about the antics of the previous night (from both Haunt and roller skating), and it seemed that everyone was just happy to be back in one piece for more Haunt goodness.

A group of my friends (that I do Renaissance Faire with) came into the park tonight to experience the fun.  When I finished up my shift, I called to see where they were.  Of course, they were in line for "Xcelerator," which disappointed me to no end.  After we sat there waiting for them for a half hour to get on and off the ride, I gave them the "no rides unless they are re-themed for Haunt" speech.  They all agreed, and we proceeded on to the maze tour.  We first hit up "The Grudge 2," then "Terrorvision," on to "Lore of the Vampire," then over to "Red Beard's Revenge."

After the partial maze craze, we were in The Gauntlet when we heard the beating of drums and the tunes emitting from the bagpipes.  We followed the mini parade to the back stage where we watched two monsters get "squired" by the King and Queen, and then watched the sliding show.  Those guys and girls really rocked it, with their jumping over four and five monsters and doing the sliding limbo.

After leading the group over to Feary Tales and The Asylum, we decided to head out for the night as it was way past my bedtime, especially with Daylight Savings Time taking its toll.

OCTOBER 30, 2006

Happy Halloween!

Well, tonight was not as slow as I thought it would be, but it was still fun.

Our Talent Captain joined us in the maze as a monster tonight; he did a pretty good job!

I can't wait for tomorrow night, because it will be so much fun.  I have something fun planned, but at the same time, I don't want this all to end already.

Oh well; it makes me sad to think we are almost done for the year. *sniff*

Well, I have school in the morning, so I should get to bed.

Tonight we were missing a lot of artists, but even more monsters.  I guess "real life" has interrupted our Haunt life, making it nearly impossible for everyone to be there for all seven of the last nights of the run.

We had six more VIPs go out tonight, and three of them were unexpected.  Luckily, we had enough available artists who could fill in at the last minute and get them on their way.

I stayed late tonight to do a lot of break-down in my station and some organization of our supply room, as tomorrow night is not just our last night of Haunt, but also our strike night.  So we had a lot to do to get ready to tear down the make-up rooms, and I wanted it to go as smoothly as possible. 

OCTOBER 31, 2006

Voice One

Here we are; Halloween.  Last night of Haunt 2006.

Tonight was slower than any night the previous week.

It's a mixed blessing.  On the one hand, it's slow, so your beaten body doesn't get hurt any worse, but on the other hand, time goes by slower and you really want to get the most out of that last night.

Rope drop was small but we still had a lot of fun.  The crowd was good early, later they seemed a little bored.  The saw had them running pretty much all night, so it was a good end to the run.  At the end of the night, we picked up our 2006 shirt and a bunch of other goodies they had for us.

Then, you say your goodbyes to people and try to look around and get one last glimpse of Warehouse P, the fog drifting skyward, the sound of the wind in Ghost Town, and those beautiful screams.

I can't believe it went that fast.  Just like the words in the Oingo Boingo song... "We close our eyes, and the world has turned around again.  We close our eyes and dream, and another year has come and gone."

Well, it was the last night of Haunt.  I am both glad and sad that it is over at the same time.

Tonight was awesome.  It was slow and I dressed as Toshio, the little boy from The Grudge.  I had a lot of fun and only went back to my regular costume for the last hour.

After I changed back, I had so much energy to spend!

I will miss Haunt so much, but the fact that I will get more sleep is a plus!

So for now, my Haunt personality goes back away, waiting 11 more months to come out and play...

Everywhere I go, Halloween is in full effect.  Even the kid working the drive-through window at Portillo's [a restaurant near Knott's] was dressed up, and all I can think about is how bummed I am that Haunt is coming to an end.

As the night goes on, each one of my talent come into my chair, and as I finish each make-up, I hug them and wish them a good night, my heart sinking with each passing hour.  In between make-ups, I pack up their colors, and break down my station more and more.

I get a call from my last make-up spot, the Executioner, and I hear he's running behind.

I empty out my Haunt box, take it off of my station, and roll it into the back room for storage.  Finally, the Executioner walks in and takes his seat.  I go through the motions and get him ready for the stage, and at the last minute, decide to add a little something extra.  I paint a heart on his chest, and write "I love my make-up artist" around it, like a tattoo.  I never get to vary from the design of his make-up because he's a show character, but I figured that for the last night, I'd do a little something extra.  We both laughed about it, and then I hugged him goodbye.  I sent him on his way to do his last three shows of the run.

I had pretty much broken down most of my station, and put away my airbrush.  I walked around the room and gave everyone their five minute warning that they needed to finish up their make-ups and start packing away their stations.  One of the artists who was pulled to do a media taping was running behind and still had two make-ups to finish, so I took one of them back over to my station and did my last makeup of Haunt on one of the vampires from Lore.

By 8:00 P.M., all the make-ups were done and most everyone's station had been packed up to prep for Strike.  My supervisor ordered pizza for everyone, so we all took our last lunch break together and bonded on our last night together.

After our bellies were full, we all divided into our Strike teams, and started the great task of breaking down the warehouse.

While Haunt is going on, we have purple and black vinyl draped on the walls for decoration as well as protection of the white walls underneath.  We have red and grey carpet on the floors to protect them from spilled paint and the high traffic of people.  All of the vinyl has to come down and the carpet has to come up.  The tables and chairs are folded and put away until next year, and the inventory all gets counted and the supplies put away.  The make-up boxes and baby food jars all have to be cleaned and dried, and the warehouse has to look like we were never there.

Strike usually lasts until about 10:30 P.M., and last year, we were there until 11:00 P.M.  This year, we had such a great team working together and so quickly, that we were able to complete our Strike by 10:05 P.M.

At the end of it night, we all gathered in the Chamber area of the warehouse, and I thanked our team for all of their hard work, not only for the night, but for the entire run.  My supervisor also thanked the team, and after receiving our termination papers, the make-up artists filtered out of the warehouse to get their cars and load up their make-up boxes.

There was a steady stream of goodbye hugs and promises to keep in touch, and although there was part of me that was relieved that Strike was over, there was a stronger sense of sadness, as another year comes to a close.

Rather than go into the park tonight and try to prolong the inevitable, I just hugged my supervisors goodbye, got into my car, and drove off of the back lot for the last time for this year.

The costume and make-up are off, I've packed up my Haunt box and picked up all the Haunt goodies they had for us.  I've said my good-byes to my talent captain and to Craig Harreld, and begin to make the final walk from Warehouse P to the parking lot.  I look around and think of the journey I've been on that led me to this point.

Haunt 2006 began for me in July, working the Build crew and enduring 12-hour days in the heat to get things ready for the upcoming event.  Hundreds of floors and walls went up, several hundred feet of ramps and handrails were built.  I remember toward the end, covering the mazes with plastic in the middle of the night, sick as a dog, just to make sure we would open on time, just like we have for 33 years prior.  We walked through the mazes during dress rehearsals and it was great to see all our hard work come to life!

Finally, all was done and it was time for the fun part of Haunt - working it as a monster.  This year was simply awesome!  One of, if not the best years I've had.  Our area proved a lot of things to people.  We're small, out of the way, with no buildings or reputation; just a couple of kids playing in a driveway, with an animatronics horse and a couple of small walls.  What we did have is raw talent.  Our gimmick, was the ability to flat-out scare.  We came at people hard and fast, making them believe there was nowhere safe, and when we would move in and out of the crowd, it made them believe we were everywhere.  We had so many good moments, then just like that, 26 nights were done.  I wasn't ready for Haunt to end.  My body believed otherwise!  People who haven't worked at Haunt have no idea what everyone puts there bodies and families through to make this happen.  Wives, husbands and children see us become strangers, home for only brief moments before Haunt calls us back again.

The pain in my legs and back and "God Bless America" playing over the PA snap me back to the here-and-now.

The little hill along the Western side of the park has grown once again, into a mountain.  I look around and know that I've actually completed two of the three phases of Haunt 2006.

November 1st means I will be back at Knott's to begin the taking down of mazes and putting Haunt 2006 to bed.  I'm sad it's gone, but I look forward to spending more time with my children and getting my body back to normal.  I now need to resist the urge to scare people when I walk in crowds.  I guess I should avoid them for a few weeks at least!

Last, I want to thank everyone who took the time to read the ramblings of an exhausted monster.  Without you, there would be no Haunt.  You are the reason we do this.  I hope Whispers in the Fog gave you a glimpse of what we go through every night.  And a very big thank you goes to Rick West for allowing me to do this and for everything TPA has done to promote Halloween Haunt.

The veil is beginning to close now.  I have to return to the other side.  Take care everyone.  Happy Halloween to all, and to all... a good fright!

Wow... another year of Haunt is done.  I am sad, but I know that it has to be over sometime.

This year has had its ups and downs, but over all, it was awesome.  This year, I found myself in a new maze with some of my family from my old maze.  Everyone in the maze fit together and worked together better than I could have asked for.  We were all in there night after night giving it our best.  Anyone who says differently must have walked through at just the wrong time.

I feel really good about this year and about our maze as a whole, and I hope that next year turns out as well as these last two have been, although there are some things that I would not like to become Haunt tradition!

So now it is time to go into the 11-month hibernation, waiting for that card in the mail telling me it's time for my Haunt personality to come out and play.  Now I go back into Berry Punch cravings and longing for Haunt.

So now I have one question for you...

Is it Haunt yet?

Now that this season is over, I'm relieved, exhausted, proud and sad, all at the same time.  The ending of each Haunt is always bittersweet.  I'm ready to get back to real life, but I will miss Haunt 2006.

There were a lot of new faces this year – so many new people to enjoy.  There were many returning veterans who remind me of why I come back every year.  And there were those who didn't come back this year, and they were missed.  With a cast and crew that changes every year, it's a different animal every season, but at the same time, it's still an animal.  It lives, it breathes, it causes immense fear, but it's always different.  Some seasons are better than others, and I really feel that this year was one of the great ones.

I had a lot more responsibility this year, and although it was challenging, I enjoyed working harder to make a great Haunt.  Sure, it's no picnic to have to schedule 300 people for make-up in two rooms and still keep everyone happy, but the scheduling has to get done.  It's hard to set up a room that's functional and attractive, and keep a balance of personalities so that there isn't utter chaos all night long.  It's tough to be the one who has to say, "No, you can't do that," or, "That's not how it works," or even, "You're going to need to fix this…"  But it's easy to compliment the artists and the talent.  It's easy to be creative in a room full of professionals.  And it's easy to enjoy myself while being a part of this amazing team.

My top five favorite moments from Haunt 2006:

The night the Woochies came in – Thursday, October 12

Make-up Stunt Show – Wednesday, October 18

Watching Silver Bullet – Friday, October 20

Watching The Gauntlet Awards – Sunday, October 29

Finishing up Strike Night ahead of schedule – Tuesday, October 31

Overall, I think my favorite part of Haunt is the feeling it gives me while I am there.  It's the sense of belonging to a very large, very dysfunctional, but very fun family.  With each person I paint, I form a connection.  I will talk to these people and spend time with some of these people throughout the year, and they are good people.  I am so lucky to be part of something so unique, and to have made lasting friendships with the people who I share the experience with.

And finally, one of the amazing things about Haunt 2006 was this experience in being a "Whisper in the Fog."  Although I had no idea how much hard work was involved in doing a daily blog about Haunt, I had a lot of fun reminiscing about my nightly activities.  There were moments when I wasn't sure I'd have anything interesting to say, and I can only hope that as a reader, you were able to enjoy Haunt through my eyes.  Sure, it's not as exciting as making someone lose their bodily functions, but it's fun in a different way.  The late nights, the early calls, the paint splatters and the sticky glue fingers; it's all in good fun!

In closing, I want to thank all of the monsters, the make-up artists, the Wardrobe crew, the Build crew, the show performers, the stunt people, the lighting techs, the supervisors, the talent captains, and everyone who makes Haunt possible.  Mostly, I'd like to thank my make-up stack for being such great talent and so easy to work on/with throughout the run.  Wade, my sleepy and scary Green Goblin; Jean, my lovely and terrifying Bride; Missy, my friendly and mischievous Imp; and Johnny B., the entertaining and deadly Executioner.  I had so much fun working with you all, and because of you all, my year was amazing.

And last, but not least, thank you Rick, for asking me to be part of something so huge.  I have enjoyed being part of this feature, and enjoyed reading the other perspectives of the same Haunt through different eyes.  I will be able to look back on this year and remember some of the details that otherwise would escape me had I not written them, and I think this will be a piece of Haunt history that I will truly treasure.

Until Haunt 2007...

Denice Paxton

Key Makeup Artist – The Chamber 2006

But never let your guard down completely.  Just beyond the funnel cake and friendly ride operators lurks something terrible and massive; something that waits patiently in the shadows for the Fall to return again to Southern California.

That thing - that horrible, beautiful thing - counts the months, the days, the hours and the minutes until it is unleashed once again.  There is something unique about the wait this time.  There is something special in the air - something that feels almost electric; almost too ferocious for the shadows, nooks and crawl spaces of the Farm to contain.  If you listen closely each evening as the sun dies beyond the horizon, you just might hear the deep, guttural whisper coming from the darkness.  It is the same phrase over and over again:

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