[0:21] Hello everyone, I'm jonathan and this is haunt weekly a weekly podcast, haunted attraction entertainment community, whether an actor owner or just plain aficionado, we aim to be a podcast for you, and the post Transworld Hangover continues, I think it's safe to say I'm still seeing lots of great posts and social media interactions about it.
Lots of great conversations taking place online and obviously we're gonna have more on it next week I think, But right now it is episode 376 which I did the maths divisible by four, that means it's time to do the news and we actually have a lot of downer news this week.
I'm not gonna lie, but as usual when we come into this hot saying we got some downer, downer news, promise you stick with us, we're gonna try to leave you with something fun at the end so if you just hang in there with us, um we will try to take care of you and send you home as happy as we can.

[1:21] On that note though, if that's maybe this episode isn't for you, check out all the other episodes we did, you can find us at haunt weekly dot com or haunt weekly on twitter, haunt weekly on facebook youtube dot com slash haunt weekly is the youtube channel were also available wherever podcasts are distributed, we just, pay someone to shoot it out there and they handle it, I have zero control over that, but hey, I haven't found a place they missed.
That's good, that's good, right yeah, you know of a place that they missed so we can yell at them.
Alright as usual, we do a question of the weakness podcast last week's was what was your favorite part of Transworld?
And that's whether you went or were following long social media, which you could do very effectively. Let's be honest, especially if you're in NyC hunters hang out.
Uh some of our answers. First off roberta McLellan's said that the conversations both on the trade show floor and off the best she's had in years.
Yes. And it was great meeting you.
Meeting and hanging out with you a little bit too. I would include that.

[2:22] Right, tim Fowler said it couldn't go but was impressed by the beast craft stuff. Seconded by VF.
Yeah, that was the booth that got the most up votes and comments was beast craft, victor. Ruelas said he enjoyed meeting people in person and learning a new three D printing techniques to recreate rusted metal.
That is interesting. I'll be interest and learning that too.
Since we now have a three D printer. It was also nice meeting you.
Nice meeting you. Yes. Yes.
Ryan Ruger said um sorry he didn't get to meet us, but was ecstatic to meet Barton Michael from Terror in the corn and first off, I never apologized for not being able to meet people at a conference when a conference gets to a certain size and I think Transworld exceeds that size.

[3:05] You're never going to meet everyone you want to, we missed people on our list, and then there were people, we were like on the drive home, we didn't see, dang it, you know just yeah, we were literally half the way home we got like, we're like in Memphis thinking though yeah, I think if we do this again we will like schedule something in advance instead of trying, to meet people and and a lot of that was because like, so we were very last minute additions and attendees to this about a month before it went down.
We were working with someone else's schedule too. So there was a lot working against us, meeting everyone.
But trust me big enough conference that you know a lot of people that you're never gonna pick anyone up.
It happens, that's just life Yes and brian um it was nice to meet you also and I know that there are so many people because I gave out a lot of monsters, I think it gave out 17 no, was over 23, I don't know you were making those.

[4:02] You were cranking them out pretty quick there and they were also cute and I do love the fact that the scare it badge is named their monster patches just because of course.
Right, all right now this week's question of the week is did your haunt do anything for valentine's day?
If so what did it do? I'd be very curious to see what you all have to say on that.
So please let us know at all the places we mentioned previously um you can find us at haunt weekly dot com, haunt weekly on twitter, haunt weekly on facebook and Youtube dot com slash haunt weekly.

[4:39] All right, so that's a lot going on.
But yes, indeed. It's also an episode divisible by two and even episode.
So we typically try to do conference reminders on these and with Transworld in the rear view mirror now we get to look at what's next.
So, so take us away crystal Alright. Fear Expo Live is coming March 24th through the 26th at the Owensboro Convention Center. It is free admission but not open to the public.
Um It's partnered with Hong kong this year. Fear Expo live.

[5:15] I have been seeing the some of the moment.

[5:19] Scooby dooby promo material. Why? That was hard to say.
I don't know promo material for this and they have a pact looking trade show floor. A lot of things. A lot of people are gonna be there.
Um yeah, if you're in the area, I can't think of a reason not to check this one out. It looks like it's gonna be really interesting.
Um after that April 29 in the 30th in Los Angeles California.
It's the spooky swap meet at the Heritage Square Museum.
It's a great place to purchase gently loved haunted attraction and halloween related items including costumes and decor created by the co founder, a midsummer screen. You can learn more details at spooky swap meet dot com.
Okay, Southeast Hollows haunt is going to be held May 5th through the seventh, and savannah Georgia at the savannah Convention Center early bird tickets are available until March 31st.
So if you're thinking about going, you still have not missed the boat.
You got a chance. Exactly.
You got about another month. Um Every goddamn mind. S. C. H. H.

[6:22] S. Ehh dot com. For more info.
All right. And finally this week july 15th and the 16th. And mesquite texas right outside of Dallas. For those playing along at home.
It's the Dallas texas Hunters convention at the Mesquite Convention Center.
Not much details yet. Stay tuned at texas haunted house convention dot com.
Alright. So yeah, a lot of big show's still coming up. Still do this year.
It should be interesting to see how that shakes out.
Uh Also speaking of conferences, I wanted to do some follow ups from our previous episode.
Uh You haven't listened to it yet, Please do. It's actually quite fun.
Um basically we sat in the new Orleans in um half a little bit short of halfway home, and did a rambling hour long conversation about trans world and the various things um various both positives, negatives, highlights things, you know, just basically the whole thing went through it all.
Um One of the things we said was, it seemed like the convention center was.

[7:29] Kind of frustrated with Transworld because there were a lot of oddities, like there was only one way in and out of the trade show floor, even though it was more than big enough to sustain two entrances.

[7:41] At least two, especially there should've been one for vendors because we had, once it opened we had to wait in line with the clubs and like when we were online, when we were loading and unloading also, it was kind of weird as to what doors they would open and it was a lot of weird things like that.
Well, we have a source who talked to us and send us an email, not naming them, but we have faith in them.
And they said that the issue is that Trans World apparently uh doesn't like to spend money.
Yeah, that it's not issues with the the conference center itself, it's issues with how much is being paid for the conference.

[8:25] Yeah, I I don't know all the details of that, but that is a source of constant negotiation between a conference and a convention center though, is what are you paying for? What are you not paying for it?
Believe me. And having been a part of those negotiations before.

[8:42] It can get granular as fuck. Really, really can.
And so yeah, I I understand that. So basically uh don't blame the convention center.
Um As hard as we went on that basically it looks like um Trans World at least has some of the blame.
Also I said something I realized was fairly stupid last time because I did some additional research. I made the idea of hey go to Transworld but don't go to Transworld.
Since so much of the action takes place in the lobby of the Marriott in the lobby, the various hotels around the convention center and other events that, aren't officially connected with Transworld.
It might make sense to go badge list, but then I looked into it.
Um See that's a very cool thing to do with South by Southwest.
And the reason is the all access platinum slash gold badge or the they call it these days is God Damn near $2,000.

[9:42] And as someone who lives in New Orleans, I would like to assure you that I can get our asses to Austin find us a place to stay for five nights and even bathe ourselves in that time for less than two grand.
It's actually not that difficult, especially since we already know people in Austin probably get a get a leg up either on a cheap Airbnb or just get a place to stay.
Um But yeah, we can do it for less than that. So basically getting the badge, doubles what we would spend for each of us.
Yeah. In fact every time we've gone we uh stay with friends in the area. Yeah.
And the only reason we went was because I got a gold badge for speaking.
Yes. Now I will say that if you are able to get in as a speaker to Transworld, that's definitely the way to go.
Yeah. And that's the truth for a lot of conferences. Actually, it's not just transform, um.

[10:36] But yeah, so basically though I realized if you spent the money and the resources to get your ask to ST louis, and spend five days somewhere near the convention center, the 9200 and $5 for a badge for the trade show floor is not going to be the deal breaker, just just go, it's, it's a very, very good trade show floor and you really should see it if you can.

[10:58] So I've, I've had time to rethink that one because like I said that episode was branded recorded at like two am, worrying if we were going to wake up the other people near us and wondering about that train that went by right before it was coming back.
Yeah, another one was coming, so yeah, uh that was done but everything else on it I think was still pretty good and I think we've got a good synopsis of it, we're gonna talk more about it and some specifics.
Uh next week, I'm not sure the exact details yet, We haven't planned that topic out.
That was like one of the weirdest questions we got kept getting asked was how you know, how long do you plan the topics out?
Like five minutes sometimes, pretty much.
I mean sometimes we do have like a whole month in advance. Sometimes we do actually have a good yeah, like we're planning on having guests on soon.
People that we met at Transworld and confirmed that when we do things like that we usually do plan out further in advance, but there have been plenty of Sundays, we woke up and went uh talked about this weekend, haunt weekly sweetie and then, bounce ideas back and forth.
And one of us right show notes and we do an episode usually connected to whatever we've been bullshitting each other about for the entire week.

[12:11] That was obvious.

[12:13] Like half the reason I think we went was free topic ideas for a few weeks.
Got a vacation from thinking about it all right. But speaking of vacation from thinking about what we're talking about.
Um Oh yeah real fast work we did on our home. We actually did work.
We didn't do physical work but we did some mental labor. That was actually really important.
And that was we have nailed down our theme for this year.
Yeah. And the importance of this is that um this means that I can start creating, the things that go in the rooms in my head.
And also sometimes in reality too because a lot of them can be created like, in the evenings when you're watching tv and so forth.
Yeah. Oh yeah. But now that we know what we're going to be doing that process starts. I start thinking okay how will this work?
How will that work, where is it going to go and then start getting this stuff to actually start making it throughout the year. Um So yeah.

[13:10] Are we talking about the concept? Okay. The concept we're doing is a roadside, museum slash when those roadside attraction. We love them.
We do we've been to the spear chunk. In fact we should do an episode about the spirit chunking museum.
Are we sure we haven't. It feels like we've talked about that.
We might I know we've talked about it on here but like that's just it.
We see a big sign that's a spear chunking museum are ass is pulling over.
We did a U turn on the road. Yeah Nearly caused an accident trying to get to that.
Um yeah we stopped there. We've been to the Johnny Cash Museum which is right along 55.
That's really cool. There's a little museum um near Gramercy on the way to baton rouge from here that we stopped at.
That was also a geocache. We also did the new Madrid museum. The earthquake museum.
So yeah we're a sucker for these types of road side museums.
And in fact I think we've because we've gone up and down 55 between ST louis and new Orleans so many times.
I think we're running out of new ones to do on that trip. We did the Toy museum.
Yeah and originally we had um we had.

[14:19] We were gonna do something a little bit different. Yeah, but we the because the whole like I wanted to base this on the 1920s very fascinated with the hit modern history of ancient Egypt, if that makes any sense.
And like the treatment that archaeologists gave, the Egyptian mummies and Egyptian artifacts in Egyptian tombs in the 20s and 30s or rather the complete utter lack of respect they gave.
And it's been fascinating because I mean basically people legitimately snorting mummy powder, that was a thing that happened.
And it's like, I'm I'm pretty sure that didn't happen often, cause that would burn like a motherfucker doing once.
And but anyways, so I wanted to do something with that and about selling, you know charms and good luck pieces or stuff.
But obviously when you do that you start trending too deep into religion and we're in an area where those religions are very much practiced. Yeah.
So we didn't want to offend anyone by, you know, trampling religion or trampling on, you know, this that happened to.

[15:27] So but we found a way to do this kind of the same idea.
Just it's a complete capitalism kit rather than a religion and that's just it that blame capitalism whenever in doubt just blame capitalism. It's so easy.
I I highly recommend that strategy. So that's what we're running with for the theme and it kind of lets us keep a lot of the initial ideas we have for what's there because a lot of the same stuff overlaps.
Um but also it gives us a story that basically frees us from offending any religion.

[16:03] And it also makes it very easy to imagine the layout of the rooms we're gonna have and figure out what we've already mapped out the rough of what we think the four rooms are going to be.
We're cutting down from four zones to five. We're gonna talk more about that later and why we're doing it, we have a plan.

[16:22] It's a plan. That's as far as I'm taking that superlatives on that, it exists, it exists.
Um so if it works it'll it'll be great and we will be doing wonderful stuff with it.
I'm actually very excited about the new layout and also this theme because it does continue our tradition of alternating male and female murderers basically.
Yeah. And I'm really excited about it too because this will, probably be one of the more fantastical type scenes that we've done because I'll be able to like make up creatures and things to put in it as part of you know, she found this weird thing in the world and that's the beauty of it.
It's gonna be a fantastical scene still grounded in reality.
How often do you get that now? We are going to take a research trip at some point because one roadside attraction, we have not seen believe it or not. I'm walking on air.
I never thought I could feel so sorry but believe it or not.
We've never actually been to the Abbey to mystery house, we've just never been that way.

[17:25] And actually I saw a bumper sticker for them yesterday on our street, So it's like Okay we have to get this.
Yeah, we've been wanting to go for some time but it's very much out of the way for us.
So we're gonna have to make a special trip for it sometime in the coming weeks, and when we do that will probably be an episode into itself as well because I'm sure we'll have a lot to discuss there, at least I hope we will if I go all that way and I don't get enough to talk about for 45 minutes on haunt weekly I'm really pissed.

[17:54] That's how I know it's a rip off. But anyway, so that's the theme, got that picked and like we said, this is an episode of visible forward time to do the news and you want me to start off or do you want.

[18:09] Nobody wins.

[18:12] There's no winners with this because the first two stories.
Yeah. Alright, so a former Hell's Gate and Statesville haunted house worker.
Yes, that house Gate in Statesville um is suing over pay and the class action lawsuit was filed last week in Will County and maintains that employees who worked, to pop the haunted houses were paid less than minimum wage.
Um and by the way, this is an article by Geoff Arnold at the patch, just to provide that until we get we get excited, I was going to put it in, but then, you know, we get to into the subject sometimes, right?
And Amanda Zamansky is listed as the plaintiff in the suit and she's seeking damages from the owners of Hell's Gate, um and the sense closed Statesville haunted prison in crest Hill, which is john Laflamme Boy Junior.

[19:09] Um he's Zamansky said that she worked at both attractions for 15 years.
Um and that the quote unquote lucrative haunted house is, I mean, I don't know how lucrative any haunted house that's going to be honest, operate on quote unquote and this is a direct quote here on the backs of hundreds of indispensable employees who are paid far below minimum.

[19:31] She says she was paid Jesus Christ, she says she made $6.75 per hour and worked with Statesville and Hell's gate for the past 15 years.
Yeah, John Boyd jr has um said that she was an independent contractor and was not made to work the our stated in the lawsuit and worked a total of eight shifts, over the past three years.
Okay, right off the bat, I'm gonna say I'm not comfortable with actors being independent contractors and there's a, very good reason for that and it's because as you know from working hR the people who provide your core product are not supposed to be independent contractors. Yeah.
And you see that this comes up, this can just decided to chime in there, just said hi mom to it.
So yeah, this comes up um quite often and, it came up with like Uber and lyft whenever they started, the drivers, you know, were hired originally as independent contractors and then suit saying no, we're the core piece of the business and.

[20:43] And that still seems to be ongoing to some degree and I mean I know for a fact one company that you worked for originally as a quote unquote independent contractor, was forced taking on everyone as employees. Yeah.
Well in another company I worked for. Apparently I work for really bad companies. Your company picker?
Yeah. Um, it.

[21:07] They were fined like a quarter of $1 million dollars for saying that they're, independent contractors in California, California.
Exactly, California has different rules than than everywhere else.

[21:26] Yeah, so right now, I mean what jonathan boys saying about employees being independent conference, that makes me very uncomfortable, just gonna throw that goes against everything I know about HR and what's supposed to be the dichotomy.
I work a lot as an independent contractor, but I'm doing plagiarism analyses, I'm doing things that usually aren't the core product, I'm an expert witness, I'm supposed this is exactly what it's supposed to be yet.
Um and here's the thing, I get it, Some quote unquote employees prefer being independent contractors, some prefer to be employees. There are positives and negatives with both.
But my understanding of how the law works, your core product makers are not supposed to be independent contractors, people that you make your work.
Now, beyond that there seems to be a lot of discrepancy with what happened here, and I don't want to get too deep into it because right now this case is obviously very early on, we don't have evidence.

[22:26] Because she's saying she worked for there for 15 years.
Uh jonathan boys saying she's only worked like eight shifts in the past three.

[22:37] So who knows, I mean this basically this was just filed and there's gonna this is gonna be one, we're following and I would encourage the entire industry to follow this one.
And that's kind of one of the things right now is that we're seeing a lot of lawsuits dealing with haunted attraction because we're talking about another one a little bit later.

[22:59] Um and it's like the industry needs to be watching these cases because this will impact you whether you realize it or not, it will, and I mean this could be this could change the haunt industry, like it could this could come out and say, you know, you can't have people working for you as independent contractors.
I know that rise locally, hires everyone as an employee. Yeah, they bring everyone as a full employee and there's a lot of reasons for the business to do that too.
I mean, honestly, and like I said, there are positives and negatives both sides, um of this and I know for the businesses typically think they do or maybe they actually do save money hiring people's independent contractors, but at the flip side of the coin, Um people who are not independent contractors typically pay more in taxes or have more taken out of taxes or 1099.
People basically get the entire check and then they have their their responsibility is to either pre pay or post pay their taxes later. It's complicated ship.
I don't know enough about employment law. Maybe we should have someone on here to talk about HR stuff.

[24:12] Maybe radical concept, right? Maybe we have someone in mind.

[24:18] Yes. They cannot see you staring at the microphone awkwardly.
I will stare at the microphone until you hear it.

[24:26] I got all day. We got to get back on live. Gotta get back on doing video ones. Yeah.
Alright. The next story that's equally rough in Springfield Missouri, the Hotel of Terror and Downtown Springfield is facing condemnation.
This article is by trying to figure out who it's by.
Yeah, I know. I did a bad job. This Caitlin schumacher at KY three.

[24:53] The worst of the ky jellies. But yes, the Springfield City Council is meeting to discuss, condemning the hotel terra main street through eminent domain that haunted house, has been there for 45 years.
Yeah, this is an insane story.
We just had a conversation at Transworld with roberta, roberta Yeah.

[25:20] And the people from Niles Niles about their haunt just at 50.
And we were trying to think of haunts, they're not necessary but there longer.
I mean, I I tend to believe them that they haven't heard of anyone longer, but we're trying to think of haunts playing the same sport like anything above 40 would account it probably.
And we had um, And we had a few in mind, but we did not know about the trail of tears.
I mean about the hotel of terror, I gotta be honest. We did not know about them, basically open the door 45 years ago. The city says that they want to acquire it to fix the main street bridge and move forward with the quote unquote renewed Jordan Creek project.
Um, basically the hotel of terror owners began negotiations with the city about the property in 2019.
So this has been ongoing for four years and but they say they is, but basically the negotiations have gone far call um, they haven't been able to reach an agreement.
So now the city is looking to use eminent domain to force the haunted attraction out.
Yeah, which is.

[26:28] There's so much with this, like, okay, this is not on the same level as this, but this, this is what it reminds me of immediately in Columbia south Carolina.
Way back when we lived there, there was a very interesting little pub called the Sherlock Holmes pub and it had been there in some capacity.
I don't think the Sherlock Holmes pub for like centuries.
It had been there for a long time, it's my understanding and it was one of the, very few things underground, like this is not an area big on basements, it was one of the few things underground, right?

[27:02] And so we and it had to my mind the best goddamn burgers, Columbia south Carolina has ever seen.
They were really, they were really good burgers.
And this one we were like, it was to the point that we were going there regularly before we were drinking, you know, we didn't even go for the beer, we just, I don't think I ever had an alcoholic beverage there.
Um But anyways, they were going to do some kind of maintenance on Main Street once again nearby and the city basically condemned the property because there was no way that they could protect it when they were um, doing this road work and as a result it closed good.

[27:41] That's what this reminds me of, is this? Oh yeah, yeah, we know your business has been there for dozens of years and we know it's a staple and a part of the unique charm and character of our downtown area, but, uh q it's inconvenient to deal with you being where you are.
Yeah, well, and they say that they're trying to repair a bridge and in order to prepare the bridge, they have to remove the building there, basically our our imminent domain ng domain ng it to knock it down completely, and make it a green space in in addition to repairing the bridge, basically doing what they did under the bridge near us, where it's a green space underneath the crescent city connection.
Um you know, I'm sympathetic to apply to the city here.
You do have to do maintenance and work on on bridges and things like that, but it still seems very stunning to me that there is no solution here.
And how was that bridge built?
Built like the fucking red city connection here through the convention center?
Remember that several of the, the supports go right into the goddamn building?

[28:56] I look, I didn't man, I'm not an architect, but I know that's shortsighted as fuck.
Uh Yeah, but it's also part of the renewed Jordan Creek project.
Yes, I I feel bad for the city.
Yeah, this is a difficult situation, but there has to be a solution here, I mean, and you've been in negotiations since 2019, why can't those negotiations ba hey, you know, we'll set you up with a nearly identical place down the street or across the street or something.
So there have been some talks about moving them to a location about a mile and a half away, um, but there's a lot of things that are built into the walls of the current haunted house and they, they have not offered them enough money to replace what would be lost.
That's that's the the part of the, the owner, um.

[29:58] So yeah, they're bringing in a third party to help negotiate.
But if it's not negotiated then in the next, you know, couple of weeks they're gonna eminent domain, try to at least start the proceedings because eminent domain, that process can take years.
Yes, it can. But I would still say if you have not been to the Hotel of Terror in Springfield Missouri and you have interest in the Hotel of Terror in Springfield Missouri.
If they are open this season, I would make it a point to go. Yeah, that reasonable.
It is moving on. Alright.
This is the latest on a new trail of terror and Southall in buford Georgia.

[30:40] This is by Jeff gill at the Times and it's the Gainesville Times.
Um basically the Trail of Terror had put in a proposal to move half a mile down the road um to a new 13 acre agri tainment site.
I do love that term. Agro tainment, I just can't get over that word. Yeah.
Um and several residents were opposed to the proposal. They voiced their concerns, in meetings stating you know, that it would that kids need sleep.
Um these aren't direct quotes obviously and that it would bring security issues and noise issues to the area. Um.

[31:28] So basically the county commission on Tuesday the January 17 said you can't move you gotta stay where you're at.
They denied the petition.

[31:43] You know we talk a lot on this podcast about the need for haunted attractions, to really integrate themselves into their neighborhoods and their neighbors, both businesses and residential.
And I I don't know the full history here but it sounds like they had a lot of residents piste off at them before this.
Yeah. Yeah because they showed up and they talked about it. They showed up to a council meeting.

[32:13] Yeah and like even here in New Orleans like almost no one shows up to city council meetings.
No like we've been to a few for things that we care about and that's that's the thing it's got to be something that you're invested in to go.
Yeah it's it's crazy and like they talk about here the old location with the trail of terror was on the property next to a church was half a mile away and they're saying that noise could still be heard half a mile away.
Yeah in the subdivision. And now they're wanting to move it closer to half a mile closer next to someone else's property and be open until two a.m.
For two months.
Two AM. Is part of your problem. Yeah. I mean I hate to be that Dick.
But yeah I think two a.m. Might have been asking too much because yeah I mean christ you know we have noise ordinances in new Orleans a shock.
I know we do in some places though and those usually start at midnight when they do and that's that's a whole other problem that we can go off on about later.
But yeah, it sounds to me like they already had issues within their community.

[33:27] And as a result of that out whenever they wanted something, the community showed up to say no and I don't necessarily know what they could ever should have done better if there's anything, I'm not saying they did anything wrong.
It's just obviously this community was already hostile for whatever reason so sucks.
I hope you're able to work it out somehow.

[33:53] But yeah, I get it. That sucks. It sounds like they were trying to move to a much bigger piece of property which honestly might have helped with the noise by spreading that shipped out some, if you think about it because if you, if you're moving, I don't know how big their current plot is but let's say double in size.

[34:10] If you have roughly the same amount of actors and stuff to spread out of more area, that's less noise.
It really is. So I don't know.
Anyways, moving on to the heart we actually got to visit, this was, this is an interesting story for us um Ow a and Foley Alabama which is right outside mobile, um is opening slaughter gras basically this is from nightmare creatures.
Haunted house I believe it is.
No, hang on um I forgot what the name of the actual haunted house Um Yeah, Chambers sorry guys, I wasn't in the notes and I forgot but between february 10th and March 5th they are doing a horror Mardi Gras theme.

[34:59] Now I have a question why the funk isn't this in new Orleans because we don't have any year round haunts, which is what, this is Yeah, this is a true year round haunt and for those that don't know.
Ow a is a theme park water park type thing.
Yeah, it's pretty goddamn big. Yeah, it's kind of like an overgrown midway.
Yeah but then there's like an area with theme park rides.
It's complicated. It gets complicated in a hurry because yeah there's like a lot of restaurants and bars and ice cream parlors and shit.
There's a haunted attraction or ship to do around the lake. We only got to see a small chunk of it when we went, we basically went to Nightmare Chambers got the funk out because we were trying to hit a bunch of haunts that night, but we got to meet the piece behind Nightmare Chambers and they were lovely and they talked about how they had to really rush to be open for haunts season last year.
That was their first season but that now they're in year round haunt and doing different things and I think this is the first Mardi Gras themed haunt other than ours which we did a Mardi Gras theme but didn't do it at Mardi Gras.
Um But I think this is the first Mardi Gras themed haunt at Mardi Gras we've ever seen.

[36:11] You know it's it's interesting because they talk about how uh they have a full story behind it.
Um That there is a butcher watch out for the butcher because there's famine in the area, there's food shortages.
So he is trying to make a feast for the Mardi Gras ball which is where the show ends is what it sounds like.
Yeah I actually uh really really dig that story. Our story if I remember correctly was the Killer Crew was a Mardi Gras Krewe which is a crew, A. K. R. E. W.
E. Is an organization that puts on parades, usually put on both the parade and the ball.
Um, and this crew was running into severe financial trouble, which is actually a really common problem for Crew.
That was a super easy thing to pull out. And so their solution was to recruit people, take their money, and then murder them so they don't have to provide any of the services, so, you know, with different approaches, but still, but I think I think there, might actually be slightly better to do, like the cannibalism angle on it a little bit better. But anyway, we had a lot of fun with it.

[37:13] Uh My major note. If I'm going to give them a note is why does this not start january 6th and run through february 18? I think it's Mardi Gras this year.
No, 21st, Yeah, 21st, sorry, it's a week after valentine's day.
Why doesn't it, why isn't that the run? Why is it february 10th through March 5th? Yeah, Alabama, Mardi gras is differently.
Mardi gras is a religious holiday, which people forget. It has very set rules.
Yeah, but the festivities around it are also very secular.
Yeah, it's one of those things like christmas in that regard.
But yeah, it's a religious holiday, but a lot of the festivities around it are quite secular. Yeah, exactly.
But yeah, I'm actually tempted to make another run at Foley to to go and see this Shannon.
It doesn't hurt that Foley is a reasonable distance away for us and we have saturday is pretty wide open right now, so maybe we'll we'll take a saturday and head on out there at least think about it.
Yes, we will. All right. But but I love this, just want to say, I love it. Yeah.
Moving on. Alright.
A local attraction is opening an immersive escape room experience in Sparta michigan, this is by Abby porter at the Grand rapids Business Journal.
Um The abandoned acres. haunted attraction.

[38:33] Is branching out and to escape room craze and they are pulling from the local history in order to theme their escape room.
Apparently there's a lot of mining in the area so it's escaped the mine trapped.
Um Yeah and it was interesting because their customers kept asking them to build escape rooms which is an interesting reason to do it.
So they're gonna add every year new new themed one. But it sounds like it could be fun.
It could be fun. My worry is every time I hear about a new escape room being built especially a permanent one is that this is an industry that's in the trench.
But I say that not knowing a goddamn thing about the tourism industry in this area.

[39:22] Never heard of Sparta mission michigan. Sorry about that.
Or is it starting in michigan? Never heard of it. Sorry.
Um I have no idea if this is a place tourist goes or if there's like a cycle of circulation of people.
It may work very well. Um It may be an underserved community.
But yeah unless you've got a underserved untapped market of people that turns people an escape room is a risky move.
I'm not gonna lie. But but I but you know it does sound really good and like I said the C.
G. I. Effects with hidden doorways and things like that. I mean this sounds like it has a lot of potential to be a really really amazing escape room experience.
So yeah I don't know I'm gonna give him. I sure hope it goes well for you.
Um Please though be mindful of the current economic situation for escape rooms.
That's all I'm saying. Maybe maybe don't bet the farm on it, you know, maybe just bet the stable.

[40:26] All right, well.
This story sounds a little familiar to me. Were covering this from yahoo news, but Cfx is suing all elite wrestling over the use of mask and merchandise.
Now, two episodes ago, we spent an hour on this because we talked about this is basically you're taking everything that, is meaningful in my life, you know, in my relationships and putting it into one story because it's a copyright story involving the haunted attraction industry, professional wrestling and it's taking place in new Orleans.

[41:03] Jesus, goddamn christ people, you get lock picking in this.
You have a jonathan singularity. I just turn into a little black hole.

[41:14] Oh God. But yeah, I know the story is absolutely crazy.
I do encourage you to go listen to episode 3 74. If you haven't for the full coverage about it, I will say is the basics of it.
For those that just wanted the two second version as Cfx. When they produce masks, they retain merchandizing rights on it.
They are fine when people using their masking performance, including in media.
So you want to use a masked ball from Cfx in a commercial, you wanna use it marketing godspeed, it only becomes an potential issue when you want to use it on t shirts or sell replicas of it or whatever.
The minute you're putting it on merch for sale, they want to strike a deal with you and from what I've read and what they told me, they're very, very easy to work with on those deals.
They didn't sound like they were strict assholes about it.
And one thing that drives me crazy about this lawsuit is they say that A E.
W. This is for the wrestler lunches stores by the way, I can't believe it took me this long to say the wrestler name is wearing the mask.

[42:13] But they say they bought another version of lucha saurus mask with merch rights, and then then use it and they never went back and bought the merch rights for the original.
So I don't know that's a little whack a doodle to a W would do that.
But I can totally see it sounds almost like an oversight more than a malicious thing at that point because they clearly were okay with buying merch, right.

[42:38] Um so anyways, yeah, episode 3 74 has the full coverage on it from a copyright standpoint.
The only thing I can add new to that episode is while I was on the trade show floor Transworld, pretty much every like professional like cfx shattered fX, immortal masks and a couple of others.
I stopped in and said, hey, what's your copyright policy? And it was interesting.
They all had roughly the same boundaries they all said, yeah, yeah, we're fine if you use it in your marketing, your promotion.
But you know, if you do sell merch with it, we are going to ask for a license.
But they also said they're not like super itch in the soup people either.
And they all said the same thing. All that weren't Cfx said the same thing, which is if we were in Cfx situation, I don't know what we would have done either.
That's a big exposure and a lot of money on the table. We don't know what we would've done honestly.
And I think that's the honest answer.
So yeah, be very mindful. We're gonna come back at this talking about using these masks and merch.
And I think some really good conversations have come up with people who make those draw and design those shirts to has also begun. So I think this is an, area where we need to have more focus in the next few weeks.
But yeah, be mindful the lawsuit exist. Link will be included there, check out 374 for the real deeds.

[44:02] All right. And finally for this, we are ending on a happy note.

[44:08] Jesus christ Brooklyn artist Andy Saw Elstrom has turned little tykes, taught toys into dark adult collectibles.
This is by Rusty blazin off at boingboing dot net.
Um, This is just a fun article, like if you know the little, like bright red and yellow toys from little tykes, they've, the artist has made a hearse a um.

[44:37] An ashtray out of the iconic turtle turtle, the turtle sandbox, which I am 100% sure you have seen that at some point.
The capillary capillary with out of the basketball hope, solitary confinement box.
So it's just some funny things. It's definitely worth checking out the article on this one and it's realistically more or less of an article and more of an instagram post.
Yeah, we're being honest with one another but it is so bizarre to see like things that are obviously very serious and very heavy, like a jail cell or, or the place where you meet people when they're in jail, the divide like that and stuff like that out of play mobile stuff.
It's so bizarre but also kind of adorable. I love the hearse.

[45:35] The hearse is what the highlight is realistically and yeah, that iconic red and yellow car that I think everybody either had or at least saw, as a kid and I think okay, honestly, I don't know about people much younger than us, but I know everyone our age was at least exposed to it.
Yeah, I think that we have one in the backyard that we have one, we have one, not those colors, but that style yeah, that we're going to use for a clown car seen, in the front yard and when he didn't get rid of it because it's unfortunately falling to pieces but they turned it into a hearse.

[46:12] Wild.
So yeah, I don't know, it's a neat little thing. Check out the post of the visuals.
I I guarantee you it'll make your haunt her heart smile ever at least a little bit.

[46:25] Well that's all the news we have I mean yeah, it's been a rough week for news but you know, so we're gonna come back next week, I think we're gonna be talking more about trans world and that.
We're also gonna start reconnecting with people after Transworld, seeing when we can get them on to do live episodes because we definitely wanna get back in that we have a lot of people in mind we want to connect with on a variety of topics, so please stay tuned to all the places we exist so you can keep up with that, um facebook dot com slash haunt weekly will be the place to keep up on those, that's where we do our live streaming, we don't twitch or I guess we could probably youtube them to now.
Um but so youtube dot com slash haunt weekly check out there as well, but definitely focus on facebook, haunt weekly on facebook, you can also find us at haunt weekly dot com.
We're also haunt weekly on twitter and as per usual wherever podcasts are distributed, we do our best to be there until next time.
I'm jonathan we'll see you all next week with another toast of haunted attraction goodness see you all then.