Rex B. Hamilton looks forward to meeting you at the 2006 TransWorld convention
March 2, 2006
Greetings, Fellow Haunters:
I hope to meet each and every one of you next week at the 22nd annual Halloween, Costume and Party Show in Rosemont, Illinois. This year will be my tenth visit in a row to “the big show†of the Halloween convention circuit. I’ll be there from Wednesday afternoon until Sunday evening.
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If all goes well, I will arrive at the Crowne Plaza Hotel shortly after lunch on Wednesday. As soon as I’ve checked in, I’ll stop by “Rickenbacker’s†(the hotel’s bar) and the “patio deli†area outside its front door. If there are other haunters present, I’ll order up a hearty adult beverage and join in the tale swapping. Look for a guy in a black sweatshirt with Lord Zargon standing amidst a flaming hellscape on the front, and my 2005 haunted itinerary on the back. The shirt was designed and hand-airbrushed by Raymond VanTilburg of OffWorld Designs in Chicago.
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Even though this year’s Thursday seminar lineup has been cancelled, Bob Turner has managed to keep his Wednesday night party of haunted participation on the convention’s agenda. At press time, I don’t have all the final details about the 2006 Crazy Bob Social except that the meeting place is the Crowne Plaza, not last year’s Hilton. Regardless of the circumstances, I will be there to help answer your questions about acting, show management and haunt marketing.
My understanding at this point is that Bob’s Social will be free to all this year and will begin at 8:30 PM and will last until at least 10:30. Please be aware that many past Socials have run until midnight, and beyond.
At press time, my best information is that no food or beverages will be served at this year’s Social. But I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Bob improves these circumstances in the days ahead.
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Without question, the biggest change in 2006 is that there will be no Thursday seminar program. For me, this all-day event has always been one of the convention’s highlights. As an actor and consultant-for-hire, the Thursday “seminar day†has always been my best opportunity to convince haunt owners to hire me for the upcoming haunt season. I lust after the concept of scaring the stuffing out of people while coaching haunt owners and operators how to make their shows more effective and more profitable. It’s what I do.
Evidently, this year’s seminar program did not attract enough participants to justify putting on the show. While the cancellation was a surprise, it wasn’t a big surprise.
1. In 2005, there were 28 targeted classes and one panel discussion offered. The plan this year was for 10 classes and 2 panel discussions.
2. In 2005, there were 21 instructors hired for Thursday. This year we would have listened to 10.
3. The price, roughly $280 per person, remained the same from last year. Perhaps some thought that with a scaled-down program planned for 2006, the price should have been scaled down too.
4. In 2005, there was one panel discussion that ran for 50 minutes. In 2006, the two planned panel discussions would have taken up 3 hours out of the total of 8 hours of instruction time.
Panel discussions, while relatively easy to teach for those who sit on the panel, are not always beneficial for the audience. Participants never know what topics will be brought up, helpful or unhelpful. Also, the opportunity to ask your own questions is noticeably diminished since the audience size is much larger than a targeted class.
5. In 2005, there were no speakers from large theme parks. The 2006 lineup of 10 speakers would have included 3 from large theme parks.
No doubt about it - listening to a key employee from a huge, profitable amusement-park haunt can be somewhat intoxicating. Many haunters have a secret, recurring dream of one day running a stupendous show of their own. But the reality is that the majority of haunts are of a modest size, and the haunters who operate them favor quality of show over size of show.
Those lucky people who manage or supervise a colossal theme-park haunt likely do not have the same breadth of experience that a producer of a modest haunt has. Insurance, contracts and advertising? Those tasks are handled by the amusement park’s corporate office, which might be in another state. Build props and sets? Although some large theme-park haunts design and build their own shows, many are big purchasers of prefabricated haunts. Security, ticket selling, ticket taking, food stands, concession stands, accounting, payroll, first aid, parking attendants, adequate outdoor lighting, nightly cleanup, and where the _hell_ is the damn bathroom? All these bits of infrastructure are already in place at an amusement park.
It will be very interesting to see how TransWorld management changes the “seminar day†schedule for 2007.
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The Thursday-evening cocktail hour at the Crowne Plaza, sponsored by TransWorld, is apparently still on the schedule. It’s a great way to meet others in our industry. My information is that it runs from 5:30 to 6:30 PM. Since I have a room at that hotel, you know I’ll be there.
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On Friday morning at 9:00 AM, should you walk into Stylemakers Hair Salon (just down the street from the convention center) you’ll find me sitting in one of the big swivel chairs. Jennifer, my demure Chicago stylist, will electrocute my hair for the sixth year in a row and then spray it an eye-popping purple.
Near the end of last October, I started doing a new character. He’s a crazy physician named “Dr. Giggles, M.D., Ph.D., BVD†and that ‘s the character I’m going to do on Friday. With luck, I should hit the show floor in the 11 - 11:30 AM time frame.
If you want to check out my look, stop by the IAHA booth on the 2nd floor from 1 until 3 PM. I’ll be pulling a shift there, helping out wherever needed.
The IAHA Annual Meeting, raffle, auction, etc. will take place on Friday evening from 7 until 9 PM. At press time, I am unsure of the location.
For the fourth year in a row, I will be an auction item. The winning bidder will receive my haunted services at your haunt for the weekend of Friday, September 29 and Saturday, September 30. The entire proceeds of the winning bid will go to the IAHA.
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Saturday at TransWorld will be different for me in 2006 - no make-up or costume. During the first part of the day I, along with fellow Scab 5 members Jeff “Samhain†Glatzer, Tawny “Adolphia†Miller and Roger “Ichabod†Miller, will leisurely cruise the convention floor and introduce ourselves to haunt vendors new and old. The fifth member of our team, Geoff “Arachnid†Beck, probably won’t be with us much. Instead, you’ll find him in residence at the Midnight Syndicate/Screamline Studios booth hawking copies of his haunted DVD “Playing With Fear.†We forgive him in advance for his absence.
I plan on paying a visit to Dreamreapers Haunted House early that evening. Perhaps I’ll jump into a scene or two and do some impromptu terrifying.
For the balance of the evening, you’ll likely find me at the Crowne Plaza bar. I might pop over to the Sofitel hotel once or twice to check out Crazy Bob’s costume ball and perhaps snap some photographs of the haunt owners in attendance in their spooky finest.
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Sunday? Laughing, joking, drinking, eating, strolling though aisle after aisle of haunted items and trading ideas with fellow haunters about how to be more horrifying in 2006 than ever before. What could be more fun?
So many haunters to meet ... so little time. Could it be anything other than TransWorld?
Very truly yours,
Rex B. Hamilton
13939 Clifton Boulevard
Lakewood, Ohio 44107-1462
216.226.7764 (home)
216.973.0050 (cell)
EvilLordZargon@msn.com
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