October 2004

October - Happy Halloween! - Ahhhhh... My favorite time of year! You wouldn’t think that I’d like to play dress up as much as I do. After all it’s what I do for a living. I love Halloween parties and any dark events. It calls out to my inner night owl. Even though I kinda live in the morning mainstream world I still have a love for the late nights.

Before I get into our October fun, let me update you on the Charlotte show. It’s started off wonderfully! The site looks great, although our stage really needs a facelift. It’s the only one that hasn’t been rebuilt in recent years. The crowds have been great and merchandise sales have been off the map. I think DVD sales are up about 50%. By the beginning of November, we should be out of Beer show DVDs. They’ve been around for about three years now so, I think it’s time we retire them. We still have three titles out since we released two this year. We have plenty of "Big Bad Wolf" and "Tortugapalooza", but we’re gonna re-order "Swordfighting and Stupidity." It’s going into it’s third printing. Speaking of printing, I’m in negotiations with a national video distributor that’s interested in printing and distributing our shows on DVD to the likes of Target and Walmart. That would be COOL! It would really give us a chance for some exposure to a market we might not otherwise meet. I’ll keep you posted on that one.

For those of you that have been around a while, you know that every October I make my annual trip to Halloween Horror Nights. (see my previous journal) We wanted to make the trip a little lower profile this year. In the last couple of years so many people have gone that it’s become rather unruly. As many of you might know the more people you have, the more opinions, and the more drunks to baby-sit. So we didn’t try to organize anything major this year.

As I said last month, Riki and Deane gave Sharon and I the wonderful stay at Portofino Bay for our birthdays. The Hotel is modeled after the town of Portofino in Italy. As the story was told to me, Steven Spielberg fell in love with it and gave the idea of making a replica of it as a hotel to Universal Studios and the Hotel company. It’s just gorgeous! And, the people are so nice there. They wait on you hand and foot. I mean that... we got great manicures and pedicures at the five-star spa. Yes, I am that much of a metro-sexual. (Look it up) And the coolest thing? They take dogs! Yes, pets are welcome at the hotel. Who’d a thunk it!

 

The piazza at Portofino Bay Hotel

View from our room

The port at Portofino in front of our room

Anyway, we thought we’d keep our room to ourselves so we could have some alone time, so we got another room across the street for anyone that might show up from home or visit from that NC show. Since Deane was in Southern Ohio he had to recruit his close friend Ron Fox to actually make the hotel plans for us. You see, they used their 'Universal employee discount' to get a great room rate. We decided to invite him to dinner to thank him for his help with the room. He brought his close friend Ann with him to dinner. What a wonderful couple of people! We hit it off instantly. They’re both theater people. He’s a actor/stuntman/writer and she’s an actress. They ended up hanging out with us the whole week and had a great time with us. I hope we get to hang out over the holidays.

Now, I got an unlimited pass to HHN. (Halloween Horror Nights) It allows me to go to the event multiple days. So I planned to go both Wednesday and Thursday. Sharon had her friends Anne and Amy as well as Sarina from MN and Jeff from St. Pete come up for EPCOT’s Food and Wine Festival. You get to sample food and wine from around the world, two of Sharon’s favorite things. They did that on Wednesday while I went to HHN. My friend Howard came up that night to join me. Ron Fox’s friend Ann from Orlando also joined us. She also did work for Universal, which worked out in our favor. She knew everyone.

Twice a night, Universal has its "Parade of the dead." It’s a parade of monsters and floats and characters that throw beads to the screaming crowd. They were short a few people so Ann got us the spots on the float to fill in. We got dressed up in black robes and climbed onto the floats and stocked up with beads. What a hoot! It was really fun seeing the parade I’ve watched for so many years from the other side.

 

On the float in black robes

The crowd, hungry for beads

Jef gets the chair

The next day was our Spa and pool day. We got to hang out and soak up some of the amenities at the hotel. Sarina and Jeff joined us until our appointments at the spa. Tonight was our last night to go to HHN, so I convinced everyone that was left to go with us. The last couple of people that were coming up from St. Pete were Alethea, Chris and Jimmy. So, we packed up our group and took the boat from Portofino to Universal, about a seven minute ride. Ron and Ann joined us again but this time we all got speed passes. They allow us to bypass all the lines for the rides and the seven haunted houses. If you ever go I highly recommend them. Once again we closed the place and had a great time. It was much more fun with a smaller group. We’re definitely gonna do it that way from now on. I also really liked being able to go two nights in a row. If you ever make it out to Orlando in October you should really try to make it.

 

The girls at EPCOT

Ron and Ann, badly lit

Hangin' at the hotel bar

The only other major event in October was the North Carolina Festivals "Boo and Brew." It was an experimental night event that turned out to be a big hit. They hired some outside entertainment and lit part of the Renaissance Festival site for a Halloween show. We even wrote a new pirate show for it. It was great! I hope they do it again next year. But, I hope its on a different weekend. This year it fell right after student days, a week when we’re already tired. By the end of a nine day run we were beat, but had a good time and made a little extra cash.

 

Well, that’s it for now. I’m off to Florida to visit some friends and start offloading clothes and supplies to the house for the winter. I hope you all had a safe and fun Halloween!