Benedict Cumberbatch and Haunted Houses

Sunday morning I was lying in graceful repose after a lovely night of scaring unfortunates that happened upon my person. And I started to think, why do I scare people? Can it be helped that they chose to walk into my personal space whilst was minding my own business?
In a dark room?
In costume?
With music and lighting?
And a couple of zombies as backdrops?
They were begging for it; not my fault that a few peed their pants and one couple got so scared they bolted through the exit and into the night... Nope, not my fault at all :) Just to be warned,  I'm one person you never want to encounter in a haunted house.

See! Who could be scared of that adorable face!

Saturday night I learned quite a few things though while performing. Some of them were quite surprising. Here's a few of the things I learned:

1. People treat you with a lot more respect if they think you're a guy.
2. They treat you with even more respect if they think you're about to beat them.
3. Benedict Cumberbatch isn't as smooth in real life as he is in Star Trek, (and is somehow the cooler for it.)
4. I still haven't learned how to keep my voice from being shredded afer 5 hours of screaming at people.


People treat you with a lot more respect if they think you're a guy.
This was interesting to find out. You know, for my entire life I've been a girl. Even my attempts at dressing up like a male are usually given away by my facial bone structure and curves in other places. People just look at me and know that I'm female.
However.....
Saturday night I acheived my best cross-dressing ever. (Note: It's not that I want to be a guy, just that this is really fun to do sometimes :). Nothing lets you know exactly how feminine you are like having a makeup artist try and contour masculine features onto your face! So, I had my eyebrows brought down, a stronger jawline drawn on, contouring to create a male cheekbone, and some other magical makeup stuff to make me look a bit more scary. Then, I put on a suit, tied up my hair and hid it under a hat, and voila!

Meet Durtle, the grave-digger who takes serious selfies...

Okay, so I look like a girl with lines drawn on my face. However, under the lighting in the haunted house I looked like a 16-year old boy pretending to be a creepy old guy. I made my voice all harsh and weird, and when the first people walked through my room I laid into 'em! Best part was when one of them said,
     "Let's go through this door (there were 3 to choose from) that dude seems to know what he's talking about." (emphasis added)
Dude! Guy! It was strangely empowering. The makeup, costume, and most of all voice acting had convinced a few people that I was a guy! Success! I launched into my role with even more enthusiasm.

As a guy, here's what I noticed. People tended to give me more space, as if my personal bubble had become suddenly 2 feet bigger. They listened. They jumped harder when I came after them. Some were genuinely creeped out just by the fact that they couldn't quite tell if I was a guy or girl!
As a girl working in a haunted house, people will walk into your space more unless you are genuinely scary. Some jerks try to mess with you by touching your face, tugging on your clothes, asking for hugs or your phone number. As a 'guy', none of that happened. I had a few girls tell me I was hot, (which was weird) and one girl was like, 'Heey there...'. None of them tried to touch me though, as if I was personally more intimidating and thus deserving of respect.

That's kind of a sad cultural commentary. Not going to get into that but yeah... Sigh, maybe this'll change one day, but at least it's recognizable now.


They treat you with even more respect if they think you're about to beat them.
So, while I giggle to myself about this one, let me explain. I had a cane that night, a lovely shiny metal cane and a lovely, shiny metal coffin that I could hit with the lovely, shiny cane. I had an exquisetly fun time just creating a tremendous racket. Some people came in and wanted to touch the coffin, so I'd let them. Of course, once they were in close I would hit said coffin, making it sound like the occupant was trying to claw his way out. One group in particular I lured in, getting them all to rub the coffin at the same time. Once they were all in really close I whacked the side of the coffin, startling the heck out of them (to the point that a few actually fell down!)

About the fear of beatings = respect, I established to people that I was capable of beating things with the cane, and most of them avoided my space as much as possible. One stupid 15 year old decided to take things a little farther, show off for his friends and whatnot. He started to dance towards me, saying,
'I'mma show this guy who's boss in here'.
So, I took the cane, raised it over my head, and took a few lurching steps towards him. He screamed of course and ran off. People are amazing wimps when it comes to the promise of physical pain.


Benedict Cumberbatch isn't as smooth in real life as he is in Star Trek, (and is somehow the cooler for it.)
Maybe I didn't learn this while working at the haunt, but I did learn it!
Simon Pegg Talks about Benedict Cumberbatch!
Click on said link to YouTube for more information on the subject. Also enjoy a picture of this gorgeous, talented man.

You're welcome :)

I still haven't learned how to keep my voice from being shredded afer 5 hours of screaming at people.
Yeah, It's September, soon to be October. This girl sounds like someone who's been smoking since they were ten, alternated with a prepubescent boy. Squeaky and hoarse all at the same time. Upshot of that though, I sound like a mouse when I'm laughing. Which makes me laugh even harder. Which makes people look at me weird. Which makes me laugh even harder than that. Okay, 'nuff said :)

Improv Workshop for NIGHTMARE ON 13th!

Today I am teaching a workshop for Nightmare on 13th! This is seriously the best haunted house I've ever been involved with. This is because of 2 things. 1, the people there really care about you. Once you're in, you're part of a wonderful group of abnormal people, who come together to create something awesome. 2, the place. The creativity abounds here, and is what has kept me coming back. Seeing the new ideas and getting to be new and different characters and just having an outlet for all the dark creativity that flows through sometimes!

Here is part of the improv workshop. It's not everything, can't give away trade secrets! But it's some important stuff that anyone can and should know, especially if you're into acting or improv or haunted houses and especially all three! Hope you enjoy!


IMPROV WORKSHOP

Intro
One of the best parts of the production that really stands out from the competition is when the public talks to our characters and our characters respond back and have a conversation with the customers as their character. In doing this, the customers feel like they are completely immersed in a different world and less like they are just in some haunted house. It makes you much more believable as a character and can amplify an audience's fears that you will actually do what you say you will. 

Small Exercise
-One of the first things you need to do before you can improv decently is shed your shell of shyness. Don’t ever be afraid to shake off that shell and show people your inner craziness! Nobody who works here cares how strange you are, in fact, the crazier you are the more we love you! We are all strange and weird here, which is why we all want to work at a haunted house. So be crazy! Run around and let it out! Seriously, go for it.

Something I’ve noticed a lot as I’ve been an actor is that people really don’t care what comes out of your mouth, as long as it’s something. Get your brain out of the way. You know how your mom says to think before you act? Well, improv is about placing yourself in the situation, as the character, and then just going nuts! Absolutely nuts. Don’t think, just act! What does your character say? Feel? Express? Why are they there? 

-Once you’ve shaken off the shyness, take a good long look at your character. Think about it as much as you can. Part of improv is making things up on the fly, but just as important is to do all the background preparation you can. The 5W’s help with your dialogue. (Yes, I realize the W in How is at the end, get over it.)

Who: Who are you? What’s your name? What’s your background story?
What: What are you? Are you a person? Demon? Adult? Kid? What is going on around you?
Where: Where are you? This includes location and even time frame, like most vampires are in the 18th century, that sort of thing.
Why: Why are you here? Is this your house? Why did you end up in this situation? 
How: How do you act? How do you walk, talk, what do you sound like?
Last is Motive. What do you want and how are you going to get it?

Always continue to ask yourself questions about your character and be creative with it. Never stop developing your character. Use your room, props, costume, makeup, everything you have to inform you about the character and then embellish it with movie lines or your imagination or other sources. Maybe a customer will ask you a question you've never thought of before and it’ll create a whole new side to your character.
If you can’t do anything else, figure out who the heck you are and why you’re there. You want to be able to answer someone when they ask, "Why are you stuck in a maze? Why is half your face melted off? Why are vines growing out of your skin?" Answer that and you’ll be golden.

The key to improv that anyone anywhere will tell you is Yes, AND. That means to take what someone gives you, whether it’s a stupid comment or whether they’re playing back to you, and running with it. You’ll get a lot of Junior high kids saying to you, “You look stupid.” Now the last thing you want to to is stop acting and say, “No I don’t!” Be your character. If you’re a clown then use it that way. Run after them singing, ‘stupid is as stupid does and I’m going to cut out your brains to make me smarter!! Bwahahaha!’ If you’re a gun shop owner, run with it that way. “Stupid? You call me stupid! I've got a gun here that says you’re ten times stupider than me for coming in here, I’m gonna show you!” and really go after em. If you’re a zombie or a monster, that’s even easier, (Turn, fix them with your good eye, and really harass the living daylights out of them)

That's it for now! Hopefully see you at the workshop, and if not, maybe next year! Peace!