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"THE
NEXT WAVE IS BUILDING MOMENTUM !" Heed the siren's call and gather 'round The Gallows for a feast, fellow Morlocks! 'Tis not often I can offer a true delicacy to you here on the dying deck -- in fact much of what I have dished out here has been little more than day-old monkey-dung mixed up with a little mayonaise--but this time the big buffet television has provided us with a totally s'moregasmic treat ( as in, "Eat s'more an' I'll tell ya whut's in it.."). My friends, I give you.... MORE HORROR HOSTS!!! I heard that! The guys in the back muttering, "Oh, great. Hot-dogs again..." I sympathise with your misgivings... But wait ! Don't go running for those kidney-pies and blood-puddings that the Count is hawking in the parking lot just yet ! I swear, this is a new batch of hosts, packed with the cheese we love and 99& 3/4 % hog-snout free! Halloween Jack comes in just under the wire to qualify as new on the scene, having just recently passed the one-year mark as the proprietor of THE HAUNTED THEATER in New Jersey. Over the past year Baron Mondo Von Doren and El Sapo De Tempesto's NIGHTMARE THEATRE, from Florida; THE HIP CRYPT OF DOKTOR GOULFINGER, from California; THE BONE JANGLER from Aurora, Illinois, and The Shadowgoblin's CREEPY THEATRE from Central Illinois, have emerged from the ranks of old friends from Gore's "Horrorhosts" mailing list to front the new generation of hosts. To reinterated a point I've made way too often: You guys have gotten WAY too good too quick. Quit it! The past six months, and particularly the past six WEEKS, have seen a real explosion of new hosts and hosts-to-be. Like a hand reaching from the grave of a genre long-ago declared dead, horror hosted shows are again haunting late-night tv in growing numbers -- much of their enthusiasm sparked by the knowledge that there are still OTHER people out ther doing it too. (That theory didn't work out so well with the "Friends of the Jello-Mold" message board, for some reason. Probably just as well.) LIZZY KILLMEISTER from Athens, Ohio was one of the first to find the HHU website, www.tvhorrorhosts.com . His ( Yes, Lizzy is a guy, and married with children. Sorry ladies!) enthusiasm has been boundless, to say the very least! Lizzy's first letter to the HHU expressed a feeling that we thankfully and gratefully hear a lot; that being, it's about TIME someone put a comprehensive directory for active hosts out there. Lizzy wrote us back in April to say: "I've finally cleared a time slot for us here. It will be every Saturday nite at 11:00 pm and can run as long as we want to go. Suggestions? The folks at the station were really excited about the project and are looking forward to working with us. I'm also in the process of getting some newspaper coverage with the 2 local papers there, I'll let ya know more as it comes.(there are approx.20,000 college students in the town alone) It'll be awhile before I get things finished with my show, but would like to get tapes from the others that are interested in showing material here, let me know..." Go, Lizzy, Go ! A new host, and a new HHU affiliate in one fell-swoop! A quick update; since that letter was written the HHU has launched in Athens, Lizzy has made a very funny guest appearance on The Ghastlee Movie Show, and his Toxic Shock Theater is painfully close to hitting the cable-waves. Look out ! He could be coming to your town next ! Convention goers and online shoppers for movies may already know Hayden Milligan of Witching Hour Video. At Doctor Creep's 30th Anniversary party on June 22nd, the hosting-bug bit Hayden hard, and he began spinning ideas for his own show and bouncing them off a few of the attendees. I was blown-away when less than three weeks later I got this email from a fellow calling himself I. ZOMBI... " ...Just wanted to tell you that I finally finished my public access show (The editing! OUCH!) today! WHEW! 22 minutes took 8 hours but of course, this is my very FIRST one and very FIRST time editing so it actually came out well plus I have learned a hell of a lot!!!! I am "I. Zombi" and am Lexington, ( Kentucky's) FIRST and ONLY horror host! One thing I learned: My 'Acting' SUCKS! From now on, I am ME, no acting 'scary' or anything..I am just gonna be a smart ass and talk normal and sh**. A good lesson to learn early on I think. Anyway, please let me know how many tapes to send you so we can get these out there and playing on different stations! This show is a bit amateurish and such so I hope you guys won't think I'm a total butt-head but its my first time so don't laugh too terribly hard at me...Its kinda funny though! :) Happy July 4th!! -Hayden aka I. Zombi" Wow ! Talk about folks who sink their teeth into an idea! Hayden's letter brought up two points that inevitably come up when someone is just popping their hosting cherry; one is the sudden realization of all the tech-work that goes on behind the scenes of any program--and the fact that as a first-time producer you will more-than-likely be doing EVERYTHING. Lesson one: Learn to love editing, or find a friend you can trust who does. Hayden's ratio of 8 hours of editing to 22 minutes of program is, as I wrote him back, amazingly fast. It becomes easier and easier the more you edit to want to tweak this or overdub that, and the next thing you know you've spent 8 hours on 5 minutes of video. The important thing is that you are happy with the finished product, and you've either learned a new trick or two, or learned that you don't EVER want to try that again. Reminds me of this blind-date I was fixed up on -- but I digress... The second point Hayden brought out is one that was echoed a day later on the Horrorhosts list : "I'm on the verge of taking the plunge and trying my luck in the horror-host area! I'd like to try and do something for public-access, shot on video, using public-domain movies... I guess here's where I throw caution to the wind and ask -- do you have any advice for the newcomer? Suggestions? Opinions as to what makes a horror-host and his show work? I know that this list probably has already addressed much of this before, but please consider this request on the part of the rookie... signed (for now) Doctor Morbius" Some guy calling himself Ghastlee (?) replied: The best advice I could give is to do what YOU think is funny, scary, or that you would want to see on tv. You can't, and won't, please everyone -- so just have fun with it and that will translate naturally to the audience, and find your audience. Baron Von Doren expanded that thought, writing: "Hey new brothers in hosting, I'm gonna go with Ghastlee here and say the key to being a good host is doing your own thing... One of the coolest things about the whole genre is that while we do basically the same thing, i.e. hosting movies, but everybody has a different take... And while Nightmare Theatre (my show), The Bone Jangler, The Haunted Theatre and the Ghastlee Movie Show all do comedy, they each do it in their own way... But the real key to hosting is to just have fun! The Baron" So we've established that having fun as host will translate to the audience, but list member Mike offered a first-hand guide to the gauntlet that may daunt purveyors of our form of entertainment: "I'm new to the group, too, as well as to the horror host scene. I've been trying for about 7 years to get my show off the ground, and it can be a real pain in the ass. I finally got sick of not having connections, so I decided to make my show with or without them. In the final stretch of wrapping up my pilot episode, I went to Dr. Creep's birthday party/30 years of showbiz anniversary party, and started spreading the word. I've set a deadline for completion, and if all goes according to plan, I'll be airing it in 5 cities on public access, and on late-night commercial TV in my own town this October. My advice (for what it's worth): make the show first, worry about getting it out there later. People are a lot more willing to listen to your ideas when you have something finished to show them. Good luck with your stuff. > Mike, > Phantome Empire" The fact that Lizzy, I. Zombi, and Mike were all at Dr. Creep's party (Along with the Bone Jangler and Nocturna, and the Country's youngest host Dr. Freak) hasn't gone un-noticed here either. Our Forfathers such as Count Gore and Dr. Creep have been tremendous influences in not only infecting us with the hosting bug at a young age, but supporting our deviant behavior as suppossed "grown-ups". The truly great thing about the horror community, and the hosting community in particular, is the constant support and encouragement that comes from your peers--and even your childhood idols. Other fiends from around the Country, and even the world, have come out of the woodwork since the HHU site launched six months ago. Many of them have been doing their shows for years, and -- as I believed before finding Gore's list--thought that they were the ONLY ones still out there. The Horrorhosts list, the HHU mailbox, and my personal email box provide evidence every day that WE ARE NOT ALONE! The genre is far from dead, and is in fact proliferating in dark, dank places all around us; just waiting for someone to open the door or pry up the rock that will loose the next wave upon the unwitting masses -- or at least for programmers to realize that people have had it up to their gizzards with late-night infomercials, and are tuning into the weird guy on cable-access or the indi-station in droves. Too many new friends and fiends coming onto the scene and making themselves known now to mention 'em all (Sorry !), but rest easy! I'll be keeping a finger on the jugular of what's happening in hosting, and you can always do your own homework to by checking in with the Horrorhosts list, or the HHU website. The addy is www.tvhorrorhosts.com. Did I mention that addy? It's www.tvhorrorhosts.com! Ahhg ! Gotta run; here comes Gore with the big, scary, vaudevillesque "Too much shameless self-promotion" hook. I can deal with the necktie party, but I HATE getting the hook... Visit www.tvhorrorhosts.com!!! Ahhhhhhggggggg.......!!! Your ol' pal,
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