2005 Show Review
JJ – Skellington
Well got back from the MHC. It was a blast. Had a ton of fun and took many great seminars.
The Ghost Ride seminar was the BEST!!!! All about creating corpses, gore, and Mummification. That by far was better than any of the seminars I attended. And those guys are cool. We ended up buying the stuff they used in the seminar since they didn’t want to have to ship it back.
The Monster Make Up wars were once again fun to watch. Evryone gets so in to it, it is great to see. The hearses there were sweet to check out and all the vendors I can even describe.
We bought alot (I won’t say price) but we were told we have officially bought the most ever at the Ghoulish Gallery. And we is a big Haunted Mansion fan and worked with Rick Baker so we talked for a long time.
Also, we took the MHC tour of Unit 70 and it was fun and we also went to pick up props from the Scare Factory and they gave us a tour of the studio….that was a blast. The place is huge and has items in the works everywhere.
Overall the event was fun and I liked the close setting of this year.
I didn’t get to meet any GD people except Barry but maybe we just missed eachother in the midst of all the fun.
You run a great event Barry. Keep it up.
In Reply to: MHC? posted by Bill Livingston on July 25, 2005 at 08:41:36:
i think it was great….lots of really cool people geting together showing their products and services, everything from t-shirts to dvd’s…from fog juice to costumes…from music to things that stink….the staff did a great job taking care of of the vendors…there were a ton of after hours activities to keep you busy and meet everyone there…and it was GREAT meeting everyone there…old friends and new ones….i can’t wait until next year to see how much the show continues to grow…
todd poole
Posted by Joey Arena – Baxter Avenue Morgue (207.40.151.167) on July 25, 2005 at 10:19:30:
In Reply to: MHC? posted by Bill Livingston on July 25, 2005 at 08:41:36:
This was the first “Convention” I have attended in my 6 years in this biz.. I have been to a few “Trade Shows”, but never attended seminars before.
Here’s my opinion of MWHC with no basis of comparison…
Organization: The event was fairly well organized, and most of the things we needed to do were eaisly found after the first time. The unavoidable lineup changes were a slight disspointment, as it always seemed to be a lecture I was keen on attending 🙂 But the staff did a good job of letting us know where, when and what.
Content: The seminars I attended ranged from fascinating to merely interesting, but again, that is unavoidable, as everyone has a different level of knowledge, experience, and opinion. A few more “advanced” level seminars would have been nice, but I certainly got a lot out of all the lectures I attended.
While I differ fairly dramtically in a few opnions with Leonard Pickel, I still gained a lot of insight from his “Designing from the inside out” seminar. Viewing things from another angle is always a wonderful way to spark your own imagination, and his experience certainly brought to light a thing or 2 I hadn’t yet encountered, and I left feeling that I had learned some things from him.
The Makeup 103 class by Gene Flaherty of Mehron was inspirational as well, as Gene introduced me to a few products I was unaware of, as well as sticking to the important “basics” more than teaching a specific makeup effect. Teach a man to fish, and all that..
Although I had to leave suddenly from Rex Hamilton’s “evaluating your actors” seminar, I did feel that it was very useful to anyone from a non-theater background. I certainly learned a lot about my fellow haunters as well, listening to how other people did things.
The masquarade party was an interesting time, and I think it benefitted from being in a public bar rather than in a hotel meeting room. The contests were fun, the people always intersting, althought the drive back to the hotel was a, pardon the pun, nightmare, due to the distance.
We met some wonderful folks in the Vendor area, made some interesting contacts, and are marshalling our cash for orders to be placed.
All in all, we had a very nice time, and picked up a thing or 2 in the way of information and merchandise. The best part, of course, was meting the people, as it should be.
Posted by Frank Weidman (68.21.245.66) on July 25, 2005 at 11:04:28:
In Reply to: MHC? posted by Bill Livingston on July 25, 2005 at 08:41:36:
I had a blast, a little too tired. The whole weekend was outstanding!!!! Thank you to Barry, Kelly, Neena and Kathy for a great show.
My wife Robin and I had a great time. Met some new friends and had a blast with some old ones. The Wolfe Brothers and Justin was a balll to hang out with.
And I had a blast at the Lodge bar and took 1st place as the scariest Character!!! Ugh…Ugh…ugh!!!!!
Dreamreaper family was so cool to meet, Ken…sweets and stuff!!! You guys may be seeing me very soon at your front door! Steve Verdino from www.hauntedconnection.com was a pleasure to meet.
Also Adam Drendel from www.hauntedillinois.com, it was nice to share laughs with you and to meet you.
and a big thankyou to Samantha and Trace Shuttleworth from Scary Boy Productions for the coffee for my wife. It was a pleasure meeting you both.
To Timmer and Ann Marie (the new Miss Scary Ohio) Gavinski. The cheesecake was great.
Tom and Steve Kristoffs, you guys are awesome! The wekend was fun together.
And even to Jesus and Mary from Cleveland, you guys are too funny.
Also to Dan Faupel and his brother Matt and thier wifes. Thankyou for the learning expirence of headcasting and the collectors items and the ass grabbing…lol.
Overall, the weekend had alot of events. But what made it happen was the people I Mentioned above and others that i could fill a page and a half about.
I will let other talk about the events, I want to share my wifes and I gratitude to the people of this show…THANKYOU!!!
Frank
Just wanted to say you had a great event. I liekd talking to you but know you were pretty busy there. I only made it one day last year but was there all three days this year. I did however forget to turn in my survey.
I have mainly rave reviews for you but do have other things to say. If you are interested let me know and I can email you my thoughts.
We spent alot of money for our event there. Good for us and the vendor. I think we bought out the entire ghoulish gallery.
Well, anyways…great event and I had a blast.
Jonathan
JJ-Skellington
Hi Barry,
Just wanted to thank all of you for the time and effort you took to prepare the MHC. This was a first for us and we really enjoyed your hospitality. It was large enough but small enough not to loose the connection to each other. We were so excited to be apart of the Make Up War and take second place. We did not think we would win, so glad we did. We look forward to returning next year and I may be interested in teaching 2 classes.
Many Thanks,
Ginny Colangelo
Gin C. Productions
Thanks for a great time….You should all be proud, and we feel fortunate we can call you our friends.
Take Care and Rest
Timmer and AMT
I am so happy I got to go to your convention this year, you guys worked so hard and did such a great job, I am glad I could be apart of it!
You certainly packed in a lot in such a short time, I do not know how you did it!!
Best to all!!
Love ya,
Bobbie
From: Dustin Morton <bronsonboneyard@yahoo.com>
Date: Jul 25, 2005 12:28 PM
Subject: Hall: Midwest report
To: scaryohio@gmail.com
Well, the main thing i have to say was we had the best time. The show itself seemed; to us outsiders; to run super smooth. The booths looked great, the classes started on time, the teachers were all very competent and helpful, there were plenty of ammenities close at hand for food and supplies. The only thing: Barry, you may have to move to a larger location next year! I got there late Friday night while most everyone was at the Haunted House, we heard it was pretty dang cool. Hit the bar with Mouse, Dee, Julie, Chuck Williams and made some more friends while we were there! Saturday morning started class. Learned how to make monster hands\costume gloves out of the long prom gloves and corpseing supplies. It was like corpseing…yourself! We only had 2 hours so we only got one mostly done, no painting, but it was definatly cool and an easy way to augment and complete your costume for very little money. Went around the show a bit, hobnobbed with old friends and new ones, Bobbie Weiner(Bloody Mary), Kevin Alvey at Gore Galore, the changing portraits guy, Hunter Heads, Crazy Bob and Beth, Leonard P, John Burton…oh who else?… I’d try to list all the vendors who were there, but Barry had an ‘official’ pro photographer going around the show, i’m sure he got them all and they are to be posted to the MHC site soon. This guy took almost more pictures than Wormy! Though not all the fun, candid ones we all seem to like… Lunch at Buca with Mouse. Yum. Much garlic. Happiness. Who needs a nap now?….
My next class was foam face appliances.   learned how to prep, apply,
paint and finish foam latex face peices. its not hard, but the instructors gave us some very helpful tips and hints to make it easier, and look more finished. Very cool. I think i’m gonna do one for this season. Last class of the day was basic actor training. Another set of good info Then i had to run upstairs and change my shirt cause I was Deannas
model for the MONSTER MAKEUP WARS. We were one of six teams.  Ended
up coming in 4th, i would bet. Dee and her partner; i forget his name, sorry! made me up to look like a demon guy. There were horns in the kit so thats the way things kind of went, though not everyones horns ended up on their foreheads! The winner was a very cool orc looking guy(think LOTR gobin), they definatly were the best. second was…I’m not sure what he was, but it was pretty gruesome. Third was a green monster dude with horns and bits stuck all over his head and safety pins holding a big neck gash closed…another great job. the WolfeBrothers gave kudos to Deanna on her work–i was so proud, hehe. I was going to leave my face on for the party later on but then decided against it( do i want to try and pry this off at 1 in the morning while i’m probably very inebrieated….no.) Mouse got a few good pics–the best is where his camera malfunctioned–but he got some funny ones of me peeling my face off! Got cleaned up and waited for the bus to tour….UNIT 70! Pretty cool to see molds bigger than my entire body; how do they work with those? Hopped in the Hunters van with Mouse and Kevin and off the the Lodge bar which we were taking over for the night. It looked great, there were these 2 huge werewolf\demon guard props on either side of the stage, they must have been 15 feet tall! Awesome! Midnight syndicate had up some of their lighted signage too, it looked good in there. Partied for awhile until the Ms. Midwest Haunt competion. Man, you talk about good lookin dead chicks! The winner ended up being
TinaMarie(sp?) Gavinski–the Angel of Death. Man did she look creepy! Her hubby Tim ended up winning second in the costume contest too! Then two local hacks got up and started playing acoustic cover songs…stopped the party dead. They mercifully stopped after about
an hour(!!) and the DJ started again, and so did the party.  Kevin
got in his huge new Hunchback costume and got down with the Angel of Death, and then lead a huge Dance of the Undead–all the zombies and assorted monsters there joined him in a big dance, it was awesome!! I had to catch the last bus out at 12:30–apparently a bunch of folks missed it, but found their ways home eventually. It was there at 12:15 as promised, if you missed it its your own fault! lol and it only left 5 minutes early, dang police… Got back and kept on going…back to the hotel bar till they closed it, then out to the patio\lobby with assorted folks to keep chattin and imbibing… closed out the night with Jim Upchurch, Mouse, Robert McBroom, Brett Bertolino, some crazy canadian, Dusty….and a wonderfully fun lady who won third in the constest as an undead girlscout–i forget her name right now……crashed at 5…I had the best time that night!!!!
I…uh…missed my 930 class…i think it was supposed to be airbrushing….poor Dee had to be up at the IAHA board meeting at 900, and she was out later than me…
1030-12 was lighting and theming. good stuff. I personally dont use theatre lights in my home haunt, but he included lots of stuff on more conventional lighting too, along with some neat techniques. At noon was the auction–lots of cool stuff got sold, but not to me… whaa… Then it was time to finish packing up, saying goodbye, etc…Our friend Marty of Niles Haunted House won the Bloody Mary Cruise raffle…..whew…….
It was great. Definatly a do-again. Now I feel a little more motivated to get to work on my stuff. only 99 days to go! Thanks again Barry and crew and vendors and friends and….
okay, i’ll shut up now.
