Speaker 1: Welcome, welcome, Welcome to the third hour of the show.
Speaker 1: And that spooky music means it's spooky time, it's Halloween time,
Speaker 1: and that means the return of something. Anthony, my producer,
Speaker 1: loves me not so much. I don't like being scared
Speaker 1: the bejeebers out of me, and that's what they do
Speaker 1: at the thirteenth Floor. Joining me now the general manager
Speaker 1: Brian Kopp, to talk about what you can expect if
Speaker 1: you're among the maniacs who love to be scared to
Speaker 1: death for fun. Brian, first of all, welcome to the show.
Speaker 2: Hi, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: So thirteenth Floor has been around for I don't even
Speaker 1: I feel like they've been around for a long time
Speaker 1: now how many how many years? Excz eighteenth season? Why
Speaker 1: the thirteenth floor? Do you know why that got started?
Speaker 1: In that? Why was it? Why was that the theme
Speaker 1: or the name?
Speaker 2: There's if you go to like an old building and
Speaker 2: you look at the elevator, a lot of times you
Speaker 2: won't see a thirteenth floor goes from twelve to fourteen
Speaker 2: because of like unlucky thirteen and then like bad things
Speaker 2: would happen on that floor. So I always thought that
Speaker 2: was like a fun bit of lore to kind of develop.
Speaker 2: So the idea is all of those terrible scary things
Speaker 2: that happened on the thirteenth floor of all these different buildings,
Speaker 2: well they're all here under one roof, at the thirteenth
Speaker 2: floor Haunted House.
Speaker 1: So, Brian, how does one decide when you're, you know,
Speaker 1: getting into your career, you know what I want to do.
Speaker 1: I want to work at haunted houses, because that's what
Speaker 1: you show us at some point, like what led you there?
Speaker 2: I was a seasonal scare actor. I've always you know,
Speaker 2: had a love of Halloween and horror, and I love
Speaker 2: acting and special effects makeup, and that was always something
Speaker 2: that I would pursue. So it was like a fun
Speaker 2: seasonal job where I get to turn one of my
Speaker 2: favorite holidays from you know, a day or a weekend
Speaker 2: a celebration too. I get to do it every weekend
Speaker 2: for like a month. And as I was in the
Speaker 2: right place at the right time, and thirteenth Floor kind
Speaker 2: of spawned this incredible Haunted house empire and we grew
Speaker 2: and have haunted houses all over the country, and eventually
Speaker 2: I was offered an opportunity to run my own thirteenth
Speaker 2: Floor show in Chicago. I ran thirteen for Chicago and
Speaker 2: the old Joliet Haunted Prison. Oh nice, and I'm here
Speaker 2: at where it all started.
Speaker 1: Well, so let's talk about what the attraction features this year.
Speaker 1: What do you have a theme every year that you
Speaker 1: sort of adhere to that informs the storytelling because honestly,
Speaker 1: like a hunted house is kind of.
Speaker 2: A story right, Yeah, it's improvisational theater, it's immersive theater.
Speaker 2: So yeah, every attraction always has a unique theme. Every year.
Speaker 2: It will have, you know, kind of a focal point character,
Speaker 2: and that theme, as you said, you know, kind of
Speaker 2: informs the creative processes. We're designing new scares and new
Speaker 2: rooms in that particular attraction, as we're designing the characters,
Speaker 2: the costumes, the makeup design, the sound design and music
Speaker 2: that we play in those attractions. So this we have
Speaker 2: the Legend of the Thirteenth Floor, which features one of
Speaker 2: our original classic characters, mister Hollows.
Speaker 1: Oh little Ichabod crane situation going on here.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and then the second attraction is Twilight of the Damned,
Speaker 3: featuring this scary witch named Orla who has cursed everyone
Speaker 3: with eternal insomnia driving the mat.
Speaker 1: I think I know her. As a matter of fact,
Speaker 1: I think I met her a long time ago, and
Speaker 1: I'd like to have a word right now. But you
Speaker 1: guys actually have a third part of the attraction this year.
Speaker 1: Tell me about that.
Speaker 2: So for the first time ever, we have three attractions,
Speaker 2: so we've drastically increased the size of the Haunted House.
Speaker 2: Your ticket gets you into all three. So the new
Speaker 2: one is outside in our midway, and it's bigger than
Speaker 2: the other attractions, and it is called the Bloodshed.
Speaker 1: Oh of course, of course. Let me guess it looks
Speaker 1: like a shed on the outside. Not scary at all, Yeah,
Speaker 1: not scary at all. Like just put these people in
Speaker 1: the horror movie. Let's hide from the maniac by going
Speaker 1: in the shed full of chainsaws. That's kind of what
Speaker 1: we're going after. Is that the theme here exactly right?
Speaker 1: All right, don't go here. It's like you've been here
Speaker 1: all you know, you what it is. Here's the thing.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be perfectly frank here, Brian. I'm fifty six
Speaker 1: years old, and when I was younger, I allowed myself
Speaker 1: to be talked into going to things like haunted houses.
Speaker 1: And as soon as I left the Haunted House, I
Speaker 1: said the exact same thing. I blanking hated that. I
Speaker 1: never want to do that again, and yet peer pressure
Speaker 1: being what it was for many years. So I've been
Speaker 1: to haunted houses. I know what they're about. I'm one
Speaker 1: of those people. I don't like to be scared. I
Speaker 1: don't like to be startled, so haunted houses are not
Speaker 1: for me. Now a Rod, my compatriot here, the exact opposite.
Speaker 1: He loves it all. He loves to scare people, he
Speaker 1: loves to be scared, and he has a question. What's
Speaker 1: your question?
Speaker 4: Yes, so, Brian, obviously I know first and experience that
Speaker 4: this is one of the best haunted houses in the
Speaker 4: entire country, if not the world.
Speaker 2: I know.
Speaker 4: USA Today named it the top five in the top
Speaker 4: five for most terrifying haunted houses this year, and it
Speaker 4: always is. And I've seen that firsthand, just with the
Speaker 4: investment and the care and the actors in the sets,
Speaker 4: in the stories you guys tell this year. Specifically, what
Speaker 4: would you point to what makes it a top five
Speaker 4: this year?
Speaker 2: Specifically when I moved here from Chicago and met the
Speaker 2: team that's been in place here. A lot of these
Speaker 2: people are like veterans that have done many many seasons
Speaker 2: here over the years. There's so much like thoughtfulness and
Speaker 2: care and passion from the staff that go into every
Speaker 2: aspect of this, Like not just like the makeup and
Speaker 2: the acting, Like, yeah, there's lots of great actors, and
Speaker 2: we train all summer long to get the actors ready
Speaker 2: to go. You know, it's makeup workshops. But I mean
Speaker 2: even just like the staff guiding people into line, the
Speaker 2: scenic design, the carpentry, Like, there's just so much passion
Speaker 2: that goes into creating it. I feel like you every aspect,
Speaker 2: everything that you look at when you're here, you can
Speaker 2: see a little bit of that, and I think that
Speaker 2: goes such a long way to making it such like
Speaker 2: a fun, exciting and special experience.
Speaker 4: Well, you're the only person that's gonna all to see this,
Speaker 4: but I'm holding out a picture to you now. If
Speaker 4: you want someone else that cares about what they do
Speaker 4: in scaring people, you know who to call right here,
Speaker 4: My friend.
Speaker 1: Really do need to leave? You got to get you
Speaker 1: back here, And I'm gonna okay, can we just stop
Speaker 1: calling them scare actors and just shorten it to scacters?
Speaker 1: I mean, I feel like that's tight. You know, It's
Speaker 1: like we got our skecters here. There are scare actors.
Speaker 1: I think that there should be a cameo role for
Speaker 1: Anthony in this, and I see you as being part
Speaker 1: of the Ichabod Crane vibe a little bit, maybe with
Speaker 1: a frilly caller and puffy sleeves, something along those lines.
Speaker 1: You know, he loves the clown thing and the clown
Speaker 1: thing just it just freaks me out. I'm not happy
Speaker 1: about that at all.
Speaker 2: That's the place for him. We just opened a new
Speaker 2: upsell attraction outside as well, like a little extra ticketed
Speaker 2: thing called clown Chaos.
Speaker 1: Ah. Yeah, I remember that last year. Yes, that was sparticular.
Speaker 2: This is totally rebuilt from the ground up, so it
Speaker 2: was like the same concept of clowns and fun, but
Speaker 2: it's a totally redesigned experience.
Speaker 1: I was actually going to ask that question specifically, and
Speaker 1: you mentioned that you have a team of people that
Speaker 1: are working on concepts and things like that. How much
Speaker 1: attention or care is paid to making sure that it's
Speaker 1: not exactly the same while still maintaining maybe the super
Speaker 1: popular parts of the Haunted House. I mean, I'm you know,
Speaker 1: Universal Studios in Orlando. I lived there for ten years
Speaker 1: I because of my radio gig, had to go to
Speaker 1: Halloween Horror Nights and one of their big attractions that
Speaker 1: they have is the lady who lays in the coffin
Speaker 1: with all the roaches crawling over her. And I'm just
Speaker 1: like hard Pass, I've lived in Florida my whole life.
Speaker 1: I've had roaches. I don't want them. But are there
Speaker 1: sort of those cornerstone pieces of your haunted house that
Speaker 1: appear year after year?
Speaker 2: There are, Yeah, there are certain things that people they get.
Speaker 2: You got to give them what they want, and I
Speaker 2: think it's important to make sure that there's there's something
Speaker 2: fresh every year. We tell different stories, we have different characters,
Speaker 2: but those characters can still exist in environments that people like,
Speaker 2: really love. Like we have a tilt rem that is
Speaker 2: an absolute fan favorite that really like disorients people and
Speaker 2: it's super fun and like that's not going anywhere anytime soon.
Speaker 2: We might retheme it, we might change what you're going
Speaker 2: to experience, but it's still going to be the same.
Speaker 2: Like core fun gag of you walking through this tilt Rem.
Speaker 2: You know, chainsaws are all You got to find a
Speaker 2: place for the chainsaw. You're gonna get people like where's
Speaker 2: the chainsaw?
Speaker 1: There was no chain saw? That was so disappointed with
Speaker 1: no change is yeah, there you go. H Okay, So
Speaker 1: what age group is this appropriate for? Because that's the
Speaker 1: question I always get from people, is like, can't I
Speaker 1: take my seven year old? So what are you guys
Speaker 1: looking at? Age? You know, age wise?
Speaker 2: The recommendation is treat it like a PG. Thirteen movie.
Speaker 2: Thirteen and up is what we would recommend. That being said,
Speaker 2: kids younger and younger every single year seem to really
Speaker 2: love this stuff more and more. If you want to
Speaker 2: bring your seven year old and you think that it's
Speaker 2: not too intense for them, that's up to you. You know,
Speaker 2: there is disturbing imagery. There's there's blood's gore. So it's
Speaker 2: definitely not for every seven year old, but there. I
Speaker 2: mean we we had a birthday party for like nine
Speaker 2: year olds not that long ago, and they were obsessed
Speaker 2: with it.
Speaker 1: I mean, these kids today, That's all I can say
Speaker 1: about that. Somebody from our text line, our Common Spirit
Speaker 1: Health text line at five six six nine, Oh Mandy,
Speaker 1: please ask your guest if there's an element of a
Speaker 1: haunted house that most people find terrifying, is there is
Speaker 1: there one thing that just cuts across everybody and and
Speaker 1: scares the bejievas out of everybody.
Speaker 2: I mean, yeah, it's it's that's why you always have
Speaker 2: to have a chainsaw in there, because that's one where
Speaker 2: it it gets somebody just about every single time, creating
Speaker 2: a situation where you go from someplace kind of light
Speaker 2: to all of a sudden you can't really see what's
Speaker 2: in front of you, you know, playing with that, like,
Speaker 2: you know, innate psychological fear of the dark and the
Speaker 2: unknown is part of the design of a lot of
Speaker 2: aspects of the Haunted House that gets people just about
Speaker 2: every single time. Clowns is another really popular one which
Speaker 2: I've never really understood. Like I've never found clowns particularly scary,
Speaker 2: but like I'm definitely in the minority.
Speaker 4: You just haven't come across the right to have somebody
Speaker 4: come and test that theory.
Speaker 1: This is why I have to put up with Brian. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's what I somebody else suggested. Instead of scacters, we
Speaker 1: can go scharacters, which I kind of like. Characters is good.
Speaker 1: I'm just trying to make things easy and less promost
Speaker 1: I've got a link on the blog for the thirteenth floor.
Speaker 1: You can go ahead, buy your Tay's they're going just
Speaker 1: beyond Halloween. But I will say this last year, I
Speaker 1: think we interviewed someone more in the middle of October,
Speaker 1: and like the dates towards Halloween were sold out by
Speaker 1: the time we had somebody on. So if you do
Speaker 1: want to go right around Halloween, you're gonna want to
Speaker 1: buy your tickets, Like now, is that fair to say?
Speaker 2: Yeah? And know that if you go in one of
Speaker 2: those days, like I mean, there's gonna be there's so
Speaker 2: many people. It is such a popular event. So if
Speaker 2: you would prefer to have you know, a little bit uh,
Speaker 2: you know, more of a private, unique experience than get
Speaker 2: those time slots on those weekdays that are starting to
Speaker 2: get added to the calendar, and you know that might
Speaker 2: be more your comp of tea. Some people love going
Speaker 2: when you know there's tons of people there though, makes
Speaker 2: them feel more safe.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I mean what I again, I'm not sure demographic.
Speaker 1: Somebody just asked, what's the craziest response that you guys
Speaker 1: have had? Have you had people pass out? Have you
Speaker 1: had people have a more dramatic response? I mean, what,
Speaker 1: what kind of stuff do you do you sort of prepare.
Speaker 2: For every year we have we have people that you know,
Speaker 2: sometimes we need to we need to, uh, you know,
Speaker 2: get the emt over there to take a look at them. Yeah,
Speaker 2: panic attacks, people passing out.
Speaker 1: I can't imagine why I don't want to go to this.
Speaker 1: I I would be in that panic attack like passing
Speaker 1: out category. So it's just it's just not my thing.
Speaker 4: You got me thinking, Mandy Brand, Have you guys consider
Speaker 4: because I've seen other haunts across the country, do this
Speaker 4: new offering where people can wear this really bright glow
Speaker 4: up necklace that let alerts the actors to not scare them.
Speaker 4: Those people are just there to see the visuals, but
Speaker 4: not necessarily for the scares. That's something you guys have
Speaker 4: ever considered offering to your paper light?
Speaker 2: Is that what you're calling it? Tried like the it
Speaker 2: was like a necklace and it was like, you know,
Speaker 2: basically like scare light. We've also tried like behind the
Speaker 2: screens tours where like maybe the haunted house is too
Speaker 2: much for you, but you do appreciate the artistry of that.
Speaker 2: I would do so that we bring you out during
Speaker 2: the day. You'll get a guided tour. You know, somebody
Speaker 2: like myself. That's renowledgeable, you know in why we made
Speaker 2: this and what's the lord and the concept behind this?
Speaker 2: You know, what's the backstory? And those were pretty popular.
Speaker 2: I don't think we're not doing it this year, but
Speaker 2: we might bring that back at some point. That was
Speaker 2: pretty popular.
Speaker 1: I would totally do that. I mean, but I'm the
Speaker 1: person on a cruise ship who does the behind the
Speaker 1: scenes ship tour too, you know, so I like to
Speaker 1: see how everything works. I just don't want to be startled. Guys,
Speaker 1: get your tickets. What's the final date, Brian for this?
Speaker 1: What's your last date?
Speaker 2: Eight weekend of November.
Speaker 1: Okay, second weekend of November, So but go ahead. I
Speaker 1: would say, if you want to go around Halloween, I
Speaker 1: think we were like October fifteenth ish last year when
Speaker 1: we interviewed you guys, and all of this stuff around
Speaker 1: Halloween was sold out. So if you want to go
Speaker 1: around Halloween and you want to make it part of
Speaker 1: your Halloween night, you're gonna want to buy those tickets
Speaker 1: like now, And I put a link on the blog today.
Speaker 4: Brian.
Speaker 1: I appreciate so much what you do, and I cannot
Speaker 1: tell you how much my producer loves what you guys,
Speaker 1: do and uh, and I'm sure you're going to scare
Speaker 1: the crap out of tons of people this season. And
Speaker 1: when you bring back those behind the scenes tours, sign
Speaker 1: your girl up right here because I will absolutely do that.
Speaker 1: And as long as nobody jumps out at me, because
Speaker 1: I might punch someone at My reflexes are slow, but
Speaker 1: they're not that slow. So I appreciate you making time
Speaker 1: for us today, Brian.
Speaker 2: Yeah, thanks for having me. Happy Halloween.