The Silver Scream Spook Show at the historic Plaza Theatre is a live stage show filled with magic tricks, dancing girls, jokes, frights and fun. Think of it as a tribute to classic TV horror hosts like Elvira, Svengoolie and Vampira. Following the 30 minutes of stage hijinks, the spook show then screens a classic horror film, and this Saturday, Oct. 1, they’ll be featuring the 1959 cult hit, William Castle’s “The Tingler.” There’s a kid-friendly matinee at 1:30 PM, followed by the no-to-be-missed late show at 10:00 PM. Shane Morton and Madeline Brumby are the creatives behind the Silver Scream Spook Show. They joined “City Lights” senior producer Kim Drobes via Zoom to enthuse about the upcoming banquet of frightful delights.
Interview highlights:
On the evolution of Professor Morté, Shane Morton’s classic horror host chimera:
“Ever since I was a kid… I wanted to grow up to be Alice Cooper and Houdini and Ray Harry Housen all rolled up into one, and I’m not claiming to be anywhere close to any of those geniuses, but I kind of have become this weird amalgamation with this creation of Professor Morté, of all of those things,” said Shane.
“When I designed Professor Morté, I wanted him to be like the ultimate horror host. So I took the fright wig from Ghoulardi, and because I love Sid and Marty Krofft and all that fun Saturday morning stuff, I wanted this to have that real edge to it. So I took a Witchy-Poo nose. And horror hosts need to have a painted-on mustache, so I took that from ‘The Ghoul,’ or Svengoolie – another guy that has a painted-on mustache.”
How Madeline brings stagecraft and improv chops:
“We’re the ‘Go-Go Ghouls.’ We add to Professor Morté’s story and provide some of the comedic aspects of the shows,” explained Madeline. “We also do some of the dancing and would be sort of the magician’s assistant in the tricks that we perform, and each show is so uniquely different. Typically have a different assortment of cast members every time.”
“The great thing about it is that we don’t really know what’s going to happen when we go on stage,” said Shane. “That was another aspect that I wanted to bring into this thing – a very haphazard, improvisational approach. And that’s gotten even better over the years because Madeline, you know, she’s really serious about her stagecraft. She’s a Dad’s Garage girl, and so she brings a schooled approach to this improvisational acting that we have.”
A spooky spectacle for the whole family:
“We’re both really passionate about having community events that really can be shared with your family, and to have experiences with your parents for films that your parents may have seen when they were kids… while being entertained with a stage show, is sort of an amalgamation of everything that we love artistically. But also, being able to form experiences for children so that they can maybe enjoy seeing adults be silly on stage, but also having a great time,” said Madeline.
“I do work on some scary movies that are rated ‘R,’ but I prefer creature stuff in my special effects to, like, gory movies. I just like to be able to be accessible to a larger audience, and like Madeline said, from the very beginning of this thing, it needed to be kid-friendly,” said Shane. “I wanted this thing to be, like, PeeWee’s Playhouse meets the Munsters.”
On featured horror classic “The Tingler:”
“‘The Tingler’ is widely considered the masterpiece of William Castle’s oeuvre. At his time, he was the king of the spook show. What he did was, he took these gags; like for ‘House on Haunted Hill,’ it was filmed in ‘Emergo.’ And what would happen is, during the movie, there’d be a blackout… and ghosts would [come] up here in the movie theater and scare everybody. And he would literally… have a glow-in-the-dark skeleton parade above the crowd on a string,” Shane recounted. “With ‘The Tingler,’ he would say that ‘3D is not good enough; this time you’re going to feel the movie.’ So it was filmed in ‘Percepto,’ which is a technique where you literally get shocked while you watch the movie.”
The Silver Scream Spook Show will screen “The Tingler” on Oct. 1 at the Plaza Theatre, with a kid’s matinee at 1:30 PM and a late show at 10:00 PM. More information is available at https://www.silverscreamfxlab.com/spookshow.
