Somewhere between sanity and insanity I jumped the tracks and landed in 'la la' land. This is to say that what I attempted to do this year was beyond nuts. For whatever reason, I felt secure and confident. I decided to cater to families on a scale larger than before. We built carnival games, scheduled dance and acting schools to perform, added food. Poe readings, fun costumed characters, monster make-up and magic. And this was during the day Saturday and Sunday. Saturday night I added a Rocky Horror Review and gross magic. The castle was the main event, but I added a terror walk.
My print advertising focused on the family events. This decision was made because I had no competition. Mistake ONE. Opening week I discover a major competitor fifteen minutes away. They are out spending me in advertising and the cast for their hayride exceeds my entire staff. The sad part is that it was all glitz and no show. The $15 admission price included two haunts, a maze and the hayride. But the show was terrible. If I am lucky they will not be back for '99. Mistake TWO. Opening Saturday night a customer openly solicits three teenage girls to work in a "Modeling Studio" (for those claiming to be naïve, this is another name for the prostitution business). He tells them that he works for me. This creates a disaster from which I do not recover. I cancel the Saturday evening entertainment. Mistake THREE. I am not sure when I woke up, but at some point in time I realize that I had made another mistake. When I originally set the price for admission to the evening events, it was based on a castle only event. I added the terror walk and never changed my admissions price. So, I essentially doubled my overhead and retained the lower ticket price, ahhh! The first two articles of my series detail more about this year. But they do not mention the falling out with Hawkwood management. They were under the impression that all the daytime customers were paying customers. That the children performing on stage were customers. When I turned in my report, they called me a liar. A cube of dry ice has better relations than I now have with Hawkwood. My relationship is deeper than I have let on, so now I will elaborate. The first season of Hawkwood I was at Majestic Ranch, yet I found time to shoot a promotional video and give it to Hawkwood for free. While I was building the castle at Hawkwood I also undertook completing construction of one of their stages, even after I cut myself I finished work on their stage before I completed the castle. They were short on cash for some road improvements; I paid for eleven truck loads of tailings ($495) and told them that I would deduct it from '98 proceeds. They were having problems with a dragon effect for their '98 stunt show. I worked with the staff to repair the effect and when it failed again, I took it upon myself to make the dragon work for each of the shows that weekend. This is the short list of help I have provided. Since my November meeting I have said less than a handful of words to the Hawkwood management. And now the search is on again. This time I am saving up to purchase my own land. Plans call for dual site operation while I install the infrastructure. Is there a moral? Yes. I have worked with others 'off and on' in the haunt business. If I have learned anything it is that I will not be working with anyone in the future. It appears that the others that I have had relationships with were only interested in short-term gains. Get what you can get out of Corn and move on. The bright side to this is that I am still here and moving forward, that cannot be said for most of the rest. Enough about my trials and tribulations. Beginning next week, a series of explanations of some haunt special effects.Mad Hatter
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