Howdy there, Scream Freaks! Well, Mad Monster Party came, we went, and we did our best to promote our show while learnin’ the ropes as first time vendors for three straight fun packed days. There were wacky shorts in the film festival, bodacious dancers in the burlesque show, an asylum’s worth of clowns, tons of unique horror merch, and ‘nough celebritites to keep two rooms of wanderin’ fanatics happy.
When all was said and done, we definitely feel like we grew Screaming Soup!’s fan base. We kept our fliers stocked on every table we could possibly find, proudly wore our logo wherever we went, and met a bunch of new fans who watched our show and skits playin’ in the film festival all weekend. Makin’ a name for ourselves in this outlet of the horror community did have its challenges, however.
After all, we’re an unknown entity in a sea of familiar movie memorabilia and horror hall of famers with instant recognition, so it’s hard to compete for folks’attention. The most surprisin’ thing were the unexpected reactions our booth yielded after months of careful plannin’. For instance, it was unbelievable how many folks completely missed our display’s TVs playin’ our show. Even when someone did see them, we still had to help them put two and two together the footage was from the show our entire booth was advertisin’. One person even admitted how long it took for them to realize the 6’ tall Deadwest prop in front of it all was the star of what they were seein’ onscreen. Now, we’re not insulted by any of this, so this ain’t ventin’, but it’s wild how all of our careful plannin’ for a cool lookin’ booth display yielded such unexpected reactions.
But we didn’t go in with delusions of grandeur, mind ya. No sir, we knew folks wouldn’t be clamorin’ for products of a YouTube channel they just heard of, so we marked everythin’ a $1 from our stickers to our magnets. The very first person to walk over and survey our stuff, they picked up two items of interest . . . and then kept walkin’. A neighborin’ vendor saw the whole thin’ go down, and asked us why we didn’t stop ‘em. “Because,” we said, “They obviously think our stuff’s cool ‘nough to pick up and check-out. We don’t wanna ruin that first impression with us houndin’ ‘em for two dollars like that paperboy from Better Off Dead!”
Before long, we gave up on the idea of anyone purchasin’ Screaming Soup! art and got resourceful. Friends of ours had advised us how much cons love sketch artists, so we started advertisin’ $5 sketches of whatever folks wanted. This is when the tide turned, and we suddenly found ourselves swamped with people. We drew all kinds of things from Freddy and Pinhead to folks holdin’ Gizmo or havin’ their heads crushed by Jason. We drew comic book heroes, four year olds dressed as commandos from Aliens, and even drew a whole slew of clown art for one fella. The best part ‘bout this (besides folks returnin’ with our art signed by Kane Hodder and the newest actor to play Michael Myers), is it brought people to our table, so we could tell ‘em ‘bout Screaming Soup! while we drew and showered ‘em with promotional freebies. Even better, those in line for a sketch were watchin’ Screaming Soup! on our TVs while they waited!
Another highlight for us were Mad Monster Party’s celebrity guests. We sat directly ‘cross from the master of monster suit actin’ Doug Jones, who we learned literally explores the world through his fingertips and was surprised and flattered by our positive review of the Bye-Bye Man. Mandy was most excited to meet Adrienne Barbeau to discuss General Hospital and voice actin’ tips and kept bumpin’ into Kane Hodder at every turn, wishin’ she had somethin’ worth sayin’ to him each time. We flirted with the idea of approachin’ Bruce Campbell to show off our copy of his first funny book appearance in the comic adaptation of Moon Trap, but we were entertained ‘nough seein’ him have a whole stage to himself that towered over the other celebrities, refusin’ to see anyone who wasn’t ready to pony up ‘round $50 for the thrill of a speedy interaction with handlers barkin’ at ‘em.
But the smile from Hollywood we were most excited to meet was the amazingly talented Ray Wise who we parody as the owner of the Howl-Inn Grub & Spirits. We luckily caught him between waves of fans to shake his hand with high praise for his work, and mentioned Screaming Soup! and his animated double. He was tickled by the idea we had animated him which gave us enough courage to humbly ask if he’d mind havin’ his picture taken with the Deadwest prop. He was kind ‘nough to oblige and you can see the result below! Thank ya kindly, Ray. We’ll get ya that link to the episode like ya asked soon!
One of the best surprises, though, was getting’ to meet the personalities behind ‘nother HorrorTube channel, The Horror Show. We’ve been swimmin’ in the same online circles since the Horror Addicts’ Creepy Channel Crawl in 2018, and they’re the first gang of fellow horror reviewers we ever met in person which was excitin’. Flown in to serve as the con’s official coverage, they made a special point to stop by and say hello and even discuss an upcomin’ video we could be featured in. A talented gang of horror aficionados, we look forward to collaboratin’ with them and recommend checkin’ out their site HERE.
So, there ya have it, Scream Freaks. We learned a lot, found some cool stuff, met some great folks, and can’t wait to do it again.
Other than that, be sure to catch up on all past Screaming Soup! Seasons, check out this week’s Howl’n Hottie, read recent reviews for the newer horror films and comics we’re checkin’ out in our blogs, R-Rated Reviews and Sequential Slime, and help us get the word out about the web’s #1 animated horror host show! Please use our social buttons in the upper right corner of the site and follow our tweets, subscribe to our video channels, like our Facebook, watch and share all our vids, and keep that fan mail comin’. You can also warm up some Screaming Soup! leftovers with reruns currently playin’ on Beta Max TV and Sluggo’s The Vortexx!
For all you fearmakers out there workin’ on your next scary feature, remember to shoot it our way as an entry in our Scream Freak Film Contest! Three winners will be reviewed in our 50th episode and promoted to all the Scream Freaks lookin’ for the next big thing Hollywood’s too scared to capitalize on. The deadline is open ’til we publish our 49th episode!
Screaming Soup! 