Dawn of UNLV’s Dead

October 29, 2009 by Grace Funcion 

UNLV students share their ghouliest scare tactics

What do Johnny Mathis, Will Smith and Glen Campbell have in common? Well, apart from being musicians, the three are also the main stars in Madame Tussauds’ “Scare!” attraction.

At least their wax counterparts are.

Madame Tussauds, the Venetian’s version of the famous London museum, offers several chambers of celebrities, musicians and famous athletes. Even Mayor Oscar Goodman has his own wax re-creation.

The story behind the museum is a gloomy one: Marie Grosholtz, more famously known as Madame Tussaud, didn’t live a life filled with cheery wax creations. While Grosholtz lived in Versailles, she was suspected of being a Royalist and was forced to make death masks from the severed heads of guillotine victims. These heads included figures from the French Revolution like King Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette and Maximilien Robespierre.

But within the depths of Madame Tussauds’ museum, after ogling Jenna Jameson or sharing artificial nuptials with George Clooney, there lies an optional part of the museum that mixes wax, zombie-fied prisoners and dark corners.

“Scare!” has three rules: One, you may only enter in a single file line. Two, no photos. And three, no touching (or punching) the people inside. Inside the mock prison, screams echo down narrow passageways. Traveling through becomes a game. Who’s real? Who’s fake?

The sound effects and darkness manipulate senses into believing there are several people trapped in the prison. Large figures loom overhead, but if your gaze lingers too long, another prisoner dashes behind you.

This prisoner might be Jeremy Knowles, 21, a junior in entertainment engineering, or Ariana Miner, 23, a psychology major.

Together with a troupe of other actors, they make up the jumpsuit wearing, blood-gushing undead prisoners of “Scare!”

But it takes more than fake, mint-flavored blood to frighten people.

“I auditioned around senior year of high school,” said Knowles, who attended the Las Vegas Academy for theatre.
“You do have to audition to get in,” Miner said. “You can do anything. I had to do a monologue.”

Other audition material includes improvisation, both verbal and physical.
“There’s a lot of running,” Knowles explained.

“It’s harder for girls [to scream],” Miner added. “Girls have to be shrill to be scary.”
A job in scaring people has other drawbacks.

“Oh, there are job injuries,” the cast informed. “We had this guy who was punched in the neck and kneed in the stomach when he tried scaring this guy.”

Such behavior can get a guest unceremoniously kicked out of Madame Tussauds entirely.

“We used to have [set] characters,” Knowles said. “Now, we have to remember more to be safe [because] we can go overboard. We have to remember it’s a big corporate environment. We can’t even do freeze scares outside because people freak out.”

This job also requires a mentality of a different kind.
“Because you’re in the dark a lot, it can get depressing,” Knowles said. The cast mentions an incident with one actor cursing and quitting on the spot.

But this mindset is scarce. The cast is mostly jocular and that mentality is obvious backstage where the actors “screw around” and touch up their make-up between screams and slams.

“It takes a while getting used to [the make-up]. But when I wear too much on my lips, I just kiss Rob,” joked Knowles of his method of sharing make-up with his co-worker, Rob Watts, another aspiring actor in “Scare!”

Stories of frightened guests projectile vomiting, men screaming effeminately and the surprising speed of obese people make for comical recounts of their experiences.

“We had this guy s— his pants,” Knowles admitted.

Behind the “Staff Only” sign is a backstage look into the world of haunted house actors. Fake blood is stored by the pint and horror movie posters inspire and set the mood. Everything is black and it’s hard to tell what’s really dirty and what’s made to look dirty. The same is true for the ghostly hallways themselves.

The staff room leads directly into the heart of the maze, where Johnny Mathis, Will Smith, Kenny Rogers and Glen Campbell await. Chains, door slamming, screams and roars are all triggered by air sensors and cues.

These retired wax figures have either been so badly beat up, and in some cases, broken that they are forced into more grueling, unfamiliar props for “Scare!” Will Smith’s arms are hidden under a grimy jumpsuit. Kenny Rogers’ eyeballs are painted a bone-chilling white. These faces become bloodied, scarred and set in areas around the attraction.

But to the cast, it’s just another job.

“I’ve met a lot of actors, so it’s good for connections,” Knowles said of his role in the Neon Venus Art Theatre’s “Feed the Monkey” sketch comedy show, where his “Scare!” coworkers led him.

It may take a toll physically on the actors, but they appreciate when groups react to their efforts.

So this Halloween, while you shriek and run into ‘Scare!’’s dark corners, feel grateful it’s professionals like Miner or Knowles chasing you and not an actual psychopath.