Splattertude with A. Ghastlee (in red hat)
#1
Where did you come up with your name?
I’m big on using stream
of consciousness lists, just writing down every possibility
that comes to mind and then sorting through it all later. I
wish I still had the list of names I made up back then. Can’t
remember any of them now, but I do remember trying to stay
away from being a “Doctor”, out of deference to our local
legend, Dr. Creep (Barry Hobart). I’ve always liked wordplay,
so that’s probably why I went with A. Ghastlee Ghoul. My mom
said years later that it was clever of me to choose a name
that would get me put at the top of lists and directories.
(Yeah, I didn’t have the heart to tell her I ain’t really that
clever, it just happened!)
#2
Where did you come up with your character?
He just kind of evolved. The Ghastlee Movie
Show was originally a sketch on an ensemble program called The
Underground Sideshow a bunch of fellow stand-up comics and I
created in the mid 80’s. He was a little David Letterman, a
little Count Floyd, and a lot of the hosts I grew up watching.
He started of as a parody, constantly complaining to the
nonexistent off-screen producer about the quality of the
jokes, the guests and the movie. The running joke was that he
had been pushed into doing the show until they could find
someone else to take over. Eventually most of the other guys
got real lives and so I expanded Ghastlee to take over the
Underground Sideshow timeslot. Back then the character was
dressed more “traditionally”, all in black with a slicked back
widow’s peak and a big, rotted looking rubber right hand. Over
the years as the character developed so did the look. The
glove got covered in stage blood during one shoot and really
did rot, and I never did make another one. The red jacket I
wear now was my grandfather’s. I wore it on a Christmas
episode, liked the look, and then remembered the red hat I
used to wear DJing parties in high school. The two
complimented one another really well, so I’ve had that look
since around 1999. Something about that suit brought out
another of my horror host influences, The Cool Ghoul from
Cincinnati (Dick Von Hoene). His character was completely
manic, and wearing the red suit somehow brought out that mania
in Ghastlee. None of this was a conscious decision; it just
sort of evolved that way and stuck.
#3 Going to
conventions you have met a lot of famous people, who is your
favorite?
Oh wow, that is a hard one. There are so
many fun, down to earth folks I’ve gotten to be friends with
over the years; Ted V. Mikels, Kyra Schon, Tom Sullivan, Sid
Haig, not to mention my horror host family. I really have a
blast hanging out with William Forsythe.
#4 What are your
favorite horror movies and why?
Different ones for wildly different reasons.
The original 1963 version of The Haunting because it is in the
most sublime of genres, the terror film, we never see a
“monster” per se. Creepshow is way up on the list because it
perfectly captures the style of the old EC horror comics, not
to mention the stellar cast and ultra talented people behind
the scenes. Burnt Offerings still completely creeps me out
with its claustrophobic feel of slowly sliding into madness.
The Evil Dead was, at the time, one of the most relentless
exhibitions of horror I’d ever seen, and still influences
filmmakers today. Can’t go wrong with Raimi. Sort of a
precursor to that was Equinox, a sillier, lower budget take on
a Lovecraft theme, but a dark mood I love hangs over it. House
of 1,000 Corpses takes me back to the films I used to see at
the drive-in as a kid in the early 70’s, An American Werewolf
in London is both funny and scary, and Return of the Living
Dead just makes me laugh. John Carpenter’s The Thing has that
claustrophobic, ever tightening noose of doom, and some truly
ground breaking effects. The silent film Haxan (Witchcraft
Through the Ages) has some fantastic expressionist imagery. Of
course there are the Universal classics which are, well,
classic. Some newer big budget films like Insidious are
memorable too.
#5 Who inspired you
growing up?
As far as horror hosts,
there were basically three guys I call my “Illegitimate
Stepdaddies”, Dr. Creep, The Cool Ghoul and Baron von
Wolfstein (Timothy Francis Herron). As I said, much of the
mania of Ghastlee came from The Cool Ghoul. Wolfstein had a
hip, psychedelic feel to his show combined with expansive
chromakey settings and a host who not only never broke
character, also played many different characters on his show.
Dr. Creep started off as a truly scary character, but
eventually evolved into a loveable local icon kids took to so
much that he started hosting the afternoon kiddy show
Clubhouse 22. That, oddly, ties into my original influence in
wanting to be a TV host, Captain Kangaroo. Before I ever saw a
horror host I used to hang out in my great-grandparent’s
basement and pretend I was hosting my own kids show. (Yeah, I
was THAT kid!)
#6 What kind of
advice would you give to any future horror show hosts?
Just do the show you
would want to watch, and choose a costume you won’t mind
potentially putting on over and over for a long, long time.
Oh, and have good sound and lighting. Bad sound in particular
will put an audience off no matter how good your material is.
#7 Who are your
favorite horror movie actors?
Price and Karloff should always go without
saying. Chaney Senior. A lot of my favorites aren’t strictly
horror actors. Bill Forsythe, Kurt Russell, Bill Moseley,
Karen Black. Bruce Campbell is always great in anything.
#8 What in your
opinion makes a great horror movie?
I have a very loose interpretation of what
“good or bad” means when it comes to film. If something
entertains me I call it good. There is a VERY low budget film
called The Abomination that entertains the hell out of me.
There are big budget films, a lot of them over the past few
years, which leave me flat. Suspense, tension and atmosphere
will hold my attention over flashy effects every time. Not
that I’m at all averse to splashing gore around, it just has
to be in the context of a well-told story.
#9 What was your
favorite thing to dress up as for Halloween in childhood?
I was Zorro for a couple of years when I was
young. Dressing all in black with a mask, cape and sword was
always empowering. Then I discovered monsters and would get
into my mom’s makeup and turn myself into crazy, green,
wild-eyed beasts— nothing specific, just releasing the feral
beast within.
#10 Is there any
particular monster that fascinates you?
Vampires always scared the hell out me as a
kid, but I always wanted to BE the Wolfman. Back to that inner
beast thing. Characters like Randall Flagg from The Stand or
the Governor from The Walking Dead, duplicitous fiends with a
friendly face, are extremely intriguing. I like to make the
stretch and pose the question as to whether Bill Forsythe’s
character in The Devil’s Rejects is a monster, in the sense
that “it takes a bad man to catch a bad man”, and he is a man
driven over the edge. I’m a huge fan of Lovecraft as well, and
haunted house movies like The Haunting, The Shining or Burnt
Offerings, where the house IS the monster and begins to
possess and/or manipulate those who enter.
#11 How did the
Ghastlee Movie Show get started?
I think we covered that in my long-winded
answer earlier. Lol!
#12 Who are the
other members on your show?
You know, for the first ten years it was
pretty much just me, but beginning in 1999 the cast began to
grow spontaneously. My drummer, Louu the XXXmas Devil,
becoming a regular grew out of a single appearance on a
Christmas episode and he has been a mainstay ever since. Jeff
McClellan: American was supposed to appear on one episode
where he played a right-wing extremist trying to take over the
show. One day’s worth of shooting grew into three episodes
culminating in a debate where we “agreed to disagree” and, in
real life, became best friends. Grimsburger, our “doorman who
works for raw meat” became a character on the show after I met
him at the liquor store and he asked if he could be on the
show. After inviting him to a taping it turned out he didn’t
just want to be a fan appearing on one episode, he wanted to
be a regular, so we made up his character on the spot and
haven’t been able to get rid of him since. Lol! I met my
lovely Suspira when Dr. Creep brought her on my show. He said
in his best Santa voice, “Ho! Ho! Ho! I brought you
something!” Little did he know it would really work out, and
Suspira and I have been together ever since. Suspira and I met
Mayhem Zann at a karaoke show, invited her to join our band,
and by extension she ended up being our pouty voice of Gothic
indifference on the show. A rolling stone gathers no moss, but
a snowball just keeps getting bigger all the time!
#13 Do you have any
upcoming projects in the works?
Always. I write a lot. My writing partner,
CW Prather, and I are working on an updated reissue of our
novel Underpants of the Dead, and writing its sequels. I have
a couple of short stories in the works as well, and a
screenplay. Our band, Splattertude, recently added a guitarist
and we’ve been writing and playing out regularly. Horror con
fans can catch us twice a year at Cleveland’s Cinema Wasteland
as part of my regular A. Ghastlee Nite at the Movies
shenanigans. And I just recorded a new episode of The Ghastlee
Movie show and have been editing THAT mess together! Oh, and I
make creepy doll babies that I peddle at Cinema Wasteland too.
Apparently idle hands are the devil’s workshop! As Dr. Creep
would say: “Hoo-ha-haaaah!”
Listen to
Splattertude Radio
&
VISIT A. GHASTLEE
GHOUL
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