This year I helped out with the Scare for a Cure haunted house. It was a lot of fun, and because of my stunt experience I got to be rigged up with a pneumatic device for explosively spraying blood on people, called a squib. So Squib Zombie was my name…

I was stationed outside a trailer with a chain link fence around it. When the party came through, the guides led them into the fenced off area and conveniently forgot to close the gate. Cue Squib Zombie. I charged out of the shadows, through the fence and into the trailer area. Once appropriately close, Crazy Nick would step out from behind the trailer, shoot me with a shot gun and I would spray the party with fake blood and fall flat on my back dead. Then there would be some yelling and interaction with Nick and his family and people would be ushered off by the guides. Running 40 feet and getting shot every five minutes about 55 times a night. I had a great time.

At some point in the event I realized that the process of refilling the squib was way creepier than my yelling and flying out of the darkness:

I destroyed one of my Goodwill tuxedos to serve as my costume. The idea behind that is that if a global apocalypse comes, I’m going to put on my finest clothes and go out in style. That turned out to be a great choice since now I have a beautifully blood-stained and hacked up tuxedo.Since the role involved falling on my back a lot on rocky scrappy ground, I slit open the back of the jacket and inserted some closed cell foam camp mat for safety’s sake.

This is the email I sent to the Scare for a Cure list after I worked it this year. It is a pretty good summary of the time I had:

Since it was my first time working the Scare for the Cure I figured I would write up some impressions of the haunt. In the run of the 2010 SCARE for a Cure, I:

• destroyed a tuxedo (never getting the deposit back, I guess)
• ran 40 feet and was “shot” between 50 and 60 times a night
• took a similar number of falls
• was actually shot once
• had my fingers and leg stepped on
• was kicked in the leg and ribs
• was kicked in the head twice in one night (accidents all)
• was tripped over
• was groped by under aged girls (they were harvesting blood off my jacket, honest your honor. Wait. That didn’t make it better did it.)
• was beat or prodded with a staff, a cane, a shot gun butt, and a wooden paddle
• was bitten by unknown insects between my fingers
• learned how to expertly aim fake blood fired from my nipple area
• dyed my bathtub pink
• am still bright red down the left side of my body
• painted SO MANY guests red.
• learned that pomade and dirt don’t mix well. Or maybe mix too well
• am covered in a large variety of bruises, scrapes and bumps

and most importantly:

• I had a great time
• I met awesome people
• We raised money for a great cause

Thank you all for this opportunity and especially the variety of Crazy Nicks (Nikki even), the car zombies and of course Crazy Nick’s daughters who were always scarier than I was.

Check out my photos from the Scare: http://www.nathanblackphotography.com/Events/Scare-for-a-Cure/