I'm Nebby Nick and this is Nebbin Around Town.

Today I'm nebbin around Portals of Fear in West Mifflin.

You know, something that I've always been fascinated by is the art of scare acting.

I mean, how do you even do that?

I happen to find the perfect group of teachers, the Pittsburgh Haunters Club.

And they're going to teach me how to embrace my inner monster.

Boo!

Is that, Do you, no.

You're shaking your head.

Okay, so that's you don't say boo in scare acting.

- There's a lot of no no words.

- Okay, sure.

Why no boo?

- A lot of scare acting and haunted houses in general is misdirection.

It's making you walk into a space and believe that one thing is going to happen, and then actually something else happens.

So you're expecting the most trivial version of being scared to happen by.

If we jump out and we say, boo, you're like, oh, that's, - Expected.

- what I thought you were going to do.

But we don't do that.

It's hard to articulate what it means to be a scare actor.

It's not just, you know, walking into a set, putting on a costume and screaming at people.

There's an art form behind it.

There's a strategy.

Well, I think I'm ready to play around a little bit.

- Yeah?

- You all are my teachers.

So what's Scare Acting 101?

What can we do?

- You mentioned the word play.

It is a game.

It's always a game, you know?

And so you kind of have to think about, okay, if this is the game, where do I, where do I fit myself and my character into the game?

That I'm playing with the customer.

And so if you were a zombie, zombie has to come from somewhere.

- Right?

Usually that means another zombie bit you somewhere on your body or you got an injury or something.

Let's say your injury, you know, your zombie bite is on your left arm.

So then you want to walk.

Oh, so walk with your... - Im left-handed so that that's unfortunate for me.

[zombie noises] We'll focus on the walk first.

Everybody always wants to just like, drag that second leg behind them.

And I think it's a very it's good if it's one.

But when you have a horde of zombies that are all doing this, it's like y'all didn't all break the same ankle.

So think you have to... - This isnt Thriller.

Exactly.

Yeah.

So we said the bite on your left arm.

- Okay.

- So that's where pain was when you were a person.

But now that's where infection started.

I like the slack.

That means that your arm is dead.

Nerve endings are gone.

This arms just going to swing.

Okay.

It's not going to do too much movement on its own.

I like the reach.

The reach is cool.

It's three shuffle shamble three.

And then you can kind of, like switch to the other leg if you want, but you want to move as, like ragdoll-y as possible.

But your your eyes need to focus on where you're going.

- Okay.

- Give it a shot.

- I feel all of your eyes on me.

- We can do it together.

Yeah.

All right.

I would appreciate that.

Yeah.

All right, so let's go.

Three.

Two.

One shamble.

Good.

We'll get there.

One of the huge things about it is how do you vocalize that?

My personal favorite are very visceral, guttural, nasty sounds.

A lot of it comes from, like, alternative music vocals like to use a lot of those noises.

- Yeah.

Woah.

- Yeah, yeah yeah yeah.

- Rock on!

Stuff like that yeah.

- Woah.

- As a scare actor, the thing to keep in mind is to be be nice to your voice, you know?

- Right, yeah, because that was a lot for my throat.

- You can make a sound.

I lean right into what Spencer said.

Like, very visceral.

Like.

[zombie noises] - That's better.

Yeah, yeah yeah, yeah.

So if you can get that a little bit louder and then that turns into [zombie noises] There you go.

Now lose the smile.

- True.

Yeah.

I'm a happy zombie.

- Okay, we're scaring the camera then.

The audience.

Prepare to be scared.

All righty.

Breathe in and out.

[Zombie noises] Good, good.

We got it.

I always tell people like, you know, this is a place where you get to come and experience anxiety in a controlled way, and the threats are false.

We want you to be scared, but we also don't want to terrorize you and traumatize you.

- And getting ready for this season is just been eye opening to how hard, how much hard work goes into it, but also how that hard work turns into some of the most rewarding work I've ever done.

I've now got friends that I'm going to have for the rest of my life through it.

So definitely been a wonderful experience and a place of belonging for just a weird theater kid.

- I'm a theater kid too.

Aren't we all in our heart?

Come on.

- It has allowed me to carry myself in my daily life more confidently and hold my head higher because I have these, albeit awkward, interactions every night.

And definitely step outside.

Step outside my comfort zone.

And if I can step outside my comfort zone in here, I can do anything out in the in the world.

- I had the moves.

I had the growl.

Now it's time to look the part.

The pros had to put their best face on, literally.

- So right now I'm doing a technique called modeling where I'm putting texture back into the skin.

I personally believe, especially with zombies, that you need rotting, you need sloth, and it all comes from within.

It starts inside and makes its way out.

So I'm trying to emulate what the skin would look like if it broke down with, like, bruising and vein work and a lot of stuff.

And I'm sharp, like hollowing out all her, like, natural skeletal features to kind of, like, really give her the gaunt, sunken look.

- All right, so I think we have the perfect spot for you.

- Okay.

- To practice scaring us now that you've learned all the ins and outs.

- Yes.

So we'll have you in this room.

There's actually a spot right behind you that we're going to have you pop out from.

- Oh, heck.

Hello back there.

All right.

I don't just, like, step into it, right?

- No So all of our there's there's hidden ways to get around haunted houses for our cast.

So I'll show you right through here.

There's actually the wall does not actually act as a wall.

It's a door.

So I'm gonna have you walk back here, go to the left, and, - Awesome.

- You'll see where you go from there.

- I love a secret squirrel way.

- All right.

- Oh, wow.

Yeah.

Hello?

It's me.

- So how this works is your group is gonna walk past you and travel this way.

Orientation in the room exits from here.

Enters from there.

Wait until they are right in front of you.

Stay as quiet as you can.

Stay as hidden as possible.

And then, once they're right in front of you, let them have it.

- All right.

Thank you.

- Ready to give it a shot?

- Lets go!

- All right.

Good luck.

- Thank you.

I'm a customer at a haunted house.

Oh, oh, whats on there?

[Nick zombie noises] [Nick zombie noises] I think I did it, guys.

Good job.

Thank you.