Funding for Working Capital is provided by the Friends of KTWU by the Friends of KTWU and Go Topeka as the crisp fall air returns are, weekend days begin to fill with all kinds of family fun.

Hay rack rides, corn mazes and pumpkin festivals dot the landscape.

But what happens in the dark As nights grow longer, another adventure awaits.

This haunting fun will have your family on the run.

What in the Haunt is going on at the Vail and beyond?

Coming up next.

Welcome back to Working Capital.

Jinxed Productions has been a scary staple of fall fun in Topeka.

Currently resurrecting its ninth season, Jinx provides devilishly good, haunting experiences that scares.

Don't stop there, though.

They are available for all your ghoulish needs and can help create hauntingly scary events for your group or organization.

Welcome to the show, Adam.

Hey, thanks for having me, Jay.

So haunting.

What skill set do we need to get into?

Haunting?

Well, you kind of have to have a twisted sense of humor, I think is actually number one.

My background, however, is in theater.

That's where I started.

I did theater for 30 years, was a set designer, resident designer, technical director, did a lot of sets and lights and sound and just always loved Halloween and the haunt, loved going to haunts.

And so those two skill sets actually kind of the building of sets and doing of the lights is a very similar skill set to what you did to build haunts.

And I loved it so much.

I was able to combine it.

And do you remember the first haunt you went to as a kid?

The first one I went to.

Believe it or not, I was scared to go through.

My mom was with me.

I don't remember who else was in the group.

They went ahead and let my family go and they took me around back.

This experience, I vividly remember because I still I try to let kids do it now because I remember this, but they let me go around back and wait for them.

And the very last room was a chainsaw guy, and the guy that was working was like, Hey, do you want to watch?

And you want to see him come around the corner?

So I peeked my head around the corner and I saw that scare.

I don't know if that's what did it, but man, I love that.

I absolutely pulled back the veil for it.

He did?

Yeah.

And you seeing that?

Yes.

I'm guessing you were probably laughing and smiling.

It was great at your family.

Yes.

Yeah, it was hilarious.

So.

So I mean, first and foremost, before we get to anything else, this this can't I mean, it's scary, but really, it can be a family event.

Absolutely.

It's for everybody.

I mean, you're definitely going to remember it.

Absolutely.

It's actually entertainment.

It's one of the things that I like as a haunter.

It would be very easy for me to go into a haunt and be like, Oh, well, that's there and that's going to jump out.

However, I enjoy them, I have a lot of fun getting scared.

I giggle, I say some bad words, but I love to let myself be scared.

So I love the entertainment value.

So as I tell all of the actors, just make sure they have a good time.

If you jump out and scare somebody and they don't jump, make a little one liner, crack a little joke.

So at least they're smiling as they leave the room.

So it's it's fun.

It's a fun family, fun, fun evening for everybody.

So nine years ago, you scientists start helping bring some hauntingly good experiences to the capital city.

Tell us about how that first start.

Well, I was actually very lucky and I fell into it.

I was working at Speaker Civic Theater at the time and had Helen Hawker as a technical director and Shannon had the idea.

My boss had the idea to go ahead and do a fundraiser and do a haunt as a fundraiser.

Well, I had no clue that that he maybe knew that I wanted to or had loved Haunt.

I don't know if that was part of it, but he was like, Yeah, let's do a haunted house.

Well, and that was all it took.

I mean, I was hooked.

We did three years of project here at Helen Hawker and I learned a lot.

We grew a lot.

And it's actually at that time I decided, Hey, you know what?

I kind of want to do this more than just, you know, once a year kind of want to have a passion for it, a love for it.

And also that's when my family got involved, and so was we started Jinx Productions as a family, really.

And you're probably probably learning along the way, especially with sizes.

I mean.

Helen Hawker Not a huge space and the old bathhouse at Gage Park.

So I mean you really had to maximize through.

Yes, it was a lot what we call a rat maze, where it's just tunnels going back and forth and you try to alternate the direction that there go.

And there is be people that would go through that.

That was 1700 square foot that I did there.

And there were people that would go through it, be like I had no clue where I was.

I mean, it's a small space, like you said, and like I had no clue.

And the twists and turns and the darkness is all a sense of general sense of direction.

And if you put the right scares in there, they don't they forget all about it.

And so, yeah, they didn't know, said they loved it and able to utilize a, you know, a small space and just make it look, you know, really big.

And they were probably in there for 50 minutes.

Some of them were, you know, so the first year starting out, I mean, how many props did you have to build as opposed to I'm grabbing this off the shelf?

We built a majority of it the first year.

That's the one thing about haunting is you could do it kind of on the cheap, as they say, and you could do a lot of DIY stuff.

And so that's what I did.

I watched a lot of YouTube, a little self-taught.

I ordered a few videos on design and I just did it and learned, you know, I learned that way.

Time for short break.

Stick around.

We'll be right back.

Let me record that again.

If I could just keep rolling.

It's time for a short break.

Stick around.

We'll be right back.

Welcome back.

We're here with Adam Jinks and the Jester.

A very, you know, very important part of the haunt.

Absolutely.

So each year, you know, past nine years, each year, I'm sure you kind of add and add and add kind of.

Let me take you through your timeline, you know, from Project Terror, through some of your other things you've done in the past.

Okay.

How did this come about?

So we did we started a project here in 2014.

We did that for three years, and that's when I decided to try to go on my own.

I actually probably put that in air quotes.

Wanted more space.

I did want more space.

I wanted to do it for myself.

And so I started Jinx Productions in 2017.

That same year, we got called to go do Haunted Wood's first year, which was out in East Topeka.

We did that, which is great fun.

It's a wonderful trail, and that's an outdoor haunt.

So that was something new and exciting for us.

Something very cold.

How were you?

Who did you still go on Rainy Night?

I mean, this is a no matter what, you're getting an experience.

Yes.

There were times obviously, we actually that first year we had two nights where we actually got rained out because of lightning and you could actually do it.

There were other nights that it had rained before and it was a little the trail was a little mushy, but we kind of did a hard pivot and got some some hay bales and, you know, spread out, trying to get some traction out there, let people know that it is a trail and it's a little slippery at times.

But yeah, we still did it, but we only got we got rained out twice on that one and we did that for a year.

And then we we also went up to Hiawatha one year.

They Hiawatha is huge on Halloween.

It's another place where I met a jester.

He and I both were doing their stuff up there, their they just the whole town goes crazy for Halloween.

That's a whole nother segment.

Yeah, but I've heard Atchison but I've never heard that.

Oh Hiawatha is ridiculous.

It's, it's so awesome.

They love it.

They really go crazy.

We went up and helped them with their trail one year and we then we started Fear Zone out at Sport Zone and that's another outdoor event.

And what was fun about that was they basically gave us a map and said, find a spot, you know, outside.

And so we got to go out and figure out where we can carve those trails and make it work.

The hardest part about outdoor is the infrastructure, the power, the air.

When you have those nomadic props and you have those electric props, all the lighting, all the sound, the moisture, all that stuff is kind of a whole nother thing you have to deal with.

But it's still a lot of fun.

We still we still came out of there just having a blast.

And in 2020.

Yeah, still not Vail call this contact us wanted to do something because COVID had Yeah kind of slowed everybody.

How do you have an event and with with Stormont Vail how do you how do you plan with COVID crown.

Right.

Well that was it was very interesting.

They had done a COVID free kind of trunk or treat.

And so what they wanted to do was add to that.

And so we did a short little trail under the the bleachers, basically in the arena, but in the back hallways and we were we did a three day event.

We kind of they said, how many people can you expect?

I said, oh, somewhere around 400, maybe 500.

We we put through 1700 people in those three nights.

And so we decided, well, we probably ought to go bigger.

No doubt, probably not a whole lot of lead up in marketing for that either.

No, we actually they didn't contact me until July.

Well, I start doing hot stuff in November and December.

That's when I usually, you know, have all of the the stuff drawn up and prepared for the next year.

I'm say a lot of people don't realize that a lot.

But really as soon as it's over, you're kind of you may take a little break but you're planning the next year already for any of these kind of events.

What is light shows or horns or.

Absolutely.

These kind of events just take.

Yeah, it's constant.

And actually, once the heart gets up and once the walls are up, I can my brain starts working on the next year because like I said, vision here and Yeah.

And other other people come up and go, Hey, what if you did this?

You know, I have a great staff and so we'll have, we'll just bounce ideas off each other from one year to the next.

And so, yeah, it's a, it's a lot of fun, that variation from year to year.

But yeah, we're, we're now at a in the exhibition hall where last year was 5000 square foot, we built literally over 304 by eight walls, panels that we can put up in any configuration now.

And it just kind of make a rat maze and and make we had what was it, 5012 rooms, something like that last year.

How many people came through last year we had we almost broke the 4000 person mark.

We were all we're almost 4000 people.

We have a few nights that it just felt like it was never ending.

How many nights where they're available?

Last year, Last year, I want to say there was like six or nine six.

I think there was six or seven performance.

You guys are I mean, you guys are dealing with a decent sized crowd here.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

And it just keeps getting bigger.

I mean, it got so big that we decided to go ahead and make the hall bigger.

You know, we trying to accommodate some of the crowd inside.

So we try that.

We try to make sure that they forget that they're have to wait in line.

Any haunted house you go to, you're going to have to wait in line.

But we try to make them forget about it.

Get some characters out front.

You go for it, you know, get a friendly greeting.

Right?

A friendly greeting.

So it's one of those things that we try to make sure that they forget about going in or the line so that when they're and all they're remembering is the haunt.

That's all so well, don't be too scared of the jester here.

Don't run away.

We'll be right back.

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Welcome back.

We're just talking about last year's hot 5000 square feet.

You like to add stuff, 7000 square feet of horns in excitement this year.

That's what we're going for.

So did you build more walls?

I mean, how are you feeling this out or did you just like, I'll just make the rooms, just make the rooms bigger?

Yes.

Actually, some little bugs are bigger.

Okay.

We've actually added some pallets instead of walls to kind of change up the feel inside.

We've we have quite a few number of rooms.

It went from 12 to like 20 this year.

And so we have we had to up our number of actors.

So there's a large, large number of actors in this one.

I'm not going to tell you how many, but there's a large that way they're not counting they that right.

They're not counting that way.

They don't know.

Yeah.

So not giving away that but each room is are they very thematic.

I mean absolutely.

So coming from a theater background, one of my biggest things and it's even in the haunt industry, it's kind of this topic, do we just throw rooms up?

You know, I'm going to scare you in this this kind of way and then scary in this kind of way?

Or do we write a story that we can then bounce you through on the way?

And being a having a theater background, I just chose the story.

I really don't have a writing background, but I love writing for the horns.

I love writing the back stories.

So I write a story every year.

Last year, our story had to do with a doctor who kind of got twisted and filled this carnival up with with electrified victims, doing a doctor experiment.

That's correct.

That's correct.

Kind of.

Dr. Moreau is kind of a serial killer, though, you know.

So sticking with the serial killer line this year, we're actually kind of going back in time.

We call it a carousel of pain.

So we're kind of experimenting with ancestral serial killing, which is kind of fun.

So, yes, this is a look back into the doctors from last year, his future, his past and what he grew up with, his grandfather and his father.

So it's it's a lot of fun to try to tie that in from last year.

But then that way, it it also helps with the immersion when you have a story because then they're immersed in the story.

You know, I don't I don't really put that story out there.

We tell that story through the show as you're going through.

It is not like you don't get a little primer while you're waiting.

A little primer, but what the actors say, the way the rooms are decorated, the way the costumes are, some of the cue line actors actually help tell that story ahead of time.

But yeah, that's that's why we decided to go that way.

I prefer it that way.

We're actually also very actor driven.

We do have pneumatic props, but I prefer an actor to be there around because you can really read a group and figure out what type of scary you need to do.

So.

So how do you, besides your own and each year and you kind of just say, I need to do this.

How do you research these?

How do you come up with new and exciting attractions?

We're very lucky in that the largest Haunted Attractions trade show takes place in Saint Louis every year.

A trade show.

A trade show.

It is a it is encouraged, really large.

I can't even tell you how many vendors they have at this place.

But you can go, you can buy everything you can.

It's a lot of cash and carry, so you can buy props, you can buy costumes, you can buy makeup, you can go to seminars.

They teach you, you know, they'll teach you about safety.

They'll teach you about basically the set design, sound design, costumes, makeup, you know, there's all kinds of stuff.

And it's the same time every year ever since 2016, I haven't missed it.

I went one year and I'm hooked.

So.

So whether you're looking at starting a haunt or just like, just like a cold, that kind of this season, it check it out.

Yeah absolutely.

Transworld trade show and how many people go to this?

Oh, 50,000.

50,000 people just for a haunting trade show?

That is correct.

It's it's it's kind of stimulation overload.

You go in and, you know, the noises you hear in a haunted house.

Well, amplify amplifies at times 50, you know, with this gigantic trade show this giant, you know, room.

And it's just there's things going on everywhere.

What's the most amazing thing you saw there?

Maybe not a fatal user in yours, but what something you're like some of the animal animatronic props they have, the pneumatic props, the air controlled.

There's a room they call the Dark Room, and they just set up a bunch of props in there.

And so they're just going and you just walk through and and there's some that are literally probably 25 foot tall and they're, you know, giant, you know, whether it's a bat or whether it's a skeleton that stands up.

And, you know, they're great.

And you and have you come in, I mean, these these companies make the make props for anywhere from home hunters all the way to people that you know, the professionals that when the West Bottoms in Kansas City or you know in Texas the big ones.

So I mean this can be a really you probably know not to become a billionaire off of this, but but there's money to be made in this kind of.

Absolutely.

There's money there.

We don't do it for that.

We don't do it.

But yeah, there's definitely I mean, just the growth that we've seen, just a nightmare, you know, But we tend to see it kind of doubles the attendance, doubles every year for the first 3 to 5 years.

Wow.

Before you plateau.

So, yeah, it's pretty awesome just to see the number of people that actually come back.

We have a father and son who actually are acting with us this year who were the first in line every year out of fear zone.

That was their goal was to be the first in line after school, after another short break, we'll take a stab at a few more questions like welcome back.

We're here with the Jester and Adam Jenks of Jinx Productions.

So speaking of the jester you spoke to, it takes a pretty big crew.

Tell us how you find these people.

Is there a lot of rollovers?

Is pretty much everyone coming back year after year because they love it as much as you do if you find the right people?

Absolutely.

One of my favorite stories now, the jester and I met at a haunt, and we've been together ever since.

We obviously have a very common bond because we both just love haunting.

He's in my queue line pretty much every year.

My other favorite story, though, is I was on a bowling league and this guy had a bowling ball with a skull in it.

And there's only so many people that would have do that.

And so I said, Hey, you don't by chance, I can't do you?

And he goes, Yeah, I used to do a haunt at my old work.

Well, he's now one of my, you know, my main guys And so, and, and he, he just stayed my partner, my business partner.

We met in high school doing theater, and I asked him to come help me a project here, and he's been with me ever since.

You know, we just love haunting.

He helps me build the props every year.

So we know last year you said probably around 4000 people.

So the core people helping you plan throughout the year.

Yeah, 5 to 10.

Tell me about your core and then let's talk about how you kind of will will ramp up when it gets closer to the actual.

Well, it's actually me and my wife do a lot of the planning together.

Luckily, we both really love it.

She's our costume designer and our makeup person, so we do a lot of brainstorming at home together.

We do a lot of horror movie watching you go, Oh, that's cool.

We should do something like that.

But then outside of that, there's probably 5 to 10.

I mean, I think that's a good number because I try to get a good number of people's ideas before I get everything put down.

But yeah, it's probably six real steady ones that really help, you know, year to year help with that design design and the setup and the setup.

Oh well I have when it comes a set of we, we actually pool the actors too so we can, you know, we'll set this thing up in a week.

Just a week.

Okay.

So we beforehand you're in there so it's not like you need a month to get everybody set up, which is different with a lot of others because they're actually there the whole year.

Yeah, we have, you know, we have to pull those down in June, kind of do a pre paint for this year, this year's theme, which we did in June.

And so then we'll put a put up the walls the week before we open, paint them, decorate and pull in all the props and do it.

And that's a crew of upwards of 20 to 30 even people that we get to come help on those.

Wow.

Yeah, it's a great crew.

They and the people, I mean, they love it.

Yeah, absolutely.

What I love is that a lot of my actors actually don't like going into haunted houses, but they love scaring people so that they like to be on the other side.

They like to be on some people here at work.

Yeah, there are some want to be one up here.

They will help haunt.

Yes, as long as we don't have clowns near them, I guess.

Or maybe they are the clowns.

Okay.

So besides just the normal, the your normal height that you're going through with the story, we're not talking about the story.

And they got to get there to see this new story.

You do have a couple special nights there, though.

Absolutely.

On game nights.

Yeah.

Well, the last year, you know, was pretty wildly done in you know, pretty widely done in the haunted industry is a blackout night.

And that's when you just shut the lights off.

All the new magic props still have their lights when they trigger.

And then we give the audience, the guests, a glow stick, which really doesn't help them.

That really just kind of tells us where it tells us where they're at.

Yeah.

And then we just kind of take the haunt with the actors and we shake it up and let them try different areas and we just let them go.

It's like just wherever you can find a corner, that's their favorite time because we just let those cue line actors enter and you just it's after a blackout night.

I have to straighten every wall.

People run into walls.

So blackout night we did last year and people loved it, So we're bringing it back again.

Please get night vision cameras by next year, right?

The Blue Rose.

Yes, absolutely.

A show out of it.

Absolutely.

Well, VIP, there is a VIP now.

It doesn't have to do a blackout night, but we do have a camera.

And part of our VIP package is you actually get to scare.

We have a camera set up in a room with a, you know, trigger that you can trigger yourself and scare people when they walk through.

If you buy the VIP package that was if you're interested in that, that's awesome.

What's the other night?

The thing the other night is what we're calling dead on the boulevard or, you know, Nightmare on the Boulevard is the.

But we're it's kind of our dead by daylight.

So we're kind of trying to pull in our Gen Z years and it's basically what kind of like a horror game.

So can you survive a horror game?

So I cut the number of actors in half.

So some rooms don't have any actors, some rooms have actors, they have strengths and weaknesses, and the whole goal is to find their weaknesses and get through without being killed.

And if you get through, you get a I survived button.

That's awesome.

Yeah.

All right.

All you zombie preppers.

I think we have the night for you there at the Haunt.

So that's all the time we have.

I like to thank Adam Jenks and the Jester for joining us tonight.

As always, if you know of any interesting businesses or business topics, we want to hear from you.

So give us a call, drop us an email or send us a letter to the next time.

And thanks for watching.

You've been watching Working Capital.

Funding for Working Capital is provided by the Friends of KTWU and Go Topeka.