We’re Gonna Need a Bigger Show: Returning to Amity with John Campopiano

Hi. Smith the Hale from Corners podcast here. I'm sorry. I'm so nervous. John, hi. Wow. Thank you so much for doing the show. You are literally the biggest celebrity we've ever had. I mean length above anyone else. I'm sorry. I'm I'm really excited. Oh Bruce, call you Bruce. Right, because Field Mark named you Bruce after his lawyer. Because you're a shark. I get it. Like I'm not the only comedian. That's great. What's that? Oh, oh, Greg Nicotero from The Walking Dead fixed you up and brought you here? Oh my gosh. We love you, Greg Nicotero. Did you guys know that Bruce here actually sank the orca a couple times while filming? Yeah, that's so badass. Even though you know Bruce, I don't know if you know this, but orca are actually the Apex Predator of the Ocean. Well, I'm sorry. I'll shut the fuck up. I'm wrong. You're right. Um what's that, buddy? Oh, a couple of filming problems we had. Yeah, you had some buoyancy issues, issues with salt water. Yeah. Same. Girl, I get it. Um, Bruce, it's been a real honor. Probably the biggest of my life. I would say maybe 20 creative honors.

25. Three tons of.

Um, thank you so much. This is uh very exciting. Check out the Foreign Arts podcast, and we're gonna be talking about how much we fucking love sharks.

Welcome to Holmer Z, The Podcast.

The very first film that I fell in love with was the very first summer blockbuster called Joss. My buddy and I grew up thinking we were the greatest, greatest Jaws fans going. And then all of a sudden, one day, a lovely gentleman named John came into my life, and I was first introduced to him as an ultra-ego called the Great Yeti of Boston and New England. But here's a tease. John is one of the most accomplished directors, producers that folks in horror respect beyond belief. And if you saw the movie, the documentary, It, the story of Pennywise, that is my friend John here. And John not only knows it, but John knows Jaws. So much so, in fact, he's one of the foremost experts on the film Jaws and about Martha's Vineyard and how their community helped contribute to that film. So without further ado, I would like to introduce you all to my friend John Campa Piano. How are you, my friend?

I'm good. I'm good. Thank you for having me, guys. I appreciate it.

Not worthy of that welcome, but you are because uh, you know, I've been trying to get you on this thing for a while. Worth the weight.

Worth the weight, 100%.

So, John, we're both dads, we're both putting our kids to sleep. We finally had a chance to talk. And 2025 is a pretty significant year, especially for what I would consider the greatest film of all time, Jaws. And I know, I know. I am making that claim because I believe it is a hundred percent true, and I will go to my grave making that argument until John or one of us make the next great film. So, John, let's go back in time because you and I, our social media feeds are very similar when it comes to nostalgia. Our childhoods truly influenced our trajectory. Tell me about the first time Jaws came on your radar.

I don't really remember when I started watching it, but the thing I do remember the most is when I was probably seven or eight, going back into the video store, renting Jaws, Jaws 2, Jaws 3. And I remember the guy behind the counter saying to my parents, you know, you'd save a lot of money if you just bought these movies for him. Because like they didn't know. They were renting it every week. So Jaws has been omnipresent kind of in my world, you know. So I don't I don't have like a touchstone moment when I first saw it. We have the video store to thank for that. I love Jaws 3. I think Jaws 3 was the first Jaws film I ever saw, and I don't know that that's true, but I have a visceral memory of seeing it on TBS. And it would always play the theater.

No way. In 3D.

No, not in 3D, I wish. Oh, not in 3D, but I just remember seeing it. And then years later, when I got to meet Joe Alves and kind of get to know Joe, who directed Jaws 3, production designer on the first two Jaws films, I remember him saying he has now said it, I think a lot, but that that scene of McCorkindale inside the shark's mouth, and you got the POV of looking out. He wanted he wanted to do that for the first Jaws film. And they were like, You're insane, we we can't pull this off. So by the time he got to direct a film, that he was like, I'm doing that shot of the guy getting chomped, and every time the the teeth come down, there's a little bit more flesh and blood that escape. And so that was like Joe's moment of like, I'm finally doing this um kill anyway. Jaws first.

Joe Wells is the unsung hero of all of that of part one, part two or what as well, right? Yeah, oh yeah. Yeah, and part three was incredibly underrated because I think Imagine if the Quint kill happened and they used that POV.

I mean, it's hard to say now. I mean, it's perfect the way it is, but I think like yeah, hindsight's 2020, I guess. But Joe's amazing. I mean, he's worked with John Carpenter, he's done all the production design of epic films. I mean, he's he's a legend and just turned, I think, 90. We just saw him on the vineyard.

He's he's 90 now?

Close to it, yeah.

If not, I didn't look a bit of it.

Yeah. Well he does yoga, so do yoga kids.

That'll do it. That'll do it. So, John, when did the real presence of Jaws increase in your life and bring you into wanting to explore more about it? I mean, it it's right in our backyard. If for folks that don't know, John's in New England as well. I'm in Massachusetts. You're on Rhode Island, right?

Yeah, Providence, yeah.

Yeah, so we're all very close to Amity, so to speak, Martha's Vanyard. So tell me what really put that wind behind your sails to uh like Johnny and I live next to Universal Studios.

Does that count? We live next to that amity island.

Where are you guys? You're in LA. Oh, hell yeah, cool. Um well, I think just I started going to the vineyard when I was a kid, mid-90s, and I just wanted to see where the movie was shot, you know. Like I I think I had an interest in filming locations and stuff, and you know, there's nothing quite like sort of stepping into a scene that you've watched on film over and over and over again. And the vineyard, Martha's vineyard is special in that way because it's largely unchanged, and it's not a place that you just stumble into. You've got to take a boat, like it's a pain in the ass to get there. You've got to have like an intention, like you want to go there. So I wanted to go, and my parents took me and and we rented like this like really kind of shady looking van that had no windows, and this guy was like, I'll show you the Jaws locations. And my dad was like, Great. And we drove around the island, and uh that was like the first taste I got. And then um in 2005, they did the first Jaws Fest. This was like the first big Jaws event that the Chamber of Commerce put on. It was like an official thing, and I didn't know anybody in the Jaws community, so I went with a girlfriend at the time and I went to like one of those kiosks in the mall that like will put anything you want on a t-shirt or a hat, you know, for for 20 bucks. And so I had this picture of my Jaws collection at the time, and he put it on this t-shirt, this white t-shirt, and I wore that all weekend. And I really don't know or don't remember like what my intention was. I think I just was like, well, this is how people will just like I can break the ice this way because I'm just like really awkward, and I won't just like meet people on my own. So, like, look, I have this stuff. And anyway, so like that led to a lot of introductions to people, and a lot of those people have become lifelong friends, and um, and yeah, so that that was like the start of meeting the Jaws community people and then getting tapped into what was jawsmovie.com at the time and like you know, chat rooms and forums back in the early 2000s, and um, a lot of those people have are still dear friends, you know, today, like Jim Bellor, who I know you know, Tony, and other, you know, so um yeah, it was a cool I'm glad I did it in hindsight because it opened the door to to meeting other people. And yeah, so I don't know. That's how it started, and now it's just been, you know.

I'm hard pressed to find another area that embraces it that much. I mean, they named their minor league baseball team the Sharks, right?

You wouldn't understand whatever, fine. I'll just play on my phone then.

TikTok it is. So I do have my own website, the magicoilbox.com.

The magic oil box? Sounds interesting. The magicoilbox.com. Oh my god. They have my chemical romance themed items? Three cheers for sweet patchouli hand sanitizer for grounding inner peace and heartworm thing. Add to cart. Ooh, the I don't clove you rollerblade? Huh. Clever. For letting go, boundary setting, bold transformation, because not every flame deserves to be rekindled. Should I send this to my ex who keeps texting me? Add to cart. The Lavender Parade Shower Steamer. Cool. For rest, emotional restoration, soft resilience. Add to cart. Oh, there's a coupon code for horror nerds listeners. S-L-A-Y-N-E-R-D-S 15. Slay nerds 15 for 15% off. Cool. Now mom and dad definitely won't be mad at me. Check out Would you turn that off? Shop the ghoul's day out collection from the magic oil box. Because it's not a phase.

Yeah, no, it's true. Now they do. I mean, when I was a kid going to the vineyard, they didn't you didn't see any Jaws stuff. I think that there was I think there was a period of time where there was, even if it was a subconscious thing, there was like a rejection to the notoriety of Jaws. And I think like it's the vineyard's history is so interesting because I mean, you know, it was by when Jaws showed up in 74, it was like one of the poorest counties in Massachusetts. And now it's like it's known as like the the vacation hub of presidents, and it's, you know, but it was not that back in the 60s and the 70s, and before that, forget about it. Whalers and fishermen. I mean, it was so then the the Kennedy accident happened on Chappaquitic, right? Ted Kennedy, you know, and that put Martha's Vineyard on the map in a different way. And then Jaws showed up, and then Clinton showed up, and the Obamas showed up. So it has gone through this evolution. So now they seem to have embraced Jaws, where you get off the boat and there's Jaws t-shirts everywhere. I would have killed for that shit when I was a kid. Like there was none of that when I was a kid. So yeah, it's I think like any tourist community, there's like a love-hate where it's like, wow, the people coming here maybe feed us, you know, for most of the year in three months, but also you clog our traffic. We can't get into a restaurant, the grocery stores are jammed, we you know, so um yeah, you know, the vineyard's funny in that way.

But yeah, like Salem, I would imagine is very similar.

Totally. Yeah, totally. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And in even a smaller amount of time for Salem, it's like September and October.

Yeah.

At least the vineyard you've got like May to September. Right. But yeah, Salem, it's like cram it into like seven weeks, eight weeks, and um but it's good for the community and I don't know.

Yeah, embrace it. Why not? I mean, my goodness. Yeah. It's almost weird. It's like a new wave of tourism and a new activity for horror fans. I don't know if it's like maybe in the past 20 years or so that it's been like, hey, let's go to the locations. This is the greatest idea ever. Totally. I don't know if it's a newer concept, but and maybe it's with the internet with YouTube and whatnot. I mean, you can Google anything and find out the the actual address and just go there.

Totally. Yeah. Yeah.

Unless it's the nightmare on Elm Street House. Don't go there. The guy's a douche.

Yeah, I've seen anymore. Yeah. And breaking bad.

Maybe if you like breaking bad, maybe avoid uh don't throw pizza on the roof. Yeah.

Yeah. But no, I think you're right. I think like it's, you know, I think filming location stuff has helped. And it it doesn't hurt when it's a beloved film that transcends language and culture. And it's also a really beautiful place to visit anyway, that has like a built-in, robust tourist industry ready for you to get off the boat and be taken care of. So it's a perfect storm in that way, I think.

But right, right. I wonder if people ever show up like, oh, hey, well, where are the sharks? Do we see parking out? It wouldn't be so bright.

There's plenty of them over there.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Well I love about the original Jaws is like who's really the shark? Is it the town people? Is it the mayor? Who's the who is the real one here? And I know we can get into another episode about the book versus the film. But I think Murray Hamilton in that played a perfect, perfect sketch mare.

100%, 100%. And actually one of my favorite jokes that works pretty well uh is just commenting on the fact that so Murray Hamilton is, of course, the mare in Jaws who doesn't believe there's a shark in the water, and in Amityville horror, he's the priest who doesn't believe the house is possessed. So he's like that guy. No, no, we're good, we're fine, carry on. That guy.

Then to both of those locations.

Oh gosh, I would love to see the Amity Bill Hammer.

And then he gets and then he gets voted back in office for Jaws too. And I'm not making any connections. I'm just saying.

We all know exactly what you mean.

I'm I'm unbiased. I work for PBS. I'm just pointing it out.

Foreshadowing, so to speak. Nice. It took about 50 years, but Bonnie, when you first got into Jaws, what got you into this realm?

Uh I think it was just exposure therapy from my parents. They I don't think my parents really had a sense of like, she's not old enough for this yet. If it was on, I was just watching it. But Jaws, I don't think, scared me as much as you might have tried a hundred platforms, each with hidden costs, plugins, multiple logins. But now there's Beamly. Drag and drop website, podcast hosting, online courses, memberships, digital products, and 0% platform fees. All your tools in one crypt. Uh, please. Head to beamly.com and raise your creator studio from the dead. In the best way. So exposure therapy from my parents, just having that on. Uh, my dad was a big horror guy, my mom not as much. Uh, so my sister and I, we love horror because of our dad. Uh, but also those like fruit snacks from the 90s, you know, those like shark fruit snacks.

Well, yeah, totally.

Fruit snacks.

Well, yeah, totally.

Look, ask a fat kid. We remember those. Like those.

Blue and white ones. They were blue and white.

Mm-hmm.

Hell yeah. No, I know what you mean. Yeah.

Yeah. Those were like, oh, they can't be that scary because like these fruit snacks are really good. So that's kind of where I was at with that. But I have an invitation to go eventually. Fingers crossed, Martha's Vineyard. Uh, some friends have property out there, and I can't wait to go.

Nice. Yeah. That's good property to have. I find that. Hang on to those friends.

Yeah. Well, you know, if I don't bungle this relationship, I'll go.

Hybrid. Cool. I love Mako sharps, you guys. I would love to see a Mako.

When was your first professional trip to the Vineyard for Jaws work?

Uh 2016. Tell me about that.

How'd that trip go?

Well, we this project that became The Farmer and the Sharks started as something different. We wanted to do like a multi-part docudrama series about the making of Jaws. And so we had always had an interest in looking at the local impact on the production. So, like the Jaws production showed up from Hollywood in 74, and they quickly realized that they were not equipped to deal with tides, boats, uh local politics, uh, Boston selectmen, vineyard selectmen, the Teamsters from Boston. So it took like a huge effort from the locals to step up and help save that production that was over budget and you know, everything everybody already knows about it. So the idea was to tell that story. Um, so we went, my our team went and started filming interviews like around 2016-2017. Um so that was the first time we went over like with cameras and had a mission. It wasn't just like I'm gonna go lay face down on the beach and enjoy myself. This was like we're working. Um, so yeah, right around then.

So first of all, A, jealous as hell, would have loved to be that. There's a story behind the story always, isn't there?

Especially with Jaws, nothing's ever easy. You sign it, you know what you're signing up for.

It's not gonna be Well, if you're teasing us with that, you know, that's a story.

There's a complicated history just in that, like, you know, the the project evolved, it stopped, it went forward. We had a producer that passed away unexpectedly, which was really tragic. Um, it it's just been a slog. And so the vision has changed over time based on what we could do, based on finances, and you know, you name it. Then COVID happened, right? So, like three years after we started, then everything kind of happened with COVID. So it's the the North Star was always the 50th, right? The moment we're living now, because we knew that the 51st anniversary of Jaws was not going to be as sexy sounding. No one would give a shit at that point. So the the North Star was always like hitting this anniversary. So it's been hard with a clock ticking over your shoulder of like this, we gotta do it for the summer. Um, so it's just been hard. But it's also, you know, it's also you we've talked about this before, Tony. It's like day jobs, families, you know, indie filmmaking is always like you know, my co-producer likes to remind me that time and money is not infinite. So you just have to do it, and it's gonna be what it's gonna be. And there's a lot of favors, there's a lot of your own money spent. You know, it's not glamorous in any way.

Indie filmmaking I like to call the crowbar work because you're either using the crowbar to get more time to wiggle it in, or you're using a crowbar to break into a vault to get more money. That's the way I look at independent. Yeah, yeah.

It's and documentaries, especially, it's a labor of love. It's it's love. You have to love it or you're gonna cry a lot. Did you ever find that there were people you were interviewing that you were hoping to get one story from and they just went off the rails and you had to kind of work the moment?

Definitely. Yeah, I think with unscripted film work like documentaries, it's hard because like you fall in love with a subject and you kind of even with the best of intentions, you kind of create the narrative in your head of where you kind of hope the story goes. But then you go interview people. Like I've always said that I feel like documentary interviews are like it's like archaeology, like you gotta the story is in there, you just sort of need to find it. What you want it to be is sort of irrelevant. You if you're gonna be true to it, you need to sort of just let it be. And so in the early stages when we we were working on this other project that is what this became, um, you know, we shot like 35-40 interviews before the project kind of fell apart and evolved. So then it became like square peg round hole of like, well, we've got all these interviews. How do we make it work with this new direction that we can get into if you guys want? But like it's always been kind of a challenge of how do we just sort of finesse it into something that is coherent and cohesive.

Hey Sam, what are you doing on uh April 25th? Oh, I will be going to the sugar and moon market at the lodge in Sierra Madre.

Wow, that's oddly specific. But actually sounds like a lot of fun. What are you doing there?

Okay, so I'm gonna be picking up some sage butter from our friend and sponsor, the mountain crone.

Oh, that sounds awesome. Can I come with?

Yada. I already got you a ticket, B. Sweet!

Well, that's kind of spooky. You read my mind. Oh, that's funny. I'm actually gonna see her at Matlow Brewery Company. Whew. Try saying that five times fast. On May 9th to pick up some restock lip balms. Because with all this talking we do, my lips are gonna look like the Cryptkeepers if I don't hydrate them.

I like the Cripkeepers lips. Um, hey, can you pick me up on the way over? Yeah, sure. I'll go grab my keys.

So we're kind of on the other side of it now, thankfully. So it's it's it's more fun to be talking to you guys now than it would have been like 14 months ago. But yeah, it's uh it's been a challenge. But I think we've got a great team. It's taken a village, and um yeah, we're just happy to be kind of at this point where we're I can't wait.

I can't wait to see this. I I literally feel like I've been just like watching this journey of yours through making this film and all the roadblocks, this the the joy, the the tragedies, and just seeing it to come to fruition is just so as a fan of John and a friend of John, I am so happy we're at this moment right now.

Well, thanks, man. Most of our post production is happening in the UK. I mean, there it's a literal army of people that have stepped up to make this happen. Yeah. It's been wild.

Um I remember when you were holding Quint's rifle.

Wow.

And back when you were doing interviews years ago. You had did did you have Quint's rifle? Did you have the Harpoon gun as well? Is if I'm not sure. The harpoon gun, yeah.

Yeah.

The actual one.

Yeah. Goodness.

Now I'm peanut butter and jealous. That's awesome.

There's a lot of props still out there. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, I mean, we're Bonnie and I are very lucky that we're here next to the Academy Museum. I did a conversation with Bruce, right? Just talk to Bruce. Like he's our other celebrity guest. You and Bruce are gonna be.

Is this the one Greg Nicotero redid that's hanging?

Yeah. Oh God, he looks beautiful. Nicotero knocked it out of the park. He did. Yeah. And it's really cool because it's just, you know, it's hanging from the ceiling and it's right next to an escalator. So you can get right up pretty close to it. I like if I could have put my head in it, I would have. I was that close. Um, but it's just really incredible to see it in person. And, you know, I know it's been there for a little bit, and then and there were other people walking around, like, I'm gonna go to the Toy Story exhibit. I'm like, screw you. I am staying here with Bruce, and I'm only here for Bruce. And actually, like when I went to buy my ticket, I had called earlier just to ask about like what the hours were. And she's like, Were you the one that called about Bruce? I'm like, Can you tell that I'm nerding out? She's like, Yes, I can. And then she gave me an incredible discount. And it was so great. It was really, I felt like a little kid, just like, oh, I really felt like I was seeing a celebrity. I really legit felt like I was meeting a big star. It was a big deal.

I get it. Like if you had a shack or shark tattoo, then you should get free admission.

Well, she looked at me and she's like, You look scholarly. So she gave me some sort of like college professor discount or something. I said, I am a scholar of horror. Thank you, ma'am. And uh she was like You're a horror nerd. Uh, exactly. Yes.

I mean, on brand, 24-7. Yeah. How many how many other movies did Jaws open the door for? I mean, and no pun intended, but I think Hollywood smelt blood in the water after Jaws came out.

Yeah. Oh, a hundred percent.

Of course. Yeah.

Yeah. What other John, what other shark films do you enjoy?

Well, I mean, I think I like a lot of eco horror, so not necessarily shark, but I like Piranha, Joe Dante's and went. Yes. Which I think Spielberg has, I think, gone on record as saying that he loves.

Nice.

I mean, Orca the Killer Whale, 1977.

Yeah.

Beautiful film shot in Newfoundland, Canada. I mean, I love that film. I I went to my buddy Zach's house when I was a kid. It was like my first sleepover, and his dad had HBO, so he watched Alligator, which is rad. It like eats people and busts out of the sewer. The premise is basically like this little kid, his parents make him flush a little baby alligator down the toilet. Fast forward 10 years, it's it's subsisted on sewage. It's now a monster, and then it just wreaks havoc in the cities. And there's a great wedding scene at the end, which I'm sure you remember too. I mean, it's it's popcorn cheese, it's great. There's so many ripoffs of Jaws that are fun if you can just enjoy them for what they are. There's no other Jaws, but yeah, we could talk all night about this.

Yeah. Jaws wasn't camp, it was pure like hell. Yeah. So I almost I feel like a lot of camp horror animal films kind of were inspired by it, maybe a little bit. Like Lake Placid, can we give that a nod? I love Lake Placid. Betty White? My goodness, Betty White is an icon in this.

Lake Placid's great. I remember when they started teasing Deep Blue Sea when we were kids. Oh, I love seeing some of those teaser images of like the scuba diver and the shark, like I was like, whoa, like that. Yeah, I was so hyped for that as a kid.

Yeah, definitely.

John, you know, not only do we deal with, you know, offshoots of Jaws with, you know, sharks and things of that nature, Orca too, we kind of put into that same group. But there's a lot of films during that era. I don't think, you know, in 2025, if you haven't been a historian of film, film in the 60s and 70s, there's so many films that were created that are just lost to time because they weren't transferred, or because something happened. There's so many great films that are just sitting in someone's garage just waiting to be found. And there was another one in New England that John had heard about, and I didn't even know about this one. John, what was the movie Snapper about? Because you've done a lot of work on uncovering this whole film. So tell us a little bit about it.

Well, Snapper was an attempt to make a movie that was never made. So I I know these guys in Worcester, Massachusetts, who are still making films. They're in their 60s now. These guys were film school buddies back in the day. And um, they tried to make jaws in a pond with a snapping turtle. So their idea was we're gonna we're gonna put this thing on a credit card, we're gonna shoot it on 16 millimeter, we're gonna build an animatronic turtle. And their idea was let's make a trailer to then try to sell as a concept to get the whole thing made. And I mean, they they lit a guy on fire and threw him off a building. I mean, they went for it, and then the project fell apart. So I was talking to one of the guys and before I even knew about this, and he said, Well, you know, we uh we were talking about Jaws, obviously, probably. And he said, Well, we tried to make a Jaws movie about a snapping turtle, and I was like, Oh, that's kind of cool. And then I kind of forgot about it for a week, and then he started texting me photos of the production, and they were like in a real pond with like a real turtle head and like fake blood, and I was like, Wow, that looks really cool, man. And he's like, Yeah, you know, I still have all the the reels and all the stuff, and I was like, huh. So just I don't know, the idea hit me of like, why don't we try to make a short documentary about this movie that they tried to make that never went anywhere? And I thought there could be value in there because a lot of us tried to make movies when we were kids that were just like for fun. And um, so I didn't really know what I was doing with the story, but we just jumped into it and it the story became more about like these two guys and their perseverance of trying to make movies and write scripts, and they're still doing it today. And anyway, it turned into this little short doc that we did that was about 30 minutes long called Snapper, the Man Eating Turtle movie that never got made. And it played festivals and we just it's streaming and it's blah, blah, blah. But um, that kind of turned me on to this idea of like lost films or unmade films. Because obviously, like the number of films that make it to market that we all consume is a fraction of what gets made or attempts to get made. I mean, there was a Romero film, right? A couple of years ago that they found that was a lost movie. So I mean, there's just there's so much kind of cool, untapped stuff out in the world. And I don't know. I resonated with those dudes of just like trying to make shit and like just throw your credit card at it and let's just see what happens. There was something relatable. So 100%.

Yeah. 100%. You just you get so committed. It's like another child, like you know, from parent to parent, it's like a kid for a uh a parent of fur babies. It's like when you get involved in that process, that becomes you. And it's a passion that not everybody has, but my God, when we all meet each other and we can relate and talk to it, oh, that's the best conversations on the planet. And you will always find out something new. And the fact that I have the VHS of Snapper, thanks to John. I I love it. That was a great, great job in making a VHS batch of that film. It's perfectly appropriate for it. So on the nostalgia train, yeah, that really hit and checked all the boxes for me. But, you know, John, we talk about all the films that you've worked on. I mean, we need to do a whole separate episode on It and Pennywise because last year John rolled into Silver Scream Con with all of his it um props and costumes from the Tim Curry film, and people were stopping by his booth nonstop and talking. And that's the best part about John. He is plug your ears, John. He is gonna say, I'm gonna leave in a moment. He's the nicest person I've ever met in my life. And I remember when I was filming the spectacular doc running around rock and shock. He saw me with the camera running around, and he's like, Do you need help? Can I help in any way? What can I help with? Like, that's just who he is. And that's a lot honestly what New England is like. It's like, how can we help each other with our filmmaking endeavors? We're all very supportive up here because and you know, it's no knock on Hollywood. Holly's Hollywood's a well-oiled machine, but there's so many tales from the history we have up here that just didn't get the funding or like this the struggles with Snapper, things like that. It's like we can get into how Friday the 13th was made. They were lucky in making Sean Cunningham was literally using Boston investors for that. It was either fund the film or fund a strip Mallin Weymouth. That's what it was. But yeah, New England has lots of roots in horror, in monster film, you name it. And I'm probably omitting a thousand of them, but uh John I think.

Well, I mean, having Steve King here helps, you know. Having having King here helps, it's always helped. You know, we're Steven King Country.

Definitely and that for me, by the way, that was my first ever horror film, was it. I was eight. And it gave me such brutal nightmares. I was so fucking terrified for so long. I mean, I literally I mean, I don't know if you guys remember like m like nightmares that you have had as a kid, but probably one of the worst nightmares I've ever had that I still remember vividly to this day was recently after when I was eight after watching that movie, I had a dream that Pennyways was chasing me through a target. Like, and I woke up screaming. So I mean, I was like fascinated and terrified at the same time. Had many, many nightmares. I would basically I would space it out. I would wait like a year. Okay, I'm a big girl shit again. It killed me again. And then I would wait another year. I would try again, still night terrors, but they would like get I would, you know, okay, let me try in six months. Okay, let me try in two months. And I think the I mean, I was so afraid of it that my dad for some reason had a white glove just laying around the house. I don't know. I was convinced that Tim Curry was gonna just morph into this glove and it was gonna come. I made him burn it in the fireplace. I was so scared. And then I remember living up north for a year and my backyard was like a creek, and I wouldn't do the dishes. And it wasn't because I didn't want to do the dishes, it was because it was pitch black into like the woods. I'm like, he's out there. I'm I can't look. If I look out this window, he's gonna appear. So I always got in trouble for not doing dishes. And then when I got to fifth grade, I think, I watched it again. And because I had so much pent-up fear and rage and everything, the last time I watched, I was like, fuck you, you fucking clown, I'll fuck you up. I started screaming at the TV, and I think I got all of that out. And now I feel like me and Panny Weiser like BFS. Now I love it. I can watch it all the time. But it really put me through it as a kid. That was that was my movie that put me through it.

Yeah. Well, I mean, that scene for me, that scene in the bathroom with the blood in the sink, like that freaked me out so badly. And to make it worse, it was my mom doing the Pennywise voice outside of the bathroom when I was in there after watching that movie. I know. Normally she wasn't mean like that, but that time, like I will never forget that and being so scared and being like, that's not funny. I think I was like 10 or something. It was mean. I still remember that.

The troll is strong in your family.

Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

There's a lot of people. But now that we're now that we're older, we're like, all right, dad, dad, that was pretty funny. That was good job, mom. Yeah, yeah. Give it 20 years. It's funny. But at the time, no, it wasn't at the time. Definitely not at the time. Nothing else got me. It was just the beauty of Tim Curry being as brilliant as Tim Curry is. Like, my goodness. Yeah.

Well, it's it's crazy that you say that because I have one of his screen news pennywise suits like five feet behind me hanging up.

Uh, you won't go get it, or like I do.

If I can figure out how to unblur my background, hold on.

How exciting.

He comes bearing gifts.

Oh my god. What the hell? Oh my god.

There it is.

Oh my god. Tim Curry's DNA is in there.

Yeah.

There it is.

That's it.

Oh yeah. Oh, those fucked me up. Those little ruffles were terrifying for some reason. I don't know. It just made it creepier. Like, why does the killer have ruffles?

We are going to have to do we are going to have to do an it pennywise episode and have you on for that, John.

Oh yeah. Oh, a thousand percent.

It would be criminal if we didn't invite you on.

Criminal. Wow. And how did that come into your possession?

Um, so when we were filming the doc about the miniseries, we were up in Vancouver and um we interviewed Monique, who was the costume designer, and she knew that I was like rabid for the miniseries. I had a similar experience as you, Samantha, like growing up with it, and it was just like it touched a nerve. Yeah. And she was like starting to retire at that time. This was 2017, and and she brought it to the interview to film for us to film. And she said, you know, it's been in my costume archives for 30 years at that point. And before she left, she's like, I want you to have it. And so she gave it to me.

Did you cry? I would have cried.

Kind of.

Oh.

And then like going through customs from Canada, coming back to the States was really funny. Because I one of the guys asked me something like, What's and I was like, Oh, it's a clown suit. And then I think it was just sort of like, get the fuck out of here. Like, this is insane.

They were like, listen, John Queen Gay, say, what are you doing?

Yeah, like wear it through customs.

I didn't wear it, no, but I had it packed in my carry-on because I was not checking that bag. Hell no.

Oh no.

But they were like, What what is what is this? I was like, Don't worry about it.

I would have bought like bought like a plane ticket for it. It would have its own seats. It would be in first class, it would have a cocktail.

Yeah, right, exactly.

Whatever it wants. Thank you. Um, wow, that's amazing.

All right, John. Thank you. Have a love to the family.

Thank you, dude. Yeah, likewise. Thanks, guys. Talk to you later. See ya.

Hello, scary movie lovers. We are back at the Hollywood Improv, May 15th, 7:30 in the lab for the Dead in the Water edition. All of our comics are talking about all scary movies that have to do with the body of water. Looking at you, Jason, boy, he's you drowned. Sorry, dude. Jaws, of course, Deep Blue Sea, Lake Placid. Betty White is like feeding people to a crocodile. It's kind of rad. The fog, all of that goes, it's gonna be epic. So grab your tickets now. They are on sale May 15th, 7:30, Hollywood Improv in the lab. We will see you for the Dead in the Water edition.

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