From 2004-2009 I was a Team Member at Universal Orlando, primarily in Entertainment Projects management, which handles events like HHN, Mardi Gras, Rock the Universe & more.
This is a thread of stories about that time in my life and some of the memories and trinkets I gathered along the way.
I did my first year of College at Cal State University Monterey Bay. I hated it. I was "majoring" in television production, but as a Freshmen, none of your coursework even touches any of that. I really didn't care for the area, the constant fog, and all the emphasis on golf.
I was already BIG TIME obsessed with theme parks. I had only ever been to Disney World in Florida twice. Once as a child and once as a senior in High School with my buddy @Silentlyverbal. I hated that Disneyland was a six hour drive away.
But I also wondered what Florida might have in store for me. I was constantly trying to find ways to get out there, even temporarily. But working 20 hours a week at UPS Store wasn't about to fund a WDW trip, lol
Anyway, you know how some kids become obsessed early on with "being an Imagineer"? They declare it as their dream at like, age 13?

Well, I didn't want to be an Imagineer.

I wanted to be the guy that designed haunted houses. That was my childhood dream.
After a year of wasting away on the coast of Central California, I knew I had to make a change. I wanted to work in theme parks.

So I did something drastic. I applied to the Fall semester at UCF in the Rosen Hospitality program.
I applied literally at the buzzer of the deadline and I never thought for a moment I'd actually get in.

Yet, somehow, I got a letter in the mail in early August that said I was accepted and I needed to be in Orlando later than month. My whole life flipped upside down in a month.
My Dad helped me drive my 1998 Honda Civic across the country and I started school at UCF right on time.

Every Rosen Hospitality Degree offers a track of "emphasis" and of course I selected "theme park management".
This was August 2005 and life was awesome.

I applied at WDW and got a job at Pop Century pushing luggage around in the peak Summer heat. Thanks so much for that, Magical Express.
But I also realized I could fulfill a lifelong dream and take a chance at being a Scareactor at Halloween Horror Nights. So I auditioned.

If you've ever auditioned for HHN, the process hasn't changed much. Back then they used Polaroids for your photo, though 🤣
Basically you go into a big rehearsal room with a bunch of other folks and the casting directors look at you physically. You're getting typecast here. They're deciding what roles you might fit.
Then they have you do some basic movements, or a short dance. They're basically looking to see if you can take instruction and repeat movements reliably and quickly.

In the past, they used to pick some people right there. Nowadays, they'll call you or email you, I think.
And I got a part! I was selected to be a "Spermie" in the Terror Mines in HHN 2005, which was one of the years that the event spanned "both parks" (in reality, half of IOA and half of USF).
Performing in the Terror Mines was great fun. My spot was awesome.

If you don't know or don't recall, the Terror Mines was one of the few houses ever in UO history to give out an accessory when you went inside. At least one person from your group got a "mining helmet".
This mining helmet interacted with your location in the house via Infrared signals. So right around my area, the helmet light started doing these long blinks.

2 seconds on, 2 seconds off.
I would time my movement so I would be perfectly still and hidden until the guests were a few feet in front of my boo hole, and then wait for their light to turn off for 2 seconds.

Then I would put myself right in front of their face, which they couldn't see.
When the light came back on, I would snarl real deep and people would fall on their ass. It was great fun.
This movement required me to swing out from my boo hole using my left arm. I did this over and over again... about 100-120 times per set (45 minutes).
One night, my arm dislocated from its shoulder socket. I had to be carried out by my ASM and coordinators and taken to health services behind Lost Continent. It was really embarrassing. I got carried by a ton of guests because there was no other viable egress for me.
My shoulder popped back into socket that night, but followup visits determined my arm should be in a sling for a few weeks.

This didn't really impact my ability to be a "Spermie" in the haunted house. But it did impact my ability to push luggage around at Disney.
So: fun fact

HHN is the reason that Disney was forced to train me at the front desk of Pop Century. Because of my injured arm, lol
BTW if you're wondering why the role was called "Spermie", it was because we all wore skin tight, white-blue unitards. The only other thing we wore were our alien masks. During breaks, with our masks off, we all looked like a bunch of sperm.
Anyway, HHN ended and it was an incredible time. I loved it. I loved that I got the chance to "scare" guests.

It was honestly a dream come true.

And I really thought that was the end of the story.
When HHN ended, I put in to transfer to attractions and that was how I got to work at The Mummy.

This is a photo that would probably get you fired today.
Later on, I got to open The High In The Sky Seuss Trolley Train Ride. Lots of long ass shifts, sitting on my bum, advancing vehicles. Sometimes until the sun rose.

Great costumes, too 👀

The guys at Mack Rides either thought I was cool or annoying. I'm guessing annoying.
My future with HHN and Entertainment Projects as a whole was totally random.

One day I walked into the Rosen dining hall and saw posters for HHN management roles. They would be doing quick one-on-one interviews in the cafeteria all week, which would precede larger interviews.
I dressed in my best the next day and met with Bryan Studivant. We had a brief one-on-one interview. I didn't hold back. Told him all about my love for Halloween events and theme parks. I word-vomited all over that poor guy.

Weirdly, he offered me an official interview!
The official interview process was a blur. I've been sitting here racking my brain, trying to recall bits or pieces of it, but no luck.

All I remember is taking a long, deep nap one late July afternoon and waking up to a voicemail from Universal HR asking for a return call.
You know how when you wake up from a good nap, there's that little period of time where your head feels heavy and things are hard to process?

Well. That's precisely when I called them back. Because I couldn't wait to know.
They told me I was being offered the job of a HHN Assistant Stage Manager.

I was floored. I couldn't comprehend it for minutes at a time. ASM! I would have my own venue!
For those who don't know, Entertainment Projects management is made up like this

Director - manages department
Production Manager - manages entire event
Stage Manager - manages a large element of an event
ASM - manages one particular venue or element of an event
There are also Coordinators, which are an hourly resource to assist ASMs with things like managing time, keeping an eye on the venue at all times, and helping with safety/health issues.
This kind of management is temporary. It's hired only for when they need the additional coverage, and it has a definitive end date.
At a typical HHN back in the late 00's, every house, street and show had an ASM.

Each house also gets a Coordinator, while a street will get several.

Finally, the Stage Managers oversee zones. So a single Stage Manager might cover all the soundstage houses, or tent houses, etc.
I was assigned to the house in the Earthquake queue. It was called "Run: Hostile Territory" based mildly on the movie Hostile.

Here was my team. The blonde woman to my right, Beth C, was our Stage Manager.
The truth is, an Assistant Stage Manager role in Entertainment Projects is really similar to an operations manager role.

A big hurdle in the world of HHN was managing time & pay for almost 800-1000 temporary performers.
I'm willing to bet it's different now, but back then, a large part of the ASM/Coordinator role was acting like a time clock, and diligently recording peoples time and accurately transferring it into the pay system. Which was. an. enormous. pain. in. the. ass.
I probably spent over half my work day dealing with time & pay in some fashion.

Outside of that, I was given some freedom on how to manage my day.

I really enjoyed talking to and pumping up my casts. Cast meetings were my absolute favorite thing to do.
I also loved to tag in and help scare. Scaring was still such a rush and I loved doing it, albeit briefly.
To me, my casts' energy and morale was the most important thing. I was obsessed with putting on a "good show" and "having the best house". I was extremely competitive in that way.
When we won "house of the week" I was over the moon.

Whoever wins this gets a temporary trophy: the golden rat!
We dressed ours up to look like a character from our venue. It was a very big moment and we even got free catering as part of our prize.
One of the things that sticks out to me about this year of HHN and my time with the Run: Hostile Territory haunted house, was a particular cast member.

I think his name was Carl, and he was a longtime scareactor who had been doing HHN for, idk, maybe a decade by this point?
Anyway, Carl was supposedly a very successful lawyer who just did HHN for fun.

Almost every night, Carl would "cater" our entire house. Both casts. Some nights it was as simple as pizza, other nights it was more elaborate. For our final night, he catered us with a PIG ROAST!
All of HHN 2006 was quite literally "the time of my fucking life". I loved every moment of it. I couldn't help it. I was such a nerd for this shit, and here I was, running a small little part of it.
The run went by so fast. I lost some weight constantly walking around, sweating, and not eating. I barely slept. I would feel dizzy and out of sorts at random times.

I yet I couldn't stop smiling.
Here's some pics at the end. My house made me and my Coordinator some lovely plaques, which was super sweet.
For ASMs, HHN ends about a week after the last night. You finalize any pay issues and reports, you clean out your desk, and you attend a small de-briefing with your Stage Manager and Production Manager.

Then you are released from the role 😭😭😭
That might have been the end of the story. Except it wasn't.

Right as I was wrapping up HHN, I got invited to ASM Grinchmas at IOA. I had never thought about doing anything other than Halloween, and let's be honest, HHN is *THE SHOW*
But I loved my time in entertainment and thought more of it couldn't be bad.

So just a few days later, I found myself walking to Seuss Landing every day to make the Grinch come to life.
Now, I'm gonna shoot straight with you. I have an ENORMOUS LIBRARY of Grinch photos that should have never been taken.

I'm not going to share them here, bc character integrity. But if we're close friends and I'm drunk enough, I might briefly show you some of the good ones 👀
Here are some that are safe(ish) to share...
Oh. And SNL's "Dick In a Box" was very popular at Christmas 2006, so this happened.
Now, in 2006, there was no elaborate Grinch stage show. It was just a meet n' greet. That was it.

Crazy how things have changed, right?

But in 2006, IOA struggled to get 6000-8000 guests per park, per day. Even during the holidays.
Managing Grinchmas was much different from HHN. There was maybe four performers a day, a lot more makeup and costume quality issues, and GOBS of downtime. We all got into a lot of trouble and did so many stupid things, lmao
Things got a bit quiet from there until the Spring.

I got another call asking if I wanted to interview for a Mardi Gras management position and happily agreed.

A few weeks later, I found myself as one of the parade coordinators for Mardi Gras.
I guess one of my strengths as an ASM had been my accuracy over time & pay, which they wanted to leverage into Mardi Gras 2007. Here was the team. You might notice some familiar faces. I had worked with Julie and Beth to my right with HHN.
I was really pumped to be a part of this. The first parade went off in the pouring rain. Stilt performers were downed. And we were soaked by the time we returned to the sound stage. But the high was incredible.
My parents later got to come and experience Mardi Gras with me. I was really proud of it and I hoped they were, too. They set us up with a float and all that.
Then, as things do, something happened.

See, a couple of months prior to Mardi Gras, just after the holidays, I had interviewed for an internship in Universal Operations. I never heard back from them and assumed I didn't get it, but honestly, I didn't care.
I was really happy with the intermittent roles I was getting in Entertainment and saw a future there.

But operations called. They offered me a spot.
Back then, the UO Ops internship was one of the ways to fast track your career with the company. Most folks had to work their way up through a grueling ladder to ever get a shot at an entry level salaried manager role within ops, and I respect that hustle.
But with this internship, you'd get paid, and if you did good work, you'd typically get offered a full time salary role right after your program.
I confided in my stage manager that I had this offer and I struggled over what to do about it. I didn't want to leave Mardi Gras, but I didn't want to miss my shot at a full time role.
After a week of going back n' forth, and evaluating all the pros and cons, I picked leaving Mardi Gras.

Hands down one of the stupidest things I ever did.

At least they made me a nice cake.
After two or three weeks of parades, I left entertainment in my rear view mirror and slid into a cubicle in the ops building behind Poseidon's Fury and things got very bad, very fast.
The more "free-flowy" nature of Entertainment that I had been stewing in for the last 8-9 months was now gone.

Performers clocked in around their start time and we recorded it as "right on time". In ops, anything after 2 minutes was considered "late”.
Operations had major safety issues, which were major issues for good reason.

But every day I would get "speed trained" on a different attraction and expected to pass the test and then run/manage the ride in every different position.
It was not uncommon for the Coordinators of those attractions to obviously know way more than me.

And let's be honest, those kids hated me. Here I was, skipping over all of their hard work, stealing their role. Because why? Because I went to Rosen?
No one did me any favors. In Entertainment I had a supportive, nurturing environment who wanted to train and groom me for success.

In Ops, everyone wanted to run me out of town, lol

And really, could you blame them? The entire internship program was entirely unfair.
Only one good thing came out of my time with Operations. I got to learn and manage the Back To The Future ride, which was another big lifelong dream.
Then came the worst part. I had to close it.

Here are some pictures from the last day. That last photo is of the tower control system that runs the whole ride.
The weeks went on and it seemed like every time I met with my supervisor, there was some new problem I was exhibiting. To them, I could never do anything right.
The writing was on the wall. It was obvious I wouldn't be offered a role at the end of my internship, and frankly, I didn't entirely want one. Ops was a rigid place with one or two people who called all the shots, and a series of followers who kept their head down and agreed.
There was no place to shake things up or try something new. And the Director of the department liked it this way. He didn't want to deviate. Basically one supervisor sat at the right hand of the Director and ran the show.
One day I was assigned to Jaws and trying to get someone on the radio. It was known that the folks working Jaws did not like me. No one really did. Again, having some hotshot kid roll in out of nowhere, trying to tell you what to do, will naturally irk some folks.
I tried and tried to get a Jaws lead on the radio forever. And it was clear they were ignoring me. Everyone in the park riding the ops channel could hear. It was kind of embarrassing.
Anyway, when I finally went up to the crows nest and discovered the lead sitting down, ignoring his radio, I bluntly said, "What the fuck is wrong with you guys today?”
And the kid actually sort of smiled because he knew he got me.

To be honest, you could swear pretty freely in entertainment. But not in ops. I can't explain the culture. That's just the way it was then.
No less than 3 hours later I got a call to that one Supervisors office and he point-blank asked me if I said anything "unsavory" to this lead. I straight up said "Yeah, I said the F word, because they were intentionally ignoring me on the radio, and I wanted to know why.”
They released me from the internship the next day.
A part of me was relieved. Another part of me was livid. I had been set up to fail. Never supported. Never shown any kind of assistance or help. Just left to wander the streets of the parks and do my best, lol
Luckily, because I had come from Entertainment, I was not fired. Just put back in entertainment.
But I was a man without a venue, and by extension, a man without pay. It was a long, hot summer.

I picked up work at a radio rental company who rented radios nationwide for conventions and exhibits.
Late Summer rolled around and there were rumblings that I would be asked back to HHN. I interviewed with Adam R and the outcome was nothing short of incredible.
I got asked to be a Stage Manager (not an assistant) of the tent houses.

Jacks Funhouse
and
The Thing
2007 HHN was a tough one, you guys, not going to lie

lot of stories to unpack here
From a professional perspective, the role was very different. I wasn't “on the ground" or "in the field" was much. I didn't like that. I just wanted to be with my casts.
I had a lot more closed door meetings with the other stage managers and the production manager/director.

I spent a lot more time in my cube in the entertainment trailer.
Suddenly, things like ops counts and attendance numbers mattered more and were routinely introduced into the daily conversations.
Stage Managers spend a longer amount of time in the role. They come in a few weeks before ASMs and stay a few weeks after.

Back in 2007, ticket pre-sales looked nothing like they do now, but they were still wildly important.
Pre-sales gave Universal a more accurate way of estimating how nightly attendance would shake out. They would look at their pre-sales, and mix it with a walk-up forecast, and come to really accurate numbers.
As you know, in 2007, the economy was already dicey and getting worse by the week.
It was this year that I learned about "value perception" and that a guest needed to do at least 3.5 things to feel like they got a "good value" out of their ticket.
While the nature of what we did in Entertainment was still... entertainment, suddenly the business side of things was actively talked about and parlayed into decision making.
I'll give you an example.

The nature of Jacks Funhouse being a colorful 3-D walkthrough was causing it to have some of the lowest attendance throughputs in the event. That brought down throughput in the park overall, so they modified the house mid-run.
They took out a big prominent feature, the inflatable wall tunnel, to speed people through.
This is also why you see ops personnel with flashlights rushing you through the house. This is something I hate now and I hated it then.
To me, there was this clash between entertainment and ops. Entertainment wanted it to be as cool and creative as possible, ensuring folks got as much enjoyment out of it as possible, while ops just wanted to dumb it down and rush as many people through it was possible.
They were playing a numbers game I didn't want to play. And so, in this regard, I became a very poor partner. I already had a chip on my shoulder when it came to ops from the failed internship.
Very soon, though, this would become the least of my problems.
I was fortunate to have an awesome ASM for "The Thing" house named Tatiana. Tatiana arrived to HHN in a cast on her leg and foot. She had broken something, or strained something. I honestly can't recall. But she had a boot on that hindered her ability to walk.
We quickly decided that Tatiana needed a full time ECV because HHN moved fast and we needed her to be able to get around more easily. So Tatiana scooted around the tents and the trailer like a speed demon, lol

It was great.
As a team outing, we all decided to visit Busch Gardens on their opening night. It did not overlap with our opening night.

That was the last night I saw Tatiana.

She suffered a blood clot and passed away the next morning.
Having that conversation with my production manager was surreal.

The rest of the run, I was not myself. I was lost a lot of the time, in my head, and a poor partner. And I think everyone gave me a pass. I kind of wish they wouldn't have.
I don't have a lot of fun photos from HHN 2007. Tatiana's death and the difference in my work responsibilities saw to that.

Here's one of me with my head buried in work.
It's a shame, too. My houses were amazing. Especially The Thing.

One of my prized possessions is this binder that breaks down the design and construction of The Thing house, room by room 👀👀👀
Here's a silly pic of Jack’s hair on a puppet dog from The Thing.
One really lovely story from 2007!

A scareactor and his longtime girlfriend wanted to get married at HHN.

So we snuck them into the Horror Make Up theater during his “off set" and hosted a quick ceremony to have them wedded in unholy matrimony!
Remember Carl? The lawyer who catered a bunch of meals for my casts in 2006?

He was back on my casts in 2007 and he officiated the nuptials in full costume.
I got to scare a little that year, too. Always fun. If you can tell, I'm slowly getting fatter. I sat on my ass way more in 2007.
My casts were really lovely. I just wish I could have spent more time with them.
My head just couldn't get in the game. Between the sudden death of Tatiana and the constant feuding with ops, I got lost too easily. Honestly, I'm shocked they ever asked me back.
The Winter was long and uneventful. I took time off and had no role anywhere. I went up to NYC and did the Macy's parade.
That next May, I graduated from UCF with my bachelors degree in Hospitality.
I accepted runner-up on an Internship in NYC that I bailed on at the last minute. So I spent the Summer traveling and goofing off and getting fatter.

You might be wondering why? After all, I had been developing a decent career trajectory at UO?
Well, breaking into a full time role in Entertainment was way harder than you think. It was a good department and people rarely left. And they wouldn't take an outsider and give them a supervisory role.
I interviewed for things like a costumer coordinator and was told I was overqualified and would be bored.

Then I interviewed for things like a Coordinator role at Barney and was told I was underqualified.
My ongoing feud with ops was well known and probably not helping me, either.
When the call came around later that Summer for HHN 2008, I took it. No interview.

Was given another Stage Manager role. My biggest cast yet. This time, overseeing a series of Street venues.

Including, the chainsaw drill team 👀👀👀
Despite being excited about my role, the realities of being a Stage Manager were ever-present. You get spread thinner. And the business side of things matters more.

I remember there was a lot of pressure on Entertainment Projects for HHN 2008 to be a huge financial success.
At this point, Potter was coming. I can't recall if it was public knowledge, but there were murmurs that something major was on the horizon and the company was going to explode in a big way.
At the same time, 2008 was a rough year for UO. Attendance was way down, and cutbacks and job losses were happening all the time.
They were trying to do HHN with less investment than ever before, while making more money than ever before. Attendance and counts and guest feedback were all so important and they hounded us on them like never before.
When people say “HHN sets the budget for the next fiscal year" it is not hyperbole. It is a real, factual statement.

Before Potter, HHN absolutely *made* the year at UO. Without a successful HHN at that point, Universal Orlando could very be a thing of the past that glowed away.
Of course, HHN in 2008 was a success.

Here are some photos.
Remember Rat Lady? That was mine :)
That year, we had "flying monkeys" in the Wizard of Oz street. That was all supplied by a vendor we had to work with.
And here is the infamous chain saw drill team.
You can follow @krismeetsworld.
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