You may have a photograph or a home video taken with the gargantuan family camcorder that really takes you back to a moment in time. For the Purple Stuff Podcast, we were bestowed with a tape, a recording of a WPIX Shocktober broadcast from October 1992. Specifically, Friday the 13th IV: The Final Chapter was on tap for that night. It couldn’t have been a more perfect pairing. Words simply cannot describe how important horror movies on WPIX during Halloween were to both Matt and I. Obviously, Matt has written on the Internet about them for a million years, but I have also worked this angle into many of my Halloween specials as well. You’ve probably heard us on The Purple Stuff Podcast do the whole “Shhhhhhhhocktober” stinger many times, but in our latest episode we give it the proper tribute treatment it deserves.
We have a super fun and nostalgic episode for you in this time of quarantine. Hopefully you’ll join us and take your mind off of all the craziness going on in the world right now. It’s the perfect getaway for your mind. Not only will you hear us capture what WPIX and their Halloween inspired marathon meant to us, but we also dig in to one of our favorite installments in the Friday the 13th franchise! Friday the 13th IV The Final Chapter was always my favorite for so many reasons which I delve into on the show. I can’t forget to mention that one of the coolest aspects of this tape we received had all of the commercial breaks in tact. This means we get a chance to look back on Shocktober promos, commercials, and public service announcements!
We really had a blast on this trip back to that night. An evening where we were both in our respective homes settled in anticipating the big day, Halloween, and watching horror movies on the channel that had it all. Listen to us attempt to capture just how important this all was to us! Below you can watch a video Matt compiled that includes footage and clips from the video we are discussing if you would like to watch for reference during the pod!
*If you enjoy the show and would like to support it, you can visit us on Patreon where we release exclusive monthly bonus shows. Thank you for reading and listening and I hope you all stay safe in a blanket fort with all your favorite snacks and movies.
The Purple Stuff Podcast returns from beyond the grave! Matt from Dinosaur Dracula and I fielded your creepy questions on the show’s Twitter account @purplestuffpod and there was a resounding response! Thanks for sending them in! We had a slew of great Halloween/Horror-centric ones, but we were only able to answer a select batch of them. Hope you enjoy hearing our answers and we’d like to hear yours as well! Have a Happy Halloween and thanks for listening!
Shit is crazy, yo. That’s about the best I could come up with for an opening line.
During previous Halloween seasons, I’ve been able to ramp up the lead-up to my Halloween Specials. I loved posting a production journal on here for at least one or two of them, but it wasn’t in the cards this time. This year, even though free time is basically non-existent, I still magically whipped up a special, with the help of my friends of course! I ran into a bunch of speed bumps on the way.
A whole script basically went into the trash. I wrote this pretty epic script that, once it was too late, I realized would be entirely too much to film. Not so much about the length, but even the logistics, locations, and money. Although I love the script and it had absolutely everything in it, I came to terms with the fact that I just couldn’t pull it off so late in the game. I swore I would write the script early in the year that way it would give us extra time to film, storyboard, and even block everything out like actual filmmakers. Wrote it early I did. Threw it away late I did as well. To say I was pissed off at myself for wasting so much time and effort was an understatement. Continue reading THE HALLOWEEN SPECIAL 2017
Dino Drac and I are back for another Halloween minisode! These have been a lot of fun so we bring you another installment of our aural lust for Halloween. In this episode we check out Dollar General and my old decrepit K-Mart. What we bring home may not exactly be considered “treasure” to most, but it brought us some more early signs of the season. We hope you enjoy this one! You can check it out on iTunes and Stitcher and be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss an episode! Thanks for listening and reading!
In this video I show off The Sexy Armpit & Cryptocurium’s exclusive limited edition Sammi Curr sculpture. We are so pumped to bring this to you. There will be 31 of them up for pre-order tomorrow 8/18 at Noon Eastern time, so don’t miss out!
This is an ultra-limited run of 31! Pre-orders for this horror-metal masterpiece will begin on Friday, August 18th at The Cryptocurium Etsy store.
I’m extremely excited to announce The Sexy Armpit’s first exclusive collectible. This incredible sculpture of Sammi Curr from one of my favorite horror films, Trick or Treat, is a result of collaborating with my friend Jason McKittrick from The Cryptocurium. It’s quite a tag-team of New Jersey horror freaks and it’s been a long time in the making! Jason’s homemade horrors speak for themselves. His creations are sculpted and painted by hand and are versatile since they include magnets on the back as well as a d-ring if you want to hang them on the wall. With unparalleled artistry, he handcrafted a brand new vision of Rock’s Chosen Warrior! I can actually hear Fastway blasting in the background every time I look at this beaut. This is a must-own for Trick or Treat fans and horror fans in general. Do whatever you need to do to get this mega limited , crash the Etsy server if you have to. If you pre-order you’ll have it in time for Halloween. Show your support for Sammi and The Sexy Armpit by purchasing this over the top cool sculpture. Once you receive it, be sure to tag @SexyArmpit and @Cryptocurium! #NoFalseMetal
I’m sitting at my desk with the window cracked open. I’m literally being blasted with cool fall wind and it feels awesome. There’s apparently a hurricane developing, so that’s added to the ambience of the last few days. I also cleaned my disaster of a desk to get me prepped for the season. A pumpkin candle is blazing and I just ate a bag of Japanese Frito-Lay Halloween Pack bat-shaped thingies and I’m now primed to provide you with an official Sexy Armpit Halloween Special update: You can join us if you tune in at 8pm ET on October 7th, 2016!
Tell us about The Sexy Armpit Halloween Special this year.
As many of you know, each year I produce a Halloween special for our YouTube page. This year, I’m proud to tell you that this will be our 5th installment. I pour pretty much every bit of life I have into these annual videos. During production, everything and everyone in my life gets pretty much ignored from start to finish usually. My bills stack up. I neglect the gym. All I think about is the special. Ultimately, my main inspiration, aside from the desire to make it the best special it can be, is Halloween.
Halloween is everything. There are memes that always say Halloween is year round, and obviously Ministry sang about it being everyday, but realistically, the season happens once a year. It’s fleeting. Capturing the essence is vital to appreciating it in the moment. Once it’s November, it seems like the non-Hallo-freaks have moved on. If you breezed through the season, without truly memorializing it, all you can do at that point is be bummed and pissed at yourself for not soaking up as much horror and pumpkin guts as you could. Of course, I watch Horror all year long, and am obsessed with Halloween throughout the year, but that’s what makes this time of year special. All the stuff I love is magnified x1000. That’s why I tried my damnedest to get the special done fairly early this year.
Would it be possible for me to actually enjoy the season without killing myself making a short film AND trying to put together Halloween costume? I figured if I got a little bit of a jump on things, I wouldn’t have to be feverishly editing until the witching hour. While I’m still putting the finishing touches on it currently, it’s nearly ready for public consumption. The head start actually granted me some extra time to put a teaser trailer together too, something I didn’t have the time to do previously for any of my videos. You can watch the teaser above if you haven’t already!
This year, the Halloween Special is quite different than anything you’ve seen from us before.
As I rewind several months, I recall a hot June afternoon in downtown New York City. I had set up a meeting with Louie Cortes, a New York filmmaker (his company is New Needle Productions), and a fellow Halloween and horror freak. Louie and I had been following each other on social media for a long time and not only did we have a lot of friends in common, but we’ve traveled in the same circles, attended the same conventions, and plain and simple, share a ton of the same obsessions.
There was a two-fold reason for me reaching out to Louie. First, I just couldn’t keep looking at his Instagram and watching his short films on his YouTube without finally shooting the shit with him over a beer. Secondly, I wanted to pick his brain about his filmmaking process. In my constant pursuit of trying to improve my output, I figured I could probe Louie’s brain to see if he could shed some light on a few questions I had regarding how the pros do things.
Aside from some advice, and a few laughs, I honestly didn’t expect much to come of our meeting. When it comes to my own creative endeavors, I like to do things my way. That’s pretty common amongst creative people from what I’ve seen, but I’d never really thought of the possibility of collaborating before. Sure, I have friends who help with the show in many ways, but ultimately, it’s always my baby. I like to see it through. I’d never entertained the idea of a collaboration because I hadn’t spoken to anyone who wound up being serious or followed through on their claims. I’ve been asked many times by people if they could appear in or help out with the show, but often, they wind up flaking out when they find out how much work is involved. Fortunately, a legit collaboration was actually on the horizon.
Louie and I met at this punk bar downtown and had a few drinks. It was one of those meetings that, if we ever did hit it big and became famous one day in some kind of insane fantasy world, this is the type of story that we’d be able to share when being interviewed. It’s like those legendary stories you hear about how Madonna gave her demo tape to a DJ at a club in NYC. It was just a simple meeting that has already kicked into high gear. When we met up that day I seriously had no clue that by the end of the summer we’d be much closer friends and have basically all the footage for my Halloween special filmed. Needless to say, I’m glad we met up! Louie is on point with his work and also an exceptional dude. We’ve already discussed more possible projects on the horizon, but for now, I’ll concentrate on the present.
So, what exactly makes this year’s Halloween Special so different than previous years?
First and foremost, Louie’s production company New Needle Productions handled the filming of the majority of the special. The shot composition, lighting, and high quality of the video stemmed from Louie’s expertise and all added a completely fresh take on what The Sexy Armpit Show really is all about. It looks so damn good! Louie did a kick ass job and he’s a total pro. A huge thanks goes out to him.
The vastly improved visual aspect helps bring the horror/thriller storyline to life. Of course, it’s still complete nonsense and an all out horror-comedy, but there’s a pretty intriguing story in there…one that hasn’t yet been explored in our videos. In fact, not to spoil anything, but in this one you’ll witness a major shakeup at Sexy Armpit HQ that could have repercussions on the future of the show!
What I’m most proud of is the fact that we keep improving each year. To me, there’s no point in doing the same thing every year because that’s boring. This time around, the special is pretty batshit and just the right kind of whacked out that you need to enhance your Halloween season. You’ll see some awesome cameos and familiar faces as you’ve seen in previous installments, but, trust me, this is a whole different ball game. With all that said, I don’t want to give up any spoilers, so you can watch for yourself on 10/7!
As always, I want to send out another giant thank you to the cast Miss Sexy Armpit @MissSexyArmpit, Mike Wirth a.k.a @IdiotAtPlay, Holly Knapp @Frankenholly, Jeff Somogyi @Sommerjam, Dari Mehl, Frank Campisi, and Lauren Wirth @TheNerdyPumpkin. Everyone did a bang up job again this year and each cast member brings so much to the table. By understanding my bizarre mind, they make it easy for me to bring the stories to life. It might sound like I’m making these specials sound more monumental than they actually are, but that’s how important they are to me.
Make The Sexy Armpit Halloween Specials a part of your Halloween Viewing!
Even though I make these videos, I still have fun watching them too. They become these warped video yearbooks to look back on. Each year, I usually suggest trying to incorporate a viewing of any or all of The Sexy Armpit Halloween Specials into your seasonal viewing. For example, if you plan on watching Poltergeist or Halloween, use our Hallowen special as a funny lead-in. Maybe throw in a Halloween cartoon as well! I know you all can pull YouTube up on your TVs and the best way to enjoy these videos is on your big TV with all your Halloween lights and decorations in full effect. Get some candy corn and pumpkin beer and really feel the season. If you do this, take a pic and post it somewhere on social media, that will help us get the word out! If you want to thank us or support us in any way, the best way is to get more eyes on it and for that we thank you!
I’m proud of what my crew and New Needle accomplished together. These Hallowen Specials are truly comprised of passion and hard work. The only compensation we receive from these videos is you, our friends, fans, readers, viewers and social media companions, getting a kick out of watching them. Sure, it would be nice to be funded one day, but there’s nothing that satisfies me more knowing that a good portion of you were able to sit back and have some laughs for a brief spell during your Halloween celebrations. That is what makes me want to continue, otherwise, I’d be laying around like a lump watching mediocre horror movies on Amazon Prime.
As I was saying at the start, it’s October. It’s officially here! It’s time to start working on your costume, decorating, and planning your Halloween viewing for the month and hopefully The Sexy Armpit Halloween Special can be a part of it!
Have you ever been in a situation where you don’t know what hit you? Well, that’s personified the last 3 months for me. The worst part about it all is that I sort of dug my own grave…pun intended! As a creator, the only option is to at least give a valiant effort to keep topping yourself. Take some of your favorite bands for example, they can release 16 albums in their career, but how many of them are literal classics that are widely accepted as monumental and influential to music? There may be only one or 2 in the band’s entire catalog that are looked at in that light. While I’m not saying that this year’s Halloween Special is monumental OR influential, I’m saying that there’s no point in creating stuff if they don’t emerge different or offer some kind of varying degree of goodness than previous works. Where am I going with this? Read on!
The previous 3 Halloween Specials we’ve made are like little mini-movies that are fueled by my insane passion for Halloween. They’re chock full of horror movie references and Halloween masks. Capturing the essence of the Halloween season and putting it to video is my jam, but the key here is that it’s pretty much how my entire Halloween season goes. From the point the season officially begins on Dinosaur Dracula, to the point where I collapse from all the hell I’ve put myself through making the Halloween Special and creating some ridiculously obscure costume to wear to a masquerade, it’s non-stop chaos. Truly chaos.
Being late for family parties, arguing with loved ones, and extreme lack of sleep all factor into this chaos. Hell, I couldn’t even do the production blogs that I planned on like I did last year because this thing was so time consuming. My Halloween seasons are rarely pumpkin spice and everything nice, even though that’s the way it seems. It’s work, work, work. At times I even had to make a lot of executive decisions that pissed a lot of people off, but it’s all in the name of Halloween. I wouldn’t have it any other way though. I put this all on my own shoulders.
Yes, I put it all on myself, but in a way, I only do it for myself – let me elaborate. For the first 2 specials at least, having tons of people watch them wasn’t even on my radar. I just wanted to follow my passion and incorporate my love for movie making and my lust for Halloween into one thing that I could enjoy creating. When I saw how last year’s Halloween Special got so much great feedback, then it made me realize that I should continue making them, but how would I top last years? Personally I still love 2013’s so much, but damn, last year was special to me. Basically, I never thought I’d have more than a few hundred people watching these, and that is the honest truth. But, now that I do have so many cool friends and people I know from social media digging these, then it makes it that much more exciting for me to debut this. The fact that you care enough to take a chunk of your time to watch it means everything to me.
Looking back over the last few months, from the second I sat down to write the script, to today, it’s been a long haul. This year, the entire production was bigger and more intricate than anything I’ve ever done. I’ve been making mini movies since I was 8 years old, and the reason why this is the most ambitious thing I ever created is due to a few reasons. Here they are:
1. IT’S AN ANTHOLOGY! – That means 3 stories in ONE, plus a wraparound story. More bang for your buck, but this is actually free so that doesn’t apply!
2. Bigger cast – mostly due to the addition of 2 characters. Both of these characters have been part of the earliest scripts that I’ve ever written for The Sexy Armpit show
2. More locations – Rather than just be stuck in my condo (Sexy Armpit HQ) for most of the show, we venture out to a few places
Sure, I put everyone through a lot of shit, and even though it’s a pain, there’s really no denying that it’s kind of fun to do. The personal satisfaction of hearing that someone enjoyed one of these silly productions I made, outweighs all the stress I put myself through. It’s not fun when I’m demanding 40 takes for the delivery of a 3 word line from someone, but if I can speak on behalf of everyone in it, it’s fun to be a part of. Watching the final product will be a lot more fun for our small cast and our cameo actors because they have no idea how it will come together. There are 3 or 4 people who have seen the script so it’s almost as tightly covered up as The Force Awakens! Only this one is a lot sillier and has several F-bombs.
Before I wrap this up, let me throw some thanks and appreciation. First, Miss Sexy Armpit, who is just as difficult to deal with as I am, did an amazing job pulling off at least 3 jobs. She is the voice and puppeteer of Sludgey, and she lent her kickass hair and makeup skills as well, oh and there’s another little surprise she’ve involved with as well! Thanks to Mike Wirth and his wife Lauren both are tremendous help and are very patient with me knowing how I can get when we are filming. We also have a new addition to the Halloween Special this year, and it’s very awesome for me to be able to thank friend and actress Holly Knapp for being in my special this year. Not many people would agree to do this after reading the lines that I had for this role. From many years back seeing her at a spooky dinner theater all the way to the present where she puts some literal magic on the screen in my special. She’s presently acting in a production of Ragtime in New Jersey. She’s definitely one of the highlights of the special this year and she was the exact person I needed to add that special ingredient. Special thanks to Ghostbusters NJ and The Sugar + Sunshine Bakery in Plainsboro, NJ, and last but not least, all of our surprise cameos! You know who you are! Don’t want to spoil anything just yet!
I’ve only watched this in chunks as I edited it for the last couple of months, but, tonight, I’ll watch it for the first time on the big TV with Miss Sexy Armpit. Time to break open the Gran Patron Platinum for this special occasion! I hope you enjoy The Sexy Armpit’s Halloween Special 2015 and let us know if you’re watching it via social media! You can find all of our accounts on the top right of this page. Watching it via your big screen TV is my recommendation and be sure to get inebriated. Try to take a screen shot of your TV if you can! Thanks for reading and watching and Happy Halloween!
Kids are headed back to school. The scent of pumpkin candles are in the air. There’s a chill in the night. The Halloween season is officially in full swing. My attention is on the big day…HALLOWEEN! Black, orange, and PURPLE are the only colors I see. Matt from Dinosaur Dracula and I have banded together to help you enhance your season this year with The Purple Stuff Podcast. If you haven’t checked out the previous episodes, we shoot the shit about all kinds of Halloween and horror stuff. It’s like a audio trick or treat bag full of goodies for you to enjoy. The newest episode that premiered earlier today has us contemplating our perfect Halloween time TV marathon. It’s inspired by the old Shocktober marathons that WPIX in New York used to show around this time of year. It left a huge mark on us and seeing as how ABC Family has put together a fairly heinous Halloween marathon this year, we assemble a creeptastic Shocktober marathon of our own! It’s a blast, so check it out in the player above or via iTunes and Stitcher.
*For a future episode we are opening up the floor to questions. Leave Matt and I any question you might have that is related to Halloween in some way. Ask us anything about horror, witches, haunted hayrides etc. Your question may be answered in a future show! Also, there’s a lot more coming this month here at The Sexy Armpit! Come back soon for the return of The Sexy Armpit Halloween Special Production Blog as well as a few other tricks up our sleeve so stay tuned!
