On Friday and Saturday evenings, 35-year-old AJ Showell has no time to unwind from a long week of work. Instead, he spends his time wielding fake weapons and wearing a clown mask.
Showell is a scare actor and the audio-visual director at the Newberry Cornfield Maze, a haunted attraction in Newberry. The maze features a haunted house, a corn maze and other attractions. Until Oct. 24, Showell’s routine is clear-cut: eat, sleep, scare, work and repeat.
WUFT spoke with Showell to get a glimpse of his life outside scare acting and learn how he became involved in the horror industry.
What follows has been edited for length and clarity.
Q: How did you get into the scare acting industry?
A: I actually got into the industry by happenstance. I’ve always been a horror fanatic, but I decided, you know, let’s turn this hobby into a semi-career of sorts. So I ended up meeting a guy when I was living in Orlando, and he introduced me to Universal Studios. I auditioned to be a scare actor, just on a whim and not thinking I’d actually get it, but ended up on the chainsaw team my first year, and that was 2013. It’s taken off from there. I’ve been doing it ever since.
Q: How did you bring what you learned at Universal to Newberry?
A: It was actually the staff and the team down there. I’m still friends with a lot of them, so if I have questions about anything, I reach out to them. They give me tips and tools of the trade. They actually taught me how to make a simulated thunderstorm, with lights and all. That was a tip that I picked up from working down there.
Q: What do you do outside of scare acting and your audio-visual work for the Newberry Cornfield Maze?
A: Outside of this, I am a full-time DJ and producer, doing events, corporate, weddings — anything you can think of.
Q: Can you walk me through what your schedule looks like during the Halloween season?
A: Monday and Tuesday are event prep. I’m still DJing and doing events between all of this, while also coming out here to do haunted house maintenance, any audio work and anything that needs to get fixed. During the season, my weeks are pretty bogged down. It’s a lot.
Q: How do you manage your schedule from week to week?
A: A lot of Red Bull and a lot of no sleep. Really, it’s literally writing everything down and scheduling everything out. You know, taking that time to set. It’s really just putting pen to paper and organizing everything. It’s not easy, but you do it for a few years, it kind of falls into a routine.
Q: How do you get into character before a night of work?
A: It depends on the character I’m playing that night because I do a couple of different ones. A lot of times, getting into that mode, I throw on one of my favorite playlists. I listen to a lot of my music to get that adrenaline going. It’s almost like flipping a switch, but at the same time, you get yourself mentally into it.
Q: What does being part of the horror industry mean to you?
A: It’s just a precursor to another goal of mine because my goal is to own my own haunt one day. Being able to work here as long as I have and knowing the ins and outs — I feel like that helps me prepare for eventually owning my own.