Job Brings Out Their Frightening Personas

For most people, the perfect vacation would be two weeks in the Caribbean or 10 days at a Colorado ski resort. But for Bob Penske, the ideal escape is a $4.42-per-hour job for which he dresses as the Hunchback of Ghost Town and scares the daylights out of people at Knott’s Berry Farm’s Halloween Haunt.

“It’s fun. This is my vacation,” Penske said Friday at the park’s first Monster College, a two-hour crash course designed to train hired extras in the fine art of fright-making.

“How many people actually get a chance to put on a different face and pretend to be someone else?” asked the 32-year-old business executive from Riverside County, a veteran of six Knott’s Halloween Haunts. “It’s like being a kid again.”

Penske is typical of many of the hired ghouls who haunt the rides and back streets of Knott’s every year--not for the money, but for the chance to really scare people and feel good about doing it.

“I’ve always loved the rush you get from being scared. I want to pass that rush on to others,” said 19-year-old Robby Robertson, a first-time ghoul who will be haunting the park’s “Baits Motel,” Friday through Oct. 31.

For some, the Haunt offers a chance to let their hair down--to really cut loose without the fear of becoming a public spectacle.

“Halloween is the time I can let go and have fun,” said Cynthia Dewell, 18, of Buena Park. “As a waitress I normally have to be cool and collected. At the Haunt I can really let my frustrations out.”

For others, being a monster is a way to unleash the wilder side of their personalities.

“As a normal person, I would never jump out at people. But when I put on the mask I go out there and go crazy,” said Craig Hareld, a seven-year veteran of the Haunt who plays the Cat Man in Ghost Town.

For Don Ballwey, a 29-year-old art major at Cal State Fullerton, it’s the camaraderie he shares with his fellow goblins that has led him to reprise his role as Dracula for the last five years.

“It’s a lot of fun,” he says. “I just keep coming back for the people. It’s like a family reunion.”

Still, being a zombie or a werewolf can have its downside.

“The guests can be monsters themselves,” complains Penske. “A lot of times these 11-year-old boys will slug you or spit on you. You really have to know how to interpret the crowd and be able to tolerate abuse from the guests. That’s the mark of a good street character.”

John Kennedy, a registered nurse from Burbank who claims to hold the record (eight years) for longevity as a Knott’s ghoul, agrees with Penske.

“The teen-age boys are the ones to watch out for, they can be a bit rambunctious. But you just have to go into it with the attitude of having fun and being careful. Even with its bad moments I’d be willing to do it for nothing. It’s that much fun.”