Behind the Masks

During his career as a makeup director--that includes 23 years with Knott’s Berry Farm’s Halloween Haunt--Abel Zeballos, 51, has remade faces: marred them, scarred them, pocked them, seemingly impaled them with meat hooks and made them ooze fake blood to make your stomach turn.

But the master of gore has a gentler side--his talent for teaching. Former students who now work at Knott’s, for Cirque du Soleil and in films and television say the Cal State Fullerton professor has transformed nearly as many lives as he has faces.

A nod from Zeballos is a calling card in the field of makeup application and prosthetics, an art form that has burgeoned with the production of small, low-budget independent films.

“Without Abel,” says Melanie Smith, now head of the prosthetics unit that creates much of the guts and gore at Knott’s spookfest, “I’m sure I wouldn’t have been able to have this wonderfully creative release.”

Smith, 41, first met Zeballos in 1976. As an acting major at Cal State Fullerton, she signed up for his beginning class in makeup application to fulfill a requirement.

But with each assignment--such as studying bone structure, creating shadows and highlights, and sculpting noses from putty--her skill and interest grew. Soon, Zeballos, a Corona del Mar resident, tapped her to be his assistant in the classroom and at Knott’s.

That was 19 years ago. Now, she’s in charge.

With Haunt in full swing, Smith is putting in 18- to 20-hour days making sure that Green Goblin, Zombie, Civil War Widow and other characters look as gruesome as their names imply.

Most of Smith’s crew are former students of Zeballos. Together, 17 artists give fright make-overs to several hundred cast members who spook Knott’s visitors each night. The Haunt began Oct. 1 and concludes Sunday.

Although the park employs some 1,200 monsters and goblins for the annual event, those that Smith and her crew transform are the scariest “street monsters.”

Each makeup session takes about 45 minutes. Masks are molded beforehand, then glued on to the face and painstakingly painted and airbrushed--all techniques meticulously taught by Zeballos.

“Everything is very hands-on in Abel’s class,” says 20-year-old Jamie Schumacher, a Cal State Fullerton student who will be Zeballos’ teaching assistant next semester. “He’s totally prepared us for this.”

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Zeballos has also trained students who work on movie sets. Ravinna Rada--a former assistant of Zeballos--graduated in May. Already, she has four independent films to her credit.

Another protege, Michael Burnett, 36, owns the company that did makeup for “Universal Soldier,” “Baby Geniuses” and David Lynch’s “Lost Highway.” He also does makeup for Universal Studios’ Halloween Horror Night.

Scott Clish, 35, worked 14 years on Haunt, then moved on to wardrobe and makeup duties for the Bellagio Hotel’s permanent Cirque du Soleil show in Las Vegas.

Like many of Zeballos’ students, Clish was on a different career path when he first met his mentor in 1982. He started out as a scenic design student.

“But when I took Abel’s class, I found I had a real passion for both makeup and costuming,” he said. “But I never really thought of it as a career choice. Abel really focused me.”

It’s hard to tell from this year’s crop of students which may be the next protege. Many are actors. Some want to work behind the scenes. All seem caught up in Zeballos’ infectious love for theatrical makeup.

They speak lovingly of him, but they tease him too.

“Powder, powder, powder,” they chime in unison in Zeballos’ heavy Bolivian accent when asked what they’ve most learned from their master. “You can never use enough powder!”

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Zeballos came to the United States from Bolivia in 1968 to study engineering. But after transferring to Cal State Fullerton from Orange Coast College in 1971, he took a few electives in the arts and “found his soul and passion.”

He graduated in 1974 with a degree in theater arts and worked as a stage technician for Knott’s Good Time Theater.

“They found out I could do makeup,” he says, “and they put me in charge of that [for Haunt]. And the event grew and grew. It’s a monster event now.”

Zeballos then earned a master’s degree in theater arts and design from Cal State Fullerton, where he is now an associate professor in the dance and theater department. Over his career he has provided costuming and theatrical makeup for stages throughout Southern California, including South Coast Repertory, Laguna Playhouse, Long Beach Civic Light Opera and Los Angeles’ Mark Taper Forum.

He knows his stagecraft. No wonder each student listens intently as Zeballos scrutinizes their work, as he did during a recent two-hour midterm. He uses the tip of an eraser to point out areas in need of blending or where highlights shine a tad too much.

He’s gentle with his criticism, but he’s firm too.

“I try to help them find what’s good for them--their strengths and their weaknesses. I can discourage them too,” he said.

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The exam topic is self-applied extreme-age makeup. Each student copied a photograph or magazine picture. Some modeled their wrinkled brows and crow’s feet after Rosemary Clooney’s or Madeleine Albright’s.

But like Smith did two decades before her, Koryn Ellis, 20, of Orange used a portrait of her grandmother.

“I just love Abel,” she said while applying layers of tissue paper to her face with eyelash glue, creating a papier-mache-like skin to simulate her 72-year-old grandmother’s wrinkles. “I’ve really only known him a few weeks. And now I’m going to be using him as a counselor.”

Another transformation.

Ellis is considering switching her career path from film production to theatrical makeup.

Meanwhile, Zeballos’ career is evolving too. The master of gore retired from the Knott’s gig in 1997 and happily let his students take over.

“I’ve been all sorts of things in my life,” he says. “But now I’m a teacher. I have the best job anyone could possibly have. . . . The kids--they are my payback.”