For Las Vegas actors working at Fright Dome, October is most wonderful time of the year — PHOTOS

Working at the Fright Dome isn’t all about jumping out from behind something and scaring someone. Sometimes, it’s just about being very creepy.

‘My character is rage incarnate; he’s just evil’

“I don’t really care for the whole ‘scream and scare’ thing,” said east Las Vegas resident Duran Wood, who has been working at the annual attraction at Circus Circus, 2880 Las Vegas Blvd. South, for six years. “I love the creep factor. If people don’t come near me because of how I look and how I act, that’s my favorite. You can get a pop scare anywhere, but if they go home going, ‘What was that?’ — that’s what I love. I want them to still be thinking about it in January.”

Wood is a scarer, meaning he can go anywhere in the attraction and stalk his prey. Many of the performers are constrained to a specific part of Fright Dome, but Wood’s character could be anywhere, lurking on the edge of a victim’s vision, staring at them.

“Scarer is pretty much the top tier,” Wood said. “My character is rage incarnate; he’s just evil. He’s from the witch ages in Salem (Mass.) His name, Malum, is the Latin word for evil within itself. He’s kind of animalistic.”

Wood draws on elements of Jason Voorhees from “Friday the 13th” and Michael Myers from “Halloween” for his inspiration. Many of the actors on the floor have free range to create their own costumes, and Wood was happy to do so. He worked haunted houses as a replacement actor when several people quit one year because of the rigors of the job. Although the job is physically demanding, his day jobs are as personal security for a professional golfer and a personal trainer for kickboxing.

“Stalking is very physical,” Wood said. “You’re running around, jumping over stuff, hopping over gates. I do the most acrobatic things in there. I try to do the most. I want to make it very exciting for the people who are being entertained and scared.”

— F. Andrew Taylor, View staff writer

‘A lot of people are terrified of clowns’

For some, the terror comes from primal fears, even when the person they are scared of is more interested in love and laughs than lurking and lunging.

“I do scare some people,” said Percy Radford, who works in the Clown House as a guide. “A lot of people are terrified of clowns. That’s why we are the best house.”

Radford, another east valley resident, has been working at the attraction for two years, but he worked the eight years prior at another local Halloween attraction, Monster Mayhem. At the Fright Dome, he is a Mariachi clown who usually gets his first surprise in by greeting the guests at the Clown House entrance. His suit is on backward, and when he turns around, revealing his face, it is a tad unsettling.

“I guide them through and make up funny stories about the Clown House, give it some backstory and mess with them a little,” Radford said. “The love I get from being the character that I am is great. The people (feel good), and that comes back to me, and I’m feeling good and that’s good energy to be around.

When Radner isn’t clowning around, he’s a lifeguard and CPR instructor. The part-time job helps fulfill his dream of being an actor.

— F. Andrew Taylor, View staff writer

‘I escape from straitjackets; I swallow balloon animals’

Crystal Colyer — who goes by the professional name Firefly — started at Fright Dome in 2007 and has been working Halloween attractions since she was 14 in Colorado. She lives in the east valley when work doesn’t take her to far-flung parts of the globe.

“When they see a little person interested in doing those kind of things, they go, ‘Well, we’ll just pay your mom,’ ” Firefly said of starting work when she was a child. “I got into haunted house work before I did sideshow.”

Firefly was once billed as the world’s smallest fire breather, but she doesn’t employ that particular skill anymore because it takes a hard toll on the body. She stopped when a doctor told her that she had the lungs of an 80-year-old who had been smoking for 60 years. She still does a lot of things many people would find dangerous and extreme.

“I walk on broken glass, and I have a broken glass burlesque dance that I do,” Firefly said. “I escape from straitjackets. I swallow balloon animals. I hang from fish hooks. I lie on a bed of nails and climb a machete ladder. I won’t stick anything in my nose because I think that’s weird. I like my nose.”

At Fright Dome, she is running the new Freakshow.

“I’m emceeing the shows,” Firefly said. “I’m performing a little here and there, and I’m scaring kids — all of that is squeezed into five hours a night.”

Firefly came to Fright Dome through sideshow work. She had been touring with a group that included several Las Vegas residents, and they asked her if she liked Halloween because there was this thing she might be good for.

“I’ve been all over the world doing sideshow, but Halloween is my No. 1 thing,” Firefly said. “I’d like to stay where I can and actually scare people and not do so much sideshow. Because of the Fright Dome, I had a show on the Strip called ‘Freaks’ in 2009. When that ended, I went around the world with a group called ‘Pretty Things Peepshow’ that is based in New York City and L.A. now. I’m also involved in a nightclub called Cirque le Soir with locations in London, Shanghai and Dubai. Fright Dome really opened up a lot of doors for me.”

For many of the performers at Fright Dome, the appeal of acting combined with playfully scaring people is strong enough to make them rearrange their schedules and work a second nearly full-time job for a month.

“You have to be a little crazy to want to see somebody be scared,” Wood said. “After you get that first scare, it’s a rush, and you want to keep going and going and going to get that rush again. This is the only time in the year that you’re allowed to be something different. You don’t have to be yourself. You get one month to be something extraordinary. That’s what I get a kick out of.”

— F. Andrew Taylor, View staff writer

‘If this was a full-time job, I would do it all year-round’

You can’t see the grin behind Salyn Wilson-Stryker’s mask.

But if people come into the haunted house she is working at inside Fright Dome, and she manages to get a good scare out of them, that smile is there.

“Sometimes, you have to choke back the laughter,” said Wilson-Stryker, a Henderson resident. “If this was a full-time job, I would do it all year-round.”

Stalking the rooms of the Wasteland haunted house inside Fright Dome, Wilson-Stryker is dressed in a wolf-skull mask. It’s her fifth season. At 5-feet, 2-inches, she might be small, but she has a big voice.

“I do this squeal or growl — I don’t know how else to describe it,” she said. “It sounds like a raptor and scares the crap out of people.”

Usually in her houses, her size allows her to sneak around and surprise people.

“My favorite thing is scaring the same person twice,” she said. “The best scares are when the person falls over.”

Wilson-Stryker has loved Halloween since she was a kid.

“I always loved the idea of dressing up and portraying something you’re not,” she said. “I think that’s why I did theater in high school.”

When she was younger, she would go to the neighborhood haunted houses every October. They may have not been scary, but they were fun.

“They would have you put your hands in spaghetti or grapes, pretending they’re eyeballs,” she said. “It provided good theatrics.”

By the time she was 13, she visited Fright Dome for the first time. It was that experience that caused her to face her fear of clowns when one of the actors chased her. She laid on the ground in a ball.

“And he was holding a chainsaw over me,” she said. “I’ve gotten much better with clowns because of that. I mean, circus clowns still unnerve me, but not horror clowns.”

Her most terrifying haunted house experience was Hotel Fear, in which she was forced to go into an all-white room with smoke and strobe lights. Guests can’t see anything in the room.

“The actors wore all white and would jump out at you,” she said.

Because of her love of Halloween, she knew she would become an actor at one of those places. But the minimum age to work is 18.

“So I began counting down until that day,” she said.

In 2011, she did her first audition for Fright Dome. She gave her best scream and was asked to scare someone else in the room. A week later, she learned she got the job.

Wilson-Stryker’s first role was in the Michael Myers/”Halloween”-themed home as a victim. She didn’t like the role though.

“I was just screaming and telling people to go away,” she said. “I wanted to be one of the ones who was scaring.”

She was switched into Hillbilly Hell, spending the rest of her season.

Each year, Wilson-Stryker returns. Though she has been asked to the clown house, she prefers the haunts that are post-apocalyptic themed.

Though she works at Fright Dome for the season, she is able to try out other attractions, such as Knott’s Scary Farm in California.

“It’s my goal, to work there,” she said. “I’m going to audition next season for them.”

Toward the end of Halloween season, she and other actors will try out some of the other Fright Dome houses. It is always a goal to scare each other.

“That is an achievement, if you can scare another actor,” she said.

Wilson-Stryker hopes to act as long as she can. If that doesn’t pan out, she is going to school for makeup and hair design and would love to do special effects.

— Michael Lyle, View Staff Writer

‘I’m actually a big scaredy cat’

Around the corner from the Wasteland haunted house is Fright Dome’s main attraction: “Five Nights At Freddy’s.” There, Sunshine Davis, who is managing the house, helps actors find their potential in creating the biggest and best scares.

“I help them find ways to bring their character to life,” she said.

It wasn’t long ago that Davis was an actor for one of the attractions before moving up to manager. Like Wilson-Stryker, she too had a love for Halloween growing up and the ability to become just about anyone or anything for a night.

However, haunted houses and horror movies scared Davis.

“I’m actually a big scaredy cat,” she said. “The first time I visited Fright Dome, I walked through terrified. I was a hot mess.”

But she loved acting and thought working for a haunted house would be challenging and fun despite her fears. About 10 years ago, she decided to audition at the encouragement of her friend, another actor.

“I started out as a zombie,” she said.

Davis remembered she would stay perfectly still in her house so people thought she wasn’t real.

“They would push me and yank me,” she said. “It wasn’t mean or hurtful. They just wanted to see if I was real. I would just stay still.”

When the moment was right and their guards were down, Davis would jump out and scare them. She said the feeling was exhilarating.

“I love it when the girls fall down crying because they are so scared,” she said. “Or I really love it when I see big guys get scared.”

Besides acting and managing, Davis is also involved in the audition process, helping to choose the next round of actors each October.

Overall, she said working at Fright Dome has helped her.

“It has made me a lot stronger,” she said. “This has opened me up much more to the idea of haunted houses and horror movies. I have definitely grown.”

— Michael Lyle, View Staff Writer

‘When people pee themselves, it usually means you did a good job’

“It’s a way for people to do something that they normally wouldn’t be able to do because it’d be out of character for them,” said Dana Graves, a North Las Vegas resident and Fright Dome actress. “This type of acting is really rewarding because it removes stress for the whole year — it’s really like therapy. Most of us do it because we’re passionate about scaring people.”

Graves, 55, has been working at Fright Dome for four years. The former high school theater student first auditioned with her daughter-in-law and has been cast as a roamer, walking the outskirts and finding unsuspecting victims.

She channels her inner axe-murderer or “dirty mama,” as she’s lovingly been called, before she is let loose inside the park.

“I’m crazy, but I’m still a person as opposed to a monster,” she said. “I’m just the type of person that you wouldn’t want to find when you go down for a walk on a foggy night because I’ll attack you for no reason at all.”

Her best reaction was from a 30-year-old man who she chased around for a half-hour before he got so scared he peed himself.

“I was probably his worst nightmare,” Graves said. “When people pee themselves, it usually means you did a good job.”

Then there are the people who are disrespectful to the actors, running and spitting at them. But despite these incidents — and not being able to sit down from 7 p.m. to midnight — Graves said she enjoys being able to reinvent herself nightly and partake in conversations.

“It’s literally exhausting because I’m always chasing people,” she said. “I’ll pop out of dark corners, and at the end of the night, people will come to shake my hand and thank me or take pictures with me. It’s really rewarding.”

— Sandy Lopez, View Staff Writer

‘I make people cry’

Nothing bonds father and son Lorenzo and Adrian Aguirre like Halloween. For these two Aliante residents, there’s something magical about screaming like an insane person or acting possessed.

“It’s just fun for us to become different people,” Lorenzo, 43, said. “I think my role involves more acting this year, whereas (Adrian’s) is more about scaring people.”

This year, they will be working inside the all-new Ouija solo maze, an up-charge attraction at Fright Dome where guests are left to navigate an abandoned hospital alone with haunted “spirits.”

Lorenzo takes on the role of a possessed orderly, while Adrian, 20, wears a straitjacket and mask.

“When people see me, a lot of them are hesitant to go in, but you can’t get out unless you get through me,” Adrian said. “The way I scare people is really intense. I won’t give up until they’re scared and they can’t take it anymore. I make people cry.”

Both love the challenge of taking on a different persona, but how they get into character varies.

Adrian will listen to heavy metal music and watch horror movies, while Lorenzo will “purify” himself by listening to Christian music.

“My role is kind of controversial because it has to do with exorcism,” Lorenzo said. “A lot of religious people are scared to go into my room.”

They’ve seen every type of reaction, from a person banging on the exit door to get out, to someone peeing their pants and an older man frozen in fear.

Last year, they said a co-worker even got punched and choked by customers.

Prior to working at Fright Dome, the duo had their own haunted house at their home. Lorenzo would wait outside to guide guests in while Adrian would roam around scaring people.

The tradition was passed down from Lorenzo’s father who let him do a haunted house for his neighborhood when he was in eighth grade.

“I’ve always been into horror,” Adrian said. “I just love it.”

“I’m just glad exposing him to horror early didn’t make him scared,” Lorenzo said. “This has been a way for us to bond together. After a night of performance, we talk about what we could’ve done better and about all the people we scared.”

— Sandy Lopez, View Staff Writer

‘Anyone can have fancy props, but you want someone committed to their character’

“You can tell the ones who get into it,” said Fright Dome production manager Drew Beddow. “It’s pretty apparent. Anyone can have fancy props, but you want someone committed to their character.”

He should know: Beddow has been playing his own character, the Happi Kannibal, for 15 years. He wears a straitjacket with hidden arm slits, the better to wield his 15-pound prop chainsaw. Over the years, he’s added some fashion accessories such as chains and a respirator mask for extra effect.

Like his costume, his role has grown. No longer merely a cast member, he started setting up the show when it expanded to Hong Kong a few years ago. He also flies to New York City and, most recently, to Boston to set up venues there.

He said getting into character was not difficult at all, especially once he’s in makeup.

“I find my inner cannibal,” he joked, then turned serious. “It’s actually rather therapeutic.”

Sometimes his character stays with him after the show. He said he’s forgotten to remove his contact lenses, which make his eyes appear milky white, when he’s stopped for groceries on the way home.

“People will look at you funny,” he said. “Then you realize you forgot (to take them out).”

— Jan Hogan, View Staff Writer

‘I’m like a kid in a candy store’

Like many others involved in Fright Dome, Christopher Arredondo grew up enamored with Halloween, dressing up as spooky characters to hand out candy. That led to working in the film industry as a makeup artist.

Not to make people look alluring, though.

“I do the creature side,” he said. “Anything blood and guts.”

His latest film was “Puppet Master 11.” Arredondo gets at least two hours to apply makeup for a movie.

“Here, you have, like, 10, 15 minutes, tops,” he said of Fright Dome. “You have over 300 people to do, so you have to get them in and out as fast as possible.”

If a character has a prosthetic, such as an open wound, it’s applied first. Once the glue has dried, Arredondo can get to the makeup. Moisture is not his friend. Last year, it rained — hard. The actors, already in makeup and waiting outside, had to scramble to get under the eaves.

Arredondo patched them up. He roams Fright Dome to ensure everything looks good.

“I’m like a kid in a candy store,” Arredondo said. “Yes, I’m checking their makeup from a technical aspect, but I also kind of want to be scared. The whole time, I have a smile on my face.”

— Jan Hogan, View Staff Writer

‘It’s like an adrenaline rush’

Not all the ghouls are male. Patsy McAteer works at CVS by day but loves Halloween so much, she auditioned for Fright Dome four years ago. She has been rehired each year since.

She said the fright gene runs in the family. For two years, her daughter, Kim, 26, was worked alongside her in Fright Dome, and her son, Jonathan, 22, did it for one year.

McAteer said she gets as much out of it as the patrons.

“Once you’re in that character, you thrive for the scare,” she said. “It’s like an adrenaline rush.”

She said women bring their own special brand of terror to the Halloween experience. Her own M.O. is to freeze in position like a mannequin, her hair combed over her face, on the lookout for her next unsuspecting victim.

“The men can (wield) chainsaws, yeah, but the women, we have tendency to wear makeup that’s scary,” she said. “It’s all in how you take on your character.”

Women bring another aspect to Fright Dome — maternal compassion. One year, a girl of about 7 or 8 was going through the attraction with her parents when McAteer jumped out suddenly at her. The girl began crying inconsolably and was so traumatized that McAteer broke character to walk the family out.

“I felt really bad, and I apologized,” she said. “I said, ‘See, I’m a real person. Don’t be scared.’ ”

— Jan Hogan, View Staff Writer

‘You never know how people are going to react’

Christian Moral works as a sound technician at Fright Dome, so becoming an actor was a natural next step. To get into character, he dons headphones and puts on his favorite heavy metal bands: Metallica, Disturbed, Slipknot or Drowning Pool.

This is his fifth year creeping out patrons in character. These days, he’s given a chainsaw to fire up. That’s when the mantra of ensuring safety was driven home.

“You never know how people are going to react, if they’re going to turn and run straight into something or what,” Moral said. “It’s the fight or flight thing.”

One time, a patron reacted by punching him in the stomach. He had eaten a big dinner and quickly left his post to throw up.

“You don’t want to pick fights with guests because a lot of times, the people will have been drinking.” he added.

Beddow concurred and said he teaches newbie zombies who run after people to break off their approach so patrons don’t get hurt as they flee in a blind panic.

“We don’t call it ‘chasing after people,’ ” Beddow said. “We prefer the term ‘stalking’ … Fright Dome is always evolving. Every year, we’re topping ourselves.”

— Jan Hogan, View Staff Writer

‘I was envisioning being chained to a bus or someone threatening to chop my head off’

Simon John Cheng is a professional by day and a terror by night.

During any work day, while looking after guests at Mandalay Bay, you’ll find the 25-year-old southwest Las Vegas resident looking polished, dressed in a crisp suit and tie and clean shoes, with a smile on his face. .

Cheng’s Halloween alter ego, Dusty, however has a more crude personality and outfits. And the experience he wants to give unsuspecting visitors at Fright Dome at Circus Circus is a sense of fear.

Outside of the Halloween atmosphere, Cheng keeps Dusty bottled up and hidden away, only revealing his secret to friends and co-workers who share his love for Halloween.

”If you tell them that when the sun goes down, that you are a man with a chainsaw that chases children, (people) might look at you funny,” Cheng said.

A Southern California native, Cheng grew up going to haunted theme parks such as Universal Studios and Knott’s Scary Farm. One of the first things he looked for after moving to Las Vegas were local Halloween attractions.

Cheng became a regular visitor to Fright Dome, and in 2011, he decided he wanted to be on the other side.

Cheng said it was his blood-curdling scream that won him his first role as a victim in a chainsaw house.

“I was envisioning being chained to a bus or someone threatening to chop my head off,” Cheng said.

As he grew more comfortable, Cheng’s roles over the past five years have transitioned from prey to predator. His favorite role so far as has been a twisted clown that guides guests through the attraction.

To prepare for his roles, Cheng makes and designs his costumes months in advance. He also binge-watches scary movies and prank videos where he’ll get costume and prop ideas, as well as dialogue for his characters.

However, Cheng said there has to be a balance between scary and fun because he said the best part about haunted houses should be that guests are never in real danger.

“We want them to feel terrified and scared, to have that adrenaline rush that they would get from watching a scary movie or a suspense film, but we also want to make sure that it’s fun,” he said. “Because when you are watching a scary movie, you’re safe in that theater. Nothing is going to happen to you when you are sitting down.

“It’s the same thing with haunted houses. Of course, there’s that sense of terror and the pending doom, but nothing is ever going to hurt.”

Aside from giving people the scare they paid for, Cheng enjoys the camaraderie and teamwork that it takes to put together the Fright Dome experience.

“Most people don’t know how much work goes into making people as scary as they are,” Cheng said. “Yes, it has to do with a person’s acting, but someone built that room, set up fog machines, added makeup and sewed clothes. Lots of us, we help each other out, and I love that.”

— Rocio Hernandez, View intern reporter