Hello and welcome to Good News York or should
I say Spooky News York? This is it's October.
We're getting closer to Halloween. So of course
it would make complete sense to have kind of
a Halloween themed episode. We're going to have
a bunch of Halloween themed episodes, but today
is extra special. I have a very special guest.
I am Mike Brindisi. You can follow me on all
socials at Mike B TV. We are sponsored by ads
on the go get ads on the go .com. Matt is not
here this morning because he was too afraid to
do this interview because he's a wuss. I am joined
by a very special guest remotely. She is the
production director for Frightmare Farms in Palermo,
New York. Nicole Ginsburg is on the show. Good
morning, Nicole. You look and sound way nicer
than someone that scares the shit out of people
for a living. Thank you very much. I actually
get that a lot. When I'm lurking around in the
park, I tell people all the time, I do happen
to be one of the scariest people here when I'm
running through lines or doing other stuff because
people constantly are like, oh my God, you scared
me. I did my job. That's great. So Frightmare
Farms. This has been going on since 2012. It's
in Palermo, New York. kind of northeast of Fulton.
It's been going on since 2012, 400 attractions,
200 plus crew members, 40 acres. I mean, this
is a massive operation. This is not your county
fair hall of mirrors. Give me a little background
on you and how this all started and came together.
For me, myself, I work as a live entertainment
producer. That is now what my full -time job
is. I get to work all over the country. doing
live entertainment. And obviously Frightmare
is live entertainment. How I got here is years
of performing as myself, right? When I was younger,
I did a lot of theater, a lot of acting, dance.
I toured. I had a whole life even before I was
18 years old, right? I got into haunting very,
very, very early to raise money. I found that
my philanthropy side of me started at a young
age and I learned that haunted houses made, you
know, great fundraisers. And so I did them for
a number of places, including my dance studio,
which still runs a very successful haunted house
to this day and was able to... kind of get that
love for it. And so that love obviously has carried
on. That love is now carrying on through even
my children, my whole family. And so it got this
huge, almost like snowball effect and it's just
continued. And now, like I said, I am lucky enough
to work at a national level with haunted attractions
across the country. And yeah. That's how we've
gotten to this point. And we just, we're gonna
never stop growing as much as we can. That's
absolutely amazing. Are you, is this something
that you were on the ground floor of where they
purchased the land or is it they hired you as
a producer? I've been here since the beginning.
This has been, we've been building this myself
and the other ownership. have been building this
for a long time, right? Like this was something
we ventured off on kind of on a whim and was
like, let's just try it. Let's just see what
happens. And you know, since then I've grown
more in the business. I've obviously learned
more. You know, there's not a book out there
about owning a haunted attraction, but you know.
we're writing it and we're figuring it out and
having a heck of a lot of fun while we're doing
it um but yeah no it was it it was not something
since i was very young going i want to own a
haunted house someday right it was okay this
is really cool let's try it let's do it oh this
is perfect it's seasonal you know but now it
is all right next week starts 2026 and all of
the cool things that we're going to be doing
for that and you know so it's it's 365 days a
year and i do say five because like i said my
family's involved in it and we even talk about
this at christmas yeah that's so great um you
know it is a huge process to plan for something
like this. And I also feel like you know, you
having a performance background, it kind of,
you know, not only are you doing something that
you enjoy, it's making money, but you're also
kind of scratching that performance edge too,
am I right? You know, for me, a lot of my creative
contribution to it is the scenic design and the
set design and that type of stuff, but it's also
the performance design. You know, the scares,
you know, bringing in new people and teaching
them how to be a haunt actor, it's much different
than being a stage actor. You're on constantly,
right? You're part of the constant show and part
of the growing and large story. So it is, that's
one thing that I absolutely love is bringing
people in that have acting experience. But I
also really love bringing people in that are
like, I just want to be scary. I'm like, perfect.
Guess what? You're about to be an actor. Like,
you know, let's go. You know, it's funny you
mentioned that because I was going to ask. I've
read something here that not only are your actors
award -winning, but it says here, professionally
trained. And I'm wondering what is that process
like? Because my mind goes a million places.
I just picture everyone in a line, and you're
like, now you scream. You give me a gurgle. How
does it work? We have a very unique training
process. That's so, yes. One, we have in -house,
obviously. Two, we have people from all over
New York state that are part of this and they
have done everything from acting in movies to
acting on stage to even like full -length feature
Disney films to being on Broadway. So we've got
a large range of people that are involved, but
we also have a lot of people that have directed,
that have been, you know, taught classes on theater
and done, you know, their full gambit when it
comes to performing that have helped us create
our own unique training sessions. And we do require
that our actors go through our training process.
We call it ghoul school. You have to learn exactly
how to be a character. And then we shape it from
there to the character that they are as well.
That is awesome. And that just shows the level
that you guys are at, right? You know, if this
isn't, hey, everybody dress up and just jump
out and say, boo, this is a full fledged production,
live production. We used to, you know, we would
hire people for the season and we'd grab a few
extras here and there. We've been hired for our
season since. like june of this year. A constantly
reach out and u a lot of people reach out like,
yeah, we're so sorry for the season. Um, but
d us, you know, if you ever if you ever want
to work f us in april and may, like we don't
even put out anymore people are coming to us
eve season and are like, hey, I makeup or hey,
I've always And that's one of the biggest things
is like, as soon as we hear, I've always wanted
to perfect. We've always wanted to help you do
that. Right. So we're we're about, you know,
bringing them in, helping to elevate that and
helping to educate. On the other side, we we
spend a lot of. investments into our people.
We do a lot of conferences across the country
that come with training sessions. We require
our managers have certain amount of education
when it comes to safety, when it comes to their
ability to train and to manage and to lead. We
also require that our actors take their extra
steps with their training here internally. And
then we give opportunities for additional training,
whether it be that they want to get into cue
acting or they want to get into certain style
of scare acting. And we give them those opportunities.
We also bring them to other shows all over the
country and let them see what other professional
attractions they're doing as well. Well, this
is such an amazing operation and I have so much
respect for it I mean the work you guys put in
in the detail speaking of the crew that you're
talking about Something that caught my eye. It
says new for 2025 flight mayor farms introduces
flight Attendance, which by the way, I'm a huge
sucker for puns. I love that. So you have It's
the best. So you have these freaky concierge
crew dressed like flight attendants. But what
really caught my eye is it says they're ready
to assist with everything from navigating the
park and adjusting scare levels. Talk to me about
scare levels because I am the worst. I would
need scare level zero because I'm like a skittish
chihuahua. If someone walks around the corner
too fast, I scream. What's the scare level? Something
we started doing years ago is realizing that
a lot of people want to be around the park. They
don't want to be truly terrified, right? And
we can produce scary and we can do scary and
terrifying really well, but scary and terrifying
is not always enjoyable, right? So what we realized
is that we needed to offer something that could
kind of calibrate that a little bit more. And
we started doing candle scares. They're perfect
for our younger audience and anybody that's kind
of faint of heart. They get a small candle and
that is to indicate that that person does not
want to be scared. Or if it's at the front of
the group, that whole group doesn't want to be
scared. With that said though, there is times
that even that candle is not holding a candle
to stopping the scares. So what we do is we bring
our fright attendance in. to help navigate those
levels of scare. And they will actually go in
as scare buddies. We really pride ourselves on
being that first experience for a lot of our
younger audience and feeling safe enough to be
in that environment, right? Anybody can scare
a little kid. They can. Is it fun? actually know,
right? Like why do you want to be part of that
person's nightmare? Everybody remembers the first
time they got truly terrified. They also remember
their very first time that they like truly fell
in love with Halloween. and I'd rather be associated
with the truly falling in love with Halloween
than being truly terrified, because usually the
truly terrified, you can describe where that
property was, you can describe what that actor
was, but you can't, you don't know the name,
you don't know the processes, you know, but I
can remember my first Halloween experience and
falling in love with Halloween. I can tell you
what it looked like. I can tell you exactly where
it is. I can tell you down to who even owned
the property because I got that far into it as
a child, right? So there is a lot more value
in that, at least in my opinion, than... having
it be that it's truly terrifying, right? And
they also, that stems off of our initiative of
inclusivity. I am a parent with a child with
autism. And what I learned really early on is
that the world is not accessible to us as a family
in many instances. And so we were able to actually
take and figure out that there are programs that
will make our property inclusive all the time.
Yes, the sensory inclusion. That was my next
question. The freight attendants are actually
an offshoot of that. That is an additional level
of being inclusive and learning more about what
we can do from a sensory level and being able
to accommodate at a much, much higher level,
right? So all of our staff is already trained,
so they fully understand that aspect. Taking
a portion of that training and being able to
instantly modify the show. has been just something
for me as a person has been kind of priceless,
right? Like there's, there is no other way to
describe that besides being able to give those
memories to families is just, my job is done,
right? Like as soon as I hear that once in a
season, I'm like, perfect, hang it up, we're
good, let's move on to the next season, like.
What an amazing gesture to do, you know, at this
level, you know, in the haunted attraction world,
I've never heard of sensory inclusion and it's
so important. Well, it is because a lot of it,
you know, a lot of times people talk about like
their fight or flight gets... it gets activated,
right? So like they immediately, like that's
part of it, right? Like that's a sensory response
when somebody gets into that motion and they're
like, oh, my fear instinct is to punch, right?
Well, there's certain things with that, that
there's a reason for that, right? There's some
sort of event or something that's happened to
you that makes you react that way. We actually
design our show to the best of our ability, knowing
that people do that and try to help, you know,
avoid that as much as poss said, that happens
to our happens to some of our older it also happens
to younger had, you know, things happ anxiety,
trauma, you know, into that. And many times they
even have it until t A lot of individuals that
have epilepsy can't go to haunted attractions.
We use flashing lights. We use unpredictable
lighting environments. We've figured that out.
We worked with a neurologist that started Culture
City, and we can accommodate that. And once we
kind of got to that point where we could accommodate
that, I was like, we can really do anything,
right? We can individualize this experience without
taking away from others' experience very easily.
And all we gotta do is have some extra people
available. that are able to kind of tailor things,
and that's where the Fright Attendants came from.
Nicole, I am blown away by how thoughtful you
are in all of this. Again, I'm a wuss, so I don't
go to many haunted attractions, but I'm aware
there are many. Are you guys unique in that?
Are you the only attraction that you know that
offers these accommodations, for lack of a better
term? We are the leader of the industry on this
side, for sure. So we have been certified center
-inclusive since 2019. I have actually worked
with Culture City to work on a number of attractions
joining us on that front. We're working very
hard with the Haunted Attraction Association
to push towards making that a requirement. for
all major haunted attractions, right? Because
it is something that is so easy to do. It is
very accessible. My crew gets so excited to all
be trained on it every single year. They get
to kind of wear that badge of honor with it.
And yes, I, again, this is my nature is to be
in hospitality, but also I very much of the mindset
of I produce all of these things across the country
for everybody else. I produce at the same level
for my own children. So that kind of goes hand
in hand, right? I would modify the world any
day for my kids. Why can't I just modify the
world here that we have for anybody's child,
right? What a beautiful sentiment. That's the
weak theory answer ever. I know, I know. And
you know what you're talking about, that you're
scared. Guess what? You can still come on our
grounds and feel safe. There are zones that just
hang out for free. and enjoy all of the environment
because we do not put truly terrifying things
out in the midway except when we have chaos activated,
right? We, yes. Whoa. Well, I was going to talk
about that too. First of all, this might be the
first haunted attraction that I actually go to
with my family because, you know, a lot of haunted
attractions portray it as We want you to be scared.
We want to scare the shit out of you. We don't
care about your trauma. We don't care. And then
you have, you know, you're an adult. So then
you sit there and you go, well, I can't act scared.
I've got to be strong. I love that you guys are
thinking of everybody involved and saying, Hey,
yes, we want to scare the crap out of you, but
it's safe because sometimes you don't know. who's
behind the scenes, and is it really safe? You
don't know. So I love that. You were talking
about some of the newer themes, and one of them
is the chaos unleashed unpredictability, which
seems like the antithesis of what we were just
talking about. What does that entail? So chaos
is a full -on activation. There are a number
of people who are like, I've never seen this
anywhere. It is new. It is new. It is a crazy
concept that was thought up and I was like, let's
try it. Let's do it. It is all of our high energy
actors that we love and adore that are in certain
attractions or they're part of our already existing
lot monsters. They... a few times a night have
a very special overlay show that happens in one
part of our Midway, and they just take over.
And in that time, it is terror, right? There
is all sorts of lights and sounds and extra fog
and other effects that are coming out. And there's,
you know, it's chaos. It is chaotic. It is crazy.
And then it's done. And everybody that's... participated
or stayed right there, um, are either like right
in the heart of it because they run right in
or they stay kind of on the outskirts and kind
of watch others interacting or they're like,
no, I hear that, that, that siren. I'm good.
I'm going in line. I, I, I'm going to hear the
screams from a distance. All good. Right. So
it's, it's made to be that way. Right. It's like
the rainforest cafe. Every half hour, it pretends
there's a storm, except you just scare the shit
out of people. Exactly. But it's also a chance
for like, we have a couple of different iconic
characters and characters that people follow
on social media and TikTok. And you know, our
socials are really large and they have a large
following. And they've also got a lot of people
that are very involved with it as well. And they're
fans. But two of our scratches and slashes are
two of our clown style characters in the premier
way. And they are, they like head up the chaos.
many times people are like, where are they? Where
are they? Why can't I take a picture with them?
You know, that has also helped that as well.
Now we know where they are. We know when they're
coming out. You also know that, you know, once
you hear that noise, that is your time. That
is when they are doing that performance piece
and then they're around right after that. That's
outstanding. Is there, are there certain elements
or circumstances that somebody knows when to
go, hey, it's time for unleashed unpredictability
or, or is it just random every single night?
I will obviously we have a schedule behind the
scenes. So like we know what's happening. Um,
but there are times that we add extra shows in,
uh, we do it when there's, there's a lot of people
on the property or, you know, we know that a
lot of people have kind of done at least two
of the attractions and you know, this is their
time. They've just taken a break and they're
getting food or they're watching the outdoor
movie or they're just like, hanging out by the
fire, right? This is the way to kind of jump
start that experience again, and you know, get
that blood pumping and get ready for that adrenaline
rush. That is as crazy. Are you able to peel
the curtain back a little bit? What kind of things
go on when when this? Yeah, so I will a little
bit only because we've started putting it all
over social media as well. I don't want you to
give it away. I don't want to be that bad. There's
a whole soundtrack, a custom soundtrack that
we made and it will let you know that chaos is
released and that it's activated and that be
prepared because here is the time. Right beforehand,
insider tip, fog will be dispersed into the midway
and you will start to see this team kind of getting
set for it. Yes, and so you'll know that's when
the lights and the sound and all that other stuff
are starting. I need this for when my kids get
home from school. You know, an alarm goes off,
chaos about to begin. You do have some other
new themes for 2025. I don't know if you wanted
to talk about those a little bit. Hold on one
second. Okay, sorry. We've got all sorts of great
things happening. even though it's like our last
week, but we, yeah. So Harvest of Shadows is
what is happening in our labyrinth right now.
Our labyrinth is our haunted maze. That is the,
it is a usually heavy themed area of twists and
turns. And, you know, it's probably one of our
more chaotic. attractions. And that one is it
is very lively. It is a lot of energy and they
are having a great time with that theme. Our
outdoor trail right now is infestation. And that
has to do more with like mutation and a new fear
that I didn't even know that I had of like holes,
like the holes in the skin and like, you know,
I had that I had that. until like one of our
actors walked out and had this great like makeup
and prosthetic. And I was like, I don't like
that. So that's crazy that you just said that
because there was a couple of years ago, my wife
was eating a grapefruit. And when she got done,
there were a bunch of holes in it. And I just
remember, I was like, oh, I don't like looking
at that. And then I saw like the honeycomb or
like a, not a honeycomb, like a bee's nest with
all the holes. And I remember thinking that was
freaky. And then I was on the phone with my mother
and she explained how she's like, I just found
out I have this thing where like, I don't like
holes. And I said, that's what I have. I've never
met anyone else other than my mother that has
had that. It's real. It's a real thing. That
you could do an entire theme park of things with
holes in it. And I would be terrified. But anyway,
I could go down that road, but I won't. So I
show up to the park my first time. Is it? once
you're in, are you guaranteed to see every attraction
or do you kind of choose? How does that work?
Once you are here, you have ticketing options,
right? We obviously suggest that you see all
four. That's the full night of fear with us.
But you get to come in. Hydrate to the box office.
We have VIP options available as well as our
all four attractions. Then once you're in, depending
on how the night is going, we try to help tailor
the best show possible, right? So if we're telling
you, hey, start with this attraction. end with
this attraction. It's usually because for us,
we've checked that and we want the best experience
for our customers. And so that's how you're kind
of guided through the night. There are our super
fans that know exactly what they want to do,
how they want to do it. And by all means, you
guys go right ahead and do that. Our last ticket
sells right at 10 p .m. So after that, attractions
start closing shortly thereafter. So, you know,
we let people kind of do their own thing. for
the most part, and get the experience that they
want. That's fantastic. Nicole Ginsburg, Frightmare
Farms, just a couple more questions and we'll
get you out of here. I know you're busy, but
I'm just fascinated by all of this. Now, I noticed
in the beginning of the interview you talked
about how you found this love for scaring and
haunted houses. I have other friends and acquaintances
that are kind of in this world with you. And
it seems like, I don't know, is there a moment,
does something happen that triggers it? And once
it happens, what is it that drives that love
and that passion for it? Do you just love scaring
people or is it the getting to dress up? What
is the ambition? So I'm going to give you a really
rare answer. My drive and ambition from it is
actually that life itself is really hard. It
is really scary. And there are so many things,
real things that are happening in this world.
And for me, even when I started, I was terrified.
I'm not even kidding. There's stories like when
we first started of me going through with like
huge things of water and a flashlight. And I
was joking, but also serious. I was like, scare
me and I'll fire you because I was so. It's scared,
right? And it used to be like your favorite thing
to try to do. Now though, I have learned how
to control myself. Like I can be scared at any
point. I know how to like get my body to that
point where I can control my stress level and
control anger and things like that, and be able
to just kind of relax and have fun. For me, learning
how to do that gave me even more... motivation
and fire to keep producing at the level that
we're producing, right? We don't sell tickets.
We sell joy. We sell memories. We sell time with
family. We sell our creations, right? And we're
getting to create and spend time and, you know,
do all these other things with people, people
that before they come here are, you know, fighting
to pay bills are had a really stressful day at
work. Kids that went to school and are either
getting bullied or having a hard time, right?
Whatever it is, we have created something that
allows people to drop that right at the door
and to come into a world that we help control
how they feel at that very moment. That's powerful
in so many ways, but that's also why Halloween
I think has always been important and why so
many people are attracted to Halloween, right?
It's that one night a year, right? But when you
look at it, it is, yes, the colors are beautiful.
Yes, this and that, all of these positive things,
but it's usually cold, it's usually rainy, it's
usually miserable, right? However, even those
things, as a kid, you very much learned how to
look past all of that and find the joy. in something
that's actually scary and something that is actually
terrifying and something that's actually supposed
to be not fun, right? But we learned that at
a very early age. And so for me, that's my motivation
and my psychology behind it is like, wait a minute,
this is a larger metaphor all the way around.
And even for myself, learning to overcome that
fear really I saw like a mug one day that was
like, life begins just outside your comfort zone.
And I was like, huh, buddy, it really does. It
really does, right? And so that's why I do what
I do and why I love it. Such a great answer.
And you know, it's funny because I'm sitting
here as you're speaking, I'm like. your competition
is almost reality because what I'm reading in
the news daily is scarier than any haunted house
that I could go through or a haunted attraction.
I was lucky enough to do an interview with a
very large news station about this a year or
so ago regarding haunted house themes and trends
and behind the scenes and behind the industry
and I've had deeper conversations about this
of actually where we help go. because it very
much is influenced by real life. Serial killers,
zombies, all that are not scary right now, because
that's our real life. That's our real world.
However, aliens, witches, and dinosaurs, nobody's
ever really seen those. Those are really scary
right now. True. Right? Yeah, right. Not yet.
Not yet. Yeah. Real quick. I feel like this is
kind of a hack question, but I have to ask it.
What is the craziest reaction you've seen from
somebody who's come to Frightmare Farm? Oh my
God. I mean, there's always the yellow badge
and brown badges, right? That people will get.
Uh huh. Yeah, that's not even the craziest. I
think one of the craziest is, oh my gosh. I mean,
there's always the fall on the floor and crawl
out. There's always the you know whatever um
we've had people that have you know the fear
reaction of you know reaching out and touching
an actor by the way don't do that please um but
I think like the most crazy would be like somebody
that has gotten so scared they turned around
and gone all the way back out to the entrance
and just like ran out the entrance and they like
couldn't couldn't handle it right um but you
know again that's been years since we've done
that normally with people like that somebody
identifies and they're like nope here you go
here's a dump zone right all good like we want
you to be safe absolutely awesome frightmare
farms You're going into your last weekend. It's
in Palermo, New York. Give us the plugs, social
media, tickets, anything. We do suggest getting
tickets prior to coming on property to help with
the ticket line wait. However, if you want to
pay cash or you want to do on site, that's totally
fine. We have a large box office. We do accept
cash card tap to pay. We have food right on site.
We've got all sorts of fun shops. Somebody said
in a review recently, it's like our own little
Halloween city, which is true. We do love parents
to just come out and hang out while their kids
go through attractions. We also love large groups
to come out and to screen with us. We are on
all of the major socials. We're on Instagram,
YouTube, Facebook, and TikTok. Our actors love
creating content. Shout out to our content coven
that is a group of people that are constantly
producing stuff. And we love having fun. We love
interacting with our audiences. We love doing
special appearances and parades and other community
events. So we are here. We are local. I am born
and raised here. And I get the opportunity to
work all over the place. However, my favorite
place to work is right here in central New York.
So we're always looking for opportunities for
ourselves, for our actors, and to just interact.
And soon you'll be able to scare the hell out
of Micron employees. That's going to be fun.
I will say it's been a pleasure meeting you and
speaking with you. Obviously, you're in Palermo,
New York. It's kind of in the middle of nowhere.
Is that because it makes it more scary? Or is
that so when people are screaming, nobody calls
the cops? Or is it kind of a mixture of both?
It's kind of a mixture of both. I mean, we wanted
a large area. opportunity to grow and that's
how we ended up here. Yeah. All right. Last question.
Got to ask favorite horror character of all time.
It would be Frankenstein. I'm a classic monster.
Really? Classic. I love that. Now is Frankenstein
the monster or the scientist? Cause there's only
that debate. Mine would be Frankenstein's monster.
The monster. Okay. I love that. That is fantastic.
Nicole Ginsburg, Frightmare Farms. It has been
an absolute pleasure. Check them out on all social
media. This is their last weekend. 40 acres of
fear, 200 crew members, four haunted attractions.
I have a suggestion for someone you could hire
to scare people. They're they look very, you
know, they're very emaciated. They're hungry
looking. Alright, so I'm going to go ahead and
plug a movie that my my son is actually in is
a 44 by the vegan zombie and it is a wonderful
film that just launched this year and you should
definitely take a look at it if you are into
that because for sure it's a great movie. It's
available on Amazon, YouTube, all the fun things.
Yeah. All right, last, last, last question. Favorite
horror movie? It would be Trick or Treat. Yes.
Really? Favorite regular Halloween movie? Great
question. Yeah, see, I'm learning that there
is a whole cult following with this Hocus Pocus.
And it's becoming more mainstream today with
social media than it was originally. I'm gonna
have to check that out. All right, Nicole Ginsburg,
Frightmare Farms. Thank you so much for joining
us. Happy Halloween. Happy Halloween. And with
that, it's Mike Brindisi on another episode of
Good News York, sponsored by ads on the go, getadsonthego
.com. Follow me on all socials, at MikeBTV, and
we will see you tomorrow.