4 minute read
Last Call
Dick Durland author of ‘Halloween: Life of the Party’
Dick Durland of Paxton een party, I remember we didn’t of spiderwebs; some you will see bunch of little 15-second snippets wants to take your Hallow- cover the top foot because the and some you won’t see. We hang of old-time horror movies. een party to the next level. reams of wallpaper came up short. pieces of thread from the ceiling at His new book, “Halloween: We just left it. The elements of about shoulder length to give you You discussed four of the Life of the Party,” outlines the top trickery grew as the years went by. that cobwebby brush. At a store in senses. You clearly create a distips for throwing a spooky bash Salem, we bought vampire blood tinct smell, look, feel and sound. your guests will never forget. When I think about a Hallow- incense, which we burn for its What about taste? What’s on een party, I imagine wearing a distinct aroma. All of the internal the menu? Oh my gosh, we have What did the path to becoming blindfold and feeling my way lighting is orange. There’s a fog a whole section on food. Presena published author look like for through a bowl of grapes that machine that lets out intermittent tation is everything. One of the you? I always wanted to write are supposed to be eyeballs. bursts. A thunder and lightning recipes is just chips and salsa, but someday. It was on my bucket list. What takes your Halloween storm ensues throughout the the salsa is inside a baby’s torso. I’m pretty passionate about a lot party to the next level? party. The backroom is mocked It’s just plain sick. When I first of things. Our Halloween celebra- Anybody can throw a Halloween up like an actual dungeon torture saw it, I was like, “Who invited the tion evolved out of what my wife party. It’s easy to do. There are chamber. When the sound system individual responsible for this mawould call perfectionism on my lots of stores to go buy stuff and isn’t booming out thunder, my niacal dish?” We also serve crackbehalf. Every year we throw a decorate. But, we painstakingly go wife and I enjoy playing eighties ers that are pouring out of a dead party. With each new iteration, I through the effort of wallpaper- hard rock. Anybody can set up a skeleton’s chest cavity. We have pick up where I left off and add to ing the entire first floor to create party, but ours is a production. different variations of finger food it. Over the years, we’ve amassed a backdrop and set the scene for a The music actually ramps up as like little mummy dogs. One year, quite an accumulation of store- castle dungeon. We found that by the party goes on. Between every somebody brought hot dogs and bought and homemade Halloween putting simple $15 flame pots in couple of songs, you hear a witch carved them. You’d be amazed at decorations. I’m not talking about the corners of the rooms, we can cackle or Vincent Price’s laugh how much they look like realisjust props and backdrops. It’s the elevate the look. There are a lot from “Thriller.” And then, there’s a tic bloody fingers when they’re nuances and the minutiae — the special effects and illusions. All kinds of little things contribute to the ambiance that we create in order to throw the kind of party that our guests have grown accustomed to. Over the years, people began asking me, “Did you invite the newspaper to take pictures of this thing?” And, then, I had other people saying, “You should write a book.” So, here I am. Theme parties have always been one of the things I’ve enjoyed most. It started with a luau in my backyard that involved a six-foot functioning volcano and 200-pound carved totem poles.
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What were you celebrating?
It was a family party. An excuse to get everyone together. I’ve always gone over the top. When my son was 12, he achieved his black belt in karate. I bought a ream of black tablecloth fabric. It was about four feet wide and 200 feet long. I wrapped the entire house in it and tied it like a karate belt over the front door. I have a habit of supersizing any events that we have.
carved. The best thing we serve, quite honestly, is something that my father-in-law makes called a graveyard cake. Another concoction that he created is “kitty litter.” That’s exactly what it looks like, with little squirts of Tootsie Roll twisted on top. The eyeball punch is also beautiful.
I’m creeped out just hearing you
talk about it. Oh yeah, almost anything is possible. I have a repelling spider that is hooked to a switch on the other end of a room so it comes down and drops into the party whenever somebody triggers it.
Where can people find your
book? Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Walmart … pretty much everywhere. – Sarah Connell Sanders
