It will be a frightfully good time!
The horrific hosts of cable-access kiddie show “Ghoul A Go-Go” will present a spooktacular evening of frightening films in Coney Island on Aug. 29, including horror classic “The Black Cat,” a silent surprise, and one of their own delightfully demented episodes.
One of the show’s directors describes it as a mix of of afternoon dance shows like “American Bandstand,” ghoulish kids’ programs like “The Addams Family,” and late-night horror films hosted by the likes of Elvira.
“It’s a half-hour black-and-white monster musical kiddie show where kids dance to records and live bands, and it’s hosted by a vampire and a hunchback,” said Kevin Rice, who created the show with Kevin Novotny in 2001.
On the show, elegant vampire Vlad and nearly-mute hunchback Creighton host local rock bands in their graveyard home, while also introducing film clips, edited by Rice and Novotny from public-domain training films and newsreels. The show, which airs on Brooklyn Free Speech public access every Saturday afternoon at 11 am, has found an audience well beyond Rice and his directing partner’s expectations.
“We thought it was for people like us, in our 30s — wise-asses like us. That it would be a late-night cult show,” said Rice. “But kids love it, their parents love, their grandparents love it.”
The kids in the studio audience dance beside the Igor-esque Creighton without fear, says Rice.
“They recognize him as a big kid, as one of their own,” he said.
The Coney Island show on Saturday night, upstairs at Coney Island USA, will be less friendly to the ankle-biter set. The devilish duo will interact with the crowd and introduce a classic episode of “Ghoul A Go-Go,” as well as screening a 1966 horror film, “The Black Cat,” along with a secret silent film with a live piano accompaniment. Rice would only tease the name of the silent short.
“It’s going to be a very special moment of rare silent film history that you’re not going to to want to miss,” he said.
Rice and Novotny are currently editing the next episode of “Ghoul A Go-Go,” which will feature Brooklyn band the Electric Mess.
Ghoul A Go-Go at Coney Island USA [1208 Surf Avenue at W. 12th Street in Coney Island, www.coney
