Wil Andruschak

What do you do for Scream Fest?

I’m one of two full-time employees now so when I’m not wearing clown makeup, I’m usually building new stuff and maintaining old stuff in terms of props, houses and scares. Scream Fest is only open one month out of the year so for the rest of the time I’m just working on the haunted houses.

How long have you worked there?

I have been involved with Scream Fest for about five or six years now. Halloween was always my favourite holiday so ever since I was too old to trick-or-treat I started scaring, and I’m not about to stop now.

What’s Scream Fest all about?

This year we have two new haunted houses so there are five in total. We have lots of games and merchandise and fun things to do. It’s really much more than just haunted houses; it’s more of a festival. We have freak show performances and a lot of interesting people in this line of work.

How would you describe your persona when you’re dressed up as Chuklz?

Imagine every bad driver in Calgary gets really worked up and just kind of goes nuts. I treat it as kind of a vent more or less. Chuklz just came about naturally a few years ago because I played other characters before that. With Chuklz, I change the makeup each year depending on my mood so it’s a lot of fun.

Are people really scared of you?

I love my axe; it’s my favourite part. We made T-shirts and my catchphrase is “Fear the Clown.” I like to scare by following people when they don’t know I’m there or by being subtle. I know you can’t scare everyone so if I can harass and scare one person while making the rest of the line laugh, then I’ve done my job. For me, it’s more about the entertainment than just being scary. I like to entertain.

What is your favourite part of the experience?

The fact that I can run around with an axe and harass people and not get into trouble. It’s the only time of the year I can run around with an axe because any other time I might get into trouble. An axe and makeup at Easter, that’s just not going to work.

What type of people do you get?

We usually rate our event about PG-14 but it’s really up to the parent’s discretion. My brother was only 12 when he saw it last year and he loved it, but maybe he’s just like me. Some young kids have a blast and some don’t. But I’ve even scared a seven-foot football player so there’s really no age restriction on whether or not you can get scared.