five with frights:- cinema wasteland
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KEN KISH runs one of the number one horror Movie and Memorabilia expos in the country.
Cinema Wasteland Show Site
MR. FRIGHTS: What started Cinema Wasteland? (What was the motivation)-
KEN KISH: I’ve essentially been in the “horror business” since 1987 when I made money selling my first video tape under the name Video Wasteland. In late 1992 I started the Video Wasteland Rent-By-Mail Service, a pre netflix rent-by-mail video service that specialized in drive-in era horror, exploitation, and independent movies. In addition to renting, I started selling videos, posters, t-shirts, and collectibles in the early 90’s and discovered that I could make a few bucks setting up and selling stuff at the few conventions that were around back then. I quickly became a full time “convention dealer” searching out as many places that I could find to sell horror movie stuff to fans. Selling stuff eventually made more than renting videos did so I shut down the rental thing for good in early 2003.
Pre 1990, there were mostly comic book shows, western shows, general memorabilia and collectible shows, and the occasional Famous Monsters or one-off movie or science fiction related convention for fans to attend. By the time 1998 or 1999 rolled around when I thought about starting the Cinema Wasteland Show, there weren't but a very few horror related conventions running around the country and none of them celebrated the Dive-In and Grindhouse movies of the 60’s and 70’s I grew up loving.
After doing the con rounds for a dozen years or so, I figured why not give running my own show a go? I’m my own motivating factor. I put my mind to something and do it to the best of my ability. I knew what I wanted to celebrate, so it was just a matter of making it “my show” and offering fans everything I could offer them for the price of admission.
Ten years later and the Cinema Wasteland Movie and Memorabilia Expo is still the only Drive-In and Grindhouse Movie Show in the country. We still offer up the cheapest weekend pass a fan can buy and everything we do is 100% free with the price of admission. No “hidden fees” or charging a CW fan extra for shit like getting into the show early, late night parties, bands, or whatever other cons charge extra for insures that every fan through the door is treated just like the person standing next to them in line. I’m proud of that just like I’m proud of all seventeen shows I’ve run. Regular CW fans sure notice the difference between a CW Show and every other convention out there as well. To me, a CW Show is family. Everything else is just a convention. -
MR. FRIGHTS: You do the show twice a year, how come?
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KEN KISH: Attending fans ask me to run a second show. I never figured - or wanted - to run the biggest show on the planet. I just set out to run the best show I could run for whoever wanted to join me in celebrating B movies from the golden age of the Drive-In’s. I figured I’d just do the annual show thing at first but after a couple of years, attending fans told me they would happily attend a second show if I ran one. I started my Spring show the first weekend of April 2004, moved my annual Fall show from September to October to keep the shows an even six months apart, and never looked back.
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MR. FRIGHTS: Can you tell us what your favorite memory of past shows is?
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KEN KISH: I have so many of them... From happy fans asking me to run a second show, to finding first time guests I’ve never personally met in all of my years doing other people’s conventions, to various live events and all of the things I did at a CW Show before any other convention did it... I have a ton of great memories. I’m happy I keep finding celebrity guests you’ll never see at other conventions that fit a CW Show. It’s part of what CW attendees enjoy as well.
- I’m also happy that I was able to put together so many first time reunions over the years and have fond memories of every one of them. Since I fully plan on making a few more great memories at my tenth anniversary show this October 1-3, 2010, it’s a tough question to answer. I’ll have to get back to you after I stop running my show. That way, all I’ll have left is favorite memories to go on.
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MR. FRIGHTS: What are you most looking forward to with future conventions?
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KEN KISH: The same thing I’ve looked forward to since my first show. Never running the same show twice in a row and making every Wasteland Show something attending fans won’t easily forget. I do a dozen, maybe fifteen other conventions a year as a vendor and find it extremely sad that I can pack up my van on Sunday, get two hours down the road, and totally forget what convention I just set up at for two or three days. How sad is that? I never want that to happen to my show.
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MR. FRIGHTS: If a zombie horde fell upon the show this year, how would you fend them off?
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KEN KISH: Quite easily I’m happy to admit.
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Hit the Grab Bag Questions below to go on with the interview...
GRAB BAG QUESTIONS
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MR. FRIGHTS: You notice the smell of rotting flesh and hear creepy moaning coming from one of the convention's side rooms, do you check it out or send a minion just in case?
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KEN KISH: I sucker the person nearest to me who irritates me most to go in to investigate while I head back to my hotel room for my trusty .357 with the high grain copper-jacked hollow points. Then I head back and hope the irritating person is the first to stumble out of the room newly “transformed” since I’m honestly one helluva shot and do actually own that pistol and the ammo as described. Two birds with one stone as they say.
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MR. FRIGHTS: How do you explain the popularity of YOUR convention?
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KEN KISH: A Cinema Wasteland Show is not a convention as most fans might think of it. I’ve never referred to a CW Show as a “convention”. After all, you can’t even spell the word convention without using the word “con” and I don’t con anyone into anything.
- The Cinema Wasteland Movie and Memorabilia Expo is a celebration. A show. It’s honestly “family” for the approximately 3,000 fans who make one or both shows a year. I’m just the guy having more fun running my show than any promoter has the right to have. And I only have so much fun because of the attending CW fans who have become part of the CW family.
- It’s the attending fans show, so you’d have to ask them what makes it popular and special to them. I just run the best show I can for everyone through the door and try to keep the 60+ hours of programming I cram into a three day weekend running on time.
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MR. FRIGHTS: Is there a survival guide or some insider information you might have on how to successfully navigate Cinema Wasteland and see EVERYTHING you have to offer?
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KEN KISH: There’s simply no way one person can see and do everything at a Cinema Wasteland Show. It’s been planned that way since day one. I always have at least two things going on at any given time and, for example, films and events run for over sixteen hours on any typical Saturday alone. You might have a panel in one room you want to see, and a movie screening in a second room you’d hate to miss at the same time, so you have to choose what you’d like to do most or get frustrated you can’t make up your mind. Add in the hotel bar, (which is the place every fan can eventually find each other at during a CW Show), and toss in our 10,000+ square foot dealer and guest room and there is simply no way you’ll see and do everything we offer our attending fans. I generally have the entire weekend schedule of events posted close to thirty days before show time, so all I can tell you is to start plotting out your weekend early so you can dive right in once the doors open on Friday afternoon.
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MR. FRIGHTS: What forms of horror are your personal favorite? (movies, tv shows, novels, comics)
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KEN KISH: As a kid, I read constantly (both comics and real books with lots of pages and no pictures), and went to the movies damn near every weekend. I don’t get much time to read these days since I’m doing five people’s jobs every day, and with extremely few exceptions Hollywood hasn’t made a horror movie worth a fuck since the early to mid 1980’s I’ll actually pay to see. Thankfully I get a decent amount of free movie passes so I can continue to think Hollywood horror sucks on a first hand basis. And I always have my rather large collection of films on video and DVD which has been my favorite way to watch stuff since the mid 80’s when the Drive-In’s died and VCR’s became popular.
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MR. FRIGHTS: Has Tom Sullivan officially moved in yet?
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KEN KISH: Yes, he has actually. Odd you should ask. He rented a small house right around the corner from me five or six years back and comes around about 7:00pm nightly for food and water. Some days, I find him on my front porch just sitting there with a big, goofy smile on his face asking if I want to watch the 238th edition of Evil Dead that Anchor Bay released in the past three years. I’m just glad I enjoy Evil Dead. No idea what’s up with that smile though?...
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MR. FRIGHTS: As a convention organizer what's your best or most important tool?
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KEN KISH:
The ability to actually do five or six jobs at one time and keep them all straight has worked out well for me. But more importantly, I’m not afraid to say “no” and mean it. Saying “no” and meaning it is the best tool a convention promoter can have at his or her disposal. Saying no and meaning no is the first thing you learn when you go into business for yourself and running a convention is just part of my business. You shouldn’t be doing this if you’re a spineless jellyfish who can’t say “no” and mean it. It’s your business and your reputation on the line after all.
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MR. FRIGHTS: Is there any guest you really wanted but has eluded you (even through death)?
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KEN KISH: Nobody comes to mind currently but that’s because I’m actually amazed at just how many people I’ve set out to find and invite to my show that I actually have found and invited over the years. I’ve discovered people alive and well that I actually thought passed away, so I won’t curse myself now by listing any names. I’ll just continue to surprise myself at who turns up next.
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MR. FRIGHTS: Anything you've always wanted to do with Cinema Wasteland but haven't tried yet?
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KEN KISH: I’m only limited by my imagination, so who knows what I’ll cook up next? No two CW Shows have ever been exactly the same and I’m up for anything. I’ve offered up live movie commentaries for films that have been released to DVD without one, held talent shows, game shows, had H.G. Lewis leading a live audience in a sing along to theme songs from his films before... You name it and it would seem that I’ve done it. The only event I haven’t as yet scraped off the bottom of my shoe is a costume contest, and that’s only because I’ve seen it at every other con out there for over twenty years now.
- Sure, I do the same kind of talks, panels, film screenings, and live events that I’ve always done, but I mix them up a little every show and at least try not to make them the same cut and dry events every show. Once things get boring for me, I’ll simply stop running my show, so I try not to get too bored with it. I’d hate to bum out a shit load of horror lovin’ fans when the world is going to hell in front of us all, so I’ll push myself to keep making it fun for me as well as affordable and a weekend to remember for all of my attending fans.
