What’s the scariest haunted house you ever attended?
I used to visit the Young Life Haunted Houses out here in the San Francisco Bay Area as a child, and those would scare the pants off of me – but then again, even the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland gave me the chills as a child. The Pirates of Emerson out here in the Bay Area is a pretty good show. I wouldn’t say it’s the scariest thing around, but it has loads of great atmosphere, which is what I prefer to outright shocks.
What inspires you to create?
Being surrounded by creativity pushes me forward. That’s why I like the Disney parks. I think one of Walt Disney’s strengths was finding good people to put on a project, and those people knew enough to put the story, scene, or gag in front of the technology; and I find that inspirational as well. I’m impressed by the way they put the story first, and the technology or “know-how” second; I find that to be an inspiration toward putting first things first.
First they’d dream up a cool gag, and then they’d figure out the best way to carry it out. The best way to handle a “ghost” effect is to use “Pepper’s Ghost” (which is the art of blending lighting and reflection to form a three-dimensional transparent form), even though the effect was created around the turn of the last century.
Do you ever get scared anymore? 
Sure I do. The inhumanity that man can show to man never ceases to amaze and horrify me. To hear a current head of state call for the destruction of another state in this “modern” world is almost too much to believe. However, on the other side of the coin, I volunteer as a keyboard player for a band that goes into prisons to inspire the inmates, so I also can see firsthand how people society might consider “bad” can definitely make decisions to turn their lives around when they encounter God. I find that to be very encouraging. There’s hope for anyone.
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