Fringe - Dr. Zomba's Ghost Show of Terror is Spooky, Campy Fun

The steel door of the Mutilator Machine slams shut, locking its victim inside. The hungry device growls awake, gears turning, lights flashing. Then the screams begin. A severed arm flies out of the Mutilator Machine and the wailing subsides. Dr. Zomba

During the 1930-1940s, before the boom of television, spooky and campy stage productions known as “ghost shows” were all the rage. Promising to scare audiences “to death” in addition to making them laugh, these midnight ghost shows were brought to life through the use of magic tricks and humor. Dr. Zomba’s Ghost Show of Terror! is a throwback to this crazy of playfully interacting with the paranormal.

S. Alessandro Martinez, Kerr Lordygan, Tamara Torres & David M Beach

During his lead-in, Dr. Zomba (David M Beach), a disheveled man commanding attention, flips easily between bombastic self-praise and nervous asides to the audience. He energetically primes us for the show ahead by treating us to some spooky magic and mind tricks laced with jokes and puns. Introducing us to his ventriloquist dummy (which Beach also voices), Dr. Zomba fills us in on how he hatched a murderous plot to steal the profitable ghost show from Professor Payne, and kidnapped Payne’s daughter, Sirena (Tamara Torres), who is now under Zomba’s spell. Dr. Zomba also features Kerr Lordygan as the aptly named Ear-Gore, and S. Alessandro Martinez in one of my favorite jokes of the evening.

This amusing ghost show is not without its twists, and not everyone is who they appear to be. With it’s inclusion of comedy, magic, ventriloquism, a dance number, and a seance, Dr. Zomba’s Ghost Show of Terror! really excels in its effects, including a standout blackout sequence. After being urged not to scare our fellow audience members (lest they never recover from their fear), the lights go out and we are immersed in the spirit world. Surrounded by ghosts and monsters, we can only giggle or squirm in our seats until we are set free. This is not our world anymore. What was that touching the back of my neck? Was that something on my arm? What really lurks in the blackness?

Ghosts get a bad rap.

Written by David Lucarelli and directed by Kevin Wetmore, Dr. Zomba’s Ghost Show of Terror! is a campy good time, custom-made for the horror kids that delight in toying with the otherworldly and metaphysical.

Get tickets for Dr. Zomba’s Ghost Show of Terror! here, and check out Haunting‘s other must-sees for the 2018 Hollywood Fringe Festival.