Sven Props and Products!

Coming up, we’re going to be engaged in moving around some of the many props and items that we use or have used on the show. Some construction will be going on at our station facility, and we’ll have to move some of our stuff to a different storage area- so, I’ve been checking out everything that I have to move-and, after being here as long as I have, that means we’ve got quite a bit to move. Of course, I have my extensive (?!) Sven wardrobe and make-up- and various props that may or may not be useful- among them, a fake plastic bowling ball, a HUGE over-sized light bulb, and a hat that looks like a brain (probably don’t need that- we rarely use our brain on the show…) There’s a box full of fake beards (some more realistic than others), and a box of various Christmas decorations and props. That box includes a walking Santa, who rings a small hand bell, while his eyes light up and blink. It’s actually kind of demonic-looking- which is probably a plus for us… One thing I keep finding is various phony product boxes from when we’ve done some of our commercial spoofs. There’s the bottle of “Drac-ro-Sheen” from when we did “Blacula”, a bottle of “Oxy-Scream!”, just the label from the Jackie Chan cleaning spray “Chantastic!”, and a can of dog food with a demonic canine on the label, left over from years ago when we showed “Devil Dog: Hound of Hell”! I’ve made the mock labels for some of this stuff, but the very best ones have been created by our talented graphics department, who always add their own little twists that make the products look even more authentic! More recently, they don’t even need an actual box- they create the entire product, along with a suitable background, digitally, using their amazing computer artistry skills. We have the box of “Just for Sven” hair color, as well as the Ed Wood equivalent of “Snack-well” cookies- “Cris-wells”(made for a special we did about Wood and his life and movies, playing off the famed “psychic” who appeared in “Plan 9 from Outer Space”!) One of the things I made that sits on a shelf right by my desk is a mock- “Happy Meal” box, satirizing the movie tie-ins that fast food places do with current film releases. This was a ”Titanic” Happy Meal box- which made the box look like an iceberg, with a Hamburglarish-looking character struggling to stay afloat on the front, and included a fun maze that exhorts youngsters “Hey kids- can you find your way to the lifeboat?” I also have a couple VHS boxes from when we did one of the “Ghoulies” movies- for a fake commercial for some naughty tapes called “Ghoulies Gone Wild”! This was at the time when the “Girls Gone Wild” infomercials and two minute commercials were running constantly on late night TV. We had perfectly innocent clips of the little demons from the movie, but, just by putting black bars over certain areas of their anatomy, we simulated a spicy “too hot for TV” production. The bottom line is- even if we don’t ever use these again, all these product boxes are so cool, and all of us here really enjoy them- so, we’re going to keep them and store them. Of course, this means we’ll have to move the boxes of phony products. Yow. If you notice that I’ve added a “vintage” blog here and there in the next couple of weeks- it’s because we’ll be trying to get all our stuff moved, while still getting all our usual work done!