Step into Spencerville’s Diablo Manor, if you dare

Welcome to my world. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. The Diablo Manor is homage to our family's history. My family ran the largest traveling circus sideshow in the world from 1920 through 1968. And so ultimately, I procured my grandfather's estate and all of the freaks and anomalies inside the manor and many of the dead things are from my grandfather's collection. And he could see in me immediately that I was curious as a showperson as to why the carnival works. So I apprenticed under him from the age of 11 to 25, and he told me all of his secrets of the trade. My grandmother, of course, could swallow seven swords at one time. She's in the Sword Swallower Hall of Fame, so she was a unique woman. What kept you in this industry? I have loved horror ever since I was this big, and so ultimately, it's all I know. My grandfather did horror on stage, I do horror, and I was brought up with the monsters, the Addams Family, the hilarious House of Frankenstein, all these wonderful shows in the early 70s that really embodied. Great horror and humor and this enticed me and of course there was the universal monsters of Frankenstein and Dracula and the mummy and they made models of them back in the 60s and so I would purchase all these models and put them together with my grandfather and it was just such a delight to be sharing horror all the time in my life in a fun way. A way that was not horror as in the world of horror and news and everything that's scary these days but more than just the fantasy horror. Where you knew you were safe at the end of it all. So for many, many years you were out there performing? Well Carnival Diablo was at the time the largest circus side show in the world. We had set up to seven performers with us on stage. We had sword swallowers, fire eaters, glass walkers, strong men that would bend iron bars in their teeth. So the whole show was skewed around The Devil's Carnival, Carnival Diablo, where you would come and witness the ring monster, which was me, and then see my minions that were obviously super human marvels that could endure pain and things like that. We were an actual extravaganza. It was like going to Broadway, but seeing very dangerous acts. You're bringing the show to the people, where now... People are coming to your home. Is that different? It is because you see, when I was doing auditoriums, that was 1,500 people that were in the audience and they'd be at least eight feet away from me at the front row. So I'd never really see them because the spotlights were in my eyes. Here. I only allow eight people into the Diablo Manor a night. So these eight lucky souls get to spend time with me. Did you ever picture yourself being here when you were younger, you know? Like, your first memories? I dreamt about it. Yeah? Like, having a manor like this? I thought when I was younger, like 14, 15, 16, when I'm old, I would love to actually have a mansion that people would come to, and I would be a host for an evening. What do you hope carries on? Well, ultimately, I'm going to do this until I'm gone. And so the Diablo Manor is going to be an epitaph to our family and our strange careers for a very long time. And as you can see, it's been built into a shrine of sorts. And so I proudly will be doing this even in my late 80s, much like Ian McKellen still will do Gandalf, you know, because he has to. You know, that's just the thing. It's not a want. It's a has to kind of thing. I have to do this. This is my life, and I love it.