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Speaker 1: You're listening to The Fork Report with Nil Savedra on

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Speaker 1: demand from KFI AM six forty.

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Speaker 2: Hey, everybody, it's the Fork Report, all things Food, beverage

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Speaker 2: and beyond. I am your well Fed host, Neil Savadra.

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Speaker 3: How do you do? It? Is the season? Man? I

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Speaker 3: love the minute we get.

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Speaker 2: We started Halloween season last week and we're gonna be

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Speaker 2: theming all the shows as we go through all the holidays,

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Speaker 2: of course, because there's just so many cool things to

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Speaker 2: do over the holidays here in southern California, and you know,

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Speaker 2: when it comes to Halloween, there's a lot of different

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Speaker 2: parts of it. You've heard me talk about this on

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Speaker 2: the air. I love decorating the house for all the

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Speaker 2: different seasons. I will probably bring out a good number

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Speaker 2: of things for Halloween this year because it lands on

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Speaker 2: a Friday, so I'll do the house. I'm prepping already

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Speaker 2: right now for my kids' school haunted house.

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Speaker 3: That I am not overseeing this year, but.

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Speaker 2: I am dedicated to building some props for it, and

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Speaker 2: my buddy Derek Young, who owns Van Oaks Props, which

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Speaker 2: has I mean, there are so many great free resources

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Speaker 2: to begin with to be able to watch the videos

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Speaker 2: on YouTube. Van Oaks props that if you want to

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Speaker 2: know anything about tombstones, this man is the master. In

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Speaker 2: my eyes. It's nice to see you again, my friend.

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Speaker 2: Always good to be here. So you just you post

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Speaker 2: it today. Every Saturday you post at nine am, Yes,

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Speaker 2: and today was no different. So that's one of the

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Speaker 2: first things I do on a Saturday is I watch

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Speaker 2: that as I'm prepping for the show. And it was

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Speaker 2: the last tombstone of your current haunt. Because you're going

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Speaker 2: to be moving out of southern California and selling off

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Speaker 2: a lot of this stuff.

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Speaker 3: That is correct.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, we're actually selling off pretty much everything. The plan

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Speaker 4: really is to start over in a way and to

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Speaker 4: do things that I maybe didn't have the skills at

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Speaker 4: the time to pull off. And given an opportunity to

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Speaker 4: rethink how everything is put together and how things are

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Speaker 4: wired and the scale of things. I mean, you can

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Speaker 4: take a really nerdy deep dive into Halloween and I

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Speaker 4: look forward to doing it.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's got to be kind of exciting to have

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Speaker 2: a blank canvas again.

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Speaker 4: Absolutely, there's few opportunities for me to do that, considering

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Speaker 4: that we've decorated our house the same way for fourteen years.

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Speaker 4: And some of that was just because I like the

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Speaker 4: theme of sort of the traditional haunted mansion esque style cemetery, sure,

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Speaker 4: but also just budgetary reasons. People are always looking for

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Speaker 4: a cheap and easy way to decorate that is unique

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Speaker 4: to them, that won't break the budget, and doing what

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Speaker 4: we've done has always been sort of like a good

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Speaker 4: way to kind of marry those two desires. Do something creative,

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Speaker 4: but I don't want to do it where it's really

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Speaker 4: expensive either.

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Speaker 2: So is you know with Derek, he your theme is

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Speaker 2: a cemetery, That's what you do the Van Ouk Cemetery.

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Speaker 3: Correct.

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Speaker 2: And when you started fourteen years ago on this particular

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Speaker 2: project where you're inspired by someone else's decorations at their

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Speaker 2: home for the holidays, for Halloween, and you said, you

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Speaker 2: know what, I'm an artist, I'm a designer.

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Speaker 3: I want to do this for us. Yeah.

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Speaker 4: Weirdly enough, when I was in high school, there was

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Speaker 4: a haunt in Studio City called the Hallowed Haunting Grounds,

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Speaker 4: And many people who decorate for Halloween in and around

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Speaker 4: southern California will tell you that they kind of kicked

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Speaker 4: off the craze of people really going kind of overboard

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Speaker 4: with their Halloween decorations, and for me, I visited one

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Speaker 4: year and was kind of forever changed after that because

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Speaker 4: I hadn't ever considered the thought that I could decorate

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Speaker 4: in a way that wasn't just something I bought from

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Speaker 4: the store.

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Speaker 2: Sure, which is fine in its own right, but if

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Speaker 2: you're a creative type, you want to Yeah, well.

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Speaker 4: And there's something about being an individual and sort of

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Speaker 4: scratching a creative itch, and those are the types of

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Speaker 4: things that I'm constantly looking for. And when I finally

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Speaker 4: had a yard of my own to decorate, they were

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Speaker 4: the direct reference point for me because they they did

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Speaker 4: everything that Disneyland did, but they did it out of

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Speaker 4: their garage essentially, and I just thought that was the

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Speaker 4: coolest thing, you know. But prior to that had never

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Speaker 4: crossed my mind that it was even possible.

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Speaker 2: And so you start the first thing you said was, Okay,

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Speaker 2: the direction I'm going is a cemetery. Yes, So you

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Speaker 2: knew that much that that was what you're going to

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Speaker 2: start with in the front yard.

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Speaker 4: Yeah. It always to me like doing something like a

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Speaker 4: cemetery was something that could be added to year after year,

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Speaker 4: but was also something that would be good for people

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Speaker 4: of all ages. I know a lot of people are

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Speaker 4: into gore and extreme haunts and jump scares and things

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Speaker 4: like that, and there's room for that, but it's not

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Speaker 4: it's not something that's good for everybody. And yeah, that's

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Speaker 4: not my scene either.

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Speaker 2: I want people to be, you know, to be spooky, sure,

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Speaker 2: but I don't have like body parts laying around my

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Speaker 2: house or Yeah.

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Speaker 4: And it's not a slight to anyone who decorates in

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Speaker 4: that way.

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Speaker 3: It's not my personal because there's an audience for it.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, but I think about it in the way that, like,

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Speaker 4: you know, I decorate the house so that people in

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Speaker 4: the neighborhood can come and enjoy it. And we live

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Speaker 4: in a neighborhood with young children, or at least we did,

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Speaker 4: you know, they're they're all in high school or college now.

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Speaker 4: But I was decorating in part for them, sure, because

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Speaker 4: it should be accessible for everyone. You know, if you're

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Speaker 4: somebody like me who doesn't like being startled, there's got

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Speaker 4: to be a flavor for me too. And this was

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Speaker 4: more my speed, and so I just really went all

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Speaker 4: in on creating this.

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Speaker 3: Very moody, spooky.

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Speaker 4: Tableau essentially that allowed the visitor's minds to do all

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Speaker 4: of the heavy lifting. I will create the atmosphere and

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Speaker 4: then I will let you run wild with it. Is

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Speaker 4: that statue a real person? What is that sound I'm

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Speaker 4: hearing over there? Is the thunder and lightning? Real or manufactured?

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Speaker 4: Are any of these tombstones actually real tombstone? I mean,

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Speaker 4: you can kind of go down the list of things

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Speaker 4: that it could be in anyone's mind. But the beauty

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Speaker 4: of it is that my interpretation of it will be

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Speaker 4: different from yours, and yours from someone else's.

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Speaker 3: You know, I love again.

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Speaker 2: You can find out more at van Oaksprops dot com

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Speaker 2: vanoxprops dot com. That'll, you know, that'll be your portal

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Speaker 2: to all of it, whether you go to is etsya

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Speaker 2: stuff and you see stuff that you want to purchase,

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Speaker 2: whether you want to maybe go and find out about

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Speaker 2: the silent auction that he's doing now for the things

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Speaker 2: that he's not going to need come November, uh after

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Speaker 2: this year here, so he's selling off a lot of

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Speaker 2: these props as well. But if you want to learn more,

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Speaker 2: go to van Oaks Props and you can find his

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Speaker 2: YouTube stuff and all of that. One of the things

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Speaker 2: that I love on your YouTube is that when you

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Speaker 2: revisit something.

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Speaker 3: You all I made this years ago.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and I know more now and I have better

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Speaker 2: ideas of how I want to change it. What was

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Speaker 2: one prop one part of the scene of your specific

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Speaker 2: cemetery that you change that you were like, now that

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Speaker 2: fits my vision more.

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Speaker 4: I don't know that it was ever necessarily not fitting

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Speaker 4: the vision. It just wasn't completed to the degree that

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Speaker 4: I wanted or that my skills allowed for. Most recently,

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Speaker 4: just because it's top of mind, we have two very large,

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Speaker 4: fake brick columns with big lanterns on top that every

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Speaker 4: year someone will assume they are real and lean against them,

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Speaker 4: only to find that they will move.

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Speaker 2: I've seen them in person. I would do that myself.

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Speaker 2: They're beautiful, and.

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Speaker 4: You know, we've had them for quite a few years.

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Speaker 4: When my wife and I first made them, they looked

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Speaker 4: the part, but they were a bit too clean, And

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Speaker 4: I think part of my esthetic is more of a

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Speaker 4: really lived in older cemetery that's maybe not being tended to.

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Speaker 4: You want to change the term lived in, I don't.

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Speaker 4: I don't know if it should be lived in if

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Speaker 4: it's just a yeah you want it to be to

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Speaker 4: have that the grunge factor. Even the one, the latest

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Speaker 4: one in this video is.

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Speaker 2: Up today, it's only a fourteen year old technically, so

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Speaker 2: you had to you had to weather it for that

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Speaker 2: many years, and not the one that was you know,

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Speaker 2: in the seventeen eighteen hundreds or something.

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Speaker 3: Like that exactly.

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Speaker 4: Which is funny because so much of the aesthetic that

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Speaker 4: I've tried to kind of create over the years is

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Speaker 4: very much that worn down and abandoned look, which is

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Speaker 4: funny because that is sort of like the intersection between

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Speaker 4: my love of Star Wars universe and how dirty and

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Speaker 4: grungey that all is. The used universe, absolutely, and it

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Speaker 4: carries over into Halloween, which is what I think about

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Speaker 4: the other half of the year.

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Speaker 3: So it is.

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Speaker 2: Funny though that you you know, when you even see

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Speaker 2: like Halloween, not Halloween, but Star Wars props, right, the

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Speaker 2: first thing, you know, helmets, I buy all those things,

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Speaker 2: do the first thing you do is go, this looks

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Speaker 2: too new.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, exactly.

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Speaker 4: And that was kind of what happened with these cemetery columns.

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Speaker 4: I just thought they would look more than what they

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Speaker 4: look right now. Plus you know, they're quite a few

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Speaker 4: years old and have spent a lot of time out

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Speaker 4: in the sun, and so the colors just aren't as

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Speaker 4: vibrant as they used to be. And I thought, what

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Speaker 4: better way to kind of breathe some new life into

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Speaker 4: it than to really go heavy and make them look

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Speaker 4: even older.

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Speaker 2: And I love how this and I really want you

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Speaker 2: folks to check this out at van oaksprops dot com.

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Speaker 2: Is when you see these props we're talking about, and

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Speaker 2: how people ask me all the time, well, can I

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Speaker 2: just convert the front into sun? I said, yeah, you'd

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Speaker 2: be surprised how things like these pillars change the whole

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Speaker 2: vibe of the front of a house and and those things.

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Speaker 2: And we'll talk more about that and where to put

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Speaker 2: your energies. Maybe something to start with if you're thinking,

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Speaker 2: you know, I want to do a little bit of

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Speaker 2: a haunt or a theme in the front yard this year.

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Speaker 2: I highly encourage it. It is worth it. I don't

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Speaker 2: care if five kids come by. It's still worth it

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Speaker 2: to see people get excited about it and you know,

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Speaker 2: just make their holiday a little bit. So go nowhere

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Speaker 2: talking with master prop maker Derek Young from van Os Props.

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Speaker 3: So we'll come back with more.

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Speaker 1: You're listening to the Fork Report with Neil Savedra on

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Speaker 1: demand from KFI AM six forty.

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Speaker 3: Hey, happy Saturday to you.

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Speaker 2: It is Halloween time and you are here with the

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Speaker 2: Fork Report on Neil Savedra and I'm just into the

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Speaker 2: season and Kayla just put down in front of me.

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Speaker 2: We haven't talked about this yet. My guest is Derek Young.

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Speaker 2: He is the owner, proprietor, maker and creative mind behind

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Speaker 2: van Oaks Props. You find out more van Oaksprops dot.

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Speaker 2: And we're talking about decorating for Halloween your house and

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Speaker 2: stuff if you're interested in getting started and all of that.

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Speaker 2: But his wife, Erin is a masterful baker and always

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Speaker 2: sends him with love. And you can hear Kayla and

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Speaker 2: the excitement of everybody going on with that. So what

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Speaker 2: is this such a This is an apple cake.

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Speaker 4: It is an apple cake. It is a Vermont classic

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Speaker 4: and it's like old school New England.

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Speaker 3: Wow. Yeah that smells great. Oh that's good. Just a

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Speaker 3: little pinch.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Okay, yeah, I'm gonna I'm gonna murder that in

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Speaker 2: a second. But I just wanted that's so great. So

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Speaker 2: we're talking with Derek Young from van Oaks Props about

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Speaker 2: decorating he started fourteen years ago as a graphic designer

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Speaker 2: and everything like that, using your gifts and.

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Speaker 3: Abilities to decorate.

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Speaker 2: But you're moving, you're moving out of state, and so

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Speaker 2: this is the last one you're doing at your current

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Speaker 2: location home, and you're going to be selling off. There's

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Speaker 2: a silent auction. I put in one bid, but it

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Speaker 2: was I was in a hurry that I'm definitely going

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Speaker 2: to be bidding on some other things as well. But

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Speaker 2: you know, they're just so many beautiful pieces and to

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Speaker 2: you know, have a momento like that for my yard

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Speaker 2: would be fun to always think about that as well,

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Speaker 2: among other things. So somebody wants to start out, what

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Speaker 2: are the you know, top five tools for making tombstones?

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Speaker 4: Well, I guess I have to give a qualifier. When

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Speaker 4: I make tombstones. My material of choice is pink insulation foam.

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Speaker 4: They also make it in other colors, but usually four

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Speaker 4: by six we'll find it in pink, and it comes

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Speaker 4: in four by eight sheets. Oh, four by eight, yeah,

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Speaker 4: and it's about fifty ish dollars. The price kind of

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Speaker 4: changes year to year. But it's a weird find that

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Speaker 4: other Halloween enthusiasts who've come before me figured out made

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Speaker 4: for a great material to make tombstones out of. That said,

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Speaker 4: if you choose to make your tombstones out of foam,

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Speaker 4: which I highly recommend, I would also suggest getting a

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Speaker 4: small pull saw because the blade on it is very small,

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Speaker 4: it cuts through this foam very easily. They're extremely inexpensive.

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Speaker 4: You can go to almost any hardware store and get

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Speaker 4: one off the shelf for under fifteen dollars. And then

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Speaker 4: outside of that, I would say get yourself a rotary tool,

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Speaker 4: like a dremal, something along those lines. And with the

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Speaker 4: a rotary tool and some pink foam, you can make

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Speaker 4: whatever shape of tombstone to whatever scale you want for

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Speaker 4: your display, and you can carve it with the rotary tool,

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Speaker 4: and then paint it using your standard sort of run

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Speaker 4: of the mill house paint, like exterior latex paint. If

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Speaker 4: you want to get fancy like me, I like using

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Speaker 4: a masonry seiler. The brand I see most often it's

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Speaker 4: called dry Lock, and it comes in a few different flavors.

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Speaker 4: I prefer the original style, and the reason that I

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Speaker 4: like it is because it has a gritty texture that,

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Speaker 4: once painted kind of lends itself to a very stone

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Speaker 4: like appearance.

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Speaker 3: So there's like a sand or something in it.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, And if you wanted sort of the cheat version

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Speaker 4: of this, you could take some exterior latex paint. Oftentimes

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Speaker 4: you will find various shades of gray in the oops

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Speaker 4: I bought the wrong colored department at your local hardware

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Speaker 4: store and get it for you know, half price, and

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Speaker 4: then go to the park or go to the garden

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Speaker 4: center and buy yourself some fine playground sand. And if

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Speaker 4: you add a bit of playground sand to this exterior

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Speaker 4: latex pain, you will essentially get a good mimic for

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Speaker 4: a masonry sailer that will have that same sort of

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Speaker 4: gritty texture at a fraction of the cost.

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Speaker 3: I love it.

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Speaker 2: And so you have done both relief style and then

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Speaker 2: I don't know what'd you call it in carving in style,

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Speaker 2: I mean I'm engraved. Yeah, engraved, that's the word I'm

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Speaker 2: looking for, Curry, That's what I was earlier in the show.

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Speaker 3: It's like a glimpse into my own life. Yeah, exactly.

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Speaker 2: But I highly recommend you go to Van oaksprops dot

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Speaker 2: com and check out the how realistic and these tombstones

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Speaker 2: have weight. And another buddy of mine who's a prop maker,

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Speaker 2: goes I'm digging this segment and I need some tombstone tips.

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Speaker 2: There is an art to weathering them afterwards, and what

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Speaker 2: is some of the props there to make them look

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Speaker 2: like they've been there?

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Speaker 4: Sure, So there's a couple different ways you can go

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Speaker 4: about it. I've seen it done a few ways. There's

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Speaker 4: definitely one that is my favorite, which is to basically

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Speaker 4: mix a bunch of acrylic craft paints like black, brown,

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Speaker 4: green to create kind of a dirty water sort of look,

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Speaker 4: and then put it into a spray bottle and spray

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Speaker 4: it all over the tombstone, and naturally, because of how

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Speaker 4: water moves across surfaces, you will get a pretty good

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Speaker 4: approximation of what like organic natural weathering would happen to

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Speaker 4: a real tombstone in a real cemetery. If you didn't

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Speaker 4: have the time for that, where you wanted something that

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Speaker 4: was maybe a little less messy, you could just as

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Speaker 4: easily apply paint with a brush, thin it out with water,

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Speaker 4: and drag it downwards across the face of your tombstone

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Speaker 4: and use it to sort of accent parts of it

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Speaker 4: that you find most interesting. If there's areas where it

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Speaker 4: would look like water might collect, if you're doing engraved lettering,

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Speaker 4: look for those recesses and use that as an opportunity

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Speaker 4: to add more character to your tombstone.

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Speaker 2: Any parting thoughts on people are on the fence about

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Speaker 2: putting something together in their yard this year that you

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Speaker 2: can give them, I.

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Speaker 4: Would say, do it. You are bringing such enjoyment to

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Speaker 4: people you don't even know. And I think, given the

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Speaker 4: way things are in the world right now, we need

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Speaker 4: every possible positive interaction that we can muster, and I

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Speaker 4: think decorating for Halloween is one of those things that

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Speaker 4: even if you don't hear from people, you know that

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Speaker 4: you have made an impact in a positive way to

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Speaker 4: people in your neighborhood.

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Speaker 2: Just as someone slowing down as they drive by and

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Speaker 2: taking a look you're going, you know what, that's a memory.

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Speaker 2: And that's one of the reason why I do the show.

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Speaker 2: It's just something that people agree on. Good food and

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Speaker 2: good conversation, those things.

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Speaker 3: This cake is so great.

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Speaker 2: My first thought is I want a cup of coffee

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Speaker 2: with it on a cool fall morn and I'm like,

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Speaker 2: Holy hell, God, bless Aaron. She is a national treasure

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Speaker 2: and we must protect her and her gifted hands at

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Speaker 2: all costs. I agree Wow, holy smokes. Always good to

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Speaker 2: see you, my friend. I know this is your last

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Speaker 2: year doing it here in the valley. I know it's

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Speaker 2: inspired other people. It certainly inspired me. I first started

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Speaker 2: doing tombstones back in the late eighties, eighties, early nineties

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Speaker 2: for haunts that we did my younger brother and I

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Speaker 2: and I look back on that and I think, Wow,

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Speaker 2: everything I wanted to do and couldn't. Then I can

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Speaker 2: see in what you do and it's like, Okay, now

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Speaker 2: I'm gonna I'm gonna get up to speed and start

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Speaker 2: doing these things again. But that motivation and inspiration is

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Speaker 2: a powerful, powerful tool, So I appreciate all that you do. Again,

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Speaker 2: Van Oaks Props dot com. Van Oaks props dot com,

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Speaker 2: check them out. Go through the videos. Trust me, it

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Speaker 2: is a rabbit hole.

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Speaker 3: How many videos are there? Five years worth?

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Speaker 4: Yeah, you can do the math every week.

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Speaker 2: Carry that on and he has over one hundred thousand

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Speaker 2: people following him on YouTube, which is a massive accomplishment.

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Speaker 2: Thanks so very cool. All right, buddy, Happy Halloween to you,

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Speaker 2: and we will talk again soon. It's the Forek Report.

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Speaker 2: Stick around. We'll talk carving pumpkins when we return with

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Speaker 2: our special guests, So go know where this is KFI

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Speaker 2: heard everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.

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Speaker 3: You've been listening to the Fork Report.

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Speaker 2: You can always hear us live on KFI AM six

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Speaker 2: forty two to five pm on Saturday, and anytime on

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Speaker 2: demand on the iHeartRadio app.