Rick Maue's
The Haunted Chamber 1976 - 2004

After running this for fourteen seasons, Rick Maue closed it's doors after the last weekend in August.

Here is what a few people had to say about the 'funeral' of The Haunted Chamber.

Evildan writes:
I have just returned from The Haunted Chamber Funeral hosted by Rick Maue this weekend in Pittsburgh. What a blast. I met some old friends that I never met before. There were magi, haunters, a few in between. Just a nice mix of people.

Rick Maue was the gracious host once again opening his house to all of us. Mi casa, su casa - I'm sure that's not spelled write but work on the psuedo phonetics.

There were supposed to be two seances. Or at least that was the word I got talking to Rick. It would have been that but as it turned out, Docc was working on something special for the funeral and was able to make it work. The original two seances got thrown out the door and we were treated to an authentic recreation of a Spiritualist Church seance.

Was it good? Hell yes!!!

I saw an apparition floating in the air that transformed into a woman with a long skirt, that turned into a thin stream of ectoplasm and then expanded into the woman again who was now dancing. Hallucinating? I hope so. I walked out of there feeling as though I had seen an actual ghost. I now that those that were lucky enough to be part of this weekend will be talking about this for a great many years to come. Docc was phenomenal. Enough can't be said.

There were other bits and pieces of the seance that kicked ass, but I'm running on 7 hours sleep right now for the whole weekend. Time to lay day and crash.

Live well, Die well,
EVILDAN.

****

Dave Tryzenski writes:
The Haunted Chamber, 1976 - 2004,Rest in Piece.

My wife and I spent the past weekend at the "going away" party for Rick Maue's "Haunted Chamber."  I know Evil Dan reported a bit about same earlier, but what a weekend it was!

After fourteen seasons of frightening fun, Rick has finally decided to close the Home Haunter chapter of his incredible volume of magic work that includes books, lectures, and performances.

The weekend was not a sad good-bye, however, it was a joyous last hurrah celebrated by the most outrageous and imaginative people that I have ever had the pleasure of meeting.

Imagine the "Addams Family" at "Animal House" and you begin to get the slightest glimmer of what Rick's gatherings are like. Chatting with people like EvilDan (love the wallet I bought BTW) and Joe Cabral, and comparing kidney stone pain with Adrian Deery. I was ashamed to be in the company of such great storytellers!

But none of us made the trip not to bury the Chamber, we all came to praise the dreamer who created a new kind of Hallowe'en home haunt and set a standard. It was Rick's influence in this way that pulled me back into magic, and for that I will be eternally indebted!

For those who never knew of the Chamber, Rick and his family and friends created a twisting maze that wound though the entire lower level of his suburban home, populated it with a bizarre group of characters (Incubus, Spidella, and Poison) and its very own demon (PennTella), then sprinkled the experience with his own brand of haunted magic. What a dreamy nightmare!

And to celebrate the occasion, the always amazing Docc Hilford performed the "Red Light Seance" for all of us lucky enough to attend. A floating spirit trumpet conveyed messages from beyond, ghostly writing appeared before our very eyes on plain slates, and there was a full, misty blue spirit manifestation brought about by Docc's spirit guide "Odious!"

All in all, this was a delightfully classy way to end an era of spooky fun.
But no one, or no thing is ever truly gone if we keep it in our hearts and
memories. And the Haunted Chamber (and its creators) will remain with me for a long time. And all of us got treat bags with special remembrances of the Chamber.

But while this particular dream of the Maue's may be over, the dreamers still dream, and, from what I've heard, there are some interesting new projects in the works at Deceptions Unlimited.

We can only wait in wondrous anticipation of what might fill the cavernous void of the empty chamber.

Besides the pool table. ;)

Beast Wishes~ Dave Tryzenski