Halloween events offer plenty of thrills

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This article was published 30/10/2017 (3263 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Do you need to celebrate Halloween exactly on Oct. 31 for you to feel it in your bones? Here are some tasty Halloween-night entertainment morsels for the monster in you:

 

CREEPED OUT

The Windsor Hotel presents famous psychobilly band the Creepshow on Halloween at 8 p.m. Many of their songs are about scary horror films. “To have them here on Halloween night is exceptional,” local organizer Sam Smith says. “I kind of giggled when they asked if we’d be willing to do it Tuesday on Halloween night.”

The band consists of Sean “Sickboy” McNab on upright bass, the Reverend McGinty on keys, Kenda! on guitar and lead vocals, Sandro Sanchioni on drums and guitarist Chuck Coles. Creepshow is known for their high-energy tunes and sing-alongs. Special guest is Sammy Kay. Tickets are $13 and are available at Music Trader, Into the Music and ticketfly.com.

There will be a Halloween screening of the horror classic Dawn of the Dead at Cinematheque at 7 p.m., just as it gets very dark. Cinematheque’s head honcho Dave Barber emphasizes this is George Romero’s Dawn of The Dead (not to be confused with the remake) and calls it “one of the greatest horror films ever made and a seminal influence on the TV series The Walking Dead.”

 

DOUBLE EVENT AT THE PARK

The Park Theatre hosts two totally different shows Oct. 31 — a black comedy show with local comics and an ’80s dance party, with costumes encouraged, called Stranger Things Halloween Party.

The comedy show, Good Grief Healing Through Humour, features comedians Tyler Penner, Ashley Burdett, John B. Duff, Cory Falvo, Jon Wilson, Michael Blomquist, JD Renaud and Benji Rothman. Their battle cry is: “Let’s get hysterical! Laugh until you cry, or cry until you laugh.” Good Grief is a night of grieving, laughter and healing. Cost is $10 for eight comics and starts at 8 p.m.

After the laughs, the Park turns into a dance party focused on the Netflix horror series Stranger Things, starting 10:30 p.m. “Stranger Things reinvigorated a love for ’80s horror movies,” event organizer Travis Porter says. “To celebrate Season 2 (which was released Oct. 27) we’re throwing a Halloween party dedicated to the best era for the genre. We’re playing ’80s music all night and are dressing to look the part — costume contest, prizes, silent auction and spooky drinks.” Tickets are $5.

BORIS KARLOFF’S FRANKENSTEIN AND RCAF BAND

Want a wild Halloween treat the night before the trick-and-treaters show up? Tonight at 7 p.m., the Royal Canadian Air Force band performs the music while the famous 1931 film Frankenstein, starring Boris Karloff, is shown at the Manitoba Theatre for Young People, 2 Forks Market Rd.

Tickets are available at the door and are $10 for adults, $5 for kids or $20 for a family.

 

CEO SLEEPOUT 2017

On Oct. 26, CEOs, presidents, company owners, politicians, social service people and many more came out for the sixth annual CEO Sleepout on York Avenue near the RBC Convention Centre. It was a night of sleet, wind and low temperatures. Sachit Mehra, owner of East India Company Pub and Eatery, confesses he can never sleep at these events.

“So I toured the area on foot with Siloam CEO Jim Bell,” Mehra says. “I went out with the homelessness-assistance team members and checked out where people tend to congregate, like in stairwells or tucked into corners of buildings.”

The night’s emcee was Ari Driver, who is the enthusiastic, caring chair of this event committee. More than 50 people had their names on the CEO Sleepout list online. Spotted among the hardy people who stayed up all night and/or slept until morning: Stefano Grande, Downtown Winnipeg BIZ CEO; Louis Sorin, president and CEO of End Homelessness Winnipeg; former MP Shelly Glover; Laurie Barkman, Alt Hotel GM; lawyer and former Manitoba Liberal leader Rana Bokhari; Erma Chapman from Macdonald Youth Services; Jordan Farber, vice-president at Lexington Real Estate Holdings; Coun. Cindy Gilroy; Kirkfield Park MLA Scott Fielding; Elva Haid, president and CEO of Realcare Inc.; Tom Malone, Winnipeg Clinic CEO; Chris McIvor of Frank Digital; Kelvin Shepherd, president and CEO of Manitoba Hydro; Loren Remillard, president and CEO of the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce; Sharon Redsky of Dakota Ojibway Child & Family Services; Re/Max realtor Anita Charma-Turner and Richard Walls of Red Road Lodge.

Mehra brought some butter chicken and rice from East India Company and other food and drink businesses contributed food, such as Subway and Little Pizza Heaven. And members of the community just came by to sit and talk over the night.

“I think it’s fantastic, very important. What started off as education for the corporate community turned out to be an education in peace,” Mehra says.

Homelessness “is a part of our city, and we need to be aware and do our best, so it’s not necessarily a part of our city anymore,” he adds. 

The sleepout has raised almost $1 million in six years.

 

WINNIPEG ENTREPRENEURS GROWING

Panel moderator Obby Khan had great fun with three entrepreneurs at the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce Get Ready To Grow luncheon attended by hundreds of hungry suits at the RBC Convention Centre on Oct. 25. The focus? Stories of local small biz startups going for the big time.

Khan, the former Winnipeg Blue Bombers offensive lineman who owns Shawarma Khan restaurants and the Green Carrot Juice Company, entertained the crowd with irreverent interviews of three panelists. On one hotseat was Prashant Modha of Mondetta and MPG, who went from being part of a $200 startup with 10 fancy sweatshirts priced at $58 to a company worth $100 million.

Amanda Buhse and Tom Jansen started making fewer than a dozen pine-scented candles a day on a stovetop, but quickly landed a gig gifting at the Oscars and Grammys. They graduated to a pop-up storefront on Princess Street in the Exchange, and will open a permanent store on the second floor of The Forks Market on Nov. 1.

And Cori Poon of Sweet C Bakery, who once baked and sold cookies made on the family farm as a 12 year old but later found herself a poor, stay-at-home mom, knew she had to do something about it. Remembering her childhood baking biz, she realized she could go full out.

“I could bake, sell and keep the profits,” to put food on the table and still be a stay-at-home mother. Now she has a popular bakery at 1171 Kildare Ave.

 

Got tips? Exciting events happening in your world? Been rubbing shoulders with the stars? Email tips to Maureen at mscurf@shaw.ca.