Electric Psycho Print
Parts:
  • Cyclone fence
  • Battery charger
  • Car battery
  • Wires
  • Gloves
  • Optional metal bat
Description:

The Scene- As the guests enter the room they see what appears to be a cage with a crazy electrician inside. As they circle around the outside of the cage the electrician rakes his hands across the fencing sending a shower of sparks towards the audience. Suddenly they round a corner and realize that the cage is open and they must enter it and pass by this maniac. not only that, but hundreds of "live" wires hang down from the ceiling just waiting to fry some unsuspecting fool.

Layout- The room was built too look like an old store room or basement, with boxes, barrels, and misc. junk everywhere. there were columns made from 1x3's and plywood in the center of the room to mount the fencing to, and to help create the maze in this room. Along the ceiling was another tightly stretched piece of fencing with wires attached hanging down.

Now for the electronics of it all. Behind the wall was a car battery and a car charger. Caution - Make sure you never leave the car charger attached to the battery while this gag is running, it is only there to charge the battery at the end of the night (FrightFX will not be held responsible for any accidents resulting from this room idea). The car battery is attached to two large cables, jumper cable size wire will work fine. One of the cables is attached to the fence on the ceiling, the other cable is attached to the remaining fence panels in the vertical position. The actor will need a special set of metal tipped gloves or two metal pipes; attach each of these together with a cable long enough to reach from one hand, up the sleeve of the actor, down the other sleeve, and to the other hand. Now when the actor touches a the top fence and rakes his hand on any of the other fences, he can emit sparks. It is really important that you have as good of a connection you can get from wire to wire, so it may be necessary to weld each piece of chain link fence to the next to insure a good current flow. One other important thing to mention, if you use like metals, they will weld together if you let the two touch for more than an instant. So use different metal types, and having a breaker someplace in the line would be a good idea too.

Actors- One crazy electrician should do fine, but you could adapt this room for any theme. Just make sure he/she understands that this trick, although safe, can cause fire if a spark hits something that is flammable, so showing sparks down on some poor patron's head may be a bad idea. Also the longer you spark, the more resistance you will be sending through the cable along the actor's back. If you don't know what happens, try running a piece of wire from one end of a battery to the other and watch how hot it gets. So remember if the actor is sparking non stop, that cable is going to heat up his/her back rather nicely. If the actor isn't fond of this, or it's too scary for them, you could attach a wire from the top fence to the bat, then when they swing the bat at the fence, sparks.

Lighting- This room was lit by a rotating red light, you could pretty much use any lighting source in here, but try to keep it dark since the sparks will flash much more brightly when it's darker.

Sound- Not much sound would be needed for this room since it creates it's own sound, but I would suggest a low electrical hum, and/or some electrical sparking sounds.

Last Updated on Wednesday, 15 January 2014 13:48