Ron Sweed: I feel if you can keep the child in you, I think that’s great because all too often people are born old. OK, because I’ve met kids that I went to junior high with and everything. They were already 80, ya know. So I just figured I’d never want to lose that, you know, ’cause you can still look at things in wonderment, snowfalls, snowflakes and everything. You just appreciate things. And sometimes, I thought I was losing it for a while. So what happens is, I think when you lose the appreciation of the moment, and the wonderment and everything, you really don’t want to let it go, but you gotta go to the job every day and take care of the kids. "Oh, man! Now I’ve maxed out two credit cards, so now I have to do two jobs," and pretty soon, you get numbed out and you lose that thing. I never wanted to lose it, so I made a concerted effort not to.
Evil Dead
Actor Bruce Campbell and director Sam Raimi, creators of the Evil Dead trilogy, were both on the Ghoul show, and know just how hard it is to keep a ghoul buried.
Bruce Campbell: I love the Ghoul! I was on his damn show! It was way near the end, when he went to Channel 62, down on Jefferson. A thing that I sent him actually got shown. I took a G.I. Joe, put it in a coffin and made a little lab coat. I made up the G.I. Joe just like him.
Metro Times: Did he blow it up?
Campbell: No, he did the "Papa Ooh Mow Mow" to it, with the lid of the coffin! So I thought, "Hot damn! That’s my prop! I sent that to him!" I realized I could connect with him somehow and then eventually got on the show. Sam (Raimi) and Scott Speigel and one or two other guys, we would be in a couple of skits. But we were so game for anything, and we thought it was so cool to be on television. He has my endorsement! I’d watch him! I’d watch him in a second!
Ghoul for Love
Metro Times: How did Ron’s dad feel about the Ghoul?
Irene Barnard (mother): Oh, he was very proud of him. Very, very proud of him. He died very suddenly. Oddly enough, he had a Ghoul sweatshirt on at the time. Ron’s father died of a heart aneurysm back in 1979. A few days before he died, he’d said to his son, "Ron, never let go of your dream."
Be sure to read our main feature about the Ghoul: "What's a Ghoul to do?"
Anita Schmaltz writes frequently about theater and other ghoulish arts for Metro Times. Send comments to [email protected]
