It is my pleasure to have Shaun Burris as my Paranormal Peep this week. Many of you may know him from the GhostMan & Demon Hunter radio show and others may know of him from his short lived show on A&E "Extreme Paranormal". I met Shaun at a Paranormal Fest in New Castle, IN a couple years ago. I knew who he was from seeing "Extreme Paranormal". Shaun was very personable and eager to chat. When coming up with this Paranormal Peep series, Shaun was one of the first people I wanted to interview. He is from Indiana and had a successful radio show. He was recruited to do paranormal TV. I was curious to see how this has affected him now. Please enjoy my interview with Shaun!
Amy: How long have you been in the paranormal?
Shaun: "I guess to answer your question, I would have to say I have been involved with Ghosts/Paranormal/Horror ever since I can remember. My greatest memories of my childhood was when I had the chance to go to the old library down the street from my house. I can remember the smell right now as I do this interview. You know that smell, the smell of old knowledge in the form of ancient ink and paper. I would run straight to the Weird & Strange section and find every book I could on hauntings and monsters. I could never get enough of the American Ghost story and my passion for that has never stopped and I hope never will. I grew up in a real haunted home on the Southside of Indianapolis, Indiana. A lady had hung herself in our attic. My family never knew if it was her spirit that roamed the shadows of our old house, but we assumed it was. I will never forget all the times I would see the spectral image of a lady in the hallway or the countless times when a TV or some electrical device would come on by itself. I never experienced anything terrifying except, sometimes at night my sheets would be slowly pulled down off my bed and when I would sit up to check who the culprit was nobody was there, at least nobody I could see. I will never forget that house. I sometimes wonder if the ghost lady still roams the dark corridors of that old home still looking for whatever she was searching for."
Amy: What did it mean to you to have your own TV show?
Shaun: "When the news came in that I would be the host of A&E's television show "Extreme Paranormal", I was overwhelmed, scared, nervous, etc... At the time we were discovered for the TV show we were in the third year of doing our award winning radio show The GhostMan&Demon Hunter Show. We never went looking for a TV show, the TV show came looking for us and boy did they find us! I never expected to be a host of my own television show, never in a million years! When we got together to start the G&D radio show, my Co-Host Nathan Schoonover and I wanted a show that would bring people together as a family and try to make people feel good and have some laughs no matter what was happening in their lives." "To the listeners, we are their late night Buddies that take them down the haunted back roads of America." "Week after week I would go to the studio and turn on the mic. I would review the material that we would put out for that nights show and Nate and I would laugh and cut up for hours before we went live on Air. A lot of people don't realize how hard it is to do a radio show especially a comedy based radio show. What I mean is every week no matter what mood your in happy or sad when that mic goes on, so do you, and you gotta be ready to put on a show. Some nights the show is smooth and easy and other nights, depending on guests and mood, the show was like pulling teeth, BUT we always got it done and hopefully made some lives a little better in the process. For us its about the listeners the fans of the show. I have and will always say everything I do will always be for love of the Game not the Fame."
Amy: What happened with the show?
Shaun: "Extreme Paranormal had just as good, if not better, numbers in ratings as Ghost Adventures or Paranormal State, but on A&E, we went on right after Paranormal State, which, if you watched that show was more of a warm white lighter type paranormal show. We were a smash mouth, if its haunted, show me kind of show! So the viewers, at least we were told, thought we were too extreme. I never liked the way that once you sign a contract to do a television show, you are owned by that production company and/or network. We were discovered and cast for our comedy approach to all things, but once the contract was signed, we were told that we can't be funny because spooky and funny don't mix, But we knew better because our radio show had climbed from out of a basement studio to an international television show in three years, so I guess it did. The haters came after the show, because other folks, in the whatever genre you wanna call it, are afraid of us because we are real and we don't make our living off scamming people or selling fear. My approach has and will always be SHOW ME and whatever it takes to make whatever the person says is happening that is paranormal then that's what I will do. If you don't have that type of attitude then your wasting valuable time. Push everything, question everything, and don't listen to other believers or skeptics or whatever other type group that is out there trying to make a name for themselves because at the end of the day all anybody knows is that we will never know the answers to all life's mysteries. So anyway we were told that our numbers were good but we were to "Extreme" and ahead of our time. So here we are still swinging harder than ever."
Amy: Tell me about Ghostman and Demon Hunter.
Shaun: "The GhostMan & Demon Hunter Show is the brain child of my Co-Host Nathan Schoonover and I. I first met Nathan through our mutual friend Doug Semig who at the time was the host of the most popular paranormal type radio show on the air which was Ghostly Talk . I was in a very dark time in my life. I was going through a divorce from a marriage that I never should have been in, but none the less I was in it and found myself losing everything I had worked for and built in my early adult years. This time in my life would turn out to be the greatest that would start my journey down a very crazy road that would end up spawning a show that would bring many together and take me to host my own show on A&E television all over the world. Nathan and I met in an old bar in Gettysburg PA. We had all met that evening for introductions and beer! Then a little late night Evp session while roaming the shadows of the sacred grounds of Gettysburg Battlefield. We went to a place on the battlefield where it was said on the first night of battle southern troops had advanced a relaxed & unprepared Union army which would result in many dead soldiers on that bloody night. As I stood on top of this small mound I can remember feeling the wind brush against my cheek. It was late November, but very warm weather for that time of year. As I stood at this sacred location reflecting on the events that had took place there I felt inspired to do an Evp session, which is thought to be the process of recording the voices of those departed with the use of a audio recorder. WE GOT ONE!
standing on that mound that night we received an Evp. It was a voice of a man speaking but we were unclear as to what he was saying. I remember the excitement ran through us, you know that excitement that only a ghost enthusiast can know. Anyway we started talking about building a show that would bring comedy to a market that had been saturated LAME, if you will, LOL. Shows that knew it all of the Ghost world , and to have fun on those shows was simply unheard of. We decided this mentality simple would not do so G&D was born."
Amy: How long has that show been running?
Shaun: "I'm proud to say that our show, The GhostMan & Demon Hunter Show, has haunted the air waves for five years. We have entertained and brought laughter to thousands across the world. I cant tell you how much it means when a listener emails us to let us know we made their day by making them laugh and share stories of how we have changed some of their dark days to good days. For a show like ours that doesn't make a penny from doing it the fan feedback is what keeps us going. We love each and every one of our listeners."
Amy: Do you have one piece of advice for others in the paranormal field?
Shaun: :My advice is LOVE IT! Love every minute, the smell of the old historic homes or cemeteries, the feel of the story, and everything. Most important don't forget to have fun and laugh every chance you get." "I always tell people don't spend your time with gadgets or gizmos that we don't even know work for the purpose investigators think they use them for.
Take basic stuff like a thermometer, recorders (both video and audio), and set it up somewhere and party! Enjoy yourself crack open the brew this is your hobby have fun with it. If a place is going to have a spook its gonna have one with or without you running around with a gadget in your hand . When people experience strange stuff it happens when they are living their lives. Sitting in their favorite chair watching Monday Night Football or playing video games etc... NOT while they are running around the house taking readings with machines. Bring the party and let the spooks come to you!"
Amy: Will you be at any conventions or do you have any events coming up?
Shaun: "You know the GhostMan, Shaun.B, has always tried to stay mostly out of the self promotional part of this field lol! There is way to much of that out there already! I always have done what I do and if somebody asks me to do something and I can find the time between life and the kids, I'm more than happy to help for a good cause and for the good of people. I have been asked for a couple of things this year but nothing is set in stone yet. I'm sure once we get done with all our email requests from the show, we will end up making some appearances and we will announce on the show when and where we will be because hanging with our fans is the greatest thing to us."
Amy: Are you working on any new projects right now?
Shaun: "Yes as a matter of fact since Extreme Paranormal was taken off A&E, I hit the road and started filming the Spookshow, which has been slow going but I am really proud of these webisodes because they capture not ghost hunting, but the spirit of the Ghost story and that is what I love. You can find G&D episodes and Spookshow episodes on my Youtube. Go check them out and make sure to join up so you don't miss any craziness!"
Amy: Are you doing any investigating?
Shaun: "I do investigations on a case by case type deal. If it has a good story behind the haunting I'm there with my camera rolling and skeleton makeup on ready to film a Spookshow episode. I love finding answers to the unknown but I love telling a good ghost story more than anything. Lets face it just because you go to a place and spend a little time you don't know if its haunted or not unless you see something or hear something, but at least with the ghost story now that's something that is turly paranormal because it will last for ever."
Amy: Do you have a memorable place you have been?
Shaun: "Gettysburg Battlefield and Lake Bonito, in episode two of Extreme Paranormal when I went under water on TV's first under water ghost investigation looking for the murdering ghost of Martin Nelson. Gettysburg just walking on the field you can feel the history ,the stories, and the energy in every step and it is magic to me.
" GhostMan Shaun.B says keep your eyes on the Shadows and I'll see you all down the haunted back roads."
I hope you enjoyed getting to know a little bit about Shaun Burris. I know I did!
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