Abracadabra, alakazam, get your wands ready as DJ Carroll is calling all the young witches and wizards to battle the spookiest ghosts and mischievous goblins.
For the past 30 years, the now-retired EDSS drama teacher has been hosting Halloween experiences for the neighbourhood kids to enjoy something different, rather than just trick-or-treating ventures.
This year, with the help of Carroll’s wife, Jacqui Terry-Carroll, the theme will be spellbinding with enchantments taking place between 5:30 p.m. and 8:15 p.m. Kids can conjure up the most thrilling of spells by using an interactive wand to track their victories, to get to the top of the leaderboard.
“It’s an interactive Halloween experience, that the kids come and they choose one of the wands and on the screen that I project, I have a bunch of ghosts and goblins and creatures, where they have to hit the right ones,” Carroll explained.
He tracks the score on his phone, and can see how well they scored whether battling the creatures as a team or challenging each other to see who gets a high score.
“They can come back another time and try to increase their score,” said Carroll, noting it’s kind of like a real-life video game, as they battle the dark arts.
“But the cool thing is, the kids don’t know which things are worth what points, so they try like trial-and-error.”
Annually, Carroll does something different, sparked by his love of theatre.
“I’ve taught theatre for years, and it was something I started doing when I was in my teenage years at home,” he said, noting this is his favourite time of year.
“Halloween is a fun night. It’s a night for more people to come dress up and get out and be silly for a night. I like to encourage and make that happen.”
Each year’s presentation varies based on how much effort will be required and the amount of time he has available to make it work.
“This one is going to be more low-key, because it’s not a big production but it’s just as fun,” he said, adding that he spends several hours decorating and getting the lighting ready.
The setup, however, is done on the day by hanging a screen in front of his house, getting the props together, along with the wands.
This year is slightly similar to last, where he had the youngsters being Ghostbusters and trying to bust those pesky ghosts, but it will be wands instead of the proton blaster.
“A lot of the stuff I reuse,” he said.
“I redo, reuse props, reuse lighting, I don’t try to reinvent every year, I just change it slightly,” he noted, explaining that he has done a combination of both the do-it-yourself props and buying props.
Carroll is quite familiar with the DIY department from his time in theatre production, building props and set pieces.
His favourite part about these events is when the children are running back to play again.
“I like the fact that the kids will come back. They’ll come and do trick-or-treat, they’ll play the game, they’ll get their candy,” Carroll said
“And then 20 minutes later they are coming back down the street because they want to play again.”
As dressing up is encouraged for this event, Carroll will be a wizard.
“I’ll be there instructing them how to be a wizard or a witch and defeat creatures,” he said, adding that you got to be really flashy with your wand – “the bigger the gestures, the better.”
The magical wand battle will open for trick-or-treaters to visit at 5:30 p.m., running during the prime candy-collecting hours of October 31 at 14 Limera Ave. Just look for the little witches and wizards casting “avada kedavra” and “crucio” on the ghosts and goblins.
Not only will the youngsters hone their sorcery but there will be candy to collect too.
