Tea’s Weird Week Episode 005: Krampus and Carnival
Tea’s Weird Week Episode 005: Krampus and Carnival: https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-4tuwd-19d0b31
Host Tea Krulos talks to Al Ridenour, author of the definitive book “The Krampus.” Al tells us about his first encounter with Krampus in Germany, his research, “mainstream” Krampus portrayals, his group Krampus Los Angeles, and his new book on Old World carnivals, “A Season of Madness.” In the “Long Days Travel” segment, Tea talks to TWW travel correspondent Jenny Sanchez about her recent visits to Mexico City. And we close out with an absolute banger, “Dance with the Krampus” by Xposed 4heads, who will be performing at this year’s Milwaukee Krampusnacht.
Milwaukee Krampusnacht is Sunday, Dec. 7: www.milwaukeekrampusnacht.com
Al’s publisher, Feral House will be there: A Season of Madness : Feral House
Xposed 4heads will be there: Music | Xposed 4Heads
Al Ridenour: www.alridenour.com
Long Days Travel: Long Days – Eclectic and Eccentric Travel for the Curious
Audio engineering by: www.flatlineaudio138.com
Tea’s Weird Week: Count Krulos’ Vault of Horror
Tis the witching season, so I just wanted to share some recent Halloween treats I’ve cooked up if you’re looking for something eerie to read about under the moonlight:
–“From Whence the Witches Came” Milwaukee Magazine (Sept. 2025). I wrote this feature about Whitewater’s spiritualist college, the Morris Pratt Institute and some of the legends that have spun out of it.
–“Will Milwaukee Public Museum’s Ghost Move to a New Museum?” Milwaukee Magazine (Oct. 2025). This is a short piece that was part of MilMag’s “Hidden Milwaukee” cover story speculating on the museum’s resident ghost, Dr. Stephan de Borhegyi.
–“Milwaukee’s Scream Queen: Performer Katie Kadaver lives the Halloween life 365” Milwaukee Record (Oct. 2025). A fun profile on horror burlesque producer and performer, model, podcast host, B-movie actress, and one-time mud wrestler Katie Kadaver.
–I contributed two stories to the Riverwest Radio Ghost Walk project, “The Bremen Street Triangle” and “A Haunting at Cafe Corazon.” You can buy a booklet for $10 (the money supports Riverwest Radio), read the stories (fiction and non-fiction) and walk to different houses and businesses that have decorated to reflect the story. Really fun project! It goes through Halloween, more info: https://www.riverwestradio.com/
I was on the Ghost Walk Spooky Talk show to read an excerpt and talk about the stories, you can listen to that here: https://soundcloud.com/user-240416425/2025-10-26
–This one is from 2023, for Atlas Obscura: “From Elvira to Svengoolie, Local Horror Hosts’ Frightfully Fun History” it’s about horror hosts. Speaking of, be sure to check out I’m Your Host, a documentary on Kenosha horror hosts I produced and now available online (it even comes with a download of a sheet of horror host trading cards and the posters): https://artforanti-villains.vhx.tv/
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
Tea’s Weird Week: From Whence the Witches Came
I just wanted to note that my feature (titled “From Whence the Witches Came” in print) is now available to read on Milwaukee Magazine’s website here: https://www.milwaukeemag.com/second-salem-the-haunted-history-of-whitewaters-spiritualist-past/
This was my favorite article I worked on this year, it’s about the Morris Pratt Institute, a Spiritualist college that was built in the 1800s in Whitewater, Wisconsin (and still exists today in Wauwatosa. The article appeared in the September issue of MilMag. I was somewhat familiar with the story but was excited for the chance to take a deeper dive. I had a (somewhat rare) long lead time, so I was able to take a trip to Whitewater (and Wauwatosa) to conduct interviews and had a fair amount of time to read up on the story. I’m pretty happy with how it turned out.
In fact, I’ve been working on a book project and I think a slightly different version of this might be part of it. We’ll see. For now, I hope you enjoy this story, it’s a true story about a unique and unusual chapter of Wisconsin history, perfect, I think, for the Halloween season.
Tea’s Weird Week Episode 003: Milwaukee Paranormal Conference Preview
New Tea’s Weird Week episode!
“Tea talks to Allison Jornlin and Mike Huberty, proprietors of American Ghost Walks, about the ghost tour biz and what’s in store for the Milwaukee Paranormal Conference on Oct. 18 (Tea will be a guest speaker!). Then Tea and Heidi discuss strange Cubs curses and conspiracies, micronations, Wisconsin Bigfoot sightings, and more. In the Long Days Travel segment, Jenny tells us about her bewitching trip to Salem, Massachusetts.”
https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/j82mgs2bfaxd3cdb/TeasWeirdWeekNewStructure2025_Ep3_MIXED_MP38v6wl.mp3
Tea’s Weird Week: I Gotta Lotta October Left
Here’s just a list of things I’ve done or will be doing this month. I hope you get a chance to check some of it out.
October 3-5: QWERTYFEST MKE: Great stuff. We had people from Milwaukee and all over the country turn out for a celebration of typewriters, writing, and much more. I talked with my co-organizer Molly Snyder about the event for the TWW podcast, episode 2: https://teasweirdweek.podbean.com/e/teas-weird-week-episode-002-qwerty/
Follow QF on Instagram and FB, we’ll have photos and more stuff from the event posted soon!
Friday, Oct. 10: The UnXplained: I appeared as a guest commentator on Season 7, episode 16 of the History Channel show: “Unlocking the Sixth Sense.” It was a fun experience. I’ll be discussing Milwaukee psychic detective Arthur Price Roberts, one of the topics of that episode, at the Milwaukee Paranormal Conference (see entry below).
Ongoing through Oct. 31: Riverwest Radio Ghost Walk: I wrote two stories for this fun, interactive, self-guided tour. Really fun project, you buy a copy of a booklet from several participating Riverwest businesses that is full of stories and art and a map that guides you to homes and businesses that have decorated to correspond to the stories. More info: https://www.riverwestradio.com/
I’ll be on Riverwest Radio to discuss my stories on Sunday, October 26, at 6pm.
Ongoing: I’m Your Host. October is the perfect month to rent or buy I’m Your Host, a documentary on Kenosha area horror hosts that I produced: https://artforanti-villains.vhx.tv/
Ongoing through Nov. 1: American Ghost Walks: I (usually) lead AGW’s Third Ward tour Friday evenings, and the Shadow of City Hall tour on Saturdays. You can find info/tickets here: https://www.americanghostwalks.com/wisconsin/milwaukee
Ongoing through Dec. 7: Milwaukee Krampusnacht: this is when planning this event, now in it’s eighth year, really ramps up. Tickets are available and more info is slowly being added here: www.milwaukeekrampusnacht.com
Out now: Oct. issue of Milwaukee Magazine: I was one of the contributors to the cover story on “Hidden Milwaukee,” I wrote about the Kingdom of Talossa, the Ghost of the Milwaukee Public Museum, and more. On news stands now, the story will eventually be added to: www.milwaukeemagazine.com
Saturday, October 18: Milwaukee Paranormal Conference: I was the founder of this event 10 years ago and it is now being organized by American Ghost Walks. Really nice line-up this year. I’ll be giving a talk at 2pm about Spiritualist college founder Morris Pratt and Arthur Price Roberts, the psychic detective I talked about on The UnXplained. Sadly, this will be the last event ever held at the Irish Cultural & Heritage Center before they close. Check out the full line-up and register for free here: https://milwaukeeparacon.com/
October 31: Happy Halloween!
Tea’s Weird Week: I Dream of Gein-y
QWERTYFEST MKE took place this past weekend and it was just fantastic. I don’t even know where to begin, but me and my event co-organizer Molly Snyder are incredibly grateful to everyone who participated and made it a great experience. Hundreds of people showed up for QWERTY events at State Street Pizza Pub, Turner Hall, Central Library, Interstate Theater, Newsroom Pub, Forest Home Cemetery, and Falcon Bowl. There will be lots to sort through and discuss and photos to share in the future.
It was a lot of work moving dozens of typewriters, boxes of merch and supplies, tables and chairs, etc. so I took Monday off for rest and recovery, to lay in bed and watch TV. I decided to check out the new Monster: The Ed Gein Story on Netflix, but I was so tired I kept falling asleep during the show and somewhere around episode 3 or 4 I just shut the TV off and passed out. I didn’t see enough to say if I can recommend it or not, but I can definitely recommend not using it as a portal to dreamland, cause I had some real weird dreams about Ed Gein hanging around at QWERTYFEST. Yikes! From what I did see, it seemed to be wildly inaccurate, but that’s show biz for ya. Anyway, I just wanted to share some random Ed Gein related notes:
–If you want to read a really well done (but disturbing) and much more accurate telling of the Ed Gein story, I recommend the graphic novel Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Did? by Eric Powell (The Goon) and Harold Schechter.
–I was glad to see Robert Bloch, author of Psycho, depicted (by actor Ethan Sandler) in scenes talking with Alfred Hitchcock (played by Tom Hollander) about Gein on the show. Bloch spent his formative writing years in Milwaukee, he lived for many years in an apartment above Glorioso’s (old location) on Brady Street, where he clacked away thousands of words for pulp magazines like Weird Tales. I wrote about him for Milwaukee Record ten years ago: https://milwaukeerecord.com/city-life/bloch-buster-milwaukees-connection-to-psycho-h-p-lovecraft-and-robert-bloch/
More recently, I wrote about Bloch for QWERTY Quarterly, and I’m actually reading some of Bloch’s work right now and plan to write more about him for an upcoming project I’m hoping I’ll be able to announce soon.
Like other things in the Netflix show, this conversation between Bloch and Hitchcock likely did not happen. Bloch didn’t know a lot of the details of the Gein case (many details did not come out until later) and didn’t have an understanding of Gein’s psychology as he appears to have here. Bloch said the main theme he got from Gein to create Norman Bates was Gein’s solitude in a small town setting. Gein and Bates also share a very unhealthy relationship with their mothers.
–I don’t know if they went there on the show, but one of my favorite Gein stories was that the great Werner Herzog was interested in filming a Gein documentary. It’s speculated that Gein might have exhumed his own mother’s grave, though this was never investigated. Herzog was ready to dig the grave up (without permission) and actually showed up with a shovel, but his directing partner chickened out and it didn’t happen. I talke about this and other wild Herzog moments in a TWW column from 2022, “High on the Herzog.”
Tea’s Weird Week, Episode 002: QWERTY
Tea talks to his QWERTYFEST MKE co-organizer Molly Snyder; Tea and Heidi talk weird news about Super Tardigrade Soldiers and more; Jenny tells us about her “Long Days Travel” to North Carolina.
https://teasweirdweek.podbean.com/e/teas-weird-week-episode-002-qwerty/
Tea’s Weird Week: TWW podcast returns, I’M YOUR HOST is now available online for your Fall viewing pleasure
One project I’m proud of is I’m Your Host (2024), a documentary on Kenosha area horror hosts that I’m a producer on. Inspired by an article I wrote for Milwaukee Magazine, Alicia Krupsky directed, Christopher Kai House was a producer and Alicia and Stephen Vincent Anderson shot the footage, mostly on location in Kenosha. Local bands with some association with the horror scene filled the soundtrack.
The project began in 2021 and the following year we were awarded a Milwaukee Film Brico Forward Fund Award, which gave some budget for expenses and some free legal advice and other services. Sadly, the Brico Award no longer exists. There were some “work-in-progress” screenings in 2023 at the Milwaukee Twisted Dreams Film Festival and at UW-Parkside in Kenosha. The film officially premiered at the Milwaukee Film Festival in 2024 and went on to be screened at the Seoul International Short Films Festival, and was screened and won awards at Port of Fear Film Fest in Kenosha, New York Tri-State International Film Fest, and the Seoul International Short Films Festival.
Official blurb:
Vampires, witches, werewolves, and ghoulies – Kenosha has the highest population of horror hosts per capita, who produce their own homemade TV shows showing cult-followed horror films. This documentary explores their relationship as a community, their triumphs, and a tragic loss that bonds them together.
I’m glad to say that the film is now available to watch online. You can rent or buy I’m Your Host and bonus– it comes with a download of a sheet of horror host trading cards and the posters Alicia designed as a bonus: https://artforanti-villains.vhx.tv/
And all this is discussed on the newly rebooted Tea’s Weird Week podcast. Me and my co-host Heidi Erickson talk with Alicia about the project, plus weird news on radioactive shrimp, a barefoot LEGO running champ, Pazuzu, and more. Jenny Sanchez tells us about her trip to Wall Drug In our new “Long Days Travel” segment. It’s time to get weird! Audio engineering by FlatlineAudio138. Listen here: https://teasweirdweek.podbean.com/e/teas-weird-week-episode-001-im-your-host/
Please Clap Dept.: QWERTYFEST MKE is happening Oct. 3-5. We’re going to discuss it on next week’s TWW podcast. Meanwhile, see more here: www.qwertyfest.com
Tea’s Weird Week: Hot Cryptid Fall (Cryptid Fests, Part 2)
Back in May, I was inspired to write a listing of cryptid-themed festivals across the country, but I found so many that I decided to split it into two parts. Here’s a listing of celebrations of cryptids and folklore that covers the rest of August through October.
Fearsome Folklore Festival (Aug. 23)
Murfreesboro, TN
This one doesn’t focus on a particular entity but is a free, “family friendly folklore and cryptid themed celebration.” Speakers, live music, cryptid drawing workshops, and a petting zoo– I’m assuming the zoo is of known animals and not cryptids. Both Squonkapalooza and this one are created by Cryptid Comforts.
More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/1256884292699296
Mothman Festival (Sept. 20-21)
Point Pleasant, WV
The grandpappy of monster fests, this one celebrates the Mothman sightings in Point Pleasant in the late 1960s. Since then Point Pleasant has gone all-in on Mothman, with a famous statue, museum, and this annual fest that features music, vendors, and guest speakers. I attended Mothman Fest and wrote a chapter about my experiences in my book Monster Hunters (2015). The first thing I saw upon arriving was a group of clog dancers dressed as the Men in Black, dancing to Will Smith’s song from his movie of the same name. It was fantastic.
More info: https://www.mothmanfestival.com/
Van Meter Visitor Festival (Sept. 27)
Van Meter, Iowa
Celebrating a series of sightings of a large, bat or pterodactyl-like creature that swooped over the skies of Van Meter. This fest has rolled out since 2013 and features a special walking tour, guest speakers, and more.
More info: https://www.facebook.com/vanmetervisitorfestival
Cryptid Block Party (Oct. 4)
Covington, KY
A celebration of all cryptids, great and small. This event has vendors, food, art, edutainment, and my favorite: antics.
More info: https://cryptidcov.blog/
Beast of Bray Road Presentation & Hay Ride (Oct.4)
Elkhorn, WI
In the early 1990s, reports began to roll in about sightings of a werewolf-like creature running around the farm lanes of Elkhorn. I also wrote about this magnificent cryptid in my books Monster Hunters and Wisconsin Legends & Lore. Big bonus points on this one for offering a hay ride!
More info: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1998619394295140
Goatman Festival (Oct. 10-11)
Louisville, KY
Old Goaty gets around, there’s a legend of a Goatman here in Wisconsin, but a more infamous version come from Kentucky. The Pope Lick Monster, a goat-humanoid creature, is said to appear if you cross a train track trestle bridge over Pope Lick Creek. Please do not attempt– several people have died after venturing out on the unsafe bridge.
This fest has guest speakers, tours, movies, music, and a haunted attraction with the Pope Lick Monster itself.
More info: https://mostfunyoueverhad.com/goatmanfest/
Goblin Con (Oct. 17-18)
Hopkinsville, KY
I love this story from 1955, another Kentucky tale– in Hopkinsville 70 years ago, a UFO sighting was followed by a group of 5 men and 7 children claiming that their farm was invaded by goblin-like extra-terrestrials that they kept at bay with gunfire for hours. Aw, they look kinda cute to me.
This fest has 70 vendors, speakers, panels, workshops, etc. More info: https://www.goblinconky.com/home
Rougarou Fest (Oct.17-19)
Houma, LA
The Rougarou is a cajun werewolf story and this festival is a big one that seems like a fun mix of folklore and Louisiana culture. Carnival rides, costume contest and parade, a howling contest, food and drink, a haunted house, a “Ghouls on the Run” race, and some tasty cajun music.
See also: “TWW: What the Rougarou Do“
More info: https://rougaroufest.org/
Green Eyes Festival (Oct.18)
Chickamauga, GA
Ole Green Eyes is a story of supernatural folklore from the Chickamauga region of Georgia, a ghostly entity with glowing green eyes. Vendors, music, a scavenger hunt, and tabletop roleplaying games will kick off this first year event.
More info: https://www.greeneyesfestival.com/
And a shameless self-plug: I’m the director of Milwaukee Krampusnacht, happening Sunday Dec. 7 this year.
Website: www.milwaukeekrampusnacht.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/milwaukeekrampusnacht
Tea’s Weird Week: QWERTYFEST schedule is live, stage magic, Krampusnacht art, and more
QWERTYFEST MKE, a celebration of typewriters, Milwaukee history and innovation, writing and the lost arts, music, and fun happening Oct. 3-5, is something me and my co-organizer Molly Snyder have been hard at work at. We’ve got a schedule and I have to say, I’m really happy with everything about it. We have FANTASTIC people involved at every event and I’m especially glad that the venues– Turner Hall Ballroom, State Street Pizza, Central Library, Interchange Theater, Newsroom Pub, Forest Home Cemetery, and Falcon Bowl– are all places of rich history.
You can find the full schedule and tickets at our website: www.qwertyfest.com
BTW, still looking for View-Masters for a “View-Master Theater” at QWERTYFEST. Thanks to Irvin Orlandini for gifting a View-Master and a nice collection of reels. That was a great start!
I’m also quite proud of our official publication, QWERTY Quarterly. Every issue is a powerhouse of talent– poems, fiction, short articles, columns, fun pages. This month we released issue 9. A great way to support QWERTYFEST is to buy an issue or a subscription– 4 issues delivered to you is just $25. See our Etsy shop here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/qwertyquarterly
What else have I been up to?
-I wrote a feature for the August issue of Milwaukee Magazine (out now) about magician and illusionist Bill Blagg. I think it turned out well. It’s a story about the magic biz but also being determined to follow your dreams. That’s been a theme I return to– my article on local surfers springs to mind.
-I also have a feature in the September issue of MilMag on the legends of Whitewater I’m really thrilled for you to check out, so look out for that.
-I’m the director of Milwaukee Krampusnacht. This is our 8th year, and Stinky Goblin Emporium dropped our art (below) for this year. It features some characters from the previous 8 art designs they’ve done and they are also compiling a publication showcasing art from all 8 years you can pick up at this year’s event. I wrote a short intro for it. Vendor applications for Krampusnacht (Dec. 7 in the Brewery District) are currently open: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1S2rT5-JQng72kuxmI2INdQVVsp2RIoT2oLpHdN0sJFw/
-A reminder I’ll be on The UnXplained on August 15. A lot of people have asked– no, I didn’t get a chance to meet host William Shatner. They film his narration segments separately, but I’m thrilled I get to be on a show he hosts.
Want TWW delivered to your inbox? You can sign up for my Substack HERE. Follow me on: Facebook Bluesky Instagram
Tea’s Weird Week: Trump is a Goblin Shark
Happy Shark Week to those who celebrate. (Note: Highlighted words=sources.)
I was a real weird kid. When I was around 7 or 8, I asked my dad if he would read entries about U.S. Presidents from a set of Funk & Wagnall’s encyclopedias to me at bedtime. I drew portraits of at least of dozen of the Presidents. Then, as now, I would become a little obsessive about a topic until I felt I had understood it. I’m not sure where the President Phase came from. The Hall of Presidents at Disney World? I think I viewed them as being like superheroes.
A couple years and a few obsessions later, my focus changed to a new topic: sharks. I spent a lot of time reading books and writing my own notes, learning everything I could. I dreamed of cruising around with Jacques Cousteau and becoming the world’s youngest foremost authority on these amazing creatures. One thing I found fascinating about sharks was the wide range of sizes, shapes, and unique features across the seas. There was the beautiful gentle giant, the whale shark; the powerhouse predators like the great white and mako sharks; the elegant, torpedo-like blue shark; the strange, almost extra-terrestrial looking members of the hammerheads and wobbegongs.
The most grotesque shark is the rare deep sea goblin shark (Mitsukurina owstoni). Wikipedia notes that this odd, pink-skinned species has a “flabby body and small fins,” a benthopelagic (bottom feeder) predator, the goblin inhabits a world that U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service reports is “utterly alien and inhospitable to humans.” Doesn’t all this remind you of a certain President of the United States of America?
Trump is a Goblin Shark.
Note the creature’s Pinocchio like snout, symbolic of a liar. There is one thing Trump is good at– lies. Many politicians are, but Trump shoots so many lies out of his blowhole like a firehose that it’s impossible to keep track before you’re blasted away again. Some of the lies are racist, weaponized conspiracies– his bloviating claim that Obama was born in Kenya and couldn’t be president, the whole “they’re eating the cats, they’re eating the dogs” bullshit. Some lies are feeble attempts at self-preservation, like his claim that he didn’t draw a nudie for Epstein because he’s never “wrote a picture.” And some of the lies are just idiocy, take his story about chatting with his uncle about the Unabomber or his declaration that windmills cause cancer. Those are just a few grains of sand in his murky seabed of lies.
Trump is a Liar of a Goblin Shark.
The goblin shark has a horrific array of needle like teeth, which it uses to chomp on cephalopods. Another toothy animal is the unwitting mascot of one of Trump’s tributes to cruelty, his Alligator Alcatraz concentration camp. This will be looked back at in horror and disgust in future history books (maybe– unless books, education, and empathy are banned).
Trump is a Cold-blooded Goblin Shark.
First they came for the immigrants. But that is only the beginning. Make no mistake, hate and revenge is Trump’s only goal as President. If Trump could (and maybe he’ll succeed) he would fill his gulags with the many people he hates– political opponents (even from his own party), journalists, comedians, lawyers, judges, late night talk show hosts, scientists, professors, musicians… eventually that’ll maybe extend to people who beat Dear Leader at golf. You’re all getting a one-way ticket to El Salvador!
Trump is an Orange-assed Sadistic Dictator Goblin Shark.
Who will stand up to him? Democrats are hiding in the reef. Corporations are out at sea. Maybe his ground base of Christians? Nah, Trump bamboozled them long ago, one of the greatest cons of this or any other century. Trump is not a Christian. He does not know a single Bible verse, only worships greed and power, and embodies all Seven Deadly Sins rolled together in orange dough.
Trump is a Pink Devilfish, the Goddamned Goblin Shark.
Now that I think of it, this comparison is pretty unfair to the goblin shark. Old Gobby is just slowly cruising along in the deep sea looking for squid to snatch as they’ve done for millions of years. Compared to Trump’s soul, this strange fish is a beauty queen… don’t tell that line to Trump, though, he might try to force his way into their dressing room and sexually harass it.
SEE ALSO: Political Monsters: How Presidents Influence Horror Movies reveals the correlation between Trump and killer clown flicks.
“The Jewish Space Laser Bill,” TWW, July 9, 2025.
“You are Geraldo Rivera, high on ecstasy, looking at a UFO in the Bahamas,” TWW, May 20, 2022.
American Madness talks about Trump’s rise to power harnessing conspiracy theories.
teakrulos.com 