Several years ago, I dined at “Transylvania House,” an eastern European restaurant that served honest, nourishing peasant food — I had a hauntingly delicious bowl of tripe soup as an appetizer–with all the tawdry ambiance that its strip mall location allowed. Crammed in between the entrance and the kitchen was a man with a guitar and an amp who serenaded diners with tunes like Monster Mash and the theme from the Munsters. He was fantastic. I dropped a few bucks in his tip jar when we left and I picked up one of his promotional stickers. He went by the name of Creepy Clyde.
I came across that battered sticker the other day and scanned the internet to see what Clyde was up to. Evidently quite a lot. Check out his website:
Clyde hosts a movie series and has produced a cd of his original tunes. His nicely polished work is a loving pastiche of “safe” TV horror personalities — like my home-town favorite Sir Graves Ghastly — and cheery monster pop like Monster Mash. He’s just so darned good-natured about the whole thing too that he almost makes me feel like a kid again. Check out the commercials for his shows up on YouTube for a taste of what he does.