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ED: I've been making monsters for over 40 years.
I've always enjoyed scaring people,
and now I do it professionally.
From queen aliens to Alice Cooper stage props,
we delight in resurrecting the darkness.
With our tight-knit team
of sculptors, artists, and mechanics,
we create your worst nightmares.
This is "Making Monsters."
-- Captions by VITAC --
Closed Captions provided by Scripps Networks, LLC.
MARSHA: Hi, guys.
Look what the cat drug in.
Long time, no see. How are you?
How was the trip from Israel?
ED: Mario and his dad came all the way over from Israel
to the shop for this haunt in Israel called The Darkness.
Well, I have a lot of stuff to show you.
ED: Printed stuff?
MARSHA: Ooh, blueprints. Great.
My name is Myuri.
My friends call me Mario.
I'm starting a new haunted house in Israel,
the first one in Israel.
The big plan so you can see everything.
Ooh, pro blueprints. That's always helpful.
ED: Mario has this crazy idea.
He is gonna take
a state-of-the-art haunted house to Israel.
They aren't used to this kind of scary stuff over there.
They've got real scary stuff like missiles and bombs.
In fact, Mario is building this haunt in an old bomb shelter.
Let's see what you have in mind.
Mario wants a lot of Distortions pieces,
a lot of things we make.
He's also got this crazy idea about a giant snake.
The idea for this snake is people come in the room,
and there's this giant rattlesnake tail.
And it's going... [ Imitates rattling ] like that.
And then, about the time that gets their attention,
Mr. Snake comes swooping down on a swing, opens his mouth,
and spits air at them.
I want it to be huge, very huge,
so huge that you can't imagine that.
You only see that in movie on graphics, not real life.
You guys got some great ideas here.
This is gonna be awesome.
ED: Mario and his father are headed back to Israel,
so we're flying in Jordu to help sculpt this giant snake.
MARSHA: Hey, Jordu, have you ever done a giant snake?
I haven't. Wow. Look at that.
Mario wants something very scary,
so he's thinking giant snake.
He said it's very hard to scare his guys, his customers.
Very hard.
So, the worst thing he could think of was a big rattlesnake?
That's what he's going for.
All right.
JORDU: Planet of the snakes.
Aah!
For God snake.
Try to build a kind of graceful curve like this.
Mark and Eric are two interns we have here at Distortions,
and they're gonna help me sculpt this gigantic snake.
Let's get this side matched to this.
And then, we'll call it a night, okay?
Because, well, we can't use up all our energy.
Do you guys thing Ed says, "Well, the thing is," a lot?
Have you noticed that?
JORDU: What I want to do
is for you to count when he goes, "Well."
Just "well."
He doesn't even have to say, "The thing is."
I want you to just count it mentally.
Don't say, "Ah! Ed, I caught you!"
'Cause he'll stop.
And if we reach 25 points
by tomorrow evening,
I'm gonna spring it on Ed.
"Ed, guess what, man? We've been keeping a tally.
"You're gonna have to buy us lunch,
you know, because we reached 25 points."
And we'll get him.
ED: Well, the thing is...
Here he comes.
How's it going, guys?
Good. It's going.
So, where was you at before Distortions?
You know, the thing is, I hadn't thought much about it.
And I was going to school to be an art teacher.
Well, after 3 1/2 years of college...
Uh-huh.
...I didn't think I was cut out to be an art teacher.
I mean, was there, like, a defining moment?
Well, there was a defining moment.
It was like, "I don't want to deal
with a bunch of teenage kids all day"?
What are you gonna do with this company
when you're too old to do it?
Well, I'm thinking I'll probably die working here.
Where do you see Distortions Unlimited in 10 years?
Well, the thing is...
Well, the thing is...
Well...
Well... The thing is --
Well...
Well...
Well...
Well...
Well...
Well...
That's me.
What are your genuine hopes for the company?
Well, that's a big question.
Pbht!
Well, to become wildly profitable
would be a new experience,
get paid more, work less,
to finally get some talented sculptors in here.
The thing is...
What really do you want for this company the most?
So, I've realized that all I really have to do
is ask Ed a question about anything, and he'll go, "Well."
Done deal.
Well, well, well. Let's see.
Ed, my friend.
Yes, sir.
You have said either "well" or "well, the thing is"
27 times this morning.
I doubt that.
Come here.
No way.
Now, one thing you're not aware of --
Me and the boys decided to start keeping track.
Out of the goodness of my heart, I give Jordu two interns,
and he's wasting their time writing down my little foibles.
Next time, he's gonna get, like, a pigeon or something.
None of this.
Something to poop on his sculpture,
peck his eyeballs out.
Here's what we had bargained.
If Ed says it 25 times --
And you exceeded that limit by two times --
we determined that you'd have to buy
me and these two guys lunch.
Well, the thing is I can't afford it.
Pbht!
And there you have it.
You're just jealous of my tail.
Um...you're not gonna buy us lunch, are you?
Nope!
Ed is so stingy.
He won't buy us lunch even though he said it 25 times.
Of course, we didn't let him in on that
but, you know, it's stingy.
[ Laughs ]
That was hiss-terical.
[ Snake hisses ]
Hiss-terical.
The snake is looking great.
I really put the pressure on Jordu to get it done quickly,
so I have a little surprise for him.
Just the guy I was looking for.
Jordu, I got a surprise for you.
Are you growing a beard?
I like that.
It's actually kind of grubby.
I'm gonna shave it.
No, don't shave it. You should grow it.
No. I don't want to turn into you.
I don't know why not.
Listen, let me shave, and then, I'll look at your "surprise".
All right. Meet me up in the office.
All right.
And you don't have to shave.
Just put a little milk on that and let the cats lick it off.
Eh, come on.
Sometimes, the surprises here are benevolent
at Distortions Unlimited.
They're good.
They're full of joy and rainbows
and unicorns and little hearts...
[ Unicorn neighs ]
...members-only jackets.
And sometimes, they're evil.
Sometimes, they're bad.
Sometimes, they hurt.
So, I hope that this is a benevolent one
because, you know, I like rainbows
and unicorns and members-only jackets.
Hey, Jordu.
I did.
Please, have a seat.
Am I fired or something?
No, you're not fired, Jordu.
So.
Okay, what are we doing?
We are going to resurrect the Resurrection Series.
It's time.
I kid you not.
ED: I sculpted a lot of masks
when I was first getting Distortions off the ground.
Jordu has told me time and again
that those early masks inspired his love of mask-making.
And so, the Resurrection Series
is Jordu's updated version of those original masks.
I thought we could pick out --
[ Gasps ]
Oh, my God!
Daaahhh! Ai!
[ Snorts ]
You're not really supposed to touch them,
but I can touch them for you.
Oh, I'll touch them.
Oh, geez.
Ed, you finally have seen the light.
Yeah. Marsha and I thought it would be good, you know?
We're talking about going to Mask-Fest.
Mask-Fest is a really unique convention
that's held every year in Indianapolis
where people that are die-hard mask collectors show up,
and they'll come from all over the country
to come and see what's new.
So, let's pick out three.
Let's look and see what we should do.
This is like heaven to me.
This is heaven?
Jordu is, like, schizophrenic
when it comes to Distortions and me and the masks.
You know, a lot of people have expressed interest in Sycron.
Sycron, I think, is a must.
Snowbeasts.
This is a unique and particularly nice one.
I like how long that fur is.
All right. How about the third one?
Oh!
Now, listen, I'd go for that one.
Oh, my God!
Oh, yeah. Warlord.
Warlord, Sycron, Snowbeast.
Okay.
I am very, very, very excited.
I really am.
And I'm going to do my very best.
So, Jordu picked Snow Beast, Warlord, and Sycron
to build for Mask-Fest.
Meanwhile, the rattlesnake was dammed and painted.
Now, the troops have been assembled
to get this giant piece downstairs to get molded.
Everybody gather around.
Now, we don't want anybody to get hurt or bit.
How heavy is it?
It's somewhere over 1,600 pounds without the steel.
It's ridiculous.
Unless you can bench-press 2,000 pounds,
you're not gonna save the day.
This is gonna be a huge operation.
We are gonna have to weld the snake armature
to the forklift, chain it to the forklift
just to get it down the ramp.
I just hope this is gonna work.
I've been around forklifts for years.
I have no qualms about getting it down there
and getting it down there right.
I'm petrified.
[ Forklift beeping ]
Boy, the creaking's just killing me.
[ Metal clatters ]
Oh, man.
ED: Jordu has finished sculpting the giant rattlesnake
we're making for the haunted house in Israel,
but we're having a hard time getting it down to the basement.
This thing weighs nearly 2,000 pounds.
I mean, it's like strapping a Volkswagen to the forklift.
[ Engine turns over ]
[ Forklift beeping ]
[ Metal creaking ]
What's the noise? What's the noise?
The forklift.
The forklift makes that noise?
Yep.
Oh, that's reassuring.
Oh, listen at the floor.
Oh, man.
I don't want to see this. I go the other way.
[ Beeping, creaking continue ]
Boy, the creaking's just killing me.
It's like a scary movie.
Oh, man.
Right here, it's gonna be tight.
[ Metal clatters ]
Ah.
Don't start cussing yet.
So, we almost had the snake down the ramp
when it bottomed out.
Clamps.
Guys, I would back up that way so you're not beside it.
Yeah, I wouldn't get anywhere close.
Go up a little bit. Now start going down.
There you go.
It was a little bit scary getting the snake down the ramp,
but somehow, some way, we did it.
Okay, now, take it easy.
Here we go.
[ All grunt ]
That's good.
In a perfect world, Mando could lay this mold horizontal.
Gravity would help him put the plaster on.
But I am too scared for that.
Mando is going to have to mold
the first half of this snake standing up.
This means he'll have to fight gravity
to get the plaster to stick to the underside of the sculpture.
Then, he'll lay it down on its side
and plaster the second half of the sculpture.
We'll pull it apart, and that'll do it.
And we're ready to cast.
While Mando gets to work
creating the plaster cast of the snake,
I'm gonna check in on Jordu
and see how the resurrection masks are coming.
Well, Ed Edmunds.
How's our beast?
[ Growls ]
Wow.
JORDU: So, Snowbeast is kind of like an abominable snowman,
but it's got some sort of bear-like qualities --
a black nose and burning, blood-red eyes.
And it's got blood dripping out of the mouth
as if it's, you know, eaten someone.
It's done. That's beautiful.
No, no. It's perfect.
Mm.
I know Jordu would have liked
to have spent more time with Snowbeast,
but it's better than I would have done it,
it's beautiful, and we've got two more masks to do.
All right, let's get this bad boy out of here.
Oop, oop. I hope I don't smash his nose there.
Oh, my God. Ohh.
All right.
So, you know what it's time for.
Warlord.
JORDU: Warlord was a kind of grayish-blue monster
with these tusks that come out and this weird, vented nose
and these little, green eyes and this iron-gray hair.
The reason why these masks are all so important to me
is I knew what good design was even at 13, at 12
when I first saw these.
I really do believe that the quality of Ed's work
during that era was unmatched.
Ed, Ed, Ed!
How's our Warlord?
I'm liking him very much,
and I'm having such a good time sculpting him.
I knew you would.
ED: Jordu is like a kid again,
and it's really fun to see his take on these masks.
However, there's some things from the originals
that I really want to keep.
The eyes are not quite as sunk in.
It would be nice to add a little boniness.
Okay.
Now, Jordu, if you want my opinion...
No, no, no, no. No, no, no, no.
...it's not gonna be what you want.
I want your opinion. I'm listening.
He is very protective.
I mean, these are his children.
Even though I birthed them,
he thinks they're his children now.
He's adopted them.
And I didn't care about them anyway.
I kicked them out in the street when they were 18,
and I don't care anymore.
I don't even know their names.
I think that the sunken eyes are one thing I would fight for
because I think it's gonna give it --
You want, when it's in shadow, for only the brow to show.
You don't want the eyes to show.
And on this mask, I think it's gonna make it more effective.
Okay. All right.
You know, despite all the banter and the teasing
and the back and forth with Ed and I,
I really do hope that he sees
just how much this stuff means to me
and how much respect I have for what he's done
and the amount of passion I have for it.
So, how's Sycron?
Nice.
It's one of my best ones, I think.
I love him.
JORDU: Sycron looks like a creature
from a very arid, desert planet,
and it's got kind of dry riverbed cracks
all over its face and head.
And it's got kind of these chrome teeth
and little chrome dots for the eyes.
And it's very skull-like in the face.
Yeah, this is one of my favorite ones.
I think this really, really turned out.
How do you think it compares to your original
as far as likeness?
Yeah.
It's got that same look, just much, much better.
I'm really, really happy
with the way these sculpts turned out.
I think they'll be a great addition
to the resurrection line.
ED: Jordu is finished with the three masks,
and now, Mando just has to cast them and clean the molds.
Meanwhile, something seems to be troubling Jordu.
Hey, Jordu.
Um... I got an e-mail last night
that may mean I'm going to kill you.
Okay.
Ed is the practical-joke king.
He loves playing tricks on people.
He loves scaring them. He loves freaking them out.
He loves seeing them go,
"My reality has been destroyed by you.
"Why?! [ Gasps ]
"Why?
Why? Why?"
I'm gonna do that to him.
I sculpted a mask in the exact style
that Ed did his masks back in the day.
Now, the big question is,
"Will Ed buy that he made this mask?"
So, I've contacted mask collectors
and Distortions Unlimited enthusiasts
to be in on this with me.
Look at the content of that.
"Hey, 'J.'
"Found this purple alien mask.
"It says 'Distortions,' but I've not seen it before,
"not in any of my catalogs.
"Do you know what it is?
"P.S., it's in rough shape
"in case you can't tell --
"been stuffed in a box since the '80s
when the shop went out of business."
Do you know what that is?
Turns out that someone had gotten an old box
from a retail store, and there was a mask in there
that looked like a really old Distortions golden-era mask.
If that turns out to be a vintage mask
that you haven't told me about, I'm going to kill you.
You know, I think it may be. But I --
I --
I mean, it looks exactly like my sculpting.
From the minute I looked at the computer screen,
and I'm seeing this mask that's obviously my sculpture,
I can tell.
That's amazing.
I have no clue what that is.
I think that's my mask.
But I don't even remember it.
First of all, he buys it because the prank is so elaborate.
Who would do such an insane thing?
I have honestly forgotten that mask,
but I know that's my sculpture.
I can tell that's my sculpture.
I just -- I've forgotten it in the annals of time.
Who would study his work so well and know it that well
that they could mimic his look?
Everything about that is my sculpting.
Who would be so cruel as to do something like this
and get in touch with all these people
and make all this stuff just to drive an old man crazy?
[ Evil laughter ]
It's not amazing and wonderful
because I don't have it.
And if you forgot about this thing --
ED: What in the world. Why didn't we sell this?
JORDU: So, I've concocted the most elaborate practical joke
in mask-making history.
I've convinced Ed that a mask I made
is in fact a long-forgotten, priceless,
vintage mask that Ed made himself in the 1980s.
Now, I wonder how far I can take this prank before he catches on.
If this is a vintage mask, why didn't you put it out?
That's a good question.
You know, I may have --
The mold may have broken or something.
Well, obviously, it didn't.
Well, I mean, I might have poured one up,
and then it broke or something like that.
This thing's out of left field.
We have no idea what's going on,
and I could have slipped into a coma
and sculpted this while I was unconscious.
I could have been on some kind of strange,
"Lost Weekend", drug-induced experience and forgot it.
I don't really know what happened.
What about if Jim Lawrence got it, sold it to the store?
Let's call Jim Lawrence. Let's call Jim Lawrence.
Can we call Jim Lawrence right now?
JORDU: The second stage comes in where we contact Jim Lawrence.
Jim Lawrence has known Ed for over 30 years.
They've been ordering masks from Distortions Unlimited
for that long,
and Jim is gonna say, "Oh, I remember that."
I've sent Jim a black copy of the mask.
All of them are poured up in black latex like the old masks.
And I've sent him, of course, a premium copy for his own.
I don't have a clue.
MARSHA: I'm gonna go call Jim.
I'll let you know what I find out.
Hook, line, and sinker.
ED: I'm dying to find out more about this mystery mask,
but we've got a lot of work to do today.
We have to paint 80 resurrection masks for Mask-Fest
and the rattlesnake that's headed for Israel.
Jordu is beside himself with excitement
over painting the masks.
He's like the Headless Horseman who finally found his head.
Ready for another day?
I am so excited.
Whoo!
I can hardly wait.
Whoo!
Yay!
All right.
[ As Ed ] Well, Jordu, the thing is,
I had a long night,
and the last thing I need is some exuberant,
little fat man bothering me.
[ Air hissing ]
Jordu's excitement over these masks
is coming out in some strange ways,
particularly in his incessant imitation of me.
Well, Jordu, make those masks and shut up.
Whatever you do, Jordu,
just stay away from the 55-gallon drums of latex.
That's for Distortions, not you.
[ Normal voice ] That's a quote.
I'm just kidding.
Oh.
You're so incredibly forgetful.
I feel like I can say you said anything,
and you'll believe me now.
You know, that's probably true.
This is a real problem
that I can't remember this mystery mask
because it occurs to me that Jordu could tell me anything,
any lie he wants, and I would believe him
because I can't remember.
I could make up any story now, and you'd believe it
because you -- How could you forget that mask?
You know, I got to admit that's --
There's something wrong that I can't remember that.
It's starting to eat at you.
Now, Ed, what I'm gonna do...
Yes?
...is I'm gonna finish one Snowbeast paint-wise,
and then, you're just gonna copy it.
Give me the simple jobs, something I can actually handle.
You know what? I'll just do these Snowbeasts.
I can handle it, Jordu.
Jordu forgets that I am the creator
of these amazing masks that changed his life.
Jordu, this is the last Sycron.
Good 'cause you got to move on, buddy.
There's a lot to do.
All righty.
It took a while, but Jordu and I
finally got all the masks painted for Mask-Fest.
But there's still one big job to to do.
We are getting close to the finish line
with this snake for the Darkness haunt in Israel.
It's kind of a delicate balance
between getting the thing to look very realistic,
pleasing the client,
doing something that actually works in paint.
And so, after I balance that carefully in my mind,
I just do what I want.
Working on this snake for Mario kind of brought back memories
'cause when I was a teenager I had gigantic snakes.
I mean big snakes like a 14-foot Burmese python.
Having snakes, I noticed something.
Their tongue they use to smell with.
And I'm thinking, "What are their eyes for,"
'cause they can't close their eyes.
A snake cannot close his eyes.
Perhaps a snake's eyes are purely cosmetic,
and actually, they see with their tongue.
So, I want to try an experiment
to see if I could see with my tongue.
[ Grunts ]
Wait.
[ Screaming ]
[ Sighs ]
Phew.
[ Grunts ]
I'll not try that again.
It's gonna be my mask.
It needs to not be crazy. You need to not say the figure.
Let him say the price.
I'll give you $2,000 for it.
ED: After Jordu discovered this mystery mask,
Marsha called Jim Lawrence, our closest distributor,
and asked him about it.
And what do you know?
He has one.
And Jordu is chomping at the bit to get this thing.
We got to talk.
All right.
Oh, it's the mask.
Ooh, is that it? Ooh.
Yeah.
Oh, geez.
Jim now has sent over photos,
and Marsha and I are gonna show these to Ed.
They're extremely high-resolution photographs.
The mask looks brand-new.
Look at this.
"Distortions Unlimited -- 1980."
What in the world? Why didn't we sell this?
So, we show the pictures to Ed,
and, yeah, he knows he sculpted it.
He can tell that he did it.
It's his style. It's his look.
He can't understand for the life of him why he didn't release it.
It's gonna be my mask.
What are you gonna be willing to pay for this thing?
Let's call Jim.
Now, wait a minute.
It needs to not be crazy. You need to not say the figure.
Let him say the price.
I'm gonna get this thing,
and I'm gonna get it with no delay.
I don't want to negotiate. Call him right now.
[ Sighs ]
Remember, it's just a piece of rubber.
Jim and I talked the night before,
and I said, "Jim, do not throw out a price.
"No matter what happens, no matter what Ed says,
"how he gets involved, let me throw out the price
"so that Ed goes...
[ As Ed ] 'Jordu?!'"
[ Ringing ]
JIM: Hello?
Jim, this is Ed, Marsha, and Jordu.
Oh, hello, Ed. How are you?
Hey, Jim.
Hey, Jordu.
Very excited.
This mask you sent looks brand-new.
How would I have known that that's what this call was about?
Yes.
...tell me you remember something about this mask.
I don't know how I could have forgotten it.
I mean, to me, it should have been released.
It's just so long ago.
I told you the other day I have a hard time
remembering what I had for breakfast.
Yeah, me, too.
That's 30 years ago.
I know. I feel the same way.
It is a mystery.
JORDU: I'll give you $2,000 for it.
Listen, knowing that this is as rare as it is
and that you must have it --
Sure. Absolutely.
Done deal.
Done deal. I can't thank you enough.
Jordu, the fact that it's this big mystery,
that mask will always kind of stand out
as something really special.
It's still a piece of rubber.
[ Laughs ]
Jim, thank you so much.
I'm anxious to see it myself.
$2,000 for a piece of rubber.
Why don't you bring it to Mask-Fest?
The final stage of the prank will come at Mask-Fest.
Besides, maybe somebody will see it,
and they can tell us something about it
'cause all the die-hard fans are gonna be at this thing.
All right.
Okay.
And I still can't remember a thing about this mask.
It just makes me wonder, "What else have I forgotten?"
I may have a bunch of illegitimate little masks
running around that I don't know anything about.
Then, they're gonna want a check.
All of the masks are painted, dried, and packed up.
Our rattlesnake has been shipped off to Israel.
And now, we're off to Mask-Fest in Indianapolis
to show off our newest additions to the Resurrection Series
and to get our hands on that mystery mask.
MARSHA: Jordu!
Here we are.
Now, first thing you got to do
is sign these before they can go.
Oh, yeah. Wow.
I want to talk to you, Ed, a little bit
about how we're gonna arrange them.
I think they should be arranged rag 'em, tag 'em.
I don't think it should be all --
No, Jordu. That's terrible. Are you kidding?
"Rag 'em, tag 'em."
I figured every row would have its own mask.
Like, you'd have a row of --
No. You know why that's bad?
Why?
'Cause it starts to look like a cheap,
point-of-purchase rack at your local supermarket.
Boy, setting up the booth with Jordu is tough.
He's got an opinion about everything.
Yes.
You wanted to charge $200 now for the masks, right?
No. No.
Only $180 for the old ones.
Okay.
That's only a $10 increase.
But on the new ones $250.
I think so.
Oh, my God. We ag--
MARSHA: Yes. We all agree.
Something's wrong with the universe.
Get me my pills!
Wow.
Jordu and I actually agreed about something.
It's a new day at Distortions.
ED: Oh, Jordu. This is the one you want to look at.
Oh, yeah.
Warlord.
Let me see the back.
The hair is really badly cut.
When you cut hair for creatures, you go up with the scissors.
[ Laughs ]
What are you talking about? He's beautiful.
We'll fix that, Jordu.
Once we quit squabbling about the monster's hairdo,
we actually got the booth set up in record time.
Now, with Mask-Fest opening the doors,
it's time for the world to see our new Resurrection masks.
ED: Yes.
...this is the famous mask.
Oh...
The latex looks like it's in great shape.
...my goodness.
But it's old.
Be gentle.
MARSHA: That's so crazy.
What in the wor-- Well, now, it's not even cut.
No.
Isn't that something?
Classic.
Can I put it on?
[ Laughs ]
No.
You know what I'm gonna do?
I'm gonna go show this to Eric Austin.
Oh, yeah. Can I go with you?
Yeah. I want you to.
I hope he knows what it is.
Maybe he knows something about it.
He might know something about it.
I hope.
Hey, Eric.
We have a question for the master of masks.
Yeah.
My name is Eric Austin.
I'm the founder of Mask-Fest.
Have you ever seen one of these?
Uh, yeah.
I got one right here.
Where did you get --
I've had this.
I never knew you had that mask.
I love that mask. I have one just like it.
WOMAN: I have two of them.
Oh, what a sweet mask.
MAN: You guys talking about masks? I have one of those.
You got to be kidding me.
You don't remember this?
I have no idea, Jordu.
I have no idea. I can't believe --
Who would do that?
Who would deliberately sculpt a mask,
make a whole bunch of them...
And forget.
...and then start to distribute them and make them
and give them to a bunch of people just to fool you?
No, no, no, no.
Who would take the time to pour up a bunch of masks
in black latex after sculpting it
to look like it was your style
just to fool you and make you think you did it?
What kind of twisted jerk
would want to play a practical joke
on the master of practical jokes?
Did you sculpt this?
Of course, I did.
You sculpted this.
Yeah.
No, seriously, you sculpted this?
Yes.
Okay.
You got me, dude.
Jordu got me, and he got me good.
He must have been concocting this thing for months.
[ Laughs ]
Joke's on you, homey!
[ Laughs ]
I was absolutely and totally baffled by this.
I don't think I've ever been gotten that good.
And, like, my brain was not working.
The synapses were like...
[ Imitates crunching, crackling ]
I don't think this whole thing
could have gone better than it did.
Ed was so stunned.
This hoax was done extremely well.
And my hat's off to Jordu, but I have one word for Jordu.
Retribution.
ED: Jordu really got me with this mystery-mask prank.
It'll be a while before I live that down,
but there's no time to think about it now,
as we have to catch a plane to Israel to meet our giant snake.
After an arduous 15-hour flight,
Marsha and I have finally arrived in Eilat, Israel,
to install Mario's rattlesnake.
Well, it's got to be here close 'cause there's the sign.
Right down here.
Oh. Well, we found it.
So, we're here to check out the snake
and see how he survived his long journey to Eilat.
This is cool.
Darkness, Eilat.
HI, guys.
Hey.
How are you?
We've known Mario for years,
and, you know, making the giant snake,
that was a good excuse to get over here.
And I'm very excited.
Yeah.
The big question -- Did the snake make it?
Well, I'm sorry to tell you, but...
It's here.
Tell me you're kidding.
It's here, yes. It's here.
Oh, you've seen it?
You took it out of the thing?
Yeah, I just had to.
Where is he?
He's inside?
Tell me you've got it all set up,
we don't have to do nothing.
[ Laughs ] You wish.
Yeah.
Lots of times, we have problems with shipping.
Various things happen.
This time, the snake is going across the ocean and land,
so there's lots of opportunity for trouble.
Now, Mario, we're gonna need the two long rails, too,
that go in there for support.
What rails?
They're like eight foot -- Just like that.
They're just eight foot long that slide in.
I didn't get them.
Well, they were a part of the box.
Do you have the box?
The big box?
The metal box?
No.
Where is it?
MARIO: Somewhere in the garbage.
No.
And you didn't take the rails off?
'Cause the rails were part of the box.
The rails are vital to this snake.
They attach to the bottom of the snake stand
to keep it from tipping over
when the snake swings toward people.
Without it, we'd have a messy situation.
I didn't know nothing about the rails.
That was our fault. We didn't tell him.
MARSHA: Those rails are super-important.
You can go ahead and get the snake out,
but without those rails,
it's not stable, and it might come down.
The first time that snake goes out without those rails,
the whole thing's gonna go down.
We're in trouble.
Here we are in Israel,
and we don't have our brilliant support system
to make sure the snake does not kill people.
It's not Mario's fault. It's my fault.
Can you get metal somewhere?
Yeah.
Is this place close, a metal place that would have...
Yeah.
...two-inch-by-four-inch metal?
We're gonna look for it.
I can't believe this.
All right, Ed.
Let me show you a part of Eilat
you never thought you'd see before.
Let's get some metal.
ED: Thank goodness there is a hardware store nearby
where we can get this metal.
Our snake would be a sitting duck
if we couldn't get new rails.
[ Cough! ]
I haven't seen the right stuff yet.
Hey, wait a minute. What's that?
This place has every kind of metal you can imagine.
But nothing seems to be exactly what we're looking for.
It's not the same as yours.
It's not.
The U.S. metal won't work with Israeli metal.
I think what we should do is take the legs you made out.
We cut them.
We put new legs.
I don't like it, but, yeah. Okay.
Do you guys have good welders?
We're supposed to be.
ED: Deciding to rebuild the support structure
from scratch with metric steel,
we zip back to the Darkness with the necessary materials.
There, Mario has his welders ready, and we get right to work.
The rails got put on extremely well.
That guy did a really good job.
Let's get it working. I want people to see it.
ED: Here we go.
[ Snake rattling, hissing ]
It's huge.
ED: Too low?
It's huge, but it's too low.
I only see the upper head.
I can't see his mouth. I can't feel the spit.
The snake is supposed to spit on you.
We got a problem
because the snake's supposed to go all the way to your face,
open his mouth, and spit air on you.
[ Snake hissing ]
You must be this height so you can enjoy the mouth open.
What about this, Mario?
Bring another bar like this that it sits on up higher,
and the higher it sits up here,
the further it'll push out 'cause it's got less of a throw.
There is a lot of construction to do here.
The snake head is not going up high enough,
so we are going to have to cut and re-weld
to get that snake head to go up higher.
Once we cut the snake free,
we have to lift it up to the proper height
to figure out where we have to weld the beam.
MARIO: I want to see where he goes.
More.
This is the way.
Yeah.
No, the piston open to the end.
And it's still okay.
Maybe the piston is not out all the way.
Please tell me you're not saying
that we shouldn't have cut it.
You're not saying that.
Don't say that.
No.
No.
I hope Humpty doesn't dump me.
For more "Making Monsters"...
Go to travelchannel.com.
ED: Marsha and I have traveled halfway around the world
to Israel's first haunted house to install this giant snake.
But so far, it has been one disaster after another.
We had to build new support rails.
And when the snake's head wasn't coming up high enough,
we had to cut the armature in half.
But then Isaac discovered
that the air piston wasn't going all the way up,
which could only mean one thing.
I'm wondering about the air pressure.
ISAAC: I put it now at 100 psi.
Oh, it's -- What was it before?
90.
MARSHA: Did you check all that,
like, make sure the flow controls are tightened down?
Oh, no, we just hacked away like crazy before we even thought.
You did?
You didn't check the flow controls?
Oh.
It seemed like it was out all the way.
It took me a few minutes to admit to myself what I had done.
We cut our beautiful armature in pieces
because the air pressure was set too low
and it wouldn't lift the head all the way up.
So, we need to weld it back right where it was, right?
I say we weld it back.
We do it once, twice with pressure,
with pressured air all the way.
If it will work fine, then we close it with welding.
If it's not, then something else must be done.
We are going to have to undo
all the damage we just did to this snake
and see if, when we put the right pressure to it,
if the head will come up like it did in Greeley.
MARIO: All right. Here we go.
ED: Fire in the hole.
Oh, good grief.
ED: With a little more air pressure,
it rises up to exactly where it's supposed to be.
So, after cutting and welding
and then cutting and welding again,
we ended up in the exact place we were when we started.
What's wrong with me?
Well, Mario, you may not have hired
the smartest monster maker.
But we don't give up.
It was a very, very hard day of cutting and welding
and doing all the work and measuring and everything,
but in the end, it will be worth it.
Now it's time to scare people.
This was really a tough install.
But finally, we're ready to open the doors to the Israeli public.
Mario has a lot of Distortions creations in this haunt,
but the snake is the crown jewel.
We hope it scares the "hiss" out of people.
MARIO: It looks amazing from every view you look at it.
Already, everything that they see here, it's amazing,
but the snake is like the top.
[ People screaming ]
[ Snake hisses ]
It's crazy.
It's the most extreme attraction we have in Israel.
ED: It's really an interesting situation in Israel
'cause these guys are used to, you know, real danger.
But they're not used to this kind of stuff.
They're not used to America's version of scare.
And so it's actually very effective.
You know, they're not used to giant snakes coming at them.
[ Snake hissing ]
You know, I was a soldier, and I was a fighter.
And I see things in my life.
But this one is different.
You don't know what to expect.
[ People screaming ]
I'm delighted to say the snake's debut was fang-tastic.
Aah!
Now that the work is done, Marsha and I are headed out
to do a lot of Eilat sight-seeing, camel-style.
Uh-oh. What'd he do that for?
[ Camel grunts ]
Why? Is he upset with me?
[ Laughs ]
[ Laughs ]
Now, what if they go crazy?
Then you just hang on.
No, I ain't hanging on. I'm jumping off.
This is a little scarier than I thought.
Oh, yeah?
What made us think that this would be a good idea
I like it.
Have you ever been on a camel?
Well, there you go.
No, I haven't.
Been on plenty of horses.
ED: That 15-hour plane ride's rough,
but if I had to take a camel home...
...I don't think I'd survive it.
[ Both laugh ]
Instead of horsing around, you're camel-ing around.
I'm camel-ing. I like that.
Maybe you're starting to get to be a pun master like me.
[ Camel grunts ]