July 28, 2026

Warden’s Widow Secrets of Blood Prison at Inkcarceration in Ohio State Reformatory aka Shawshank

Warden’s Widow Secrets of Blood Prison at Inkcarceration in Ohio State Reformatory aka Shawshank

In this episode, Pipeman interviews the Warden’s Widow, a prominent haunt actor at the Blood Prison haunted house at the historic Ohio State Reformatory—famously known as Shawshank Prison. The episode dives into the evolution of the Warden’s Widow character, the immersive experience of Blood Prison, the unique atmosphere of hosting a haunted attraction in a real, storied prison, and the intersection of music festivals with haunted house culture.
Main Topics Covered

  • Origins & Evolution of the Warden's Widow Character
    • Starting as a volunteer for volunteer hours in National Honor Society
    • Growth from a simple tattered wedding dress to elaborate costumes and makeup changes over the years 01:06
  • Blood Prison Experience
    • Yearly haunted house running through October weekends
    • Immersive sets, professional makeup, actor training, and sensory overload 03:28
    • Separation of Blood Prison from other haunted houses thanks to the real prison setting 05:25
  • The Shawshank (Ohio State Reformatory) Setting
    • The building’s haunting beauty and rich history 02:20
    • Exploring new corners even after years of working there
  • Supernatural & Unsettling Experiences
    • Skepticism vs. anecdotal ghost stories among actors 04:19
    • Personal accounts of unexplained scratches from both guests and musicians 04:30
  • Festival & Haunted House Synergy
    • Unique atmosphere made possible by having music festivals and haunt actors together 07:53
    • The perfect genre match of heavy music and the haunted experience
  • Activities for All at the Reformatory
    • Haunted house, historical tours, coffee shop, movie nights, lights-on tours, ghost hunts 06:16
  • Social Media & Community Engagement
    • Blood Prison’s viral TikToks with millions of views, driven by realistic makeup and creative videos 09:10
    • Suggestions for visitors to experience both the history and the fright by visiting day and night
Key Stories & Discussion Highlights
  • The Warden’s Widow philosophy: "If I can take the man down in the group, the rest will go with him" 00:49
  • The impact of evolving costumes and setting a new standard each year 01:35
  • The building’s atmosphere unnerving even the most frequent visitors, contributing naturally to the haunted experience 02:21
  • Scratches mysteriously appearing on actors, and musicians with similar experiences while filming in the infamous torture room 04:30, 04:47
  • Actor training for immersive scares beyond typical haunted house jump-scares 07:25
  • Viral social media moments: flagged for makeup realism and unexpectedly gaining millions of views 09:10
  • Recommendations for getting the full Blood Prison experience by touring both day and night 08:29
Notable Quotes
  • "I created this character way back in the beginning of when I started here, and she has definitely evolved."
  • "I think the costuming and the makeup is the biggest evolution. We change our costumes up every couple years. We want to keep it fresh."
  • "The amount of time and effort that everybody, our whole team, has put into making this show come alive. The most immersive sets you're gonna see."
  • "We pride ourselves in kind of training our actors to do more immersive scares...the next actor is going to be fully immersive and do a different kind of experience with you."
  • "You have to see it to just kind of experience it and understand."
  • "The one that took off for us was one that we kept getting flagged for, like, our makeups being too realistic, but it took off...at like 3 or 4 million views on it."
Resources & Links Mentioned
Final Words The episode closes with an invitation: "You have to come see it to understand it...come check us out and have fun." 09:34 For the full haunted and historic adventure, check out Blood Prison’s upcoming events and follow Warden’s Widow and Blood Prison on social media.


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Hi, you thent you censure?

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Wow? Crazy you? This is pipe Man here on the

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Adventurers pipe Man W four C Y Radio. We're at

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incarceration and my booth has just gotten invaded. Who do

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we have with us here?

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Hello? I am the warden's widow.

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WHOA you look good? I'm sure some of your victims

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might not think so though.

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A lot of the men I get a lot of

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the men that are my hyph believe it or not?

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Really? Is it the teeth?

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I think it's just the height difference. Like a lot

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of people.

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My philosophy is if I can take the man down

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of the group, the rest of them will go with him.

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There you go. So tell me how this all started

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for you.

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Honestly, I mean this character specifically, are going way.

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Back whatever you want to talk about.

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So about seventeen eighteen years ago, I was in National

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Honor Society and needed volunteer hours. Our local Haunted House

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was hiring, so I gave that a try, and here

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we are now as far as working here at Blood Prison.

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This is year seven or eight.

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Now.

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I fell in love with it. I created this.

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Character way back in the beginning when I started here,

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and she has definitely evolved.

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Tell me about the evolution, how did it start and

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what made you evolve?

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So I definitely think the costuming and the makeup is

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the biggest of evolution. We change her costumes up every

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couple of years. We want to keep it fresh. This

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is actually her new costume for this year. Gosh, when

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I first started, I had like an old, tattered wedding dress,

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and that was kind of the extent of it.

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So now we go all out. We do the wig,

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we do the head dress, we do.

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It all so you could even play in gwar.

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Now, what's that?

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Even playing guar Now, I'm down right, it's like it's

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like similar.

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Oh yeah.

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So what do you love most about being at Shawshank Prison?

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I call it Shawshank. I know it's Ohio State for Reformatory,

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but to me, it's Shawshank.

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Of course.

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I mean, look at the building. It speaks for itself.

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It's incredibly beautiful. The history is insane. I mean I've

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worked here now for eight years and I still just

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walk around, the walk around the building and just look

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at everything. I Mean I'll find a different staircase and

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just the detail and the chip pain and the cracking walls,

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everything about it.

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It's just so beautiful.

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I love it. It is cool, like I do festivals

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all over my door. She'll call me and she'll say, dead,

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are you excited about this festival coming up? And I'm like, oh,

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I love it. I think it's great. But I don't

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know if it's sciting. It's the white board when you're

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doing every week. But the first time I came here,

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I think it was twenty seventeen or eighteen, and I

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called her up. I'm like, I'm calling you from the

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prison yard of Shawshank. Now I'm excited. Yeah, and I met.

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We were talking earlier. I missed when you guys you

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can't now because there's so many out there. Yeah, would

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roam around out there in the yards. Oh yeah, it

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was so cool. Yeah, So tell me a little bit

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about what goes on inside that for people that haven't

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experience inside the Blood Prison.

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Blood Prison is obviously, by default, my favorite part of

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this building. So we run our Hunted House pretty much

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the month of October, every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

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It's incredible.

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I mean, the amount of time and effort that everybody,

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our whole team has put into making this show come alive.

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The most immersive sets are gonna see again. That's setting

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itself is incredible, down to the makeups, the sets, the music,

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everything is just all immersive and it's a full on experience.

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You're gonna have all of your senses overwhelmed.

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I keep telling all the music, arts and interviews like

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you need to go on the tour, But I'm gonna

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tell you right now, you won't be sure if it's

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one of a character scaring you or a real ghost

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scaring you.

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Probably true.

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Now, do you guys ever have experience that like kind

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of freak you out?

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I am literally the worst one ever to ask this question.

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I have a super scientific brain, so in my mind

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everything has an explanation. But we definitely have had actors

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and people that tell us their stories all the time.

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We had a girl that came out the one night

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and had scratch marks all over her neck and she's like,

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I didn't do that. There was something in there with me.

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So that stuff, of course, kind of put you on

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edge a little bit.

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It's funny you should bring that up because the first

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year I was here, I interviewed Whalen Revs from a

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killer's confession and he told me that he did have

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filmed the video in the torture room and he came

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out and his chest was all scratched up in bloody.

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I believe it, So who knows. Yeah, I'm very scientific too,

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but there's some things I'm like, I don't think I

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want to mess with that. Even if I.

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Don't believe it, I don't blame you, Like.

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Why take the chance. Yeah, So, how do you think

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Blood Prison separates itself from other haunted houses and haunted

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experiences like that?

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I definitely think again, just the building itself.

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A lot of people will drive a distance to come

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see the building itself. And then again, Halloween lovers, this

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is their dream. I mean, you get to see all

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the haunt actors, everybody kind of in their vibe.

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You know, everybody comes out.

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We got food vendors and stuff, and they just kind

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of come out and hang out.

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I definitely think it's a Halloween lover's dream.

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I in my opinion, it is the prison, like because

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the prison is creepy on its own of course, Like

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you don't even have to like to build awant house,

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you have to build this whole thing, and you have

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the most perfect hant house. Yeah, already there.

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Yeah, yeah, what else would you share with the listeners

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about about the prison here and blood prison and the

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experiences and why if they've never been here they need

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to be here.

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I genuinely think there's a little bit for everybody, even

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if you're not a Halloween lover and you're not into

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the haunted house thing again, just coming for a historical tour.

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There's even a little coffee shop in there. I mean,

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they do movie nights and things like that. They do

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ghost tons if that's your thing. There's the Haunted you know,

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the Haunted House. Of course, the Lights on tour. Yeah,

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if you're not again you don't like all the jump

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scares and animatronics being on and all that, you can

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take the lights on tour of our Haunted House and

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they'll show you where everything is and you can still

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appreciate the sets and everything that are in it.

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There really is something for everybody here.

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Now. I'm one of those people that when I go

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into a haunted house that I laugh most time. We

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didn't try to scare me, And sometimes I'll see them

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and I'll like scare them. What would be different for

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me in here? I've actually I've hung out with all

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you guys. I've actually never done the Blood Prison because

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I've never had the time when I was here because

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I was doing interviews. How would that be different from

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me here? Because I've heard a lot of stories, I

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think this might be the real deal.

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So we definitely pride ourselves. We do actor training all

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throughout the years, so you can go to any Hunted

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house and there's gonna be jump scares everywhere, and we

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have those two. But I think we pride ourselves in

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kind of training our actors to kind of do more

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immersive scares.

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So while you might have a jump scare in this.

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Room, the next actor is going to be fully immersive

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and do a different kind of experience with you.

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So there's a little bit for everybody.

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And tell us how you feel about the music festival

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being here every year.

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This is incredible. What more could you want? It's all

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of our favorite things in one building.

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It does not.

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Get better than this, And you couldn't have a better

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genre of music to go along with Blood Prison that

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it is perfect, you know, Yeah, is there anything you want?

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Let the listeners know we haven't covered already. Also tell

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them your socials and you know the websites for everything

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and how people can come on the Blood Blood Prison

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tours and all that good stuff.

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Of course, I think my biggest thing and take away

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with me you just have to come see it to

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understand it, come experience it. I tell people if you're

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coming during Halloween to come see us. Come during the day,

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do the historical tour in the day, and then come

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back at night after you grabbed it by to eat, so.

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You can kind of get both experiences.

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You can find us on Blood Prison, Ohio on all socials,

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were on TikTok, Instagram and Facebook. If you guys feel

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like following spooky old me, I'm Warden's widow on all socials.

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But yeah, it's a great time. You have to see

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it to just kind of experience it and understand.

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Now of tiktoks must be amazing. Do you have a

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favorite or least favorite TikTok that you guys have done?

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We're most embarrassing.

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I don't know. That's actually a really good question, believe

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it or not.

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The one that took off for us was one that

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we kept getting flagged for, like our makeups being too realistic,

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but it took off.

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I mean, I think we're at like three or four

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million views on it.

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That was kind of a fun experience because we're just

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posting our silly little videos and if people are into it,

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that's cool.

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There you go.

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Hell yeah.

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You have a final words for our listeners.

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I just thanks for being here. Come check us out

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and have fun.

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Well, thank you for being here, because as somebody that

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does a lot of festivals, it's you and the other

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characters that make this one of the most fun festivals

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I do, because it's something different and added amenity I'll

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call it. Oh yes, And I just love when you

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guys are walking around here. I just feel like, man,

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this is a cool place.

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To be Insurance. I'm glad to be here.

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Thank you for doing it, Thanks for being on the

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Adventures of Pipe Man, of course, thank you.

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Thank you for listening to the Adventures of Pipemin on

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wfur CUI Radio