He’s created the largest Ouija Board in the world and that is just the beginning of his obsession with Ouija Boards! Rick Ormortis Schreck is our guest!
You can find the Talking Board Society at https://tbhs.org/
Thanks Rick!
TRANSCRIPT
[intro music]
This is the Paranormal Podcast with Jim Harold.
JIM HAROLD: Welcome to the Paranormal Podcast. I am Jim Harold, and so glad to be with you today – even more so than usual, because we’re going to talk about one of my favorite topics. Some love them, some hate them, but again, in the history of the 17 years of this show, I think it is one of the most popular topics: that of spirit boards or Ouija boards. And we have a great person to talk about that subject with, and that’s Rick Schreck, otherwise known as Rick “Ormortis” Schreck.
He is a true Jersey Devil and the owner of House of 1000 Tattoos in Middlesex, New Jersey, and has been a professional tattoo artist for just under 30 years. Serving as Vice President for the Talking Board Historical Society, Rick has been obsessed – or should I say possessed? – by all things Ouija since 1992. His collection of Talking Boards contains around 200, with most adorning the walls of his family home. His home was also the filming location for House of Schreck, a reality show on Amazon Prime.
Creating Talking Boards since 2004, Rick has accomplished feats such as making a Ouija bed of nails, building a giant interactive Ouija to hang on the front of his house, converting his 1989 hearse (from whence he will be conducting his interview) into a Ouija board, and most recently making the largest Ouija the world has ever seen, Ouijazilla. It is 72 x 44 feet and was featured in Ripley’s Believe It Or Not! Mind Blown. Rick often says that Ouijazilla is undeniable. Well, the same can be said for his love of Talking Boards. And as far as what is next, well, maybe he’ll tell us a little bit, but generally he says “more will be revealed.”
Rick, welcome to the show. What a bio, what a background. Thank you for joining us today.
RICK SCHRECK: Thanks for having me on.
JIM HAROLD: I’ve got to ask you, who came up with “Ormortis” as being like your middle name? Rick “Ormortis” Schreck. Was that your idea, or was that somebody else? I love it.
RICK SCHRECK: No, my nickname ever since art school was always “Shred” because this kid that sat next to me, my buddy Joe, he goes, “Hey man, is your last name ‘Shred’?” I go, “No, it’s Schreck.” He goes, “It would’ve been cool if it was Shred.” I said, “But it’s not.” And for some weird reason, I ended up with that nickname for a real long time – until I had my tattoo shop for a while and an old buddy of mine – he was an old biker; he just passed away recently, my buddy Toddo. He came in one day and I was talking, I don’t know, talking about whatever ideas I usually have, and he goes, “Man, you are so creepy sometimes. I’m going to start calling you ‘Rickor.’” I go, “Why?” He goes, “Rickor Mortis.” And it just stuck. [laughs]
JIM HAROLD: [laughs] That’s great. So how did you start with this love for Ouija boards? What got you into it?
RICK SCHRECK: Like you said, back in 1992, I used to work in a t-shirt place, and a bunch of the guys were all saying they were going to this place called Salem that I had never even heard of. They go, “Yeah, that’s where they hang the witches. We’re all going to take a ride. It’s only a five-hour ride.” So they went there and told me all about it. I became obsessed with wanting to find this magical place. I always liked places that I thought were haunted or creepy or cursed.
So me and a friend of mine – I’m embarrassed to say, I’d never left New Jersey before when I was 22 years old. So I went to a travel agent and asked them to book me a hotel room in Salem. I was just driving there, but I didn’t know how to travel. The woman gave me all these flyers and stuff and she booked the hotel room for me. She thought it was funny that I went to her. I went to Salem and fell in love with it. And I saw that the Parker Brothers factory was there, and I go, “Holy cow, that’s where they make all those board games.”
I started to notice that there were these Ouija boards that said “Parker Brothers” on it, and from an antique store, I bought my first one, a 1919 board. It was $75 bucks because in 1992. That was a lot of money, but I didn’t care. After that, I had to have them all.
JIM HAROLD: Do you think there’s a mystical aspect to that in terms of do you think the boards speak to you? I don’t mean they actually talk to you, but you know, they speak to your sensibility, there’s some kind of connection there?
RICK SCHRECK: For myself – the reason why I really loved the boards from the beginning was because I grew up in the ’80s, and that was the time of heavy metal and the Satanic Panic and everything was witchcraft. There was actually a witchcraft/Satanism section in my high school library, which is crazy. By today’s standards, that would never fly. I started reading about all this stuff and I started getting into all the occult things.
I remember a friend of mine going, “There’s things called Ouija boards.” Again, I wasn’t really familiar with them. I thought it was hooey. He said to me, “If you like witchcraft, you really need to get your hand on a real Ouija board.” I go, “What’s a real one?” He goes, “Witches use wood from used coffin lids, and that’s a real one.” I always thought that was something cool that I kept in the back of my mind. And then when I found Salem, I was like, I’ve got to find one of those ones that’s real, because these are just the board game version, but I need a real one.
Just holding it in my hand, I felt something. I didn’t know what, but maybe it was like – it’s the same reason why I asked my parents for a black cat when I was a kid. I just like things that terrify people. I think the belief itself that there’s something wrong or cursed or spooky about it gives it power all within just that belief, and that’s why I started to want that.
I never came across one that even worked for me. I would just sit and get bored, I would set there with my girlfriend, nothing would happen. I was like, “You know what? Maybe I haven’t come across a real one yet. Maybe I haven’t come across a cursed one yet.” So that was where I started to have to buy every one I came across. The only real power that I thought they ever had was I believe that all the boards in my collection found me; I didn’t find them. That’s why I’ll never be one of those guys on eBay bidding $3,000 in a Ouija board to make it happen. I believe it should be effortless and they should just fall into my hands – and they do.
JIM HAROLD: For people who just know the Ouija board from maybe stuff they’ve seen on TV and in movies and maybe going to their local big box store and seeing it in the game section, the history of it goes back, and it’s a lot more interesting than just that. Can you give our listeners who maybe aren’t familiar a little history lesson on Ouija itself and how it came about?
RICK SCHRECK: In the TBHS, the Talking Board Historical Society, they go pretty far back with the history, and they go back to the mid-1800s with the Fox Sisters who were using lettered cards and stuff. I’m not really familiar with that part of history. I pretty much take it over from like 1890, when the Kennard Talking Boards started, the Kennard Novelty Company. They started with this board that didn’t even have a name. They were trying to go get it patented.
Our organization, the TBHS, uncovered a letter that Helen Peters was the first person to come up with the word “Ouija.” When they were sitting in the patent office, they were trying to get a patent for this new invention – Elijah Bond was trying to get the patent – his sister-in-law, Helen Peters, was there, and they said, “No, we’re not going to give you the patent because how do we patent something that we can’t even prove works?” She said to the officer, “If I can answer questions only you know using this board, would we get the patent?”
And she actually was successful. She did it, and they were granted the patent. She asked it what it wanted to be called, because they said, “What’s the name?” And it spelled out O-U-I-J-A. Helen asked, “What does that mean?” and it said, “Good luck.” So that’s actually the origin of the word “Ouija.”
We have a monument for it. Helen Peters Nosworthy is her full name. We have a monument for her in Denver, Colorado because she was buried in a small, non-impressive grave. If you google it or you look on tbhs.org, you can see it. It’s pretty epic.
JIM HAROLD: Where did William Fuld come into this? Because I know he was an important figure.
RICK SCHRECK: William Fuld and Isaac Fuld were two brothers that were working for – what the heck was the company? It might’ve been still with Kennard Company. Yes. There were a whole lot of people involved. Charles Kennard was the guy that had the Kennard Board, which is the one everybody wants. It’s made of three boards with the two slats in the back. That thing’s going to fetch like $2,000+ on eBay. But the Fuld Brothers were there, and they worked for them, and eventually became owners of that trademark.
Then they warred with one another, Isaac Fuld and William Fuld parted ways, and then Isaac Fuld made a board called the Oriole Talking Board. This all occurred in Baltimore, Maryland, and you know, Baltimore Orioles. So there’s actually an Oriole board, and then there was the Mystifying Oracle by William Fuld. They competed for some time until Fuld won out.
JIM HAROLD: The question is people call it a game – now, I had read somewhere that part of the reason it was listed as a game was to get that patent. I don’t know if that’s true or not. But why was it categorized as a game rather than a divining device? Was it a marketing thing? Why did they push it as a game rather than saying “this is something that can tell the future or the past”?
RICK SCHRECK: I don’t really know the real approach as to that, but it was always originally marketed as a parlor game. They never really made any claims on any of the paperwork at all. They would ask you, “Why do you think it works?” In the beginning they didn’t market it at all as to talking to the dead or talking to your subconscious. They would just say it’s a parlor game. They had this little piece of paper that came with the original 1919 board, the first board that I bought, and it would say, “Please share your experiences with us,” whether it works or doesn’t work or anything. I don’t see that with many people’s collections. That little piece of paper is pretty rare.
JIM HAROLD: That’s pretty neat. Now, as to whether it works or not, what is your opinion? Is it just something that’s neat to look at? Is it just something that’s fun to collect? Or do you think that the Ouija board can help us, for example, to speak to the dead?
RICK SCHRECK: Initially, for many, many years, I thought it was a goof. I just liked the art. I love to collect things that are made by hand, wooden toys, anything that you can see was lovingly created by a craftsman, and that’s what drew me to the Ouija board. It’s just so much cooler than collecting wooden trucks or something. So these Ouija boards were awesome. But did I think they worked? In the beginning, no. Everybody that I ever tried to do it, I was always convinced that they were pushing it.
But we’ve had some weird experiences in my house that didn’t exist before I started collecting Ouija boards. When I first met my wife – I’ve been with her now 23 years – when I first met her, I only had seven boards. It took me all them years to find seven. And then I discovered eBay and I was buying like two or three a week. I was going crazy. So once eBay came out, it was so much easier to pad your collection.
Some of them that we received – one time, there’s this one, it’s called the Pen-G board. It’s marketed as a pendulum board. In the Museum of Talking Boards online, which is the longest running – and total inspiration for me to collect – be all, end all to Ouija boards online, they said on there that it could be used as a Ouija board. So I ordered one, and it came to my house, and when I opened it – I don’t know, I had an odd feeling. Not sick, but negative. I didn’t think nothing of it. I took the board and I put it aside. My wife came along and she goes, “You know what, I don’t like that one.” I said, “That’s really weird because I felt the same way.”
A little bit of time later, I had this thing hanging on the wall, and we had a party and some people were over. They were like, “Rick, can we use some of the boards that are on the walls?” I said, “Yeah, sure.” They go, “Do you have any that maybe you’re afraid of or you feel something negative about?” I go, “Oh yeah.” Kate says, “Take down the Pen-G one.” I take it down, and the people at the party are using it and it’s working for them well, giving them all these answers. Eventually they come across – they’re asking, “Do you need our help? Are you angry?” The whole thing was basically it was saying it was angry, and they were saying, “At who?” and it spelled out my name. And then they were like, “Do you want to hurt him?” It was saying yes. I thought that was cool. I was like, wow, I finally got me one of those cursed ones. Maybe. Or they’re messing with me. [laughs]
JIM HAROLD: Here’s the $64,000 question – how do you think it works? I mean, I know the skeptics say it’s the ideomotor effect, but on the other hand, what I’ve heard other people say – and it makes sense to me – what causes the ideomotor effect? Yeah, maybe that’s technically what causes it, but maybe something is making those little micromovements. I guess first of all, if you could, explain the ideomotor effect to people and then your thoughts on it and how these things actually work.
RICK SCHRECK: That whole thing is like – imagine like when you’re on the phone. Remember back in the day when you’d sit on the phone and it was attached to the wall? You’d be doodling on the phone book or whatever pad was there. You’re not really concentrating on what your hands are doing, but you’re doing something. Being a tattoo artist for so long, I could sit and draw a skull without even looking down at the paper. It’s kind of like that, where your hands and your brain are not working with one another. It’s more subconscious. That’s kind of what that goes off of.
A lot of other people believe that maybe it’s coming from within you, some sort of psychic thing. Some people think it’s the dead, some people think it’s guardian angels. My good buddy Robert Murch, who’s the president of the TBHS, when I first met him many years ago, Penn and Teller had a TV show on Showtime. You ever see that one? It’s “B.S.”
JIM HAROLD: Yeah, the full word.
RICK SCHRECK: Yes. They wanted to expose the Ouija board as B.S. They had Robert Murch on there, Christian Day from Salem, a bunch of Salem people. They were trying to show everybody how the Ouija board was B.S. Everybody was using it, and they had volunteers using it, and they were amazed at how well it was working. Then they blindfolded the participants and, without telling them, they flipped the board upside down. And when the people were answering it, now it was going to where they remembered where the letters were or they remembered where the yes and no was. So that was their way of trying to debunk it.
But there’s people who have explained it further that are really into it. They’re saying that whatever’s communicating through you needs your eyes to do it. It needs your hands, it needs everything. So blindfolding you is just a trick to whatever’s speaking through you.
I don’t know what I believe. I know that I’ve seen things go on with it, but I really like to live in the mystery. I have no explanation why it works for people.
JIM HAROLD: That’s really interesting. When we get back, we’re going to talk to Rick about the Ouija board more, of course, and we’re going to ask him the question – ooh, should we be afraid of it? Is it evil? Right after this on the Paranormal Podcast.
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If you love the Paranormal Podcast, be sure to check out Jim Harold’s Campfire, where ordinary people share their extraordinary stories of ghosts, UFOs, cryptids, and terrifying encounters. Find it for free wherever you listen to this podcast. Tune in to Jim Harold’s Campfire today. Now, we return to the Paranormal Podcast.
JIM HAROLD: We’re back on the Paranormal Podcast. Our guest is Rick Schreck, and he’s the King of Ouija boards. [laughs] We’re talking to him all about them. It seems to be a huge part of his life. Can’t wait to hear more.
Now, here’s a big question. People say Ouija boards are evil, and when you knock on that door, you don’t know who’s going to answer. What would you say to that?
RICK SCHRECK: My friends at TBHS will get mad at me for saying it, but I hope so. [laughs] That’s what brought me into it, like The Exorcist. That kind of stuff really excited me. They don’t call me Rick “Ormortis” for no reason. When I was a kid and I saw the movie Poltergeist, I was dreaming of a day that that would happen to my house. I love it. I want it all, the whole thing. Ghosts, monsters, I don’t care. So that’s what I wish it would be. Is it really evil? Nah. It’s just an alphabet on a piece of wood.
JIM HAROLD: One of my listeners sent me a note because someone said that they had tried to burn a Ouija board, and it was resistant to burning. They said it’s made of Masonite. Is that true?
RICK SCHRECK: Some of the variations of the Fuld ones were made of Masonite. I think it was the ’70s versions. Then later they switched to that cheap cardboard that you see Monopoly boards made out of. But I don’t know. I think they should all burn. It just takes longer. I’ve burned furniture in my firepit in the backyard, and Masonite goes up too.
JIM HAROLD: Well, I’m not encouraging anybody to burn anything. It just recently came up because somebody was on my Campfire show saying they tried to burn a Ouija board and said it wouldn’t burn or it was very difficult to burn, and somebody emailed me and said that’s because they’re made of Masonite. So I just thought since I have the expert on the line, I would ask. Everybody, I would encourage you not to burn things because bad stuff can happen, fires and things like that. So be careful out there.
RICK SCHRECK: If you don’t want them, send them to TBHS.
JIM HAROLD: Send them to Rick, yeah. [laughs]
RICK SCHRECK: We take donations all the time at the TBHS. We have some really good ones with long letters. They come packaged with salt all over them. We have some good stuff.
JIM HAROLD: You’re talking about the Talking Board Society. Tell us more about that organization. You’ve referenced it several times – what it is, what it does, who’s a part of it, where people can find it. Tell us a little bit about the Society.
RICK SCHRECK: What it started as is actually a group of people who used to battle one another in the ’90s on eBay. Then we all became friends. It’s some of the biggest collectors in the country of Talking Boards and Ouija boards. Robert Murch is the president. He’s the guy you see on all the TV shows when they’re talking about Ouija boards. Movies, he does the consultations, whatever the heck the word is. Consulting, there you go.
I’m the vice president. John Kozik, who owns the Salem Witch Board Museum, the only Ouija board museum in the world – it’s in Salem, Massachusetts – he’s our treasurer. Karen A. Dahlman, she’s an expert on using the Ouija board.
JIM HAROLD: I know, I’ve interviewed her many times, yes.
RICK SCHRECK: Yeah, she’s in TBHS. And Logan King. He’s one of our newest members. That kid – I say “kid”; he’s a man – a wealth of information. One of the most amazing guys. And Mike Zohn, if you remember him from the Oddities TV show. He’s also a member. And right now he’s on leave, but Calvin Von Crush is also a member of TBHS. He’s doing some more occult things right now. Not so much TBHS.
JIM HAROLD: In terms of Ouijas, can you talk about maybe some of the more unusual ones? I’m thinking like, are there ones made of precious gems? What are some of the more intricate or wild ones out there?
RICK SCHRECK: Some of the crazier ones – there’s actually one called the Nirvana Board, which is a really old one. Not many people have ever seen it. It has four swastikas on it.
JIM HAROLD: Oh man, that’s not good.
RICK SCHRECK: Yeah, that’s back when that was a good luck symbol.
JIM HAROLD: Yeah, that’s true. I believe that was an Indian symbol, wasn’t it, originally?
RICK SCHRECK: Yeah. Talk about a marketing nightmare, right? [laughs]
JIM HAROLD: Yeah. Obviously, yes.
RICK SCHRECK: There’s another company called the Simmons Talking Board Company, and they also had one which ironically has the Star of David in the lower left-hand corner and a swastika lower right-hand corner. Later on – some people say it was after World War II, but I don’t think the dates are correct on that. But they did eventually change the swastika to a horseshoe. That’s one of the hardest-to-find boards. I actually own one. That’s a tough-to-find one.
JIM HAROLD: Are any made of previous gems? I’d think you could really make a beautiful Ouija board with like rubies and emeralds and stuff like that, but it’d be very expensive to do.
RICK SCHRECK: Yeah, it would. I remember seeing one on the internet. There was some message about some – it was like some kind of metal. There was one made of metal. Other than that, there’s nothing really that crazy out there like that. I mean, I make stuff, but that doesn’t really count. I make planchettes out of human bone. I make Ouija boards out of antique embalming tables, the wooden ones that they used to bring to your home. I acquired them and got them up and I don’t even take the stains off. All the stains from the bodies on there, I leave them on there. People love that.
JIM HAROLD: Well there you go. [laughs]
RICK SCHRECK: [laughs] Yeah. I have a thing right now – I’m kind of pushing as the world’s most dangerous planchette collection for Ouija boards. We displayed it at Michigan Paracon last year in the Kewadin Casinos over there, and it’s a showcase that’s locked for your protection. One of the planchettes is made of the base of a human skull that I made, and then there’s another one out of embalming table. There’s one out of a church pew that was from a burned-down church.
The most notorious one that I have is I always wanted – I thought, how can I get something that’s as closely connected to the spirit realm and death as humanly possible? I had a friend who was a nurse in a hospital, and I asked her, “I know this is a crazy request, but if you ever had a person pass away there that nobody claimed their stuff and maybe they died wearing their glasses…” She’s like, “Why, Rick? That’s the oddest thing you’ve ever asked me.” I said, “Because if the glasses were left behind, I would love to use them as a viewfinder for a planchette.” She was like, “Ugh, okay, I’ll keep an eye out. I don’t think I’ll ever find one, but all right.”
A little bit of time went by and she said, “I talked to my mother, and we decided that these were best to give to you.” I said, “What is this?” She handed me a pair of glasses that her uncle was wearing when he took his own life. He had shot himself. So I said, “You’re okay with me modifying this?” She said yeah. So I made a Ouija board planchette using the lens from one side of his glasses. The planchette itself is constructed of a shipping crate for a rifle, and the legs are spent shell cases. That’s one nobody wants to touch. And if somebody can use that and give me the name of the man that wore those glasses, you’ll turn me into a believer.
JIM HAROLD: [laughs] Wow. Now, what’s the weirdest thing that’s ever happened to you while using a Ouija board?
RICK SCHRECK: Nothing. I’m sitting next to my wife, asking her for a coaching thing here. Anything weird that you can…? No. Using the Ouija board, no. People using the Ouija board in my house, we’ve had weird photos that come up. A lot of people don’t believe in orb photos, but I could show you a couple that would change your mind. Conscious orb stuff, like an orb that would appear when we’d tell it to.
Orbs that appear when my daughter’s at a certain part of the house. My living room was all Ouija boards, and my daughter – she’s 18 now. She was like three years old, and she was riding around in my living room on a little scooter. She kept going, “Daddy, I’m catching jellyfish.” She just got done watching SpongeBob SquarePants. You know how he catches jellyfish. I thought she was playing SpongeBob. Then I said, “Whoa, whoa, whoa, is she seeing something?” I go, “Samara, do you see these jellyfish?” She goes, “Yeah, Daddy.” I go, “Point to one.” She points to the corner of the room. I snapped a photo, and it’s right there, right by the Ouija wall.
Then I said, “Could you catch one?” and I’ve got pictures of her trying to catch this big round thing in the middle of the room. Only she saw it. I didn’t see it. And it’s on the film. So that kind of stuff is the things that have surrounded my Ouija boards, but for some reason, I could have 10 people in my house and the board will work for them every time; I touch it, nothing. It’s almost like whatever’s there doesn’t want anything to do with me.
JIM HAROLD: You’ve mentioned a little bit your collection, but how many boards do you think you have, or you know you have?
RICK SCHRECK: Oh, I definitely have more than 200. Just in my house, there’s about 130 on the walls. And I have them on all four walls of the house because I wanted to do like all four points of a compass, maybe create a vortex, make my house a big tornado that can suck ghosts in. Hasn’t really worked, I don’t think.
JIM HAROLD: You talked about some different boards that are very hard to get. If there was like the Great White Whale, if there was one board that you don’t have that you’d like to have, what would it be?
RICK SCHRECK: Oh, there’s actually an old – it’s an electric Mystifying Oracle. It’s an old Fuld board and it’s made of metal. Hardly any of them have survived because during the war, they needed the metal, so a lot of that stuff got recycled.
JIM HAROLD: Scrapped, yeah.
RICK SCHRECK: Yeah.
JIM HAROLD: Let’s say somebody wants to buy a board. Should they just buy one off the shelf? What do you recommend for buying boards? What’s your source? Where would you point people?
RICK SCHRECK: I think commercially available stuff right now – I’m sorry, I think it’s junk. I would much rather have something created with somebody’s hands. There’s a lot of really good Ouija makers, and when you can find them on eBay, Etsy, or anywhere online – anybody who wants to buy them from me, I’m available. Look me up online. I like stuff that is made one at a time, just for you, to your specs.
There was this guy back in the day. He went by the name Craig Hunt. I don’t even know if that’s his real name, but he made this one board. It was like a Necronomicon board. I saw them selling on eBay back in 2003. He was the inspiration for me to start making them, and I own three of his boards. We became friends online, and he sent me one that was a factory reject. But those are ones I cherish the most, and they’re probably not worth anything to anybody, as far as the market. They’re probably worth $20 bucks to somebody. But those ones I cherish the most.
The one I cherish the most is Ouijazilla, but I’m the only guy in the world that has that one.
JIM HAROLD: I was going to ask you about that. Tell us, what is Ouijazilla?
RICK SCHRECK: Ouijazilla is undeniably the world’s largest Ouija board. There is a little bit of a debate between Guinness and Ripley’s as to who’s got the world’s largest Ouija board because there’s a gentleman in Pennsylvania that has the certificate and the record, but his board is a third of the size of the one I created. The problem with me was I wouldn’t play ball with Guinness. I didn’t want to pay them money to get a record. So they’re just ignoring me.
And the people at Ripley’s came along and they were so kind to me. They didn’t want a dollar. They sent people up from Florida, they came to witness the board, they filmed me loading the truck, they drove to Salem with us. We unveiled it October 12th, 2019, in Salem. They came there. They gave me a four-page spread in their book. The Ripley’s family has been very good to me, man. They never wanted anything other than to record what we did, and that’s what a record-keeping organization should do.
JIM HAROLD: Very, very interesting indeed. When we get back, we’re going to wrap up. We’re going to talk to Rick Schreck more about Ouija, everything Talking Boards, and we’ll be back right after this.
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JIM HAROLD: We’re back on the Paranormal Podcast. Our guest is Rick Schreck. We are talking all about Talking Boards and Ouija. The other thing that I understand – and I think it’s the hearse you’re in now; if it’s not, tell me if I’m wrong – you turned it into an actual Ouija board?
RICK SCHRECK: Yes. To me, I always wanted to be the first at doing stuff, so I looked it up and nobody had ever done it before. I have a 1989 Lincoln Town Car hearse that I bought from a buddy of mine that I tattooed at the tattoo shop. He had this unusual-looking hearse. It’s blue. He was going through a divorce, and he just wanted to dump it, so he’s like, “You want this?” I came flying over there. All I had on me was my mortgage money, but I bought it.
When I looked at the back, my heart dropped because I opened it up and the whole back of the car had been gutted. The rollers and everything that makes a hearse a hearse was missing. The guy he bought it from had it full of speakers. He wanted to just make it a big music box. He took everything out. So it almost looked like, when you opened the door, the back of an El Camino. There’s nothing in there.
I don’t know how to do bodywork on a car, but I sure know how to work with wood, and there’s a lot of wood trim and decorative wood in this car. So I said, you know what? I’m going to build the inside of the back all out of wood, oak, stain it. I made a big pullout table that’s a four-foot Ouija board. It’s the first-ever hearse drivable Ouija board. You can drive to a cemetery and use it right there.
JIM HAROLD: That’s wild. So what’s next? Or is it something you can tell us? Is there a next big Ouijazilla 2? Do you have something in mind? Or something that you can share, I should say?
RICK SCHRECK: There’s a couple things in the works. I really can’t say where, but Ouijazilla or something greater is going to be appearing soon. I’ve been asked to do a big display – I mean huge – that let’s just say planes would fly over.
JIM HAROLD: Whoa.
RICK SCHRECK: I didn’t think Ouijazilla was big enough, so I said, maybe I should double what I’ve done and make Ouija Kong. [laughs] I don’t know.
JIM HAROLD: Ouija Kong, I love that.
RICK SCHRECK: But yeah, I’m still going. I’m still hard at work doing crazy variations of Ouija boards. I even started doing odd versions of Magic 8 balls. I love all that stuff. Fortunetelling stuff, since I was a little kid, has always captivated me, all the way back to those little red fish that curled in your hands. I love that stuff.
JIM HAROLD: You told us why you love Ouija; why do you think it has such a wide appeal, though? For example, we just passed, as we record this, it’s a couple weeks after Halloween. I’m not exactly sure when it’s airing, but it’ll be in a few weeks here. But we just passed Halloween as we record this. I went into one of the Halloween costume places and there was a whole line of Ouija all kinds of stuff. And I know part of that’s just capitalism in action, but on the other hand, they wouldn’t make this stuff if it didn’t have an appeal. So why do you think Ouija over the years has built such a following that just seems to grow and grow and grow?
RICK SCHRECK: I just think it’s all word of mouth, man. It really is urban legends and hearsay. I can’t say how many people I would tell, “I make Ouija boards,” and they’d go, “I’ll never touch one.” I’d go, “Why? Did something happen to you?” They’d go, “No, I have a friend that something real horrible happened to.” It really is all down to that urban myth stuff, man. Just people passing down one story to another. I love it. It’s just so old school.
JIM HAROLD: Certainly people do love it. So where can people find all of your information? Where can they plug into everything Rick “Ormortis” Schreck and all your Talking Board stuff and, of course, with the Talking Board Society?
RICK SCHRECK: You can find me on ouijazilla.com or Ouijazilla on Facebook. Rick Ormotis Schreck on Instagram. Or the most important one is tbhs.org. That’s where you get all the serious, solid information, not my jumbled scatterbrain explanation of stuff. You get some real history from some real experts. I’m part of a really awesome team.
JIM HAROLD: Well, it’s been a really awesome discussion. I’ve been utterly fascinated. Ouija is fascinating. Many, many people have called in to the Campfire show, and many, many notes and thoughts about it over the years, so I know it’s a source of constant fascination. Rick Schreck, thank you for spending some time and demystifying Ouija a little bit for us today.
RICK SCHRECK: Thank you so much. I had a great time.
JIM HAROLD: Thanks so much for joining us today on the Paranormal Podcast. We thank Rick as well. A fascinating guest on a fascinating topic. And if you enjoy the shows, please make sure to tell a friend today. I suggest while you’re listening on your mobile device, just text a link to a friend of yours, someone who loves spooky stuff who would love a show about the Ouija board, for example. We appreciate it very much.
We’ll talk to you next time. Stay safe, and as always, stay spooky. Bye-bye.
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