Timothy Haskell’s Full Bunny Contact features a big-time battle for Easter eggs
Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural and Educational Center
107 Suffolk St. between Rivington & Delancey Sts.
April 17-20, $10-$60
Admission: $10 entry only, $20 plus 25 booth tickets until 7:00 in advance, $30 plus 37 booth tickets after 7:00 in advance
VIP: $50 before 7:00, $60 after 7:00
www.fullbunnycontact.com
www.iscareyou.com
Theater impresario extraordinaire Timothy Haskell has been scaring the hell out of New Yorkers for a decade now with his annual Nightmare haunted house, which for the last two years has focused on killers as its theme. A fan of immersive theater and kitschy pop culture, Haskell has now brought those together for his latest production, Full Bunny Contact. Billed as an “Insane Easter Carnival,” FBC takes places April 17-20 at the Clemente Soto Vélez Center on the Lower East Side, where ticket holders can play such games as Shoot the Peep, Raw Egg Putt, Little Bunny FuFu’s Revenge, and Dunk the Savior and watch or participate in egg-decorating and bunny burlesque contests, a Bunny Beauty Pageant, and a Temper Tantrum Easter Candy Contest for kids twelve and under. The main draw, however, is Full Bunny Contact: The Game, in which two people at a time enter a caged-in area and try to fill their Easter baskets with as many plastic eggs as possible in one minute — while fighting off a trio of large, not-so-friendly rabbits. Haskell, who has also directed such stage shows as I Love Paris, Fatal Attraction: A Greek Tragedy, and Road House: The Stage Version of the Cinema Classic That Starred Patrick Swayze, Except This One Stars Taimak from the 80’s Cult Classic “The Last Dragon” Wearing a Blonde Mullet Wig, recently discussed his childhood holiday celebrations, how he likes his eggs, vicious rabbits, and more with twi-ny.
twi-ny: What happened to you as a child? Based on the kinds of shows and events you write, produce, direct, and create, there had to be some kind of major trauma involved.
Timothy Haskell: Nothing unusual. My mother says she dropped a toy Ferris wheel on my head, and anytime I do something unusual she blames herself for dropping a heavy toy on my noggin. As far as haunted houses are concerned, there was a trauma: the humiliation of going with my older sister and her girlfriends to a local haunt when I was seven and me chickening out in the first room and them making fun of me forever. I guess I’ve always wanted to prove to myself that I wasn’t afraid of anything ever since then, even though I’m scared of everything.
twi-ny: How did you and your family celebrate Easter when you were a kid?
Timothy Haskell: I was raised Catholic, and Easter was a very big deal at my house. It’s when all the relatives from all over the country would come to the grandparents’ house, who lived in Atlanta (where I am from), and we would go to church, eat a massive meal, and do an egg hunt. But first, early in the morning before we went to church, we looked for our Easter baskets in our own house. My mother was very good about hiding them. I have very, very fond memories of Easter. All of my cousins were there, we got new outfits; I very much looked forward to it. Except going to church. None of us looked forward to that. I always wondered if the adults truly did.
twi-ny: Did you ever have a rabbit for a pet?
Timothy Haskell: We did ducks, we did rabbits, dogs, cats. I have no idea what its name was, and I was very young when we did rabbits. But I remember it being pretty vicious.
twi-ny: Where do you stand on the pets or meat discussion?
Timothy Haskell: I am a meat-eater, but only if it’s organic. I do have a problem with the mistreatment of the animals we use as food.
twi-ny: Where did the idea to turn Easter inside out and upside down come from?
Timothy Haskell: You know, I love holidays so much. I adore Christmas and of course Halloween. It’s not so much turning them upside down as much as it is making them fun again for adults. And not just any adults. Me. Making it fun for me again. I am a sentimental guy. Holidays are fantastic. I think people love celebrating them, and I think Easter in this city has lost its youthfulness. I hope this event brings some of that back.
twi-ny: What was the craziest thing you wanted to do for FBC but were eventually, and perhaps correctly, talked out of?
Timothy Haskell: It wasn’t my idea, but my codirector came up with an idea called “The Chicken and the Egg.” It had something to do with an egg coming out of a chicken in a graphic way. I nixed it pretty quickly.
twi-ny: With that in mind, how do you like your eggs prepared? (We won’t ask which came first, the chicken or the egg, unless you really want to tell us.)
Timothy Haskell: Well, I should have kept that other booth in the event to have found out which came first, but as far as my eggs, I love them poached. Diners hate it when I order them that way because it’s a pain in the ass, but I have to.
Timothy Haskell turns his attention to Easter and bunny rabbits in latest immersive production
twi-ny: How about your chicken?
Timothy Haskell: Being from the South, I prefer my chicken grilled and barbecued.
twi-ny: Which game that made the final cut is your personal favorite?
Timothy Haskell: Well, the main event is the centerpiece and is what I came up with many years ago before any other idea. I always wanted to do something centered around people trying to capture eggs away from bunnies who don’t want them to. But in terms of the midway, I am fond of Hare-y Up. You race against a person dressed like a rabbit, hopping while you have to wear a forty-pound tortoiseshell and get on all fours. The rabbit has the odds, but he/she will be pretty cocky and will give the slow and steady turtle a shot.
twi-ny: Do you have a favorite Easter-themed (or bunny-themed) movie or television show?
Timothy Haskell: Well, I guess Harvey is the go-to response, but I genuinely love that movie. It is so off-the-wall for any era, especially 1950. I guess Donnie Darko would be a close second, however.
twi-ny: It’s one thing to mess with Halloween, and something very different to screw around with Easter. Do you expect any blowback or controversy to rise up over FBC?
Timothy Haskell: I hope not. It would be nonsensical and would prove they know nothing about the event. As I have told others, “Remember all the stuff you used to love about celebrating Easter? All the fun stuff? That’s Full Bunny Contact.” Christians embrace the Easter Bunny, so I’m not sure why they would start protesting now, but you never know. There is a little tongue-in-cheek religiosity, but it is not the M.O. of the event at all.
twi-ny: Have you set your sights yet on any other holidays for future events?
Timothy Haskell: We tried to do a summer event last year, Camp Nightmare, that logistically became untenable, but I still would like to try that. We’ve done Nightmare Before Christmas: The Experiment twice already. That did very well, but it wasn’t quite the Christmas event that I’ve wanted to do. This year we will hopefully do it the way I want to do it. I want to create the most garish Christmas wonderland imaginable, as if we ran a contest for the best Christmas lawn decorating in the country and some couple from the Midwest won and their prize was a trip to New York to design our set. And you can barely move there is so much illuminated plastic, but once you get past the junk, there are eight different kinds of Santas that you can take a picture with. Only one of them is a normal Santa. It’s basically a bizarro version of Macy’s winter wonderland.