Meet Corey

Things I’m passionate about: pets, writing, horror movies, sketch comedy and family. You can read why pets are number one on that list in this post. I’m the oldest of three (and we now know Kendall is the oldest of seven), and I have two awesome stepsiblings. Happily, I get along with all of my siblings, which is kind of a rare thing. Family is the theme of this podcast, but Kendall and I want to share a little about what makes each of us tick. 

Write on

 I discovered my proclivity for the written word in grade school; “Bucky and Becky Go to Camp” was an early attempt at prose. Didn’t get rich but made a comfortable living doing so for the past 25+ years. 

Journalism entered my life beginning with the Hawk newspaper in junior high. I learned a ton via two internships in college, one at a daily paper and the other for a marketing/PR firm, and I landed at the paper for nine years. I started as a nighttime copy editor and within a year, I launched and edited the daily features section. 

During my time in print journalism, I created a bimonthly entertainment magazine that ran for five years; edited a monthly women’s glossy magazine; and contributed to a hodgepodge of other papers, magazines and online publications.

It took several years, but I banged out two books, Laugh Lines, a collection of my interviews with prominent comedians, and The Union of The State, the oral history of an iconic sketch comedy troupe.

All that writing and editing experience informed my career in marketing and communications. When we moved to the San Francisco Bay Area, I had no idea what I’d do. Print journalism was on life support in 2009. While I swore I’d never return to retail, I swallowed that pill and started at Pet Food Express. Fortunately, the company’s marketing focused solely on pet rescue. Within two years, I was the marketing manager.

I spent eight great years there and one of my proudest moments was resurrecting the Bay Area Pet Fair, now the biggest pet adoption event in the country. 

Landing in New England to be near Kendall’s birth family was another good move for me, career wise, too. Savoir Faire Marketing Communications has been my work home for almost four years now and I’ve learned so much more about marketing tactics. And I dig deep into the creative chunk of my brain when writing about a plethora of subject matters. 

Horror hobbyist 

My main hobby is collecting horror movie autographs, memorabilia and attending horror conventions. There’s an outsider sensibility in horror that appeals to me. I love all horror movies, even the horrible ones. My number one goal is transforming my hobby into a livelihood – and plans for that are in the works.

My passion for horror movies birthed when I was a toddler and was terrified peeking around the corner while my Mom watched “The Exorcist ” on TV. My pal, Jason, collected Fangoria magazines and cultivated a huge horror movie collection on VHS. 

One of the first celebrity interviews I ever scored was in college with Kane Hodder, the actor/stuntman who played Jason Voorhees in four movies and a video game. Amazingly, 20 years later, when Kendall and I first visited New England to meet his birth family, we all attended a horror con together – and took a great photo with Kane.

Humor is a cure-all

I’m a weirdo, but in a fun way, not creepy. My fascination with sketch comedy arrived when I was still a toddler, and my parents probably shouldn’t have let me stay up to watch the Not Ready for Primetime Players in the late ’70s. (They were high.)

My senior year of high school, I co-wrote and directed a direct rip off of “Saturday Night Live” called “Friday Night Live,” for the semi-annual variety show. I met like-minded sketch heads while getting a minor in theater in college.

Years later, I joined those folks’ troupe, The NonProphets. Their signature show, The Militant Propaganda Bingo Machine featured 24 sketches performed randomly by the draw of a bingo ball. 

My recurring character was Mee-Maw, a raunchy bewigged grandmother with a penchant for scatalogical chatter. At a friend’s pool party, I stayed in character (and wig) for about five hours (infuriating the host). Even while swimming, I was Mee-Maw. 

That’s where my idea for pool wigs started. Perfect for bald guys (and gals), pool wigs are the ideal cure for sunburned pates! If this writing thing peters out, at least I can fall back on pool wigs.