Halloween often seems geared toward kids and costumes and the collection of a huge amount of candy, but for Elburn resident Mike Kothe, it’s time to provide entertainment for thousands that visit his home.
Kothe, with help from some friends, again recently erected the Kamme-O-Circus, a multi-room circus-oriented haunted house that includes 10 interactive displays, live performers, animatronics and more in the front yard of his home on the 1100 block of Liberty Drive in Elburn.
The Kothe family’s Halloween adventure began in Bolingbrook when they “had just a few Halloween decorations back in 2002,” said Kothe, 56. “We moved to Elburn in 2004 and pretty much started repeating what we were doing in 2002.”
Over the next two decades, those modest decorations grew into what has been named the family’s haunted circus.
“With Kamme-O-Circus, the K stands for Kothe; the A is for Anne, my wife; M is for Michael; the other M is Michaela, my youngest; and the E is for Erika, my eldest,” Kothe explained. “The O is actually for ‘Oma and Opa’ – our elderly parents who were living with us at the time.”
The circus theme, Kothe said, came from the attempt to create the perfect scary motif.
“The whole circus theme – more people are scared of clowns than monsters and ghouls. If you think about it, who is afraid of Frankenstein or Dracula or the Mummy?” Kothe said. “It was something that was different.”
Kothe said that years ago, he and friends would enjoy “these odd parties and back then, one of them was this killer clown drinking party.”
“Half of the party involved these clowns and when we started here with the decorations it naturally evolved,” he said.
The Kothe family now has about 40 displays for its haunted house including the animatronics and there’s no sign of letting up.
“We’ve spent about $50,000 altogether for what we have now and it’s stored in the off-season in a couple of storage containers we rent per month,” Kothe said. “My wife gives me about $3,000 a year and tells me to go buy something else each season. Sometimes, it’s as much as $6,000 from my wife and her company’s sponsorship and from friends who are just helping out.”
This year’s display went up on Oct. 19 and drew about 700 people to the opening party. Depending on when Halloween falls, the display usually runs for about two to three weeks.
“We started putting this up Sept. 7 and it took six weeks. Two additional towers were added which brings the total to five,” Kothe said. “We have live performers on the weekends – 10 to 15 actors who are in the towers or in the rooms, waiting to scare people.”
Kothe was helped again this year by his nephew, John Doorn, 13, of Elburn, who erected part of the displays including the final room in the maze “that has bodies in it.”
“I helped build some of this. I’d like to take credit for the last room that has bodies in it,” Doorn said. “I have buddies that have come out, friends that live nearby and talk about this, and I’ll say ‘Oh, that’s my uncle’s house.’ My favorite part of all this is the sounds, and the animatronics.”
Kothe’s neighbor Roberto Mendoza, who has lived next to the holiday circus for 20 years, isn’t annoyed by the seasonal noise or traffic.
“I like it and he’s a very good neighbor,” Mendoza said of Kothe. “I don’t mind all the people. It’s fun.
“He’s been respectful and this subdivision is very comfortable,” Mendoza said. “People are very nice. I see just as many adults here as kids. He’s very creative. The guy is smart to do this kind of thing. He’s a pretty clever guy.”
Neighbor Jenna Caricheo of Elburn, who lives right around the block, said she has been coming to the haunted house for years and actually visits the set-up every day with her kids.
“We come here every day and live right around the corner. We watch it come to life every year and like to go through it before it’s turned on,” she said. “It’s a hometown haunted house and has a different feel to it. It’s more exciting for kids, I guess. They laugh at it as long as it’s not moving. I still jump sometimes. There’s a clown in a bag over there that gets me every time.”
Kothe said the reaction of visitors keeps fueling him every year to continue the display.
“There was a 10-year-old girl here last year who went through and was soliciting her artistic skills. She said if you need someone to draw paintings in some of the rooms, I’m your girl,” Kothe said. “I asked her how long she has been coming here and she told me, ‘Ever since I was in my mother’s belly.’
“During the pandemic, a kid saw this and went off screaming to his mother ‘Halloween is still happening! Halloween is still happening!,’” Kothe said of the haunted house. “All I could think of was – wow – this really means something.”
David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
