The Trailer Park Boys, the Canadian cult cable sensations performing a bit of “community service” this Friday night at the Count Basie Theatre.

By TOM CHESEK

The last time the world heard from the Trailer Park Boys, the trio of petty criminals, backsliding lowlifes and substance abusers was more or less secured within their natural habitat: behind bars, and lashing out against the media attention that helped make their mugshots a household brand in dozens of countries.

It was a fitting valedictory for “Julian” (John Paul Tremblay), “Ricky” (Robb Wells) and “Bubbles” (Mike Smith), the characters who evolved (so to speak) from several low-budget film projects by Canadian writer and director Mike Clattenburg.

Dedicated to the mantra “get rich, get high, and stay out of jail;” navigating life at Nova Scotia’s Sunnyvale Trailer Park with a work ethic, a moral code and an F-bombed vocabulary that made our own Jay and Silent Bob look like Frasier and Niles, the Boys spent seven seasons as the stars of their own “mockumentary” TV series — an international cult hit seen Stateside by DirecTV subscribers.

The series that ended in 2008 — think COPS times Sunny divided by The Office— gave noisy birth to two theatrically released feature films, an all new TV vehicle for the three actors (The Drunk and On Drugs Happy Fun Hour), and several live appearance tours, the latest of which rolls into Red Bank’s Count Basie Theatre this Friday night, May 11.

John Paul Tremblay (“Julian”), Mike Smith (“Bubbles”) and Robb Wells (“Ricky”) are The Trailer Park Boys.

Subtitled The Ricky, Julian and Bubbles’ Community Service Variety Show, the stage presentation ostensibly springs the three recidivist jailbirds for an evening of court-ordered lecturing on the evils of drinking and drug abuse — an edu-taining interlude in which Bubbles gets to perform his ventriloquism act (and sing his signature anthem “Liquor and Whores”) while the other guys do their best to involve the audience and send the whole thing careening off the rails.

redbankgreen spoke to Julian and Ricky — yes, in character, and while they rode in a luxuriously appointed tour bus that’s a far cry from the various trailers, sheds, beater Chryslers and jail cells they’ve inhabited over the years.

redbankgreen: So how sweet is it playing these fancy theaters, riding on a rockstar tour bus, and attaching all sorts of contract riders about your dressing room accommodations?

RICKY: Oh, we’re lovin’ it. Just livin’ the dream. But the only riders we have are like clean socks and underwear… Julian really screwed up our contracts.

JULIAN: Ricky’s the one who screwed up… that’s how we went back to jail. Bubbles started cryin’ on the stand, begging the judge for mercy, and that’s how this whole Community Service thing came about.

This is probably your biggest American jaunt yet. You’re hitting a lot of places like Boston and other cities in the northeast, and since you’re seeing so much of the country in style I wonder if you have any thoughts as to what you love and hate the most about the US of A…

JULIAN: Hate the toll booths! We’ve been shellin’ out of our own pocket for all these tolls and gassin’ up the bus…

RICKY: I love the food though…especially Bar-B-Q.

I’m sure it sucks being forced into this tour, having to lecture on the evils of drugs and alcohol, but still, it’s got to be better than prison by this point.

JULIAN: Yeah, but it’s kind of a drag. We sometimes don’t feel like entertaining. Fortunately, everybody in the audience likes to get drunk and get high.

Well, at the end of the COUNTDOWN TO LIQUOR DAY movie in 2009, you guys were getting really pissed off with the camera crews; knocking the camera out of their hands and everything. It’s as if you were tired of being public figures, and preferred to retire to a life of quiet dignity and contemplation.

RICKY: Julian likes being famous, but I never liked having the cameras follow me around. Those camera dicks were always makin’ me look bad. The clips they show make me look stupid.

But it also made you an international star. And you gotta admit it was funny.

JULIAN: It wasn’t that funny for us, all the things we had to go through. Our lives were not really like what you saw on TV. We always wound up payin’ the price, and we signed off on a lot of rights too. The worst part is that they would use the camera footage as evidence against us.

That does kind of beg the question, how could you guys ever expect to get away with all that you were involved with, knowing that it was all going to wind up on national TV?

JULIAN: When we started, we thought we were really gonna be able to tell our own story… y’know, COPS from the criminal’s point of view.

Even so, that fame and recognition has to carry some sort of advantages…

RICKY: Well, yeah, we get extra desserts from people and everything… and I wouldn’t be gettin’ banged as much. But I’d still be happy.

Alright, so assuming that someday you guys are able to get a new contract, work off all that community service, take control of your careers for the first time, what would you do differently? How would you merchandise your brand?

RICKY: We’d probably make our own rolling papers, bobbleheads… I’d have my own line of cigarettes.

JULIAN: I think we’d do our own Western movie. Like a Clint Eastwood picture. And Bubbles would want to do sci fi.

Tell us about the Variety Show that we’ll be seeing at the Count Basie Theatre. What kind of enlightening, positive message will you be exploring?

JULIAN: It’s a good way to knock two hours off our community service, here we kind of go off the rails, get to be drunk and high onstage. We make sure the crowd has a good time. We have a lot of games and contests where we get the audience involved, bring ‘em up and make ‘em do the work.

So you’d say it was an educational sort of presentation. But why is it being performed to a bunch of drunk adults in a theater instead of in front of kids at a school? Are you trusting the adults to kind of “trickle down” the message to the kids when they get home? 

JULIAN: They probably wouldn’t remember anything that happened after it’s over. We hypnotize them so they don’t remember any of it the next day.

Well, around here we have our own pockets of trailer park culture to be sure. Those of us who grew up in a Sunnyvale kind of environment know that there’s a deep and abiding truth behind the comedy. But do you really mean to tell us that you wouldn’t change a thing if you had half a chance?

RICKY: Living in a trailer park is like goin’ campin’ every day. We would never buy fancy houses; that’d be stupid. Even if we had money, we would still live in a trailer.

Tickets ($24.50 – $35) for Friday’s 8 pm performance of The Ricky, Julian and Bubbles’ Community Service Variety Show can be purchased from the Basie box office right here.

It started six years ago, in a place called Pink Bank.

It quickly caught on in the nearby communities of Pink Haven (Fair Haven, that is) and Pink (Monmouth) Beach. And in 2012, you’ll find it happening everywhere from Pinkbury (Shrewsbury), Pinkson (Rumson) and Little Pink (Little Silver), to Pinkdel (Holmdel), Atlantic Pinklands (Atlantic Highlands) and possibly other coordinates on your G-Pink-S.

Beginning Friday, May 4, and continuing through May 12, Riverview Medical Center invites residents of the greater Green to participate in a campaign that’s designed to encourage women aged 40 and older to schedule an annual mammogram — as well as to fund mammography services to our uninsured and underserved neighbors — with a pledge to Paint the Town Pink.

If, as it’s been said, it takes a village to turn a town pink, then this year’s nine-day campaign promises to be “bigger and pinker than ever,” with a gala reception, celebrity appearances, large-scale public events, and the centerpiece of the schedulE: the mass “pinking” of homes all over this side of the Garden State Pinkway.

‘Apprentice’ winner and motivational speaker Bill Rancic (seen with wife and breast cancer survivor Giuliana) makes a May 7 appearance at the Count Basie. Below, line painter Mark Arnone laying down Broad Street’s pink strip in 2009. (Click to enlarge)

Having received their Paint the Town Pink Starter Kits from the event organizers, entrants in the house decorating contest have been busily planting lawn signs, raising flags, hanging up bows and ribbons, and using their imaginations to transform their domiciles into displays that range from respectful breast cancer survivor tributes, to playfully pink’d examples of creative energy. A panel of judges will visit all decorated homes on the first weekend of May, awarding honors in three categories (Most Creative, In Honor of a Survivor, Pinkest House) to registered entrants in each of the eight participating towns.

Meanwhile, hundreds of area business are expected to offer in-store specials and other special events keyed to the campaign, while scores of individual volunteers, community organizations, medical professionals and local officials will be working side by side in what’s being called “a grassroots initiative that is changing lives in very tangible and meaningful ways” — with the common goal of raising awareness of the importance of annual mammography.

With that in mind, the event organizers have called in the “Men in Pink,” the theme of this year’s campaign, and an acknowledgment of the guys who have played an integral part in Paint the Town Pink since its inception; from Mark Arnone (the man who’s painted that famous pink line down the middle of Broad Street every year since 2009) to Bob McKay, co-founder of Red Bank-based McKay Imaging and the “man behind the Pink Lens.”

On Monday night, May 7, the Count Basie Theatre will be the venue for a visit for another well-known Man in Pink, when Meridian Cancer Care presents An Unplanned Plan: An Evening with Bill Rancic.

Famous as the Season One winner of Donald Trump’s The Apprentice — as well as a motivational speaker, best-selling author, and the entrepeneur behind Cigars Around the World — Rancic is also familiar from the Style Network series Giuliana and Bill, the reality show that he shares with his wife, herself the co-host of E! News and Fashion Police. Having shared the details of their fertility issues with a nationwide audience (the couple is expecting a baby via a surrogate this summer), the Rancics announced in the fall of 2011 that Giuliana, who had been diagnosed with early stage breast cancer, had undergone a double mastectomy.

Tickets for the 7:30 pm presentation — in which “Bill will candidly share his story of his marriage and family, his career, and his wife’s recent breast cancer diagnosis and all the unplanned things in life that happen when you are busy making other plans” — are priced at $39 general admission, with a limited number of VIP premium tickets (including a post-show cocktail reception with the guest) available for $100; take it here to reserve.

There’s much more to be found on the Pink slate, of course, beginning with a “Party for Pink” fundraiser gala at Middletown’s Navesink Country Club on Friday, May 4, and a “Pink Community Day” of activities and awareness at Riverview on the afternoon of Sunday, May 6. Meridian’s Bayshore Community Hospital in Holmdel will host the inaugural “Pink Zumbathon” on Saturday, May 12, and Red Bank nightspot The Downtown will get into the act with a special edition of “Girls Night Out” on Thursday, May 10. Full details and updates on each of these events (as well as about Paint the Town Pink in general) can be found right here, or on the organization’s Facebook page.

Michael Zapcic with Thomas Mumme, left, during Thursday’s live ‘SModcast’ at Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash. Below: Kevin Smith on the center monitor during a taping earlier this week in Red Bank. (Photo below courtesy of Robert Bruce. Click to enlarge)

By JOHN T. WARD

Michael Zapcic had the “really surreal” experience earlier this week of walking past Madison Square Garden, glancing up at the massive Jumbotron and seeing a commercial for ‘Comic Book Men,’ a new cable show in which he appears as himself: a self-described comic book geek.

“I’m like holy crap! It’s them! It’s us!” he recalled Thursday, in the tone of an average, fedora-wearing citizen spotting a caped man flying overhead.

Life in the mini-Gotham that is Red Bank may never be the same.

Only, yeah, it will be exactly the same, because ‘Comic Book Men’ is a reality show, one focused on the daily interplay of three employees of  “possibly the world’s most famous comic book store” – Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash on Broad Street, where the show is set.

Over six episodes, four opinionated, superabsorbent sponges of superheroism – Zapcic, Ming Chen and Walt Flanagan, plus original store manager Bryan Johnson – spend a lot of time  “just arguing about stupid movie plot points, which happens every day without cameras anyway,” says Chen.

Ming Chen mans the mic. The podcasts have a prominent role in ‘Comic Book Men.’ (Click to enlarge)

The show is the brainchild of Middletown-raised filmmaker Kevin Smith, who owns the 15-year-old store and participates in each show during podcasts – known in the sprawling Smithian ‘smerchandise’ empire as ‘SModcasts’ – that bookend each episode.

The SModcasts, normally taped in the store at a poker table strewn with Surf Taco crumbs, were recorded on a specially built set elsewhere in Red Bank in recent months.

There’s also lots of interaction with customers, some of them from overseas, looking to buy and sell comic books, toys and tchotchkes.

Red Bank resident and sage “pop culturist” Robert Bruce is in it, too, offering an appraising eye for rarities: comic books, action figures, toys and more.

“His focus is on the most obscure things in the world,” says Zapcic, who apparently butts heads with Bruce in the show, as in real life.

At some point, a faux Batmobile is expected to pop up, too.

It’s basically a “character-driven show,” Zapcic said during a redbankgreen interview that doubled as a SModcast Thursday. “The producers “basically pointed the cameras at us and said, ‘be funny.’”

The Stash staffers own up to being totally amped about their debut Sunday night: Ming says he’s had trouble sleeping. But what excites him most, he said, is that the natural comedic chemistry of his colleagues Flanagan and Johnson will finally be on display for all Gothamites to enjoy.

“These two guys are so damn funny, and without even meaning to be,” said Zapcic.

“That’s the key part. They’re not trying,” Ming said.

AMC, home of ‘Mad Men,’ ‘Breaking Bad‘ and ‘The Walking Dead,’ launches the series at 10 p.m. Sunday.

For more about both the store and the show, tune into redbankgreen‘s ‘smodcast’ interview of Chen and Zapcic here. Click on ‘Smodco Morning Show #80.’

By JOHN T. WARD

‘Person to Person,’ a TV program of bygone days that featured live interviews with – and often, tours of the homes of –  Marilyn Monroe, John F. and Jackie Kennedy, Marlon Brando and other big names of half a century ago, returns to the airwaves next week with a drop-in at the Middletown home of pop rocker Jon Bon Jovi, CBS News announced Thursday.

The comeback episode, to air Wednesday night, also includes tours of homes owned by two other “legends of today:” actor George Clooney and investment sage Warren Buffett.

The Bon Jovi segment includes a look at his “private recording studio,” CBS says in promo material.

The house has hosted the famous (then-presidential candidate Barack Obama, at a campaign fundraiser in 2008) and the infamous and unwelcome (alleged cat burglar Nick Tracy).

The original ‘Person to Person’ was hosted by Edward R. Murrow, and featured the iconic newsman smoking and interviewing celebrities via a remote link, he in a New York studio, the subjects in his or er home. It debuted in October, 1953, with tours of the homes of baseball great Roy Campanella and conductor Leopold Stokowski and his wife, Gloria Vanderbilt. The show ran until 1959.

The new program will be hosted by Lara Logan and Charlie Rose and is taped, not live. It airs at 8 p.m. Wednesday, February 8.

Here at the tail end of a year that boasted a January visit to Red Bank by Real Housewife of NYC and “Skinnygirl”  paragon Bethenny Frankel, borough bistro Gaetano’s Italian Restaurant & Market plays host to a Real Housewife and RealiTV celeb who famously dressed up as a “400-pound morbidly obese woman” in order to make a very public statement about fat discrimination.

The Wallace Street ristorante welcomes Melissa Gorga of The Real Housewives of New Jersey along with her husband Joe, for a special event that includes two dinner seatings (at 5:30 and 8pm).

If you don’t regularly dote upon their doings, there’s not enough room here to parse the dynamic between Mrs. Gorga and her sister in law Teresa Giudice. But rest assured the event offers a relatively relaxed and casual chance to meet the Gorgas in “an intimate family style setting,” and to buy a signed copy of Melissa’s debut single, “On Display.”

Ticket price ($80) includes “a sit-down dinner for each guest featuring gourmet appetizer and entree selections, soft drinks, iced tea, and coffee,” and can be made by calling (914) 843-1434 or taking it here.

Gaetano’s, 10 Wallace Street, Red Bank • 5:30 – 7:30pm; 8 – 10pm/ $80

Alec Baldwin and Michael Cumpsty (right) join Two River Theater artistic director John Dias (left) for an “unscripted and unrehearsed” UNPLUGGED fundraiser at the Bridge Avenue artspace Monday night.

By TOM CHESEK

According to Alec Baldwin, there’s a certain comfort to be found in the eight-shows-a-week Broadway grind, in that “at 8pm I know exactly where I’ll be, who I’ll be with, and what I’ll say.”

As for an admittedly “confessional” Michael Cumpsty, the British-born actor allowed that “I feel more myself when I’m playing someone else.”

The two stage veterans were in a casually confessional mood on Monday night — with several hundred eavesdroppers listening in on the unscripted and unrehearsed conversation — as Two River Theater hosted a full house for an intimate evening of scenes and stories presented under the name Baldwin. Cumpsty. Unplugged.

The one-nighter — a fundraiser for Two River Theater Company and its various educational and community outreach endeavors — was moderated by TRTC artistic director John Dias, who took the stage and introduced the guests of honor as “two extraordinary artists… these two guys are big fans of each other.”

Dias, who shares a Middletown home with Cumpsty, recalled having first seen the Tony nominated star of Broadway’s 1776, 42nd Street and Sunday in the Park with George in a production of The Heiress — and reminisced about working closely with Baldwin at NYC’s Public Theater, where the producer and star collaborated on a staging of what could only be referred to as “The Scottish Play” (the three onstage principals remained mostly mindful of the longstanding theatrical superstition regarding the name-checking of that bloody Shakespearean tragedy).

“Alec changed my world when he played Stanley,” said Dias, referring to Baldwin’s Tony-lauded turn in the 1990s revival of A Streetcar Named Desire — a topic that produced some vivid recollections from the instantly recognizable star of films, TV shows and Capital One commercials.

Appearing sans necktie or neatly combed hair, Baldwin (who previously starred in a 2009 fundraiser for the nonprofit Junior League of Monmouth County at Two River) brought his comic people skills to the fore, regaling the crowd with often hilarious anecdotes on his many Hollywood and Broadway projects, mock-dismissing questions on his political aspirations, and bringing down the house with his impressions of Al Pacino and a dead-on Tony Bennett.

While professing his love for falling-over-the-couch slapstick comedy, an initially reserved Cumpsty (“I’ve never done this before”) soon got into the rhythm of the occasion, exchanging fun stories with Baldwin on projects ranging from soap operas to Star Trek to Saturday Night Live — although Cumpsty remains “sworn to secrecy” regarding his role in the current season of Boardwalk Empire.

The guests shared some serious insights as well on the subject of stage acting, a craft about which Shakespeare specialist Cumpsty opined, “it’s brand new every time you do it — just electric.”

“It’s like hockey,” said Baldwin of the importance of learning Shakespeare, “where you have to master one skill — being a world-class skater — FIRST, before you play the game.”

“First, the play is doing YOU,” Baldwin continued. “Then there’s a chiropractic shift, and YOU are doing the play.”

Although the actors — who kept the stories and audience Q&A going long past the event’s scheduled running time — didn’t get to as many of the scene readings as were initially planned, Cumpsty (who starred in the TRTC season opener production of Much Ado About Nothing) illuminated a pair of favorite soliloquies from Hamlet, the role for which he won an Obie award, and which he called “the top of the mountain… the best role, in the best play, and very daunting.”

Revisiting the work of Tennessee Williams, Baldwin (whose most famous character speech remains this David Mamet quotable classic) presented an unusual choice — a moving monologue on death, delivered by the female character Hannah in Night of the Iguana.

The 8pm presentation, which was preceded by a VIP meet-and-greet reception in the  theater lobby, was adjourned as it approached the two hour mark by Dias — with Baldwin contributing an all-kidding-aside closing statement on the importance of supporting cultural institutions like TRTC and its branded Bridge Avenue artspace.

The Two River stage lights up again in December, for the company’s annual holiday season family show, HONK! The Musical. Take it here to reserve tix for this and other season offerings (as well as a recently added concert by Aimee Mann on January 13, 2012).

Is he looking for criminals in Gotham? Checking to see if his parking meter is still in the green? Or is just keeping a jealous eye on the cable-TV reality show being shot across the street? (Click to enlarge)

Well, chat, mostly. The pre-Internet kind, that is. Only, with a couple of hundred people looking on.

Baldwin and his friend and acclaimed Shakespearean Michael Cumpsty will settle in for an extended conversation focused on their work in, and shared love of, live theater, TRTC artistic director John Dias tells redbankgreen.

“He’s quite a formidable theater actor,” says Dias, a friend of Baldwin since they crossed paths working on a 1998 production of ‘MacBeth‘ at New York’s Public Theater, where Dias was the dramaturg and Baldwin had the lead. “He’s quite a persuasive force.”

Though he’s apparently never seen a show at Two River, and was “distraught” to have missed Cumpsty as Benedick in the recent staging of the Bard’s ‘Much Ado About Nothing,’ Baldwin has trod the boards on Bridge Avenue once before. Last time, in 2009, it was a fundraiser for the Junior League of Monmouth County, at which Baldwin mostly fielded questions from the audience. This time, the topic is focused: life in the theater.

Dias says Baldwin is “a very big fan of Michael Crumpsty,” and so it wasn’t a hard sell when Dias approached the star of NBC sitcom ‘30 Rock‘ star about a return engagement.

“We thought it would be a fun and exciting idea to have two actors talking about things they do,” Dias says. Both, he said, “have a true and deep love for the theater and what great actors do.”

And – who knows – perhaps someday Baldwin will take up a three-week Red Bank residence as a player in one of TRTC’s regular offerings?

“That’s the plan,” Dias says, not even half-joking.

“Alec Baldwin. Michael Cumpsty. Unplugged” is scheduled for Monday, November 21. Tickets are priced from $50 to $350, with the costliest entitling holders entry to a pre-show reception with Baldwin beginning two hours before the show. Get tickets online here, or call the box office at 732.345.1400.

Grant Wilson (left) and Jason Hawes (right) are the SyFy network’s GHOST HUNTERS, and they’re coming to the Count’s castle for a Thursday night appearance.

By TOM CHESEK

Tag along on any of the Red Bank Walking Lantern Ghost Tours that wind through the downtown business blocks every Friday night through Halloweekend and you’re likely to hear told about the tradition of the “ghost light” — and why historic old auditoriums like the Count Basie Theatre have found it prudent and necessary to keep a bulb burning for the restless entities who are often said to haunt the catwalks, catacombs and balconies.

On Thursday night, October 20, the Basie gets a visit from Grant Wilson and Jason Hawes, New England-based bosses of the Atlantic Paranormal Society and — thanks to the long-running hit SyFy Channel series Ghost Hunters — internationally renowned (and even somewhat reluctant) TV stars.

The pair of regular-joe tradesmen (they also famously operate a Roto Rooter franchise by day) and lifelong history buffs haven’t been called to the Count’s castle to flush out a clamorous poltergeist, or even snake out a sluggish floor drain. When they step out onto the stage that’s hosted many of the biggest names in show business, the men from TAPS won’t be tap-dancing, singing or telling jokes, but offering up a refreshingly matter-of-fact presentation on the nature of their work, the fascinations that led them to their passionately pursued avocation, and the real reasons why they spend so many nights lurking around allegedly haunted houses all over the United States — including, we kid you not, the house where this correspondent lives (more on that in a moment).

The Paranormal Desk at redbankgreen spoke to the well-traveled Grant Wilson in what could be called his most frequent haunt — behind the wheel of a moving vehicle on an interstate highway. Following is what we found when we reviewed the recording.

Wilson and Hawes hunt for ghosts when not snaking out clogged drains.

redbankgreen: I guess the first thing I should say is, greetings from the Stephen Crane House in Asbury Park, New Jersey, where you taped an episode of GHOST HUNTERS back in 2010.

My wife and I moved in after you guys were here, and while there are plenty of bizarre things about the place, it’s been pretty quiet on the ectoplasmic front — except, perhaps, for the first few nights we were here. Doors swung open and clicked shut by themselves. I’d lock up, go out and find the doors wide open when I got back — and wherever I aimed a camera, I’d find something on the wall or curtain that looks like a face.

GRANT WILSON: Well, it’s possible to find faces in just about anything if you’re looking for them. Either that, or the faces find you! We appreciate the history behind the house — a lot of the places we visit are museums, libraries, things like that, and we don’t always get to hear from someone who lives in one of them.

We’re talking to you in advance of your live show at the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank on the 20th. It’s one of those great old places, built in the 1920s — and as I’m sure you’ve visited a lot of similar places, does it seem to you that just about every one of them has a spectral story attached to it?

A lot of them do, yeah. I think that a theater, a place where people come to be entertained, has a lot of emotions imprinted upon it. It’s a happy place, maybe I should say a place of emotional highs and lows. And that seems to leave an impression.

So what can we expect to see during the presentation that you take on the road?

It’s basically a variation on the lectures that we’ve been giving for many years, since long before the TV show. The difference is that ten years ago we’d have like 30 people show up, and now we’re consistently selling out these big halls, which is just amazing to me.

We’ll give a keynote presentation; talk about some case studies, look at evidence that we’ve collected. We’ll take you behind the scenes of the show, show you stuff that hasn’t been on TV. And we’ll have a Q&A with the audience, which is important to us; we like to engage the people who follow the show, just talk to them like the regular guys we are. There’s some laughs, a little bit of paranormal in there, but we’re not psychics!

According to some things you’ve said, you’re not really “ghost hunters” either…

We consider ourselves to be paranormal investigators — we’re not trying to conjure anything or channel anything. People come to us with questions and we’re just trying to help them figure it out. We disprove claims wherever we can, come up with the truth behind the story rather than making something out of nothing. And most of the time, not much happens.

We actually turned down doing the TV show five times. We weren’t crazy about the title GHOST HUNTERS, and we were afraid that the production company would try to make what we do into something it’s not — those first couple of seasons we butted heads with them over a lot of things.

Well, in an age when most TV personalities have to be louder, more colorful characters with their wild hairdos and catch phrases, you guys distinguish yourselves by the low profile you present.

We’re regular guys, you know, we babysit neighbor’s kids and things like that. I hardly ever watch the show — when I do catch it I love it, but none of my friends really watch it. You’ve gotta keep grounded.

So then are you able to go about your business, go to Home Depot or Lowe’s, without getting mobbed like you’re the Beatles?

Unfortunately we’re past that point — everywhere I go I get mobbed! I forget that I have a show on TV, but really, everyone I meet is respectful and I have to remember that they’re genuinely interested in what we do. I make time for them.

And imitation being the sincerest form of flattery, a whole lot of similar shows have sprung up in the past couple of years.

Well, no two shows are going about it the same way. Each show has a certain goal. Nobody’s getting hurt, and there’s room for everyone right now.

You do have your fans out there. You may not walk around feeling like a rock star, but I’ve got a friend, a woman who lives in Middletown, New Jersey — she and her husband have triplet sons named Philip, Andrew and Douglas, and those kids are obsessed with your show. They want to do their own ghost investigations. To them you guys are almost like superheroes…

I don’t feel like a superhero or a superstar or a super-anything. As I said, I’m just a guy who certainly didn’t set out to be a TV star. I do want to give those kids a shout out, let them know that we appreciate them, and it’s great to have fans who understand what we’re trying to accomplish with the show.

I went not too long ago on a professional ghost investigation, to an old bowling alley down the street from where I live, just to write about the experience. What was most interesting, I think, was the real-time aspect of staking out a place for hours. The dark and quiet and solitude establish a rhythm that’s quite different from the fast paced edits of the TV shows. It’s kind of a relaxing way to spend a night.

You’re absolutely right. When you’re sitting quietly for long stretches, just listening, kind of getting a feel for the place you’re in, it’s an experience that we obviously can’t do in an hour TV show. It is relaxing in a way, just thinking about what’s going on.

Tickets for Thursday’s 8pm appearance by the Ghost Hunters, presented by Mills Entertainment, are priced between $20 and $45.50 (with a limited number of $85 VIP seats available), and can be reserved right here.