Conversations with Sarah Palmer

Today we’d like to introduce you to Sarah Palmer.

Hi Sarah, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
Everything really started at the age of 18 where I auditioned to be a scare actor at Universal Studios Hollywood a place where horror was made. Having the historic backlot with buildings such as the Bates Motel and Court of Miracles where the wolf man roamed be your break space really changes a person. Quickly, I knew I wanted to try and get a full time job instead of a seasonal scare gig. So I did. I auditioned for everything I could. Eventually having a pretty good line up of characters from Helen in the Water World stunt show ,dancing with the Diamonds Dolls while driving a vintage pink convertible Pontiac as Marilyn Monroe to eventually finding my self coming alive as The Bride of Frankenstein. 15 years have come and gone and during that time of getting to know these interesting characters I indulged myself in their history. So anything vintage or horror I was heavily interested in and eventually became. I loved finding a common ground with vintage esthetic mixed with horror. Since most classic horror movies had pinup girls as their leading ladies. I now have found my new identity. This all led me down the rabbit whole of women in horror ,horror hosts and film history. I didn’t want to do the typical acting grind like a lot of my friends did. To be honest it looked miserable, and I didn’t want to change my whole vintage look for just a Windex commercial. So I found YouTube, the modern day public access channel. I wanted to be a horror host like Elvira , Vampira or Stella. However horror hosts gigs have kinda died out. Since no one need a horror host for their own tv station to Host the Shock Package anymore therefore I turned to YouTube. However you cant show a full horror movie on YouTube so I substituted movies for pinup hair or makeup tutorials while asking my monster friends for a helping hand and campy bats on strings to fill my horror hosts needs…and it worked! I dubbed myself the Pink and Spooky girl . Pink meaning anything vintage and feminine and spooky being well… you get it. Somehow, slowly gained myself a decent following where I started hosting For Burlesque shows at the Globe theater , Mambo Craze nights at the Cicada Club , Cobweb Cabaret at the Famous Roxy theater and Tikis Exoticon at the Mayan In down town LA. This covered anything vintage and spooky all while still working at Universal, running a YouTube channel and created a horror comedy podcast . Yes I was pooped. One day I got a life changing text while working as the manger for the killer Klowns maze at Halloween horror nights. The text was from my Buddy Brad “ who happens to be friends with Dracula in the park”. So basically Dracula messaged me and said I should audition for The spawn of Svengoolie. “Svengoolie !!” “ I know him!” For I recently just talked about this horror host on my podcast …very serendipitous. I was excited and didn’t think a horror host opportunity would ever come about. So I waisted no time and sent in my 1 min audition tape and held my breath. To sum it up . 5 rounds of improve , writing and acting later… I got the gig. I am now a proud member of the Sven Squad on Metv as my new horror host persona GwenGoolie. Gwen is a vintage ghoul who hears all the dead celebrity gossip through the grave-vine. Basically, she gets the dirt on em. My weird dream of being a horror host came true. If there is any advice to give it’s this : Be authentic in what you love and do, even though it may not be the most popular move at least you can say you stayed true to yourself, and if you do that you will always have a fan….and maybe your mother too but I digress.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
No wasn’t smooth at all! Lost a lot of money and hair through stress of just trying to exist as an entertainer in Los Angeles.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Im a horror host. A dying breed some say “no pun intended”. I, with a team that consists of a nostalgic vampire and a mischievous Imp create a show where we subject poor souls to horrible horror movies. B as in bad. We call ourselves the Sven Squad since our leader Svengoolie foolishly chose us. He thought he was getting help but instead got headache. We are like the three stooges of Horror. GwenGoolie my character likes to call herself the smart one of the group. Despite what the others think…if they do think. I and my cast will write skits ,bits, musical parodies and give information of each film we show. Yes you can learn something while watching Godzilla. Shocking I know. I will say coming on to a show with a horror host that has been in the air since 1979 is jarring. The fans are die hard, and some do! So being a newcomer was challenging but I make it work with connecting to old and new audience members since being a millennial I feel I fall right in the middle. Keeping camp and dad jokes in my writing style to please those who have been watching since the 70s while also connecting with the youngins online. I try to please all even though it doesn’t always work.

What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
Well as long as bad or campy horror movies are still being made I think I have a job! I would like to expand the Squad into a live showing of movies, to connect better with our fans . I’m also interested in producing a spooky Halloween record filled with campy spooky songs and music hits from our show. As long as we can get out of the dungeon, I think I’ll be happy.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.metv.com/svengoolie/
• Instagram: @PinupPalmer
• Twitter: @realPinuppalmer
• Youtube: @pinuppalmer

Image Credits
Susana Vestige Photography
Metv website
Giovanni Canales