Pop, Rock ‘N New Year’s Evil is quite different from other convention events, so to learn about the show’s conception and innerworkings, Scoop talked to event hosts Scott and Michelle Hewitt. This was the first Pop, Rock ‘N New Year’s Evil, following their inaugural Pop, Rock ‘N Horror convention that was held in May 2019. Taking breaks from the busy second day of festivities, the Hewitts chatted about planning the event, feedback they are getting, and what’s to come in the future.

Scoop: How’s the show going?
Scott Hewitt (SH): It is going very well today.
Michelle Hewitt (MH): I think it’s going awesomely great. I think everybody’s been happy and excited and we’re happy and excited with the turnout.

Scoop: Seems like everyone is a little sleepy but still smiling today.
SH: Everyone is still smiling but they are very sleepy because at 2 o’clock [last night] the room cleared out, but everybody stayed at the pool until closer to 4. So, it was a pretty long night for a lot of folks. It was pretty amazing. I’m still trying to wrap my head around how cool it was. It’s one of those things where it’s an overload of cool.

Scoop: What gave you the idea to do this New Year’s Eve event/convention?
MH: We were talking to the manager here at the hotel when we were booking Pop, Rock ‘N Horror 2 dates and she was like, “Hey, I’ve tried to do a New Year’s Eve event at the hotel before. Would you be interested in doing a Pop, Rock ‘N Horror here for New Year’s Eve?” We thought, that’s a really cool idea. So, we worked with her and got the idea rolling, started thinking about things, and it just turned into this.

Scoop: You had karaoke, you had comedy. What made you pick the activities that you did?
SH: I was trying to figure out what would be really fun for a person my age to do for New Year’s, something that I couldn’t walk away from and go, “It was just okay.” We really wanted to knock this thing out of the ballpark and in order to do that, having a friend like Craig Loydgren be able to do his standup [comedy] routine, it was really going to add to the evening. Then the photo ops and the guests. Even more so than that, it still comes down to the people that attend the show. Each person that we talked to last night was having a great time, but it wasn’t because of the same thing. There were people who liked the comedy, there were people who liked the guests being here, there were people who just liked the friends and family photo op, they thought that was something amazing. The special thing that we did at midnight with Carrie was really cool and it kind of threw everybody for a loop, because they thought we were done with everything after the door prizes.

Scoop: I was surprised when the Carrie moment happened.
SH: That was amazing. This was our big secret the whole way through. The original plan was for her to get dumped on [with fake blood] at midnight, but we also figured, we are with friends and family, everyone was going to want to give hugs and wish each other well for New Year’s, do a toast or something like that. So, we thought a few minutes after that would be a really good timing. The timing on it worked really well, everybody seemed to be happy. It was that moment where you realize you’re getting a fresh start and we got our fresh start by dumping a bucket of [fake] blood on a beautiful young woman in a beautiful dress. [laughs] Something unique.

Scoop: What’s been your favorite part so far?
MH: Oh my gosh. Well, the whole evening last night was awesome. Of course, the vendors and guests being here anytime is a great part of the show. But, I think just being able to socialize, have dinner, do karaoke, dancing, some fun stuff with everyone. It wasn’t just one or two people coming out on occasion, all the people could join in all the activities.

Scoop: What kind of feedback are you getting from the celebrity guests?
SH: The celebrity guests are really excited about it. I can’t say enough good things about them. Being there last night and watching David Howard Thornton karaoke with fans and watching Felissa Rose interact with fans and Beverly Randolph jumped up on the table and danced with fans. All of the guests, Jennifer Banko, Billy Butler, Tuesday Knight – all of them were in that room, watching Craig and supporting each other. That to me speaks volume to what Pop, Rock ‘N Horror is about. We’re about being there for each other and we created this crazy little family. I describe the family we have as the weirdest set of Legos you’ve every played with. Everyone in that room comes from all walks of life and from all different places, but in that room we’re all the same – we’re fans. To me, that means everything.

Scoop: Do you expect to do this again?
MH: I don’t know, hopefully. We have PRH 2 coming up, so we have to think about that and then we’ll talk about plans. Scott and I will do our download tonight [laughs] or tomorrow once everybody leaves and really see what ideas we can come up with for next year to make it a great event again.

Scoop: Can you give me a preview for Pop, Rock ‘N Horror 2 in late May?
SH: As you know, we have Michael Myers in costume, Leatherface in costume, we have announced Beast [George Buza] and Rogue [Lenore Zann] from the X-Men [The Animated Series]. The best thing I can tell you is that we may not be done with X-Men, there’s just too many of them not to make sure that we can have an extra one or two for the show…We have the rock ‘n roll part covered with KIX coming and this year we want to pay a little more attention to the pop portion of it.

Full coverage on Pop, Rock ‘N New Year’s Evil can be found in our “Main Event” this week.