Jeff Heimbuch - Horror Writer & Podcaster
Okay so we cheated a bit with this one. Jeff Heimbuch technically calls Costa Mesa home but his stopping grounds are very much Los Angeles and he’s looking to make the move up to La La Land sooner rather than later. We won’t tell anyone if you won’t.
Jeff dabbles in a variety of different strange mediums. “I do a lot of weird stuff,” he jested, as he rattled off a number of things that keep him busy from day to day, “There’s always something extra I’m doing during the day that isn’t my normal 9 to 5.” Jeff’s bread and butter is working in social media for a tech company but he moonlights as a site writer for all things horror on horrorbuzz.com, creates weird immersive experiences, and is a Jack of all trades for several podcasts on iHeartRadio including Light House and Return Home.
Originally from New Jersey, Jeff relocated to Southern California roughly eight years ago after co-writing the book It’s Kind of a Cute Story, the biography of Walt Disney Imagineer Rolly Crump. What started out as a simple article about a walking guide of Disneyland turned into a life-changing opportunity. “It was surreal to talk to this dude who made all of this weird stuff like the Enchanted Tiki Room, the Haunted Mansion, and the Museum of the Weird,” he recalled.
After the article, Jeff kept in touch with Rolly who eventually asked him to write his biography. “We talked for a week straight and I went home with, I don’t know, like 80-90 hours worth of audio that I had to transcribe and create this story about his life,” he shared. If you’re a Disney fan and unfamiliar with Rolly, Jeff definitely suggests checking him out, especially the Museum of the Weird which the Imagineer chiefly designed. Although the concept was unbuilt, many elements of the design found their way into the infamous Haunted Mansion like the Talking Chair, the iconic wallpaper, and the Man Eating Plants.
Jeff has always had an affinity for horror. “I love that weird spooky stuff. That’s always been who I am,” he professed. As a child, he recalled saving up his allowance and looking forward to trips to K-Mart so he could buy a new VHS tape of a horror movie he hadn’t seen before. Although it’s not technically a horror film, Army of Darkness was one of his favorites growing up and one of his biggest influences. As he got older, he realized that horror goes beyond movies and began to seek it out in other mediums.
Earlier this year, Jeff was able to combine his love of horror with work for his podcast, Light House, a fictional story that follows a girl named Tara from age 12 into her 60s. “It’s your classic haunted house story about a family that moves into their ancestral home when their grandmother dies,” he explained, “each episode is a year in her life.” Jeff has been pleasantly surprised with the success it’s seen.
During Covid, he’s been hard at work writing a new podcast, Crypto Country, which dives into Cryptozoology and a Los Angeles urban legend named “The Puddy Man.” The series, which teeters between fiction and non-fiction, was inspired by The Blair Witch Project. Jeff has incorporated a lot of nods to LA into the scripts and then twisted them slightly to fit the story. He anticipates the podcast to be released in early 2021.
This Halloween, Jeff has secured tickets to the highly sought after Creep L.A. experience, which he is very excited about. “I’m not trying to be weird or anything but I saw it five times, like I fucking love that show,” he proclaimed about last year’s Creep L.A. Jeff loves Creep so much, he even incorporated a few of the performers into his new podcast.
Despite this year’s restrictions, being the horror enthusiast that he is, Jeff is still excited for Halloween and enjoys how the city really comes alive during the season. He describes the holiday as one big family reunion where he gets to see a lot of his friends that he loves. “Seeing all of these people and getting the shit scared out of us together is really fun for me,” he shared. We couldn’t agree more.
Follow Jeff on Instagram and Twitter to stay in the loop with all of the many projects he has in the works. His podcast Light House can be found wherever you listen to podcasts and you can read Jeff’s take on everything horror around Southern California on Horrorbuzz.com.
This post has been a collaboration between Strange Los Angeles and The Making Waves Project for 13 Days Of Strange – a socially distanced, Halloween photo series spotlighting spooky and strange Angelinos. Visit our homepage for more.
.Written by Brittany Rice
Photography by Robiee Ziegler
