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Adam Berry: Showtunes, Ghost Hunting And Being A Newlywed

Ghost Hunters' Adam Berry

In the world of ghost hunting on the popular SyFy reality series Ghost Hunters, regular occurrences are things that go bump in the night, spirited images that are captured on the investigators’ high-tech equipment and… the occasional Broadway tune? If you’re on a ghost hunting expedition with Adam Berry you will more than likely get a little music along with a dose of the paranormal.

Berry has been a part of Ghost Hunters since he won the competition in the Ghost Hunters Academy spin-off, but on tonight’s episode, he finds out he’s no longer ‘in training’ and is a full-fledged investigator. Between that and his marriage in August to longtime partner, Ben Griessmeyer (who changed his name to Ben Berry after the ceremony), Berry is having a pretty good year so it seemed like a good time to jump on the phone and catch up.

AfterElton: You get a promotion in this week’s episode. Was that expected, or was your reaction on the show really when you found out?

Adam Berry: I wasn’t expecting it! I was wondering when it was going to happen, I must say. I’ve been on the show a little over two years. There’s a process you have to go through to be well-oiled so you know what you’re doing. Once you get that investigator title it’s a stamp of approval. I think we never stop learning, but to have the seal of approval was great. I was surprised that it came when it did. I didn’t think they were going to make a deal out of it. I thought I would just go in one day and be like ‘Oh, I’m an investigator now.’ It was humbling that they wanted to make a thing of it. I’m excited to not be ‘in training’ anymore.

AE: So having looked at your background and seeing that you’ve done quite a bit in musical theater, what is the connection between that and the paranormal?

AB: I try to use music in almost every investigation. I believe that music can really affect someone either living or dead. Depending on the location I usually hum or sing a tune while I set up the equipment or get ready to investigate. [Usually it’s] music from the era that matches the people that I am trying to reach. It may bring whatever it is out of the shadows because they recognize that piece of music. Also, in terms of acting, one uses tactics to get what they want in a scene...well, in ghost hunting we use tactics to get what we want from the spirits. We try new things constantly to establish communication with the other side. That could be basic maneuvers such as being nice or mean to advanced techniques such as being someone they would work with when they were alive or some person they might know. Creating an environment or a scenario they might be familiar with may encourage communication as well.

AE: When did your fascination start with the paranormal world?

AB: When I was a little kid, Halloween was my favorite holiday, I loved the fall. When I lived in Alabama I thought I had a ghost dog in my house, and the reason I said 'thought' is I was never able to prove it. I would tell my parents, and they would brush it off like it’s not happening or it’s not something we want to talk about it. That’s when my first experience happened, and I grew up in a different house and the activity wasn’t the same, so I put it all on the backburner.

I went on tour with Theatreworks, USA, which is a children’s theater production company that travels around the country. I went on a ghost tour in Gettysburg and I ended up by myself and one of the guides warned me, ‘I don’t know if you should do that.’ A friend and I went into the woods to see if we could find anything and sure enough we heard gunshots, people yelling, cannon fire and things that I have not been able to explain to this day. I wasn’t of the mindset to look for speakers and see if they were messing with us, but that just changed my entire perspective of what is the paranormal. I thought, ‘Let’s go back and investigate this and see if I can get it to happen again.’ That’s the thrill. If something happens once, you’re addicted and you just want it to happen over and over again. That pushed me over the edge.

AE: The field of ghost hunting on the show seems to be a pretty testosterone-filled environment. How was it being out in the mix with the other investigators? Could you be yourself from the start?

AB: It’s just like any group that you start to be a part of. You have to test the waters, but obviously Steve [Gonsalves], [Dave] Tango and Jay [Jason Hawes, lead investigator] all knew who I was. They weren’t stupid. They wanted to see what our normal lives were like and who we were hanging out with. So by the time I got on the show, I had their approval.

I was always myself from the beginning. I’ve never compromised any of that. I did enough of that when I was in high school. So when I left Alabama, I said I would never compromise ever again. I was always myself on Ghost Hunters Academy, I was always myself on the show and you either hated me or you liked me and luckily they liked me. There were no qualms about it. The people I work with love heavy metal and they have tattoos and they are hardcore, but I think it’s funny. I mention a showtune or I sing something and sometimes the eyes roll. It’s something they weren’t used to, but I think they enjoy it secretly. I know for a fact that [Dave] Tango’s favorite Broadway musical is Phantom of the Opera. He likes the story of Phantom, the original book. I took [fellow investigator] Amy Bruni to see Chicago because my friend was playing Velma. It’s all worked out.

Adam (second from right) with the rest of the Ghost Hunters cast

AE: When I watch the show, I want to see these big macho guys scream like girls when something jumps out, but they never do!

AB: They do once in awhile. In this last episode, there was maybe 3 minutes when Steve was wailing because there was this June bug flying. Everyone has their moments.

AE: When you’re in social situations like, perhaps, having an appletini and the topic of what you do for a living comes up, do you say you hunt ghosts? What’s your response?

AB: It depends. If I’m on an airplane, I try not to explain what I do because you’re stuck with that person the entire time, so I say I’m an accountant, or on vacation. Recently I took a flight and I had one of the recorders we use on the show and I was interrogated for half an hour by the TSA because they had never seen the recorder, they didn’t know what it did. I explained to them what I did and by the end of it they were laughing and going, ‘What time does it come on?’ and I told them. I don’t mind talking about it at bars and I’ll tell people I’m on a show called Ghost Hunters and most of the time they say ‘Oh, I’ve had an experience’ and they tell you. Sometimes they’re like ‘Okay’ and then they trail off and walk across the room to get away from you. It depends on the situation.

AE: Does Jason [Hawes, lead Ghost Hunters investigator] know he’s a ‘Daddy’?

AB: I get that a lot in Provincetown-- that Jay has that bald head. I don’t see him like that by any stretch of the imagination, but he may be flattered. We’ll have to see.

AE: Take him to Provincetown during Bear week! He’ll be very popular!

AB: Can you imagine?! Oh God…

AE: And you got married this summer! Congrats!

AB: Thank you! I got married August 22nd at Provincetown Town Hall with all the pomp and circumstance you’d expect! I do remember the wedding, and I do remember moments but it was crazy! When you’re there, you’re kind of the host of the party and the epicenter of attention, so you want to make sure you talk to everyone. I wouldn’t change one thing! Dave, Steve and Tango and some of the crew came to the wedding. It was nice to have them there.

In Ben’s vows, I just fell in love all over again because we’ve been all over together and so he listed all the places we’d lived like Minneapolis, New York and Provincetown, but that we also have been to the scariest asylums, and he said ‘I can’t wait to go with you again.’ He included that in his vows and I thought it was very, very touching to include that.

Ben and Adam Berry

Ghost Hunters airs Wednesdays at 9/8c on SyFy.

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