Slider Jesus Came to St. Louis and Shared His Haunted House Tricks

It was Halloween in March in downtown St. Louis this past weekend, as thousands of people who work in haunted houses, escape rooms and other aspects of the "interactive concept" industry rolled into town for Transworld's Interactive Entertainment Show. The four-day affair, held from March 7-10, bills itself as the largest event of its type in the country. 

Walking through the crowd of visitors on Washington Avenue last Thursday, we tried to find someone who looked like they'd be a fitting ambassador for the convention. Once we spotted Slider Jesus (@slider_jesus on Instagram), we knew he was our guy. And our hunch proved correct as the man was full of practical advice. 

This conversation has been edited for clarity and to omit all the people who came up during it asking Slider Jesus for selfies. 

Tell us about yourself.

I'm a haunted house slider.

I'm guessing “slider” is an industry term I'm not aware of, right?

I got knee pads, and they spark and they glow and do all kinds of fun stuff. 

So you literally slide out at people at haunted houses, and that's the jumpscare?

Yeah, you got it. 

If someone is looking to break into the sliding biz, what advice do you have?

I would say social media is your best friend, for better or worse. My first year on TikTok and other social media, people laughed at me. I was cringe. And I learned very quickly, there's no such thing as bad publicity. After a while people started not cringing, and they enjoyed it. I got to over a million followers on TikTok. You gotta go through it. You gotta take the good with the bad.

You get a lot of work from social media?

It's done wonders for my career.

If this was someone’s first time at a Transworld convention, what would your advice be?

Stay hydrated.

Watch Slider Jesus show off his stuff below:

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