Okada’s love of spectacle spawned haunted-house gig

There’s nothing Kevin Okada enjoys more than making people smile.

And if the unassuming Kapiolani Community College mailman has to raise the dead, pry open the gates of hell and unleash a few psychotic clowns for that to happen, well, so be it.

Okada, 32, is co-founder of Nightmares Live, the annual Halloween haunted-house attraction at Dole Cannery that has scared the bejesus out of thousands of visitors over the past few years.

Okada spends a lot of time thinking up new ways to elicit the sort of delicious terror that gets adrenaline pumping and leaves people laughing with hysterical relief when it’s all over.

"You have to change every year," says Okada, "or it’ll be boring and people will stop coming."

Okada says he’s been drawn to the mechanics of grand spectacle ever since his first trip to the McKinley Carnival as a young boy.

The only child of a hardworking single mother, Okada says he looked forward to annual vacations to the mainland, where he and his mother, Nancy, would spend long days canvassing amusement parks like Six Flags or Knott’s Berry Farm.

At age 16 he began working for E.K. Fernandez — "a skinny kid working next to all these big Samoan men," operating rides at the Punahou Carnival, 50th State Fair and other events.

Okada spent a semester at KCC, realizing that the academic path wasn’t for him. He would return to KCC a few years later, not to study, but to work. At KCC, Okada was invited to help with the school’s popular haunted house for faculty and staff. Okada enjoyed the experience so much that after a few years he decided to see whether he and the crew could do it professionally.

He called local promoter Tom Moffatt to inquire about insurance. Next thing he knew, he was being recruited to run Moffatt’s Shock House attraction.

When Moffatt discontinued the attraction, Okada continued on with his own Nightmares Live.

"It’s a lot of work but we love what we do," Okada says. "The best feeling is standing at the exit and watching people come out with big smiles."