Ghost Brothers – The Black Paranormal Men Television Needs Today

Thanks to Dalen Spratt, Marcus Harvey, and Juwan Mass we have finally got our Black paranormal television show for the culture. If you haven’t seen or heard of “Fright Club” then now is your chance to tune in! Catch up on Season 1 and 2 on Discovery. 

Cox: So how did the whole idea of a black paranormal show start?

Spratt: Well, Juwan and I were roommates in college at Clark Atlanta University. I woke up in the middle of the night and turned on the television to a random ghost hunting show. And I was like I have seen no black people before on these types of shows. I thought to myself, what if Black people did this? It would be a really cool idea. So at three am, I had the genius idea to go wake Juwan up and tell him all about it. 

Mass: To be fair, I thought Dalen wasn’t sober. I was like, what have you been smoking or drinking?” But the next morning I thought to myself there aren’t any Black people in this space. 

Dalen and Juwan knew they had something, so they embarked on this journey for the next five years and along their way, they met Marcus Harvey, who would be the last piece of the puzzle.

Cox: Marcus, so how did you meet Dalen and Juwan?

Harvey: I’m a barber by trade and worked as a celebrity barber just getting off tour. I first met Dalen via a mutual barber friend in Hollywood. Hollywood was cutting a producer’s hair who was working on a sizzle reel which Dalen was cast. Long story short, Hollywood had told the producer that I was a comedian and he should put me on the show. They invited me down, and that’s who Dalen and I connected. I later connected with Juwan because we were both working on a show. He did styling, and I did hair. I didn’t even know they were roommates.

Cox: So how did Dalen convince you to join the project?

Harvey: Well, he told me his idea, and I immediately told him I only chase the Holy Ghost every Sunday, Wednesday, and Friday. I will not do it in no haunted house, man. But he said come through. I did because he was my dude and I always trusted him and the things he had going on. And the rest is history from there. 

Cox: Okay, so how did you all get started from there?

Spratt: When we came up with Ghost Brothers, we pitched the ideas a bunch of times and we just got no after no after no. But everything was about alignment because years after receiving so many nos, the industry went on this wave of looking for multicultural programming after the controversy with the Oscars and diversity. This was the time Black-ish, Fresh Off The Boat, and others were taking in. It ushered in us during that window and, coincidently, a network was looking for Black talent that might be paranormal investigators. They couldn’t find anyone but us. 

Mass: I think what worked best for us was that we were actually beginners. The thing was, we didn’t come into this trying to say we were experts. We wanted to do something that was from our standpoint and outside of the normal what you see in most paranormal shows. We made it more of a parody by applying comedy like in the movie Scary Movie. It was just from our perspective. 

Cox: So how did the show get picked up?

Spratt: There was a company hired by Discovery to go out and search the web for exactly what they were looking for. It was faith because when they googled and searched YouTube, the stuff we put on YouTube in the past was the only thing that popped up. 

Dalen, Marcus, and Juwan really showcased the power of right timing mixed with not letting others dictate your vision. They had received a consensu that Black people wouldn’t be interested in this because of the community’s Church stigma. 

Cox: Your show brings a new perspective and breaks down the stigma that a Black paranormal show can’t be successful. 

Harvey: I think that’s the great and unique thing about what we are doing. We have the opportunity to have African Americans watch a show like this. 

Cox: Last question, how would each member in the group be described?

Marcus: Well, I’m probably the scariest out of the group, but I’m going to do anything. Dalen is the bad boy of paranormal and will come up with the wildest ideas for us to do. Marcus is the comfort of the show. He provides that comic relief and is the one people really can gravitate towards.