Berry wins ‘Ghost Hunters Academy'

Berry wins ‘Ghost Hunters Academy'
July 9, 2010
By Sarah Carlson
TimesDaily.com

Adam Berry's Facebook profile pages, both personal and professional, are flooded with comments of “Congratulations!” He can't even keep up with them all, and joked Thursday he may have to delete his profiles altogether.

“Once I reach 10 million (fans) like Lady Gaga, I don't know what I'm going to do,” he said in a phone interview, laughing.

The former Muscle Shoals resident won season 1.5 of SyFy's “Ghost Hunters Academy” on Wednesday, beating out seven other contestants for an investigator spot on the original “Ghost Hunters” TV series as a member of The Atlantic Paranormal Society (TAPS).

“It's really exciting,” Berry said. “We finished filming May 18, so I've been keeping it a secret for a really long time.”

But that wasn't hard for the Muscle Shoals High School graduate, who now lives in Provincetown, Mass., to do.

“It wasn't difficult,” he said. “I don't want to ruin it, you know? It's better to keep it a secret and let everyone find it out on their own.”

That included not telling his family — even his parents, Junior and Sylvia Berry, of Muscle Shoals. The couple had a bunch of friends at their house Wednesday to watch the finale, with everyone screaming with excitement once Adam was named the winner. He called his surprised parents soon after the episode.

“It's quite an accomplishment,” Sylvia Berry said. “He worked really hard for that. It was a little hard (to wait), but we knew he was doing the best he could, so we just didn't worry about it.”

She, too, was flooded with congratulations Thursday as friends and family commented on how hard Berry worked on the show.

Sylvia is proud of her son, but Adam's fascination with the paranormal was not passed down from his parents. Sylvia likes ghost stories and haunted houses like the average person, she said, but you won't find her camping out trying to communicate with spirits via Electronic Voice Phenomenon.

“It was interesting, though, to see what was happening on the show,” she said. “It makes you kind of question if it's really happening or not.”

After a series of paranormal investigation challenges, during which the academy's cadets explored reportedly haunted locations such as asylums and jails, the finale had Berry and contestants Eric Baldino and Michelle Tate battling it out for the TAPS spot at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colo., the hotel that inspired author Stephen King to write “The Shining.”

The finale was one of Berry's favorite challenges, and the creepy events that went down — including flashlights illuminating on command without the cadets' help — indeed were real, he said.

Berry stayed in one of the hotel's many haunted rooms, he said.

“I had crazy personal experiences during that week,” he said. “I heard kids running in the hallway, my shoes were moved. ... The place was really scary.”

Berry routinely beat out the other cadets to win challenges. He served as team leader twice, and he was never nominated for dismissal from the series by other cadets during judging.

He thought Baldino would win, however, thinking him the TAPS type — more quiet, reserved. Though shocked he won, Berry said he is excited for his future work with TAPS, likely to begin in the fall. He will appear on “Ghost Hunters” as the full-time paranormal investigators' equal, not their student.

“No longer having to compete is the best thing,” Berry said. “You don't have to watch your back, you don't have to worry about certain things.”

Berry is thankful for the opportunity, as well as for the show's fans and those who have cheered him on.

“If (you) watch the show, continue to watch,” he said. “You never know what may happen in the future, and I think the show can only get better.”

His parents certainly will be tuning in.

“Oh yeah, we'll keep up with him,” Sylvia Berry said. “As long as he's on TV, we'll be watching.”
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