Snowman Comes to Scarborough Beach

If you were at last weekend, you might have seen a character sticking out like a sore thumb, even if he was trying to stay cooler, closer to his natural habitat of an ice cream stand.

Between his various videos on YouTube, Freaky the Scary Snowman has more than one million hits. You can find his channel here. (WARNING: The clips are NOT safe for work, and intended for a mature audience.) This past Saturday, Freaky visited Scarborough Beach. You can see that video here (and again, it contains language not appropriate for all viewers).

Freaky is the product of three collaborators – East Providence videographer Jay Lichtenberger, North Kingstown costume-maker Tom DePetrillo and comedian Brian Medeiros of Fall River, MA.

Lichtenberger said he originally planned for Freaky to be a one-shot project. The costume, which is made out of seashells, was created by his uncle, DePetrillo. He does custom work with his company, Extreme Costumes of North Kingstown.

“He offered to make a snowman costume that someone could sit in, and then jump out and scare someone,” Lichtenberger said. “I thought it would be a one-time thing. I didn't think it would be this popular.”

So far, the series has more than a million views across 15 videos. The latest from Scarborough, which was posted on Wednesday, already has 60,000 views.

Lichtenberger said they chose Scarborough for a simple reason.

“It has a boardwalk,” he said. “We wanted to go to Narragansett, but we didn't want to set him in the sand [to prevent damage].”

All of the reactions in the video are genuine, as is an unusual moment at the 2:05 mark. Despite the calendar reading July and temperatures in the high 80s and low 90s, a young man goes up to Freaky and fits a Santa Claus hat to him.

“That was random, I have no idea where he got the hat from,” Lichtenberger said, laughing. “That was so random.”

Lichtenberger runs RipFilms, which specializes in creating “screamer” (reaction) videos for YouTube and other mediums. He said it is his sole job now.

“I went to NEIT [the New England Institute of Technology] for radio and video broadcasting,” he said. “I did a lot of freelance work and finally got a job at Textron.”

However, on the side, he was doing projects along the lines of Freaky.

“It was more of a hobby at that point,” he said. “Last year it really started to take off, and I was earning enough where I didn't have to work at Textron.”

Lichtenberger said he originally met up with Medeiros, the man in the snowman suit, when they both worked at Soundbox, a company that specializes in making recordable copies of karaoke performances. Medeiros is a performer in a sketch comedy group, RedHeadFlute.

“We [did] some music parodies and dabbled around in some stuff, nothing crazy successful like the snowman routine has been,” Lichtenberger said.

Freaky has mostly gotten a playful response so far, according to Lichtenberger. In addition to Scarborough, he has also scared pedestrians on the streets of Providence and New York City.

“We went to New York City, and the only thing they were concerned about was accepting tips,” he said, adding that they do get a lot of minor violence committed against Freaky.

“There is this one video where a kid kicks a hole right in it.”

If you'd like to get your picture taken with Freaky, or better yet, trick a loved one, he is making a return to Scarborough on Aug. 14. For details on the event, click here.