Scary critters are ‘actually pretty cool’
The guys at Crosstown Exotics seek to educate the public about the animals at haunted houses and on TV
When Crosstown Exotics first was asked to work with a haunted house in the area, owners Colin Langenderfer and Mike Levins had to think about what they were trying to accomplish with their company. While they appreciate a good scare, their mission is to educate people about exotic animals rather than stoke further fears of snakes, cockroaches and other creatures that fall under their umbrella of expertise.
Thankfully, that first offer from Zombie Army Productions, which was producing a commercial for the Statesville Haunted Prison in Lockport, walked their line perfectly. The commercial was all about phobias, and the production company wanted a snake, a tarantula and some hissing cockroaches. Crosstown Exotics had just what they needed, and Zombie Army ended up incorporating some of the animals into the haunted house — not so much for added scares as helping scenes feel alive. In fact, audience members had a chance to pet a snake named Mr. Cuddles if they wanted.
“It added to the overall scenery they produce,” said Langenderfer, 31, of Mokena. “These animals will represent being in a cave or in a mad scientist’s library. They’re not adding to the fear but the overall ambience of the locations that they’re at. When people see those animals in Statesville or HellsGate, these animals are actually there to be interacted with, if people want to pet them, hold them. They’re there for that, which is actually pretty cool.”
Crosstown Exotics’ animals are being featured once again in this year’s HellsGate Haunted House in Lockport through Oct. 31. And while Levins, 32, of Frankfort, acknowledged the animals may play into some people’s phobias, a startle can be the start of a conversation with one of Crosstown’s handlers.
“Yeah, some of these animals scare people,” Levins said. “We just like to think our work out there doing shows balances things. When you look at this cockroach, it’s really not as scary or as gross as you think it is. We’re just trying to show people how cool these animals are, having fun and making sure people at our shows have fun with it.”
Haunted houses have also led to other amazing opportunities for Crosstown Exotics, Langenderfer said. He was talking to the director for the commercial, who told him being an animal handler on film productions is something he could do full-time. That week he reached out to animal talent companies in the Chicago area. Two years later, he got a call that “Chicago Fire” was looking for a tortoise.
“It just started snowballing from there,” he said. “It’s been a blast.”
Crosstown Exotics has had a snake featured in promotional materials for the show “Empire” and cockroaches in the television series “The Exorcist.” They have worked with “The Carbonaro Effect” on TruTV and recently supplied a bearded dragon for an Illinois Lottery commercial. Levins has recognized one of their snakes on a Hulu title card, while most people do not realize where those animals come from.
“It’s just a unique thing to say you can do,” he said.
In an episode of “Chicago Med,” a character is walking through a hoarder’s house and viewers see a cockroach coming from a potato chip bag. That was Crosstown Exotics.
“You never think, ‘Oh, that’s someone’s job,’ ” Langenderfer said. “There is a cockroach wrangler literally on the other side of the camera ready to handle the cockroach in that scene. It’s just a fun part of what we get to do. … It is a lot of fun getting to see your stuff in a Mike’s Hard Lemonade commercial.”
But one thing drives all decision-making for Crosstown Exot
ics.
“The first thing is safety of the animals, safety of the people,” Levins said.
Langenderfer doubles that sentiment. His day job is safety consulting and environmental safety. And he has no interest in chasing people with snakes or throwing cockroaches at anyone for the sake of a scare.
Creating a ‘zoo to you’
Levins’ passion for exotic animals started to take off around fourth grade, when he caught a salamander. He had always found himself catching bugs, but after the salamander came lizards and garter snakes. In high school he had more cash, so he started taking it to reptile expos.
“It just kept growing from there,” he recalled. “I’ve always been into animals as long as I can remember.”
Bugs, in particular, remained a key interest. He said it just looks cool how they move and eat. He has even caught himself spending minutes at a time watching his lubber grasshoppers eating lettuce.
“They’re so different than every other animal,” Levens said. “You get some that look almost alien-like sometimes, and I’m into sci-fi and horror and stuff, so it fits with that. In general, I just find them fascinating.”
For Langenderfer, the hobby started with a corn snake named Buddy.
“People think snakes are out to eat people,” he said. “Realistically, only a handful of times it’s ever been documented — unlikely. You only need to fear them if you’re J-Lo or Jon Voight.”
From the start, there was a desire to teach others about exotic animals.
“I really enjoyed educating with my animals anytime anyone came over to see them,” he said. “My mom was a preschool teacher, so when I was younger, even second and third grade, I’d take days off of school where I’d go show her preschool kids some of the animals. It was just a natural evolution into the educational field.”
Levins and Langenderfer met in junior high school but got closer through the wrestling program at LincolnWay East High School in Frankfort.
Crosstown Exotics was born as a side gig for both of them.
They do reptile and bug show birthday parties. They offer setups and displays for expo, park district and library events. They come into area schools with an environmental and biological program and they have developed virtual programs, as well.
“We’re a ‘zoo to you,’ ” Langenderfer said. “We travel anywhere people want us for events.”
Business has been good enough that Levins recently transitioned to full-time with Crosstown Exotics from his old day job — as an exterminator.
“He would kill bugs during the day and educate people on how cool they are at night,” Langenderfer said.
Levins said he ended up in the seemingly diametrical line of work while trying to figure out what he wanted to do in college.
“I started out thinking my first year of college I wanted to work at a zoo,” he said. “The more you go on, you realize zookeepers don’t make a lot of money, or you have to work for free forever until you can get a position in a zoo or you have to move somewhere.”
A professor mentioned the possibility of working for a pest control company, and he had never even considered it. But it can be a helpful job, dealing with things that can make people sick such as bees and wasps on school grounds, and other stinging insects that pose health hazards, he said.
The future is exotic
Owning reptiles and bugs is not quite as unusual as it once was. In fact, one of the biggest worries for Crosstown Exotics these days is showing up to a party and finding out the child has something they brought to the show. It happens only occasionally — a recent party doubled up on a blue tongue skink — but the company prides itself on showing off animals attendees don’t see every day.
That includes a Burmese python that goes by Phil, and Rocko — an alligator snapping turtle that is among Levins’ favorites. He said alligator snapping turtles are fun to watch, because they wiggle their tongues to attract prey and have a prehistoric look to them.
“I’ve always been fascinated with those,” he said. “It’s like owning my own personal dinosaur.”
They also have giant hissing cockroaches and a salmon pink birdeater spider.
“They don’t really eat birds a lot,” Levins said. “That’s just a name they got. I almost have to use two hands to hold her.”
Their Caiman lizards are “unique among lizards,” with a crocodilian back, green body and bright red head. Those earn some respect from fellow reptile keepers, Levins said, because they take a good deal of work to maintain.
“They’re a challenge, because they only eat snails,” Levins explained.
Levins also has an African lungfish, though it does not get used in a lot of shows. It is a special treat when it appears in their Critter Classes, though, providing a lesson in adaptation to survive in harsh environments. They were around before dinosaurs and help depict the evolutionary transition from fish to amphibians.
“It’s a really cool fish because it’s got lungs and gills,” Levins said. “I can put this fish on a table and it will slither around a little bit. It’s got so many unique things about it.”
Langenderfer is partial to a green anaconda, a 100-pound African spurred tortoise and an American alligator named Chubbs. The amount of animals they have accrued is hard to quantify, in part because Levins has entire colonies of roaches. They also have multiples of certain types of animals, so can rotate them to avoid stressing them out with too many shows. But Levins lives in a space outside of town that is zoned for agriculture, and they work to keep their collection well-organized and healthy.
“When you think about what we do, a lot of these things are very small,” Langenderfer said. “It’s not like keeping a tiger in your house. A lot of this stuff doesn’t require an abundance of space.”
Langenderfer said you don’t need a lot of money to interact with interesting animals. Since 2017, he has taught Critter Classes at places such as the Mokena Park District, which include a component of looking for small animals in the wild.
“Most kids don’t realize you can find animals all over the place,” he said. “You can find them at a local pond, a forest preserve, even behind a park district in a lot — you can find toads and bugs and all this cool stuff. It’s a really cool program that gets kids hands-on with our animals.”
They recently took part in Wild Fest at the Big Run Wolf Ranch in Will County. They also recently filmed for programs for CBS and Amazon Prime, and are expected to have a turtle featured on the next season of Adult Swim’s “Joe Pera Talks With You.”
“It was a really funny bit,” Langenderfer said.
The TV exposure has been particularly fun for a duo who grew up watching the likes of Chris and Martin Kratt, Steve Irwin, Jeff Corwin and David Attenborough. That intersection of education and entertainment continues to drive what they do. Their philosophy is that if people get hands-on with animals, they are more likely to want to protect them.
“I come from a line of teachers and educators,” Langenderfer said. “Educating is just in my blood. So is entrepreneurship. So I think the two just combined and led me to where I’m at today. It is very rewarding. It’s fun to share your knowledge with others, and also give people an outlet for what they like to do.”