Dan Aykroyd looks like a cop in a crowd of Ghost Busters, Blues Brothers and Blues sisters. The shades are reminiscent of the erstwhile Elwood, but the black button-up shirt with insignia above the breast pocket and black University of Maryland Police ball cap reminds one of a police officer, secret service or DEA agent arriving to survey a scene. It makes it somewhat fitting, then, when the celebrity’s first actions at the Joe Canal’s Discount Liquor Outlet in Iselin, NJ, in late March include shuffling off overzealous press photographers in an officious “show’s over” manner and getting a snaking line of bedecked fans moving for an afternoon of photos, autographs, meet-and-greets - and skull signings.
Despite Aykroyd’s physical similarities to a police officer – a comparison he’d likely appreciate considering his longstanding fascination and relationship with law enforcement agencies in the United States and his native Canada – the skulls he’s signing aren’t human bones that hold forensic clues, but are instead connected to legend, made of glass and contain quadruple-distilled, triple-filtered, additive-free
Crystal Head Vodka.
But aside from being just another premium vodka that retails for about $50 and happens to come in a wicked cool glass bottle, CHV - as Dan Aykroyd tells it in between each Sharpie marker signature applied to fans’ alcoholic acquisition - is inspired by the crystal skull myth popularized in the last “Indiana Jones” flick and is the imbibable incarnation of his work as an entertainer and lifelong association with the paranormal and mysticism.
“All my life I’ve been giving people recordings, radio shows, television broadcasts, sketch comedy, film,” he says. “Now I’m actually making something that I can put in their mouths - a tangible, tactile experience.”
Launched in Southern California in 2008 (with a viral video some were convinced was an elaborate joke) before rolled out to other regions throughout 2009, the CHV “experience” is the latest endeavor of a man who has created, written and performed as several iconic comedic characters from the past 35 years. Since graduating from Chicago’s Second City improv comedy troupe and joining
Saturday Night Live as an original repertory member in 1975, the lines Dan Aykroyd has penned or spoken could alone fill a sizable volume of pop-culture quotable quotes – and no true fan of ’80s movies could call his DVD collection complete without at least owning
The Blues Brothers,
Trading Places and
Ghost Busters. And under the auspices of his cool man-in-black alias Elwood Blues, Aykroyd created the
House of Blues restaurant and concert hall chain, and educated newcomers to the music genre through his
House of Blues Radio Hour.
But Aykroyd is also well known as a Spiritualist and paranormal pop culture icon who holds the belief that spirits and ghosts communicate with the living - a family tradition covered in his father Peter’s book,
A History of Ghosts, for which he wrote the forward – and has extensive knowledge on UFOs. His openness on such paranormal topics makes it all the more engaging when he describes the pure Newfoundland deep aquifer vodka filtered through Herkimer Diamonds, polished crystals that are supposed to emit positive energy.
The positive energy is a recurring theme with the crystal skulls legend, which involves 13 ancient, quartz rock human skull carvings that supposedly possess mystical properties that, if brought together, will usher in a new era, or cause the end of the world – possibly all happening on Dec. 21,
2012, which of course marks the grand finale of the
Mayan calendar. The British Museum and Smithsonian, both of which possess a skull, determined the objects aren’t as old as the tales suggests, but Aykroyd isn’t as easily convinced; he claims other cultures believed the heads were “from another star, a gift from above.”
“There are some who are skeptics and say that they’re all fakes. That’s what the Smithsonian said,” says Aykroyd. “But I can’t quite believe that because the Navajo spoke of them, the Aztec spoke of them, the Maya spoke of them. And they spoke of them as a very integral part of the tribe’s responsibility.”
