The IT Experience - Neibolt House Hollywood

Free haunted house inspired by the 2017 horror movie It.

Experienced: August 17, 2017
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Address: Hollywood and Vine
Price: Free
Audience Size: 7-12
Runtime: 10 minutes
More Information: The IT Experience Site

An old, decrepit, house has popped up at the famous Hollywood and Vine intersection in Los Angeles. This self described “haunted house experience” is part of the marketing for the new movie based on Stephen King’s book IT.

The facade and sets in this haunted house are all top notch and similar to what you would find at Knott’s Scary Farm or Universal Halloween Horror Nights. What differs is the pacing and style in which you traverse the haunt. They’ve decided to not ‘conga line’ the haunt and pulse guests in 7 at a time. The night I went I was in a group of about 12 so I believe they’ve increased the group size due to the demand.

You are escorted through the rooms in the house by an actor in a yellow raincoat playing Georgie, a 6 year character from the book. As the group ahead goes into the house there is an excellent photo opportunity in front of the beautiful facade. My Georgie was played by a girl and she whimsically gave us the rules of going through the haunt before we ascended a spiral metal staircase to the second floor.

This haunt spans two floors and has about half a dozen rooms to explore and it seems like there’s only one group inside the house at a time. There are various jump scares throughout mostly in the form of props or triggers. There isn’t much talent inside doing the scaring this is more about the atmosphere and technology by way of animatronics and projections.

Some of the trigger based scares are better experienced from the front of the group but everyone in my group enjoyed their visit through the Neibolt House. Though a waiver is required to go through the haunt there isn’t any physical contact of any kind.

Even if you don’t have a (currently sold out) ticket you can wait in the standby line anytime between 11am to 11pm through September 10. Be aware, the line moves very slowly, but if you’re in the area and have some time check it out!

The System by The Lust Experience

Seated seminar with lots of laughs and a few tense and emotional moments.

Experienced: August 13, 2017
Location: Arena Cinema
Address: 1625 N Las Palmas Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90028
Price: $29.99-$99.99 (tiered tickets)
Audience Size: 75 (estimate)
Runtime: 90-150 minutes (depending on tier)
More Information: The Lust Experience site, Noah Sinclair site, Instagram, Facebook

In the weeks and days leading up to the event ticket holders were asked to participate in some extracurricular preliminary lessons in The System. There was the controversial Workshop as well as some other tasks done at home and online. Things like posting to social media one thing you hope to fix about yourself or periscoping one thing you hate about yourself. These tasks were cathartic for many and a great way to realize that despite all of our appearances we have some core things in common like insecurities, issues, and disappointments in this life. It was a far cry from what I was expecting with The System thus far but Noah did imply that we wouldn’t realize the method to his madness.

The day of the event attendees were given a schedule of when to show up based on the ticket we purchased:

5pm - Winners
5:30 - Meh
6pm - Garbage People.

That corresponded to the different ticketing “packages” sold from the high end “IN IT TO FUCKING WIN IT” at $99.99, to the middle tier “I’m almost cool” at $49.99, down to “I showed up” at $29.99. Much of the Noah Sinclair and The System promotional materials had been pretty over the top, in your face, tongue in cheek, and ironic. The show itself was no different.

I was in the Meh batch of tickets and we were let in 5 at a time right at 5:30pm. The first couple of batches got to watch Noah reluctantly, almost disgustingly, sign his signature on a poster. Not once asking anyone’s name or even acknowledging them. He would just sign and wave the poster around until someone took it. After getting the signature we were told to walk into the theater.

The Winners, about 10 of them, were already seated and enjoying their drinks. Apparently the Winners got to spend some time with Noah and drink some fancy alcohol with the man but it sounds like their main interaction beyond that was to answer what they liked the most about him.

This was a small theater with a stage with three chairs on it. One was off to the left side and two were off to the right (one a red king’s chair) side by side in an interview style set up. The screen in the middle of the stage was cycling through nuggets of wisdom (aka how to manipulate people or get what you want) to live The System life. There was hip hop playing through the speakers.

The top two tiers got to watch a warm up to the main event for about 25 minutes hosted by two disciples of The System. It consisted of hypothetical situations (fire your brother, who helped found your company, on his birthday or conduct a board member meeting using only gibberish and physical movement) with random people pulled up from the audience to participate. The vibe was light hearted in nature with a lot of jokes cracked by the hosts.

At 6pm the Garbage People were let in and the show began. Holly, the host of the evening, came out and rolled right into a revealing interview with Sarah Sinclair. She came out looking like a deer in headlights and was very stilted and awkward. Much of Sarah’s responses to the interview elicited chuckles from the audience. She mentioned how she and Noah compete for their son’s affection to the point of having a scoreboard at home indicating who he loves the most at any given moment. Sarah would say something that sounded shocking and funny but follow it up with a one liner that fit The System.

The biggest reveal with Sarah was that she was set up with Noah by Horace (Noah’s father) via her yearly medical exam that turned into further testing before she was ultimately chosen to be the perfect mate for Noah. Horace apparently has many hospitals around town for unknown purposes. During Sarah’s description of how she and Noah met, Horace approached the stage and was visibly unhappy with Sarah’s reveal. It looked as if he was about to shut the interview down when Tom Barrow (scientist, revealed at the iConfidant Meet & Greet to be behind a lot of the brainwashing technology used by the OSDM) cooled him down.

The Lust Experience

Andy Jenkins (confuseddude on the forums) was recently revealed to be a product of The System in this video and, with Sarah, conducted the Workshop from a couple of weeks ago. He came out on stage and started out much in the same manner as Sarah where he appeared to be shy and not know what to say. He eventually launched into a speech singing the praises of Noah and The System. Andy meandered through seemingly random topics, once bringing two people from the audience to debate the best Batman, to prove a point. “That which I believe was defining me was actually killing me.”

His point was that we let things like pop culture define us as individuals but they’re ultimately useless. He discussed how our primal instincts are manipulated on every level from the sweet foods we eat to the likes we crave on social media. He was drawing parallels between our excesses and masturbation. Unnecessary exploitations of human emotions for unnecessary pleasure, ultimately not really living life. He finished off his diatribe with a one liner like “before.. I only knew how to masturbate but Noah Sinclair taught me to fuck!” The analogy fit perfectly and had the crowd doubled over with laughter. He then proceeded to chant “Noah Sinclair!” over and over until Holly finally took the microphone away from him.

The tone then quickly changed as Holly brought out a special guest. It was a key player, Mike Fontaine (My Haunt Life), from last year’s The Tension Experience. He had been mostly absent this season but gave us a glimpse into his current headspace and how he was open to The System helping him after seeing the good it did with others through the recent periscope tasks. There were several audience members in tears because of his powerful, presumably unscripted, real life struggles. He spoke from the heart and it was a huge, unexpected, emotional moment for the community and this seminar.

What followed was a montage of some poignant clips from various audience periscopes ending with Neil Patrick Harris talking about how The System has helped him in his life.

Holly then said “this is the moment we’ve all been waiting for. A man who needs no introduction!” Rap music blaring through the speakers and stage lights were flashing for an, ironically played out, over the top introduction as Noah Sinclair took the stage. Up until this point the show had been so tight and entertaining I had actually forgotten the reason we were all gathered together! I was genuinely excited.

Noah Sinclair delivered the goods. He came out and performed like a motivational stand up comic disappointed with us yet determined to turn us into winners. He talked about how we all looked like ugly, bald, defenseless, newborn babies, and that it was not a bad thing. His point was we didn’t yet know how to process the world as he knew it yet but there was hope for us. He would show us the way. He would show us The System.

We all had three index cards and pencils to write answers to various questions he had for us ranging from one goal you want to accomplish in a year to who are you. He would frantically bounce around the stage and seated areas grabbing people’s answers, crumbling them up, throwing them back at people, apparently not happy with the responses he was reading. He gave us a collective re-do of one question in particular he wasn’t happy with the answers to. This unexpected technique actually helped many of us come up with a better, less generic, year goal.

When buying a ticket to The System we had to write why we were a failure and he focused on some of these asking the author to come up to the stage. He brought people on stage to play out scenarios to help a few face their deficiencies and weaknesses. There was a young man who had answered that he had no failures. Noah asked him to come up and tied him up to a chair and slapped him around until he finally admitted that he was a failure.

Noah then asked about 8 people from the audience up to the stage and invited his father Horace, the creator of The System, as well. He had some questions collected from the audience and decided to ask his father these questions. At this point Noah was leaning his arm against Horace’s shoulder and it was definitely a sign of disrespect.

For some background, one of the periscope videos was 10 seconds to say what we were going to do with the information we had learned so far. Noah’s version of this was “I will destroy the person who made me this way.” There was a lot of speculation on the forums as to who this person was. We were about to find out.

Noah asked his father 3 questions from index cards written by the audience. 1) Do you believe in Anoch? 2) Are Oracles real? And 3) What do you know about the OSDM? All of these questions are direct references to top three questions someone might ask about The Tension Experience. He then told the audience members on stage to take this opportunity to learn The System from the creator himself and shooed them all backstage with Horace. We could hear Horace raising his voice to those backstage as Noah talked to the rest of us in a serious, non-seminar, tone.

Noah let us know that The System was created by Horace to find a specific type of person, one that would be self motivated, one that wanted and needed success, one that fit the mold of someone that would be useful to him. Noah implied he was tired of this and that this would turn us into monsters. Noah muttered to himself that he was going to “work the system” and stormed off the stage and left the theater. The seminar was over.

The Lust Experience

A few thoughts about this event:

  • This was the tightest, most natural, and entertaining “stage show” yet that I’ve seen from Tension/Lust.
  • It was jam packed with content. Just about every scripted line had a purpose and there was really no filler at all.
  • The humor of the scripted and improv lines were all pitch perfect and consistent throughout the night.
  • There was some weirdness that existed for ambiance (serious girl checking us in while an oddball photographer was whispering things into random people’s ears, photographer taking pictures from weird hidden spots, photographer being told who to photograph at times, Tom Barrow being around but never saying anything publicly).
  • There were no actual seating designations with the tiered pricing.
  • It wasn’t clear what criteria was used to choose Sarah for Noah but her ability to quell his defiant behavior is likely one of them.
  • There were a couple of slow burning references or callbacks:
    1) Noah gave a tinyurl of sinclairfucks linking to one of his promo videos at a bar to some participants. It’s clear now, after Andy’s speech, what “fucks” refers to now
    2) “Work The System” is one of the main taglines used in promos (and appears on the Noah Sinclair website). It has a double meaning now that Noah is clearly against The System and wants to work it.

The Sudden Loneliness Gift - Abendsalon. by Nocturnal Fandango

An evening of poetry, music, food, and drinks outdoors in Newport Beach.

Experienced: August 6, 2017
Location: Undisclosed
Address: Newport Beach, CA
Price: Free-$20 (dependent on subscription tier)
Audience Size: About 40
Runtime: 3 hours
More Information: Sudden Loneliness Gift, Instagram

This outdoor event took place in the evening hours in a lovely backyard of a home in Newport Beach as the sun was setting. All of the attendees were split into 3 different groups based on our the first letter of our first name and we were assigned staggered entry (5pm, 5:10pm, and 5:15pm) into the venue.

As we entered Jason, Chelsea, Buoy, and the owners of the home welcomed us to the evening. One strange thing that occurred was Jason seemed to have forgotten the names of some of the attendees. It’s a good thing Chelsea was there to jog his memory for a few of us. One commonality between those Jason had forgotten is they had experienced trauma in recent one off pop-up events. There is speculation that The Luna Company is somehow related to this memory loss.

The night was split into three distinct performances. The first were poems (written?) and performed by Buoy. The second were songs performed by Sara (official singer for Nocturnal Fandango!) & Erez. And the last were poems written and performed by Jason.

One of the most exciting things about immersive theater is not having a clue as to what you’re walking into. Usually the descriptions are vague and, especially for one off pop-up events, there aren’t any reviews or word of mouth to go off of. I think this show could have benefitted from more information beforehand as it played out like a concert. I commend Nocturnal Fandango for trying something different and new.

Jason’s emotive performance evoked some memories of pieces of Have You Seen Jake? and I’m sure a few of us were concerned about the cops being called on the performance since he was extremely animated. The night ended with a rousing rendition of Oh Susannah/You Little Shit– a twisted poem interspersed with the song Oh Susannah.

The Rise of Bileth by the Order of Bileth

Fun introduction to the world of the Order of Bileth.

Experienced: July 30, 2017
Location: Midsummer Scream 2017
Address: Long Beach Convention Center
Price: Free (with Midsummer Scream 2017 admission)
Audience Size: 1-4
Runtime: 15-20 minutes
More Information: Order of Bileth Site, Instagram, Twitter

Up until this point I hadn’t experienced any Bileth related events. I had heard about their ongoing ARG and I also knew it was related to the serialized audio drama podcast Return Home.

Their experience at Midsummer Scream played out like a scavenger hunt across the showroom floor and nearby areas interspersed with character interactions.

It started with checking in at their booth to be taken behind a curtained off area behind their booth. I was told about Bileth, paint was drawn on my forehead, and I was given a task to find a woman with a red umbrella. I walked around the showroom floor and beyond looking for the woman with the umbrella.

The Order of Bileth

Eventually I found the woman with the umbrella she was in an inconspicuous spot almost hidden beside a staircase. I let her know I was told to find her and she gave more information with a story complete with us closing our eyes, walking around us, lightly touching us on the back, and at one point hugging me all in sync with her monologue. She mentioned in vague terms what the next steps were. I couldn’t tell if I was supposed to find a room and step into it, outside it, face it, or what. My hunch was to step outside it and sure enough when I did I saw a short message and a phone number written in yellow chalk.

After calling the phone number I was instructed to find a booth, step up to the podium, and ask to receive Bileth’s blessing. The booth was not the same as the original booth I started in so I was very curious where I was being led to. Did the Order of Bileth have two booths at Midsummer Scream? Why would there be a podium at a booth?

It led to the HorrorBuzz booth and sure enough there was a podium there. I was given a parchment with unintelligible writing in another language. I’m not sure what the font was but I was told to hand it to someone at or near the Screaming Room (a HorrorBuzz sponsored screening room of spooky movies).

I handed the parchment to the person waiting at the door of the Screaming Room. He looked long and hard at both sides of my paper and I was sure he was part of the experience. He then went to ask someone else and told me who he thought I should talk to about it. I’m pretty sure he didn’t know what I was talking about at all. This was the only snag as there appeared to be a backup of people waiting but what followed was a pretty lengthy and satisfying finale to the experience.

There was a group of 4 of us waiting and a gentleman took the parchment and appeared to be very pleased. He said that this was an incantation that would help them capture a creature and asked if we would help him perform this ritual. Of course we obliged. He thanked us profusely and walked with us to a hallway in a relatively quiet area of the convention.

He walked us behind a curtain and there was a circle on the ground drawn with salt as well as some candles. He asked one of us to volunteer to be bait for this creature. The rules of what were to happen were strange and exciting. Our volunteer would have blood drawn on her head as she would be led out to lure the creature to the spot we were in. She was to run through the salted circle and the creature, following, would get stuck inside the circle. The incantation would be spoken and we would have helped the Order out.

As our volunteer left we waited for a bit. The wait was longer than I expected and then seemingly out of nowhere our bait came running at full speed like a bat out of hell with a demon-like creature right behind. It was exhilarating as we all held hands around the circle as this creature kept trying to break through it. The acting of this creature was phenomenal our group was completely immersed in this tense moment. The incantation was spoken and the struggle subsided. It seemed to have worked.

I can tell a lot of thought was put into this experience and while it did borrow a couple of elements from Alone Experience’s past con showings (paint on the forehead and a woman with an umbrella) this experience was totally different as it was very story and script driven.

I had a great time going through this experience. At one point in the finale a random con participant peeked behind the curtain and the actor played it off like a champ telling him casually that we were performing a ritual. The guy just said “oh OK sorry” as if it was a normal thing to accidentally stumble into. Only at Midsummer Scream.

I look forward to joining the Remembrance Day event to partake in “Casual Cocktail Hour, Rituals, Ceremony, & More”.

Sweet Dreams - Part Two - Just A Dream by Shine On Collective

Quick taste of things to come in this short dreamlike experience.

Experienced: July 29, 2017
Location: Midsummer Scream 2017
Address: Long Beach Convention Center
Price: Free (with Midsummer Scream 2017 admission)
Audience Size: 1-4
Runtime: 5 minutes
More Information: Shine On Collective Site, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook

This year’s Shine On Collective showing at Midsummer Scream had significantly more capacity than last year’s one on one experience at the two Halloween conventions (Midsummer Scream and ScareLA). Those shows relied on a signup sheet that would likely have gotten full in minutes as their audience has grown significantly over the year. This time around there was a queue and 4 people at a time would go inside a tent to experience a short 5 minute show.

Shine On Collective

In Part One we met Philip, an intense and slightly disturbed individual, who is looking for his lost love. We later met Rose in a dream sequence and we weren’t sure if she was alive, dead, lost, captured, or something else completely. Part Two is another dream sequence.

After crawling into the tent the four of us were instructed to lay down on a blanket and put on the sleeping mask sitting on a pillow. As we lay there headphones were put on our head and momentarily the show began.

It was the voice of Rose as she tells a story. It’s implied that she is still alive. There were some moments where you feel someone brushing up against your skin during the dream. Another moment someone pressed down on my chest before a heavy blanket was laid on my chest. I thought this blanket was a person pushing down on me and was holding my breath for the longest time until I realized it wasn’t going away. The weight was a nice touch to add a bit of tension to my dream.

At one point in the audio you are told to raise up a hand. This was reminiscent of a sequence in last year’s Alone Experience at Scare LA. My finger was “pricked” and a band-aid was wrapped around it. I later noticed that there was a phone number on it. It was a subtle and effective way of continuing the story beyond the show.

Ultimately this show succeeded in setting up the world and acted as a teaser for the full show coming in October. Hopefully many first timers were won over by this unique form of storytelling but will likely not have any idea what is to come. This teaser was more of an immersive podcast listening experience.

The headphones I had were too low for me to pay close attention to the dream sequence as it was hard to hear over the noises of the showroom floor. Nevertheless I enjoyed the show and will be looking forward to Part Three in October!

Alone [An Existential Evocation] by The Alone Experience

Delightfully bizarre encounter with a human photocopier of memories.

Experienced: July 29, 2017
Location: Midsummer Scream 2017
Address: Long Beach Convention Center
Price: Free (with Midsummer Scream 2017 admission)
Audience Size: 1
Runtime: 10-20 minutes (not including figuring out the starting point)
More Information: The Alone Experience site, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook

Figuring out how to start your experience is always a big part of Alone’s convention shows. This time there was a cryptic description in the show guide but no booth number, no instructions, no hint as to where to begin at all. They are elusive and must be ok with the chance of no one showing up at all.

We knew to look for a triangle. It’s been their staple for as long as I’ve been following them. Usually a white neon light shaped like a triangle. We went storming the showroom floor looking for a triangle in hopes of a starting point. After going down the aisles we bumped into someone who had already found a questionnaire. We got a hint on the vicinity of the starting point.

After finding it we had to laugh about passing the booth by our first time around. It was an upside-down table with a black tablecloth and two chairs- easy to miss if you aren’t paying close attention. There was pink tape in the shape of a triangle with a stack of papers and some pens. We filled out the self assessment questionnaire of 20 questions (form 7c) related to attention and memory. The only instruction at the bottom was to “submit this form to one of our roaming counselors who will shepherd you upon your path to inculcation”.

Where to go from here? We walked around the showroom floor for a bit and I saw a guy in a lab coat who was suspiciously checking out random nearby props. Could this be a counselor? I mustered up the courage to ask the complete stranger “are you a roaming counselor?” When I had to repeat myself I was convinced I had the wrong guy.

We finally gave up and left the showroom floor and went upstairs. After walking some more we noticed a man with a clipboard. Sure enough the clipboard had a similar form to the one we filled out. We noticed another counselor, handed form 7c to both counselors separately, and split up. Their approach to form intake was completely different. One was very conversational and light hearted providing his own anecdotes while the other was very serious and almost clinical in nature. Both recorded us describe a vivid childhood memory on a handheld tape recorder.

The one on one with the processor was interesting with questions like:

  • “do you usually remember details of what happens or the feelings you experienced?”
  • “do you remember your memories through first person or do you see it play out in front of you?”
  • “what did you do on this day last year?”

Some questions were followed up with “why do you think that is?” There was a lot of opportunity to reflect and be introspective.

After going through the form I was led to a curtained off area. I was standing in front of a black curtain waiting patiently when the curtain opened and before I could see anybody a large piece of paper was taped around my head. This acted as sort of a blindfold since all you could see was a large piece of paper directly in front of your eyes.

I was then led to sit on a chair for the inculcation. I sat for a few minutes listening to a heavily processed voice speaking over tense electronic music. The voice was speaking about memories and how our existence is based on a memory and what is real and not real is all subjective and dependent on our memory of it. It spoke of how we are just a photocopy of a photocopy of a photocopy of a memory. Or something like that. Ironically I’ve forgotten the details.

At about the time I started to hear the voice repeat I was forced up out of the chair.

The curtained off area was very small so I thought it was over but I was led to a door. I couldn’t see the door since the paper mask helmet thing was on my head this whole time but my hand was forced to knock. I kept knocking and eventually the door opened. I stood there for a moment hearing the familiar mechanical droning sounds that I’ve come to associate with Alone. It’s a part of many of their experiences and memories were rushing into my head. I was pulled inside and the door shut and it was dark.

I was forced to lay down on the floor with my head in between the speakers with the sounds. There were some strobe lights of mostly white and some other colors red and blue I think. It was very clear to me though that I was physically being photocopied. As I lay there someone started slapping pieces of paper onto my leg. Lifting my leg up, wrapping it with paper, taping it together. Other pieces were taped to various spots like my stomach and my arm.

I kept awkwardly trying to hold my water bottle and finally the person just took it out of my hand. After finishing the photocopy process I was helped up and my water bottle was put back into my hand. They proceeded to tape the bottle into my hand.

Moments like this are what make Alone great. It made me laugh as it acknowledged my ongoing concern for this water bottle with a “here you go, we didn’t forget it, let me tape this onto you so you will never, ever, lose it!”

I was led out of the dark room and someone started to poke eye holes into the face mask so I could finally see as I was gently pushed back into the lobby of Midsummer Scream.

At these conventions Alone excels at generating word of mouth. People exiting this experience have a large paper mask on their head of somebody else’s photocopied face. It’s very noticeable and people nearby inevitably ask “what is that?” From what I can see Saturday had a consistent flow of people going through the form intake process. By Sunday there was a line oftentimes 5 or 6 deep waiting to be processed.

The Alone Experience never fails to try something new and are always thinking outside of the box with their shows. I am so thankful to have Alone back even if only for 10-20 minutes. I look forward to whatever they have in store for us in the future!

The Alone Experience

The System Workshop B459-LA by The Lust Experience

Thought provoking and controversial pop-up event in Skid Row.

Experienced: July 29, 2017
Location: Undisclosed
Address: Skid Row, Los Angeles, CA
Price: Free (with purchase to The System)
Audience Size: 30-50 (estimate)
Runtime: 60-90 minutes
More Information: The Lust Experience site, Noah Sinclair site, Instagram, Facebook

Two days before this event an email went out to those who purchased tickets to The System inviting them to a “workshop” that would be 60-90 minutes long. We were asked to respond by 9pm if we would like to attend. Despite the short notice a nice sized group of people showed up to this event. We were told it would be in Downtown LA and would be given an exact address 30 minutes before it started.

I’m not intimately familiar with Downtown LA and didn’t realize the address was in Skid Row. When I got to the destination I admit I was a bit taken aback. While trying to find street parking there were multiple tents with people living in them on every street. I skipped one open spot because there was large (presumably human) fecal matter that I would have had to run over. Poor me and my car right? I would later find The System works in mysterious ways.

There were some moments of awkwardness with Sarah Sinclair sitting on a table intently observing us mingle before things started. There was a letter from Noah who couldn’t be bothered to show up in person to this event as he let Sarah and Andy (who was confuseddude on the forums before he followed Noah to a cult sacrifice before having his life changed by Noah and The System) run the workshop. There was some pairing up of participants with strangers as we were forced to give up something on our person to the other to keep forever. But the meat of this event was to follow.

We were each given varying random denominations of cash ($1, $5, or $10) and were told we had 30 minutes to make a difference with that money. We were told to share it on social media with #TheSystemSaves. Andy and Sarah made it very clear that they did not care what we did with the money at all. Just to make a difference.

The Lust Experience

People handled this choice differently. Some used it to buy drinks for themselves (while using their own money to buy drinks for others in the bar), some used it to buy water or lottery tickets for the homeless, and others bought random things for no apparent reason at all. I’m sure some just pocketed the money outright. Who would know?

After we met back up in the workshop space Sarah and Andy spoke about how things are valued differently by everyone. We were told that there would be a man outside with something that may be completely useless to us but could be a huge deal for another. For some reason I had thought this was a metaphor and that we were supposed to do a task similar to the one we had just finished. I was overthinking it.

When we went outside we saw Morgan (the newly revealed leader of The Resistance) unpacking his car with boxes and boxes of sack lunches. For me this was a very touching, melancholy, and subdued reveal that Morgan and Noah have been talking and might possibly be on the same side to fight the OSDM. It felt like a great act of charity to let us do what we wanted with this sack lunch. Especially after many had seemingly failed to make a difference in the last exercise with the money. I believe everyone (save for one or two) went out passing the sack lunches to the multitudes of homeless living in their tents in all directions from the venue.

Ending this event on that note was pitch perfect and I was extremely happy with the awareness The Creators had for the location for their event. Maybe I missed the point but to put on a show in Skid Row and not acknowledge that we are all consuming (and in their case making) art in the middle of an impoverished area would have felt insensitive.

There is some controversy with this event because some felt that this piece was exploitative to those less fortunate in the surrounding area. I wholeheartedly disagree. It was completely up to the participants involved “how” to actually make a difference with what we were given. No one was forced to periscope the actual act of giving. No one was forced to try and spread The System to unsuspecting bystanders. If that type of behavior doesn’t feel right in retrospect: practice some self reflection and don’t participate in it next time. Learn from your mistakes. Become a better person. Adapt to the world around you.

The System indeed works in mysterious ways. And maybe it doesn’t fit the macho Noah Sinclair persona completely but who knows at this point- the story isn’t written yet. What I do know is that my eyes were completely opened up to another world. Another reality not an alternate one. One that I would shy away from at all costs yet I engaged with on a personal level because of The Lust Experience.

I think everyone who attended this show will have a lot to say about it for years to come. Thought provoking art like this doesn’t come around often (especially in immersive theater) but I’m glad to say I got to experience it.

The System by The Lust Experience [Tickets]

Tickets are going fast get them now!.

Dates: August 13, 2017
Location: Undisclosed
Address: Los Angeles, CA
Price: $29.99-$99.99 tickets here
More Information: The Lust Experience site, Noah Sinclair site, Instagram, Facebook

The moment many of us in the immersive community have been waiting for is almost here. All systems go for Noah Sinclair’s “The System”!

When the sophomore season of The Tension Experience started we were introduced to Noah Sinclair’s The System. A character from the past appeared out of nowhere with a brash self help website that promised to teach us to “get yours before they get theirs” through seminars starting in May but there were some, ahem, complications with Noah going off the rails at a focus group before ultimately getting picked up by the cops.

The Lust Experience

Needless to say there is a lot going on with The Lust Experience (you can get caught up with a summary from a recent email or by going to this forum topic). Just to be clear you don’t need to be caught up on everything to enjoy the live events. Don’t feel overwhelmed if you can’t (or don’t want to) keep up with the ongoing story. I wasn’t following the story closely last year for The Tension Experience but enjoyed it enough to go through Ascension (their live ticketed event) twice.

Note this is the first ticketed pop up event for The Lust Experience. If last year is any indication the story is building up to a larger scale event that will likely take place in the September-November timeframe. If you want to delve into the world of ARGs with some live events this might be your ticket!

The Sudden Loneliness Gift - Soul food. by Nocturnal Fandango

First ticketed pop-up event for The Sudden Loneliness Gift delivers on great company, food, drinks, and a large side of WTF.

Experienced: July 15, 2017
Location: Undisclosed
Address: North Hollywood, CA
Price: $30
Audience Size: About 14
Runtime: 120 minutes
More Information: Sudden Loneliness Gift, Instagram

Going into this I knew a few things: dinner party, Thai food, drinks, and a few characters from The Sudden Loneliness Gift (TSLG).

Coming out of this I learned one thing: Kevin is dead.

Kevin, the real life husband of Jason, had not been talked about much since TSLG started. He seemingly disappeared and there had been references to Jason being sad. I had always assumed it was related to a breakup with Kevin but never once did I think Kevin had died.

Just a few months earlier in March I met Kevin at the birthday party dinner scene in the Have You Seen Jake? finale in Idyllwild, CA. He is (was?) one of “The Organizers” and well known within the Jake community since he played himself as well as Mr. S (a character based on “shame”).

Nocturnal Fandango

The dinner was located in the backyard of a nice home in North Hollywood. Jason had recently moved here from his place in Orange County. The reasons for the move were a bit cryptic and sometimes glossed over but he said he wanted (or needed) a change of scenery. The tables were beautifully decorated with name tags and papers that looked like menus or poems in Thai. There was an assortment of beers, rum punch, tea, and water before the food came out.

The evening played out like a relaxing get together amongst friends save for a couple of suspicious characters that would roam about wreaking havoc on unsuspecting guests eating the fantastic Thai dinner. One man in an orange jumpsuit and orange ski mask would go around the table tormenting us one at a time (going around the table) while a woman with sunglasses only spoke to people in German. Some people were taken back to a guest house for unknown reasons.

Most of us tried to ignore these two but Jason and his friends Chelsea, Finch, Angie, and Buoy (who I didn’t see maybe she wasn’t there that night) were visibly disturbed throughout the evening. When someone would acknowledge their existence we were told “just ignore them.”

Nocturnal Fandango

The night came to an abrupt end when the man in orange grabbed Jason and put him in sort of a head lock. There was a tense struggle and everyone was watching when Jason finally blurted out “What more do you want from me?? You’ve already taken everything!” He felt compelled in the moment to tell us all something I assume he hadn’t told anyone outside of his inner circle of friends “You know Kevin? My husband Kevin? He’s dead! Not in the immersive theater sense.. He’s dead!” He started to break down.

Jason’s close friends consoled him and told the man in orange to go away to leave. The news hit me hard. I was shocked and thoroughly confused. The key phrase “not in the immersive theater sense” made this seem like it wasn’t just a story beat. But that can’t be possible right? There’s no way Jason and company would write a story about a real life actual death of someone who most of know of within the last few months.. Would they?

We were told it would probably be best if we left right now that they were sorry for the abrupt end to the evening. We all left speechless.

When leaving the dinner there was a small part of me that thought that Kevin might have died and this is Jason’s way of mourning. After researching a bit I have come to the fortunate conclusion that Kevin is probably not dead. Going under that assumption I can safely say I enjoyed this show a lot. It had chance to breathe, had fantastic food & drinks, and there were many opportunities to speak to some of the characters we have interacted with or heard about via Slack. If my assumption is incorrect I am so very sorry Jason.

Brave The Dark

Experimental underground theatre haunt meets gentle immersive theatre.

Experienced: July 15, 2017
Dates: Fridays and Saturdays July 14-29, 2017
Location: Zombie Joe’s Underground
Address: 4850 Lankershim Blvd, North Hollywood CA 91601
Price: $15.00
Audience Size: About 12
Runtime: 18 minutes
More Information: Zombie Joe’s site, Twitter

Brave The Dark is a fun chaotic experiment. It has several scenes, many actors, and a lot of dark to brave. It runs sort of like a cross between a haunted house and a choreographed immersive piece. The live music performed throughout (somehow setting up shop in different rooms with the audience) gives it a raw edge.

You have one instruction throughout the performance and it’s to ‘follow the light’. This is one technique used to guide the audience through the different dark rooms of the space. At times you are led into dead ends to witness or participate in a small scene before being nudged out. The different paths I was led down were very disorienting making me wonder “how did I end up here?”

Overall I liked their Tortured Souls immersive piece from February 2017 more but this was definitely a different take and worth checking out especially to help Zombie Joe’s celebrate their 25th year! If you get there early Zombie Joe may greet you at the door– he likes chatting with the crowd. He is one of the nicest and most approachable creators you’ll ever meet. If you haven’t had a chance yet do check out his interview with My Haunt Life it provides a lot of context and background into how Zombie Joe ended up where he is today and what makes him tick.