And gadzooks, do I need your help.
As you know, our headliner this weekend
is the famed masked magician.
Last night, in front of an audience,
he performed his signature vanishing act.
And not only did it leave the entire crowd gobsmacked,
but he seems to have actually vanished.
I need you to search his dressing room.
See if he's left behind any clues or a trail
you can follow.
I hadn't even heard of escape rooms
probably until last year, my junior year.
And I had no idea what one was, or what you did,
or what it meant.
In 60 minutes the curtain goes up.
The show must go on.
You have to find him.
I think The light--
Oh, the lights are going on.
Oh, OK.
Wow.
This is unreal.
MATT WAGNER: There are cameras for every space,
at several different angles.
We can see and hear people at all times.
The magic wand.
MATT WAGNER: So it was Andy Bennett, and Richard Hansen,
and myself got together.
And we were going to be a haunted house.
And when I got to the meeting they were like, by the way,
that idea is totally scratched.
We're going to do an escape room.
And I sat there fuming.
I was like, an escape room?
I don't want to do an escape room.
What is an escape room?
I'm going to escape this meeting.
You know, I was not pleased.
But we decided, you know what?
Let's go check it out.
So we each played a different room down in the cities.
And had three very different experiences.
And the concept-- suddenly I saw, oh, my gosh.
This has the potential to be an immersive experience.
Is there anything behind that door?
No.
I don't know.
[fog horn sound]
You can't touch it at all?
I don't think, maybe, we're supposed to do that.
But this-- but it opens the door.
Well maybe we have to do the spell
and then something will happen behind the door.
We did our very first game.
And I think I mentioned to you that, we thought maybe
we'll be open for a month.
Maybe we'll do a month.
And it was so popular that people said,
so when is the next one?
We're like, oh God, we've got to do this again?
Like the first one was such an undertaking.
And so we said, OK.
Let's write another one.
And everything that we've done has been sort of
locally related.
Every game has something to do with Duluth or local life.
[music playing]
So for me, I grew up in Lakeside, here in Duluth.
I remember my fourth grade year--
was my first year of dance--
did a dance to new Kids On The Block, "Step by Step."
That I chose to do for the talent show.
And the crap I got for dancing to New Kids
On The Block in the talent show, especially being a boy.
I laugh about it now.
At the time it was like, I should never have done this.
There are some of those early stories
that kind of made me feel, I don't know
that I really want stay here.
[music playing]
So I've had the opportunity to wait tables.
And I've had the opportunity to dance on several stages
across the country.
So to come back and discover that the arts are really
taking root here and growing in ways that I never anticipated.
That was so inspiring to me.
It let me know this was the right choice.
That's why I wanted to stay.
I thought maybe I'll move home and go to the cities.
And I was like, you know what?
I don't want to live in another big city.
I want to stay.
And it'd be great to make a difference in my community.
And my career was definitely unique to me,
but maybe I have something unique to give back.
The games that we have playing right now,
and basically that we've always done,
have lots of hidden rooms, secret compartments,
surprises, things that are like, oh my god.
There's more.
What?
Shut up.
What.
How did you do that?
It's such an accessible experience
because everyone loves solving puzzles.
Everyone loves finding solutions.
There's that like automatic high you get from doing it.
And it just builds that teamwork in being
able to escape into a different world.
Yeah, here we go.
Nice.
OK.
We want you to feel like you are in the action.
That you exist in a world outside of the world
on the other side of the door.
That for this one hour you get to be somebody else.
And you have to discover what rules apply in the world
that you're playing in.
And kind of get lost with people that you enjoy spending time
with.
Oh, there it is.
Right here.
Go.
MATT WAGNER: Five minutes, stage hands.
Just five minutes left.
I get excited.
Oh, it's crazy.
You start out and you have like no idea what's happening.
And then you get all those puzzles and pieces
that you have to piece together.
Congratulations, stage hands.
Oh.
Oh my God.
Nice.
MATT WAGNER: The show is on.
Way to go.
I knew you could do it.
I love this.
I really love this town.
And I'm just as shocked as anybody else that
might have moved away thinking this was not
the place for them.
But this city has embraced me and taken
really good care of me.
So I just want to repay the favor.
[music playing]