Most people who want to experience a mysteriously exciting evening go to mystery dinner theaters. At Mystery Mixers, we spend a great deal of time telling people, “We are not mystery dinner theater – we are a party!”
But it had been a few years since we visited one, so we decided to check one out last week.
So we bought $65.00 per person tickets for “The Dinner Detective,” which bills itself as “America’s largest interactive comedy murder mystery dinner theater.”
The show was held at a Tampa Hilton Garden Inn. When we saw the pictures of past mystery dinner theater events they posted on their website, we noticed that all the patrons appeared to be “dressed up.” When we arrived, we realized we were overdressed. There were people dressed in shorts, sandals, and just about any clothing. So feel free to come casually dressed.
No Microphones at a Mystery Dinner Theater? Really?
A glitch occurred a few days before the event, so it had to be moved from the Hilton to a Hampton Inn nearby. When we arrived, a bar was open specifically for the event. We paid $20 for a beer, a rum (well), and coke. We took our seats and were introduced to our host emcee.
She started the evening by telling us they could not get microphones for the event. Even though we were in a modern hotel and in a room that was obviously set up for multi-media presentations, somehow they couldn’t get microphones?
With a room filled with around 80 guests, the lack of microphones meant that conversations and interactions at one end of the room were often lost to those at the other end.
We just found it hard to believe that microphones could not be found for a large group in a modern hotel that was booked in advance. (Our theory is that the Dinner Detective didn’t want to pay extra to get the microphones.)
Food Was OK
I am not a food critic, but here is my take on the meal. Their marketing made it sound like the meal would be truly delicious. It was not. It was mediocre. It was the kind of meal you might get at a chamber event – a little salad, chicken or fish, and a small dessert. It was not bad, but it certainly was not exceptional.
Introduce Yourself to Someone?
They first asked people to get up from their tables and ask people at other tables questions, such as who their favorite villain was. It was awkward since not everybody participated, and the question didn’t seem to lend itself to any in-depth discussion.
It seemed that this activity was designed to get the people out of their chairs so they could walk around and meet a few people. It lasted about 10 minutes, and that was the last time anybody got out of their seat unless they went to get a drink or go to the bathroom.
A Bunch of Teenagers with Their Phones
We didn’t interact with the other people at our table other than to say hello when we sat down. This is because the mystery dinner theater event encouraged people to use their phones to find clues. I’m sure some senior citizens may have had an issue with this. I have had surgery on one of my eyes, so I had to have my date help me out.
This meant everybody was glued to their phones unless one of the actors was saying or doing something. If someone had seen our table, we looked like a bunch of teenagers sitting in the school cafeteria looking at our phones.
They had a “Murder Board” at the front of the room where they listed information. However, most guests did not use it. They stayed seated and used their phones instead.
(Anybody who thought they would have an exciting evening with the people at their table all getting together to solve the crime was probably disappointed.)
The Mystery
So our first piece of the actual mystery came when an actor came into the room screaming and fell, apparently having been stabbed to death. Then, two actors came in, playing detectives. They tried to bounce between two ends of the room so people could hear the clues they were releasing.
The main fault we found with the mystery was that they started by telling us all about roughly a dozen people but not the victim or the crime. We didn’t find out who the victim was until more than half an hour into the event. We found this difficult to follow. This might work well for television dramas, but it isn’t easy to wade through in the dinner theater scenario. The audience should know a little about the victim and the crime before organizers start going through the suspects.
The rest of the evening consisted of a few small skits, each 5-10 minutes long, in which actors rushed into the room and had a few lines to say.
Overall, the plot seemed too complicated to follow.
Humor and Funny Moments at the Mystery Dinner Theater
The night’s biggest laugh came when they interviewed somebody who happened to be on his phone. When the detective asked him if he was sexting someone, he said no.
Later in the conversation, the detective asked him about his occupation, and he said he was a youth pastor, which got a big laugh. Of course, we learned later that the “youth pastor” was an actor in the show.
So, we’re not saying there were not a few fun moments. There were a few laughs, but not enough. Overall, the plot seemed too complicated. Because everybody spent so much time on their phones looking up clues, there was little interaction among the guests.
Trying to Get the Audience Involved
One of the things they did to try and include the audience was to get a few audience members at the mystery dinner theater to do things in front of the group. For example, they brought three people up to the front of the room and asked them to give the audience their best scream, which they did. Then they asked them how they would walk after a murder and finally how they would stab the victim. So they then had these people act that out using somebody pretending to be the victim. It did get a laugh or two, but it had nothing to do with the crime.
They also had photos of a few guests and told people their photo was found with the body. But no other clues were pointed toward those guests, and the photos were never brought up again.
Final Cost
At the end of the evening, envelopes were presented to tip the actors. There was peer pressure, as people at our table took the envelopes, so I gave $10.
So the total cost for two people was $130 for the tickets, $20 for drinks, and a $10 tip for the actors—about $80 per person.
Frankly, we could have saved a lot of money and had more laughs by going to our favorite restaurant, having a few drinks, and going to a comedy club.
Conclusion
It was an enjoyable evening. The dinner was OK; we got a few laughs, and it was a nice night out. The mystery seemed a bit complicated and involved, but it worked, I guess. That is how we felt about the entire evening – everything was OK, nothing was exceptional. Plus, it was an expensive evening by our standards and not something most people would do more than once.
Dinner Theaters Are Not Our Competition
But going to this dinner theater just reinforced to us that these events are not even close to what we are doing.
First of all, we are less expensive, averaging just $20 per ticket. (But our events usually don’t include dinner, just hours’ oeuvres.) Still, we are a much cheaper date.
The last thing we want is for our guests to be fixated on their phones – we want them to engage with other guests. We also encourage people not to sit down at our events. We want everybody moving around the room, mixing, mingling, and socializing (in character).
The main difference is that interaction among the guests is a top priority for us. Although dinner theater mysteries typically try to involve the guests, they draw only about half a dozen or so people from the audience to do different activities. It is a passive experience for most of the audience.
But at our events, the guests are the entertainment—we don’t even have an audience. Everybody dressing as their character enhances the interaction between guests.
Instead of just getting laughs when an actor says a funny line, at our events, the laughter is all over the room simultaneously as the guests get into their characters and see the costumes their friends have created.
Anyway, we walked away from our mystery dinner theater evening experience realizing that their events are not really our competition—they simply don’t do what we do.
The only thing we share is that both concepts involve a murder mystery. Other than that, we really don’t have much in common.
Host Your Next Party With Mystery Mixers!
If you are ready to host your next party with Mystery Mixers, email [email protected] or call 727-430-5908 to plan your own murder mystery party event!
