0:00

What's up everybody, welcome back

0:02

to Lights Out. Today we are covering

0:05

the Blackout

0:07

Project. Blackout is

0:10

one of those extreme haunts where you do have to sign a

0:12

waiver. According to co-creator

0:14

Josh Randall, he describes the Blackout

0:16

experience as containing many different meanings and

0:18

definitions. Blackout does allow

0:21

physical contact fully. It

0:23

involves psychological torture, sexual assault,

0:26

nudity, and of course, fake blood.

0:29

He dragged Meredith into a bright white room

0:31

with three other people kneeling against a

0:33

wall with bags over their heads.

0:36

Then the man pressed a staple gun up

0:38

against her face and pulled the trigger. Blackout

0:41

inspired the hell out of me and I can't wait to

0:43

dive back in. And I'm so grateful

0:45

for the experience. If you're curious

0:48

about it, I couldn't recommend it more. Go,

0:50

go, go before they close.

0:53

Light Out, everybody.

1:03

What's up,

1:04

everybody? Welcome back to Lights Out. I'm

1:07

your host, Josh, joined in

1:09

the studio by the boys, we've

1:12

got Austin. Hey, how's it goin man? I'm good, man and Daniel.

1:16

What's up? What's up guys. Thank you guys so much

1:18

for watching this video. I know that everyone's dying and we're

1:20

settling What's up? What's up,

1:22

guys? Today we are covering the

1:25

Blackout Project, an

1:28

extreme immersive horror or

1:31

extreme haunt that

1:34

is no longer active, as

1:36

far as we know, but it seems like they might be starting to

1:38

back up. Yeah, it hasn't. I mean,

1:40

it hasn't like officially declared

1:42

that it's done forever, but it has not

1:44

been active, I think, since 2019, which

1:47

kind of makes sense right before the pandemic. And then

1:49

it's kind of shut down after that.

1:51

But this is not your ordinary haunt.

1:55

I mean, you guys were just at a haunted house this past

1:58

weekend, right? Yeah. What was it called? The Freightmare

2:00

compound? Yeah, the Freightmare compound in Colorado.

2:03

Yeah, just north of Denver. Did

2:06

you face your fears or was it? I'm

2:09

a broken man. I still

2:11

had a great time. It was a lot of

2:13

fun. And it's fun just to act scared. I

2:16

mean, you don't want to be the tough guy and

2:18

act like a total douchebag. So

2:20

if the actors are trying and they're into

2:22

it, I was like, whoa, you know, you kind of act

2:25

along with them or else you're just a creme uglier.

2:28

Daniel doesn't react at all, probably.

2:31

No, I do. Same thing along with Austin.

2:34

I want the actors to have fun too because they

2:36

were there all night. Just act for

2:38

the actors. I paid the actors. I

2:42

paid to act for the actors. I'm

2:44

going to have fun with it. I'm not going to act tough going through

2:46

a haunted house. I'm going to have fun with it. I'm going to

2:48

suspend my beliefs. I'm going to have fun. All right. All

2:50

right. Did you guys have to sign a waiver? No.

2:54

That's how you know it's not real if you don't have

2:56

to sign a waiver, right? Right. So that's

2:58

the difference between your average, you know,

3:00

haunted attraction to

3:02

blackout is blackout is

3:05

one of those extreme haunts where you do have to sign a

3:07

waiver because they

3:09

will touch you. Oh, yeah. And

3:12

do all sorts of different things. I mean, the most infamous

3:14

one out there is obviously McCamey Manor,

3:17

which we are planning to revisit

3:19

here in the next couple of weeks because there was

3:21

just a documentary release kind of exposing McCamey

3:24

Manor for what it is. And

3:27

I'm very interested to dive back into that. And

3:29

we've covered it here on the show

3:31

a long time ago, but I thought

3:33

it was the time to revisit it because, you

3:36

know, more more information has come to light. There's

3:38

people who claim abuse. And, you

3:40

know, if you know anything about Russ McCamey,

3:43

he takes it to a whole nother level. Yeah,

3:46

probably as a shock to no one

3:48

that there's like an expose of

3:50

abuse. Exactly. Whereas

3:53

the blackout project

3:56

or blackout

3:58

is very different from many of these other extreme. haunts

4:00

including the Kame manner because it's it's

4:02

truly a unique experience for every single

4:04

person that goes through it and

4:06

the creators of it as you'll as you'll

4:09

find out really kind

4:11

of call this more of like

4:13

an immersive art experience but more

4:16

along the psychosexual

4:20

horror experiences what they call it so kind

4:22

of playing more into that realm

4:25

yeah it plays more into real-life fears than

4:27

monster paranormal right stuff

4:29

like that right so

4:32

what's interesting to me about it is I

4:36

don't think I would ever go through this

4:39

and you know I'll ask you guys at the

4:41

end if you would but there's

4:43

a there's many different reasons for that

4:46

according to co-creator Josh Randall in

4:48

his own words he describes the blackout

4:51

experience as containing many different meanings and

4:53

definitions in in 2009

4:55

he created the experience with Christian Thor

4:57

his good friend and work partner for many

4:59

years and to them the traditional

5:02

haunted house just wasn't scary enough they

5:04

wanted to bend the genre and create something more

5:07

immersive and unforgettable

5:10

and they understood that to achieve the highest

5:12

levels of fear possible they needed

5:14

to personally curate the experience for

5:17

adults and the offseason blackout

5:19

was a small invite only event usually

5:22

only involving one person at a time

5:24

which set it apart from the typical group shows

5:27

at haunted houses because I mean you go to any haunted house

5:29

they punch you through in groups yep yeah

5:32

and that makes it way less scary to be honest it

5:34

really got your buddies behind you you know

5:38

nothing can be that scary when you're goofing and gaffing

5:41

with your with your bros right well and

5:43

I think there's this inherent sense

5:45

of like safety in numbers too yeah oh yeah

5:47

so like even if you are starting to

5:49

feel immersed in the experience you know there's like

5:51

people behind you you know you know usually you're

5:53

kind of like walking through the dark or

5:55

whatever with a hand on each other yeah yeah you

5:58

know and if you bring bring your significant in others

6:00

and in our case, our

6:03

women with us, we're kind

6:06

of focused on them too at the same time.

6:09

You're kind of like, it's hard to fully

6:11

immerse yourself because you're wondering

6:14

how they're doing. Because usually,

6:16

at least our women are a little bit more scared. I

6:19

don't know about your girlfriend. Oh yeah, she's

6:21

terrified. Like even when we watch,

6:24

it's more paranormal stuff that she gets scared

6:26

of but she refuses to go

6:28

to haunted houses. And even

6:30

when we're watching paranormal

6:32

movies, she has to like, she does the little kid

6:34

thing where she has to close her eyes and like barely

6:37

peek out like that. So yeah,

6:39

she's not about it. But she does, I kind of got

6:41

her into more horror stuff. Oh really?

6:44

Yeah. What about you Danny?

6:46

Is Analie into horror all

6:48

that much? Analie specifically really

6:51

into like Korean horror. She really

6:53

loves it. Yeah, interesting. But for haunted houses,

6:55

I mean, she has a lot of fun but every time we go to

6:58

a haunted house, the staff just bully

7:00

her. Like they focus on her

7:02

and not me. And like, I get it. Yeah,

7:04

I can do that. Yeah, if I was an actor in

7:06

like a haunted house and I was either gonna scare me or

7:09

my little five foot two girlfriend, they'd

7:11

probably go for the girlfriend. I hate that they do

7:14

that. Yeah, because I get

7:16

why, but it kind

7:18

of takes away, like it

7:21

takes more talent to scare the big buff

7:23

guy, right? And you know, the

7:26

girl that's with them. I think my problem too

7:28

is that they see me and I'm like laughing,

7:31

smiling through it. That's how I

7:33

am too. They're like, we're not, we'd

7:35

rather go for the person who's already scared

7:38

and scare them more than try to scare

7:40

the guy with a smile on his face. So

7:42

I get it, I guess. I think

7:44

the hard thing is that with the traditional

7:47

haunts is that we're also desensitized

7:49

to a lot of the things that they do that

7:53

it just doesn't phase us anymore. I

7:55

mean, we've all like, especially horror fans. I mean, we've watched so many

7:57

different movies and content that we're

7:59

just like. We've seen it all at this point

8:02

and to recreate what horror movies

8:04

are doing is very difficult in a haunt a

8:07

Typical haunt and so these

8:09

extreme haunts really came about because

8:11

they're like people aren't getting scared They're

8:13

not actually fearful in

8:16

these attractions anymore. So how do

8:18

we take it to the next level to

8:20

where they're actually Facing

8:22

their fears and obviously isolating isolating

8:25

you is the first way to do that

8:28

Yeah, and that's why that like I

8:30

really appreciate Josh Randall's philosophy

8:33

on this He even said in in 2011. This

8:36

is early on they started in 2009 by 2011 He

8:39

he kind of explained his philosophy

8:42

and what they were trying to achieve He says quote

8:45

our goal is to elicit real fear

8:47

And so we do research on real life situations

8:50

so we can connect with the most amount of people

8:52

Although people tend to have fun and get a kick

8:55

out of vampires monsters, etc Generally

8:58

those kinds of scares do not place people

9:00

in a state where they believe their life

9:02

is truly in danger But

9:05

being mugged raped tortured,

9:07

etc These are real life

9:09

scares that take the fun quote fun

9:12

out of being scared and push people into a place

9:14

of genuine fear if we can make someone

9:16

forget that they paid for this and Make

9:19

them actually question whether or not they

9:22

will really get hurt. We've done our job The

9:25

majority of the decisions we make in life are

9:27

made to keep us safe and keep us out of harm's

9:29

way Trying to bypass

9:31

that and push people into genuinely frightening

9:34

situations is our aim for

9:36

that to happen We need to understand

9:38

the psychology of fear and

9:40

how to manipulate it to our advantage.

9:43

So a lot of Whoa, whoa,

9:45

whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,

9:48

what the hell? Here we go. All right

9:51

Happy Halloween everybody That

9:54

was weird Alright,

9:56

we're back after a minor technical difficulty

9:59

as As usually happens

10:02

here at lights out and always specifically

10:05

to my mic. I don't know why yours never protected

10:08

by the Holy Spirit You

10:11

said your prayers this morning I forgot so

10:14

the devil is playing with

10:17

me but blackout so

10:20

before we really dive into blackout and

10:22

and We're gonna go through some different

10:24

experiences. We're gonna go through kind

10:27

of the thought behind it a little bit

10:29

more I want

10:31

you to see one of their trailers that they

10:33

made for for this experience back

10:35

in 2016 because this will really

10:37

I think help set the tone for today's

10:40

episode.

10:41

Let's roll it

10:46

There is flashing lights up you need to look away definitely

10:49

do it now I

11:24

You

11:42

No idea what that is

11:49

Also, I don't know if we mentioned this is 18 and

11:52

up I don't know if we mentioned that yeah

11:54

only for for this Yeah, this

11:56

is you do not send your kid through this

11:58

one. No I love the production

12:01

value on that trailer though. Also,

12:05

how did they make Ode to Joy so terrifying?

12:08

Yeah, like Ode to Fear, I guess. I

12:11

mean, just from those clips, you can just see how distressing

12:14

it is. Yes, and intense. Yeah,

12:16

I mean, it's just taking it to a whole nother level.

12:19

And those disturbing, we'll get into

12:21

those, whatever they're showing in that,

12:24

it's something that they use quite a bit, it's just disturbing

12:27

imagery and they'll do

12:29

medical experiments and stuff like that. I couldn't

12:31

even tell what that was. I

12:33

hope that's some kind of animal. It

12:35

looked like a pig. Yeah, it kind

12:37

of looked like a pig. What were they

12:39

pulling out of it? Probably

12:42

part of it. Okay, fair enough. Just

12:44

like a butcher video. So,

12:48

blackout symbol is the ellipsis, which

12:51

they often fake tattoo on customers' bodies

12:53

during the show, sometimes on their necks or

12:55

heads. According to an old

12:58

blackout Instagram post, they explained

13:00

why they chose the ellipsis. Quote,

13:03

it signifies silence, a lapse

13:05

or pause, or textual omission

13:08

of some kind. But for this last

13:10

purpose, the marks became the tool of the

13:12

censor. But authors can

13:14

work censorship creatively for their own

13:16

means. What can't be said can be hinted

13:19

at and a well-placed ellipsis can

13:21

itself convey something risque,

13:24

frisky, or downright sordid.

13:27

Over the years, they've experimented with almost every

13:29

kind of realistic immersive horror. They've

13:32

used virtual reality, remote phone experiences,

13:35

personal home invasions even, large-scale

13:37

haunted house collaborations and some convention

13:40

and festival pop-ups. But the most

13:42

common experiences are individual experiences,

13:45

but there have also been rare group shows during

13:47

some seasons. Blackout

13:50

does allow physical contact

13:52

fully, simulated rape, nudity,

13:55

and of course, fake blood. It involves

13:57

psychological torture, sexual assault. origin

14:01

and graphic images. From the beginning

14:03

it was designed to be controversial.

14:06

The original idea was to make something indismissable

14:09

and stay with you for a long time. That's

14:13

the part for me that I really struggle

14:16

with is like would I want to go through something that's

14:18

gonna leave me fucked up for

14:20

a long time. The goal, they're just expressing

14:22

that their goal is to make sure it sticks

14:24

with you. I would be

14:27

worried about PTSD. Yeah,

14:29

honestly, genuinely. The

14:32

creator see it as a form of art, like

14:34

projecting fears onto a canvas,

14:37

which I kind of love that definition.

14:39

Yeah, same. And they hope that the people who

14:41

responded to it in a positive way also

14:44

learned something from it.

14:45

Of course,

14:47

most people respond in a negative

14:49

way, but they have had some people go through

14:52

who literally feel like it's changed

14:54

them for the better. Yeah, and they will

14:57

see later they get kind of addicted to the

15:00

experience because they think

15:02

they're using it as almost like a therapy session

15:04

a little bit. So

15:06

Josh and Chris have been the core creative team

15:08

of blackout since it was first created in 2009. Josh

15:12

had already managed a theater on the west side of Manhattan

15:14

at the time. So he decided to shut it down for

15:16

four weeks in the summer and try out the blackout experience

15:19

for the first time. It was originally called

15:21

the Midsummer Nightmare at the haunted

15:23

house vortex theater, and the goal

15:25

from the beginning was to prioritize a strong,

15:28

terrifying environment. From early

15:30

on, it was meant to be psychological, sexual and

15:32

just downright disturbing. There were things like

15:34

a giant dildo props and a man with

15:36

snakes coming out of his butthole. Perfect.

15:39

Amazing. But the hardest part was understanding

15:41

the audience level of fear because Josh and

15:44

Chris usually couldn't see their reactions in real

15:46

time. They had to understand how the audience

15:48

felt through social media and word of mouth after

15:50

the fact to curate the experience even more. According

15:53

to Josh, blackout has always been a polarizing

15:56

experience and there's about as much

15:58

negative feedback as there is positive. of the feedback.

16:01

They're actually on Yelp. So if you're interested and want to read

16:03

through a bunch of reviews, I'll just

16:05

tell you right now that's like 2.4 average.

16:09

Oh almost dead center between one

16:11

and five you know, there's zero and five. Which

16:13

I think that that tells you something. There

16:16

has also been cases of people being upset

16:18

and demanding their money back, but days

16:20

later they would send an email saying that the experience

16:22

pushed their buttons and did exactly what it was supposed

16:25

to do. During the Halloween season

16:27

the blackout experience was a 25 minute walk

16:29

through. Usually a few thousand people attended

16:31

each year hoping to experience something more adult

16:34

and more disturbing than the typical haunted house for

16:36

teenagers. With

16:38

that being said, I just want to play a few

16:40

clips from some of their rehearsal

16:43

footage in their early years. So this is before

16:46

this is like 2009-2010. Fear

16:50

just doesn't come from that. Real fear comes from from

16:53

something that's like real in front of you

16:55

and that has an equal there's

16:57

an equal relationship between how much you're pushing at

16:59

them and how much they need to come to you.

17:04

Here we go. Oh man. Ready?

17:21

On the bed. On

17:24

the bed. To you like

17:27

they have a great time afterwards

17:29

you know what I mean and they feel afterwards yeah

17:31

right so like thank Adam out of

17:34

here this is Josh and

17:36

they literally these look this look on their eyes

17:38

of like what I don't even

17:40

know what just happened because it is not

17:43

what they're expecting because they're it's called a haunted

17:45

house they think it's a haunted house and they're like

17:47

vampires huh because

17:49

I'm the guy who sent them off the first long

17:51

dark hallway they turn the first

17:54

corner

17:54

and they see the darkness I

17:56

mean and I will turn off the light it

17:58

gets dark. I mean like no

18:00

fucking around. I've literally seen grown

18:03

men like reduced to like, oh

18:05

my god, our goal is to

18:07

create a sensation and an environment

18:10

and to sustain that. And it's that that

18:12

is scary to people. And the sort

18:14

of, I'm gonna eat your insides

18:17

or whatever. We're

18:19

never gonna be able to say anything to anyone

18:22

that's gonna actually make them be like, oh no,

18:24

maybe they will eat my insides. It's

18:26

the intensity, it's the eyes, it's the mystery. It's

18:29

generally not the, it's

18:32

not the narrative. It's the fiction that

18:35

you create as an audience and we're going through it much

18:37

more than it's the fiction that we offer

18:39

you a lot of opportunities to have your mind go

18:41

in lots of directions, I guess is the way to say that. And

18:43

we wanna be sure not to pop that button.

18:57

So that's hard.

19:22

Sorry.

19:29

I wonder if the actors were maybe...

19:31

I know they're in New York, so I wonder if

19:34

they're like theater students or something along

19:36

those lines. Because just the look in that

19:38

lady's eyes, she seemed like she

19:40

was really getting into character there. Where

19:43

just at the last haunted house, I mean, some people

19:45

are having fun and they're really into it. But it kind

19:47

of seems like they're just like seasonal people

19:50

that swing by. Yeah, I think that's the difference.

19:52

And it's also like how many

19:54

times... You know, it probably gets

19:56

exhausting to do the same thing over for hours

19:59

on end every day. night but a trained

20:01

actor is known. But do you write will take

20:03

right. Yeah. And I think that's

20:06

what makes this work is that they do have

20:08

to have top level actors to be able to truly

20:11

make the person going through to believe

20:14

what they're seeing and not break character.

20:17

Yeah. And I mean, you can just tell from

20:19

that that short clip that they

20:21

they are in character and they take it very seriously.

20:24

Yeah. And that was just rehearsals. Yeah,

20:26

that's just a rehearsal thing. Right. So

20:30

on the off season, so not

20:33

around Halloween, the more intense

20:35

invite only sessions began. You

20:38

could only get an invite depending on your fan

20:40

status and how many times you had been to the show. Only

20:43

a few dozen people usually got to experience this in each

20:45

location each year. And there was

20:47

an overwhelmingly positive response.

20:50

By the next season, they focus more on the personalized

20:52

horror experience of the Midsummer Nightmare show,

20:54

and they eventually moved it out of the theater and into,

20:57

quote

20:57

unquote, real world.

20:59

Their new location was a hotel room that people

21:01

had to check into. It also involved

21:04

a phone booth just outside the hotel where they

21:06

would get a burner phone and sign

21:08

a detailed waiver. Once they

21:10

realized that they didn't have to perform the show through an

21:12

isolated maze like a typical haunted house,

21:15

it really opened up the blackout experience to

21:18

so much more. I mean, sky's the limit.

21:21

And that's when they also began experimenting with physical

21:24

touching, which soon became a selling point.

21:27

In the early days, the touching was very light, and

21:29

the first shows involved only touching people with

21:31

feathers. But as time went on and became

21:33

much more aggressive, by 2011, they

21:36

were tying people's hands behind their backs. Josh

21:39

claimed that at first that it never had anything

21:41

to do with bondage or S&M or pain. It

21:44

was more about the psychological threat of violence

21:46

and danger. These off seasons

21:48

became these new experimental grounds

21:50

for new fear tactics that they wanted to

21:52

try out. And they advised

21:55

everyone, do not

21:57

participate if you have epilepsy,

21:59

if you have experienced a near drowning event

22:02

or any form of sexual abuse. They

22:04

do not advise that you go into this

22:06

for good reason. They have rooms

22:09

with naked people chained to the floor, simulated

22:12

sexual assault between actors and

22:14

sometimes you know against you. Sometimes

22:17

the actors grind on you over your

22:19

clothes occasionally they'll throw

22:21

a light punch at you things like that they'll grab

22:24

you force you into chairs and stuff like that.

22:27

Sometimes you get choked suffocated

22:29

with a plastic bag or even waterboarded

22:32

which is insane. Yeah fuck

22:35

that. Not trying to get

22:37

waterboarded. A lot of the experiences are

22:39

super disorienting because they

22:41

force you to sit in a dark room before it

22:44

starts and then they used to blind

22:46

you with a flashlight before throwing you into

22:49

the next room or they would just start strobe

22:51

lights at you after sitting in a dark room

22:53

for a while. Plus if you're afraid of gore

22:56

we just saw in that teaser

22:58

you know nobody knows sometimes

23:01

it's hard to discern what you're looking at but they've

23:03

done they've showed like medical treatments

23:06

on animals of surgeries and

23:08

stuff like that so if that makes you queasy

23:10

they advise people not

23:12

to go into it. They also began

23:14

forcing people this was at the end of

23:17

their early shows and this is kind of what got

23:19

them super popular. They began forcing people

23:21

to pull tampons out

23:23

of like medical

23:26

like mental asylum patients at

23:28

the end. So you would pull a used

23:30

tampon out of them and then you were

23:33

forced they would order you to put the tampon

23:35

in your mouth and suck on it and

23:38

of course it looked bloody as far as I

23:40

know it was just some sort of juice or some

23:42

people said it tasted like juice. Other reports

23:45

I saw it actually tasted like irony

23:47

like it was actually blood so

23:50

not sure what exactly was on it but the

23:54

illusion of something being real that

23:56

was what they they wanted to get out

23:58

of this blackout experience. So that's

24:00

what they built on. And by 2012,

24:03

Blackout made it to the Transworld's Halloween

24:06

and Attraction Show convention. All

24:08

they had was a TV playing disturbing surgery

24:11

videos and a woman silently lying on the floor sitting

24:13

in a chair looking disturbed in

24:15

silence for eight hours. The

24:17

show's popularity grew even more and that year

24:19

they expanded to Los Angeles. The

24:22

show was only $50 and promised some of the most genuine

24:24

scares in a simulated horror experience.

24:27

As their popularity grew, they knew that safety

24:30

was a priority. Unlike someone

24:32

else we know, Mr. Russ McCamey. So

24:36

as you're probably wondering, you

24:39

know, this experience is similar in some

24:41

ways to McCamey Manor, but it's much

24:44

safer to go through the McCamey

24:46

Manor. And so here's

24:49

a clip of Josh actually being asked

24:51

about safe words and

24:54

kind of what his thoughts are on Russ McCamey and

24:56

his haunt. Let's take a look.

24:59

So in regards to that, so

25:02

talking about safety, when you're

25:04

sitting next to Russ McCamey, he

25:07

starts to give you a link of the idea of safe words

25:09

and consent. Yeah, and what goes through your mind?

25:11

What do you think about that? Just

25:13

by a show of hands, who knows what the McCamey Manor is?

25:16

Yeah, okay, so most everyone, for those of you that don't,

25:18

it's a haunted house that was basically started

25:21

in San Diego almost 20 years ago, I think. If

25:24

I'm not mistaken, and it was sort of a whole haunt,

25:27

and he would go into his garage, he was

25:29

sort of blackout before blackout, it was

25:31

blackout, super extreme. The

25:34

difference is that he doesn't believe in safe

25:36

words. His experiences can last upwards

25:38

of 68 hours per person. 68 hours.

25:43

You don't have to pay to go through it. The only payment

25:45

you have to do is allow him to film you,

25:49

going through this experience. And I've

25:52

personally sat on many panels with Russ,

25:54

and he's a very controversial figure

25:57

within this world.

25:59

was and against how do I first feel

26:02

sitting next to him as he did those about consent. I

26:04

have a hard time with it. For us,

26:06

this is a job. It's

26:09

definitely a piece of art, but it's something

26:11

that we want to bring to people, our goal is

26:13

to serve people. Somehow, we

26:15

stumbled on blackout. With blackout,

26:17

we stumbled on something where people

26:19

were having these negatives, but also really

26:22

positive experiences. So for us,

26:24

it was about tightening that and really trying to tune

26:26

into it with one a safe

26:29

way. I think the

26:31

difference is that Russ is potentially

26:33

a little bit more of like a bona

26:36

fide horror span. I

26:39

said this is a little bit more interested

26:41

in eliciting a very specific

26:44

response out of his audience members and

26:47

some legal and moral point of

26:49

view. Many people could argue that. That's

26:52

maybe not a good thing. I

26:55

personally would not be doing the kind of manner. I

26:57

hope most people would read enough

27:00

stuff that they would not do the kind of manner because

27:03

it just seems very unsafe and there's

27:05

a lot of precedent and track record

27:07

of that being documented.

27:10

I like how he pointed out, he said moral, but

27:12

he also prefaced it. Legal and

27:15

moral. I think that's a great

27:17

point because it's like if they wanted

27:19

to bring this to more people and have these theaters

27:22

and do these events, I'm

27:25

assuming they have probably at least one

27:27

lawyer to make sure that these

27:30

waivers are very clear, that everyone's

27:32

safe, that there's no litigation possible

27:34

against

27:35

blackout

27:37

because it would ruin the whole thing. You

27:39

just get shut down and no one would get to

27:41

experience it. Somehow Russ

27:43

hasn't been shut down. That's

27:46

a big question. Is he still running that?

27:48

Do you know? Yeah, I believe he

27:50

is actually. I don't know if like

27:52

as recent as this year

27:54

or last year, but like definitely 2020,

27:57

I think his website's still

27:59

up and active. Okay.

28:01

And stuff,

28:02

but yeah, I'm interested to take a look

28:04

at that documentary and see

28:06

what that's about because there's clearly more

28:08

to the story there. And I mean, just

28:10

the number of people who've come forward after

28:13

that. I mean, I think the difference

28:15

is, and what's interesting is there's

28:17

not a lot of, at least that I could

28:19

find like a ton of people talking

28:22

publicly about blackout, like on

28:24

YouTube. But like because Russ

28:26

films, everybody that goes through,

28:28

there's all this evidence of like, what's

28:31

going on? And just

28:34

the reactions of people coming out of

28:36

the Mckamy Manor just

28:38

seems like, I don't

28:40

know, like next level more, the

28:43

fear they experienced and trauma

28:45

they experienced was like so real

28:47

that many of those people are shaking

28:50

and just look like fucked

28:53

up. They just went through something horrific

28:55

versus this. There's

28:57

some of that like in the reviews that

28:59

you'll see, and we'll kind of talk more about this later, but

29:01

there's definitely, I think

29:04

one thing I do want to say is that everything

29:06

you've heard from Josh and Chris, the creators,

29:10

really paints it in a good light. Like they're

29:12

really painting this experience like, this is safe,

29:15

this is, we're not like Mckamy

29:17

Manor because we

29:19

have safe words, Russ doesn't believe in safe

29:22

words, which I think safe words

29:24

are necessary for

29:27

this type of experience. But I

29:29

will tell you that there are

29:32

a number of people who've come out of blackout with

29:34

very negative experiences, including

29:36

people who have experienced physical

29:38

pain that lingers injuries,

29:40

things like that, that happen as a result of this. So of

29:43

course, like on these panels and stuff,

29:45

he's painting blackout in a very

29:47

good light. Yeah, because it's PR,

29:50

you know, PR people to go to it. The

29:54

reviews speak for themselves. I mean, a lot of people got

29:56

fucked up in this experience. So,

29:58

you know, some of. of you might be like, oh,

30:01

this is nothing compared to the McCamey Manor,

30:03

you know what I mean? And it's different, very

30:05

different. It's not just like, I

30:08

think he explained it very

30:10

accurately. Like McCamey Manor and

30:12

Russ is focused on that like true

30:15

horror aspect. And it's like-

30:18

Pushing the limits is literally- For you. Yeah,

30:21

torture. Torture is at the forefront

30:23

of McCamey Manor. Blackout has

30:25

some of that, but it's also a cycle.

30:28

It's more psychological like fucking with

30:30

you than it is physically

30:32

fucking with you. Right, yeah. And I appreciate

30:35

that more because I feel like with those limitations

30:38

of not just being able to assault people

30:40

and scrap safe words, they

30:42

have to work in those limitations.

30:45

And I think that curates the experience

30:47

even more because they realize like, okay, if

30:49

we're gonna have safe words, if we're not

30:52

gonna push the physical assault as far as

30:54

McCamey Manor does, how

30:57

do we psychologically get

30:59

to the root of fear? And so

31:02

I think they've maybe even, I would

31:04

argue they almost up the ante compared

31:06

to McCamey Manor. Just as far

31:08

as the psychological horror goes. Right,

31:11

right. I would

31:13

agree with that. And I think the other thing you have to remember

31:15

too is like Russ is there the whole time.

31:18

Which is weird of her. Filming

31:20

you. Whereas this is, there is like

31:23

virtually no footage of people's

31:25

experiences in blackout. Because it's all very

31:28

personalized and they

31:31

purposely didn't allow the experiences

31:33

to be filmed because they want to keep it very

31:36

secret and mysterious. And there

31:38

is a documentary called The Blackout Experiments

31:41

on a prime video that

31:44

actually ended up going to Sundance Film

31:46

Festival. But that was the only time that they

31:49

let documentary filmmakers come in and kind of

31:51

film. And even then they didn't film like a whole bunch

31:53

but there is some like, they did film a couple

31:57

members go through it. And you can

31:59

kind of get a much. better sense of what it's like. And

32:01

it's, it's

32:03

hard to like talk about it and do it justice. But

32:06

when you watch it, you're like, damn, this is pretty, pretty

32:08

intense experience that these people go through.

32:10

No, seriously. So here's

32:13

the list of rules for one of the seasons for blackout.

32:16

You know, obviously rules are necessary

32:20

for many different reasons, safety, legality.

32:22

So here's what those rules were. You

32:25

must walk through alone. You must

32:27

be over 18. You must follow all directions

32:30

at all times. Stay on the marked path

32:32

at all times. Do not ever touch

32:34

an actor unless you are instructed to do so.

32:37

Do not ever speak unless you are instructed

32:39

to do so. Don't ever

32:41

touch the walls. You'll be

32:43

prompted to do certain actions. Do

32:46

exactly as you're told. This is for your

32:48

safety. You must wear a protective

32:51

mask. The safety word is

32:53

safety. If you have an emergency while

32:55

walking through and need to be escorted out, please yell

32:57

the word safety as loud as you can. Stay

33:00

exactly where you are, remain calm, and someone

33:02

will come get you and bring you out. If

33:04

there is an action you absolutely will not do, please

33:06

yell the word safety as loud as you can. Stay

33:09

exactly where you are, remain calm, and someone

33:11

will come and get you and bring you out. No,

33:13

you cannot skip that part, but still

33:15

continue. So there's no skipping things.

33:17

You have to go through it as they lay it out for you.

33:20

And once safety has been called, there are no refunds

33:22

and there are no other options but to leave. So

33:25

in one of the promo videos for their 2012 Halloween show,

33:27

you can actually hear a woman yelling safety in the

33:29

background.

33:41

I love how they use that as marketing. I

33:43

know, right? Safety.

33:46

Because that's their goal, right? They're

33:48

kind of trying to get you to say safety. They're

33:51

trying to break you in that way. So

33:55

while you go through blackout, you'll encounter a lot of different

33:57

things. Fog, strove lights, loud sounds,

33:59

complete... darkness, crawling, kneeling,

34:01

stares, mild restraints, water, sexual

34:04

and violent situations, and aggressive physical

34:06

touch. All patrons are required to read

34:08

the rules and sign the waiver on site before entering.

34:11

This is not optional. If there are any rules

34:14

you do not follow, you will immediately be required to leave

34:16

and of course there are no refunds. So that's

34:18

another difference between Blackout and M'Kami Manor is

34:21

you do have to pay to enter

34:23

the Blackout Experience whereas M'Kami Manor

34:25

somehow he does the shit for free and you know

34:28

there's a lot of different theories out there. You

34:31

can kind of think about why right? But

34:34

here was an earlier 2012 show and this

34:37

is we'll be going through two

34:39

shows

34:41

but you'll see how the earlier shows

34:43

are a little bit more tame compared to

34:45

the much later shows but

34:48

this is from Meredith

34:50

Warner

34:51

on Gizmodo. She wrote about her experience

34:54

of the 2012 show and I believe this

34:56

was a seasonal show, one of the Halloween

34:58

ones. So in the beginning each

35:01

participant was given a surgical

35:03

mask and they were told to put it on and

35:05

never take it off. They were placed

35:08

I think it was a group of three in a pitch

35:10

black room that slowly filled with fog

35:13

and then after a while a strobe

35:15

light began flashing and their eyes making

35:17

it almost impossible to see anything. If you've

35:19

ever been in a room filled with fog and there's

35:21

a light on you can't see beyond a

35:24

few inches from your face. I hate strobe lights.

35:26

Oh do you? They highlight

35:28

them but I hate them. Okay

35:30

yeah. Like they make sense for haunts

35:33

and I think it is so disorienting.

35:35

Yeah. If you walk through strobe light because

35:37

you kind of feel like you're walking through slow motion and

35:40

things are kind of like ghosting around

35:42

you. Yeah so it's like the frame rate

35:44

has dropped basically. strangers

35:47

then appear through the fog grab people

35:50

picking them out one by one. Then

35:52

a stranger grabbed her by the elbow tossed

35:55

her into a dark room. They then thrust

35:57

her up against a wall while she was still

35:59

disoriented. by the flashing lights and the fog,

36:02

and while she was up against the concrete,

36:04

they ordered her to grab a string

36:07

that ran along the wall and follow it. But

36:09

she's still half blind and disoriented from

36:11

the strobe lights. She follows the

36:14

string and then random hands began

36:16

grabbing her on the neck and her head as

36:18

she moved through this hallway. When

36:21

she reached the end of the string, more hands

36:23

appeared on her back and wrist. She

36:25

was then pushed up against an opposite wall

36:27

and groped by several more hands before

36:30

being forced into a chair. While

36:32

still disoriented, they then rolled

36:34

up one of her pant legs and put

36:37

something freezing cold on her skin while dragging

36:39

it up and down her shin bone. Other

36:42

strangers pulled at her hair and blew on her

36:44

neck. Another stranger was underneath

36:46

her chair grabbing at her legs. After

36:49

the fondling was over, she was ordered to crawl

36:51

through a small tunnel in the ground while

36:53

being chased by a stranger

36:55

from behind. At the end of the tunnel,

36:57

the person chasing her and then grabbed her, forced

37:00

her to lie on her stomach and then straddled

37:02

her ass. And

37:05

then they bent down and in a Southern

37:07

accent, the stranger whispered that Meredith

37:09

was pretty and they had all kinds

37:12

of fun ready ahead. After

37:14

being given an option of staying there or

37:16

running away, she obviously said she

37:18

wanted to run. So the stranger got

37:20

off her, let her go and she sprinted towards

37:22

a possible exit with a light was basically

37:24

the only way to go. Beyond

37:27

that was a set of stairs. And if you

37:30

look down at the bottom of the stairs stood a young

37:32

woman in a hospital gown. She

37:34

blocked the way down and began screaming

37:37

and waving her hands as she got closer. When

37:39

Meredith considered retreating back up the

37:41

stairs, she turned around, but noticed

37:44

that a woman was blocking the way up as well.

37:47

So both the women then grabbed her, dragged her

37:49

down the stairs and threw her in

37:51

an old dentist chair. Both

37:53

women then began cooing and petting her

37:56

and then the other two for one of the women reached

37:58

under her own medical gown. began rubbing her

38:01

crotch and then revealed her hand that

38:03

was covered in what seemed like period blood.

38:06

She then took her bloody fingers and painted

38:08

over Meredith's surgical mask while

38:10

groping her hair and giggling. They

38:14

also removed one of her shoes and socks

38:16

and the two strange women began fighting over who

38:19

got the shoe. Someone then

38:21

came from behind Meredith snuck up placed

38:23

noise cancelling headphones over her head

38:25

and the two women disappeared in the darkness.

38:29

From behind Meredith a large man appeared

38:31

in a ski mask. He dragged Meredith

38:34

into a bright white room with three other

38:36

people kneeling against the wall with

38:38

bags over their heads like they were hostages

38:40

or something. Meredith was pushed

38:43

into a corner and commanded to kneel

38:45

with the others. Her hands were

38:47

then tied behind her back and they placed a

38:49

bag over her head. She was then ordered to

38:51

kneel there for several minutes. I think she said

38:53

it felt like it was up to seven minutes

38:56

and she you know you're struggling she's

38:58

trying to undo the ropes because she's still

39:01

tied up. But before they could come

39:03

undone someone then grabbed her by the arms

39:05

lifted her off the floor. In

39:07

another room she was then shoved into and

39:09

set free from the wrist ties and

39:11

a man who she said looked

39:14

exactly like Rob Zombie of course

39:16

stood in front of her. Then

39:18

the man pressed the staple gun up against

39:21

her face and pulled the trigger. If you've ever

39:23

shot a staple gun you can hear the pop.

39:26

So the pop goes off but you know

39:28

obviously there's not actual staples in there

39:30

they're not gonna staple people but still that

39:32

pop is pretty loud and aggressive especially

39:34

if it's up against your head I can imagine. Then another

39:37

stranger tossed her out of the room and into

39:40

a hallway of television. She's

39:42

kind of distracted by these TV screens because

39:45

they showed her walking down the hallway

39:47

she was currently in like it was CCTV

39:50

security footage of her walking and

39:52

she almost didn't realize that there were things squishing

39:54

beneath her feet and as she looked down she

39:57

was walking on cold wet condoms.

40:00

Ugh, like used condoms basically.

40:04

Eventually she got through the end of

40:06

the hallway and into another room which

40:08

she called quote the biggest

40:10

mind fuck room of all. She

40:13

drew back a curtain and someone ordered

40:16

her to stand on the X on the floor.

40:18

She didn't know where the voice was coming from but

40:20

she did as she was told and she

40:23

noticed a dirty mattress on the floor

40:25

across from her. And it's super

40:27

dark so she's kind of pulling these things

40:29

together slowly as her

40:32

eyes are kind of adjusting to the darkness. She

40:35

noticed that the entire floor was covered in shoes

40:37

and used condoms and she was

40:40

so distracted by all of it that she almost didn't

40:42

realize that on the dirty

40:44

mattress on the floor was a naked girl

40:46

and she wasn't moving and she kind

40:49

of thought you know she appeared to be dead. Then

40:52

she realized that in one of the other

40:54

dark corners of the room there was a naked

40:57

skinny man just

40:59

staring at the wall in the corner. He

41:02

was hunched over like he had been injured

41:04

maybe and when the man

41:06

turned around and looked at her as

41:09

Meredith puts it in all caps he

41:11

had his quote full dong

41:14

out and he began walking

41:16

towards her. And I know in

41:18

other versions of this I read another one where

41:21

sometimes you'll enter this room and

41:23

the man is having sex with

41:25

a woman on the mattress and then he leaves

41:27

and she just swamps over like she's

41:29

dead or something. Meredith

41:32

said by that point quote I

41:34

could actually hear my own insides

41:37

rattling around inside my skull at the

41:39

sheer confusion of the condom parade

41:42

naked basement.

41:44

Once he got close enough to her she realized

41:47

that he was holding her shoe that the

41:49

strange woman had stolen earlier. The

41:51

naked man then ordered her on the bed and

41:54

after some hesitation she ended up sitting down

41:56

on it next to the naked woman who wasn't moving

41:59

and the man even though

42:01

she wasn't listening to what he said and one

42:04

of the rules is to always listen to your orders. So

42:06

the man actually just grabbed Meredith by the

42:09

legs, kind of yanked her, physically forced

42:11

her to lie down on her back. And

42:13

after a moment, she noticed that the lifeless

42:16

naked girl next to her began to stir. She

42:19

began kind of wiggling and then

42:21

she rolled over and started saying,

42:23

help me, help me, help me, help me. Meanwhile,

42:26

the naked man took Meredith's

42:29

foot and began rubbing it

42:31

all over his face. So

42:33

you can see how the narrative kind of pulls together

42:35

too, which I kind of like the shoe narrative.

42:38

You're like, why did they take my shoes? Because this weirdo

42:40

has a foot fetish in it. This is kind of

42:43

the climax of it. After what

42:45

felt like an eternity, the naked man threw

42:47

her shoe at her, forced

42:49

her to get out of the room. After she

42:51

sprinted out, she headed up some stairs and

42:53

saw someone that looked like a staff member. They

42:56

told her to go to the bathroom, put

42:58

her shoes on, wash her hands and head out.

43:02

But as she walked towards the bathroom,

43:04

someone bam, slam, they

43:07

came barreling out of the bathroom door. They

43:09

chased her all the way out of the building. That's

43:12

the end of her experience, huh? That was the end

43:15

of the 2012 seasonal blackout

43:17

experience. So this was like a 25 minute

43:19

experience, it seems like. It seems like it was like

43:21

a half hour or so to go

43:24

through all this. We've

43:27

all been there, turning to the internet

43:29

to self-diagnose, inexplicable pains,

43:32

debilitating body aches, sudden

43:34

fevers,

43:35

and strange rashes.

43:37

Though our minds spiral to the worst case scenarios,

43:40

it's usually nothing. But for

43:42

an unlucky few, these symptoms

43:44

can start the clock ticking on a terrifying

43:47

medical mystery. Mr.

43:50

Ballin, one of the internet's

43:52

most popular storytellers and

43:54

host of the Mr. Ballin podcast,

43:57

a fellow homie, he

43:59

turns. To the human body

44:02

for an all new suspense

44:04

driven podcast, Mr.

44:06

Ballin's Medical Mysteries. Every

44:09

episode of Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries

44:11

recounts someone's living nightmare like

44:14

the unexplainable death of a retired firefighter

44:17

whose body was reduced to ashes even though

44:19

nothing around him burned.

44:22

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44:24

ill

44:25

with nausea and chills.

44:27

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44:30

food poisoning until people started

44:32

jumping from buildings and seeing

44:34

tigers

44:36

on their ceilings.

44:38

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Mysteries today.

45:01

So in 2013 they introduced their Blackout

45:03

Elements show where they pushed the boundaries of a choose

45:06

your own adventure style. Two

45:08

options were given in each situation and every choice

45:10

had high stakes consequences. By 2014

45:13

they introduced Blackout House which put people

45:15

in groups for the first time like a traditional haunt

45:18

but the experience had mixed reception. The

45:20

next year they expanded to San Francisco which integrated

45:23

detailed movie sets into the experience and they

45:25

also added certain escape room elements. They

45:27

also started doing personal house visits where

45:30

they curated experiences in people's homes.

45:33

I think to me that would probably be one of the most terrifying.

45:36

And I don't... Would that change

45:38

your home forever? Like if you went through that

45:40

in your own house? Well that's what they kind of

45:42

wanted. Like I remember there was an

45:45

interview with Josh and he's like I like

45:47

this idea where you're just sitting at

45:49

home and you think someone's out

45:51

there like beyond the window and the

45:53

darkness that you can't see. So

45:55

he kind of built on that idea for the in-home

45:58

experiences. probably

46:00

a lot more terrifying than going to a building

46:05

that you know is this haunt.

46:07

Yeah, and it's like a straightforward, you

46:09

go into a few rooms and stuff. Versus

46:11

having people show up at your house, unexpected.

46:14

I think that's really what sets Blackout

46:17

apart from other experiences. These

46:19

home experiences, which we'll talk about

46:21

a little bit, they're

46:23

so curated and they just dig

46:26

into people's fears because they get to

46:28

know you. You're in your safe space

46:30

too. Your house is your safe space. It's so violating,

46:33

yeah. Man, this

46:36

is around when Blackout 21 began, which

46:38

was a personalized show that continued until 2019. Each

46:41

experience was a piece of the 21 chapters

46:44

of a horror narrative. They began using

46:46

their tagline, quote, it's never over, more

46:48

literally. And they wanted to integrate the manufactured

46:51

horror in people's everyday lives. Their

46:53

signature became the three knocks, like

46:56

the three dots of an ellipsis on people's

46:58

front door. And they played into the fear

47:00

of strangers watching you outside your home in the middle of

47:02

the night, which, come on, I think that's like everybody's

47:05

fear. Everybody has that fear at some point in

47:07

their life of whether

47:09

you're home or somewhere else and

47:12

just feeling like there's somebody out there watching

47:14

you. Everyone's been out of the house lately

47:17

for me, just a little side story. And

47:19

I haven't lived at home alone

47:22

for a while now because I've always had roommates

47:24

and stuff. I liked having people in the house, but

47:26

now that I have Jerry and it's just me

47:28

and Jerry, late at

47:31

night, it'll be like 10 p.m., 11 p.m. She'll

47:34

bark at the door, just start

47:37

barking. And I'm like, who could

47:39

it, the blinds are closed and everything and

47:41

the front door is locked. And I'm like, is

47:43

she hearing something that I'm not? Cause

47:45

she never barks at

47:48

random stuff. Okay, she's not a random barker. No,

47:50

she will only bark and she's good. She's trained

47:53

to only bark a few times. And then

47:55

she stops, but she only barks when there are legitimately

47:57

people at the door. So, oh shit.

48:00

concerned that there are people rolling up the couch.

48:02

Because the Crowlers out there? Yeah. Damn.

48:04

Might just be drunk college kids. That's

48:06

true. I do live close to the university. So

48:11

this intense experience soon inspired a feature

48:13

documentary which I mentioned earlier. In 2016

48:16

the blackout experiments premiered at Sundance

48:19

and it featured customers of blackout who became

48:21

obsessed with the personalized

48:23

blackout experience. So

48:26

this movie is, I mean, this is really where we get to

48:28

see the only footage of

48:30

these experiences firsthand.

48:33

I mean, there's

48:35

the part where, you know, I don't want

48:38

to spoil too much if someone's gonna watch it, but there's

48:40

a point with raw chicken and they're

48:42

like forcing people to shove their hands in raw chickens.

48:45

But I think they're blindfolded so they don't know

48:47

what they're shoving their hand into exactly.

48:50

I wonder if they microwaved the chicken

48:52

before and got a little warm. Yeah.

48:59

I think the most interesting thing about

49:01

this film is that the two

49:04

people that they follow closely through

49:06

this are two guys

49:09

that I just would never suspect

49:12

of wanting to go through this. So like what? 40s,

49:14

maybe 50s even? The older gentleman

49:16

for sure, Russell Eaton and Bob

49:19

Globerman, which I

49:22

realized the one guy who his wife

49:24

is a therapist. Yeah. Right. And like what? He's

49:28

actually an actor. He's been in some TV

49:30

shows. Oh really? I looked him up and I was like, he's

49:32

been in some random TV shows throughout the years.

49:35

But yeah, those two guys, especially

49:37

Russell, which I feel like the documentary kind of focused

49:40

on Russell a lot more. He was on that panel

49:42

clip that you saw earlier. He's kind of like, what's

49:46

interesting about Russell is he's been through

49:48

this blackout experience, I think

49:50

four, five times, like at least a

49:53

few. And in the documentary,

49:57

it all kind of comes to a head with him and I don't want

49:59

to give away. what happens because I do

50:02

think if you're interested in looking

50:04

into this further, you should definitely watch it because it does

50:07

show a lot more than what we're able to. Unfortunately,

50:09

it's copyrighted, so otherwise we would have clipped

50:11

some of it in here. But it

50:14

shows kind of a different side that we're not even really

50:16

able to explain with words on what

50:18

this experience is like for people

50:21

and what it does to them psychologically. And

50:24

it seems like for some of them, it seems

50:27

like the minority I would say become

50:30

obsessed or almost addicted to it and

50:33

they just want it again and again and again. Yeah,

50:36

even Russell, I think it was Russell that said he

50:39

said something along the lines of like, this is

50:41

a transformational experience. He's

50:45

getting some therapy out of it. He's working

50:47

through some problems here, which

50:50

kind of blows my mind that people

50:52

would use this. It kind of makes sense. I

50:56

don't know. Because if you tap into fear,

50:58

I mean, fear drives a lot of people. Fear

51:01

is what tells you not to do things, even

51:04

not just like fear, like horror fear, but just

51:07

existential fear, things like that. And

51:09

I know he even kind of early on in the documentary,

51:12

it's not really a spoiler, he talks about how he's kind

51:14

of lost. He had lost his job

51:16

and he didn't really have much direction

51:18

and stuff. And so

51:20

he uses these experiences as kind of a tool

51:23

to work through something. I think

51:26

he could have just gone to therapy. It

51:29

probably would have been a little easier versus...

51:31

Well, the thing about it for me is

51:35

there's something else that especially

51:37

these two are getting out of this experience that

51:39

maybe they don't want to speak to because it could

51:41

be controversial. Because

51:44

again, there is this sexual

51:48

undertone to this and it's really

51:50

rampant through all their experiences.

51:53

This sexual, they make you

51:55

get naked and humiliate

51:58

you. And obviously there's some people that are into

52:01

that and they like that sort of thing and so this

52:03

kind of plays into that but then it also

52:05

has this this fear and violence

52:08

in it at the same time and

52:11

so there's obviously people that enjoy

52:14

that for whatever reason and or they have a kink

52:17

or something like that so I think that's part

52:19

of it especially for these two that there's something sexual

52:21

they're getting out of it that so

52:23

they're not able to get otherwise especially

52:26

Russell because just because how invested

52:29

he is in this experience

52:32

so other thing I will say too that I think

52:34

makes this a little bit different

52:36

than the Mckaymee Manor is that the

52:39

actors are very much

52:42

they know everything about you yeah

52:44

yeah true like they they make

52:46

you especially these guys that go through it multiple

52:48

times they make you like fill out huge

52:51

questionnaires like they really like almost

52:53

do like full background checks on you I know

52:55

the if your if your social medias

52:58

are public they'll scour through your social

53:00

medias I heard that too they like figure

53:03

out who your family is they figure out

53:05

like obviously they eventually know

53:07

where you live when you do that home experience

53:09

so they they know like everything

53:12

about you and oftentimes they know your deepest

53:14

darkest secrets as well and so

53:16

they use that to curate

53:18

this experience for you and they're talking

53:21

to you the whole time and

53:23

you know I think in the seasonal haunts

53:26

maybe not quite as much because there's more people

53:28

going through but for these invite only sort

53:30

of deals with one person

53:32

at a time it's very very like they they

53:35

know how to

53:37

get to that inner sanctum and

53:40

completely obliterate it and expose everything

53:43

and make you and which I

53:45

could see how if they're depending on what it was

53:47

there's certain things that maybe you

53:50

fears that you had or things that you were trying

53:52

to get over like maybe how they could like

53:54

scare that out of you yeah right it's

53:56

basically to get you to like

53:58

face those fears head on. There's

54:01

this whole theory of

54:03

facing your fears.

54:05

One of the ways is just do it and

54:07

then you're not scared of it anymore. Immersion

54:09

therapy. Immersion therapies. Yeah, exactly.

54:13

That's kind of what they're doing as well as

54:15

immersion therapy. I guess if there was

54:17

a therapy, it's going on here.

54:20

I love it. If we go with that too

54:22

with therapy, it's like about becoming

54:25

vulnerable, telling things

54:28

about yourself. The parallels are there for sure

54:32

with the personalized

54:35

blackout experience and therapy. Some

54:38

people use it a bit. They

54:40

kind of abuse it, which you'll see in the documentary

54:43

how it gets to a point where it's just

54:45

like, where do we go from here? But it's

54:47

also like traditional

54:50

therapy. You're not getting waterboarded. You're

54:52

not getting tied down. It adds

54:55

these weird elements to it where I

54:57

think you're on board with that where

54:59

it is kind of a kink. You're

55:01

getting something sexual out of it. I agree with that.

55:04

Also, they touch on in the documentary The Survivors,

55:07

which we can't really find any trace of it. I look

55:09

at it everywhere. I'm on Facebook. They

55:12

used to be a Facebook group. I don't know if they still exist.

55:14

Maybe it's similar to the blackout

55:17

experience where it's very private, possibly

55:19

an invite only. You can't even search for it. I have

55:22

no idea. But it's essentially

55:24

these few dozen people who have gone through

55:27

the personalized experiences and they

55:29

call themselves the survivors and

55:31

they have these little help

55:35

group meetings, I guess, to add to

55:37

the therapy. They all get together

55:39

and talk about it. Supposedly, Russell

55:42

and Chris have also met

55:44

with some of the hardcore fans before,

55:46

like

55:47

at a bar or something and

55:49

talked about the experience. But then

55:52

even Russell has admitted, he's like, I leave

55:54

after a little bit and just let them

55:56

hang out with each other because I

55:58

don't think he wants to give up the air.

55:59

the illusion so much.

56:02

It's kind of like meeting the author of your favorite book

56:04

and getting to like talk to them, pick

56:06

their brains about it. I think he wants to shy away

56:08

from that and not give up too much. Keep the

56:10

fantasy alive. Yeah, exactly. So to speak,

56:13

you know. So in 2017 and 2018,

56:17

Blackout incorporated their Extreme Theater event

56:19

into the Overlook Film Festival in Oregon.

56:22

And it took place in one of the hotel rooms in the Timberline

56:24

Lodge in Mt. Hood, Oregon. The

56:27

Timberline Hotel is actually where they film the outside

56:29

of the Overlook Hotel for one

56:31

of the best movies, Stanley Kubrick's The Shining. And

56:33

by 2017, it already

56:36

had its fair share of ghost stories. Alex

56:39

Riviello on slashfilm.com gave a

56:41

walkthrough of his experience. So

56:43

during the film festival, Alex said that guests were

56:45

basically snowed in the day before.

56:48

So Alex was already on edge before the Blackout

56:50

experiment even began. He

56:53

had been chosen to get a private session of the Blackout

56:55

experience set up in the hotel. He

56:57

was sent a cryptic email that read, please

57:00

show up at your designated time to the

57:02

Ram's Head Bar on the third floor of

57:04

the Timberline Lodge. There will be someone

57:06

waiting for you. They'll be wearing an old

57:08

white suit and carrying a black notebook.

57:11

Come at the exact scheduled time. Do

57:14

not come one minute early. Do

57:16

not come one minute late. Do

57:19

not come to the area beforehand and

57:21

quote unquote scope it out. If we see

57:23

you doing so, and we will see

57:25

you, we will know you don't

57:28

follow instructions and the experience will

57:30

be over and you will forfeit

57:32

your ticket. If you are late, you

57:34

will forfeit your ticket. So come on time,

57:37

precisely on time.

57:39

After being on edge all morning, he went to the bar

57:41

exactly when they told him to be there.

57:44

And that's when he noticed a man in a rumpled

57:46

white suit carrying a black notebook sitting

57:48

in a nearby booth.

57:50

As he sat down, the stranger handed over a waiver

57:52

to sign and gave him the safety word

57:54

that would stop the experience

57:56

at any moment. Frogs

57:58

knew the experience had already begun. The

58:01

man in the suit then placed a pair of noise-canceling

58:03

headphones on Alex's head.

58:05

Alex tried to listen to the quiet voice that was speaking,

58:08

but it was hard to hear. Then

58:10

the stranger took Alex's hands in his

58:13

and he pressed their heads together. He then

58:15

pulled out a vial of oil and began rubbing it

58:17

on his hands.

58:18

Then he rubbed it on Alex's neck while still

58:20

pressing their heads together.

58:22

By this point, Alex began laughing nervously.

58:27

Other patrons in the bar also noticed a strange

58:29

interaction. But even though it was

58:31

borderline funny, Alex admitted it was a great

58:33

way to unsettle him in a public

58:35

space. Then the man reached for his

58:37

throat and started choking him, just a little,

58:40

but it was enough to make him worried. The

58:42

pressure of his hand increased little by little until

58:44

he eventually shoved an envelope into Alex's

58:47

hands and ripped the headphones off

58:49

his ears.

58:50

He told him to leave the bar as fast as possible

58:52

and follow the instructions inside the envelope. This

58:55

is what the instructions read.

58:58

Go to room number 107. Use

59:01

the provided key to enter the room. Take

59:04

off your shoes and socks and leave them on

59:06

the floor at the foot of the bed. Place

59:08

the key on the bedside table.

59:10

There

59:11

were two lamps on. Turn them

59:13

both off.

59:15

Crawl into the bed under the covers. Go

59:19

to sleep.

59:21

Failure to follow these instructions will result

59:23

in your immediate removal. Alex

59:26

found the door and stood outside, wondering what horrors

59:28

he'd find inside. But

59:31

after unlocking the door with a large brass key, he

59:33

entered the bedroom.

59:35

Upon entering, he was expecting

59:37

someone or something to burst out, but nothing happened.

59:40

It was dark and foggy like someone had left a humidifier

59:43

on. Only two lamps on either side of

59:45

the bed shed light in the room. Static

59:47

blared from a radio on the nightstand. All

59:50

the windows were blocked out and began thinking something

59:53

was happening in the closet and the bathroom behind

59:55

closed doors. But he remembered

59:57

to follow the instructions as written. He

1:00:00

took off his shoes and socks and left them at the foot

1:00:02

of the bed. He placed the key on the nightstand

1:00:04

and then turned the lights off. After

1:00:06

getting into bed underneath the covers, the static from

1:00:08

the radio shut off. This is

1:00:10

the old hotel had creaky floors so you could hear strangers

1:00:13

moving inside the hotel room. One

1:00:15

was in the closet,

1:00:17

the other in the bathroom.

1:00:19

When the two figures entered the room, they stood on either

1:00:21

side of the bed. They

1:00:22

were both dressed in black.

1:00:25

Then both figures climbed into bed with

1:00:27

him. It

1:00:29

started snuggling. They

1:00:31

were braving heavier and heavier as they got up close

1:00:34

to him before they threw the sheets to the side and

1:00:36

shoved the pillow over his head.

1:00:38

After smothering him for a moment, they forced him out

1:00:40

of bed and shoved him into the bathroom, which

1:00:42

had a dim red light on. They

1:00:44

covered his eyes and shoved him into the corner. One

1:00:47

of them ordered him to stay exactly

1:00:50

where he was, staring into the corner.

1:00:52

Then one said, do not say

1:00:54

a word until she asks you. Then

1:00:57

both figures left the hotel room. Alex

1:01:00

stood in the bathroom staring at the wall. That

1:01:03

is when he heard moans and the sound of chains

1:01:05

coming from the bathtub beside him. But

1:01:07

he remembered his orders and he stayed

1:01:10

standing in the corner.

1:01:12

He then heard a woman crying louder and louder

1:01:14

and eventually felt someone tugging on his

1:01:17

leg. He turned to see a woman crawling on the floor

1:01:20

in her underwear with a hood over her head.

1:01:22

It manacles around her wrists. After

1:01:24

he heard her, he saw blood-red riding on the wall that said, remove

1:01:27

her hood. As he pulled it off,

1:01:29

he saw the woman was wide-eyed and frantic.

1:01:32

She then lunged to the toilet bowl just beside

1:01:34

Alex and vomited.

1:01:35

She then screamed,

1:01:37

I need my medicine. When

1:01:39

Alex looked into the bathtub, he saw piles of orange

1:01:42

prescription bottles. He started rummaging through

1:01:44

them looking for the woman's medicine, but

1:01:46

they were all empty. By now the strange

1:01:48

woman was lying on her back coughing and screaming.

1:01:51

She then began piling the empty pill bottles in the sink to

1:01:53

separate them from the others. After

1:01:56

what felt like an eternity, he finally found one of the pill

1:01:58

bottles holding a single pill. He

1:02:00

retrieved it and placed it in the woman's mouth.

1:02:02

She coughed and gagged a few times, but eventually

1:02:04

seemed better.

1:02:06

She thanked him and asked him his name.

1:02:08

As he told her Alex, she lifted her hands

1:02:10

that were still bound together. It

1:02:12

looked like they were locked with a padlock,

1:02:14

and she asked him to find the key.

1:02:17

That's when she pointed towards the toilet,

1:02:19

and Alex realized he had to search the toilet

1:02:22

bowl,

1:02:22

that she had just vomited in. Luckily,

1:02:26

Alex wasn't a germaphobe. When

1:02:28

he reached his hand inside, there was a chunky mixture

1:02:31

of awfully fake vomit,

1:02:34

and sure enough, a key rest at the bottom of the

1:02:36

bowl. After pulling it out, he unlocked

1:02:38

her chains. But after this,

1:02:41

things got much weirder. The

1:02:43

woman began thanking him over and over again,

1:02:46

and she began tugging at his clothes, lifting off his shirt

1:02:48

and grabbing at his belt. He tried

1:02:50

guarding himself, but she was too persistent. Before

1:02:53

he knew it, he was down to his underwear. She

1:02:56

then tried to give him a drink and a strange medicine

1:02:58

cup. Luckily it was just water,

1:03:01

but one after the next she kept forcing him to drink more

1:03:03

and more water. They

1:03:05

were interrupted by a loud banging noise in the

1:03:07

distance. As they both peeked out

1:03:09

of the bathroom, there was no one there. She

1:03:11

then led him to the hotel room door, and

1:03:13

after checking the hallway, still,

1:03:16

there was no one there. So she

1:03:18

led him to the bed, laid him down, and pulled him down

1:03:20

with her, and

1:03:22

Alex had to come to terms with the fact that

1:03:24

he was a married man now lying

1:03:26

in bed in his underwear,

1:03:28

next to a strange woman who was also

1:03:30

in her underwear.

1:03:32

As his heart was racing, she started asking questions

1:03:35

like what fear was, and he answered,

1:03:37

the unknown. What she later admitted

1:03:39

was nonsense. She then asked him

1:03:42

what he was most afraid of, and Alex laughed. When

1:03:44

she asked why he was laughing, he responded that he

1:03:46

laughed when he was nervous.

1:03:48

She then asked if he trusted her.

1:03:50

After a moment of hesitation, he said yes.

1:03:53

She then pulled out straps and started tying his

1:03:55

hands down to the bed. Once he

1:03:57

was securely strapped down, she placed noise cancelling

1:03:59

him.

1:03:59

headphones over his ears. All

1:04:02

he could hear was static. Suddenly

1:04:05

from behind the woman out came a large man in

1:04:07

a zippered gimp mask. He

1:04:10

then grabbed the woman and started beating her. Alex

1:04:13

tried to pull away from the straps at times to the bed, but

1:04:15

they were too tight. The man in the

1:04:17

gimp mask looked over at him for a moment. And

1:04:19

in that moment of silence, it felt like a threat. The

1:04:22

large man then returned to the woman and continued beating

1:04:24

her until she stopped moving. He dragged

1:04:27

her across the room and dumped her on the couch.

1:04:29

The man then came over to Alex and straddled

1:04:31

him.

1:04:32

After taking off the gimp mask, he then put the mask

1:04:34

over Alex's head and returned the headphones over his

1:04:37

ears. He could barely see anything through

1:04:39

the eye slits.

1:04:40

And now the headphones began blaring. Puff

1:04:42

the magic dragon.

1:04:44

The strange man then stripped off all of his clothes

1:04:47

and simulated sexual assault on the woman.

1:04:50

At some point she crawled over to the bed and tried to grab

1:04:52

Alex's arm for help, but he

1:04:54

was still tied to the bed. After

1:04:56

the man finished with the woman,

1:04:58

he jumped back on top of Alex and started pushing

1:05:00

down on his chest while staring directly into his

1:05:03

eyes.

1:05:03

He then shifted the mask on Alex's head until

1:05:06

he could barely see through on the holes, covering

1:05:08

his face,

1:05:09

possibly a mouth hole.

1:05:11

The man then untied Alex's arms, dragged him

1:05:13

off the bed and pushed him towards the door. Alex

1:05:16

thought he was about to get pushed out into the hallway and

1:05:18

forced to run around in the gimp mask in his underwear.

1:05:21

But luckily that didn't happen. Another

1:05:23

man appeared and then began dressing Alex as fast as

1:05:25

they could. One of the men then whispered

1:05:27

in Alex's ear, you will think

1:05:29

of this every time you're in the dark. Then

1:05:32

they shoved him out of the hotel room door and ordered

1:05:34

him to run. He stumbled down the hall

1:05:37

while still fixing his pants and shirt. Alex

1:05:39

later wrote, it was insane,

1:05:42

exhilarating, and absolutely

1:05:44

an amazing experience. In

1:05:47

all my years, I perhaps became numb to the

1:05:49

scare of horror movies,

1:05:51

but I'd never take one for granted ever again.

1:05:54

Hours later, headed to one of the hotel bars

1:05:56

for dinner when he saw another bewildered looking

1:05:58

man stumbling down the stairs. the familiar

1:06:00

envelope in his hand. All Alex

1:06:02

told him was, good luck. After

1:06:05

the 2019 season, it looks like blackout

1:06:08

has ended. The website and social media

1:06:10

pages do still exist and there

1:06:12

are hopes that the extreme haunt will return someday,

1:06:15

but as of now, it is not currently

1:06:18

operating.

1:06:21

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I love how when he gets forced into

1:08:38

the bed, he's like, oh God, I'm a married man

1:08:40

and there's this woman next to me. Well, little

1:08:43

did he know they kind of, you know,

1:08:45

as they say, subverted his expectations

1:08:47

and it turns out it was the huge man

1:08:50

in the gimp mask that came and strangled

1:08:52

him instead. Very

1:08:54

intense experience though. Yeah, think

1:08:57

of the pill bottle thing would have been really

1:08:59

intense too because he talks about how she's just incessantly

1:09:02

screaming in this bathroom, which

1:09:04

is stressful and you're looking for

1:09:07

a tiny pill in one pill bottle

1:09:09

that's among dozens. Seems like a

1:09:11

theme that they do is put

1:09:13

you under stress too and make you do things

1:09:16

and be a part of it, of the actual

1:09:20

narrative that's playing out. Yeah. And

1:09:22

I mean, this is just his experience.

1:09:24

So again, this is like changes up for

1:09:27

different people. Yeah. Because one

1:09:29

of the things that really

1:09:32

got me in the documentary that Russell

1:09:34

had to do was they

1:09:38

forced Russell to pull the trigger on a gun

1:09:41

to a hostage kneeling on the ground and

1:09:43

they were like yelling at him and that was one

1:09:45

of the moments where I felt

1:09:47

like Russell was truly like

1:09:50

broken.

1:09:51

And so they literally handed him a gun and

1:09:54

they either say pull it or do

1:09:56

it or something and he's pointing the gun at this

1:09:58

hooded figure. that's kneeling on the ground

1:10:01

and Russell's just like

1:10:03

crying and he's just like but

1:10:05

he eventually pulls the trigger and of course you

1:10:07

know there's no bullets or anything but

1:10:10

just pulling the trigger was enough I

1:10:12

mean he breaks down he like drops the gun

1:10:14

and he like truly thought

1:10:15

he was going to kill this

1:10:17

person yeah and I

1:10:20

think for me when I saw that I was like wow this

1:10:24

is very real like even though it's

1:10:26

a fake experience it is very real

1:10:28

when you're in it yeah that's why they were talking

1:10:30

about like their goal was to make you forget

1:10:33

that you're in a safe environment

1:10:35

you are in a safe environment the whole time

1:10:37

but their goal was to get you to forget

1:10:39

that and I think that's if you can

1:10:41

curate something like that that's pretty powerful

1:10:44

and

1:10:46

that's where you get to the point of some

1:10:48

uh serious psychological trauma

1:10:51

too yeah you're putting

1:10:53

people in that intensive situations

1:10:55

to the point where they forget kind of what's

1:10:57

going on exactly that's

1:10:59

immersive horror and that stays with you

1:11:02

yeah

1:11:02

for a long long time

1:11:05

now one of the things I wanted to do because

1:11:07

this is where you really get a lot more understanding

1:11:11

around the experience and what it's like for different

1:11:13

people is I want

1:11:15

to read a five-star review

1:11:18

of the blackout haunted house in New York

1:11:20

from 2019 and then we'll

1:11:23

read a negative review so you

1:11:25

can kind of see how it's really different

1:11:27

for everybody everybody responds so differently but

1:11:29

this particular person's review

1:11:31

is very interesting to me based on her history

1:11:34

so this is a review that was left publicly

1:11:37

on yelp.com by Mika Kay

1:11:39

from Cleveland Ohio on October

1:11:43

26, 2019 titled Blackout.

1:11:45

I highly recommend it to everyone.

1:11:47

It reads, I didn't know a lot about

1:11:50

blackout other than what I saw in glimpses on

1:11:52

social media over the past few years. I've

1:11:54

always loved haunts but I couldn't bring myself to do

1:11:56

them anymore. I've been raped

1:11:58

and sexually assaulted. And the idea

1:12:01

of people jumping at me or grabbing me scared the

1:12:03

hell out of me. It's not something I thought about,

1:12:05

but as someone whose love language is physical touch,

1:12:08

it's something I needed to reclaim. I

1:12:10

was so proud of my partner for going through with it and

1:12:12

the way he described it, I knew I had to

1:12:15

go. I bought my ticket yesterday and

1:12:17

the anticipation killed me in the best way possible.

1:12:20

When I arrived, I checked in with Faith up front.

1:12:22

She immediately made me feel safe and was such a joy to

1:12:25

talk to. And Chris, I appreciate

1:12:27

him so so much. I knew the questions

1:12:29

I was going to be asked before going in, so I knew

1:12:31

I needed to be honest about my anxiety. I

1:12:34

just started taking medications again and although I

1:12:36

feel significantly better, I know what

1:12:38

I'm off, I know when I'm off or

1:12:40

triggered. His check-in was so

1:12:42

reassuring and he instilled that confidence in me

1:12:44

that I could do this and be honest with myself if I

1:12:46

needed to stop. The actors

1:12:49

were everything. I knew I was in

1:12:51

safe hands the entire time. Their

1:12:53

generosity of vulnerability and control and their ability

1:12:56

to read my body and what I needed in the moment was

1:12:58

incredible. I was terrified

1:13:00

and amused and happy among a shit-ton

1:13:02

of other feelings and ultimately I knew

1:13:04

I was safe and fuck

1:13:07

it felt so good to

1:13:10

scream. I'm very grateful

1:13:12

for what this experience provided for me.

1:13:14

I know I have a lot of healing to do when it comes to trust

1:13:16

and understanding physical touch and different types of relationships,

1:13:20

but this experience proved to me

1:13:22

that it's something I don't have to be afraid of. It

1:13:25

is something I need and I can embrace

1:13:27

and

1:13:28

if I'm ever afraid, I'm

1:13:30

in control.

1:13:31

It also made me so excited for rewrites

1:13:33

on my musical Maxa, my ultimate

1:13:36

goal for the piece is to make it accessible to survivors

1:13:38

like myself and leave the ending in a way

1:13:40

that may not be satisfying for everyone, but

1:13:42

at the very least cathartic.

1:13:45

I felt so much relief and dread when I finished it because

1:13:47

I was deep in the pits of my depression at the time.

1:13:50

Blackout inspired the hell out of me and I can't

1:13:52

wait to dive back in. To their company,

1:13:54

thank you for everything.

1:13:55

I didn't know this was something I needed and I'm

1:13:58

so grateful for the experience.

1:14:00

If you're curious about it, I couldn't recommend it

1:14:02

more.

1:14:03

Go, go, go. Before they close.

1:14:06

Wow. Yeah,

1:14:10

and that's, I mean, stay

1:14:11

on the... Sexual assault survivor,

1:14:13

I mean, that's pretty

1:14:16

incredible to read. Yeah, and I know Josh

1:14:18

Randall had talked about, like, if you can learn

1:14:21

something about yourself and take something positive

1:14:23

away from it, that's also one of their goals. So

1:14:25

it sounds like mission accomplished

1:14:27

with that reviewer.

1:14:31

I noticed a lot of the bad reviews come

1:14:34

from the seasonal Halloween

1:14:37

ones, and I've heard that before.

1:14:39

I think some people maybe expect that

1:14:41

they're going into the personalized,

1:14:45

hyper curated ones when they're not

1:14:47

realizing they're just doing the Halloween ones, which

1:14:49

I hear are much more tame than

1:14:51

the personalized ones.

1:14:54

But I'll read one here.

1:14:56

So here's October 24th, 2012. So obviously the Halloween season. Curtis

1:15:03

B and they did the New York show. This

1:15:05

isn't scary. It's just a cockfest.

1:15:09

Located in Chelsea, it makes a lot of sense.

1:15:11

They should have just saved the money on the space

1:15:14

and have it at a gay bar. Seems

1:15:16

a bit homophobic. A naked dude

1:15:18

will make you dance with him as he holds a

1:15:20

music box to your ear. Another

1:15:22

put a bag over my head and basically just tried

1:15:24

to make out with me. I was also

1:15:26

chained up and a dude acted like he was going to rape

1:15:28

me if I didn't scream when I didn't

1:15:30

scream or did a mock scream. He said

1:15:32

he was going to kick me out and tell everyone out front

1:15:35

that I called safety in the first round. Then

1:15:37

he put me in time out for not screaming. What

1:15:40

a joke.

1:15:41

Which,

1:15:43

come on, you're supposed to follow the orders,

1:15:45

right? That was one of the rules. So

1:15:47

there were other gross but not necessarily

1:15:49

scary situations as well. There was a little

1:15:51

girl pretending to shit blood into a

1:15:54

bucket that makes you touch whatever is in

1:15:56

there. There's another

1:15:58

girl sucking on a condom. girl with no

1:16:00

teeth that hands you pliers, and

1:16:03

a girl in a room with airplane noises

1:16:05

playing that hands

1:16:07

you some wet thing with hair on it,

1:16:09

then pretends to puke on you. The scenarios

1:16:12

are mostly just molestations that

1:16:14

would only scare someone that has been

1:16:16

sexually assaulted.

1:16:18

Thankfully, I didn't pay for this because my friend had

1:16:20

an extra ticket. I had no idea

1:16:22

what I was going into.

1:16:25

That sounds like maybe, I don't know. It's

1:16:28

valid, but also sounds like maybe

1:16:31

he didn't know what he was going into. I think that's

1:16:34

the problem. Maybe he thought

1:16:36

it was supposed to be a more traditional haunted house.

1:16:40

Just glancing through most of the

1:16:42

negative reviews, they all come around that Halloween

1:16:45

seasonal time. The

1:16:47

number one thing is I was

1:16:50

not scared. It was just disgusting,

1:16:52

gross, and they felt like

1:16:54

they were underserved during this experience.

1:16:57

I think a lot of these people

1:17:00

are very confused that they thought they were going

1:17:02

for the full shebang,

1:17:06

fully curated experience. Instead,

1:17:08

they all got the same

1:17:10

experience out of it, a lot of the same scenes

1:17:12

and things like that each year.

1:17:15

A lot of them were

1:17:17

just like, it was disgusting and it

1:17:20

smelled like shit. One

1:17:22

dude was like, well, at least there's one room where

1:17:24

a hot girl was grinding on me chewing on a condom

1:17:27

and I knew it was fake. I think that was

1:17:29

the issue is a lot of people felt like it just

1:17:31

felt fake and not

1:17:33

real enough. Also,

1:17:37

I feel like the people that are seeking out blackout

1:17:39

probably have watched the Mckamey Manor

1:17:42

and so they're comparing the Mckamey

1:17:44

Manor to this experience. When they go

1:17:46

through, they're expecting, they're like, that wasn't

1:17:48

that intense. They're like, oh, what the hell?

1:17:50

I wasn't locked in a coffin and fed cockroaches?

1:17:54

What's going on? Again, it's that sadomas.

1:18:00

Masochism it's like it's very much that like

1:18:02

dark kind of sexual holds. It's

1:18:04

not really Really,

1:18:07

I think people are confused at what the experience

1:18:09

is and what it's used towards even though It seems

1:18:11

like a lot of them did watch like some of the YouTube stuff

1:18:13

and they just were Just annoyed

1:18:15

by it. But yeah a lot of negative reviews Yeah

1:18:18

on on blackout experience and some

1:18:21

positive ones which it's weird that For

1:18:23

all these people that had a negative experience the

1:18:25

one that has the positive experiences, you

1:18:28

know

1:18:29

A you know domestic violence survivor

1:18:31

or sexual assault survivor. It's it's crazy to

1:18:33

think that's huge It is

1:18:35

and I would say I don't know if I

1:18:37

was the creator I would just say that that it's

1:18:40

reviews like that that would keep me going if

1:18:42

anything like if it's actually helping

1:18:44

people That's uh,

1:18:47

I guess all you can really ask for yeah But

1:18:50

that's the thing too is like you have to really

1:18:54

dig for The

1:18:57

personalized like the really custom personalized

1:18:59

experience and that's why that documentary because the people

1:19:01

in the survivors group Are the ones

1:19:04

that had the invite only offseason

1:19:06

experiences and it's really hard to find what

1:19:08

those people went through I mean we we dug

1:19:10

really hard to find what

1:19:13

they went through and the only things we could find where Russell

1:19:15

and

1:19:17

the other Bob from the

1:19:19

documentary, but I

1:19:21

Think I think a lot of people are just pissed because they

1:19:23

want that experience They want that like one

1:19:25

on one, you know, the real eyes are my zed Yeah

1:19:28

invite only experience and they're

1:19:30

disappointed by the Halloween version of blackout.

1:19:32

Yeah, I mean

1:19:35

And they could have they could have eventually gotten an

1:19:37

invite if they stuck with it But

1:19:40

I don't think you're gonna get an invite if you throw

1:19:42

up a one-star review on Yelp You're never gonna

1:19:44

have the chance to know serious shit.

1:19:47

I want to ask you Danny What are what are your thoughts

1:19:49

on on blackout and would you ever

1:19:52

partake in it? You know after first

1:19:54

hearing about it. I had a hard

1:19:56

no Because when I was

1:19:59

first told about it, I was just told that it was

1:20:01

basically a sexual McCain manner and

1:20:03

knowing how crazy

1:20:05

McCain manner was and the abuse that people

1:20:07

went through, it really turned me off the idea.

1:20:09

But I mean, after watching the

1:20:12

documentary and like learning more about it and the experiences

1:20:14

people go through, I'd be

1:20:16

willing to try blackout

1:20:19

and not just like the Halloween basic

1:20:21

version, I'd be willing to try the curated

1:20:23

version. Knowing that

1:20:26

I'm in a safe space, like

1:20:29

I'm in a safe environment with the actors that

1:20:31

actually care about my safety would help

1:20:33

me a lot going into it. But

1:20:36

I know that during it, I would have to

1:20:39

like suspend my belief and not

1:20:42

constantly think about how I'm safe, how I'm safe, how I'm

1:20:44

safe, I would have to put myself into it and give

1:20:48

in a little bit to experience it. And

1:20:50

I think that's what a lot of these people with the one star reviews

1:20:52

just refuse to do. They refuse

1:20:54

to like give in and just experience

1:20:57

it. Like we were saying about the other on houses,

1:20:59

just have fun, experience it. It

1:21:02

makes me think of like the one we went to on Friday,

1:21:05

we went into it, expecting to have

1:21:08

fun and be fun along with

1:21:10

it. If you go into it with an attitude

1:21:12

of like, I bet no one's

1:21:14

going to scare me. Yeah, you're probably not going to get

1:21:16

scared. And like I like how Daniel

1:21:19

brought up the suspension of disbelief.

1:21:21

That's I think that's a big part of it in horror

1:21:24

in general, whether you're talking about movies, on

1:21:26

houses, whatever mindset. Yeah, totally

1:21:29

is your mindset. You're not going to get scared if if

1:21:31

you don't think you're going to get scared and you put yourself

1:21:33

into that. But I agree though,

1:21:35

I would do it.

1:21:37

I would

1:21:38

this this, I'll just admit, I would

1:21:41

do the at home curated

1:21:43

break in shit. Wow.

1:21:47

I think that would be. You

1:21:50

want to be waterboarded naked in your bathtub?

1:21:52

You know, it's a dream of mine. No,

1:21:55

it's like I think the other thing

1:21:57

about it is that

1:21:59

since

1:21:59

creators know that other

1:22:02

people know, I

1:22:04

don't necessarily know if they're gonna come in and

1:22:06

waterboard me. I think the fun of

1:22:08

the home invasion is you

1:22:11

have no idea what you're getting into. I don't

1:22:13

know if they're gonna strip me naked, put me in the bathroom.

1:22:15

I don't like, I don't, are they gonna take me to the kitchen,

1:22:17

throw me in the oven? I've no like, I

1:22:20

just, I just, stuff you like a turkey. Yeah,

1:22:25

I have no idea

1:22:27

what they're gonna do and I think that is the allure.

1:22:29

It's the mystery, it's the not

1:22:31

knowing what you're getting into, which also,

1:22:34

I know they tried to, they're saying like we wanted

1:22:36

to move away from the traditional haunt, but

1:22:39

in a way that is very

1:22:42

much like a traditional haunted house because

1:22:44

like I was saying earlier, we're, we're

1:22:46

trying to get the Mile Higher Media team to go

1:22:48

to this haunted house, remember, and there's been

1:22:50

some pushback. Some people I won't

1:22:53

name, I won't shame you, but really

1:22:55

it's, it's the psyching yourself

1:22:58

out beforehand is like kind

1:23:00

of the scariest part. The anxiety you get

1:23:02

and like when you show up and you start seeing what

1:23:05

you're about to go into, you start typing it up and you

1:23:07

hear people screaming inside. Yeah, I like

1:23:09

that's a part of the horror experience. You're

1:23:11

kind of, once you're in line, that's, it's kind of begun

1:23:13

and I think that the home invasion

1:23:16

part kind of adds to that because you're like, okay,

1:23:18

where the fuck do I go? It's October

1:23:21

16th, where like, are they, are

1:23:23

they gonna knock in the door? Are they gonna come in through

1:23:25

the back of what's gonna happen?

1:23:28

You know, it's kind of like psyching yourself out beforehand

1:23:30

is kind of a part of the experience. So I

1:23:32

like that. Well, the home, the

1:23:34

home experience is, is definitely the most extreme

1:23:37

that blackout gets and it's most similar to what

1:23:39

Russ does with Mckamey Manor. I mean, they've

1:23:42

like kidnapped your ass in Mckamey

1:23:44

Manor like fucking, so they come

1:23:46

and get you and throw

1:23:49

you in a van and do the whole shebang,

1:23:51

you know, come get you from your house

1:23:53

type of thing. And I think that, I

1:23:56

do think there is, it

1:23:59

can be hard. It's hard for people to allow

1:24:02

their minds to go to

1:24:04

that place of immersion. And

1:24:06

I think, like, I think Danny said,

1:24:09

like the one-star reviews are people

1:24:11

who refuse to like let

1:24:13

themselves get in the right mind state.

1:24:15

Like they went in there like, oh, this is gonna be crazy.

1:24:18

And then like they just fought

1:24:20

it the whole time. Yeah. It's the way

1:24:22

that I kind of describe the Haunt experience

1:24:25

is kind of like a psychedelic trip. With

1:24:27

psychedelics, if you really wanna

1:24:29

get the most out of it, you gotta

1:24:31

like let yourself go. You've gotta

1:24:34

completely submit to, you know,

1:24:36

the substance and let it take your mind where it

1:24:39

wants to go. Hopefully it goes to a good place.

1:24:42

Same thing with horror and haunts

1:24:45

is like, if you fight it and you're like,

1:24:47

I don't wanna be scared, I don't want to

1:24:49

feel that fear, you can, especially

1:24:51

with a haunt, you can tell yourself, this is fake,

1:24:54

this is, I'm gonna be safe, there's a safety

1:24:56

word. And I think for

1:24:58

me, because I'm just

1:25:01

so mentally, I

1:25:03

would be able to maintain that

1:25:05

in my mind the entire time. So

1:25:08

I would prefer not to have the

1:25:10

safety word if I really wanted

1:25:12

that true experience. Because if I knew that I had an out,

1:25:15

then that would always be in the back of my mind.

1:25:17

And I don't know if I could be fully immersed into it.

1:25:19

So that's where I like understand the people

1:25:22

that do mechanic manner because there isn't that safety

1:25:24

word. That's a great point

1:25:26

because I would tell myself, you're

1:25:29

not saying safety. I would just go

1:25:31

into it being like, you're gonna go through

1:25:33

this and you're not gonna chicken out.

1:25:36

So yeah, I get the appeal of it

1:25:38

as well. But I would just personally go

1:25:40

into it and say, it doesn't matter if there's

1:25:42

a safe word or not, you're going through it, buddy. I

1:25:45

would just tell myself that. And hopefully that

1:25:47

would make the experience even better knowing

1:25:50

just personally that I couldn't out or

1:25:52

I would disappoint myself. Do you worry,

1:25:54

do either of you worry that it would potentially

1:25:58

awaken something in me? either

1:26:00

awaken something deep within

1:26:03

you or traumatize you in a way

1:26:05

that could potentially

1:26:07

affect you later on or could affect

1:26:11

your relationships personally

1:26:13

going forward. Cause that's like one thing I think about is

1:26:16

these guys that are going through it, a lot of people go

1:26:19

through it who are in healthy relationships, are

1:26:21

married, have significant others and I just

1:26:24

wonder if it's

1:26:27

real enough, could it affect you

1:26:30

mentally, I think that's the question and it'd

1:26:32

be interesting to hear a psychologist perspective

1:26:35

on these types of experiences is like yeah,

1:26:38

you're tricking your mind into thinking this

1:26:40

is real and you're having this experience but

1:26:43

is there a lingering effect? And I think that, I

1:26:45

think yes and no

1:26:48

could be the same way that you watch horror movies

1:26:51

and potentially you have nightmares as a result.

1:26:54

Is it that same kind of thing or sometimes

1:26:56

you watch horror movies and it doesn't affect you at all? And

1:26:59

a lot of people aren't affected by horror in

1:27:03

a more traumatic way. I

1:27:05

think that's a great question and I

1:27:07

think a part of it is because I don't

1:27:09

get scared at horror movies anymore. I'll

1:27:11

get scared at horror video games. That's like the one immersive

1:27:13

experience that I can have some

1:27:16

level of fear towards and the reason I

1:27:18

would do the at home experience is just

1:27:20

kind of tapping into that. I kind

1:27:22

of miss, as weird as it sounds, I kind

1:27:24

of miss that old feeling of fear that

1:27:27

I used to get when I was a kid, like when I first watched

1:27:30

Jaws, I was probably like 11

1:27:32

or 12 or something. Terrified me, traumatized

1:27:35

me. But in hindsight,

1:27:37

I kind of like miss that and I

1:27:39

kind of want to get back to that space and I'm wondering

1:27:41

if this experience could get me there.

1:27:44

And as far as the,

1:27:46

if it would traumatize

1:27:49

me permanently, I think

1:27:51

I have enough faith in the creators

1:27:54

that they wouldn't do something

1:27:56

that would permanently

1:27:58

damage me. Obviously, I don't know. they want the experience

1:28:01

to stick with me and haunt

1:28:03

me for a while, I don't think they would

1:28:06

go as so far to like do

1:28:08

something so disturbing that I

1:28:11

can't return, I'm changed permanently

1:28:13

after that. And I think a lot of the guys

1:28:16

that we watch in the documentary are

1:28:18

a little bit more extreme

1:28:20

cases. They're following the people

1:28:22

that are getting

1:28:26

some weird extreme take on

1:28:28

it, and

1:28:31

I don't think I would have that reaction

1:28:33

to it. I don't think maybe I'm just not that type

1:28:35

of person, or I don't think I would

1:28:37

do it more than once too. These guys are doing it multiple

1:28:40

times. I would probably just

1:28:42

be a one and done, and that would be it. Because

1:28:44

yeah, the one guy is his wife's talking

1:28:46

like, you can do it as long as

1:28:48

it doesn't become consistent. What

1:28:51

is she's like, you have to moderate it or something,

1:28:54

keep it under wraps. Twice the therapist

1:28:56

too. Under control, yeah. It's so bizarre. It's

1:28:58

not wild. She's like down for this. What

1:29:01

about you Daniel? Do you feel like it would affect you in

1:29:03

any way, or are you able to kind of like block

1:29:05

things out?

1:29:07

I mean, I'm

1:29:07

pretty good at blocking things out,

1:29:10

but because of the mystery

1:29:12

behind it, I don't know if I'll

1:29:14

be able to block it out or

1:29:16

not. In regards to the

1:29:18

safe word, I'm happy

1:29:20

it's there, but I'm with Austin on that. I would

1:29:23

kind of like make it not

1:29:26

exist in my mind. I would just block out the safe word

1:29:28

and be like, that doesn't exist for you. It exists for other

1:29:30

people, but it doesn't exist for you. And

1:29:32

I would just try and go through it.

1:29:34

I'm

1:29:35

trying to think of something that I could see

1:29:37

or experience

1:29:40

that would

1:29:40

genuinely give me, I

1:29:42

guess PTSD. And I'm not

1:29:45

really sure. I think with the

1:29:47

suspension of belief, I would be able

1:29:50

to maintain the fact that it is fake, but

1:29:52

I would also be able

1:29:54

to experience it in half-life. Kind of like hallucinogens.

1:29:57

Like you see these things when you're on hallucinogens.

1:30:00

They are very real in that moment, but

1:30:02

in the back of your head, you're like, it's

1:30:05

not real. It's just, you

1:30:07

know, this drug gets, it's just this experience. It's not

1:30:09

real, but it is real. Does that kind of make

1:30:11

sense? Yeah. Well, that's exactly

1:30:13

how it is. I think, and

1:30:15

I think this is where the

1:30:19

lines are drawn between McKamey

1:30:21

Manor and what Russ is doing versus

1:30:23

Blackout and Josh and Chris are doing.

1:30:26

I think Josh and Chris know. They

1:30:28

seem very intelligent. They seem like they understand,

1:30:31

you know, they put a lot of thought into this to make sure that

1:30:33

they don't create something that crosses the line and

1:30:36

does, you know, affect

1:30:38

people long-term and in a serious

1:30:41

way. Although I will say there

1:30:44

have been people who have had,

1:30:46

actually I think Russell in the documentary says he's had

1:30:49

like back pain as a result of the

1:30:52

lingering chronic pain. And so like, there's

1:30:54

definitely, there's definitely a physical element to

1:30:56

it. It's just not to the level that Russ

1:30:58

takes it. And

1:31:01

it's definitely more psychological. And I think that's

1:31:03

the really interesting thing. We all

1:31:05

have seen so much like put somebody

1:31:08

through the Blackout experience who's never

1:31:10

seen a horror film before. They are going to have

1:31:13

terrible time. Probably

1:31:15

a traumatic experience. I mean, that's going to be PTSD

1:31:18

for them versus the

1:31:20

typical people that seek this experience out

1:31:23

our horror fans and our people who

1:31:25

engage in this type of dark

1:31:28

content on a regular basis and are

1:31:30

desensitized to it. So I think that's like

1:31:32

a huge thing to it as well as

1:31:34

like what you've been exposed to prior

1:31:36

to this. And psychologically

1:31:38

and what you see through your eyes is

1:31:41

totally different from the physical part

1:31:43

of it. And I think that's where McKeamey

1:31:46

Manor, they went the other

1:31:48

way. They went like, we're

1:31:50

going to physically fuck you up.

1:31:53

And in the process, you'll be psychologically

1:31:56

fucked up because you're going to feel pain.

1:31:59

You are going to feel pain. feel like you're gonna fucking die

1:32:01

in this. And

1:32:05

I think it's the physical part that

1:32:07

has to connect with the psychological part to

1:32:10

create that true sense

1:32:12

of fear in somebody. That

1:32:14

is very true, yeah. Because psychologically

1:32:17

our brains are so powerful that we're able

1:32:19

to pinpoint and

1:32:21

we're able to discern that this is fake,

1:32:23

this is not fake, and as long as I'm not, my body's

1:32:25

not in physical pain, which I think you

1:32:27

are throughout it, you feel some

1:32:30

pain and you feel, but they just

1:32:32

do it, it seems like they do it in spurts

1:32:35

and then they let off and then you do it in spurts. So

1:32:37

it's not like, because they

1:32:39

kind of go that way, you're able to be like, okay,

1:32:41

he's gonna stop, and I'm gonna

1:32:44

be fine. And your brain's able to kind of

1:32:46

walk you through the experience, but it became a matter

1:32:48

you're physically put through the wringer.

1:32:51

And I think that is why

1:32:54

people seek it out because it is as

1:32:57

close to real fear as

1:33:00

you can possibly get. Is it ethical? That's

1:33:02

the other question. Yeah, well, it makes me think of like

1:33:04

POWs and people who have actually

1:33:07

been tortured and stuff. Yeah, physical

1:33:09

abuse, it's the fastest and

1:33:11

easiest way to get someone to break. Right,

1:33:14

it's just physically abusing the shit out

1:33:16

of them because that plays into psychological

1:33:19

torture.

1:33:21

But yeah, I mean, you think of Guantanamo Bay, you

1:33:23

think of just all the things throughout history.

1:33:27

Yeah, it's the

1:33:29

easiest, fastest way to certainly

1:33:31

break somebody, it's physical pain. I

1:33:34

know for me, it would take that physical

1:33:37

torture to feel that shaking, the

1:33:40

fear of like, elicit that

1:33:42

fight or flight response of like, I'm gonna fucking

1:33:44

die if I don't get out of this situation.

1:33:46

What about like, I don't know, if you put

1:33:48

me in a room for 48 hours

1:33:51

playing wheels on a bus go round and round. Oh,

1:33:54

just come out of my house. I

1:33:56

can make that happen. That's so true.

1:34:00

Yeah, okay, I take it back. I get your numb to it.

1:34:02

My kid looks into the same fucking YouTube videos

1:34:04

every day. So you're numb

1:34:06

to that experience, I guess. So you've

1:34:08

mentally fortified yourself. Do you think you

1:34:10

can mentally fortify yourself against pain?

1:34:14

I think you do. I think you have

1:34:16

to survive. I think eventually you figure out how to

1:34:18

just survive at that point. Some people do, some

1:34:20

don't though. I think that's, it just comes

1:34:22

down to the person. Some people are able to fortify

1:34:25

themselves and survive the situation, as

1:34:27

many people survive war,

1:34:30

violent crime. I mean, you name

1:34:32

it, people survived it. But

1:34:34

then there's people who can't. And

1:34:37

succumb to their wounds and to the violence.

1:34:40

And so I think that's where, that's

1:34:43

the true fear

1:34:45

experiences right there is when you're listening to that

1:34:47

fire flight response. I think in blackout, I think

1:34:49

you get taste of that. But I think

1:34:52

in the way that they do it, they don't push

1:34:54

it to the point where it

1:34:57

is going to affect

1:35:00

you for years to come. You

1:35:02

know what I mean? You're able to discern that

1:35:04

this is just a simulated.

1:35:07

It's like a staged play, yeah. Which is why

1:35:09

I would do the in-house experience knowing

1:35:12

that I have faith in the

1:35:14

creators. And they seem like,

1:35:16

just I don't, I can't get it. But

1:35:18

a true gauge on them. But they don't feel like they're in this

1:35:20

for any malicious intent. Whereas

1:35:23

Russ does not seem like

1:35:25

a guy who's in it for something

1:35:27

good. I mean, the guy just looks sick. Yeah.

1:35:30

I mean, he's clearly just fucking

1:35:33

off as a rocker. And we'll dive

1:35:35

into that here. Yeah, I'm excited. In a week

1:35:38

or two. Yeah. But yeah, blackout,

1:35:40

man. It's a very interesting experience.

1:35:43

I wonder if it'll come back and, surprise

1:35:46

there's not more of these things popping

1:35:49

up. I know there's a few out there, but

1:35:51

if there's any out there that any of you

1:35:54

have gone through, let us know. Because I

1:35:56

do find these extreme haunts, as they're

1:35:58

called, very intriguing. and it's

1:36:00

interesting to kind of look at the different experiences

1:36:03

people have. I do

1:36:05

wonder though, the actors that do

1:36:07

this, I'm like, and do this like year

1:36:09

after year after year, especially the actors that work for

1:36:11

us, I'm like, is this

1:36:13

like encouraging criminal behavior

1:36:16

or is this in just acting?

1:36:18

In the actors you're saying? Yeah, like is

1:36:21

it or is it like, are

1:36:23

you kind of, you're like letting the dog

1:36:25

off the leash. Yeah, it's like is it a

1:36:27

good thing to be simulating sexual assaults for

1:36:30

people morally? It's

1:36:33

probably not. That's a fair question. But

1:36:35

at the end of the day, people are consenting to this

1:36:37

experience. The actors are consenting and

1:36:40

it's a fake, it's simulated so it's

1:36:42

not real as far as sexual assault. But

1:36:45

I do feel like

1:36:47

there's a great

1:36:49

area there that I'm like, I don't know.

1:36:52

I mean, it depends on who you ask and what your moral

1:36:54

principles are. But morally

1:36:56

it seems like, especially because

1:36:59

it's immersive, I think, you know,

1:37:01

obviously sexual assault and things like this are

1:37:03

portrayed and, you know, a lot

1:37:05

of different art forms. But

1:37:08

yeah, the fact that this is immersive and it's

1:37:11

kind of actively happening

1:37:14

and you can it's not

1:37:16

there, but it is there. It's a lot closer

1:37:18

than other mediums can take it to. So

1:37:22

it's definitely a gray area. I would say it's fine.

1:37:24

Personally, I think it's these both these

1:37:26

people have consented to this experience.

1:37:29

Well, theater. Yeah, right. And

1:37:33

I think it's as long as it's consensual.

1:37:35

And, you know, they you

1:37:38

I think morally if you're

1:37:40

going to do this,

1:37:41

gotta have an out.

1:37:42

Yeah, there the safety word, I think,

1:37:45

is a must for any type

1:37:47

of situation like this. And

1:37:49

I think that's why compared

1:37:52

to others, these guys do it do it right.

1:37:55

Whereas

1:37:57

God damn. Yeah, boy. Russ,

1:37:59

man. He's on another

1:38:01

level. So, we should

1:38:03

send some of the mile higher crew through

1:38:05

blackout if it ever comes back. I wanna send Danny

1:38:07

through blackout and then

1:38:10

Mckayman Manor. Back to back. How

1:38:12

much would I have to pay you to go through Mckayman Manor?

1:38:15

You do it for money. My legal fees. Because

1:38:18

I'd fucking swing. If

1:38:23

Lawrence wants to make me beg for my life, I'm just gonna start

1:38:25

swinging. I mean, in blackout, dude,

1:38:28

they do like suffocation stuff. That

1:38:30

freaked me out, I think. A lot of

1:38:32

the bad reviews were the plastic bags over

1:38:34

the head. People didn't like that. Fuck that. See,

1:38:37

and there is enough physical that

1:38:40

I think you could definitely experience

1:38:45

that real fear here. And I don't

1:38:47

know, maybe I could too. I've never put a plastic

1:38:49

bag over my head. No, you haven't learned

1:38:51

how to speak. Every night before that, I was a kid.

1:38:54

I mean, I'm not. Damn. The

1:38:57

big, bold letters do not let a

1:38:59

child put this bag over your head. It's over

1:39:01

there. Well,

1:39:04

we wanna know what you guys think about the blackout experience.

1:39:07

Have any of you actually gone through it? That'd be really

1:39:09

interesting to hear. If anybody

1:39:11

out there listening to this has gone

1:39:13

through blackout, we'd love to know

1:39:15

your thoughts and details on

1:39:17

your experience, so let us know. But

1:39:20

before we go, I did wanna mention that

1:39:22

we are doing a little exclusive

1:39:25

Lights Out Low Lives video. For

1:39:28

those of you who've joined the membership

1:39:30

here on YouTube, we are

1:39:32

going to be doing a little movie review on a recent

1:39:34

horror movie that honestly plays very

1:39:37

well into this episode. And

1:39:39

also answering some burning questions

1:39:41

from you guys. So if you want

1:39:43

to take part in that and get

1:39:46

access to that exclusive video, and

1:39:48

every month we're gonna try to do some piece

1:39:51

of exclusive content for you guys, whether

1:39:54

it's an additional video, mini-sewed,

1:39:57

potentially even a live stream. Definitely.

1:40:00

you check out the Lights Out Low Lives fan

1:40:02

club here on YouTube. There's a little join

1:40:04

button. You get custom emojis.

1:40:06

There's all sorts of cool stuff that comes along with it. And

1:40:09

we have a private discord, which has

1:40:11

been a ton of fun. And thank you to everybody

1:40:13

that's joined already. We really do appreciate

1:40:16

it. And we're looking forward to seeing

1:40:18

that crew grow as

1:40:20

we go forward. But that is going

1:40:22

to be it for us today. We'll

1:40:25

see you next time for Halloween

1:40:28

special. Gonna be lit. Get

1:40:31

ready for it. See you next time.

1:40:33

Bye now. Bye everybody.