Mystery Unsolved!

Bet you were just thinking, who is the leading social media influencer in the interactive murder mystery dinner theater genre? After "Googling" it would seem that we at Marriage Can Be Murder are one of the top influencers... yikes! That is a great responsibility and it is also terrifying. When you are in the lead and at the top you spend the rest of your energy staying there or you will be bumped. I prefer climbing to the top not fighting to stay there! There are many murder mystery theater shows in the US. People seem to enjoy them and there are many that have impressive accolades and resumes. Keith & Margo’s Murder Mystery have been around since 1985 and was much of our influence as we worked with them in the 1990’s when we were at Suspects Dinner Theater in Old Sacramento. With only 81 followers on Twitter and only 895 likes on Facebook it would seem like someone murdered Keith & Margo’s social media presence. Leading the pack is The Dinner Detective which have a good website and decent Facebook page at 10,863 likes and a new Instagram account with 96 followers and a filled with potential Twitter page. However, the interaction for the many sites I visited is minimal. The mystery is why they do not branch out and explore the dynamic world of social media? You can’t really call yourself interactive without it now, can you? So we may remain on top for just awhile until they solve their own mystery.

Interactive Theater 2.0

In Las Vegas when you attend a show you are sternly advised against using photography or recording devices of any kind. You are also told to silence your cell phones. The warning is given audibly sometimes in five languages. I switched that over on its head when I decided to include a Facebook Fan page into our show. As an owner/actress & head writer of the show I created and strategically implemented our Facebook Fan Page, it’s debut was on May 4th of 2009. Marriage Can Be Murder is an interactive comedy dinner show that runs seven nights a week at The D Casino. We were the first and are still the only show in Las Vegas to use social media live during our show. We also allow and encourage  photography, recordings and cell phone usage! When I tell the audience that they can use their cell phones and post photos of the show during the show, they often erupt in cheers. I wanted the audience who were playing the murder mystery game to also be involved interactively in real time online. In the beginning there were not many who were playing along but we coaxed and encouraged our guests and we posted clues and awarded points for those that decided to give it a try. We scrolled the Facebook page in the theater for the guests to see during the show. Our goal was to connect with our audience at another level. We designated an actor  backstage that played along with the guests as they interacted virtually. They pulled pictures from audience members Facebook pages added text and used them as clues. When guests saw themselves on the big screens they gravitated to it like monkeys on cupcakes. Now five years later we had to switch from our fan page to a nightly live page to handle the traffic it generates. Our audience members now add some of the best humor to our show with their invaluable input.