Interview With Jon Braver: Delusion 2023
We’ve got a really special treat for you lovely listeners! As you might know if you’ve listened to previous episodes, we are MAJOR theater nerds-and we wear that badge proudly! We both have degrees in theater performance, and being onstage together in our college years bonded us for life.
In this episode, we were so lucky to interview the legendary Jon Braver, a gentleman of many talents — who was brought to our attention for being the creator of Delusion, a location based theater production in Los Angeles. We went on Friday the 13th this year, and were truly, utterly blown away by the entire experience.
Part haunted house, part interactive theater experience, Delusion was truly unique, and it was our honor to get to chat with Jon about the creation process, his plans for the future, and to hear him share some fantastic stories about the incredible work he does. Whether you read or listen to the interview, it’s one to remember. We hope you enjoy!
This is a transcript of a Zoom interview. Minor changes have been made for clarity.
Emma (E): Hi!
Jon Braver (JB): Hi!
Zelda (Z): For our listeners, tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do!
JB: I’m Jon Braver, I’m the creator of Delusion, which is an interactive theater experience out in Pomona right now. We run ‘till November 19th. Basically, you’re living inside of a horror and suspense mysterious movie, You’re in it! We’ve got sound design, practical creatures, and incredible actors. So it’s a very unique experience. That, and I work in film and television as a writer, director and stunt coordinator.
E: Amazing. We went and it really really felt like we were inside of a movie. Like, my heart was pounding. I remember at one point I was so scared I almost tripped a little bit. It was really so incredible. Not many things get us to scream since we’ve been horror actors ourselves. But we screamed!
Z: It was so much fun. I got to be the person under the sheet for one of the parts and it was a really cool way to be in the story. So we loved it! We were there on Friday the thirteenth. It was incredible
JB: You really dove into it, that’s good.
Z: Oh yeah, we were raising our hands for everything, we were really willing to jump right into it.
JB: (laughs)
E: One of the people in our group actually thought we were part of the experience because we were so into it, but they were surprised [to learn] that no, we were just guests having an amazing time!
JB: Enthusiastic guests. The right kind of guests!
E: We always like to ask our guests at the beginning of our interviews, what was your introduction to horror? For example, I grew up across from a graveyard so it can be anything from that to movies. Whatever you feel in your heart started your journey
JB: Oh I wanna hear about your stories growing up across from that cemetery! That’s so cool! For me, I grew up across the street from the botanic gardens in the suburbs of Chicago, so that was my, I guess you can call it, graveyard, my exploratory area. But, horror, I’ll start off by saying that it’s funny because I’m not the biggest horror fan, but I’m the biggest horror fan of certain types of horror. Probably similar ones to the ones you guys enjoy. I got into it from seeing something like The Thing for the first time or Halloween. The old school stuff. When I was introduced to that, the music, the practical effects, all that kind of stuff, that was how I got into it. And I also realized [it] early on, when I went to this camp up in Wisconsin, [and] I was a camp counselor. And I would always be the one to scare people. I saw the joy that it brought people, obviously the terror, but the joyful terror it brought people. And it also made them want to talk about it the next day with their friends, and so I saw this cool effect I didn’t see with anything else; that if you scared somebody in [that] wonderfully practical way that they would actually come together and make friends from it and be the storyteller themselves. So it was kind of an infectious thing, just working up at camp and watching these movies. And playing old role playing games, I love playing old horror games and stuff like that. So that was my introduction, I would say.
E: Great introduction! I gotta say that nothing bonds people quite like being scared out of their minds, in my personal opinion. Really brings us together.
JB: (Laughs) Safe trauma bonds. Good stuff.
E: Exactly! Cute little trauma bonds.
Z: And there’s a reason so many horror movies are filmed at camps. They’re kind of inherently a little bit spooky, or out in the middle of the woods!
JB: Surrounded by the woods, that’s right, surrounded by darkness!
E+Z: (Laughs)
E: Endless, endless trees and abyss.
Z: Talking about Delusion, so when you were developing the show, what was the very first piece of the puzzle?
JB: Every year, it’s becoming a very site specific thing. So, trying to find the right venue. It’s either an old church or a mansion, it’s historically been an old mansion. Right now we’re in a 148 year old mansion. And that’s obviously very important, but Delusion is really about creative storytelling and putting you inside of a story. So the story always comes first. And I have a book of stories I kinda want to put out into the world, and if it fits the certain venue I’ll use that story. And it’s worked out really well in that way. So it’s spawned from an idea that I can get from various things, either it’s playing a game or staring out a window and all of a sudden something comes to me. But I hire location scouts after I come up with a story, and they look for spaces and I look through their portfolios and pick one. But the Pomona one has been our most special one. It’s a bit of a drive but it’s worth it.
E: What makes it the most special one?
JB: Many reasons! Some of them are boring logistical reasons, like the fact that we have no neighbors so we can be as loud as we want.
E: That is useful!
JB: (Laughs) Yeah, exactly. We have-I don’t want to spoil it too much- but there’s another building there that’s kind of hidden, so we have a few different structures to play with, a big estate. And it’s very timeless. It’s a very magical place. So when you’re driving out there, you see a lot of industry. And most people that go out there think that Google Maps is totally messing with them. But then they see this giant mansion and they’re like “Okay, I’m in the right space”. So it’s a timeless spot, you’re basically stepping back in time, and you can just feel it. It has an energy about it that’s so special. We’ll be sad to leave. But I won’t miss the drive from Culver City.
E: Understandable, that’s a rough drive.
JB: (Laughs) Yeah. But worth it!
E: Exactly! When we did the drive — which is not as far, we’re in Hollywood — I really remember when we were driving onto the street that leads up to it, I was like “Wow, there is not much around here? How is there gonna be an enormous haunted house? What is going on?” And then I saw it and I was like “Yes!”
Z: Oh yeah!
E: Here it is!
JB: It’s kind of funny, nobody seems to live there, but just for the very first time in three years- this was last week-some random person came up and said “Hey, you guys are being too loud, people are trying to sleep.” and I said, “What are you talking about? No one lives here!”
E: (Laughs) Who’s to say? So speaking of the story, and to make sure you don’t give too much away, what was one of the stories you mentioned in your book that may have inspired this year?
JB: Well I am a fan of sort of fantasy horror, and I wrote a play back in 2014 called Lies Within, that is about a missing author whose stories have come to life, and it’s a mechanism to use practical effects, as well as some really emotionally charged moments within that story that I can kinda bring into this one. So I feel like harkening back to that, but also all the Delusion stories and picking out some of the highlights from them. And putting them in this sort of meta universe of Delusion where this author has created the Delusion stories.
I’ve talked about this before -and it’s actually really fun to think about- is the fact that these stories and writing these scripts is very difficult because you’re thinking about narrative flow, how many actors do I need, you can’t be with an actor for too long, because then I have to triple cast them because we’re doing like five shows at a time. So writing them and trying to tell a story just messes with my mind. I have to step away from the computer all the time. Like any other writer, it drives you nuts. So the thought process was this author that creates these Delusion stories has gone completely mental and has used the mechanism of these stories to bring back someone she loved from the past that passed away. It’s a play on my own neuroses, or insanity, of writing these things.
Z: Because the location is so iconic, can you tell us a little bit about how the anatomy of the house adds to or changed your story as you were developing this piece?
JB: Yeah, this is our third season here, so if you’ve come previous years, the idea was to make sure that people felt like it was a new space every time. As I’m writing these, I’m looking at an overview of them and thinking about the narrative pathway. And what we have not done in previous years, and what are some areas we have not touched upon. So that was a lot of fun — to make people feel as though it’s new and fresh, and I think we’ve been able to achieve that. So the wonderful difficulty of trying to figure out how to make it special. So the pathway this year, it’s great because the previous years we had these trenches and tunnels. Did you go previous years?
Z: We did not, this is our first.
E: I wish we did!
JB: Yeah I gotta bring back some of the old ones so you can go. But we dug up all these tunnels, and everything like that, and that turned out to be great. People didn’t know where they were, which was wonderful. And we ended up changing things around and we didn’t use the second floor last year, so we did this year. We have a VIP experience that’s in the backhouse that people were in last year in a different thing. So everybody is kind of wonderfully disoriented.
E: I remember one part, where I think it was right after we went through-I don’t want to spoil things for people…
JB: We got ten nights left, it’s okay.
E: Okay, perfect! There’s the part after it goes all dark and you have to find your way out of the room and you end up pushing open the wall, which was an incredible effect, I was very proud of myself for figuring it out. But that area just out of there had that kind of effect for me, where I suddenly didn’t know where I was, where I was going. You had Mary giggling in the walls and I didn’t know where she was, and I found that to be a really frightening effect, so it’s nice to know that it came from a different piece and you used that again.
JB: Yeah, yeah. It’s been described as sort of like the Marvel Universe. The Delusion Universe. So taking these characters from different stories and putting them in different scenes and all that. Mary was a fun character to play with. That imposter that you were dealing with was a fun one.
E: Speaking of the acting, what is it like to direct these actors? They’re in all such different areas, they’re all doing so much stuff at once. What was the process in getting them used to that and also keeping track of everything?
JB: Yeah, keeping track of everything is a great question, because it’s very hard with 10,000 moving parts. I’ll say, mad props to my stage manager, Sati. She’s the one who kind of keeps things flowing constantly, so she’s by my side as I’m directing and rehearsing. We have multiple people playing certain parts, and they each bring their own flavor to that character. I have this script that everybody studies and we run through all the blocking, we run through the dialogue, but then it’s sort of a playground for them. But I’m blocking it as if it’s a play, a normal play, which it is, and [with] each scene we move through Act I, move through Act II, and we’re playing with where we think the audience will be, where I would like them to be.
A lot of the time I — not a lot of times, every time — I consider the audience to be a camera in a movie. So like, where is the best place for them to be standing? And the actors have to be, obviously, very on their toes for lots of improvisational moments since you’re dealing with live people and real space. It’s a lot of fun because, you know, I just put the words out there and I see them come to life, these wonderful actors. And then they’ll do something, the other actors will be watching as we’re rehearsing, and then it’s their turn. I’ll have six people playing Mary or something. And so the first one will do their thing and [the next person] will be like “Oh that’s cool! Lets try this!”. By the time we get to the sixth person we have all these new ideas and blocking and all that, so it’s a very organic evolution of each of these characters, and a lot of fun to watch come to life.
But it’s a massive puzzle, and a lot of the actors don’t get to see the whole play, you know? Cause they’re in scene one and there’s no time to go through the whole thing. They have to come back during the season when they’re not working to see the whole thing. And every time they come back they’re like, “Oh! Now I really get it! I read the whole thing, but now I see how it really comes together.” And my job is to kind of take each piece, put it in, and try to make it work and make it flow, and get the right attitude. Because these actors are incredible and it’s a really physical job, it’s not meant for all types of actors, it’s a very special breed, because we’re doing 30 shows a night. You’re doing it over and over again. They’re incredible people, just incredible.
Z: Can you tell us a little bit about the timeline of the rehearsal process? Cause this just feels like it would take so long to do!
JB: You’d be surprised to hear that we actually only rehearse for basically six nights. We have the schedule down so I have four hours with each act and stuff like that. But 80% of my cast is returning, and so they get the idea of what we’re doing. We have a couple different rehearsals with different groups, and then we have our tech rehearsal. So there’s a lot of tech to this. The show control system is incredible because we have music scored throughout the entire experience, and the actor [has] triggers that they have to secretly put their hands on a table like they’re angry at something and they hit a button that triggers the next track, or a foot pedal. All of it’s choreographed to the music and sound design. There’s one specific moment that we won’t spoil, in this burnt room, there’s something that happens there, that-I don’t want to talk too much about it!-but it goes off the sound design, which is by my friend Victor Mathew, who is incredible. Again, it’s being in a movie, so it’s pretty intense. Like 50% of it for me is sound design, I love it.
E: I do the sound design for our podcast, and it’s one of my favorite things in the world.
J: Isn’t it? It’s so much fun.
E: Right? Because sound adds so much to everything. Like, if you have no sound, you don’t have the scares, and having that all combined in person is really, really impressive to me.
J: Yeah, and that’s forgotten about a lot.
E: Yeah, exactly. There’s a study that says that, like, when it comes to movies, people think the quality of the film is worse if the sound is bad. Like, they’ll think it looks bad. And I think that goes for just, like, all things. When you start noticing how…the sound sounds, if that makes sense. It takes you out. But yours was just seamless.
J: Oh, good. I’m glad you were able to hear that and to appreciate that.
E: I’d like to hear a little bit more about like the practical effects and the development of that.
J: Oh yeah. Again, going back to the thing in early movies, I’m a big fan of that stuff [and] creature design. I was a stuntman for a while and I’ve done movies like Haunted Mansion, where I was a zombie and made friends with, you know, some of the best creature designers in the business. Guys who did Pan’s Labyrinth and Hellboy and all these other movies. So when I started the Delusion project, bringing in film people has made this look even more cinematic and so we try to create these creatures.
Everything in Delusion is not just about like a jump scare. It’s nothing about that. Again, it’s about the story. So these creatures have to make sense in the story and they also have to be sustainable throughout this run. Like, I talked to the creature designers all the time. We talked about how, you know, this actor has to switch out every once in a while. So it’s got to be quick to take off and on, lightweight. How many of these creature suits do we actually need? How do we hide it? How do we get light inside of it? And so it’s, it’s a really fun process with my creature guys at Jim Bankey and Paul Polos, who do animatronics as well for Disney. And yeah, you’re getting film quality creature effects in a, in a theatrical aspect, world. So it’s pretty mind blowing. Yeah, it’s one of the most fun things because it’s like sound is designing the creatures. Because we have some pretty memorable creatures throughout the year. This is our ninth season, so there’s some creatures from the past that we brought in and kinda upgraded them. And then some creatures from previous years. You know, you’ve never been to the show, so these were all new for you. And then Delusionals who’ve been in there for nine seasons have been like, “Oh my god, I remember that!” So it works for both, like, fanboys and newbies.
Z: Oh, and it’s great because the audience is right there in the room with these creatures, so it’s a little different from film, in that you could, in theory, for film, kind of work around the practicals. But this is like a stage play, so you are seeing these creatures, and you’re seeing the effects happening in real time. And as actors, it was very cool for us to be like (Gasps) surprised, like genuinely surprised by proximity. I think that was very impressive to us.
JB: If something goes wrong, like, you even see like a piece of a creature suit fall off, and you think, okay, that’s just part of the whole process.
E: Like, oh, their skin is peeling!
JB: Right.
E: The moment that you mentioned earlier chilled me. I’d never seen anything like that and could not have in a million years, predicted it.
JB: Good. Alright, it worked. (Laughs)
E: Oh, absolutely. And speaking of that type of thing, were there any either secret details that you love that a guest might not notice, or a moment that you’re especially proud of?
JB: There are more than a few moments I’m proud of. There’s some Easter eggs that some audience members have picked up on from previous years. There’s a first sequence inside the house in the back where you’re sort of resurrecting this character from when you’re back in like 1942 occupied France. He’s this conniving spy. And that was from the show Blue Blade we did in 2018. So when guests come in and they recognize something, or they’ll point it out, because this character’s name is Stanfield, they’ll be like, “Oh my god, that’s Stanfield from Blue Blade!”. And so, as he comes back to life and you’re talking to him, we’ve had guests say, like, “Yeah, I remember you from the Blue Blade. Like, what happened to the Blue Blade?” And he’ll play off that. He’ll be like, “Oh, you know, Evelyn” –she was that character from the show –“Evelyn stole the blade. I’ll find it but.” But then he comes back to the current timeline, the current narrative. So, it’s fun. Those are really proud moments when you see the fan love for this type of stuff. When they’re able to interact and throw the actors a curveball, a wonderful curveball.
There’s a moment at the end of the show… everybody’s been asking me, is this the end of the Delusion series and all that? But at the very end, which not too many people have actually seen, there’s a page outside of the carriage house. And that sort of alludes to the idea that I’m going to bring back some of the older shows, some of the original shows that lots of people haven’t seen back in 2012. So, when people do pick up on that, I’m really, really proud and happy when they do, but it’s fine if they don’t. But like, stuff like that creature we were just talking about, very proud of how that turned out. I think Manny Manners is one of my favorite characters. He’s a doll that you carry around. That worked out really well. That was a very technically difficult thing to pull off, because I wanted to figure out a way to lead the audience with an actor, not physically with you, but embodied and possessed into a doll. So that turned out to be a lot of fun. So yeah, I could go on and on. Lots of proud moments.
E: As you should have them! I interacted quite a bit with the doll, personally.
JB: Oh good!
E: It was very effective. At first I was like, is this recorded? Is this pre recorded? And then I realized that I was talking with like, an actual person. Nowhere to be seen.
JB: You were actually talking to a possessed doll.
E: Exactly. Chucky in real life.
JB: (Laughs) It’s super fun. Oh, there’s a really cool moment in the attic. I don’t know if you were able to go in there, in the open world, but there’s that cool effect we were trying to pull off for the last couple years. We can raise the dead and speak to them like a real ghost.
E: I wish we’d seen that.
JB: Oh, we gotta get you back there fast.
E: I’m back there anytime you want me to. Genuinely.
Z: We did want to ask, because our, you know, bread and butter for this podcast is paranormal, and since the Phillips Mansion is so old, have you heard any stories from crew members or anyone on the development team? Does it feel like there’s a presence there? Because, the house felt like a character, almost. So there was something about the space that felt very much alive.
E: Yeah.
JB: Oh, definitely. Definitely. Yeah, people have different reactions. Most have positive. There was a nephew, an old nephew of the Phillips family that I believe committed suicide down in the cellar where you guys went to. It sort of inspired a body you find down there. The history of that place is so special in terms of like, the Phillips family that lived there. He owned a lot of land there. He died first, it was seven years. Then Esther Phillips who lived there by herself after her husband died, I feel like her presence is there, is within some of the artifacts that are within the mansion. And again, it’s a historical landmark and it’s a museum now with her old diary and old bed and all that, so as I’m kind of moving through that space before we clear it out, you can feel her presence and feel the people that came through there. So that was the idea for the first show in 2021. The idea of these artifacts that were very special to people and that their souls are tied to them, and you can actually lean in and listen to their story. So I’ve felt things. I’ve felt things up in the attic. I’ve heard footsteps and creaks coming towards me up in the attic as I was like, setting something up and I would turn around and get the shivers. But I would also be a little more welcoming when it comes to that. I don’t get too scared about that. I’m like, yes, you’re here. I’m not going to do anything. I’m going to give. We’re going to give life to this place. So that’s really what it’s about for me is like, this is a place that doesn’t get frequented very much. It’s sort of a forgotten place, so let’s put life back into it. Let’s bring people back into it so they can like, feel the energy and experience it again.
And one quick story about this: as I was up in the attic, you can look out the window towards Pomona Boulevard. And a lot of times people would just come [by], all the time. They would come by and park and just stare at the house, and just take pictures of it and wonder what’s in there, because they’re — no one’s really allowed in there. And so one time I just stood in the attic window. I like came up to the attic window and I put a cloak on and just stood there and I put my hand on the window. And then you see the person and, I’m just waiting for them to notice, and sure enough, when they notice [me] they’re looking at their friend like, “Oh my God, oh my God, look at that, look at that” and they’re all like coming out, jumping out of the car and taking photos of everything “Look, look,” and then I’d back away, like slowly, like Homer Simpson.
E+Z: (Laughs)
E: Into the bush!
JB: Yeah! And then I’d go downstairs to the second floor and then be in a different window over there and I just messed with people all the time. Anytime I would be up there working, I’d see people driving by, like, “Yes, here we go!” And I’d get other friends with me, “Let’s go, let’s go! You go to that window, I’ll go to this window”. So, I’m sure they have stories.
E: Oh, I bet they do! You may have changed a few people’s, like, entire views of the entire world!
JB: Yeah!
Z: I think it’s kind of beautiful that you’ve… ended up haunting this house right back. So people are gonna have stories about, kind of, you and your legacy with this historic building.
JB: Yeah. (Giggles evilly) That was so much fun. Yeah, I like being the one to scare.
Z: So, you mentioned kind of, having feelings of people watching you, and we actually got to do that during the VIP experience, which was mind blowing. That was a really, really cool thing that we got to do. And you mentioned that you’ve done it a few years previously. Like, giving people the freedom to try that out, like, where does that come from?
JB: Yeah, that was a very special moment. Number one thought was… I don’t want to do just a standard VIP experience where it’s “Here’s some swag, free drinks,” all that kind of stuff. We’ve always had some cool VIP experiences. Last year, we had a dark maze. Previous year was a mini walkthrough where you met a secret actor. So that was really fun. But there’s a scene in the story where you go into this foyer and there’s all these dead bodies. And I realized that we didn’t have enough bodies to fill that area. And as I was looking at that and thinking about it in my mind, as I’m writing actually. I was like, “God, is there any way we can actually use people? Use the guests in the VIP?” Because everybody likes to scare other people and everybody can basically play zombies in some fashion, something easy and quick and fun for people. So I thought, okay, let’s have a secret bar which is the VIP bar that’s inside of the house that the play is happening, and it’s just adjacent to the foyer, with a secret bookcase as you walk through, and then you play dead. So I was thinking, oh this is great, it’s free labor! I can get the actor- guest-to lay down, and it changes every time, because sometimes that place is filled with like 15 dead bodies, and as people are running up the stairs, all the bodies are rising up. Sometimes it’s just two, but regardless, it’s so cool. If you come to the show first, and then you go to the VIP after, you realize, “Oh wait, those were me? That was me? That was like, VIP guests?” So once that idea came to life, I was rolling the dice on it too, I’m trusting the audience, which can be a very risky thing, trusting you to do the right thing. But Delusion fans over the years have been very respectful for the most part. So I was like, let’s just try this, let’s see how it goes, and so far it’s been great. We’ve had people doing it multiple times, trying different zombie moves, or grabbing a severed arm and sticking it in their sleeve and then dropping it as they walk towards the audience. Like, you can just try a bunch of shit, it’s really cool.
E: It worked out great. I personally committed a little bit too much. I actually launched myself towards the stairs, kind of on all fours, while, like, making a horrible noise, and I got a horrible bruise on my knee because I was so into it.
JB: Oh, you smashed into the stairs. (Laughs) Oh, man. So you got somebody. I’m sure you got somebody.
E: Oh, definitely.
Z: Yeah, absolutely.
E: They were running. They ran, just like we did.
JB: (Laughs)
E: So, just to start wrapping things up, what would you say is the very last piece of the puzzle when developing the show?
JB: The last piece of the puzzle. Interesting. Well, it’s field testing it. You know, we put all the pieces together. We run it during our dress rehearsal, our first dress. And we basically break it, you know. Let’s just break it and see what happens. So, first dress is really the final piece to see if, as I’m writing this, with a pulse of every 10 minutes, 10 people every 10 minutes, is that actually going to be the case? Can we actually achieve that? And so, that’s going back to the beginning question of what’s the story about the author going mad? Like, that’s part of it. You know, I’ve done this enough to know pretty much how it’s gonna flow, and it worked out pretty well, but… it’s nerve wracking. That is the last piece to say, okay, look, we just ran a whole show. And we ran not just a whole show, but we ran every 10 minutes. So we ran five shows and look how it worked. It turned out to be, you know, 50 to 60 minutes. Yeah, our pulse is not 10 minutes, it’s every like, 15. Okay, we gotta get it down to 10, how do we do that? We trim here and here and here and here. The fine tuning is fun to watch. But the last piece is just breaking it and then trying to fix it.
But, you know, we’ve been doing it for a while now, we have 10 nights left, and I’m still changing things and playing around with things. That’s the fun thing about Delusion and about this type of theater. Now there’s actually something new for this weekend that people didn’t get to see last weekend, which is there are more voices in the pipes. So if you go to the open world in the front mansion, you’ll hear the author’s voice flowing through the pipes. We’ll get you back there to go to the attic and make sure we’ll do that. But yeah, that’s, that’s the last piece.
E: Yeah, just fine tuning it all, making sure it all works perfectly. But I like that there’s never actually like a complete final piece since you keep adding.
JB: Yeah, adding, changing, adjusting. It’s a constantly evolving piece until we close November 19th. That said, Sati is our stage manager. We have to stick to the ten minutes, like, it’s the only way or else we’re way behind and get pissed off guests. I mean, it’s… So, you were using the word perfectly, Emma? Like (Laughs) that word does not exist, yeah. But it’s the best we can do.
E: Approximately perfect.
JB: Approximately, yes!
Z: So, as you’ve mentioned, this is the last year that we’re going to be in the Phillips Mansion, and you’re going to be moving to a new location. Is there anything you can tell us about the future of Delusion, or just any other projects you’re working on that you’re very excited for?
JB: Yeah, I mean, I’m very excited to evolve Delusion into a feature film. So I’m kind of working on that. I’m very excited about the two new venues for next year that are closer to L.A. that we’re working on acquiring, and bringing back, as I said, some of the previous shows that people didn’t get to see, like sort of remastering them in some way. So I’m excited about that. Those are the, those are the two main things. I think evolving Delusion into a more scalable thing in terms of like, the feature films and TV and and video games, like that’s really what Delusion needs to move into, along with retaining its roots in interactive theater. So we gotta keep that going. And I’m working with 13th Floor Entertainment Group, they’ve been very supportive in that, and this is sort of their only experience in the company that’s like Delusion. That’s like, interactive theater. So we’re trying to find different ways to add things like either VIP add-ons or upgrades to some of their other events, like Hayride or Shaqtoberfest. Like what can we do for next year, that could be an upsell, or an add on that’s even more intimate, so that people can do like 10 people or move through the Queen Mary or do something at the Haunted Hayride. So, working on that stuff as well, too.
Z: Oh, we’re very excited, so we will keep, you know, stalking your Instagram pages just to make sure we always know what’s going on.
E: Googling you at least once a day.
JB: That’s a good idea.(Laughs)
E: I feel like the Delusionverse has the potential to overtake the Marvel Universe. Call me crazy, but…
Z: (Laughs) You’re Delusional!
JB: Oh, I love that. You’ve recorded that. Okay, we gotta play that one back. To overtake it, yes. Well, Delusion Studios, it’s something I’m looking into a lot. There’s over 50 original characters. There’s nine seasons of stories. There’s a lot of rich, robust storytelling in there. So, yeah, let’s make it happen, Emma.
Z: One of the things I was most disappointed about when the experience was over, I was like, “I want to do that again!” Like, run it right back! I want to live in that world again. It was so much fun to play, and I think that’s what makes this a really special experience.
JB: Oh, definitely. Yeah, you come two times. People have been coming multiple times and since you get different actors, you get a different take on certain things. So that’s been fun to watch. So yeah, I would recommend people coming twice, at least twice.
Z: Yeah, we would too. (Laughs)
E: I think that’s unfortunately all the time we have, but this has been incredible. Thank you so, so much for coming to talk to us today.
JB: Yeah, it was super fun. It’s great to meet you.
E+Z: Great to meet you, too.
E: I’m here for the Delusion Universe. I’m promoting it.
JB: Thank you. From your mouth to God’s ear. Let’s make it happen.
Delusion runs until November 19th, you can purchase tickets through their website: https://enterdelusion.com/
You can listen to our interview with Jon Braver here
For now, we’re done. But we’ll see you next time, Across The Veil.
