Series Finale Taping June 18th! What? We Explain Below

 We have one episode left to shoot this season--and since people have gotten vaccinated, things are safer, and things have opened up again--we’re doing it in front of a live audience at the Gillioz! On Friday, June 18th, we’ll be back in the saddle and we hope you’ll join us. We weren’t planning on getting in an episode in front of an audience at all--I’ve just been doing them in my office, but then things opened up again and we’re sneaking one in. Well, we’ll do one episode and a panel discussion/clip show as well.

We are pivoting the show! We will continue doing The Mystery Hour for the live, in-person audience, and we will continue to create digital content, but we will no longer be producing the show for TV. After 10 seasons, 225 episodes, and 1 pandemic, we decided it was time. Maybe this makes perfect sense to you without an explanation. For others, let me explain.

IS THIS A SAD THING? Sure, absolutely. What we managed to pull off here is unbelievable, simply unbelievable. To go from a made up, fake late night talk show, to being on TV, then syndicating it, and having people willingly give us awards is unreal. To be clear, it only happened because concentric layers of community gave their unique talents to accomplish this dream together. Everyone from writers, production people, the Gillioz, the TV stations, the talent, the sponsors, the fans--so many. Because, as Beth Domann with the Springfield Little Theatre says, “there’s a freaky vortex of talent” around here. This started out with a big dream from me--let’s do a syndicated, televised late night talk show from here--I bet we can make it big and have it go nationwide. Like Ozark Jubilee once did, but with more bear costumes. We’ll call that The Big Dream™. Retiring The Big Dream™ is kinda sad, but all along as we tried to make The Big Dream™ bigger, we were living inside The Better Dream™. Does that make sense? We had this big idea to create a nationally syndicated show, but all the while The Better Dream™ was happening--making something we were proud of together. I mean, here we were, a ragtag group of people who had no business putting on a TV show, doing it because a community arose, contributed to it, and supported it.

IS THIS ALSO A REALLY GOOD THING? Yes, absolutely. The show continues as a live show for an in-person crowd, with digital content that can still be watched anywhere. SO WHY MAKE THIS CHOICE? The pandemic, though difficult for everyone, and difficult for me (though thankfully my family was never sick), was the pause I needed to learn that I don’t need to go 100 mph forever. I learned that I needed to have time to savor and slow down and that my life was too frantic. I learned I wanted to be home more. The Mystery Hour has always been a side gig for everyone with no one making a living from it, including myself. I decided that The Mystery Hour needed to be smaller in some way. So I asked myself, “What do I want to keep?” The answer for me was clear--I want to keep creating digital content, and keep holding live shows for our community in Springfield and beyond. To be honest, TV is great, but being on TV doesn’t feel real. Like, “I guess we’re on in Amarillo, I can understand that, but it doesn’t feel like anything.” You know what feels like something? A live crowd, a united experience, the energy created from laughter and music, together. So, we will keep doing shows, and we get to play with the form, and we can be louder, and different. The plan right now is to do quarterly live shows.

WHAT DOES THIS LOOK LIKE GOING FORWARD? Though The Mystery Hour is dropping one thing (TV), we’re also adding other things. -The Writers’ Room Creative Comedy Agency. You may have heard of this before, we will create funny videos for your business! We’ve already garnered a bunch of projects and we couldn’t be happier. -We are also still available to do customized Mystery Hours for your corporate events, wink, wink. -Continued digital content. Maybe only more short content like we have done in the past, or maybe it’s more, maybe a smaller, online-only version of The Mystery Hour, like we did during lockdown last year. The options are enticing! -I will also continue to be hired for live events--maybe yours? So yes, The Big Dream™ retires, but The Better Dream™ continues, and that’s a connection with the community of people who have come together to create laughter and joy for the larger community that gives laughter and joy back to us.

GOT MORE INFO ON THE LIVE TAPING FINALE? Yes, all the restrictions are lifted, but we still want to implement some caution during this transition period. -We will do normal seating on the floor, the lower level.
-We urge people who have not gotten the vaccine to wear a mask.
-For the people who would feel more comfortable in a socially-distanced environment, we will be distancing the balcony. -We also encourage you to get vaccinated between now and then if you haven’t already.

The Season/Series Finale:
Friday, June 18th
7:30 p.m.
Gillioz
-We will do one full episode -Then we will do a special retrospective
-Overall, the night will probably be two hours
-Tickets available at www.themysteryhour.com/see-it-live

DO YOU HAVE A VERY PERSONAL POST FROM JEFF THAT YOU COULD SHARE? Heck yes! If you like crying, or just reading too-long personal things, this is for you.