Straight Murder Mysteries

ENTERTAINING YOUR PRIVATE PARTIES AND CORPORATE EVENTS

The Straight Murder Mystery is the industry standard. A group of actors interacts with your audience starting during cocktails getting out an understanding of who the characters are. During dinner, we interact at the tables, argue around the room, and have moments in front of the audience as a whole. This leads to a murder that occurs at the beginning of dessert. We rarely have gunshots as we don't want to risk a heart attack among the audience. Then our comedic detective performs a comedy routine interrogating audience members. Often the detective is played by the same actor that played the victim to keep the cost down. The audience then solves the crime by table, usually, with the winners getting small prizes. And, of course, they laugh all along the way.

SOME THEMES

These are just a few. Usually we customize scenarios to our client's desires.

A customized Straight Murder Mystery show written just for you is a perfect way to have quality entertainment that has your audience laughing. These are perfect to entertain for holiday parties, weddings, family gatherings, season kick-offs, banquets, dinners or charity fundraisers!

FLOW OF THE EVENING

RUN TIME ANYWHERE FROM 90 MINUTES TO 3 HOURS

COCKTAILS - we are already in character, interacting with your audience as they arrive. Mostly we are introducing the characters to the audience and creating more of a festive atmosphere.
GETTING SEATED - our host gets people seated at the appropriate time and delivers THE SPEECH. This is where we explain how the evening will work and how to play the game. The characters may be introduced in front of the audience.
DINNER - we help move things along by facilitating the servers' efforts or by releasing people appropriately to buffet lines. In the meantime, our performers are having arguments and fights around the room, interact with audience members, and provide small speeches or moments in front of the audience to get plot points out to the audience while entertaining at the same time.
MURDER - once people are leaning back in their chairs after eating, or during the beginning of dessert, we have the murder. Our VICTIM will be in front of everyone and die. This is usually a poisoning to avoid potential problems, but we can accommodate your desires. Often, the victim comes back as the Detective, or we can use a separate actor if you prefer. If a separate Detective, then we could let people take pictures with the victim like Weekend at Bernies!
INVESTIGATION - our Detective is a professional comedian with years of experience with crowd work. The Detective pulls people up and interrogates them to get information out about our suspects. While the comedian pokes a little bit of fun along the way, the comedian usually leaves them looking like rock stars, building them up rather than tearing them down.
RESOLUTION - we solve the crime in one of three ways. For the first, which is going table to table to answer questions, could take much longer with audiences of more than 60 or so. The Second, each table views the interrogations and then submits their answers. The Third stations the suspects around the room and allowing people to interrogate them for a set amount of time and bringing the information back to their tables so that they can come up with a group answer. The Fourth, we resolve it on stage using something that we call the Chief Prosecutors. This brings people up from the audience to MAKE THEIR CASE. We get the answers, present the correct murderer and reward the winners, along with some fun people from the audience. This is a great choice for larger groups of 90 or more. Unlike some companies, we are 100% confident that someone will have given the correct answer!

WE USE YOUR PARTY THEME
We have many themes and can customize to just about any other that you can think of. Some of the more common themes include: The 1920's or 1930's for a Prohibition Era party, A Millionaire's Mansion, A Movie Mogul, Mobsters, A Wedding, Spies, and many others. If you want to have a particular theme that is not on this page, just let us know!

We have several add-ons that can be provided for any event.

Wandering Minstrels
INFORMANTS
DJs
SINGERS
DANCERS
AUDITION BOOTHS
KARAOKE
WINE TASTING
LESSONS OF MANY TYPES

OUR GREEN COMMITMENT While ultimately we serve our clients in the way that they require, we work hard to reduce the carbon footprint of any event. We recycle, utilize local talent when preferable, and look to leave places better than we found them. When we do travel, we take pains to reduce our impact on the environment.

We provide straight murder mystery dinner shows throughout the United States, and even beyond! Wherever you might be along the Atlantic Coast, the MidWest, the South, the West Coast, or anywhere else, we stand ready to help your group to have fun. This includes in the big cities, the suburbs, or further outside the urban areas. We do not provide the food or the venue. We come to you and help you to succeed in business without really trying!

WE COME TO YOU!
We work with groups that are small, medium and large. We also work with people that are in the city, the suburbs, and that are in more rural areas. It never made sense to get our own facilities. We come to a venue of your choosing and this allows you to make your own food and beverage options. In general, you want enough light to see, enough space to move around comfortably, and it should be quiet enough to hear. Everything else can be adjusted to. We also have our insurance in order and can have COIs with your venue as an additional insured, if required.