106 - Room Escape Artist and the Escape Room Industry

Wow! We discussed so many things with Lisa and David Spira of Room Escape Artist. And we have a parody song by Benito Suppa of Durham Escape Rooms! Huzzah! Something to get you into the holiday spirit.

Listen in as we discuss so many things:

  • 06:20 - A new convention, the Reality Escape Convention.

  • 19: 50 - Escape rooms on TV, the Create the Escape pilot episode.

  • 24:33 - On CBS Sunday Morning TV!

  • 27:22 - Being on the media and representing the escape room world

  • 33:24 - Escape Rooms then and now

  • 37:19 - When do you choose to give feedback?

  • 53:34 - What's your kryptonite?

  • 55:16 - Golden Lock Awards

  • 58:23 - Escape room injuries

  • 1:00:36 - 5 Years Later

  • 1:02:00 - Montreal Tour

  • 1:04:26 - Escape Enthusiast Meetups

2019REArtist.png
Posted on December 13, 2019 .

103 - Escape Room Marketing

Manda and Errol are joined by Melissa Eapen of Improbable Escapes! She did a talk at the Escape Summit called “How proper marketing can result in higher sales for your escape room”, and she brings some of that wisdom to this podcast! Also, you can hear about Manda’s dating life! Huzzah!

About Melissa Eapen: Melissa Eapen’s professional and personal journey is a great example of what happens when you merge the power of creativity, the love for business and the thirst for adventure into one. An established business owner, international traveler, passionate adventurer and inspired writer, Melissa is always on the lookout for ways she can continue to inspire, empower and encourage others. Melissa has won awards for marketing Improbable Escapes, and works with various travel organizations to market their destinations.

Escape Room Marketing.png
Posted on November 1, 2019 .

102 - Meeting with Escape This Podcast

Manda and Errol met with Bill and Dani of Escape This Podcast! They are doing a tour of escape rooms in North America, and the divas were so happy to meet up with them in real life.

And they sing! I’m so happy they sing!

In this episode’s parody, we do the Confrontation song from Les Mis!

ERROL:
So Bill, we're trapped
We're tied up in these chains
But over there
I see the answer plain

BILL:
Before you say another word, Errol
Before we try answers in vain again
Listen to me! We should try to think things through
This problem needs some time and discerning eyes
There is none but me who can set us free
As I've explained, this phrase is all we need
If we can discern, the secret word
Just need to discern

ERROL:
I just think you're mad!
There's the solution plain and clear
Many times I have explained
It's all from that clue.

ERROL TOGETHER WITH BILL:
Many times I have explained
Many times I have explained
Try 24601
I've told you what I saw!
You'll see I'm right!
Enter it - 24601!
That's the only thing we've found
What is left, but nothing, now?
Can't you see we're wasting time
Soon there'll be a price to pay
Every chance we have to win
will be gone. We'll lose this way!
You see nothing, it's unfair!
We'll be stuck inside this jail
I am trapped in here with you
This is why I hate split rooms

BILL TOGETHER WITH ERROL:
Believe of it, what you will
There is an answer, but it's not from you
You know nothing, here's advice.
Why won't you help out instead?
You know nothing of this word
You would sooner see us dead
But not before I see this room is won!
Quit ignoring me, I swear
How will we escape these bars?
And the hours not up yet!
Our game is not yet done!
You know nothing, it's unfair!
There's a clue but who knows where
Seems I am alone in here
It's why I hate split rooms

EscapeThisPodcastSlate.png
Posted on October 25, 2019 .

101 - Teach an Escape Room Class

Manda and Errol talk to Brett Kuehner and Justin Seventko who taught a high school class how to create and build an escape room. There should be more escape room classes in education! And also, here is the document of Escape Room Design Resources mentioned in the podcast.

And we are bringing back parody songs! We’ll see how long that will hold up. This episode’s song was sung by Rachel Arpin, who also sang in the last episode!

It’s a parody of Natalie Imbruglia’s song Torn.

Worn
Well, we could see it had a nice decor
but did they know, were they aware
Of game design before
Cuz all of that was just ignored

Were they aware? Did they "ask why"?
Explanations felt so dry
And what's going on
For all their locks were worn

That was such a waste
This is how I feel. The room was kinda lame
And the puzzles were a bore
nothing was maintained
The wires weren't concealed
The rooms decayed and I can see that all the locks are worn
What did I just play?
All the locks are worn

Would you have guessed there weren't enough flashlights
We couldn't see what was there
and nothing did go right
we really hate this game and now
I don't care, we're so stuck
and it seems we missed so much
we want to put this code in
again this lock is worn

Posted on October 4, 2019 .

100 Episodes of Room Escape Divas

Huzzah! We hit a 100 episodes!

You can watch our shenanigans live, because the whole thing was streamed, and it includes a number of room escape parodies too!

However, if you’d rather listen instead, the podcast has a higher quality audio! Enjoy, and thanks for joining us for such a long time!

This pic was taken when we learned the “Anxious” had to answer all the puzzles. Ha ha ha! Love it.

This pic was taken when we learned the “Anxious” had to answer all the puzzles. Ha ha ha! Love it.



Posted on September 21, 2019 .

Register for our 100th Episode!

Our 100th episode will be live on

September 21, at 1:00pm EST.

Mike, Manpans, and Errol have made some puzzles, and we are going to challenge each other to do them!

And because this is live, you can join in and solve puzzles with us! Well, Mike made a puzzle to troll Errol so you can join in and watch Errol and Manpans suffer.

Be sure to register ahead of time. Why? Because we will see if you can solve the puzzles before we can. It will be very exciting!

Posted on September 16, 2019 .

98 - Noah Nelson of No Proscenium

Manda is interviewing solo! And she got a chance to interview Noah Nelson, the founder and publisher of No Prosceniumthe guide to everything immersive. No Proscenium is a newsletter, web site, and podcast of the immersive arts and entertainment industry.

If you have any interest in the immersive industry, they are the people to go to!

SlateNoahNelson.png
Posted on August 23, 2019 .

97 - Escape Room Club!

The Divas meet up with Kyle Cacilhas who runs an escape room club at the University of Windsor, Ontario called Escape Artists. Kyle has taken his love for escape rooms and turned it into a club to raise funds for other organizations!

97ERClub.png
Posted on August 9, 2019 .

95 - Seattle and Vancouver: Escape Room Marathon

Manda and Errol head off to the west coast with Margaux and Leezet to do an escape room Marathon! They hit 16 escape rooms in about 3 and a half days. It was amazing! They also got a chance to talk to so many people! And Errol rants only two times out of 16 escapes!

To read about our adventures, Manpans has a three part blog series on our adventures!

Episode Outline

  • 01:47 - Brian Hughes - Pandora's Locks and the Vancouver Escape Room Market

  • 10:20 - Margaux & Elvina - Discuss Find & Seek and awful logic puzzles

  • 15:22 - We're in Seattle!

  • 18:48 - Seth Wolfson of Hourglass Escapes

  • 20:11 - Emile Wang and Justin Nevins after Epic Team Adventures

  • 30:12 - Kristine Atri of Escape Artist

  • 34:27 - Margaux, Leezet, Manpans, and Errol discuss their final thoughts

  • 61:05 - Shoutouts to GMs and friends

    • Russel of Find and Seek

    • The wonderful GMs at Hourglass Escapes (And thanks to Seth)

    • Amber and Jessica of Epic Team Adventures (And thanks to Jennifer Geske as well!)

    • Kristine of Escape Artist

    • Michael, Kenneth, Nate, Tad of Locurio (And thanks to Summer)

    • Harrison of Quest Factor

    • Giselle and Michelle of Pandora's Locks (And thanks to Brian)

    • And a special thanks to our friends who joined us in our escapes: Margaux, Leezet, Elvina, Justin Nevins, Emile Wang, Michelle, John, Dina, and Evan. It was great to have a crew to eat with, play games with, and talk for hours.

Music: Lutoslawski: Variations on a Theme of Paganini

2019VancouverSeattle.png
Posted on July 12, 2019 .

94 - Interview with Escape Rumors

Errol and Manda meet up and do escape rooms with Randy Hum and Sarah Moliner-Roy of the escape room blog EscapeRumors.com!

Errol mentions someone forgot to press record in the first part. If it isn’t clear, it was him who wasted everyone’s time.

Also, he talks a lot this episode. Good grief.

Our after room shot at escapegames.ca!

Our after room shot at escapegames.ca!

Posted on June 28, 2019 .

92 - Divas Take NOLA

Mike, Ruby, and Manpans leave Errol behind to explore the escape rooms of Louisiana! They also do a quick jaunt into Houston, Texas!

In this two hour special, listen in as they talk to:

  • 32:09 Megan Mouton of Clue Carré

  • 34:23 Andrew Preble of Escape My Room

  • 41:32 Dwayne Sanburn of 13th Gate

  • 47:15 Noah Sylvester, an enthusiast who drove in from Florida just for 13th Gate.

  • 51:09 Errol being prank called on the phone

  • 56:11 Eugene Byon, a friend and newbie to escape rooms

  • 1:29:15 Haley Cooper and Cameron of Strange Bird Immersive

And then, hear their closing thoughts:

  • 1:36:04 - Manda Thoughts

  • 1:48:27 - Mike and Ruby Thoughts

  • 1:55:55 - Ruby's thoughts on food

NOLASlate.png
Posted on May 31, 2019 .

90 - Frequently Argued Questions about Escape Rooms

Dan Egnor has organized a crowdsourced document of Frequently Argued Questions about Escape Rooms, which you can find on theCodex.ca.

However, the Divas don’t cover these questions, considering the doc does a good job of that. Instead, they chat about the topics listed at the bottom of the document:

  • Refunds for tech issues

  • Should photos of the room be shown or not?

  • “first timer reviews” vs. enthusiast reviews — are reviews useful at all?

  • Franchises

  • Traditional locks vs. “no lock” rooms

Frequently-argued.png
Posted on May 3, 2019 .

89 - Online Escape Rooms with YouEscape

The Divas interview Nick Vanikiotis, the creator of YouEscape! YouEscape is an online, live escape game where you speak to the game master through your microphone (or smartphone) in order to interact with the objects in the live video stream. 

It’s pretty cool and Manda and Errol talk about their experience as well without giving any spoilers!

Posted on April 19, 2019 .

88 - Dustin Freeman on Remote Immersive Design

Manpans and Errol get together with Dustin Freeman, creator of Aluminum Cat, an online adventure, immersive experience, with a live actor.

In this episode, Dustin gets a chance to talk about creating this project, as well as the Immersive Design Community.

The Divas also have a Let’s Play version if you wish to see the game in action before listening to the podcast!

Posted on April 5, 2019 .