Speaker 1: Hello, puzzlers. Welcome to the Puzzler podcast, the umlat above
Speaker 1: the You in Your Heavy Metal puzzle from the eighties.
Speaker 1: I am your host, AJ Jacobs, and today's guests are
Speaker 1: heavyweights in the world of puzzles. They are David Spira,
Speaker 1: Lisa Spira, and PG Law. They are the experts of
Speaker 1: all experts on escape rooms. They founded Room Escape Artist,
Speaker 1: which is a website that runs funny and useful reviews
Speaker 1: and news about escape rooms. They also have a podcast,
Speaker 1: The Reality Escape Pod, which Greg and I recently were
Speaker 1: guests on, so check that out. Welcome David, Lisa and PG.
Speaker 2: It's great to be back. Thank you for having us again.
Speaker 1: We are delighted. So today's puzzle is about escape rooms,
Speaker 1: more about rooms. We call it other rooms. So I'm
Speaker 1: going to give you some hints to other types of rooms,
Speaker 1: not escape rooms. The hints might be a little twisty,
Speaker 1: but you are puzzle experts, so I think you're up
Speaker 1: to it. For instance, if I said this room is
Speaker 1: filled with arm joints, like joints in your arm that
Speaker 1: might be elbow, well she knew it. I shouldn't. I
Speaker 1: shouldn't have even said it. Okay, So first one. Are
Speaker 1: you ready? This is a room where you might store
Speaker 1: crushed talcum or crushed cocoa or crushed chili pow.
Speaker 3: It sounds like a room for powdering powder room exactly.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 1: And by the way, I realized when looking up, crushed
Speaker 1: talcum is redundant because talc is crushed into talcum. So
Speaker 1: I realized that. And if there are people who wanted
Speaker 1: to email me, go ahead, but just know that I did.
Speaker 1: I did.
Speaker 3: The more you know, how about this room?
Speaker 1: What would you call a room where you do your
Speaker 1: putting for golf?
Speaker 2: They oh, the green room.
Speaker 1: The green room, which those who can't see PG is
Speaker 1: in a green room as we speak totally. Are you
Speaker 1: going to do some special effects later?
Speaker 4: Is like?
Speaker 1: Is that why you've got it up?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 5: Yeah, We're gonna green screen in like just images of
Speaker 5: my face and David's floating around for your social media.
Speaker 1: I can't wait. Well, I am going to actually break
Speaker 1: tradition and I'm going to pause our game for just
Speaker 1: a few minutes because I feel as a special opportunity.
Speaker 1: You have done so many escape rooms and you have
Speaker 1: so much knowledge about puzzles. I just wanted to give
Speaker 1: listeners a taste and last episode we established David and Lisa,
Speaker 1: you're over eleven hundred escape rooms now and you met
Speaker 1: at an escape room, right, Is that correct?
Speaker 3: We meet in an escape room. We met right after
Speaker 3: I had played my first one, and.
Speaker 6: I was We were in a bar, there had been
Speaker 6: a snowstorm. He was telling me about this game where
Speaker 6: they'd solved all these puzzles, and I was like, that
Speaker 6: sounds interesting. He asked for my number, and here we are,
Speaker 6: So I asked for a number.
Speaker 1: There you are.
Speaker 2: That's how nerds do it.
Speaker 1: Well, David, you told me in the interview for the
Speaker 1: Puzzler book that when you first started doing escape rooms
Speaker 1: doesn't happen as often now, but you were like, when
Speaker 1: you came out, it was like you had just dropped LSD.
Speaker 1: It was like you had somehow like tapped into some
Speaker 1: higher level.
Speaker 3: When you emerge from an escape room, you feel very
Speaker 3: aware of your senses, and you feel very aware of
Speaker 3: your surroundings, and so you look at, you know, a
Speaker 3: number on the side of a building and you're like,
Speaker 3: I wonder if that's a code to something. So, yeah,
Speaker 3: it feels like a little bit of a trip.
Speaker 1: Interesting. So is that how QAnon started? People did escape
Speaker 1: from rooms, and.
Speaker 3: I think that they should just stick to escape rooms.
Speaker 3: I think they'd have more fun.
Speaker 1: That's the way to save America. I love it all right.
Speaker 1: Well tell me, I'm just going to go down sort
Speaker 1: of a lightning round of questions. Tell me favorite escape
Speaker 1: rooms of the hundreds you've done.
Speaker 3: I have a personal favorite, which is from a company
Speaker 3: called Strange Bird Immersive in Houston, Texas. The game is
Speaker 3: called The Man from Beyond. It's the story of a
Speaker 3: Houdini seance and it is so incredibly moving. I am
Speaker 3: not ashamed of This is an escape room that made
Speaker 3: me cry.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 3: Beautiful.
Speaker 1: That is lovely. That is I have never cried in
Speaker 1: an escape room. I've screamed with frustration. And what about you,
Speaker 1: Lisa and Fiji.
Speaker 6: I have a favorite. It's a newer one in Montreal
Speaker 6: called Forgotten Cathedral at the Escaparium, And I really feel
Speaker 6: like this escape room take you on an adventure with
Speaker 6: unexpected moments in an amazing set, with incredible puzzle interactions
Speaker 6: that forward your story. It's magnificent.
Speaker 1: So is it a cathedral? Are you like lighting candles
Speaker 1: and saying prayer?
Speaker 6: It's oh, it's a cathedral.
Speaker 1: Yes, interesting huge. Really all right, MPG.
Speaker 5: I'm going to talk about a game that's a little
Speaker 5: bit different. It's called Stay in the Dark. It is
Speaker 5: in the Netherlands and it takes place in an abandoned
Speaker 5: five story chemical warehouse.
Speaker 2: It's it's insane.
Speaker 5: So, I mean, I've done scary rooms, but there's nothing
Speaker 5: like looking down a dark hallway and the end of
Speaker 5: it is just engulfed in darkness and you know that
Speaker 5: you have to walk down there. At some point, you're
Speaker 5: solving puzzles, you're being chased by like a crazy serial killer.
Speaker 2: It's it's it's absolutely nuts.
Speaker 1: Well that does sound that's amazing. Well, how haven't there
Speaker 1: been escape rooms in caw coffins and things like that?
Speaker 1: An escape coffin?
Speaker 5: I had that on the list of weird escape rooms
Speaker 5: to talk about. Oh good, you locked it in a coffin.
Speaker 1: You did it though you were in one.
Speaker 2: David did it? We did.
Speaker 4: We have.
Speaker 3: This scheme doesn't exist anymore for some fire code reasons.
Speaker 3: Back in the early days of this we were a
Speaker 3: lot more irresponsible. But yeah, there it was two adjacent
Speaker 3: coffins that two players would be locked in and you
Speaker 3: would play your entire game within your own coffin and
Speaker 3: have to find a way to collaborate with the person
Speaker 3: next to you.
Speaker 6: Oh.
Speaker 1: Interesting, So you too were very romantic and nice romantic
Speaker 1: date side by side coffins.
Speaker 6: Yes, we played it on a terribly hot day in
Speaker 6: the middle of the summer and we were just sweating
Speaker 6: in these coffins.
Speaker 2: It was quite an experience.
Speaker 1: I will say, though I've been to escape rooms, these
Speaker 1: are the early days when it was an air conditioned
Speaker 1: and I took off my shirt. I was with my family.
Speaker 1: Oh that, do you know what? That's a second.
Speaker 2: Start the rumor.
Speaker 1: I did not start it, but I certainly publicized it.
Speaker 1: All right, Well, were going to get to this a
Speaker 1: little later. But in my book, I was talking to
Speaker 1: one escape room designer and I asked him, what are
Speaker 1: some interesting tidbits about escape rooms. He says, well, one
Speaker 1: of the big consumers of escape rooms are nudists, because
Speaker 1: they can go into an escape room, take off their clothes,
Speaker 1: solve the puzzles, and come out and no one's the wiser.
Speaker 1: You can't do that at a bowling alley or a
Speaker 1: movie theater. And so I loved this fact. I put
Speaker 1: it in the book, and then David and Lisa did
Speaker 1: some deep dives to see how true this was and
Speaker 1: what did you come up with.
Speaker 3: We're aware of one individual and the group that he
Speaker 3: plays with who does this on a semi regular basis,
Speaker 3: But I wouldn't say that it is a big drive
Speaker 3: of traffic for escape rooms.
Speaker 1: I still say it's like twenty five thirty percent of
Speaker 1: the business. And i'd get to you that.
Speaker 3: Your version of reality is probably more fun than mine.
Speaker 1: All right, well, let's go back to the puzzle just briefly.
Speaker 1: Remember it's a puzzle about rooms, and we have one
Speaker 1: more room for you. This is a room where you
Speaker 1: might keep your poker chips.
Speaker 2: Ooh, it's kind of stumped us here with this.
Speaker 3: One worker chips. Yeah, okay, so.
Speaker 1: Let me know if you need a hint, I'm here
Speaker 1: where you would.
Speaker 2: Keep your poker chips? So gambling casinos.
Speaker 1: Yeah, more specific to poker chips. What are poker chips using?
Speaker 2: More bedding? Betting? The betting room?
Speaker 1: Is that that's a good one. I'll give you half credit.
Speaker 1: It's called the bedroom. I think, uh no, this is
Speaker 1: uh well, what do you use chips for you for betting?
Speaker 1: And if you want to wager a poker game. If
Speaker 1: you want to enter a hand.
Speaker 2: You anti an anti room, anti change.
Speaker 1: Anti room, well anti chamber. According to the Internet, it's
Speaker 1: also called an anti room. But maybe that's a little
Speaker 1: that's interesting, all right, I give you I get listen
Speaker 1: bonus points since it's not as common as anti chamber.
Speaker 3: Not big gamblers over here.
Speaker 2: What is an anti room? Is that like the room
Speaker 2: before your bedroom?
Speaker 1: I guess so yeah, Or it's where you keep your
Speaker 1: poker chips, or it's where you keep your aunt exactly
Speaker 1: either kind? All right, great job. Thank you for the
Speaker 1: the peak inside the world of escape rooms, Lisa David PG.
Speaker 1: Everyone should go to where.
Speaker 5: Oh you can find the podcast at Reality escape pod.
Speaker 5: It is available everywhere and on YouTube. For escape room tips,
Speaker 5: information and reviews, you can go to room escape artist
Speaker 5: dot com. And they also run escape room tours, so
Speaker 5: if anybody's interested in going on a tour to go
Speaker 5: play escape rooms with a group of people, you can
Speaker 5: go check that out on their website.
Speaker 3: We'll take you to some world class games.
Speaker 1: Love it well, great job, and before we wrap up,
Speaker 1: as always, for the puzzlers at home, here is an
Speaker 1: extra credit puzzle. This is a room where you might
Speaker 1: practice your shouts for dog sledding. What do you say
Speaker 1: when you are dog sledding? This is that kind of room.
Speaker 1: You will get the answer to the extra credit on
Speaker 1: the next episode. And puzzlers, please don't forget to subscribe
Speaker 1: to the Puzzler podcast. If you are enjoying it, tell
Speaker 1: your friends and we will meet you here tomorrow for
Speaker 1: more puzzling puzzles that will puzzle you puzzlingly.
Speaker 4: Hello puzzlers. Greg Pliska, your chief puzzle Officer, here up
Speaker 4: from the Puzzle Lab to give you the answer to
Speaker 4: the extra credit from our previous episode. We played a
Speaker 4: palindrome game with David and Lisa Spira and PG Law
Speaker 4: from REPOD, the Reality Escape podcast and the Room Escape
Speaker 4: Artist website. We gave them palindrome clues, all themed to
Speaker 4: them in their podcast. The first one I gave you
Speaker 4: was escape from one of the REPOD hosts informally, and
Speaker 4: that would be evade Dave. I don't actually know if
Speaker 4: he goes by Dave. I know him as David, but
Speaker 4: that's why it's informal. And the other one was a
Speaker 4: suitable response to what's that damage to your shirt?
Speaker 6: Law?
Speaker 4: Now? If you remember, PG Law was a contestant on
Speaker 4: the show Survivor shirt might have been damaged during one
Speaker 4: of those episodes, and the answer she would give is
Speaker 4: a rip Spira, using the surname of her questionnaire David
Speaker 4: and or Lisa. So those are your two answers. Thanks
Speaker 4: for playing along with us, and we will catch you
Speaker 4: on the next episode.