I did not finish watching Supernatural but I remember Crowley's queue. Lining up only to discover it was pointless with no information available to warn you-that's kinda hellish
Lmao fell asleep watching this two nights in a row, I'm really sick and this video is such a fever dream on its own that it's helped a lot. Jenny is basically a doctor now. Salute emoji.
I can't get over how much of a social anxiety nightmare it is to go to "role playing game in real life land where you can do quests" go to up to a person in a full fantasy costume and meekly ask "can i have a quest?" and them responding with "i dunno what you're talking about"
also like this is improv 101, it’s so clear to me, a normal theater nerd, that “excuse me, paid improv actor, are you in a guild?” should never be responded to with “what’s a guild”
Yeah, that was on my mind for the "One of these cocktails is named after the CEO. Can YOU guess what it is?" bit. I actually remembered his name was Ken, but she had only mentioned it like once or twice. She probably should have pronounced his last name more like "bretch-nider."
Good news is now when you google them you don’t hear about the lawsuit anymore, instead you see a Reddit article that explains employees found out the park was permanently closed through google
@@serene1172 Its been sold to a new owner and is *meant* to be re opening as "realm town" in mid 2025 (i have a suspicion this will change, repeatedly)
@@serene1172 Yeh, likewise... it seems there is some decent capital behind the changeover so there is some hope there i think, and there is a fantasy bookshop thing opening on an adjoining lot so it migt be viable
They actually had t-shirts for sale that time. As difficult as that is to believe. Also there were some very nice employees who recognized her and filled a goodie bag for her.
@@imadethisaccountjusttocomm8064yeah the CEO IS exactly like a king omand can just tell his servants to grab her a shirt from his treasury because she makes UA-cam videos, you’re dead on bud
It honestly took me way too long to realize the puppets were a Jenny gag. I genuinely believed that was how Evermore would want to relay information. Guess my expectations were too high.
Do you have the time stamp for this line? I’m trying to find it but the video is (and I know this is a really impressive and niche observation) kind of long
underrated skill builder indeed v_v i personally preferred zoo tycoon cause it demanded less effort and it still got rather heavy! the animals could be as demanding as the visitors >_
@@im19ice3 Honestly, I also liked Zoo Tycoon more, but one of my first memories of Rollercoaster Tycoon was the “Your guests can’t find anything to do” alert and that felt more on brand for Evermore. 😂
Can you imagine being at an unfinished theme park in the US, hearing a bunch of yelling and screaming and seeing people running, thinking you're about to be a casualty of an active shooter but it's just the evil Fae King and his minions acting up
Seriously, this sort of thing needs to be held for the close of day and be handled much more calmly. Have someone call out "They are coming!" and have the actors start sort of walking in a hurried manner towards the exits letting guests know the park is closing due to fairy attack but will be back next week.
I was with my two boys (9, and 13 at the time), waiting in line to enter CA Great America's Halloween Haunt. Someone was robbed, and fight broke out. Someone screamed about an active shooter, and that triggered a stampede for the exits. Unaware of all of that, we were standing in a makeshift queue of metal stanchions, (fortunately just joining at the end of the line) when I noticed a growing sound of running footfalls. Then, I started to see people jumping turnstiles at the entrance pavilion and sprinting like their lives depended on it. In full "Peter Tingle" mode, I turned my boys around and started hustling them toward the parking lot. As the crowd in the queue got wind of the panic, they started trying to exit the stanchioned area, first by running back through, and eventually trying to jump them (causing many of them to tip over, onto people on the other side). My immediate fear was that one of my boys would slip from my grasp (I had them both by the back of their collars and was trying to help them run just a bit faster, without forcing them to stumble) and get trampled by the crowd. My next fear was that some maniac was going to start peppering the crowd with gunshots. Keep in mind, this very scenario had just played out a few weeks earlier, at the Gilroy Garlic festival shooting. People were blindly running into traffic, in an attempt to escape across the 4 lane road, at the front of the park. We ran all the way to our car, and sped out, avoiding an hours-long jam up of thousands of vehicles trying to exit at once, through 3 lanes of exit. If I had been at Evermore that night, I would have lawyered up, because the unnecessary panic was wreckless endangerment, and my boys don't need to go through that very real fear of death in a theme park, ever again.
I've been conceptualizing a Franz Kafka theme park for a while now, and I think that Evermore provides the perfect model. Quests with no discernable purpose, characters providing conflicting or erroneous information, the impression that everything that happens is part of some larger story that no one is actually privy to... It's genius.
All that’s missing is climbing awkwardly into your car when you go to leave the park and looking at yourself in the rear-view mirror only to realize you have been transformed by your park experience - into a giant cockroach.
@@mightyNosewings I might have at some point. I've also read his novels, short stories, and office reports from when he was working at the Workman's Accident Insurance Institute of the Kingdom of Bohemia.
So I've worked at The Grid for over two years now, and I'd figure I'd give a couple updates and insights from across the pond. -When I joined about two years ago, I was told that the VR experience would open "Soon", as well as an arcade bar, which would take up the upstairs space. For the whole time I've worked there, the only change that has been added to The Grid was the relocation of the arcade to a build-out room to the left of the main lobby (now complete with more arcade cabinets and a ticket/prize redemption system), the old arcade room now a dedicated event space, and a hair pin turn removed on the track. Then Evermore closed, and a lot of lighting equipment from there has made its way in the track. Now the track somewhat more resembles a Tron-esque aesthetic. -The reason for so many tables are for private events that would rent out not just the track, but sometimes the whole building for up to three hours. This can range from 150+ work parties from the nearby tech companies in Lehi to BYU Football team parties to High School homecoming/graduation parties. -To add to the joke about Ken inserting himself into his businesses, the two people on the art piece at 53:11 is actually Ken and his wife. -Despite the Go-Kart aspect being super successful, we were plagued with repair issues for a while. Majority of our kart parts come from a manufacturer in Germany, which is both expensive to purchase and to ship. The funds for kart parts sure felt very tight, as sometimes we would be low on tires without a new order in sight. The worst offense being that at one point, we had several chargers break that have been been in use since it opened, and they finally fixed it MORE THAN A YEAR LATER! Ya know, the thing that charges the kart that makes you money. We as staff would often joke among each other on how Evermore needs the money more than we do. With Evermore now gone, this has gotten better (shocking, I know). -Similar to Evermore, we still don't have any marketing outside of Social Media. No billboards, no pamphlets, no radio advertisements, nothing. One positive note is that The Grid lately has been hosting a "Karts and Coffee" car meet every two-three months in their parking lot. -Because of the Evermore closure, the upstairs and the right build out room have pretty much become a Evermore storage room. The rooms have gotten emptier over time as they try and sell their inventory, but some Evermore stuff is now part of The Grid, as mentioned before. -It is in the talks what would fill the rest of the vacant space at the Grid. The last I heard they're trying to salvage as much Evermore activities into The Grid. Not only would this include stuff like the axe throwing and the bow and arrow, but they would also reopen Vander's Keep in the upstairs. There has been a Facebook page for The Crooked Lantern Tavern, with the implication of it coming back, but I have no idea what that would be. With all that said, I still love The Grid. Objectively it has the best track layout of any go-kart venue in Utah, and for the most part the karts are fast and smooth to operate. And just like Evermore, you do have some people there that are super passionate about racing, with a co-worker of mine being a marshal for the F1 races in Miami and Vegas. My main concern going forward is the clash of themes would be much worse if they were to add more Evermore attractions. So soon, you may see Art Deco, Fantasy, and Techno themes all in one building. My opinion is that the karting aspect has done so well, that they should focus on improving and adding to the racing experience, rather than add more Evermore junk to it. Its a shame though that Ken doesn't care about racing in general, and I may be stretching it to say that he hates racing. I've asked about adding racing simulators to the business, but that's so unlikely now, I'm now putting funds aside to start a Racing Simulation business in Utah. Love The Grid, Hate The CEO. P.S. If you were still wanting to support the people that put their heart into making Evermore, Otherworldly Exhibit is the company that provided to Evermore the latex prosthetic masks, baby dragon puppets, and the monster seen at 26:07. They've also helped out with smaller movie productions, such as VHS 99. They have a workshop at the Layton Mall in Utah and a website at www.unworldlyexhibit.com P.S.S. I managed to snag some shirts. :)
A kindly young fairy approaching you asking to buy your t-shirt, and then turning out to be an all powerful witch who destroys your livelihood when you say no, sounds like a fairy tale story worthy of a fantasy themepark.
Imagine being an introverted fantasy gaming fan in the middle of nowhere and hearing there is a whole theme park made just for you and all there is to do is talk to people outside.
Sorry they couldn't afford to make real life video games using AR even though the void is right there It could be so fun like a wizard shooting range where you sling fireballs and lightning bolts A dragon battle with like a beat saber sword Fairies projected on bubbles idk I feel like as a tech guy there are unlimited options if he cared enough
It's not just the talking to them part for me. It's the everyone's improvising so it's going to led into hella awkward dialogue where you'll just have to leave eventually.
If they had made sure to clearly say “the Frost Witch is coming!” or something clearly story-related it could’ve been okay, but hearing “THEY’RE COMING, GET OUT” and then being herded out the ACTUAL GATES would’ve had me 100% certain there were multiple shooters or stabbers at large. Especially in the dark! They’re lucky nobody was trampled
I can't help but think how this might have affected, say, survivors of Columbine or Sandy Hook or whatever, especially with no warnings or introductions or explanations being offered. Very scary!
@@alisaurus4224 exactly. Just have the actors be a little more intense but not screaming, and have them say something like the zombies are hear, let's go to x
Try being an actor in such a chaotic, unfinished, freezing cold atmosphere and all for $75 a night (when you finally got your payment). We were just as lost as the guests were when it came to storylines. Such a great idea that was horribly mishandled
@@catboyhole The new video about the Galactic Starcruiser where a lot of the interactive stuff in the park was just scanning QR codes on various things
Jenny trying her absolute hardest to give them money and just being completely unable to is kinda hilarious...though explains some stuff about the park.
Honestly, the guy seems like a bit of a scammer, he's pitching ideas which seem 'too good to be true' at every opportunity. My 'creeper sense' is tingling... it's like Spider-sense, but for weirdo predators.
@@52thephotoshop Hahah... I mean, Jenny's video opens with him saying that his thing is going to be better than Disney, a company with 100 years of history and a literally bottomless source of cash. If he weren't so insufferable, he'd be interesting. Re-watching Jenny's video is awesome, btw 😂
My favorite part of any Jenny Nicholson video is repeatedly thinking ‘well surely that’s the whole story’ and then seeing there’s still 2 hours of video left
I mean, the numbered lists are pretty up there. You'd think I'm being sarcastic, but no. The numbered points really add a sense of momentum to the video
2:38:03 the same thing happened to me constantly when I worked at Build-a-Bear. People on the brink of breakdown asking me for support. They didn’t train me for that! “I’m sorry you’re being divorced, do you want strawberry scent, cotton candy, or bubblegum?”
I dont know whether to be more impressed with that guy, or whoever managed to dupe a park owned by a guy who made his fortune in cybersecurity into dropping 300k on a url
@@cyber_rachel7427 I'm starting to suspect it might be an Elon Musk deal, he just threw money at the right company and made bank off it, and now heading his own project, but with no actual management skills or understanding of value.
I love how Jeffree Star was just quoted saying “no one watches long form content anymore” and I’m here watching a 4 hour deep dive on a theme park I’ve never heard of
If anything it's a long form renessaince, Quinton Reviews entire channel is 7+ hour long content currently, YMS is building hype surrounding a multi-part series, multiple hours each, Caddicarus' channel saw massive success upon making 40 minute to hour long videos... Maybe it's just due to my personal tastes, but it seems to be a rather popular niche among everyone who isn't a corporation or a child. It just so happens youtube only wants to appeal to those groups
This is the video (Jenny's video) when I heard what Jeffree said. Like dude, I will watch several hours worth of video for a well researched deep dive into just about anything. I just wont watch someone ramble for any amount of time if I don't like them.
@@emilycardinall Right!? “No one watches long form content anymore.” has the same energy as "No one likes comedy anymore!" No, you just are no good at it hahahah.
I feel like it wouldn’t be that hard to have a few security acting as “town watch” walking around in costume and semi in character, but just replying to any smalltalk or quest stuff with versions of “im on duty and cannot be detained”. have them helping to move people on if their monopolising characters, help out guests who are in distress, checking in on the wellbeing of performers, literally intervene if guests cross boundaries with performers, maybe also acting as town cryers to announce story events. I feel like that’d fit into the atmosphere perfectly, and also up the safety and comfort level of both performers and guests
It's honestly crazy how much they did wrong. Having security at a park like this feels mandatory, if not at least obviously a good idea. There's so much they screwed up that had nothing to do with lack of funding, just pure lack of foresight or actual concern for people.
I was thinking this too, like it can't be that hard? You just put them in practical yet still characterized clothing, and it would already be way better. You could also have a guide/med tent incase someone needs directions or is feeling ill. This is basic stuff i can't believe no one thought of this lol
The whole thing reeks of an ideas giy not being a "doing" guy. He needed to get the maps of all popular and small theme parks amd look at what features were common (food, drink. Help and information, security. Health and safety/first aid) and figure out hoe to implement them. Then have someone eho plays lots of RPGs and somrone (or a team) who do writing to create some solid stories that will be constant through all seasons - a beginners set of quests if you will. Then have a similar team to work through and plan more intermediate quests. This should all be happening in the planning phase. Then add on transport around park (q train system) and talk to ti legal about accessibility. Then these plans should result in what items, locations, people and pleases should be available and this should go onto accounts and props teams as well as a legal and health and safety team. Local theatres and acting schools should be talked to to request characters and actors that can just mill about as NPCs as well as take part in questlines. This should've all happened before anything was purchased or announced.
@@arospec2712 Given the "multiverse hub" nature of the setting, you wouldn't even have to have them in "period" costume. Just put them in modern uniforms and say they're from a near-Earth world, and were sent through one of the portals as some kind of expeditionary force, who agreed to help "keep the area secure" while they were there. You could even pass off the lower/non-existent level of armament that security guards usually have as "not wanting to expose the natives to advanced technology" or some such (Think SG-1 from Stargate, but fantasy.... well, okay, just SG-1, I guess.)
It's common for performers in environments like these to have handlers, and it's very surprising they didn't seem to have anything like that. Heck, even cosplayers often have someone with them to hold their things or, if needed, step in the help if the cosplayer gets overwhelmed and/or needs to go. And, yeah, security of some kind feels mandatory for any kind of environment like this.
“I’m the mystery diner, I’m the undercover boss!” I love that. That sets you apart from every single other UA-camr/“influencer.” I really respect that you don’t use your internet renown for special treatment and therefore can provide honest and credible reviews
"But surely Utahns are within their right to file lawsuits if their children are immolated by a warlock." This sentence has never been said before. It is one of my favorite sentences.
The fact that they spent tens of thousands of dollars on expensive and pointless antiques to make the scene more authentic just to park an suv in the middle of an attraction is wild to me 😭
Pretty sure the owner just had "f you money" and put everyone else's enjoyment below his own. Pretty much all of his projects seemed like something he did for himself and making a business out of it was an afterthought.
Also if they’re such expensive antiques you should NOT put them in a theme park, they’re eventually gonna be ruined by the hundreds of people touching them and setting their drinks down and letting their kids knock them over
Lets not forget, if they got these statues and stuff from Europe, the shipping costs for such heavy items would have been stupid. It's just truly the strangest choice all around; impractical, likely to damage them by being set in a theme park, overly expensives when you can buy statues in the US...
The thing with the antiques is that they clearly just went on a mad shopping spree for anything that was pre-1950s and European. None of the furniture matches or clearly indicates what timezone we are meant to be in. They should have just comissioned their own Ye Olde Fantasie Style furniture, it would probably have cost the same as importing hundrends of heavy items and looked much better.
Seeing footage from in the park, I now get why Disney doesnt allow people to come in costume. Because with so many guests dressed up in fantasy outfits, it made it so hard to tell who the performers were, so you wouldn't know who to interact with!
if i had a nickel for every time jenny went to a bad, failing larp-adjacent "theme park" and was enamored by a non-human character played by someone in a full body suit i would have two nickels, which isn't a lot, but it's weird it happened twice
took me to the end to realize that the puppets were just on-screen readings of Evermore statements. I genuinely thought that the way Evermore communicated important information with everyone was through puppets. had me going: "Huh. Well that's one way for a company to tell it's employees that they don't know when they're getting paid"
I only realized they weren't real Evermore PR Puppets when I stumbled upon the cast credits in the description after I finished the video. I thought they were doing one of those "how do you do, fellow kids" things.
As someone who has put his literal blood, sweat, and tears into performing at Evermore I appreciate Jenny putting all this effort into telling this story.
thinking about guests being lost on the story, i can't help but think it'd be really fun to have a guild of pixies or something that are known gossips; they just spend their time going around, probably sticking around the edges of scenes, and guests know that if they're confused or curious, they can ask the pixies, and they'll very enthusiastically fill them in on all of the juicy details they missed out on
You could maybe even use that to keep people informed when and where important scenes would take place. So if guests want to know what story beats are gonna happen today and at what time, they'll go to the pixies and ask for today's gossip. Then the pixies can say stuff like, "You didn't hear this from me, but rumor has it that the Fae King enchanted Elisabeth to do something horrible at the Fountain Plaza around noon.", and you would always be reminded that you can't use this info to try and prevent what's gonna happen, 'cause the Pixies are all about the gossip and they don't interfere
That’s a genuinely brilliant idea. Or you could have some kind of oracle-type characters who can get glimpses of the future or something. Then you could even have little schedules written out for the guests, all in-universe.
I’m planning on showing my brother that segment of the video just to see his reaction. He’s a union electrician and is big on electrical safety (as he should be) and has shown me pics of the crazy things people do in commercial buildings.
I can only assume they're isolated at the supply end and therefore not live. Otherwise it's insanity. The corrosion risk is still big given that they're outdoors though. Especially with some parts being under construction for years, I bet the first inch of conductor is pure copper oxide now
@@harmonysummers I prefer the electrician who comes to my house is also very concerned about safety! I don't want to get zapped while I'm naked in the shower or something! I also don't go to theme parks to play a life or death version of The Floor is Lava with power cables just...everywhere.
since worldwalkers are a part of Evermore Park lore, I'm confused why they couldnt have some employees who both are/arent in character as 'experienced worldwalker guides' to help guests
***AUGUST 2023 UPDATE*** I paid a Saturday visit during August 2023 for the Mythos event. This is a list of the changes that have been made, or have not been made since this video was published Upgrades Made (probably in response to this video) -The Drakenhaven building is complete and is well decorated. -Two permanent maps of the park have been displayed! -Bow and arrow safety training is now mandatory! (In fact, it is so exhaustive and thorough that most patrons chose to walk away without shooting rather than endure it, including me. It’s seriously like 10 minutes long.) -I didn’t notice any exposed wire! -Axe throwing & bow and arrows are permanently included with the cost of admission -The aerial performers have moved to a more visible location -Evermore installed a pre-recorded audio storyline/mystery that visitors can engage with by pushing buttons throughout the park. (It has great potential, but it’s impossible to follow the story or solve the mystery because several buttons don’t work. But this is a step in the right direction!) -The Skype aspect of Louden’s Rest (the crypt building) has been removed! It’s now just a cool portal to take selfies with. (There’s also a quest button next to the portal that doesn’t work) -The lower level of the Louden’s Rest was open. (Nothing happens, but it is aesthetically stunning) -The summer lantern festival featured a handful of lanterns! -The fairies had wings! -I didn’t witness any cast members openly weeping or using pyrotechnic effects. -The cast members are still heroically always in character. God bless ‘em. -The lighting at night is still magical. Problems that have not been addressed -The church has made no progress. (Nothing has changed since opening day. It’s weird that Ken Bretschneider found money to build The Grid, but not finish the church) -The park entryway is still empty and lifeless. -There are still no cast members welcoming guests or offering instructions. (This has been a complaint since day one and would be free to fix. WTF Evermore? So many guests, including me, were wandering around confused. Help us out!) -Since every cast member is deeply in character, there is still no one to approach to ask questions like “Where is the nearest bathroom?” or “Where can I buy food?” or “Is there a gift shop?” It’s incredibly frustrating. -There’s still no signage describing attractions. I wanted to ride the train, but couldn’t find any information about whether or not it was free, where to buy tickets, etc (Evermore, help us give you money! We want to!) -Cast members still mainly interact with other cast members and don’t have much to say when guests build up the courage to approach them. -Quests are still meaningless. If you are lucky enough to find a cast member willing to give you a quest, it will be something dumb and nonsensical that relies on the honor system. There is no reward for completing quests. -The elaborate prosthetic costumes are still nowhere to be seen. -There is still no merch or gift shop available. (The third-party vendors host the only actual quest in the park. It’s simple and easy, but it was refreshing to find something to do. Finally! Somebody with basic business skills!) -Vanders Keep is closed. The food game is still really bad. (The website says Vanders Keep opens for special occasions) -Evermore still doesn’t advertise -They still use names like “Lore” that don’t make any sense to the general public, ensuring that they will only ever cater to a niche market of die-hard LARPers. -So many bugs. The spiders at night were ginormous. (Perhaps that made it more authentic?) -The park is still operated with the mentality that guests need to make their own fun. If that’s the case, what are we paying for?
it's so weird that the actors can't/won't answer basic questions from guests... for one thing a bit of an immersion break is a small price to pay to improve their experience, but for another, every person in every time period in every fantasy realm needs to eat and use the bathroom lol. you'd think the actors could just call it a water closet or whatever. even a slightly more awkward question like "what can I do around here other than go to Evermore?" could be answered with smth like "other World Walkers have spoken about thrilling adventures they've had in a realm known as The GRID!" like... it doesn't seem that complicated lmao anyway thanks for the update!
I worked at the local Ren Faire and we got asked for directions to bathrooms, what time was it, what time shows were, etc. ALL THE TIME. And we had in character answers prepped for all of that. We also had in character commentary on hand to deal with people ignoring you to look at their phones, or kids running around unsupervised. Event guests still needed to be treated like paying customers, not an interrupting spectator. That's where it moves from watching a show to being an interactive experience.
I am an older woman who really enjoyed your video as we are trying to get more visitors into our museum. Your ideas are spot on and very helpful in our endeavor. I have to laugh because most of the things you were talking about are nothing I have ever heard of, but am fascinated by your descriptions and ideas.
I hope your museum gets visitors! Jenny’s ideas are definitely creative. She always makes theme park suggestions where I think, “Wow, how did I not even consider that? Even that little detail would be so cool!”
I'll be honest if a half naked man approached me at a theme park and kept asking me if I wanted to gamble for his pants in a goblin voice I would either run away or bust out laughing. Or both
About that Evermore not serving booze thing... The short answer to why Evermore couldn't get a liquor license is that they probably tried. They probably tired every year, going back as far to when the park was announced in 2014. They probably started trying well before the park was announced. Ken Bretschneider knows enough about Utah to know they would have had to start trying to get the liquor license before even buying the land. They simply weren't allowed to have one. There's a chance there might have been a legal path for them to eventually get the license somewhere in 2020-2023 timeframe, but it would have required them to redesign and rebuild their tavern from the ground up, which would have been prohibitively expensive for them, at least at that point. Liquor laws in Utah are complicated; The situation is weird; The wikipedia page is lacking; There's a lot of "You just had to live there" to pick up on the nuance. It's not like you're going to get a documentary about it from the local news stations,. They don't even know that the 't' in 'Layton' is silent. But to all the people who say 'mountain' is pronounced with a hard t (which is offensive to Utahns, btw) , here's some stuff to keep in mind before moving here: While roughly 40% of the population doesn't mind honestly talking about whether or not they drink, a voting majority of the state believes it is very bad to get caught drinking, to the point that a closeted drinker (up to 60% of adults) will deny even knowing the *names* of different alcohol. This makes it very hard to figure out how many people in Utah even actually drink. Since 60% of Utahns have been trained into this mentality, and all of these people vote, that means 100% of the state legislature usually publicly denies having ever had a single drink in their life, loudly... and often. They also make a lot of blatantly false claims about alcohol, which nobody can call them on, because 60% of the state has the compulsive need to deny that they've ever googled basic facts like "how much alcohol does it take to get drunk" or " what is blood alcohol content" The end result is some very important factors (deliberately) preventing businesses trying to get a liquor license in the state: State liquor laws get completely overhauled from the ground up every year or two, often adding/removing specific physical requirements that are not possible for some businesses to implement before the law gets changed again You have to serve food with alcohol in order to be classified as a restaurant, and there's a lot of specific rules about how drinks can be handed to guests, where guests can be with those drinks, etc. The rules have probably changed 5 times since I lived there (Lagoon has beer now). But for a majority of the time Evermore was open, and if they wanted to serve alcohol, then they would have had to choose between making the entire park count as a full service restaurant, or making the entire park count as a 21+ bar. Either option would have severely limited the entertainment they were allowed to provide in the park, because for a long time mixing booze an entertainment in Utah technically qualifies you as a strip club - which are always essentially banned in the state, regardless of the state of liquor laws. The overall number of liquor licenses in the state are very limited and sometimes can be sold from business to business for profit, or sometimes they return to the state. It changes. But almost all of them are monopolized by major chains (one license per location, not per business), except when they aren't. I know there was a several year period of time where Applebee's was complaining there wasn't enough liquor licenses in the state to serve booze at every Applebee's. I think that was before the attempt to fix the general availability of liquor licenses to restaurants (but not to bars) which involved the Zion Curtain (which ironically banned all the bars in almost all the restaurants in Utah, since they are visible by customers) and the general re-re-attempt to re fix things again, which involved making the legal limit so low that a 100 pound woman having 1 drink over a 1 hour diner will get a DUI. (This is where some of those blatantly false claims come into play. The representative from Provo would say things like a BAC of 0.05% was the equivalent of drinking a 6 pack, and nobody was willing to fact check him). Anyways none of the particularities matter that much, because the tavern would not have been that popular, because the people who live in and around Pleasant Grove (and especially Provo) would never let themselves be caught drinking in public -Ever. While Utah overall is around 60% Mormon, in that area it's closer to 90%+. Of that 90%, about half would not only not get caught drinking, they would never let themselves be seen with their kids in any place that even sells alcohol. We are talking about the kind of people who went to Disney every year, and swore off Disney as an entire company forever, because they heard that you could buy wine in California Adventure (They haven't been to Disney World; they don't know what goes on out there). Most of them kept going, or only skipped at most 1 annual trip, but they all publicly *said* were going to stop. This kind of publicity from a bunch of loud, duplicitous housewives is not what Evermore needed when they were being publicly flogged in a public forum by a hostile city council every time they needed a $10 permit to, as a random example, cover some exposed electrical wires. Ken built in Pleasant Grove not because it was the best suited, most beautiful, or even cheapest location, but because it was close enough to where he lived. It was a lazy location. That was the biggest mistake of the whole park, and he should have known better.
I can't get over the fact that a 20 year old having a beer in America is illegal, but drinking two beers and then getting behind a massive truck that will decapitate people on impact without even knowing how to parallel park is everyday business.
@@jadesfire7920no fr bc why am I spending my free time reading an incredibly long and thorough comment talking about the liquor laws in utah? and thoroughly enjoying it? what a time to be alive
That sounds incredibly frustrating... Thanks for that detailed write up! I don't think I'll ever set foot in Utah, but it was a fascinating read nontheless
thank you for taking the time to explain all of this, it's really interesting to read! while watching the video i was thinking back to the first job i had as a "bartender" for a restaurant that could only serve beer and wine because we didn't have a full liquor license, and i heard that it was because it was located right outside of a retirement community. i was thinking how if that was the case in florida, how difficult it must be in a state like utah. thanks again for sharing, i love learning stuff like this.
The chef sounds like a great character to incorporate into the park: the artist that gets so pissed at other characters demanding alterations to his perfect menu that he challenges them to fights outside his tavern. If played right, he could become a fan favorite.
That would be hilarious! Evermore should lean into and learn from their past mistakes and the chef would be a fun nod to that. Some simple changes would immediately make the park better and cost nothing. Aka: implement basic safety guidelines for the archery, ax throwing, and pyrotechnics. It'd take only one or two minutes of verbal explanation to make all those aspects MUCH safer. And move the audience further away from the fire dancers for heavens sake. Lighting the paths seems like the next most important addition, but that would cost a bit of money to purchase the lights, so it would be understandable if they added this in segments.
@@carlotta4th I wouldn't follow my suggestion, as the chef seems not to work there anymore (comments are saying that Vander's Keep closed), and it is in poor taste to make fun of a past employee without their permission. The *idea* is rich for a comic side character, and I stand by that idea - I just think that it is a dick move if a park fires a guy and then makes fun of him later by basing a character on a single interview he gave that does not give a full view of the person.
A chef is a perfect spot for a character too, because they spend most of their time in the kitchen(backstage) and then come out deliver a scene and then return to the kitchen. Repeat an hour later when the restaurant is full of people who haven't seen it yet. It helps address all of the concerns about actor safety mentioned in the video and these comments.
@@OpalBLeigh Yeah, the guy may be super nice and just had one hang up that he exaggerated for what he thought was comedic effect. Heaven knows that I've said lots of things that I regret and that are forever saved on the internet if people want to dig through and hurt me with them. Some other random character ideas: CGP Grey's pirates (a stuffy accountant and his much more freewheeling captain) would be a hilarious mixture. Steampunk Sherlock Holmes solving crimes and getting audiences involved in catching a villain would be cool. A knight trying to protect a rambunctious princess who keeps trying to escape and have fun, perhaps? The concept I have with all of these characters is that they would be fun, "basic" characters for new people to latch onto and have fun with in the front areas of a park, while more serious, darker stories could be placed in the back - creating a separation so that people bringing their kids don't necessarily have to hear Wen Weaver (who seems like a cool character) having an emotional breakdown. I think that a separation is key if you are marketing to both adults and children. There would need to be dedicated areas that are safe from character deaths and the like so that you can just enjoy an edutainment bird show or a petting zoo with real goats and imaginary baby dragons (another comment pointed out that the baby dragon is a HUGE marketing opportunity and I 100% agree - just imagine how many photo opportunities and fun stuff you could do with explaining this dragon to kids - it would be awesome). I think that this park has so much potential, and that new management or another eccentric millionaire creating his own park (with more foresight) could become something truly magical and amazing for people to encounter.
Yeah I worked for him and he was really hard to deal with sometimes but overall a chill dude. His wife however (the one nudging him) is a real piece of work.
my mother is the costume designer seen in the video and i’ve seen kens incompetence first hand. she put so much love and effort into those costumes, but was treated like complete garbage.
So I actually got to see Josh Steadman, the Director of Show Design (that guy on the podcast at the end of the video) present at a panel about themed entertainment at ComicCon this past year. Not two minutes into his introduction, he mentions working on Evermore and says "but I guess people would rather listen to girls wearing elf ears on UA-cam than actually visit the park, so..." with the added bonus of showing THE SAME MAGIC TREE CONCEPT ART. I'm so happy I watched the girl with elf ears first 😂
lmao that guy doesn't even work there anymore... but still absolutely brown-nosing Ken because I guess he's gotta defend his portfolio?? 🤪 I'm glad that a lot of other management involved during opening who were stabbed in the back one way or another by the CEO have since acknowledged him and Evermore for what they really are.
@@TheNickhis Trust me, as someone who works in this industry, some people who work in events/themed entertainment design would deny everything for the sake of standing by their portfolio 😅
LMAO Listen, if I could get all my news and obscure information about the world from a woman with elf ears, I would. Infinitely more reputable than some rich insecure middle-aged white guy imo.
now they’re gonna sue taylor again for her new album the tortured poets department, as wen weaver clearly originated the tortured poet role and they need to be compensated fairly for their stolen character
Any footage of the actors made me feel so uncomfortable. The fact that they bear the weight of any customer dissatisfaction and confusion, sends shivers down my spine. The poor man in the Skype call trying his darndest was brutal.
I could feel it in my soul. I’ve worked in exhibitions and stuff where I have literally 0 information and intel, yet I’m supposed to be interacting and guiding the guests. It’s actually painful. I was thrown into the exhibition with a shirt that said “ASK ME ANYTHING”. It was an avenger station exhibit so I went home that night reading up on pretty much everything but come on. It was weird that I got that assignment since I was hired with the clear knowledge that I am autistic and very anxious. Idk why I was hired but I got the job from the psychiatric clinic I was at as a job training thing. (I’ve worked before, and I am an actress. So I managed to bullshit my way through. But I was absolutely filled with anxiety and came home mentally drained every night) I feel panicked seeing this go down since these are just people who showed up to work and got absolutely no information/education to help them in their work. Even if you love to LARP, you won’t love this type of job since you have nothing to work with - whilst still having very vague but very strict rules. Trying to navigate what to do. I don’t understand why they don’t give the employees more information about what they should do/info about the backstory and lore etc. that would be in EVERYONES best interest.
@@emmestein I feel sorry for your situation. While I work a different field (department store retail), I can relate to the feeling: being informed about absolutely nothing, and yet being expected by customers to know everything. Great job on getting through it, though; you sound like you worked well on your feet! I hope your future gigs are much more willing to equip you with the information that you need. :)
Food: $5 Employees: $2 Fireproof Clothing: $1 Gravestones: $100000 Buildings: $3 someone who is good at the economy please help me budget this. my park is dying.
For the last couple days I rewatched all of her videos from the beginning looking for this line because I remembered it so intensely and needed to see it again. Only for it to be from her most recent post, lol
They even made use of her Dragon Quest suggestion to make the gameplay RFID-based, yet somehow that managed to render the game even more unplayable, resulting in Jenny being told for the second time by fans of a park that you get what you put into it and to make her own fun. Which, at Disney's price point, is actually advice I'd probably be inclined to take, but it's still crazy just how many of her general experiences from this video are echoed in that one despite the general gameplay being otherwise entirely different at the two different attractions.
The resorts executives at Disney did visit many LARPing events and businesses, even going overseas, and it seems they took all the wrong things from it.
@@christinelockamy6014 The funny thing is that this is actually old-school Disney. If you're familiar with the Three Caballeros, that came from their animators taking an overseas trip. When you watch the movie, it seems they ignored most of what they learned and just did their own thing. But I recently rented a Disney DVD from the library, and it opens with an ad where they quote a bunch of Walt's views on imagination. Would be nice if they actually took those quotes to heart. Then again, I personally feel like I would have enjoyed Galactic Starcruiser if I had the money to attend it. From the videos I've seen, it kind of feels like Jenny has some kind of tarragon curse on her where she just always wanders into the worst possible experience any time she goes to a new theme park. Some people seemed to really enjoy it. But I guess some people didn't sit behind a pole. All I know is that her Star Wars cruise video is doubly hilarious when you watch the Evermore video and see her saying that more theme parks should embrace the concept of doing everything through an app. Bona fide monkey's paw.
@@ZUGTFO because Jenny is a youtuber, without a degree in engineering. Theme parks don’t just have idea guys. That’s not a job. You have to be an engineer, or some kind of professional designer or have a huge buttload of money. Jenny is none of those.
And Evermore definitely wasn’t short on idea guys. It seems to me that what it really needed was more investment in the people who could double check the efficacy and safety of these ideas and the workers and customers they would impact.
So true, Silver Dollar City's fall festival is "Pumpkins in the City" and there's just pumpkins freaking everywhere and a big ol sign that says "PUMPKINS" above the dance floor
34:15 I could see this rushing people out to not only invoke fears of mass tragedies but also having the opposite effect similar to the "boy who cried wolf". If a mass casualty event were to actually happen, would people run out or would they think "oh it's just like the Lore night". So on one hand it makes guests fearful on that night but would make guests unfearful at an appropriate time.
My fiance and I went to the park last year for Valentine's Day. We went in, walked around and decided we wanted to ride the train before we left (it was in February and right before close and very cold). The employees were very young, but nice. The employees said we couldn't use the caboose. They saw someone and got immediately skittish - turns out it was that same CEO guy. He held up the train for 20 minutes to show his date a special hidden room inside the initial tunnel the train goes through. When he's done, he goes to the back of the train AND GETS IN THE CABOOSE. Yes. That's why you can't use the caboose. ITS FOR HIM ONLY. Then we go to leave and almost can't get out of the parking lot because he parked his Porsche in the middle of the ONLY EXIT to the parking lot. Seems like a great guy who's really fun to be around.
@@electricdreammachine2225 I believe it. 5 minutes to walk to and from the room 3 minutes to undress and re-dress 2 minutes for the deed and 10 minutes to cry about it
There are many people who have just as great ideas in the industry who probably know even more about marketing and budgeting. Unfortunately companies are greedy know-it-alls and limit these people or dismiss them just to get more money which at the end backfires but oh well
@@DSDXV. As wonderful as that sounds. I think she covered in the Disney video. What companies want from people who make content basically a commercial/ with talking points from scripts.
I have to say, I would be so deeply uncomfortable to be walking around and witnessing some of these scenes. All these actors screaming, crying, people on their knees, begging others, like…I wanna have a quest and see some magic fights, not like…medieval soap operas where some of the guests are apparently so close to the actors they get to participate in what I can only describe as “me and my friends RPing in private message boards in middle school”
Also I would give a kidney to get a video like this about the Goretorium in Vegas. We went a few times and I’m so sad that there’s basically no video or photos of the inside of the haunt itself left.
yeah literally, 90% of people won't care about deep story lines, they could just do a couple of choreographed fights everyday and everyone would be happy
@@overgrownkudzu It’s true, but boy oh boy should you see the die-hard evermore “fans” when the park discussed making things more accessible to first-time players. It’s as if they’d just had visiting rights to their best friend removed, or as if someone just took their LARP from them.
So I looked it up and Evermore closed this year (the evermore domain is now owned by Evermore Resort in Orlando). Bretschneider is out after defaulting on all his loans, which were more than $1 million in total. The landowner (who purchased the land in 2022 and tried to save the park) in a slight snarky tone added that the lease he wrote for Bretschneider was "very, very friendly," but nevertheless Bretschneider took the opportunity for granted and failed his contractual obligations. The landowner has brought in a "very well capitalized group" who has chosen to retain all old-world buildings and is committed to finishing them inside and out. Pleaseeeeeeeee return to the new Evermore when it's finished!
After all this time the thing that has me most shook is that the total debt was "only" $1 million. I know that's a lot of money to have in your personal bank account, but for a business this size... that's doable. It's obviously not GREAT but that's recoverable, especially when some of your biggest creditors are apparently very willing to work with you and you have other successful businesses to fall back on, and a LOT of unnecessary assets (like decor) to sell off that nobody would even miss. I'm not saying it's chump change and it would have been easy to get, but it's doable. If that's the amount it would have taken to be debt-free I'm even more confused why Bretschneider couldn't make it work.
@@clementinedanger Considering how they lost the licensing rights for VOID and ignored the chance to get licenses for Taylor Swift songs at a fairly affordable rate, I'd wager the amount started a lot lower and that he absolutely could have made it work but simply chose not to.
@@quirkyblackenbywell, people generally demarcate values at "milestone" numbers. like you wouldnt say "dinner was over $100!" to mean it was $230. youd say it was "more than $200", generally. so over a million dollars almost assuredly means under 2 million, and probably less than 1.5 mill. which for the point being made is a reasonable number.
As a Utah resident, I am especially excited because the land's new owner is the locally-famous, super-nerd author Brandon Sanderson! My friends and I all love his books and we can only dream of what an Evermore with Brandon Sanderson writing it would look like.
It blows my mind that he is so visible there when the whole place is such an embarrassing failure and just a dismal excuse for a park experience of any kind.
@mzook7854 also, if he's the owner, why does he need to be on site? Isn't that managemets job? I suspect he's managing in person because he either fired/didn't hire management to either cut costs, and/or micromanaging everything in person. Which leads to the second point, the frivolous spending on minor items makes it look like the park is his personal playground, opposed to an actual business venture. Wouldn't knock that, but it would have been cheaper to just buy a nice estate and fill it with the crap you want.
If you ever wonder why companies are always looking for “someone with a real passion for this job” or something along those lines, it’s because it’s much easier to exploit that kind of person.
True of various kinds of social work too. When you ask to be compensated fairly for your skills and efforts, management will be like "guess you're not COMMITTED to the PEOPLE we serve, you MONSTER."
The video game developer Naughty Dog got into hot water about doing something similar. Their hiring practices heavily favored prospective-employees who self-identified as workaholics and perfectionists. This was so it would be easier to convince them to undergo heavy levels of crunch.
@@theoneandonlymichaelmccormick If companies were upfront about how they need people who are willing to work harsh hours, it wouldn’t seem so exploitative.
@@iamkablam8096 No, I think it’d still be exploitative. There is no amount of overtime pay that makes a company encouraging you to sleep under your desk acceptable.
Building a Satyr version of the springlock suits from FNAF, causing an employee to get severely wounded in the legs, and then releasing a company email telling employees to blame the Dark Elves and ending with a bad joke about the performers injury is still one of the craziest things that I have ever seen.
I like to imagine Bretschneider's kids, when they get to their rebellious, resentful teenage years, playing this end credit song around the house, tormenting him with his failure. 😂
Since Evermore is a land out of time with portals, they could literally have a security staff throughout the park dressed as old-timey UK Bobbies or 1930s policemen. It wouldn't break immersion, and then the actors / guests would have someone to turn to if something went wrong.
That’s what I was thinking!!! They could do so much MORE with the “world out of time” concept. It’s totally being squandered. I want to see more confused California surfer-dudes lugging their boards around the park, maybe samurai in full garb who only speak Japanese, and less of whatever is going on now. They could even have like, ringmaster-looking folks that the other characters can’t see to act as the information centers / exposition dumpers this park DESPERATELY needs. That would make the dialogue a lot more concise too, with relevant lore explained beforehand in a carnival-barker style. It wouldn’t be hard to explain away either. If you mention it to a performer, they could just gush about how you met the “god of mischief” or something and lucky you are. Have said “god” give them bunny ears or something during the conversation, for good measure.
The problem, I suspect, is that that would require paying salaries for excess personnel, offering a service that only helps the other employees and hence doesn't actually attract guests. Or maybe I'm just cynical.
@@timothymclean i would be more inclined to go to a park where all the security look like they came out of period drama rather than less inclined to go
@@genderender Sure, if you're comparing themed security to unthemed security. But themed security compared to nothing? You can't exactly advertise "Security guards to protect the actors from predatory customers" as an attraction.
@@timothymcleanmaybe but predatory customers can also harass other customers. I know I’ve heard about theft and child abductions being issues at theme parks and carnivals before. It wouldn’t necessarily stop those issues entirely but it might reduce the likelihood.
imagine dying a hundred years ago, and looking down on earth to see how everything's going... and you find that an eccentric millionaire bought your headstone to put in his dying theme park. would you haunt him vengefully or not haunt him out of spite
In most places outside the US it's actually standard to recycle graves. They wait anywhere from 3 to 75 years and then you get dug up unless your family buys the plot again. It blew my mind when I first heard about it.
@@toddjones1480 In Norway they wait 20 years, and then after that you have to pay 500 dollars every few years to keep the gravestone where it is. It's not very expencive, but it does mean that people who die without family won't be remembered the same way, which is really sad, but I understand why it has to be done, 'cause otherwise these graveyards would have filled up completely hundreds of years ago.
I would haunt him in the most spitefully vengeful manner possible. Randomly turning the thermostat down. Letting the air out of just one of his SUV's tyres, but a different one each time. Knocking his glass of red wine onto the carpet when he leaves the room. Knocking his toothbrush into the toilet. That kind of thing.
@@sixstringedthing Adding to this, I'd do traditional ghost stuff but with plausible deniability. Scrawled messages, but only when he has friends who are known pranksters over. Messages in his own handwriting, but set his monoxide sensors to be overly sensitive, so he isn't sure if it's poisoning or haunting. Doors creaking open, but not from pushing them- but by loosening the latch somehow. Alone, each one could be explained by some level of incompetence or individual misfortune. But what happens when all of them happen to the same person, with no clear reason?
The baby dragon tamer is one of my best friends. She's incredible at prop work and character design. They loved her "character" so much that they still use pictures and such to advertise the park, but she quit after realizing Evermore is just a dumpsterfire.
@@muffiechu I'm not sure if she does or not. I know she helped make a lot of the really cool props like the dragon. But got out of there once it became apparent what the park was.
Shit I remember working at a haunted house, I was a victim who yelled for help the whole time. it eventually kinda got to me, like…i started wanting someone to actually help me. Cant imagine how youd feel in the position of the evermore actors
I can assure you that I would not be able to handle it lol I worked at Busch gardens in Virginia for 4 yrs during the tail end of high school and even being a part of a professionally run park was rough. But the haunters loved their jobs there. So yeah I couldn’t do it lol
@@anakin-is-panakinwilliamsburg mentioned! that bit where jenny was talking about how it's hard to open a theme park because most places don't want big ugly roller coasters on their skylines, whole time I'm like "apollo's chariot is pretty cool..."
i know this video is half a year old but "and y'know what i think about that? i think, 'now there's a building that's got all its walls!' " is one of my favorite quotes ever
one horror story i don’t see anyone mentioning is that some of the regulars/super fans would camp outside of the park gates for HOURS after close, trying to corner the actors getting out of character. this happened EVERY night, and the performer exit and guest exit are right next to each other, so there was no way to try and avoid them. i was a specialty performer (aerial silks, figure skating, fire spinning) there for about 3 years and every time i left work there would be a group of 15 or so super fans trying to corner me or my coworkers after a shift to, i dunno, deepen their parasocial aims?? it was really strange and always made me really uncomfortable. to my knowledge, no actions were taken by management to protect actors from potential harassment or discourage this behavior. as far as i know it still continues to this day!
@@akka5249 this story was mostly hearsay among actors, so take it with a grain of salt, but {tw here} one girl had allegedly received someone’s knife used to self-harm as a “character gift.” really difficult stuff! i wish the park had had like, any measures in place to prevent this. for the most part it was harmless but still boundary crossing. they would discuss character interactions of the day or previous characters an actor had played (the cast was pretty insular, so a single person would end up playing multiple roles over a few operational seasons.) sometimes they would ask for us to give them specialty in-character interactions in the park the next show day, but mostly asking for our social medias/inviting us to post-park events. there were a few occasions i was asked for my phone number or if i was dating anyone, but luckily there wasnt any pushback or confrontation when i declined. tl;dr mostly just wanting to get friendly with the actors out of character and outside of park hours, but nothing too horrid; just weird!
That's so worrying, I can't believe they didn't take steps to protect the staff. I'm sure most were well meaning but it only takes one horrible person to take it a step too far.
Wtf? I can't imagine EVER camping out to accost an improv actor after they got off work. Holy shit that sounds so uncomfortable. I work in Healthcare and if a patient cornered me after a 12 hour day, I wouldn't be overly pleasant lol in fact, after a bad day, I might just be like "out of my way, I'm going home"
So, actor safety is actually a huge, huge issue at places like historical villages (which have a similar vibe to this). A lot of times, you’re put into buildings alone and no one checks in on you your whole shift. And you’re explicitly told not to make a big deal if there is a safety concern because you don’t want to alarm the other guests. From personal experience, I worked at a 1890-1910 historical village as a school house teacher. The only way I was supposed to indicate that I was unsafe was to put an “Ice Box” sign in my window and hope someone saw it as they walked by. One of the regulars did end up developing a crush on my character and started harassing me, which resulted in them waiting until I was in the school house alone one day and attempting to @ssault me. The place I worked at is fairly well known in the area and has been open for at least 40 years. So it does not shock me that there is zero precautions taken for actors at Evermore.
Jesus, they couldn't even opt for a panic button type solution? That's crazy. I'd think even for the case of medical emergency you'd need a system, not to mention the terrifying situation you described. I hope you're doing okay now. ❤
when i was working there i would often stand up to guests for some of the younger actors. fortunately I’m big enough that i can, and people are generally cowards but yeah it wasn’t good
Finding out that Jenny personally asked the CEO of Evermore to buy a tshirt, and that she does not have a tshirt, absolutely broke me. I needed to pause, and take a moment to calm down.
The fact that Jenny couldn't get any of many minimum wage entry level employees to get her a tshirt raises questions about how the employees are treated
It kind of speaks volumes about the guy. The park was never really about entertaining people, it was only about him being able to brag to people about owning a park. Honestly, this self centered prick doesn’t deserve to have one with the way he’s been running things. If I was running a park and a guest asked for a shirt, not only would I give he one but I would give an entire gift basket of the park’s merchandise and coupons for any restaurant or attraction of her choosing because it would give her the incentive of wanting to come back and tell her friends and family about the amazing time she had and thus bringing more people in to the park. It’s a no brain-er.
The idea of a theme park where people randomly run through screaming "EVERYONE GET TO SAFETY! RUUUNNNN!!!!" is just straight up horror. Like, not the fun kind.
An update for anyone watching the video now. Brandon Fugal who bought the park announced it's closure on April 8th, 2024: “After months of not paying rent or expenses, they ceased operations and have moved out. I personally acquired the property over two years ago and settled millions of dollars in liens in an effort to save Evermore Park and preserve the vision - even structuring a new, very friendly lease. They have unfortunately failed and defaulted,”
I’m 90% sure I was your waitress at Vander’s Keep! I didn’t even recognize you. I was also an actor during late 2019-2020. I have been abruptly let go three times from this company- the most recent being when the restaurant was abruptly shut down October this year leaving both my husband and I jobless with a brand new mortgage. The only notice any employee received was a text the morning before our last shift. I was involved with the restaurant from the beginning (joining them just after the evermore mass firing) and the Vander’s Keep saga is a whole ‘nother side of this story that wasn’t even touched. If you want to make a part 2, I am still in contact with 80% of the restaurant employees and we are all willing to share our stories.
Jesus, it literally took me to the end of the video to realise that the puppets talking weren't official videos by the Evermore staff that Jenny had found.
It’s the least exotic of their sins, but never trust a company that misses payroll and doesn’t tell you until payday. They knew they were missing that payroll three to five days ago and they kept it to themselves.
I second this. Be VERY careful if this happens to you. I've dealt with this on a couple of non-union / low-budget films I've worked on and if the cheques aren't given to us the morning of the day after we were supposed to receive them, I either walk or threaten to walk & withhold their sound recordings until payment (though I know this isn't always an option for folks - keep in mind I'm a gig/contract employee and they don't own their media files until they pay me for my services). Never work for free at a job where you didn't agree to. The last thing you want to have happen is to work more days/weeks and then have them skip out again. Remember, it'll burn a larger hole in your pocket than it will a corporation's to hire a lawyer to dispute those unpaid labour costs. If you're not unionized you need to make sure you're aware of your own financial security. Finding a company that cares about their employees/doesn't see them as expendable is a rarity in these capitalistic times. Best of luck, labourers: Solidarity forever.
Also, occasionally having one or two people's hours wrong isn't unheard of, especially if someone picked up an extra shift or something, but for EVERYONE to recieve the wrong amount is either a major bug in the system or purposeful
my school district didn’t pay substitute teachers for a MONTH in early 2020. Two missed pay checks! then the pandemic happened and substitutes couldn’t get work and weren’t told if they were going to get work when school started virtually in the fall. Even though the district didn’t let them work for months and were silent all summer, subs “didn’t qualify” for unemployment. no wonder there is a “sub shortage” we had to get different jobs to survive 2020.
I have watched this so many times but only now did I realize that the lawyer dragon not only wears glasses but drops them at 44:51. Timestamp provided in case puppet lizards losing their spectacles is as delightful to you as it was to me.
I love the idea of Taylor Swift's whole career, and whole motive for doing everything that she does is purely to shut down a theme park that no one's ever heard of before.
@@ClayDressas evermore wasn't recorded under big machine records there'll never be an evermore (taylor's version) as it is already taylor's to begin with...
Instead of getting the employees to volunteer I think the questing was a missed opportunity, "Ahoy there young lad, I've a quest for ye. First empty out the trash cans, then clean the toilets ye scallywag and finally put some EMT conduit on the exposed wires, yarr. And perchance do ye know anything about operating a construction crane?"
So, I work at a Renfaire every year, and I usually play a wandering quest giving wizard. My job is just to direct people to various attractions around the park, and see if I can't influence the flow to areas that are less busy. I dress up like a weird alchemist with LOTS of trinkets everywhere. Me and the Fairies actually have this game where we trade the trinkets for children collecting actual litter around the grounds. "The fairies need a noon root from me? I'll give it to you if you collect me 3 objects that do not belong in this world from the ground" and then wink at them. I've had one parent complain to me, but overall it's a good business model
the fact that they basically went out of their way to not sell merch at their themepark is hilarious to me. i almost have to respect the effort it takes to gatekeep a theme park shirt to this extent
I feel like Evermore could’ve worked a merch salesman into their park lore, like an actor working the shop saying “I’m a world walker, like you! And my god, is this place a goldmine for merchandizing! See my wares, and pick out something you like!” Give it a dedicated storefront in the park, give it ambiance and it could work!
@@v.v365 grate idea another thing you could do is have a troll or gnome who is obsessed with the culture of humans from our realm trying to sell merchandise like we have
You’d expect them to try to put there logo on everything seeing how the CEO made hats and hoodies for the dammed go kart track he owns or if you want to keep Emerson at least sell leather bags with the name on it or something
Not to mention that this video directly showcases the fact they've put out multiple volumes of their own CDs. So it's not like they even need to get license-free music from outside sources.
Okay so my roommate knows I love this video and she’s from salt lake and has been to evermore. So as a jokey Christmas present she ordered me an evermore tshirt and sticker. The thing is, in typical evermore fashion she never received a shipping confirmation. So months after she ordered it, she told me what she got me and how it wasn’t here yet and so I encouraged here to get a refund. So miraculously evermore does actually refund her, but yesterday March 6th the god damn evermore tshirt mysteriously shows up, sticker missing. It was just baffling how thoroughly they messed up just sending a package, but now unlike Jenny I do have an evermore shirt and I technically got it for free. So uhm yeah this really just hit home how mismanaged they are.
This is really really interesting to me because I too had a friend order me a piece of Evermore merch for Christmas, which went through a similar process of being refunded and then ultimately manifested in my mailbox last week. What a mysterious little operation they have to be selling so much merchandise for presumably no money, where I imagine lots of folk refunded things in the same kind of situation.
So when "Evermore Went Dark", were there no people sitting in a tavern for the past 2 hours waiting for their food, now having to evacuate? Was there no food currently being cooked by a famously patient and understanding chef, who definitely didn't mind having his proudly made food go cold and wasted because of a sudden nonsense event? Was someone cooped up in a toilet, hearing screams outside but unable to just suddenly stop doing what they were doing, so they just bunkered down in their toilet stall waiting for the police to come and save them, only for no police to come? That entire happening was just.. incomprehensible. Someone came up with this idea, nobody gave it a second thought, nobody stood up and said, "yo, what the f--k?", everyone agreed to do it and then _did_ , seemingly not even trying to calm confused bystanders down, just pouring fuel onto the fire. Insane.
were there no disabled people (not just people in wheelchairs) who could not move that quickly and might’ve thought they’d be murdered? like, i’m someone who has joint issues among other physical ailments. running like that would either cause me to faint, have my throat constrict to the point where breathing would be extremely difficult, or have my hip move out of place. not to mention, i also have adhd, autism, and severe anxiety. a sudden “emergency” like that could very well cause me to go into meltdown or panic attack mode. i’m convinced at least one person went into a panic attack. because what were they supposed to think??? at LEAST, there should’ve been an announcement of “hey, we’re gonna be doing a big story event soon, which involves running out of the park in an entirely fantastical fake panic situation” like idgaf if it “breaks immersion” this stuff can be TRAUMATIZING to an unprepared guest
Here's the thing, though. Someone - probably multiple people - probably did have reservations. But they either brought them up and were shot down by management/more vocal performers who thought it was a cool idea or knew the attitude that higher-ups had already and knew that bringing up their concerns was pointless. Everyone who didn't see the inherent problems were probably swept up in how cool it would be and weren't trained properly in how to spot a dangerous situation and how to deal with it.
@@schedar_cassiopeia there's so many explicitly fantastical emergencies they could've gone with. like ... dragon roars, or a battle cry, or smth. idk what would fit best w the lore, but make it fit.
To be fair, most chefs and cooks feel this way to some extent. To be also fair, that's something you say to your SO after a long shift or anonymously on the internet, not in an interview...for your restaurant...
I get it but dietary restrictions are a real thing. The idea that guy is putting forth is chefs would rather you just not eat their food is pretty messed up.
@@awildsylveon9896 I paused and ranted for a good minute at that part. Before my gallbladder was taken out it was avoid this long list of ingredients of barf through a painful gallbladder attack for 24 hrs straight. People have deathly allergies, cancer treatments, chronic illnesses, medicine interactions. If you can't respect that when your job is to feed the masses, you might need to find a new line of work.
I can not imagine how uncomfortable it is to have a multiple hour long conversation with a patron about their home life troubles. That’s crossing a line
I mean... I'm friends with most of the people I LARP with and you STILL don't do crap like that. It mucks up the entire damn story. Quests don't go out. People lose time they need to change costumes. It's INCREDIBLY awful for the person trying to stay in character, AND feeling like they can't get away. If they agree to do it, they might end up not getting a break. It's just.... terrifically selfish of the guest/player, and every attendee needs to sign a list of rules that expressly prohibits that sort of interaction. ALSO, touching in LARP is _always_ prenegotiated if you don't know a person EXTREMELY well. Man, have I got stories...
@@christineherrmann205 why such a strong taboo on touching? Or is it more of a taboo on touching someone in a way that is too familiar under the guise of it being in character. Would general ways people touch strangers in the real world be frowned upon? Like shaking hands vs just grabbing someone that's a perfect stranger to you kind of dichotomy. I know absolutely nothing about larping so maybe I just misunderstood your comment.
@@glitterberserker1029 I would guess the specific situation that playing a character brings really heavily blurs the line of what can be perceived as ok or not ok while "in character" so its better to be safe than sorry and add it as a rule. Also I don't LARP but I do DnD and it is not at all uncommon to hear stories of people who have no concept of boundaries making a very awkward situation for someone else/everybody at the table and I can't begin to imagine how that would go in a more physical setting than just sitting at the table.
Hello! As a former actor of the park I would like to thank you for making a video like this. I worked at the park from the opening in 2018 to the mass firing in January/Feburary of 2021. I have played characters from Tip Top, to the elven ranger leader, to a simple townsperson. I wanted to simply add pieces of my story with this park. To start, though I loved playing Tip Top the Automaton, it caused some very painful and seemingly (via several doctor's appointments) irreversible damage to my back and my body as a whole. It was not built as readily for a person of my height, though I only came to learn that after playing the character for two full seasons. Based on some of my other fellow actors that have played Tip Top they have also mentioned some rather annoying, and in some cases, painful repercussions from the suit. Aside from any physical damage caused to me or my body, I also experienced some rather intense versions of parasocial relationships getting out of hand. I will not go into detail as to protect myself and those that know my story, but I was in a rather dangerous situation with a stalker that got way to out of hand. No physical harm was enacted, but the mental turmoil and general feeling of unsafety after the fact was beyond anything anyone should ever have to experience. Overall I love the friendships I have made from working at the park, but the overall trauma of the situation is not something I would ever wish upon anybody.
a common element among the actors posting their experiences here is people forming parasocial relationships with the actors. i wonder if there is even really a meaningful way to do evermore's concept of integrating parkgoers into ongoing plotlines with fixed (and unfixed) characters while protecting its staff from that specifically, because it seems like that's an issue with the bedrock of evermore's concept. thanks for your account on it, i am genuinely angry management did not adequately protect you. i find this whole thing so mystifying.
@@aeddiefarmer I think people just underestimate how easily some minor discomfort can turn into serious or permanent damage when it's inflicted for hours on end over a long period of time. Things that feel just kinda wonky or irritating and would be totally fine at first. But yeah, if you're doing this kind of work for an actual theme park you should know better.
As a gardener, I have a bit on a unique perspective on this. Disney never gets enough credit for their stunning commitment to authentic, grown in landscaping. I once visited a reclaimed tree yard where they care for very old, large trees with unique character, with their root systems entirely in large wooden containers and watered on a drip system. The owner of told me Disney had spent TWO MILLION DOLLARS on ONE SINGLE TREE at one of their parks. TWO MILLION DOLLARS FOR ONE TREE. They wanted a specific size, shape, and age for their tree, and they put down the money for it. This reclaimed tree yard was in SoCal, and Disney was a frequent customer of theirs. The amount of care and attention to detail put into their landscapes in astonishing, plus all the actual maintenance and irrigation that goes into maintaining the landscapes, all of which happens during the hours the park is closed so the guests are none the wiser! Omg, and the idea of turning your theme park into a Botanical garden because it’s an easier, cheaper option is HILARIOUS to me. Clearly an idea conceived by someone who has never worked for a public garden. Just wow.
So true! Even with the extravagant cost of planting to full density (rather than just planning to propogate/split and fill in every season as I do in my gardens), it still takes years of care for a garden to actually look amazing. Landscapes are massive investments of time. If something looks ‘grown in’ right off new construction… that might be the most expensive square footage you’ve ever witnessed outside a skyscraper!
@@limehawk4989 , I think that laborers who build, landscape, and/or clean middle-class and upper middle-class attractions are generally not treated well. The climate crisis, global health crisis, and financial crisis have really exacerbated the social divide between the "haves" and "have nots" here in the US. And based on world news, it is probably the same elsewhere. Qatar, for example: wealthy athletes and sports enthusiasts from around the world are traveling to a stadium built by abused and mistreated workers.
Can you imagine how actually kind of cool it would be if Evermore started as this sort of central hub, then a new area was added each time a "new portal opened" in their ongoing storyline? It could have really provided the feeling of different realms converging on this place as the park continued to grow. Really a shame that they went with a rennfair construction zone instead
Would've been a lot more immediately comprehensible too. Even little Braydon's mom would see it and go, "Ah, cool. We're in some kind of hub connecting a bunch of portals to different worlds. That one says 'Faerie Relm', and my son loves dragons and knights and fairies and princess. Lets go there".
Waiting in line 40 minutes for a zoom call you weren't prepared for is one of the funniest things I've heard of in awhile.
So, in a way, that was a horror element
This concept is altogether too reminiscent of my workplace.
So basically the home office experience for a lot of people during lockdown.
I did not finish watching Supernatural but I remember Crowley's queue. Lining up only to discover it was pointless with no information available to warn you-that's kinda hellish
I would have told that dumb wizard that this whole meeting could have just been handled by email.
Jenny's costume swaps actually makes it pretty easy to recall where you fell asleep so you can pick it back up
Lmao same 💯% approve lol
🧡🦇
That’s literally what I did lol. I guess I should stop watching youtube before sleeping since I always fall asleep halfway through…
Weirdly accurate to my experience. I gatta say, falling asleep to this gave me very boring park dreams.
Lmao fell asleep watching this two nights in a row, I'm really sick and this video is such a fever dream on its own that it's helped a lot. Jenny is basically a doctor now. Salute emoji.
you get it!!!!!
I can't get over how much of a social anxiety nightmare it is to go to "role playing game in real life land where you can do quests" go to up to a person in a full fantasy costume and meekly ask "can i have a quest?" and them responding with "i dunno what you're talking about"
It sort of seems like they may genuinely not know what the guest is talking about
@@calvinware7957 That's the worst part!
That's happened to me at a high school scavenger hunt activity....
I would turn into dust right there if this happened to me lol.
also like this is improv 101, it’s so clear to me, a normal theater nerd, that “excuse me, paid improv actor, are you in a guild?” should never be responded to with “what’s a guild”
It took me about an hour to realize Bretschneider was his last name instead of his name just being Brett Schneider
What?! I didn't realize until I read your comment. thank you! I feel like this should be higher because we can't be the only ones 😂
Yeah, that was on my mind for the "One of these cocktails is named after the CEO. Can YOU guess what it is?" bit. I actually remembered his name was Ken, but she had only mentioned it like once or twice. She probably should have pronounced his last name more like "bretch-nider."
Oh my god you’re right that isn’t his name
It took me until reading this comment to realise that
Took me a couple viewings to remember having that revelation three times.
Good news is now when you google them you don’t hear about the lawsuit anymore, instead you see a Reddit article that explains employees found out the park was permanently closed through google
Wait……DA FUK?!
@@serene1172 Its been sold to a new owner and is *meant* to be re opening as "realm town" in mid 2025 (i have a suspicion this will change, repeatedly)
@Simon-ho6ly I’ll believe it when it happens
@@serene1172 Yeh, likewise... it seems there is some decent capital behind the changeover so there is some hope there i think, and there is a fantasy bookshop thing opening on an adjoining lot so it migt be viable
@Simon-ho6ly Maybe someone competent bought it.
In a way this was the most accurate RPG experience ever: unhelpful NPCs, reused assets, glitches, and buildings you can’t enter.
Also lots of promises and subpar experience on release day
All headed by a company leader with great ambition but little to no business sense.
Somewhere, Todd Howard jumped to his feet, head swimming with new, bad ideas.
Pointless repetitive fetch quests set by NPCs for small amounts of gold
Plus being blatantly unfinished at launch
The fact that you struggled to buy a t shirt at a theme park is beyond mindblowing
She struggled to and was still unable, even after appealing to the CEO!
I am happy to inform you that she returned to Evermore later and did, in fact, get a t-shirt. No thanks to the CEO though.
She got one later? How?
They actually had t-shirts for sale that time. As difficult as that is to believe. Also there were some very nice employees who recognized her and filled a goodie bag for her.
@@imadethisaccountjusttocomm8064yeah the CEO IS exactly like a king omand can just tell his servants to grab her a shirt from his treasury because she makes UA-cam videos, you’re dead on bud
At least you weren't behind a pole
But the pole would at least be made of $50K worth of hand-carved marble.
This made me lol
Okay, you made me laugh for the first itme in days. I love you.
This comment deserves a UA-cam award
@@bela516be
Imagine weeping Minnie Mouse being like “DO YOU WANT ME TO GO TO BED WITH HIM?!?!”
If Mickey came and started doing domestic violence it would be erily similair to the trip to disney world we took when i was a kid
With the elsagate event horizon, unfortunately I don’t have to just imagine
Hair trigger fire mouse
@@Lucifersfursonaelsagate???
@@toripettey5321it was one of the earlier death knolls of UA-cam kids’ content
It honestly took me way too long to realize the puppets were a Jenny gag. I genuinely believed that was how Evermore would want to relay information. Guess my expectations were too high.
I only noticed towards the end, I figured they were from some other UA-camr, idk why I thought that, but then I was like, OHHHH
Thought the same thing
Evermore doesn't relay information, haha
I didn’t realize until right now
Same!
This video is the epitome of "I'm not mad, just disappointed...no wait I'm mad too".
Why aren’t people replying to this?
@@thatguythatdrawzz749It’s just too perfect. There’s nothing else to say.
Ken is a top-notch grifter.
"I'm disappomad." 💀
Kind of expect that when all your park guests are hangry.
"If I'm the only customer and I order soup then technically everybody is ordering soup" is my favorite one liner.
I'm rewatching this video specifically for this line because it got said at the end of an Honest Trailer.
@@mrodriguez16ks which honest trailer??
@@stellablake6200 the Hancock one
Do you have the time stamp for this line? I’m trying to find it but the video is (and I know this is a really impressive and niche observation) kind of long
@@katie-allen not my comment originally but its 2.53.30
Oh, that's why Defunctland obscures his face. Didn't want people to find out he was actually a dragon.
I feel like everyone on the Evermore team could have benefitted from just playing Rollercoaster Tycoon for a few hours
underrated skill builder indeed v_v i personally preferred zoo tycoon cause it demanded less effort and it still got rather heavy! the animals could be as demanding as the visitors >_
@@im19ice3 Honestly, I also liked Zoo Tycoon more, but one of my first memories of Rollercoaster Tycoon was the “Your guests can’t find anything to do” alert and that felt more on brand for Evermore. 😂
Jenny N. - “I want to get off MR BONES WILD RIDE”
@@ZackC Never!
Lmao
Can you imagine being at an unfinished theme park in the US, hearing a bunch of yelling and screaming and seeing people running, thinking you're about to be a casualty of an active shooter but it's just the evil Fae King and his minions acting up
You obviously don't know what the Fae King is capable of!
Seriously, this sort of thing needs to be held for the close of day and be handled much more calmly. Have someone call out "They are coming!" and have the actors start sort of walking in a hurried manner towards the exits letting guests know the park is closing due to fairy attack but will be back next week.
It’s horrifying
I'm amazed no one called emergency services. There had to have been people who didn't know it was a scripted thing and tried to call the cops.
I was with my two boys (9, and 13 at the time), waiting in line to enter CA Great America's Halloween Haunt. Someone was robbed, and fight broke out. Someone screamed about an active shooter, and that triggered a stampede for the exits.
Unaware of all of that, we were standing in a makeshift queue of metal stanchions, (fortunately just joining at the end of the line) when I noticed a growing sound of running footfalls. Then, I started to see people jumping turnstiles at the entrance pavilion and sprinting like their lives depended on it. In full "Peter Tingle" mode, I turned my boys around and started hustling them toward the parking lot. As the crowd in the queue got wind of the panic, they started trying to exit the stanchioned area, first by running back through, and eventually trying to jump them (causing many of them to tip over, onto people on the other side). My immediate fear was that one of my boys would slip from my grasp (I had them both by the back of their collars and was trying to help them run just a bit faster, without forcing them to stumble) and get trampled by the crowd. My next fear was that some maniac was going to start peppering the crowd with gunshots. Keep in mind, this very scenario had just played out a few weeks earlier, at the Gilroy Garlic festival shooting. People were blindly running into traffic, in an attempt to escape across the 4 lane road, at the front of the park. We ran all the way to our car, and sped out, avoiding an hours-long jam up of thousands of vehicles trying to exit at once, through 3 lanes of exit.
If I had been at Evermore that night, I would have lawyered up, because the unnecessary panic was wreckless endangerment, and my boys don't need to go through that very real fear of death in a theme park, ever again.
I've been conceptualizing a Franz Kafka theme park for a while now, and I think that Evermore provides the perfect model. Quests with no discernable purpose, characters providing conflicting or erroneous information, the impression that everything that happens is part of some larger story that no one is actually privy to... It's genius.
All that’s missing is climbing awkwardly into your car when you go to leave the park and looking at yourself in the rear-view mirror only to realize you have been transformed by your park experience - into a giant cockroach.
@@ColdHawk You mean into a giant vampire bat.
I assume you've seen The Onion's Franz Kafka Airport video?
@@mightyNosewings I might have at some point. I've also read his novels, short stories, and office reports from when he was working at the Workman's Accident Insurance Institute of the Kingdom of Bohemia.
I love this comment.
So I've worked at The Grid for over two years now, and I'd figure I'd give a couple updates and insights from across the pond.
-When I joined about two years ago, I was told that the VR experience would open "Soon", as well as an arcade bar, which would take up the upstairs space. For the whole time I've worked there, the only change that has been added to The Grid was the relocation of the arcade to a build-out room to the left of the main lobby (now complete with more arcade cabinets and a ticket/prize redemption system), the old arcade room now a dedicated event space, and a hair pin turn removed on the track. Then Evermore closed, and a lot of lighting equipment from there has made its way in the track. Now the track somewhat more resembles a Tron-esque aesthetic.
-The reason for so many tables are for private events that would rent out not just the track, but sometimes the whole building for up to three hours. This can range from 150+ work parties from the nearby tech companies in Lehi to BYU Football team parties to High School homecoming/graduation parties.
-To add to the joke about Ken inserting himself into his businesses, the two people on the art piece at 53:11 is actually Ken and his wife.
-Despite the Go-Kart aspect being super successful, we were plagued with repair issues for a while. Majority of our kart parts come from a manufacturer in Germany, which is both expensive to purchase and to ship. The funds for kart parts sure felt very tight, as sometimes we would be low on tires without a new order in sight. The worst offense being that at one point, we had several chargers break that have been been in use since it opened, and they finally fixed it MORE THAN A YEAR LATER! Ya know, the thing that charges the kart that makes you money. We as staff would often joke among each other on how Evermore needs the money more than we do. With Evermore now gone, this has gotten better (shocking, I know).
-Similar to Evermore, we still don't have any marketing outside of Social Media. No billboards, no pamphlets, no radio advertisements, nothing. One positive note is that The Grid lately has been hosting a "Karts and Coffee" car meet every two-three months in their parking lot.
-Because of the Evermore closure, the upstairs and the right build out room have pretty much become a Evermore storage room. The rooms have gotten emptier over time as they try and sell their inventory, but some Evermore stuff is now part of The Grid, as mentioned before.
-It is in the talks what would fill the rest of the vacant space at the Grid. The last I heard they're trying to salvage as much Evermore activities into The Grid. Not only would this include stuff like the axe throwing and the bow and arrow, but they would also reopen Vander's Keep in the upstairs. There has been a Facebook page for The Crooked Lantern Tavern, with the implication of it coming back, but I have no idea what that would be.
With all that said, I still love The Grid. Objectively it has the best track layout of any go-kart venue in Utah, and for the most part the karts are fast and smooth to operate. And just like Evermore, you do have some people there that are super passionate about racing, with a co-worker of mine being a marshal for the F1 races in Miami and Vegas. My main concern going forward is the clash of themes would be much worse if they were to add more Evermore attractions. So soon, you may see Art Deco, Fantasy, and Techno themes all in one building.
My opinion is that the karting aspect has done so well, that they should focus on improving and adding to the racing experience, rather than add more Evermore junk to it. Its a shame though that Ken doesn't care about racing in general, and I may be stretching it to say that he hates racing. I've asked about adding racing simulators to the business, but that's so unlikely now, I'm now putting funds aside to start a Racing Simulation business in Utah.
Love The Grid, Hate The CEO.
P.S. If you were still wanting to support the people that put their heart into making Evermore, Otherworldly Exhibit is the company that provided to Evermore the latex prosthetic masks, baby dragon puppets, and the monster seen at 26:07. They've also helped out with smaller movie productions, such as VHS 99. They have a workshop at the Layton Mall in Utah and a website at www.unworldlyexhibit.com
P.S.S. I managed to snag some shirts. :)
Thanks for the updates, I hope she sees this!
Hope Jenny sees this! Maybe post in her subreddit!
Thanks for this comment this is cool inside info
Wow, this is really detailed and interesting! I hope your racing business does really well! Especially now that you at least know what NOT to do 😆
They CLOSED Evermore?!
Why am I not as shocked as I want to be?
A kindly young fairy approaching you asking to buy your t-shirt, and then turning out to be an all powerful witch who destroys your livelihood when you say no, sounds like a fairy tale story worthy of a fantasy themepark.
beauty and the beast vibes
That’s so beautiful
I didn’t understand this until I finished the video and I must say, yes this is accurate
Don't you mean beastly vibes?
Ken tried to apologize, but it was too late - for Jenny had seen that there was no love in his heart.
Imagine being an introverted fantasy gaming fan in the middle of nowhere and hearing there is a whole theme park made just for you and all there is to do is talk to people outside.
Sorry they couldn't afford to make real life video games using AR even though the void is right there
It could be so fun like a wizard shooting range where you sling fireballs and lightning bolts
A dragon battle with like a beat saber sword
Fairies projected on bubbles idk I feel like as a tech guy there are unlimited options if he cared enough
My nightmare honestly
worst .. you are kirsten and they are calling on you to interact like people. .. . scary.
Talking to people? Nightmare
It's not just the talking to them part for me. It's the everyone's improvising so it's going to led into hella awkward dialogue where you'll just have to leave eventually.
Running screaming while telling people to get out is probably the worst possible thing you could do in a park
I would have freaked out
If they had made sure to clearly say “the Frost Witch is coming!” or something clearly story-related it could’ve been okay, but hearing “THEY’RE COMING, GET OUT” and then being herded out the ACTUAL GATES would’ve had me 100% certain there were multiple shooters or stabbers at large. Especially in the dark! They’re lucky nobody was trampled
Thank god they have low attendance so there is no risk of trampling lol
I can't help but think how this might have affected, say, survivors of Columbine or Sandy Hook or whatever, especially with no warnings or introductions or explanations being offered. Very scary!
@@alisaurus4224 exactly. Just have the actors be a little more intense but not screaming, and have them say something like the zombies are hear, let's go to x
Try being an actor in such a chaotic, unfinished, freezing cold atmosphere and all for $75 a night (when you finally got your payment). We were just as lost as the guests were when it came to storylines. Such a great idea that was horribly mishandled
I’m sorry you had such a terrible experience. I’m curious, do you have any idea if park management saw this video?
Bumping this because I would also love to know if park management ever saw this video
Jenny suggesting an app where you can scan QR codes feels like foreshadowing
Uh oh
for what
@@catboyhole watch her latest video, though be forewarned it's longer than this one
@@catboyhole The new video about the Galactic Starcruiser where a lot of the interactive stuff in the park was just scanning QR codes on various things
@@gracesanchezreviewsdont ruin the inside joke this is why we cant have nice things
The fact that she literally asked the CEO for a t-shirt and could not obtain one is insane.
Not just asked... asked to BUY.
Jenny trying her absolute hardest to give them money and just being completely unable to is kinda hilarious...though explains some stuff about the park.
Honestly, the guy seems like a bit of a scammer, he's pitching ideas which seem 'too good to be true' at every opportunity. My 'creeper sense' is tingling... it's like Spider-sense, but for weirdo predators.
@@jack-a-lopium not really he's losing a lot of money on all this he's just a bad manager scamming himself
@@52thephotoshop Hahah... I mean, Jenny's video opens with him saying that his thing is going to be better than Disney, a company with 100 years of history and a literally bottomless source of cash.
If he weren't so insufferable, he'd be interesting.
Re-watching Jenny's video is awesome, btw 😂
All of the evermore clips can be summarized as Jenny going “oh” excitedly and then “oh” disappointedly
This also summarizes the way every woman has reacted to a first date with me.
Hearing this made me feel kind of sad, she really wanted to engage with it but it was such a let down
for a park that claims to have no rides she sure seems to be going on a lot of rollercoasters
@@camilohiche4475 take me on a date, then, you must be really funny
@@bumpmcbrofist in my head canon this is the pinned comment
Jenny in a cartoonish wizard costume saying “meet me in the parking lot”, is probably my favorite part of this video
My favorite part of any Jenny Nicholson video is repeatedly thinking ‘well surely that’s the whole story’ and then seeing there’s still 2 hours of video left
Absolutely, this was me 1 and a half hours in as well.
I know! I had this same thought so many times during this video. I was leaping for joy in my mind every time I saw how much video I had left.
My favorite part is hearing "more on that later" when we're already three hours in
I mean, the numbered lists are pretty up there.
You'd think I'm being sarcastic, but no. The numbered points really add a sense of momentum to the video
and than you still have 3 more ours of the video left
Kitchen Nightmare type show with Jenny visiting failing theme parks/attractions. Every episode is just the Amy’s Baking Company one
i need her to fix up suess landing at islands of adventure. or even better the fast and furious ride
now i'm imagining gordon ramsay walking around a theme park going "ohh fuck me... everywhere looks empty, like an abandoned smurf colony..."
I'm slamming subscribe literally SO fast.
PLEASE.
This is a deep cut, and I'm totally here for it.
is that cuz Jenny looks like Amy or what?
In the VOID 30 dollars for a 15 minute experience is 2 dollars per minute. I certainly hope there aren’t other atractions try to charge that
Well...there *were* 😂
That's about what an escape room runs. 4-8 people at $30 to $50 per person ($240-$400, average $240/60m) or about $4/minute.
Foreshadowing is a literary device-
If Jenny would've made a video about the void, she would've probably spent 15 minutes behind a virtual pole
🤣
2:38:03 the same thing happened to me constantly when I worked at Build-a-Bear. People on the brink of breakdown asking me for support. They didn’t train me for that!
“I’m sorry you’re being divorced, do you want strawberry scent, cotton candy, or bubblegum?”
The real hero of this story is the dude who made $50,000 by convincing a CEO that his old doll totally has a ghost haunting it
I dont know whether to be more impressed with that guy, or whoever managed to dupe a park owned by a guy who made his fortune in cybersecurity into dropping 300k on a url
@@cyber_rachel7427 I'm starting to suspect it might be an Elon Musk deal, he just threw money at the right company and made bank off it, and now heading his own project, but with no actual management skills or understanding of value.
@@cyber_rachel7427 a man who literally signifies his company by a symbol hovering next to a safe URL... Ken what did you do
My dude is the invisible hand of the free market.
Grift that grifter! Meta-grift! GOID: Grift Of Infinite Dimensions!
I love how Jeffree Star was just quoted saying “no one watches long form content anymore” and I’m here watching a 4 hour deep dive on a theme park I’ve never heard of
If anything it's a long form renessaince, Quinton Reviews entire channel is 7+ hour long content currently, YMS is building hype surrounding a multi-part series, multiple hours each, Caddicarus' channel saw massive success upon making 40 minute to hour long videos... Maybe it's just due to my personal tastes, but it seems to be a rather popular niche among everyone who isn't a corporation or a child. It just so happens youtube only wants to appeal to those groups
I almost exclusively watch long form content, I like knowing I won't have to pick something new for at least 30-40 minutes
This is the video (Jenny's video) when I heard what Jeffree said. Like dude, I will watch several hours worth of video for a well researched deep dive into just about anything. I just wont watch someone ramble for any amount of time if I don't like them.
@@emilycardinall Right!? “No one watches long form content anymore.” has the same energy as "No one likes comedy anymore!" No, you just are no good at it hahahah.
jeffree star can go kick rocks lmao
I feel like it wouldn’t be that hard to have a few security acting as “town watch” walking around in costume and semi in character, but just replying to any smalltalk or quest stuff with versions of “im on duty and cannot be detained”. have them helping to move people on if their monopolising characters, help out guests who are in distress, checking in on the wellbeing of performers, literally intervene if guests cross boundaries with performers, maybe also acting as town cryers to announce story events. I feel like that’d fit into the atmosphere perfectly, and also up the safety and comfort level of both performers and guests
It's honestly crazy how much they did wrong. Having security at a park like this feels mandatory, if not at least obviously a good idea. There's so much they screwed up that had nothing to do with lack of funding, just pure lack of foresight or actual concern for people.
I was thinking this too, like it can't be that hard? You just put them in practical yet still characterized clothing, and it would already be way better. You could also have a guide/med tent incase someone needs directions or is feeling ill. This is basic stuff i can't believe no one thought of this lol
The whole thing reeks of an ideas giy not being a "doing" guy.
He needed to get the maps of all popular and small theme parks amd look at what features were common (food, drink. Help and information, security. Health and safety/first aid) and figure out hoe to implement them.
Then have someone eho plays lots of RPGs and somrone (or a team) who do writing to create some solid stories that will be constant through all seasons - a beginners set of quests if you will.
Then have a similar team to work through and plan more intermediate quests.
This should all be happening in the planning phase.
Then add on transport around park (q train system) and talk to ti legal about accessibility.
Then these plans should result in what items, locations, people and pleases should be available and this should go onto accounts and props teams as well as a legal and health and safety team.
Local theatres and acting schools should be talked to to request characters and actors that can just mill about as NPCs as well as take part in questlines.
This should've all happened before anything was purchased or announced.
@@arospec2712 Given the "multiverse hub" nature of the setting, you wouldn't even have to have them in "period" costume. Just put them in modern uniforms and say they're from a near-Earth world, and were sent through one of the portals as some kind of expeditionary force, who agreed to help "keep the area secure" while they were there. You could even pass off the lower/non-existent level of armament that security guards usually have as "not wanting to expose the natives to advanced technology" or some such (Think SG-1 from Stargate, but fantasy.... well, okay, just SG-1, I guess.)
It's common for performers in environments like these to have handlers, and it's very surprising they didn't seem to have anything like that. Heck, even cosplayers often have someone with them to hold their things or, if needed, step in the help if the cosplayer gets overwhelmed and/or needs to go.
And, yeah, security of some kind feels mandatory for any kind of environment like this.
“I’m the mystery diner, I’m the undercover boss!” I love that. That sets you apart from every single other UA-camr/“influencer.” I really respect that you don’t use your internet renown for special treatment and therefore can provide honest and credible reviews
"But surely Utahns are within their right to file lawsuits if their children are immolated by a warlock." This sentence has never been said before. It is one of my favorite sentences.
Oh my god, the next piece of media that incorporates fantasy elements in a modern setting must include mystical litigation
I would think Utah, of all states, would be one of the MOST "lawsuit against negligent warlock"-friendly places you could be.
@@Savyon0 Anti-child-immolation-by-negligent-warlock is possibly the most non-partisan take.
Sounds like a case that defense lawyers would reference in court for generations: "Utah v. Immolating Warlock"
@@zab416 Finally, something both sides can agree on!
The fact that they spent tens of thousands of dollars on expensive and pointless antiques to make the scene more authentic just to park an suv in the middle of an attraction is wild to me 😭
Pretty sure the owner just had "f you money" and put everyone else's enjoyment below his own. Pretty much all of his projects seemed like something he did for himself and making a business out of it was an afterthought.
Also if they’re such expensive antiques you should NOT put them in a theme park, they’re eventually gonna be ruined by the hundreds of people touching them and setting their drinks down and letting their kids knock them over
Lets not forget, if they got these statues and stuff from Europe, the shipping costs for such heavy items would have been stupid. It's just truly the strangest choice all around; impractical, likely to damage them by being set in a theme park, overly expensives when you can buy statues in the US...
The thing with the antiques is that they clearly just went on a mad shopping spree for anything that was pre-1950s and European. None of the furniture matches or clearly indicates what timezone we are meant to be in. They should have just comissioned their own Ye Olde Fantasie Style furniture, it would probably have cost the same as importing hundrends of heavy items and looked much better.
smells a little tax fraud-y
Seeing footage from in the park, I now get why Disney doesnt allow people to come in costume. Because with so many guests dressed up in fantasy outfits, it made it so hard to tell who the performers were, so you wouldn't know who to interact with!
They now have indicators (glowing necklaces) that tell you who is an actor now, which has solved that problem.
coming to the park as my Barry Crispsandals character and giving out quests to get me a thing of cheese fries
@@danb9447We do a little trolling
Renfaires usually have performers wear some kind of insignia for exactly this reason. Baffling that Evermore didn’t
@@alisaurus4224 evermore does have this
if i had a nickel for every time jenny went to a bad, failing larp-adjacent "theme park" and was enamored by a non-human character played by someone in a full body suit i would have two nickels, which isn't a lot, but it's weird it happened twice
I mean... given what we know of Jenny it's not THAT strange. If anything the weird part is there's only 2 times this has been documented
*Chittering platypus noises intensify*
took me to the end to realize that the puppets were just on-screen readings of Evermore statements. I genuinely thought that the way Evermore communicated important information with everyone was through puppets. had me going: "Huh. Well that's one way for a company to tell it's employees that they don't know when they're getting paid"
🤣😂🤣
I only realized they weren't real Evermore PR Puppets when I stumbled upon the cast credits in the description after I finished the video. I thought they were doing one of those "how do you do, fellow kids" things.
Me too - so glad I'm not alone
I literally just ROFL at this comment. (To be fair, I was already on the floor petting my rabbit… who I scared away with my rolling and laughter.)
this comment is how i found this out
As someone who has put his literal blood, sweat, and tears into performing at Evermore I appreciate Jenny putting all this effort into telling this story.
SAME
Would love to watch a vlog or read a write-up about it if you're inclined/at liberty.
Tell us mooooooore
TELL US YOUR STORIES
@@flagepage I'm the guy in the chainmail when she talks about the Knights Guild. I was one of the original actors with the park till the purge of 2021
thinking about guests being lost on the story, i can't help but think it'd be really fun to have a guild of pixies or something that are known gossips; they just spend their time going around, probably sticking around the edges of scenes, and guests know that if they're confused or curious, they can ask the pixies, and they'll very enthusiastically fill them in on all of the juicy details they missed out on
You could maybe even use that to keep people informed when and where important scenes would take place. So if guests want to know what story beats are gonna happen today and at what time, they'll go to the pixies and ask for today's gossip. Then the pixies can say stuff like, "You didn't hear this from me, but rumor has it that the Fae King enchanted Elisabeth to do something horrible at the Fountain Plaza around noon.", and you would always be reminded that you can't use this info to try and prevent what's gonna happen, 'cause the Pixies are all about the gossip and they don't interfere
That’s a genuinely brilliant idea.
Or you could have some kind of oracle-type characters who can get glimpses of the future or something. Then you could even have little schedules written out for the guests, all in-universe.
So many people in these comments have great simple ideas that would improve the park.
GENUIS. guests could run up to them and catch themselves up on everything!
That's actually a really cool idea
"Do you want me to go to bed with him" has become a standard sentence in my vocabulary, usually when I'm being asked to do something I don't like.
As an electrician, the exposed wires segment of this video is scarier than any horror movie
I’m planning on showing my brother that segment of the video just to see his reaction. He’s a union electrician and is big on electrical safety (as he should be) and has shown me pics of the crazy things people do in commercial buildings.
halloween theme: for regular guests they bring out an electrician to explain how close to death they've been all year.
I can only assume they're isolated at the supply end and therefore not live. Otherwise it's insanity.
The corrosion risk is still big given that they're outdoors though. Especially with some parts being under construction for years, I bet the first inch of conductor is pure copper oxide now
I just assumed those are 12V/24V control current wires for my peace of mind
@@harmonysummers I prefer the electrician who comes to my house is also very concerned about safety! I don't want to get zapped while I'm naked in the shower or something! I also don't go to theme parks to play a life or death version of The Floor is Lava with power cables just...everywhere.
since worldwalkers are a part of Evermore Park lore, I'm confused why they couldnt have some employees who both are/arent in character as 'experienced worldwalker guides' to help guests
Thats a GREAT point omg
I hope Jenny N. makes more content. She’s absolutely adorable and talented at her thing.
"...CRAP"
- Brett Schneider reading this
... you're brilliant
They could even have like. Fantasy-like armor or dress made from items from our world or something. For theming or whatever. Evermore hmu
***AUGUST 2023 UPDATE***
I paid a Saturday visit during August 2023 for the Mythos event. This is a list of the changes that have been made, or have not been made since this video was published
Upgrades Made (probably in response to this video)
-The Drakenhaven building is complete and is well decorated.
-Two permanent maps of the park have been displayed!
-Bow and arrow safety training is now mandatory! (In fact, it is so exhaustive and thorough that most patrons chose to walk away without shooting rather than endure it, including me. It’s seriously like 10 minutes long.)
-I didn’t notice any exposed wire!
-Axe throwing & bow and arrows are permanently included with the cost of admission
-The aerial performers have moved to a more visible location
-Evermore installed a pre-recorded audio storyline/mystery that visitors can engage with by pushing buttons throughout the park. (It has great potential, but it’s impossible to follow the story or solve the mystery because several buttons don’t work. But this is a step in the right direction!)
-The Skype aspect of Louden’s Rest (the crypt building) has been removed! It’s now just a cool portal to take selfies with. (There’s also a quest button next to the portal that doesn’t work)
-The lower level of the Louden’s Rest was open. (Nothing happens, but it is aesthetically stunning)
-The summer lantern festival featured a handful of lanterns!
-The fairies had wings!
-I didn’t witness any cast members openly weeping or using pyrotechnic effects.
-The cast members are still heroically always in character. God bless ‘em.
-The lighting at night is still magical.
Problems that have not been addressed
-The church has made no progress. (Nothing has changed since opening day. It’s weird that Ken Bretschneider found money to build The Grid, but not finish the church)
-The park entryway is still empty and lifeless.
-There are still no cast members welcoming guests or offering instructions. (This has been a complaint since day one and would be free to fix. WTF Evermore? So many guests, including me, were wandering around confused. Help us out!)
-Since every cast member is deeply in character, there is still no one to approach to ask questions like “Where is the nearest bathroom?” or “Where can I buy food?” or “Is there a gift shop?” It’s incredibly frustrating.
-There’s still no signage describing attractions. I wanted to ride the train, but couldn’t find any information about whether or not it was free, where to buy tickets, etc (Evermore, help us give you money! We want to!)
-Cast members still mainly interact with other cast members and don’t have much to say when guests build up the courage to approach them.
-Quests are still meaningless. If you are lucky enough to find a cast member willing to give you a quest, it will be something dumb and nonsensical that relies on the honor system. There is no reward for completing quests.
-The elaborate prosthetic costumes are still nowhere to be seen.
-There is still no merch or gift shop available. (The third-party vendors host the only actual quest in the park. It’s simple and easy, but it was refreshing to find something to do. Finally! Somebody with basic business skills!)
-Vanders Keep is closed. The food game is still really bad. (The website says Vanders Keep opens for special occasions)
-Evermore still doesn’t advertise
-They still use names like “Lore” that don’t make any sense to the general public, ensuring that they will only ever cater to a niche market of die-hard LARPers.
-So many bugs. The spiders at night were ginormous. (Perhaps that made it more authentic?)
-The park is still operated with the mentality that guests need to make their own fun. If that’s the case, what are we paying for?
Thanks for posting the update we all wanted!
Yo! Thanks for the update.
it's so weird that the actors can't/won't answer basic questions from guests... for one thing a bit of an immersion break is a small price to pay to improve their experience, but for another, every person in every time period in every fantasy realm needs to eat and use the bathroom lol. you'd think the actors could just call it a water closet or whatever. even a slightly more awkward question like "what can I do around here other than go to Evermore?" could be answered with smth like "other World Walkers have spoken about thrilling adventures they've had in a realm known as The GRID!" like... it doesn't seem that complicated lmao
anyway thanks for the update!
I worked at the local Ren Faire and we got asked for directions to bathrooms, what time was it, what time shows were, etc. ALL THE TIME. And we had in character answers prepped for all of that. We also had in character commentary on hand to deal with people ignoring you to look at their phones, or kids running around unsupervised. Event guests still needed to be treated like paying customers, not an interrupting spectator. That's where it moves from watching a show to being an interactive experience.
Bugs aren't really a opt out thing in that part of Utah.
I am an older woman who really enjoyed your video as we are trying to get more visitors into our museum. Your ideas are spot on and very helpful in our endeavor. I have to laugh because most of the things you were talking about are nothing I have ever heard of, but am fascinated by your descriptions and ideas.
I hope your museum gets visitors! Jenny’s ideas are definitely creative. She always makes theme park suggestions where I think, “Wow, how did I not even consider that? Even that little detail would be so cool!”
What's the museum? I'm always up for new museums lol
What's the museum? Which ideas did you find helpful?
@@slickboyist Carnegie Museum of the Keweenaw in Houghton, Michigan I believe
The palpable envy of “which she got” when referring to Ginny’s map of the park may have been my favorite little moment of this epic.
Agree. I literally cackled
My favorite was "The caboose is symbolic"
2:28:25 - Another highlight is the sly way she delivers the line, "They (the dwarves) also don't play music covers anymore -- for some reason."
Card stock doesn't grow on trees!
Distracting Americans by just putting a fuckton of pumpkins everywhere is the funniest, most relatable thing.
Pumpkins and pine trees.
I can't even deny it. That is 100% accurate. I just never realized how true that was before. lol
it’s true, pumpkins are lovely
As someone who has had, perhaps, too much fun looking at decorative gourds and pumpkins at farm stands, I can confirm the relatability.
lol I literally got distracted at dollar tree today because they had a bunch of pumpkin decorations.
I’m a little horrified that Gamblin’ Goblin was a paid employee being made to go barefoot in an outdoor, concrete-surfaced theme park.
He loved it that freak
Good point. You could easily get some goblin feet to go over shoes or something like that.
I'll be honest if a half naked man approached me at a theme park and kept asking me if I wanted to gamble for his pants in a goblin voice I would either run away or bust out laughing. Or both
@@0meAcat1 and so did a handful of patrons, allegedly
in the summer no less
About that Evermore not serving booze thing...
The short answer to why Evermore couldn't get a liquor license is that they probably tried. They probably tired every year, going back as far to when the park was announced in 2014. They probably started trying well before the park was announced. Ken Bretschneider knows enough about Utah to know they would have had to start trying to get the liquor license before even buying the land. They simply weren't allowed to have one. There's a chance there might have been a legal path for them to eventually get the license somewhere in 2020-2023 timeframe, but it would have required them to redesign and rebuild their tavern from the ground up, which would have been prohibitively expensive for them, at least at that point.
Liquor laws in Utah are complicated; The situation is weird; The wikipedia page is lacking; There's a lot of "You just had to live there" to pick up on the nuance. It's not like you're going to get a documentary about it from the local news stations,. They don't even know that the 't' in 'Layton' is silent.
But to all the people who say 'mountain' is pronounced with a hard t (which is offensive to Utahns, btw) , here's some stuff to keep in mind before moving here:
While roughly 40% of the population doesn't mind honestly talking about whether or not they drink, a voting majority of the state believes it is very bad to get caught drinking, to the point that a closeted drinker (up to 60% of adults) will deny even knowing the *names* of different alcohol.
This makes it very hard to figure out how many people in Utah even actually drink.
Since 60% of Utahns have been trained into this mentality, and all of these people vote, that means 100% of the state legislature usually publicly denies having ever had a single drink in their life, loudly... and often. They also make a lot of blatantly false claims about alcohol, which nobody can call them on, because 60% of the state has the compulsive need to deny that they've ever googled basic facts like "how much alcohol does it take to get drunk" or " what is blood alcohol content"
The end result is some very important factors (deliberately) preventing businesses trying to get a liquor license in the state:
State liquor laws get completely overhauled from the ground up every year or two, often adding/removing specific physical requirements that are not possible for some businesses to implement before the law gets changed again
You have to serve food with alcohol in order to be classified as a restaurant, and there's a lot of specific rules about how drinks can be handed to guests, where guests can be with those drinks, etc. The rules have probably changed 5 times since I lived there (Lagoon has beer now). But for a majority of the time Evermore was open, and if they wanted to serve alcohol, then they would have had to choose between making the entire park count as a full service restaurant, or making the entire park count as a 21+ bar. Either option would have severely limited the entertainment they were allowed to provide in the park, because for a long time mixing booze an entertainment in Utah technically qualifies you as a strip club - which are always essentially banned in the state, regardless of the state of liquor laws.
The overall number of liquor licenses in the state are very limited and sometimes can be sold from business to business for profit, or sometimes they return to the state. It changes. But almost all of them are monopolized by major chains (one license per location, not per business), except when they aren't. I know there was a several year period of time where Applebee's was complaining there wasn't enough liquor licenses in the state to serve booze at every Applebee's. I think that was before the attempt to fix the general availability of liquor licenses to restaurants (but not to bars) which involved the Zion Curtain (which ironically banned all the bars in almost all the restaurants in Utah, since they are visible by customers) and the general re-re-attempt to re fix things again, which involved making the legal limit so low that a 100 pound woman having 1 drink over a 1 hour diner will get a DUI. (This is where some of those blatantly false claims come into play. The representative from Provo would say things like a BAC of 0.05% was the equivalent of drinking a 6 pack, and nobody was willing to fact check him).
Anyways none of the particularities matter that much, because the tavern would not have been that popular, because the people who live in and around Pleasant Grove (and especially Provo) would never let themselves be caught drinking in public -Ever. While Utah overall is around 60% Mormon, in that area it's closer to 90%+. Of that 90%, about half would not only not get caught drinking, they would never let themselves be seen with their kids in any place that even sells alcohol.
We are talking about the kind of people who went to Disney every year, and swore off Disney as an entire company forever, because they heard that you could buy wine in California Adventure (They haven't been to Disney World; they don't know what goes on out there). Most of them kept going, or only skipped at most 1 annual trip, but they all publicly *said* were going to stop. This kind of publicity from a bunch of loud, duplicitous housewives is not what Evermore needed when they were being publicly flogged in a public forum by a hostile city council every time they needed a $10 permit to, as a random example, cover some exposed electrical wires.
Ken built in Pleasant Grove not because it was the best suited, most beautiful, or even cheapest location, but because it was close enough to where he lived. It was a lazy location. That was the biggest mistake of the whole park, and he should have known better.
I can't get over the fact that a 20 year old having a beer in America is illegal, but drinking two beers and then getting behind a massive truck that will decapitate people on impact without even knowing how to parallel park is everyday business.
This is absolutely fascinating
@@jadesfire7920no fr bc why am I spending my free time reading an incredibly long and thorough comment talking about the liquor laws in utah? and thoroughly enjoying it? what a time to be alive
That sounds incredibly frustrating... Thanks for that detailed write up! I don't think I'll ever set foot in Utah, but it was a fascinating read nontheless
thank you for taking the time to explain all of this, it's really interesting to read! while watching the video i was thinking back to the first job i had as a "bartender" for a restaurant that could only serve beer and wine because we didn't have a full liquor license, and i heard that it was because it was located right outside of a retirement community. i was thinking how if that was the case in florida, how difficult it must be in a state like utah. thanks again for sharing, i love learning stuff like this.
The chef sounds like a great character to incorporate into the park: the artist that gets so pissed at other characters demanding alterations to his perfect menu that he challenges them to fights outside his tavern. If played right, he could become a fan favorite.
That would be hilarious! Evermore should lean into and learn from their past mistakes and the chef would be a fun nod to that.
Some simple changes would immediately make the park better and cost nothing. Aka: implement basic safety guidelines for the archery, ax throwing, and pyrotechnics. It'd take only one or two minutes of verbal explanation to make all those aspects MUCH safer. And move the audience further away from the fire dancers for heavens sake.
Lighting the paths seems like the next most important addition, but that would cost a bit of money to purchase the lights, so it would be understandable if they added this in segments.
@@carlotta4th I wouldn't follow my suggestion, as the chef seems not to work there anymore (comments are saying that Vander's Keep closed), and it is in poor taste to make fun of a past employee without their permission. The *idea* is rich for a comic side character, and I stand by that idea - I just think that it is a dick move if a park fires a guy and then makes fun of him later by basing a character on a single interview he gave that does not give a full view of the person.
A chef is a perfect spot for a character too, because they spend most of their time in the kitchen(backstage) and then come out deliver a scene and then return to the kitchen. Repeat an hour later when the restaurant is full of people who haven't seen it yet. It helps address all of the concerns about actor safety mentioned in the video and these comments.
@@OpalBLeigh Yeah, the guy may be super nice and just had one hang up that he exaggerated for what he thought was comedic effect. Heaven knows that I've said lots of things that I regret and that are forever saved on the internet if people want to dig through and hurt me with them.
Some other random character ideas: CGP Grey's pirates (a stuffy accountant and his much more freewheeling captain) would be a hilarious mixture. Steampunk Sherlock Holmes solving crimes and getting audiences involved in catching a villain would be cool. A knight trying to protect a rambunctious princess who keeps trying to escape and have fun, perhaps?
The concept I have with all of these characters is that they would be fun, "basic" characters for new people to latch onto and have fun with in the front areas of a park, while more serious, darker stories could be placed in the back - creating a separation so that people bringing their kids don't necessarily have to hear Wen Weaver (who seems like a cool character) having an emotional breakdown.
I think that a separation is key if you are marketing to both adults and children. There would need to be dedicated areas that are safe from character deaths and the like so that you can just enjoy an edutainment bird show or a petting zoo with real goats and imaginary baby dragons (another comment pointed out that the baby dragon is a HUGE marketing opportunity and I 100% agree - just imagine how many photo opportunities and fun stuff you could do with explaining this dragon to kids - it would be awesome).
I think that this park has so much potential, and that new management or another eccentric millionaire creating his own park (with more foresight) could become something truly magical and amazing for people to encounter.
Yeah I worked for him and he was really hard to deal with sometimes but overall a chill dude. His wife however (the one nudging him) is a real piece of work.
my mother is the costume designer seen in the video and i’ve seen kens incompetence first hand. she put so much love and effort into those costumes, but was treated like complete garbage.
She sounded like she has a lot of love and passion for what she does. I hope she found something better that's deserving of her time and effort.
Man, that sucks
I’m sorry about your mother.
Honestly the costumes were amazing. She did such awesome job, I'm sorry to hear that it wasn't appreciated.
she did an incredible job!! it's so upsetting how the incredibly talented people who actually made the park good were treated so badly.
So I actually got to see Josh Steadman, the Director of Show Design (that guy on the podcast at the end of the video) present at a panel about themed entertainment at ComicCon this past year. Not two minutes into his introduction, he mentions working on Evermore and says "but I guess people would rather listen to girls wearing elf ears on UA-cam than actually visit the park, so..." with the added bonus of showing THE SAME MAGIC TREE CONCEPT ART.
I'm so happy I watched the girl with elf ears first 😂
lmao that guy doesn't even work there anymore... but still absolutely brown-nosing Ken because I guess he's gotta defend his portfolio?? 🤪
I'm glad that a lot of other management involved during opening who were stabbed in the back one way or another by the CEO have since acknowledged him and Evermore for what they really are.
Wow, so his lack of professionalism extends beyond the park.
@@TheNickhis Trust me, as someone who works in this industry, some people who work in events/themed entertainment design would deny everything for the sake of standing by their portfolio 😅
@@delaneyheil9575 Oh I have no doubt lmao
LMAO Listen, if I could get all my news and obscure information about the world from a woman with elf ears, I would. Infinitely more reputable than some rich insecure middle-aged white guy imo.
now they’re gonna sue taylor again for her new album the tortured poets department, as wen weaver clearly originated the tortured poet role and they need to be compensated fairly for their stolen character
Any footage of the actors made me feel so uncomfortable. The fact that they bear the weight of any customer dissatisfaction and confusion, sends shivers down my spine. The poor man in the Skype call trying his darndest was brutal.
I could feel it in my soul. I’ve worked in exhibitions and stuff where I have literally 0 information and intel, yet I’m supposed to be interacting and guiding the guests. It’s actually painful. I was thrown into the exhibition with a shirt that said “ASK ME ANYTHING”. It was an avenger station exhibit so I went home that night reading up on pretty much everything but come on. It was weird that I got that assignment since I was hired with the clear knowledge that I am autistic and very anxious. Idk why I was hired but I got the job from the psychiatric clinic I was at as a job training thing. (I’ve worked before, and I am an actress. So I managed to bullshit my way through. But I was absolutely filled with anxiety and came home mentally drained every night)
I feel panicked seeing this go down since these are just people who showed up to work and got absolutely no information/education to help them in their work.
Even if you love to LARP, you won’t love this type of job since you have nothing to work with - whilst still having very vague but very strict rules. Trying to navigate what to do.
I don’t understand why they don’t give the employees more information about what they should do/info about the backstory and lore etc. that would be in EVERYONES best interest.
@@emmestein I feel sorry for your situation. While I work a different field (department store retail), I can relate to the feeling: being informed about absolutely nothing, and yet being expected by customers to know everything.
Great job on getting through it, though; you sound like you worked well on your feet! I hope your future gigs are much more willing to equip you with the information that you need. :)
@@emmestein damn bro sorry to hear that
The Patrons list labeled as Volunteer Weeding Department had me howling with laughter.
I have to skip that part every time, i feel so bad for him 💀💀
Food: $5
Employees: $2
Fireproof Clothing: $1
Gravestones: $100000
Buildings: $3
someone who is good at the economy please help me budget this. my park is dying.
Perhaps buy fewer gravestones?
HoneyBee
😂🤷🤣...maybe try NOT living in a fantasy world 24/7...so when reality sinks in their not soooooo disappointed...
You forgot the cocaine budget for their creative director
You clearly need more gravestone investment. People want their gravestones, damn it!
Take one of the dollars from the employees and put it to your grave funds
i will NEVER stop giggling at "YOUR GRACE, HE MEANS YOU HARM!"
Does anybody have a timestamp? I think about this moment so often that I need a quick reference!
59:56 for the "YOUR GRACE HE MEANS YOU HARM" but if you want to listen to the full old king/advisor bit go to 59:42
@@vvam5440Thank you!!!
For the last couple days I rewatched all of her videos from the beginning looking for this line because I remembered it so intensely and needed to see it again. Only for it to be from her most recent post, lol
It’s like Disney saw this park, said “oh we can do this SO much better”, and then made the Galactic Starcruiser and somehow did it even worse.
They even made use of her Dragon Quest suggestion to make the gameplay RFID-based, yet somehow that managed to render the game even more unplayable, resulting in Jenny being told for the second time by fans of a park that you get what you put into it and to make her own fun. Which, at Disney's price point, is actually advice I'd probably be inclined to take, but it's still crazy just how many of her general experiences from this video are echoed in that one despite the general gameplay being otherwise entirely different at the two different attractions.
The resorts executives at Disney did visit many LARPing events and businesses, even going overseas, and it seems they took all the wrong things from it.
@@christinelockamy6014 The funny thing is that this is actually old-school Disney. If you're familiar with the Three Caballeros, that came from their animators taking an overseas trip. When you watch the movie, it seems they ignored most of what they learned and just did their own thing. But I recently rented a Disney DVD from the library, and it opens with an ad where they quote a bunch of Walt's views on imagination. Would be nice if they actually took those quotes to heart.
Then again, I personally feel like I would have enjoyed Galactic Starcruiser if I had the money to attend it. From the videos I've seen, it kind of feels like Jenny has some kind of tarragon curse on her where she just always wanders into the worst possible experience any time she goes to a new theme park. Some people seemed to really enjoy it. But I guess some people didn't sit behind a pole. All I know is that her Star Wars cruise video is doubly hilarious when you watch the Evermore video and see her saying that more theme parks should embrace the concept of doing everything through an app. Bona fide monkey's paw.
Wow what a once in a lifetime horrible event. Thank god Jenny would never go on to have a second, equally dismal theme park experience
This comment needs to be pinned
As long as she sticks to a high grossing, well established corporation she should be fine!
If I had two nickels...
3:06:44 "They don't have Disney money behind them, so of course one has to meter their expectations"
Epic foreshadowing
Jenny put more thought into Evermore than Evermore did.
WHY doesn't any theme park company HIRE HER to help them design AWESOME parks?? The ideas and creative thinking she possesses . . wow! :D
@@ZUGTFO because Jenny is a youtuber, without a degree in engineering. Theme parks don’t just have idea guys. That’s not a job. You have to be an engineer, or some kind of professional designer or have a huge buttload of money. Jenny is none of those.
And Evermore definitely wasn’t short on idea guys. It seems to me that what it really needed was more investment in the people who could double check the efficacy and safety of these ideas and the workers and customers they would impact.
jenny put ever more thought into evermore than evermore ever did
@@TheLuckyIrishDevil - After Jenny’s analysis it has been never more apparent that Evermore soon shall be nevermore and shut its gates forevermore.
It's true, Americans subconsciously want to see the maximum number of pumpkins and get very happy when there are more pumpkins than expected.
A pumpkin seed from a jack o lantern sprouted in our front yard and we are unreasonably excited about seeing it grow any amount of pumpkins!
So true, Silver Dollar City's fall festival is "Pumpkins in the City" and there's just pumpkins freaking everywhere and a big ol sign that says "PUMPKINS" above the dance floor
An important note on this is that we will settle for less than the maximum number of pumpkins if some pumpkins are exceptionally large
Imagine if you will a park full of pumpkins, with a lizard and birds show
my americanness led me to become one with the pumpkins so I can back this up
34:15 I could see this rushing people out to not only invoke fears of mass tragedies but also having the opposite effect similar to the "boy who cried wolf". If a mass casualty event were to actually happen, would people run out or would they think "oh it's just like the Lore night". So on one hand it makes guests fearful on that night but would make guests unfearful at an appropriate time.
My fiance and I went to the park last year for Valentine's Day. We went in, walked around and decided we wanted to ride the train before we left (it was in February and right before close and very cold). The employees were very young, but nice. The employees said we couldn't use the caboose. They saw someone and got immediately skittish - turns out it was that same CEO guy. He held up the train for 20 minutes to show his date a special hidden room inside the initial tunnel the train goes through. When he's done, he goes to the back of the train AND GETS IN THE CABOOSE. Yes. That's why you can't use the caboose. ITS FOR HIM ONLY. Then we go to leave and almost can't get out of the parking lot because he parked his Porsche in the middle of the ONLY EXIT to the parking lot. Seems like a great guy who's really fun to be around.
Wow. Speaks volumes about his character, and how much her cares about the guests to his park.
This feels like satire but I do believe you
@@Christina-sj1wc Has to be satire because there’s no way that guy lasts 20 minutes.
@@electricdreammachine2225 😂
@@electricdreammachine2225 I believe it.
5 minutes to walk to and from the room
3 minutes to undress and re-dress
2 minutes for the deed and
10 minutes to cry about it
At this point Jenny should sell her services as a theme park experience consultant. A lot of her suggestions are really good ideas
i was just thinking that, or at the very least ask her to do the marketing. she’s got such an insight into common sense lmao
There are many people who have just as great ideas in the industry who probably know even more about marketing and budgeting. Unfortunately companies are greedy know-it-alls and limit these people or dismiss them just to get more money which at the end backfires but oh well
@@DSDXV. As wonderful as that sounds. I think she covered in the Disney video. What companies want from people who make content basically a commercial/ with talking points from scripts.
I have to say, I would be so deeply uncomfortable to be walking around and witnessing some of these scenes. All these actors screaming, crying, people on their knees, begging others, like…I wanna have a quest and see some magic fights, not like…medieval soap operas where some of the guests are apparently so close to the actors they get to participate in what I can only describe as “me and my friends RPing in private message boards in middle school”
Also I would give a kidney to get a video like this about the Goretorium in Vegas. We went a few times and I’m so sad that there’s basically no video or photos of the inside of the haunt itself left.
Yeah I was wildly uncomfortable just watching some of the clips
Lol “me and my friends RPing in middle school” is exactly what it reminds me of
yeah literally, 90% of people won't care about deep story lines, they could just do a couple of choreographed fights everyday and everyone would be happy
@@overgrownkudzu It’s true, but boy oh boy should you see the die-hard evermore “fans” when the park discussed making things more accessible to first-time players. It’s as if they’d just had visiting rights to their best friend removed, or as if someone just took their LARP from them.
So I looked it up and Evermore closed this year (the evermore domain is now owned by Evermore Resort in Orlando). Bretschneider is out after defaulting on all his loans, which were more than $1 million in total. The landowner (who purchased the land in 2022 and tried to save the park) in a slight snarky tone added that the lease he wrote for Bretschneider was "very, very friendly," but nevertheless Bretschneider took the opportunity for granted and failed his contractual obligations. The landowner has brought in a "very well capitalized group" who has chosen to retain all old-world buildings and is committed to finishing them inside and out. Pleaseeeeeeeee return to the new Evermore when it's finished!
After all this time the thing that has me most shook is that the total debt was "only" $1 million. I know that's a lot of money to have in your personal bank account, but for a business this size... that's doable. It's obviously not GREAT but that's recoverable, especially when some of your biggest creditors are apparently very willing to work with you and you have other successful businesses to fall back on, and a LOT of unnecessary assets (like decor) to sell off that nobody would even miss. I'm not saying it's chump change and it would have been easy to get, but it's doable. If that's the amount it would have taken to be debt-free I'm even more confused why Bretschneider couldn't make it work.
@@clementinedangerthe comment literally says “more than” not only
@@clementinedanger Considering how they lost the licensing rights for VOID and ignored the chance to get licenses for Taylor Swift songs at a fairly affordable rate, I'd wager the amount started a lot lower and that he absolutely could have made it work but simply chose not to.
@@quirkyblackenbywell, people generally demarcate values at "milestone" numbers. like you wouldnt say "dinner was over $100!" to mean it was $230. youd say it was "more than $200", generally. so over a million dollars almost assuredly means under 2 million, and probably less than 1.5 mill. which for the point being made is a reasonable number.
As a Utah resident, I am especially excited because the land's new owner is the locally-famous, super-nerd author Brandon Sanderson! My friends and I all love his books and we can only dream of what an Evermore with Brandon Sanderson writing it would look like.
Can you even imagine you go to a Disney park and you literally can't stop running into Bob Iger?
Or much worse even: Bob Chapek
It blows my mind that he is so visible there when the whole place is such an embarrassing failure and just a dismal excuse for a park experience of any kind.
@mzook7854 also, if he's the owner, why does he need to be on site? Isn't that managemets job?
I suspect he's managing in person because he either fired/didn't hire management to either cut costs, and/or micromanaging everything in person.
Which leads to the second point, the frivolous spending on minor items makes it look like the park is his personal playground, opposed to an actual business venture.
Wouldn't knock that, but it would have been cheaper to just buy a nice estate and fill it with the crap you want.
@@jampine8268 yeah, he seems like a "hands on" owner who was actually too involved for the park's own good
@@jampine8268 Basically all of this guys projects post-wealth seem to be personal playground projects
If you ever wonder why companies are always looking for “someone with a real passion for this job” or something along those lines, it’s because it’s much easier to exploit that kind of person.
True of various kinds of social work too. When you ask to be compensated fairly for your skills and efforts, management will be like "guess you're not COMMITTED to the PEOPLE we serve, you MONSTER."
@@nancytribe managerial gaslighting at its finest 👌🏻
The video game developer Naughty Dog got into hot water about doing something similar.
Their hiring practices heavily favored prospective-employees who self-identified as workaholics and perfectionists. This was so it would be easier to convince them to undergo heavy levels of crunch.
@@theoneandonlymichaelmccormick If companies were upfront about how they need people who are willing to work harsh hours, it wouldn’t seem so exploitative.
@@iamkablam8096 No, I think it’d still be exploitative.
There is no amount of overtime pay that makes a company encouraging you to sleep under your desk acceptable.
Building a Satyr version of the springlock suits from FNAF, causing an employee to get severely wounded in the legs, and then releasing a company email telling employees to blame the Dark Elves and ending with a bad joke about the performers injury is still one of the craziest things that I have ever seen.
"break a leg" to sign off the email is truly unhinged stuff
wait this literally is fnaf!!!!
@@jacobbachman4014fucking Utah and all!!!
@@jacobbachman4014evermore is only slightly less mismanaged than fazbear
@@heyitzmae not quite as many dead kids
I like to imagine Bretschneider's kids, when they get to their rebellious, resentful teenage years, playing this end credit song around the house, tormenting him with his failure. 😂
Since Evermore is a land out of time with portals, they could literally have a security staff throughout the park dressed as old-timey UK Bobbies or 1930s policemen. It wouldn't break immersion, and then the actors / guests would have someone to turn to if something went wrong.
That’s what I was thinking!!! They could do so much MORE with the “world out of time” concept. It’s totally being squandered.
I want to see more confused California surfer-dudes lugging their boards around the park, maybe samurai in full garb who only speak Japanese, and less of whatever is going on now.
They could even have like, ringmaster-looking folks that the other characters can’t see to act as the information centers / exposition dumpers this park DESPERATELY needs. That would make the dialogue a lot more concise too, with relevant lore explained beforehand in a carnival-barker style.
It wouldn’t be hard to explain away either. If you mention it to a performer, they could just gush about how you met the “god of mischief” or something and lucky you are. Have said “god” give them bunny ears or something during the conversation, for good measure.
The problem, I suspect, is that that would require paying salaries for excess personnel, offering a service that only helps the other employees and hence doesn't actually attract guests.
Or maybe I'm just cynical.
@@timothymclean i would be more inclined to go to a park where all the security look like they came out of period drama rather than less inclined to go
@@genderender Sure, if you're comparing themed security to unthemed security. But themed security compared to nothing? You can't exactly advertise "Security guards to protect the actors from predatory customers" as an attraction.
@@timothymcleanmaybe but predatory customers can also harass other customers. I know I’ve heard about theft and child abductions being issues at theme parks and carnivals before. It wouldn’t necessarily stop those issues entirely but it might reduce the likelihood.
imagine dying a hundred years ago, and looking down on earth to see how everything's going... and you find that an eccentric millionaire bought your headstone to put in his dying theme park. would you haunt him vengefully or not haunt him out of spite
Yes.
In most places outside the US it's actually standard to recycle graves. They wait anywhere from 3 to 75 years and then you get dug up unless your family buys the plot again.
It blew my mind when I first heard about it.
@@toddjones1480 In Norway they wait 20 years, and then after that you have to pay 500 dollars every few years to keep the gravestone where it is. It's not very expencive, but it does mean that people who die without family won't be remembered the same way, which is really sad, but I understand why it has to be done, 'cause otherwise these graveyards would have filled up completely hundreds of years ago.
I would haunt him in the most spitefully vengeful manner possible. Randomly turning the thermostat down. Letting the air out of just one of his SUV's tyres, but a different one each time. Knocking his glass of red wine onto the carpet when he leaves the room. Knocking his toothbrush into the toilet. That kind of thing.
@@sixstringedthing Adding to this, I'd do traditional ghost stuff but with plausible deniability. Scrawled messages, but only when he has friends who are known pranksters over. Messages in his own handwriting, but set his monoxide sensors to be overly sensitive, so he isn't sure if it's poisoning or haunting. Doors creaking open, but not from pushing them- but by loosening the latch somehow. Alone, each one could be explained by some level of incompetence or individual misfortune. But what happens when all of them happen to the same person, with no clear reason?
The baby dragon tamer is one of my best friends. She's incredible at prop work and character design. They loved her "character" so much that they still use pictures and such to advertise the park, but she quit after realizing Evermore is just a dumpsterfire.
Did she get to keep the dragon?
@@muffiechu I'm not sure if she does or not. I know she helped make a lot of the really cool props like the dragon. But got out of there once it became apparent what the park was.
Let her know that I've seen multiple comments about her being their favorite part of the park/video.
@@alice88wa I absolutely will. Was talking with her earlier but I'll let her know!
@@cythermax she’s an icon i keep rewatching that section bc the dragon is so cute
Shit I remember working at a haunted house, I was a victim who yelled for help the whole time. it eventually kinda got to me, like…i started wanting someone to actually help me. Cant imagine how youd feel in the position of the evermore actors
I can assure you that I would not be able to handle it lol I worked at Busch gardens in Virginia for 4 yrs during the tail end of high school and even being a part of a professionally run park was rough. But the haunters loved their jobs there. So yeah I couldn’t do it lol
@@anakin-is-panakinwilliamsburg mentioned!
that bit where jenny was talking about how it's hard to open a theme park because most places don't want big ugly roller coasters on their skylines, whole time I'm like "apollo's chariot is pretty cool..."
i know this video is half a year old but "and y'know what i think about that? i think, 'now there's a building that's got all its walls!' " is one of my favorite quotes ever
SOLID line
Obviously I hope Jenny doesn’t get sued, but if she does it would be really funny if the only thing she asks for in the countersuit is a t-shirt.
Or her likeness as the face in a tree
That gets my vote!
Hey, Jenny is worth more than that. She should also ask for her face tree. 🌲
I got in a legal battle with Evermore and all I got was this lousy t-shirt
And a photo op in the Shire.
one horror story i don’t see anyone mentioning is that some of the regulars/super fans would camp outside of the park gates for HOURS after close, trying to corner the actors getting out of character. this happened EVERY night, and the performer exit and guest exit are right next to each other, so there was no way to try and avoid them. i was a specialty performer (aerial silks, figure skating, fire spinning) there for about 3 years and every time i left work there would be a group of 15 or so super fans trying to corner me or my coworkers after a shift to, i dunno, deepen their parasocial aims?? it was really strange and always made me really uncomfortable. to my knowledge, no actions were taken by management to protect actors from potential harassment or discourage this behavior. as far as i know it still continues to this day!
@@akka5249 this story was mostly hearsay among actors, so take it with a grain of salt, but {tw here} one girl had allegedly received someone’s knife used to self-harm as a “character gift.” really difficult stuff! i wish the park had had like, any measures in place to prevent this.
for the most part it was harmless but still boundary crossing. they would discuss character interactions of the day or previous characters an actor had played (the cast was pretty insular, so a single person would end up playing multiple roles over a few operational seasons.) sometimes they would ask for us to give them specialty in-character interactions in the park the next show day, but mostly asking for our social medias/inviting us to post-park events. there were a few occasions i was asked for my phone number or if i was dating anyone, but luckily there wasnt any pushback or confrontation when i declined.
tl;dr mostly just wanting to get friendly with the actors out of character and outside of park hours, but nothing too horrid; just weird!
@@akka5249 you’re so kind to sympathize! i hope things are a little better for those still working there or that (if not) they get out soon :(
That's so worrying, I can't believe they didn't take steps to protect the staff. I'm sure most were well meaning but it only takes one horrible person to take it a step too far.
Wtf?
I can't imagine EVER camping out to accost an improv actor after they got off work. Holy shit that sounds so uncomfortable.
I work in Healthcare and if a patient cornered me after a 12 hour day, I wouldn't be overly pleasant lol in fact, after a bad day, I might just be like "out of my way, I'm going home"
Yeah iirc there was a dennys that Actors stopped going to for a while cause the superfans found out we went there and started going too.
How is this video only a year old when it’s been in my heart my whole life??
So, actor safety is actually a huge, huge issue at places like historical villages (which have a similar vibe to this). A lot of times, you’re put into buildings alone and no one checks in on you your whole shift. And you’re explicitly told not to make a big deal if there is a safety concern because you don’t want to alarm the other guests.
From personal experience, I worked at a 1890-1910 historical village as a school house teacher. The only way I was supposed to indicate that I was unsafe was to put an “Ice Box” sign in my window and hope someone saw it as they walked by. One of the regulars did end up developing a crush on my character and started harassing me, which resulted in them waiting until I was in the school house alone one day and attempting to @ssault me.
The place I worked at is fairly well known in the area and has been open for at least 40 years. So it does not shock me that there is zero precautions taken for actors at Evermore.
Jesus that's horrifying. Thanks for your insight and I hope you're okay!
Jesus, they couldn't even opt for a panic button type solution? That's crazy. I'd think even for the case of medical emergency you'd need a system, not to mention the terrifying situation you described.
I hope you're doing okay now. ❤
Sorry to hear that man
when i was working there i would often stand up to guests for some of the younger actors. fortunately I’m big enough that i can, and people are generally cowards but yeah it wasn’t good
Was this in the UK?
Finding out that Jenny personally asked the CEO of Evermore to buy a tshirt, and that she does not have a tshirt, absolutely broke me. I needed to pause, and take a moment to calm down.
The fact that Jenny couldn't get any of many minimum wage entry level employees to get her a tshirt raises questions about how the employees are treated
TRULY THIS TOOK ME ABACK, LIKE HE OWNS THE COMPANY AND HE DOESNT WANT TO SELL HIS DAMN T SHIRT ?!
#GETJENNYHERSHIRT
If it were my park I'd be kicking down the doors of that gift shop and getting that superfan a t-shirt! But this guy was just like "nah" lmao
It kind of speaks volumes about the guy. The park was never really about entertaining people, it was only about him being able to brag to people about owning a park. Honestly, this self centered prick doesn’t deserve to have one with the way he’s been running things. If I was running a park and a guest asked for a shirt, not only would I give he one but I would give an entire gift basket of the park’s merchandise and coupons for any restaurant or attraction of her choosing because it would give her the incentive of wanting to come back and tell her friends and family about the amazing time she had and thus bringing more people in to the park. It’s a no brain-er.
The idea of a theme park where people randomly run through screaming "EVERYONE GET TO SAFETY! RUUUNNNN!!!!" is just straight up horror. Like, not the fun kind.
What’s that old saw? You have free speech but cannot endanger people by yelling “Fae!” In a crowded theater….
That part of the video was chilling, man. Too real nowadays.
If somebody gets crushed to death in the stampede, they become part of the lore and the characters mention them in future seasons.
Really cool stuff.
Yeah, and they weren't screaming or yelling in a campy way, either. I would be straight up terrified if I heard that.
I'll be honest, I would love it... but not in the US. And with like, some warning signs all day long
An update for anyone watching the video now. Brandon Fugal who bought the park announced it's closure on April 8th, 2024: “After months of not paying rent or expenses, they ceased operations and have moved out. I personally acquired the property over two years ago and settled millions of dollars in liens in an effort to save Evermore Park and preserve the vision - even structuring a new, very friendly lease. They have unfortunately failed and defaulted,”
bummer, Fugal should pivot and make it a dinosaur park, I was just reading about the brand new species Lokiceratops that was discovered in the area!
I’m 90% sure I was your waitress at Vander’s Keep! I didn’t even recognize you. I was also an actor during late 2019-2020. I have been abruptly let go three times from this company- the most recent being when the restaurant was abruptly shut down October this year leaving both my husband and I jobless with a brand new mortgage. The only notice any employee received was a text the morning before our last shift. I was involved with the restaurant from the beginning (joining them just after the evermore mass firing) and the Vander’s Keep saga is a whole ‘nother side of this story that wasn’t even touched. If you want to make a part 2, I am still in contact with 80% of the restaurant employees and we are all willing to share our stories.
That is crazy
Boooooost!!
B o o s t
boostingg
Booooost
Jesus, it literally took me to the end of the video to realise that the puppets talking weren't official videos by the Evermore staff that Jenny had found.
well now I don't feel so alone
I did exactly the same thing lol
same
It took me my 2nd re-watch to realise.
It took this comment for me to realise that
It’s the least exotic of their sins, but never trust a company that misses payroll and doesn’t tell you until payday. They knew they were missing that payroll three to five days ago and they kept it to themselves.
I second this. Be VERY careful if this happens to you. I've dealt with this on a couple of non-union / low-budget films I've worked on and if the cheques aren't given to us the morning of the day after we were supposed to receive them, I either walk or threaten to walk & withhold their sound recordings until payment (though I know this isn't always an option for folks - keep in mind I'm a gig/contract employee and they don't own their media files until they pay me for my services). Never work for free at a job where you didn't agree to. The last thing you want to have happen is to work more days/weeks and then have them skip out again. Remember, it'll burn a larger hole in your pocket than it will a corporation's to hire a lawyer to dispute those unpaid labour costs. If you're not unionized you need to make sure you're aware of your own financial security. Finding a company that cares about their employees/doesn't see them as expendable is a rarity in these capitalistic times. Best of luck, labourers: Solidarity forever.
Also, occasionally having one or two people's hours wrong isn't unheard of, especially if someone picked up an extra shift or something, but for EVERYONE to recieve the wrong amount is either a major bug in the system or purposeful
my school district didn’t pay substitute teachers for a MONTH in early 2020. Two missed pay checks! then the pandemic happened and substitutes couldn’t get work and weren’t told if they were going to get work when school started virtually in the fall. Even though the district didn’t let them work for months and were silent all summer, subs “didn’t qualify” for unemployment. no wonder there is a “sub shortage” we had to get different jobs to survive 2020.
I heard they missed payroll a a number is times. So many, in fact, that most of the original creation team walked.
I have watched this so many times but only now did I realize that the lawyer dragon not only wears glasses but drops them at 44:51.
Timestamp provided in case puppet lizards losing their spectacles is as delightful to you as it was to me.
I love the idea of Taylor Swift's whole career, and whole motive for doing everything that she does is purely to shut down a theme park that no one's ever heard of before.
It's a most devious plan, because no one expected it!
You just wait for the Evermore (Taylor's Version) Park
@@ClayDressas evermore wasn't recorded under big machine records there'll never be an evermore (taylor's version) as it is already taylor's to begin with...
@@majakolter3757but it sure is her version of the park!
@@majakolter3757 I forgot she had a song called Evermore, lol. I just meant the park
Instead of getting the employees to volunteer I think the questing was a missed opportunity, "Ahoy there young lad, I've a quest for ye. First empty out the trash cans, then clean the toilets ye scallywag and finally put some EMT conduit on the exposed wires, yarr. And perchance do ye know anything about operating a construction crane?"
You know some joker would say yes, with no experience just to get in the crane
"Yae, my companion. You've been given the epic quest to be certified in the operation of a forklift!"
Are you in Project Management?
So, I work at a Renfaire every year, and I usually play a wandering quest giving wizard. My job is just to direct people to various attractions around the park, and see if I can't influence the flow to areas that are less busy. I dress up like a weird alchemist with LOTS of trinkets everywhere. Me and the Fairies actually have this game where we trade the trinkets for children collecting actual litter around the grounds. "The fairies need a noon root from me? I'll give it to you if you collect me 3 objects that do not belong in this world from the ground" and then wink at them. I've had one parent complain to me, but overall it's a good business model
I want to like your comment, but it has exactly 666 likes. My OCD refuses.
the fact that they basically went out of their way to not sell merch at their themepark is hilarious to me. i almost have to respect the effort it takes to gatekeep a theme park shirt to this extent
I couldnt help but laugh when she went to the CEO not once but TWICE to get the shirt and STILL couldnt get it
I feel like Evermore could’ve worked a merch salesman into their park lore, like an actor working the shop saying “I’m a world walker, like you! And my god, is this place a goldmine for merchandizing! See my wares, and pick out something you like!” Give it a dedicated storefront in the park, give it ambiance and it could work!
@@v.v365 i agree, this is a really cute concept for a merch stand!!
@@v.v365 grate idea another thing you could do is have a troll or gnome who is obsessed with the culture of humans from our realm trying to sell merchandise like we have
You’d expect them to try to put there logo on everything seeing how the CEO made hats and hoodies for the dammed go kart track he owns or if you want to keep Emerson at least sell leather bags with the name on it or something
No ambient music is wild.
There’s so much free music that would fit the theme, they’d just need some speakers and to bother to turn it on.
Not to mention that this video directly showcases the fact they've put out multiple volumes of their own CDs. So it's not like they even need to get license-free music from outside sources.
Aaaaaaand we're back here after her Starwars Hotel video.
Ahh, you too, huh?
Also noticing how eerily similar that is but just on a higher (still poorly spent) budget.
Hopefully this doesn’t become a trilogy
Same
The Algorithm thought I needed to watch this again. I didn't argue.
Okay so my roommate knows I love this video and she’s from salt lake and has been to evermore. So as a jokey Christmas present she ordered me an evermore tshirt and sticker. The thing is, in typical evermore fashion she never received a shipping confirmation. So months after she ordered it, she told me what she got me and how it wasn’t here yet and so I encouraged here to get a refund. So miraculously evermore does actually refund her, but yesterday March 6th the god damn evermore tshirt mysteriously shows up, sticker missing. It was just baffling how thoroughly they messed up just sending a package, but now unlike Jenny I do have an evermore shirt and I technically got it for free. So uhm yeah this really just hit home how mismanaged they are.
This is really really interesting to me because I too had a friend order me a piece of Evermore merch for Christmas, which went through a similar process of being refunded and then ultimately manifested in my mailbox last week. What a mysterious little operation they have to be selling so much merchandise for presumably no money, where I imagine lots of folk refunded things in the same kind of situation.
Jenny's gonna break into your house and steal it now dude
This is a very, very interesting approach to business.
what in the heck is going on at Evermore!?
I'm more invested in this than Disney now
Why haven't you all just contacted guest-relations at Evermore? Surely they'd sort it out.
Oops, nevermind.
So when "Evermore Went Dark", were there no people sitting in a tavern for the past 2 hours waiting for their food, now having to evacuate? Was there no food currently being cooked by a famously patient and understanding chef, who definitely didn't mind having his proudly made food go cold and wasted because of a sudden nonsense event?
Was someone cooped up in a toilet, hearing screams outside but unable to just suddenly stop doing what they were doing, so they just bunkered down in their toilet stall waiting for the police to come and save them, only for no police to come?
That entire happening was just.. incomprehensible. Someone came up with this idea, nobody gave it a second thought, nobody stood up and said, "yo, what the f--k?", everyone agreed to do it and then _did_ , seemingly not even trying to calm confused bystanders down, just pouring fuel onto the fire. Insane.
were there no disabled people (not just people in wheelchairs) who could not move that quickly and might’ve thought they’d be murdered?
like, i’m someone who has joint issues among other physical ailments. running like that would either cause me to faint, have my throat constrict to the point where breathing would be extremely difficult, or have my hip move out of place.
not to mention, i also have adhd, autism, and severe anxiety. a sudden “emergency” like that could very well cause me to go into meltdown or panic attack mode. i’m convinced at least one person went into a panic attack. because what were they supposed to think???
at LEAST, there should’ve been an announcement of “hey, we’re gonna be doing a big story event soon, which involves running out of the park in an entirely fantastical fake panic situation”
like idgaf if it “breaks immersion” this stuff can be TRAUMATIZING to an unprepared guest
Here's the thing, though. Someone - probably multiple people - probably did have reservations. But they either brought them up and were shot down by management/more vocal performers who thought it was a cool idea or knew the attitude that higher-ups had already and knew that bringing up their concerns was pointless. Everyone who didn't see the inherent problems were probably swept up in how cool it would be and weren't trained properly in how to spot a dangerous situation and how to deal with it.
@@schedar_cassiopeia jesus fucking christ, i hope you stay safe out there.
@@schedar_cassiopeia there's so many explicitly fantastical emergencies they could've gone with. like ... dragon roars, or a battle cry, or smth. idk what would fit best w the lore, but make it fit.
The restaurant was a separate entity from the park and wasn’t even open at the time
When you said the guy was a tech ceo who started throwing money at other projects, I knew exactly where the problems began
The dwarf who’s just sitting there with no idea what guilds are is so funny to me
Timestamp?
@@TheLalalalani1:48:13
I would've been so annoyed at his snippy responses. Like I'm some weird nerd for asking about guilds in your little hobbit house.
@@Jacobyeavello I’m torn about whether he was deliberately being a dick or if he was just an incredibly poorly trained new hire.
I'm going for poorly trained. He was not prepared for this
2:55:38 Jenny saying "If he doesn't like it, he can meet me in the parking lot" while wearing the wizard beard & hat is so powerful.
To be fair, most chefs and cooks feel this way to some extent. To be also fair, that's something you say to your SO after a long shift or anonymously on the internet, not in an interview...for your restaurant...
@@awildsylveon9896 Right? I get the frustration at the moment, but you're literally seated being interviewed, LOL.
I get it but dietary restrictions are a real thing. The idea that guy is putting forth is chefs would rather you just not eat their food is pretty messed up.
I'm a picky eater myself but I mostly just want to see Jenny beat someone up while looking like a garden gnome.
@@awildsylveon9896 I paused and ranted for a good minute at that part. Before my gallbladder was taken out it was avoid this long list of ingredients of barf through a painful gallbladder attack for 24 hrs straight. People have deathly allergies, cancer treatments, chronic illnesses, medicine interactions. If you can't respect that when your job is to feed the masses, you might need to find a new line of work.
I can not imagine how uncomfortable it is to have a multiple hour long conversation with a patron about their home life troubles. That’s crossing a line
Especially while feeling pressured to maintain a cockney accent… someone please get this park HR and guest relations
I mean... I'm friends with most of the people I LARP with and you STILL don't do crap like that. It mucks up the entire damn story. Quests don't go out. People lose time they need to change costumes. It's INCREDIBLY awful for the person trying to stay in character, AND feeling like they can't get away. If they agree to do it, they might end up not getting a break. It's just.... terrifically selfish of the guest/player, and every attendee needs to sign a list of rules that expressly prohibits that sort of interaction. ALSO, touching in LARP is _always_ prenegotiated if you don't know a person EXTREMELY well. Man, have I got stories...
@@christineherrmann205 why such a strong taboo on touching? Or is it more of a taboo on touching someone in a way that is too familiar under the guise of it being in character. Would general ways people touch strangers in the real world be frowned upon? Like shaking hands vs just grabbing someone that's a perfect stranger to you kind of dichotomy. I know absolutely nothing about larping so maybe I just misunderstood your comment.
@@glitterberserker1029 I would guess the specific situation that playing a character brings really heavily blurs the line of what can be perceived as ok or not ok while "in character" so its better to be safe than sorry and add it as a rule.
Also I don't LARP but I do DnD and it is not at all uncommon to hear stories of people who have no concept of boundaries making a very awkward situation for someone else/everybody at the table and I can't begin to imagine how that would go in a more physical setting than just sitting at the table.
Not to mention the actors might find some stuff triggering themselves. And what if they give bad advice? They're not therapists or psychiatrists.
The "Con Artist" drink bit was gold, actually made me laugh out loud
Hello! As a former actor of the park I would like to thank you for making a video like this. I worked at the park from the opening in 2018 to the mass firing in January/Feburary of 2021. I have played characters from Tip Top, to the elven ranger leader, to a simple townsperson.
I wanted to simply add pieces of my story with this park. To start, though I loved playing Tip Top the Automaton, it caused some very painful and seemingly (via several doctor's appointments) irreversible damage to my back and my body as a whole. It was not built as readily for a person of my height, though I only came to learn that after playing the character for two full seasons. Based on some of my other fellow actors that have played Tip Top they have also mentioned some rather annoying, and in some cases, painful repercussions from the suit.
Aside from any physical damage caused to me or my body, I also experienced some rather intense versions of parasocial relationships getting out of hand. I will not go into detail as to protect myself and those that know my story, but I was in a rather dangerous situation with a stalker that got way to out of hand. No physical harm was enacted, but the mental turmoil and general feeling of unsafety after the fact was beyond anything anyone should ever have to experience.
Overall I love the friendships I have made from working at the park, but the overall trauma of the situation is not something I would ever wish upon anybody.
Yeah that’s awful what you had to go through. At least you can see the bright side to it
Holy shit, how are so many of their costumes health hazards? :0
a common element among the actors posting their experiences here is people forming parasocial relationships with the actors. i wonder if there is even really a meaningful way to do evermore's concept of integrating parkgoers into ongoing plotlines with fixed (and unfixed) characters while protecting its staff from that specifically, because it seems like that's an issue with the bedrock of evermore's concept.
thanks for your account on it, i am genuinely angry management did not adequately protect you. i find this whole thing so mystifying.
@@aeddiefarmer I think people just underestimate how easily some minor discomfort can turn into serious or permanent damage when it's inflicted for hours on end over a long period of time. Things that feel just kinda wonky or irritating and would be totally fine at first. But yeah, if you're doing this kind of work for an actual theme park you should know better.
That's awful, I'm so sorry to hear that. ☹️
As a gardener, I have a bit on a unique perspective on this. Disney never gets enough credit for their stunning commitment to authentic, grown in landscaping. I once visited a reclaimed tree yard where they care for very old, large trees with unique character, with their root systems entirely in large wooden containers and watered on a drip system. The owner of told me Disney had spent TWO MILLION DOLLARS on ONE SINGLE TREE at one of their parks. TWO MILLION DOLLARS FOR ONE TREE. They wanted a specific size, shape, and age for their tree, and they put down the money for it. This reclaimed tree yard was in SoCal, and Disney was a frequent customer of theirs. The amount of care and attention to detail put into their landscapes in astonishing, plus all the actual maintenance and irrigation that goes into maintaining the landscapes, all of which happens during the hours the park is closed so the guests are none the wiser!
Omg, and the idea of turning your theme park into a Botanical garden because it’s an easier, cheaper option is HILARIOUS to me. Clearly an idea conceived by someone who has never worked for a public garden. Just wow.
So true! Even with the extravagant cost of planting to full density (rather than just planning to propogate/split and fill in every season as I do in my gardens), it still takes years of care for a garden to actually look amazing. Landscapes are massive investments of time. If something looks ‘grown in’ right off new construction… that might be the most expensive square footage you’ve ever witnessed outside a skyscraper!
@@pennifold The actors performing in front of saplings still in buckets... ROFLCOPTER
I kept thinking about this watching the video. The park would benefit a lot from more trees, yeah... but holy shit, trees are EXPENSIVE.
This is just sad considering how they actually treated workers according to the accounts in this comment section
@@limehawk4989 , I think that laborers who build, landscape, and/or clean middle-class and upper middle-class attractions are generally not treated well.
The climate crisis, global health crisis, and financial crisis have really exacerbated the social divide between the "haves" and "have nots" here in the US.
And based on world news, it is probably the same elsewhere. Qatar, for example: wealthy athletes and sports enthusiasts from around the world are traveling to a stadium built by abused and mistreated workers.
Can you imagine how actually kind of cool it would be if Evermore started as this sort of central hub, then a new area was added each time a "new portal opened" in their ongoing storyline? It could have really provided the feeling of different realms converging on this place as the park continued to grow. Really a shame that they went with a rennfair construction zone instead
sort of like a DLC
Would've been a lot more immediately comprehensible too. Even little Braydon's mom would see it and go, "Ah, cool. We're in some kind of hub connecting a bunch of portals to different worlds. That one says 'Faerie Relm', and my son loves dragons and knights and fairies and princess. Lets go there".
Would be a way to get repeat custom too with regular added sections
Huh....
Basically what epic universe is now...
Weird.