We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Chris Kessinger a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Chris, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

Realizing that my passion was creating and designing murder mysteries wasn’t shocking to most people who knew me. I loved everything horror, and for lack of a better word, mysterious. I loved being handed a murder to solve, looking through and utilizing the clues that were present to get to the bottom of everything. When I discovered Escape Rooms, I instantly saw how the two entertainment avenues could easily combine and create something unique.

There are several books out there about creating the perfect murder mystery or designing the best escape rooms, but I realized that I was going to flourish by focusing in on the element that I loved most about the two. The immersion experience. I loved feeling like I had dove in head first into the mystery, that I was really and truly in the story unfolding around me. But what I soon realized was that I had to understand where everything started. Where the mystery and the escape elements began, in order to truly appreciate the end delivery.

That was probably the hardest aspect. It was designing these events from the ground up, on my own, on a fixed budget. Yet even before I could understand the proper puzzle to fit a scenario, I had to understand how people reacted in various situations. So I spent time listening to stories about how people dealt with some life-altering moments in their lives, understanding how their brains worked through dangerous situations, but even beyond that, watching how they solved the most simply of tasks. That was the true key in understanding how i can create and design different types of events to fit groups of people, but also to be able to allow a couple to enjoy a date night together.

In the beginning, I was so excited to dive right into the experience as a whole. I would have learned so much better had I taken the time to stop and think and break things down to understand it all at the base level. Now, I feel like with every event that I create, and every experience that I put together, I’m always learning and growing and pushing myself to be better.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

So I got into the industry in a rather interesting way. For a while, I told my now husband I wanted to host a Murder Mystery dinner party. Buy one of those premade events, have some friends over, and just enjoy ourselves. He suggested that we do our engagement party as a murder mystery event! So, I sat down and put together what I thought was a coherent event. My 16 friends and family and I got together for a lovely dinner in a rented banquet hall and the night was an absolute blast. It was a mess, and I accidentally killed a character far too soon, and one of the puzzles didn’t make as much sense as I had thought that it would. But everyone had a great time, and as people were leaving, they all asked me, “So are we doing this again next year?” This got me thinking, and so I set out and started prepping a new event for the following year. As one year shifted into another, and then another, the number of people attending continued to grow! No longer was it 16 people, but rather 50!

It was after the 4th year that a handful of people came up to me and said “Chris, why are you doing anything other than this? You love this and everyone can tell by the smile on your face as you watch the night unfold.” So, after that, I set to work, creating Cryptic Clue Mysteries. Now I host yearly events with 75+ people in attendance. People travel from Denver, Loveland, Rye, Pueblo, and naturally Colorado Springs to enjoy an evening of dinner and just some good fun while getting to enjoy a show and solve some puzzles with other like-minded individuals. I even helped a Bride and Groom incorporate a murder mystery into their wedding in 2022! But beyond the large Murder Mystery event I host, I also have smaller, pre-packaged mysteries that friends and families can host in their own homes. I have designed events called Survival Experiences for those who want to enjoy a horrifying story but with just one or two people in attendance. I have mini digital events of mysteries, survival experiences, and mini-escape games.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

This is the easiest question ever, it’s watching my guests become the characters that I have created and just giving into the night and the world that I’ve created. It’s amazing the things that come out of people when they are relaxed and having fun. The typically uptight Dad gets to smile and let loose and dance as he takes on a Texan accent to be a land barren. The quiet stay-at-home Mom, suddenly gets to live out her Catwoman fantasy as a thief in the night. Being able to see my guests, arrive in full costume, bringing a character to life that I’ve written, and seeing how they interact and react and laugh and joke and build upon these stories that started in my head is just amazing to me. Add to that the look on their faces when they solve puzzles or when a plot twist reveals someone they thought was a friend was the killer all along. It’s a surreal experience to have that sort of impact on someone physically, mentally, and emotionally.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

I don’t know if “non-creative” is the proper word to use, because I think everyone has something that they are engaged in and have used their imagination at least once in their lives. But two things that I don’t think people always understand from the outside looking in is how much time and money has to be put into our “craft.” People come by and think “Oh boxed event costs $45! That’s insane!” But what they don’t see is the time that it takes to create everything, the time that it takes to create the designs, and the time it takes to assemble these things. All of that time is “unpaid.” Nobody is paying me for the 40 hours a week in put into my company, on top of the 30 hours I work part-time just to ensure that bills are paid. As well, they don’t stop to think about the material cost. Every sticker, every piece of paper, every envelope or label or screw, all costs money that we have to take the hit for upfront. And being a small business, we don’t have instant access to buying in bulk, so we have to pay more, which means we have to charge more to make back that money and then to profit.

Secondly is that I’ve personally never experienced this, but I can’t tell you the number of times that I have seen friends or family members ask for a discount from someone purely because they know them. Too, I find it a tad disrespectful because it almost invalidates everything that an artist does when a friend assumes they deserve a discount. People will happily pay $100s of dollars for a single ticket to go see a celebrity in concert, someone who doesn’t know them at all. But they will have a problem paying $40 to someone that they know personally and should be supported wholeheartedly. It’s a fine line, because a lot of times, people don’t even realize how rude it comes across to ask for that. But it’s something that we should all be aware of and grow and implement in our lives.

Contact Info:

• Website: CrypticClueMysteries.com
• Instagram: CrypticClueMysteries
• Twitter: CrypticClueM
• Other: Tiktok: CrypticClueMysteries