Myrtle Mania with Jeffrey Mixon

This "Special Edition" for Microphone Monkeys is to get the word out about the BEST VALUE event gong on the Grand Strand currently... MYRTLE MANIA! (click to get tickets)

Tripp interviews the creator of the Myrtle Mania event, Myrtle Beach's own Jeffrey Mixon about the origins and fun to  be had at Vizionz Lounge June 26, 27 July 3, 11, 17, 24, 31 and August 7 & 14.

YOU MAY WIN A CRUISE OR OTHER FANTASIC PRIZES!

or contact at info@myrtlemania.com

Check out the Tripp (and Graham) has Issues podcast!

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Here we come, walking down the street, got the gold, no tax system, free to speak, and free to trade. Market stuff, no need for a weather microphone on cheese. People say we're at our kids from cheese.

SPEAKER_02 0:26

Hey everybody, I've got Jefferson here with me. Say hello, Jeff. Hello. Hey. And uh you have an event that we went to. Um be and several of the microphone monkeys went to um uh just a few weeks back. And it was at Visions Lounge, and it is called Myrtle Mania. Which it was, it was completely manic. I say we had the we just had the best time. Um if you could uh I guess encapsulate and explain Myrtle Mania to our listeners, uh and I will help you out too as much as I can. But this was uh more than an event, it was really an experience.

SPEAKER_00 1:15

Yes, sir. Well, I tell you, in the two years that I've been, you know, putting this thing together so far, um getting getting as far as I've come, um I find it to be a little bit of a challenge to tell anybody what it is in in the form of a you know one sentence uh elevator pitch or in passing or whatever the case may be.

SPEAKER_02 1:33

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 1:33

But uh basically what it is, it's a it's a two-hour live game show. Um when you come to the show, you're playing stone one of four teams. Um at that point you can choose whether or not uh you're willing to participate. And if so, we may call you on stage, and at that point you'll compete against uh a contestant from one of the other three teams in a Philly party game. Um 60 to 90 seconds, always stuff, easy, no footwork, no racing, none of that included. Um we designed it so that you know if they're most of them are fitted to win a game. Um are games that, you know, a 65-year-old woman could compete and potentially win against a 21-year-old potential athlete. Um that's one thing that we take pride in and we find to be unique about it. And um outside of that, we we try to give you a little taste of what Myrtle Beach used to be like back when uh most people seemed to enjoy it and miss what it what it you know and talk about what it used to have been. So we try to um add that, add that element in as well, and uh make it a full two-hour show. So we've got a DJ, an MC, and um four team leaders, which are you know trained performers. And so um it's a it's a little bit a little bit of a a live performance, or a lot of bit of a live performance, and um a bunch of crowd participation.

SPEAKER_02 2:55

And it is a fantastic value. I mean, it really is. You uh uh once is you I well I encourage people to arrive early so you can get a great seat, but you come in, you sign in, um you uh they you you choose your team and you get this welcome package. And it's uh it's a bag, and it has all these goodies in it, and one of them is a lanyard, and you put that lanyard on right away, and it lights up and it has your team colors. It's so cool because there are so many lights, and um and the music is fantastic, the the dance floor is great, you've got the uh the smoke machines going, and there's just uh a lot of excitement that goes along. And not to uh uh diminish, you also had a uh a little uh taco um uh meal that was included with it. Uh and then you had these little light ups with it. You had a QR code on the on the uh table so you could say whether you want to participate directly with the games or just root on your team. But now the guys that won, because um Mafia Mike won for our team and got to be in the finals, tell about what the finalists uh actually get to win.

SPEAKER_00 4:13

Yeah, so it's a we call it the gauntlet, and um it's a sort of a taste of a bunch of games we play throughout the show, and um the first person to complete the gauntlet it you know goes on a cruise. And um, we've done C C M FIP tickets. Um we're settled in for a cruise here for um the majority of the summer, and uh we've got a deal there, and um we're we're excited to see what's next, you know, what we can do to excite people. Like I said, so we we figured by the end of uh by the end of the show, you know, what's the what we we could potentially finish on a G rental Here and Tale, ride a slingshot, we've given away skydive um experiences here in tail, boat rental, party bus rental, uh you name it, you can win it at Myrtle Mania. And then of course we thought how do we want up that for a grand prize, and at that point, you know, we we kick around the idea what is it that we could do that could top any and everything that that we do during the show, and we figured the one thing we can't accomplish here in Myrtle Beach is send you on a cruise, so we'll send you on one of those somewhere else.

SPEAKER_02 5:14

I mean, that is absolutely mind-blowing. It's incredible. You have this humongous, you know, prize at the end. You have you give away more than the value of what the ticket is. And even though that the games and so on might be about two hours long, I would say we had about four hours worth of entertainment because uh you know, getting in there early, staying back, uh being able to dance on the dance floor afterwards, enjoying the uh the environment. This is just a great evening out for adults, and it was a lot of fun. And I am, I'm s I'm 65 years old, and I did the uh the cup tipping uh content, uh contest that that started it out. So uh yeah, that's right. So it was awesome. It really was awesome. Now I'm gonna take you back in the time machine a little bit. How did you come up with this concept?

SPEAKER_00 6:10

Oh man, see, that's a that's an interesting question in itself. So um, I like I said, I've always been in, you know, live entertainment. I have a minor in film and theater production. My first job out of college was Victor Stampede on the tech staff there. Um, did that, did House and Blues for a number of years, and just kind of paid attention. Throughout the years, man, I'm an entrepreneur. We were trying to be um, you know, kick around a bunch of different ideas. I own every four route entails in my young 20s. You know, always always looking for a way to make my own way, if you will. Um but my wife, my wife was diagnosed with stage four cancer. She's 36 now. And um that that was about two years ago, man. And like I said, this um ideas started kicking it around about a month after her diagnosis because quite simply I've got to be able to make a living all night and we can't do that.

SPEAKER_02 6:57

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:57

Um, stage three, none of the five with everything that, you know, everything that's no both that that comes with that kind of cancer diagnosis is a real challenge. Um, you know, we don't have a ton of um friends and family, if you will. I mean, don't get me wrong, we've got a ton of friends and they've been a real blessing, but um you know we we our our our in laws aren't necessarily close and it's just it's a you know it's a real ball of the jungle. So um like I said, starting trying to kick around this idea, man, to see any and everybody I ever met in my life who um who could potentially partner with me on it and was lucky enough to you know include one of my friends, and um we've been able to make it work. And like I said, uh that's what we're trying to do, man, is bring bring the thing to Myrtle Beach that everyone's clamored for for the last 15 or 20 years. You know, we need some new we need some new nightlife, some new excitement, something new in town, and um I feel like we're we're right on time, but that's what we're trying to accomplish.

SPEAKER_02 7:51

Oh, and it is fantastic. It's there at the the uh lovely uh at Vision's uh lounge, which is part of the masters complex on 10th. Everybody knows it. It's a beautiful, beautiful venue. And go and check them out. You can go to Myrtlemania.com and um you'll find out, you'll see some of these great little videos they have of some of the events, the colors, everything is just dynamic. Get your tickets now, get them early, and come in and enjoy the fun. Uh, this is Trip with Microphone Monkeys, and we are we have had a blast. We know we're going to return, so you're gonna see uh a bunch of monkeys having monkey business. So tie up now. Thank you so much, Jeff. We appreciate you.