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Undead & Unfed

Interactive experience pits group's skills against a hungry zombie.

I

Esther Allweiss Ingber Contributing Writer

What looks like chaos is actually the group exploring clues

The longer it takes to find an exit, the more spare chain

The team succumbed to the zombie but still had a fun

in small groups.

the zombie is given. Owner Rick Broida, in the white lab

experience.

coat, is playing the host.

Z

ombies are all the rage in books,
movies and popular TV shows
like AMC's The Walking Dead.
Funster Rick Broida gets credit for
bringing the fearsome creatures to
Detroit.
Broida, 46, is executive producer of the
interactive experience, Trapped in a Room
with a Zombie (TIARWAZ). Participants
at the performance are challenged to
put their smarts together to figure out a
series of clever riddles that allows them to
exit the room within 60 minutes. All the
while, they're trying to avoid the touch
of an increasingly aggressive zombie on a
chain.
Whether the group is successful or not,
the show is a complete blast. So said a
recent party of 11, primarily members of
the Birmingham Temple in Farmington
Hills. I participated, too, and we nar-
rowly joined the ranks of now 327 groups
recorded as "eaten" on a scoreboard kept
since Broida opened in early December in
Detroit's historic Penobscot Building. Just
98 groups have managed to escape.
The zombie impresario is actually, and
mostly, a technology writer for Wired
magazine and the Cnet website. His fam-
ily in Commerce Township includes wife,
Shawna, and their children, Sarah, 15,
and Ethan, 13, who became a bar mitzvah
in August at the Birmingham Temple in
Farmington Hills.
Father and daughter first experienced
the zombie show in Chicago.
"We came out grinning from ear to ear:'
Broida said. "We couldn't stop talking
about it. I said to myself, 'I have to have
this in Detroit:"
Despite having no background in

10 October 29 2015

theater or any entertainment business,
Broida, "completely on a lark:' emailed the
Chicago owner of TIARWAZ about bring-
ing the show to Detroit.
Broida was contacted almost immedi-
ately to produce TIARWAZ himself and
was in business five months later.
His first turn as a zombie came unex-
pectedly, prior to the Detroit opening.
Back in Chicago to consult with the show's
producer, she brought news: "Our actor
canceled:' She pressed Broida into service.
"She slapped some makeup on me
while my heart was beating out of my
chest:' he said.
That show was "one of the most exhila-
rating things I've ever done he recalled.
"You're yelling and pulling on the chain.
The experience reinforced my feeling that
I've got to do this — make it part of my
lifestyle:'
Broida, a graduate of North Farmington
High School, majored in English at
Michigan State University. He parlayed his
longtime interest in computers and tech-
nology into a home-based writing career.
Being a freelancer gives Broida the flex-
ibility to make his own schedule, includ-
ing the addition of zombies to his life.
"Operating TIARWAZ is so far out of
my wheelhouse, it's almost ridiculous:' he
said. "The show is so much fun. I have a
group of 10 actors that work the show. It
kind of takes care of itself by now:'

TEAM EXPERIENCE
Every performance requires a genial yet
authoritative host to present the game's
ground rules and a zombie for scaring
people. Broida's crew is prepared to play
either part.

Most of the paid actors are theater stu-
dents between the ages of 18 and 24. Half
attend Wayne State University in Detroit
and two are from Henry Ford Community
College in Dearborn. Broida is looking to
hire additional players, too — women as
well as men.
"We're equal opportunity undead," he
said.
Businesses represent 50 percent of
bookings at TIARWAZ. Quicken Loans,
Microsoft, Google, Blue Cross Blue Shield,
along with smaller companies, bring
groups to participate as a team-building
activity.
Family members, friends and dating
couples often register together for the
zombie experience, but "we also combine
people who don't necessarily know each
other, like with my daughter and me in
Chicago:' Broida said. "By the end of the
show, you know each other pretty
well:'
Besides the hour trapped with a
zombie, participants come early for
registration and signing waivers, and
stay afterward for a brief wrap-up
with the host.
A show can run with as few as four
guests, but the maximum of 12 is
ideal.
"The more people, the more fun it
is," Broida said. "Everybody is working
toward the same goal — not to end up
as the zombie's dinner:'
The participants observed recently
at TIARWAZ were completely
engaged, responding to the unrelent-
ing pressure of the ticking clock in the
room. Some emerged as leaders in
interpreting possible clues for escape.

Meanwhile, the zombie's chain was
released another foot every five minutes
when a buzzer sounded. One woman fear-
lessly called for the zombie, jeopardizing
her safety, to protect associates working
out key puzzles.
Unlike a haunted house, TIARWAZ is
"not meant to be scary:' said Broida, that
night's Transylvanian host. "The zombie is
menacing, but more in a comical way:'
Dan Schechter of Birmingham said he
didn't know what to expect at TIARWAZ,
but found he liked "figuring out the puz-
zles and being part of the group:'
Lysa Postula-Stein of Huntington
Woods, one of the game's activists,
remarked, "I had a crazy good time. It felt
good on my brain:' *

Trapped in a Room
with a Zombie

645 Griswold, Room 227
Detroit, MI 48226
(248) 960-1675
www.escapeplansmichigan.com