Exotikon Super Shock Show one night only at Mayan
Making its debut this Halloween season for one night only is Exotikon Super Shock Show at the Mayan Theatre in downtown Los Angeles. The 21-and over event celebrates pop horror themes of the 20th century in a macabre environment filled with digital projections and live burlesque performances of music and magic.
Presented by the Peekaboo Gallery, which is devoted to vintage memorabilia, Exotikon Super Shock Show features a symposium on the history of midnight spook shows, a signing with books and art prints of paintings from Rod Serling’s Night Gallery television show, and a cocktail bar decorated with posters, artwork and props from the past. Other attractions include a haunted theremin concerto and a live spook show.
At this year’s Midsummer Scream, we caught up with Jordan Reichek of Peekaboo Gallery, which got into the event business a couple years ago with Exoticon, a Tiki-themed music-arts festival that runs in June. Reichek explained a little bit about the origin of Super Shock Show and what to expect from the event.
“I am a fetishist of spook show memorabilia posters and the culture itself,” Reichek said. “I’m working on a book right now, and we just saw an absence in the market for vintage Halloween stuff, so this October we’re doing a vintage recreation of a spook show experience. We’re going to have a cocktail bar themed after Rod Serling’s Night Gallery. All the cocktails are going to be named for episodes and paintings in the show, and then the show itself is burlesque. We’re going to have a display of vintage spook show stuff. But the best part is the recreation of a spook show, which will include a mixture of horror and magic by Zabrecky, a very famous magician at Magic Castle. Then it ends with a blackout. Traditionally, there’d be all these monsters on stage that were chained up; then at the apex of the show, the monsters would break loose and jump into the audience. Right as they do, the lights would go out, and phosphorescent ghosts and goblins would run through the audience and scare the hell out of everybody!”
Reichek added that Exotikon Super Shock Show is one-day only this Halloween because Peekaboo Gallery is gauging the level of interest. If the response if positive, the show could return next Halloween for a longer run.
This year’s Exotikon Super Shock Show takes place on Thursday October 3. Doors open from 7pm to 11pm. Tickets start at $35 for general admission; floor seating is $50, and VIP Stage Side Seating is $65. Admission is restricted to ages 21 and over. The Mayan is located at 1038 S Hill Street in Los Angeles; the venue’s website is themayan.com. Peekaboo Gallery’s website is here. Get more information about the event at exotikon.com.