The Mystery Box Show Review- A Sexy Storytelling Event

The Mystery Box Show, a sexy storytelling event, has several members of the local community tell true personal stories revolving around themes of Sex and sexuality. At first, it seems like how could such an unorthodox event be for everyone, but with each story having Continuous comic flair and a host who cannot stop giggling while reading confession cards, its hard to feel uncomfortable, its more like have a conversation with a good friend.

The Alberta Rose Theatre, established 1927, has housed the Mystery Box Show since its debut in 2012. The velvet curtains, black curved walls, and sunset orange glow from the oriental carpets up on stage, give a Calming impression to the audience.

The layout of the show for the evening allows for an interactive and entertaining night. After intermission there is a Raffle (each attendant is automatically entered) for prizes from sponsors such as Voicebox, Fun Factory, and Pacific Pie. Intermission is also when the audience is encouraged to fill out a Confessions card. The concept is simple: there are cards available with a sexy prompt, such as “Your partner surprised you when…” and whomever chooses fills one out (sans their name) and the host, Eric Scheur, reads a selection throughout the rest of the evening. Each show has a different prompt and the remainders not read at the show are posted to the Mystery Box Show’s twitter page. Eric also released the exciting news of a new storytelling event, The 7 Deadly Sins, coming in August at the Mission Theatre.

Each performer has their own style of storytelling, but a theme among them all tends to emerge with phrases such as “When I was 19…” and “The first time I ever…” giving a smile to each of the audience members faces with various looks of understanding and curiosity. Of course there are surprising moments where some storytellers received glimpses of surprise and wonderment at phrases such as Dessert girl, open relationship, rope suspension, and secret identity. The stories are from professionals of various fields such as journalists and professors, which add a sense of security about the realism of the stories, not quite like the yammering of a frat boy or something similarly fallacious.

The next Mystery Box Show is on August 13^th and with a purchase of a VIP ticket, attendants can have all the fun with extra frills such as exclusive seating and a reusable tote bag Full of goodies and gifts from companies such as Stella Harris and Missionary Chocolates.

Overall, after a few IPA’s and tacos from Alberta Theatre’s bar, Several laughs, cheers, and friendly conversation with fellow patrons, The Mystery Box Show is truly a Portlander’s dream evening with a date or group of friends.

There are certain events one can attend where you feel it’s a Perfect representation of the given city. When you are in New York you go to Broadway, in Los Angeles a bus tour of Sunset Strip, and in Portland you go to the Mystery Box Show on Alberta Avenue.

Exiting the theater after the show the crowd is all aglow with chatter about their favorite bits, looking into some of the Classes and seminars suggested by the host, the excitement of deciding to submit a story for the next event, and of course how astonishing it is to have an event such as this keeping Portland weird.