Creating Experiences People Never Forget: The Rise of Immersive Entertainment

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studio in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Atlanta Business Radio, brought to you by My Global Presence, the award winning Atlanta public relations agency that elevates brands and non-profits through authentic storytelling and national media campaigns. Find them at myglobalpresence.com. Now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here, another episode of Atlanta Business Radio. And this is going to be a fun one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor, My Global Presence. If you want global visibility and meaningful impact, go to myglobalpresence.com. Today on the show we have Kelly Nelson with Mirth and Mischief Enterprises. Welcome.

Kelly Nelson: Thanks, Lee. Good to be here.

Lee Kantor: Well, I am always curious about any business that uses the word mirth and mischief. So please tell us what you are up to.

Kelly Nelson: Yeah. So I guess I’ll start with my background. I’ve been in this business for over 35 years now, designing and producing large scale live experiences. So I actually started in corporate activations with nonprofit fundraisers, public spectacle, PR, all of it for mostly corporate audiences and some public audiences. So I did not come up through traditional theater. It might sound like a theater company now, but we came up producing spectacle at scale for brands and institutions. So we are used to having a one time to get it right live opportunity. This is not a movie. It is no recuts or anything else. So this is. Our whole world is live and that is the background. So there’s no dress rehearsal. Somewhere along the way too. I was trained in behavioral science. So behavioral psychology is a thread that runs through everything we do now. So you’ll see that we’re a really interesting hybrid of an agency. We’re not just put on a good show. It’s engineering how the audience actually feels connected to the story, to the space, and to the brand behind it.

Lee Kantor: Well, I’m always curious on when there’s an agency that focuses on creativity and the importance of being creative and taking risks and kind of pushing an envelope, marrying kind of business outcomes. So how do you kind of thread the needle even at the beginning stages, when you’re discussing an opportunity about how do you, how are you defining kind of the outcome that they would like at the end? So, you know, are we high fiving at the end or are we looking at each other funny?

Kelly Nelson: Well, it kind of depends on what your behavioral objective is. So we do a thing called strategy mapping, and we do this internally and inherently on our internal side. But we can also do it as an exercise externally with stakeholders. But we identify the audience segments and what you want them to feel, think, know and do as a result of their experience with us. So we take them through an emotional continuum where they set outcome, which you can then measure. So it’s almost like puppet mastering, which I’ll get into in a minute, because that actually applies in this case. Um, but our team is unique and none of what I do works without the people around me. I can be creative all day long and without the right team, it’s not going to come to life. So I think it’s important to call out the people in this mix, which might kind of explain a little bit more about what we’re doing and how we get it done. So starting with my co-founder and life partner, Matthew Nelson. He is a serial entrepreneur who was focused on sustainability focused companies before he went out and decided to contribute to everything we’re doing now. He had an EV charging infrastructure and LED lighting retrofit and natural gas cylinder recycling businesses prior. And he was also a major leading, uh, leading major brand initiatives for programs for Disney, Coca-Cola, Nike, Starbucks, and Salesforce. So he exited his last company specifically to join me in bringing our simmering visions to life that have been on the burners for years and years.

Kelly Nelson: Um, doing in the background of what we’d been doing for others, we decided it’s time now the the market was ready for us to do what we had been waiting to do on the finance side, and people don’t really expect this. We have a serious financial infrastructure as well. Our CFO, Grant Edwards, has 20 years of CFO experience. He came out of Deloitte and Arthur Andersen and teaches entrepreneurship and finance at Georgia State. Our director of Finance, Jack Marhoffer, took a biotech company public on Nasdaq and raised. Helped them raise over 100 million. Our Director of Capital Formation has spent 15 years in the investor relations in the Global Investment Bank world, and our chairman of the board has 35 years of marketing and entrepreneurial leadership behind names like Disney and Motorola. Then on the fun side, the creative side, our head of production comes from a world producing half time shows and Coachella and large scale productions. Our lead puppeteer, you might know he was the voice. Steve Whitmire was the voice of Kermit the Frog, Wembley from Fraggle Rock and Ernie and Rizzo rat from the Muppets. So he’s the most famous living Muppets here. So when I say there’s some puppet mastery to this, there really is. And then additionally, when they ask, people ask, so how are you doing puppetry and circ work and all of these different things together? It’s a blend, right? So it’s solid business foundation and then the top tier of the creative world all collabing together.

Lee Kantor: Now, you mentioned earlier you started out working for brands, but now it sounds like the company has evolved to producing your own productions. Can you talk a little bit about that pivot and how that changed and the why behind it?

Kelly Nelson: Yeah. So I like to say that I’ve spent my career being perpetually early to everything so screaming behind trees, watching trends coming around the corner and nobody sees what I’m seeing. And so I just kind of stand there frustrated. However, I learned patience somewhere along the way, and now I know how to read the market signs. And right now we are standing at the intersection of why what we’re doing is perfectly timed. The global immersive entertainment market was valued around $140 billion in 2025, and forecasts have it crossing $1 trillion by early 2030s. So that’s not a niche trend. That’s a shift on how people want to spend their time and their money. And really, the more people become divided and distracted and the more AI rises and the more things that are done electronically, people crave that in person, uh, that in-person experience. So the more rich we can get people, the more present we can give them this gift of being present, the better. So streaming didn’t kill the live experience. In fact, it’s doing the opposite. It’s making it more valuable. So, and it’s not just us, the smaller operators that are betting on this. Netflix opened a permanent physical venue. Universal is pouring billions into immersive attractions. It’s an it’s an immersive economy. You probably hear people using that buzzword all the time immersive, immersive, immersive. But, um, when companies at that scale are building physical presence experiences around their IP, that tells you kind of where this is headed. And we, as I said, we’ve been a little early, but we’re the innovators in the southeast. And as far as I know, the first to do anything of scale in that world in the southeast.

Lee Kantor: So when you decide to, to do an immersive, uh, entertainment production, what goes into doing that? Like how do you choose kind of the subject matter? How do you kind of create that immersive experience?

Kelly Nelson: Well, that’s a long conversation. A lot of it is based on story and location. So I sort of walk around with stories in my head all the time, and I’ll see characters, and it’ll be fomenting in my mind all the time. But when we see, we like to say we are site specific. So when we see a special space, a story kind of comes to life in my head about it. And it’s born in the venue will dictate to a, to a point what is happening within the space, right? So we kind of lean into using the space itself as a character. So for instance, when we did our last show in a castle in Helen, Georgia, it automatically brought to mind a sort of medieval vibe storyline that crossed over into other thematic, universal thematic messaging. So we tend to have a lot of universal messaging that keeps reappearing in our work as well. So unlike some arts organizations who, um, you’re not sure what it means or it’s very, you know, ethereal or esthetic and requires a lot of vague translation with ours. A lot of the key keystone points are things everyone can relate to the battle between dark and light, the love being the main thing that pulls us together, the sense of finding community in order to build a better way. These are kind of things that continuously pop up, but in a way that our audiences can take from it what is meaningful to them. And we aren’t spoon feeding them our artistic vision. We’re putting them into a storyline in which they have a role, they have a, you know, they can make choices and they can interpret things in a way that feels emotionally resonant with them.

Kelly Nelson: So as far as how do we do it? I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you. Just kidding. So it’s, uh, it starts with a spark and a space. And then once the storyline is written typically by me or one of our other creators, it will then be cast and fleshed out and brought to life in unique ways with a whole team of people who build sets and scenic. Our choreographer with shares choreographer. He does all of our movement for us, but he’s also a film industry choreographer. So I’ll collaborate with our head of music creation, Freebird to create either fresh new music that’s our own IP, or we’ll do, translations of popular music that has been done before, but in a new way. So it’s it’s kind of a collaborative thing. I like to say I build the outside of the spider web, and then I bring my team in to fill in the threads. And even within the show itself, we’ll build the character storyline around will give everyone a directive, but there’s quite a bit of improv in certain areas because there’s some performative stuff that’s rehearsed and you see it and it’s the same each time. But then there are things to discover all over the grounds that are improv, 100% improv. So our shows will continue to change throughout the run. And that means that each time you show up and you make a choice, you’re going to have a different experience because the guests will drive a lot of the action that happens.

Lee Kantor: Now when you, um, Create an event like that. Is it typically a run for several weeks and then it goes away and that’s the only time it existed. And that’s the only way. If you want to see it, you got to see it. Or is it something that you build it? And then with the expectation of touring that around into other places around the country or the world.

Kelly Nelson: Yeah. So we have a portfolio of both. We had our proof of concept, um, mirth and mischief in the castle in Helen last May. But that one is built to move and to tour. So we are right now looking at a series of castles across the United States to build a tour that we would then pick up and take that show across the country and potentially internationally. We have some opportunities in Italy and England to pop it up there as well. So we also have permanent attractions. So we have an attraction called the vortex Alpha and Omega, which is in development right now, and that would be permanently placed in one location for as long as it makes sense to be there. Um, and then it can move or replicate as well. Um, so we have a different mix of things. Then we have temporary pop up spaces. So we have an education program called the Secret Garden, which can pop up in its own temporary space, right on the grounds of a school or outside a children’s hospital, etc.. So really, it doesn’t matter where it is or what form it’s in, it kind of fits into the space that makes the most sense for what it is. So if that makes sense to you.

Lee Kantor: So now how is it fun to do the different locations, just hire you and contract you to, um, execute this, um, on a, on a, at a time. And that makes sense for them? Or is it something that you fund and then you just rent out places to, to do the shows?

Kelly Nelson: Yeah, the second one. So we are an organization that gathers our own funding. So if anyone’s interested in getting involved on the ground level of what we’re about to be doing with several different programs coming up, then we are listening. Um, sponsorship also plays a role because this, our format gives brands an opportunity to become emotionally connected and interact in an authentic way with their audience targets. So this is a really unique opportunity for sponsors to express themselves differently. Um, but yeah, it’s all the venues don’t pay us yet that I’m not saying that that’s not a possibility down the road, but just like any other attraction or show organization, we find our own funding.

Lee Kantor: And then you Once you have the funding in place, then you identify different places to put the show.

Kelly Nelson: Yes. Typically we have a place in a show in mind and then we get it funded. So but we rent the venue. So we do a buyout and a takeover of the venue. So we have the the full two and a half acres of castle for a month last time. And that allowed us to do shows on the weekends, but then also special events, weddings, whatever else wanted to happen during the week. We kind of own the space during that time. And it’s unusual because a lot of people go to just a traditional theater, but ours are almost never a traditional environment. But that makes it’s it makes for a more theme park vibe to what we do. So it’s a really, really interesting hybrid of different types of entertainment experience.

Lee Kantor: Now, you mentioned earlier that, um, you know, content is available all over the place on your phone in your house everywhere you turn, but you really kind of are leaning into obviously this, um, live and in person face to face. Um, is this something that you think this is going to be going to be in this? Um, I don’t want to say, like you said, it’s not a fad or a trend even. It just seems like this is the reality today is it’s going to be for a while now. Or do you think, do you think this is kind of a backlash to so much content available in so many places that people hunger for human to human interaction a little bit more?

Kelly Nelson: Well, I think you’re seeing a spike in that desire, but I don’t see it going away because at the end of the day, we’re all still human beings and we all still have that need for communal and in-person. And I think what really kind of brought that to light was the pandemic, when we were all separated from each other, and people craved this person in person experience. And a whole generation has been growing up disconnected from one another. So I think people kind of forget, at least at this point, what it feels like to be truly present because we’re all distracted, even when we are present with each other, but with our shows. I call it the haunted house effect, because when you go to a haunted house, you’re afraid to get out of your car because they’re already out there, you don’t know where they are. You’re paying attention to where you are and what’s going on because you don’t know where it’s coming from, what’s going to happen. So that makes you uniquely, fully present and alive. And then those memories lock in. So this is a phenomenon that we’ve been leveraging in my entire career. For 35 years. I’ve been using this principle in business meetings and public spectacles to give that emotional resonance. And that’s just a human thing. So it’s not going away. If anything, it’s going to continue to rise. It’s it’s just now getting to the southeast, but it’s already been going on in Europe forever and in the northeast as well, different parts of our country. So we’re looking at a real renaissance of immersion in the southeast right now.

Lee Kantor: And then you’re seeing that it’s not only kind of entertainment based, but you’re leveraging it also in an educational manner as well in some of your projects.

Kelly Nelson: That’s right. Because we learn best when we do so by having allowing that ability. If you remember when you were a child and you’d walk around and you were kind of in your head and you had stories in your head and everything seemed magical and, and everything had so much potential. We draw that out and into the education space. So instead of sit down sitting your desk. Learn this lesson. I’m going to fire hose at you. It’s just join this active learning process where you’re physically present and it changes everything. Because again, that’s that behavioral psychology. I mentioned where the, the emotions are locking these memories in. So what you learn by doing, you retain. And that’s the principle that we’re leveraging. Plus it’s bringing literature to life and bringing these, these other forces of education to life in a way that is not boring. It’s it’s interesting. So my, my kids had the opportunity to go to a school where they did immersive learning. So instead of math at their desk where they write it down and they were outside with a bucket of water and paint brushes and they were doing math on the wall. And and that was the perfect way for young people to learn. It’s the I call it the Reggio Emilia principle. If you look at that school from Italy and what they were able to do, it unlocks all new parts of the brain and also engages collaboration and teamwork and teaches them problem solving. But it puts them in this truly inspirational environment where they are more likely to retain this information, not just, you know, memorize and regurgitate.

Lee Kantor: Now, you mentioned a little bit about how this type of entertainment is already present, maybe in some parts of the world and in some parts of the US. How important is it to build community around this immersive way of thinking?

Kelly Nelson: Well, I would say it’s the most important thing, uh, for me, immersive is now the buzzword, right? But it’s always been the way humans relate to one another. So I think it’s very critical. If it were me, I would have every single industry think hard about making whatever it is they do more immersive. So because it will lead to a more resonant opportunity for learning and behavioral outcomes.

Lee Kantor: So you have data that supports more immersive is better educational outcomes.

Kelly Nelson: Definitely yes.

Lee Kantor: So that’s not just something that sounds good. It’s something that is good.

Kelly Nelson: It is something that is good. And in fact, the US school system is different than other locations. As I mentioned, Reggio Emilia and some other Montessori might be kind of the closest thing we have here in the US to that type of learning, where the kids are learning with their hands and their bodies, versus just sitting and being told to sit still and take in information and then regurgitate it on tests. And so I think adding even just creative expressions of the same principles that you’re trying to get them to learn, but having them do it by doing in a physical way enables deeper retention.

Lee Kantor: And in your shows when you’re saying immersive. So it isn’t where they just sit there and watch people perform. They’re moving, they’re doing, they’re more involved.

Kelly Nelson: That’s right. So for instance, at Mirth and Mischief, our Castle show, the moment they arrived, they were in it. So everyone on the entire cast and crew is in on it. Everybody’s in character, nobody breaks character, and they’re immediately under our control. So they get in the van and they go up to the top and the big 14 foot gates open, and they’re inside a castle where everyone in the entire show, from the vendors to the people selling food and drink, are in character and the. We also encourage cosplay at our shows, so we like people to come and express themselves. And that’s also a very popular trend. That’s. You look at Dragon Con and some other places where the cosplay world is is taking off, but it’s a way to personally express yourself. So we had incredible costumed people showing up to participate. If you look at Ren Faire, people dress up for that. So that trend is also something we’re taking advantage of, and we think it’s an important part of being involved in the storyline. So people were what they call LARPing. Live action role play. So they would show up in their costuming and they would assume a role of their own. And then that kind of fits nicely with our show because there was an act one where you sit and you’re told the story. And there’s a performative element that happens in the beginning, but then you’re released to wander the castle in the grounds, and there’s characters everywhere in rooms outside, and all of them are 100% improv. They’re within their character outline, but they’re improv. So you are able to almost create your own adventure in a way, and that brings people back over and over. We had people coming back two, four, six times because they wanted that feeling they got by being so present and so involved in the storyline themselves.

Lee Kantor: And how many shows were in the run.

Kelly Nelson: So we had a five week run. Shows were on Friday and Saturday for adults and Sundays. We had a faerie frolic for families, so it was gentle entertainment, not the full show, but more set tours and then activities with a bunch of immersive characters and a little scavenger hunt. And our puppetry was there. Um, so that was our proof of concept. We went in slow because we weren’t sure initially. Well, I was sure, but we needed to prove the market. So we made a commitment only to the five weeks, but we were at capacity by week three.

Lee Kantor: So what do you need more of? How can we help you?

Kelly Nelson: Well, I’d love to tell you about what’s coming next. So.

Lee Kantor: All right, fire away. What’s coming next.

Kelly Nelson: This December, we’re opening a new show called Joy. It’s spelled JOIE. Like joie, like joie de vivre. But it’s pronounced joy because it’s the holidays. It’ll be opening at Callanwolde. Callanwolde Fine Arts Center over on Briarcliff, right here in Atlanta. And it’s a pan holiday story. It’s a immersive experience built around entirely IP protected characters that we’ve created. So it’s not an old story retold. It’s a brand new story. And it’s it centers on the power of love, acceptance, and finding the magic that’s already inside of us. So it’s it’s a lovely show for families. We’re taking over the entire mansion with a full show and then also rooms to explore. One of our lead characters, Professor Asa Fishwick, is actually performed by Steve Whitmire, who was the voice of Kermit the Frog. And on one arm and leg will be, uh, Leif Tilden, who did Donatello in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. And so we’ve got an all star puppet team that’ll be doing that, but it’s several different vibes, and the character environments are brought to life. So as I said, it’s kind of a mix of a theme park vibe, but also a show, but it’s also an outdoor amphitheater. It’s live music, it’s acting, it’s dance, it’s acrobatics. And then we also like to weave in the essence of the venue that we’re in. So in this case, Callanwolde was built by Asa Candler’s grandson, who is the founder of Coca-Cola. So you’ll see there’ll be lots of nods to the history of the space as well. We have historical docents on site, and there’ll be a whole front of house vibe that our historical dressed people from the turn of the century, mixed with our mystical and mischievous other characters that we’ve created, that we’re taking over all the outbuildings as well.

Kelly Nelson: So we have our characters, Berkeley and Oakley, who are dogs, but they’re made of fir trees, they’re Douglas firs, and they are a comedic straight man and foil that will have their own space that looks like the dog house. So it’s set dressed to look like dogs live there. And you. We are also partnering with area shelters to have adoptable pets and other donations that could be made for area shelters, but it’s a really cute place to get your family portrait done. We’ll have a make and take workshops. Callanwolde is an art center during its normal day operation and they will have a full. Make and take workshop with ornaments and other keepsakes going on. We’ll have a snow play park. We’ll have a dining hall, food trucks and a whole dining hall and an artisan village. So a lot of the artists who create and teach at Callanwolde, plus artisans that we have of our own, who you might have seen some of them at Ren Faire and other lovely high end handmade wares for sale. So it’s a full holiday experience, and at the end of the night, it ends with a reindeer fire show and there’s a lighted woods walk as well. That’s true artist installations in addition to lighted pathways, etc. and that opens on December 5th. And we’ll run through July 3rd. And we’re starting initially with Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday tickets. And as those sell out, we’ll open up other dates.

Lee Kantor: Now, is there an opportunity for sponsors or volunteers or people who want to get involved?

Kelly Nelson: Absolutely, yes. I’d love to hear from anyone who’s interested. We are right now in the middle of closing out our sponsors, so we’re still taking sponsor opportunities. And obviously I mentioned investors are always welcome as well because we have six other initiatives that we’re putting out in the next year or two. Um, and then volunteers. Yes, we’d love some volunteers. One of our mission points is education and arts education in particular. So we love to mentor and have people that are in this industry who want to learn more about it and have proximity to these high level artists. Come and join our midst.

Lee Kantor: So you have joy. Is there other things that are going on that you’d like to share and let us know about?

Kelly Nelson: Indeed. So longer term, the bigger vision and honestly, this is I get the most excited talking about this because we’re building a platform as artists that draws attention. Hey, hey, look over here in this cool. And once they become interested in us, we can then translate that into a following that we can deploy into making change at scale. So the whole goal for us, we’ve always had a portion of our proceeds going. 10% goes of our ticket sales goes to mobilizing community, but we want to create an army of light workers, people that make positive change. And we’re building a coalition of world class art leaders to help drive that. Starting with Weta Workshop, who are the studio in New Zealand behind the creature and set work on Lord of the rings, avatar, Willow yada yada yada. But we have a whole coalition of leading art leaders who are coming together to be the tip of the spear, to make positive change in the world. We’ve decided we’re not going to wait. We’re just going to do it. And right now we have a few other programs in incubation. We talked about our education program, The Secret Garden, which is the literacy based learning program for kids that can also go to children’s hospitals. The vortex. The vortex. Alpha Omega, which is an off world sci fi. It’s kind of like a Star Wars bar, meets a sci fi dining, immersive experience with video mapped food and a game. So it’s an escape room type physical sets as well as virtual tech elements to it. And we also have 3 or 4 other projects incubating from a teen hangout space called Replay Replay Social Hub, which is a throwback space for teens that would pop up in malls and be kind of a 70s, 80s, 90s best of activities for them to do that brings back all of our old favorite things. The kids today want the childhood we had. So we’re giving them something to do other than just mall takeovers. Um, to have their own space.

Lee Kantor: So if somebody wants to learn more and connect with you or your team, what’s the website? What’s the best way to connect?

Kelly Nelson: Yeah. So you can email me directly. Kelly KELLY dot Nelson NELSON @mirthandmischief.com.

Lee Kantor: And is that the website mirthandmischief.com?

Kelly Nelson: mirthandmischief.com? Yeah.

Lee Kantor: Good stuff. Well, Kelly, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Kelly Nelson: You’re welcome. I appreciate being interviewed.

Lee Kantor: All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on Atlanta Business Radio.