Room Escape Artist

Escape Rooms have been here the whole time.

Who is this for?

• People who love comedy, if their style of comedy includes watching escape room players lose their minds
• Folks who want to see what a rage room and escape room mash up would look like
• Best for viewers with at least some escape room experience

Background on Game Changer and Dropout.tv

Escape the Greenroom is the 9th episode in the 5th season of Game Changer by Dropout. Game Changer is a particularly novel game show on this relatively new television network where the rules of the game change every episode. When the contestants are selected to tape an episode, they never know what game they’re going to be playing!

The creator of Game Changer, Sam Reich, hired Tommy Honton, of Stash House fame, as a consultant to help design this masterpiece of an episode.

Story

While waiting to tape their upcoming episode of Game Changer, 3 contestants: Brennan Lee Mulligan, Siobhan Thompson, and Lou Wilson suddenly find themselves locked inside the greenroom. The usually familiar space has suddenly turned into an impromptu escape room. All the players must escape in order to defuse a bomb in the Game Changer studio before a 60-minute timer elapses.

Throughout the game, the contestants find hidden items, unlock secret compartments, and reveal the identity of the man who has subjected them to this escape room experience.

Why you should watch this escape room Game Changer episode

Escape the Greenroom is a masterclass on how to make captivating television out of an escape room the viewers will never be able to play. If you’ve watched previous escape room play throughs, or played virtual, avatar-style escape rooms and been disinterested, it is with reasonable confidence that I assure you won’t be bored by this show, if only given the immense care putting into the editing process.

Play Along

The episode shows the players solving alongside B-roll close up footage of the props they’re manipulating, meaning that viewers are able to get a really great perspective of what’s happening, and can solve along in real time. The puzzles selected for this game show up well on camera, and are as interesting for the viewer to watch another person solve, than solve themselves. (No one is sitting in the corner solving a sudoku for 15 minutes).

One Time Play

Because this escape room was completed one time only, the creators were able to use styles of props that would otherwise be cost prohibitive in a traditional escape room. They were also able to modify the set in ways that would not be easily resettable as well. At least once, the creators employed a manual override trigger where seasoned escape room players would expect to see something triggered by technology, but again, because this room was only played once, it made way more sense to avoid the likely costly and time consuming technology build out and when the players solved the puzzle, have someone behind the scenes click a button to advance the story.

Surprise

The creators were able to further subvert expectations by building this experience into a familiar location. (This is something most folks won’t be able to experience unless they’re friends with Chris Waters.) Part of the initial drama was in the players figuring out that they were in an escape room, and discovering their objectives.

Why our escape room community is so great

The version of Escape the Greenroom that aired wouldn’t have been possible without both the minds of Sam Reich and Tommy Honton. Sam put out a call on Twitter looking for amazing escape room designers local to Los Angeles and our escape room community delivered Tommy’s name to Sam no less than 4 times. While I am sure other talented designers were passed along, Tommy was a perfect fit for this.

Not coincidentally, Tommy Honton is speaking at RECON Los Angeles this August. Tommy was recommended because he’s talented and community-oriented, and he’ll bring a wealth of unusual experience to his talk at RECON.

Together we keep advocating for cool creators to do cool stuff in the muggle world; this is how our community grows. (Can we get an escape room consultant on Taskmaster? Who knows Alex Horne?)

If you’ve watched Escape the Greenroom, you should definitely listen to Episode 23 of Spoilers Club (available to REA Patreon backers) where Tommy joins David and Peih-Gee to discuss more behind the scenes of creating this episode.

Why you should be watching other Dropout shows

Don’t go to Dropout.tv for more escape room content (there isn’t any) but definitely go there for a suite of innovative and comedic shows. I personally love all of Game Changer, its spin off Make Some Noise, Cartoon Hell, Total Forgiveness, and Dimension 20. If you are looking for bite-sized content to pick you up after a rough day, try Breaking News.

Dropout.tv is super reasonably priced and you can even watch Escape the Greenroom for free by using their 3-day free trial offer.

Season 6 of Game Changer airs in February 2024.