The Official List of Events for Mystericon 2024!
All the dates, times, and links for tours and events running throughout Mystericon 2024! Click links for more event info/tickets. If you want to use a Patreon ticket for one of Adam’s walking tours, email tip@mysteriouschicago.com
Friday, September 27th
Fri Sept 27, 2:30pm – Dark Art of the Art Institute w/Mandy Crypt
Tired of the same old highlights you’ve seen at the Art Institute? Wanting to see something to creep a little chill down your spine or inspire some awe? Well then this tour is for you! Come take a walk through the Art Institute with Mandy Crypt as we visit stories from mythology, discuss allegory, see human remains, and so much more!
Highlights include: a reliquary from the Guelph treasure, mummies, and Hercules and the Lernean Hydra by Gustave Moreau. Please note: this tour has a higher cost as tickets include admission to the Art Institute of Chicago
Fri Sept 27, 3:00-5:00pm – Registration Check In & Meet & Greet in the Congress Lobby
Check in for the weekend with the Mystericon planners, pickup your nametag, & grab a drink at the hotel bar with your friends (and maybe the Effing ladies!). If you cannot make Friday afternoon registration, you can register in the meeting room on Saturday all day long. Registration will also be open during the Friday night meetup in the Congress Hotel Bar.
Fri Sept 27, 5:00pm – 6:30 PM – a Spooky Loopy Scavenger Hunt
It’s spooky season! Meet Leyla and Patti S. for this ghostly themed scavenger hunt of downtown Chicago! Grab some friends and take part in this game where you’ll have ten clues that will lead you to ten locations close to the Congress Hotel. The first group back with the correct answers will win a prize! The last group back will receive Malort as a not-so-conciliating conciliation prize. The last clue will lead everyone back to the same location…somewhere inside the Congress hotel!
Fri Sept 27, 6:00pm -??? the Mysterious Meetup!
We’re taking over the bar at the Congress Hotel! Join other Mysterians plus Mandy, Leyla, and the incredibly famous Adam Selzer for a happy hour hangout. The party will start at about 6 PM and go until the bar is out of Malort (jk. Or maybe not…)
Saturday, September 28th
Free talks (with suggested donations & Mystericon registrations) will be given in the Joe Urban Room of the Congress Hotel between 10AM and 5:00PM. All talks are first come, first serve for seating. Each talk will be around an hour long, with time for Q&A afterwards.
Schedule of Events
| Time | Joseph Urban Room at the Congress Hotel | Walking Tour |
| 9:00-5:00 | Registration and Check In Check in with the Mystericon planners & get your name tag! Registration will be available in the meeting room all day. | |
| 10:00-11:30 AM | Graceland Cemetery: Symbology and Architecture w/Mandy Crypt Mandy Crypt, $25, Tix here Graceland Cemetery is one of Chicago’s most intriguing tourist spots. A true arboretum, a sculpture garden, a wildlife sanctuary, and a home for Chicago’s departed residents – there is much to be said about this stunning place. Let Mandy Crypt lead you through the headstones and mausoleums for some Chicago’s famous and infamous folks, buried under the majestic trees and haunting sculptures of Graceland Cemetery. While learning the stories of the eternal residents, you’ll also decode some of the secret language of symbols used in many monuments and memorials around the country, not just here in Chicago. Highlights include: the Pullman grave, the Schoenhofer tomb, the Palmer tomb, and the Getty tomb. | |
| 10:00-11:00 AM | The Unsafe History of Chicago Bridges: Bridge Safety Bingo Edition! Leyla Royale When you look at strange deaths in Chicago’s past, one common theme is just how many people have died while simply trying to cross a bridge. In this talk Leyla will explore the different safety hazards caused by the city’s historic bridges, and the vaguely negligent way in which Chicago finally solved the problem. We’ll be playing Bridge Safety Bingo during this talk! There will be some prizes! | |
| 11:00-12:00 AM | Patti Vasquez Live! Patti Vasquez of Whiskey & a Cookie fame joins us to wrap up the day with some live comedy. | |
| 12:00 – 1:00 | Lunch Break | |
| 1:00-2:00 | Victoriana Pharmacies Mandy Crypt The Victorians invented many things but among them was the modern pharmacy. From making medicines, potions, and ointments to providing low income families with minor medical procedures, to selling sweets and early birth control, Victorian pharmacists did it all! Come listen to Mandy Crypt as she resurrects her talk on the glory and horror that was the Victorian pharmacy! | |
| 2:00 – 3:00 | the Ross Variety Hour 2024 marks ten years since the release of Ross W Berman‘s debut album The Folk City Hustle. One decade, and seven bandcamp albums later, Berman has become a unique, chaotic voice in folk and blues, bouncing between wry humor and self-righteous fury. Often found playing at local bars and comedy theaters, Berman’s takes on Chicago, America, and anything else range from sweet to goofy to caustic. | |
| 3:00-4:00 | the Adam Selzer Show Adam Selzer A surprise Podcast recording hour from Adam! Or a talk. No one ever knows what the man’s up to…not even himself. | |
| 4:00-5:00 | Fabulous First Ladies! Patti Swanson With election season upon us, and the possibility of America welcoming its first-ever First Dude, inquiring minds might want to know: what does a First Lady do? What happens if the president is unmarried? How has the role evolved over time? What trend-setting, barrier-breaking, badass women have held the title and shaped the position through the ages? And have any of them been Chicagoans?! Patti Swanson will answer all these questions and many more! | |
| 5:00-6:30 | Chicago’s Coolest Theatres Leyla Royale, $22, Tix here Join Leyla on a tour of Chicago’s most notable theatres – both standing and lost to time – in this downtown tour. We’ll look at the facades of movie palaces, hear stories of famous vaudeville houses, & take a look at where you could enjoy Smell-O-Vision back in the 1960s. As a bonus, you can also purchase a specially made mini guide made specifically for Mystericon (while supplies last!) that provides photos & details of theatres mentioned on the tour! | |
| 5:30-7:00 | the Chicago Architecture Boat Cruise, Early Tour Adam Selzer, $45, Tix here An urban boat cruise, Mysterious Chicago Tours style! Author Adam Selzer hosts a 90 minute cruise aboard the Festivus along the Chicago River, featuring not only facts about the fantasic architecture that will surround your during the the cruise, but Halloween-ready stories about the fascinating history of the buildings, the eccentric architects who designed them, and the fabulous city they helped shape. | |
| 7:30-9:00 | the Chicago Architecture Boat Cruise, Late Tour Adam Selzer, $45, Tix here An urban boat cruise, Mysterious Chicago Tours style! Author Adam Selzer hosts a 90 minute cruise aboard the Festivus along the Chicago River, featuring not only facts about the fantasic architecture that will surround your during the the cruise, but Halloween-ready stories about the fascinating history of the buildings, the eccentric architects who designed them, and the fabulous city they helped shape. |
Walking tours are ticketed events & cost between $22-$60.
Sunday, September 29th
Ticketed walking tours with Adam Selzer, Mandy Crypt, & Leyla Royale
| Time | Event |
| 10:00-11:30 | Behind the Scenes of the Chicago Theatre w/Leyla Royale! Leyla Royale, $31, Tix here It’s the best tour I can give! Join Leyla Royale on an insider’s tour of the best theatre in the world, the Chicago Theatre! We’ll be able to look in depth at the French Baroque detailing on this 1921 movie palace. You’ll learn what it took to work here 100 years ago, how the strength of the 60 ton unsupported balcony was tested, and see the small nuances that many people overlook. You’ll also get to look behind the scenes as well as find out where Leyla’s favorite bit of plaster decor, the Shrimpman, lives. Barring unforeseen events, we will also aim to hear a demo of the 1921 Mighty Wurlitzer pipe organ. |
| 1:00-2:30 | Badass Women of Chicago Walking Tour Mandy Crypt, $25, Tix here From debutantes to criminals to journalists, Chicago is home to many a badass woman. Come walk the streets of downtown Chicago with Mandy Crypt as she shares the lives and stories of some of Chicago’s most interesting and badass women! Highlights include stops at: the Art Institute, Chicago Theater, Old Cook County Court House, and the Tribune Building. |
| 3:30-5:00 | Chicago Underground Railroad Walking Tour Adam Selzer, $22, Tix here In the 1860s, Chicago was called a “cesspit of abolitionism.” While we had our villains here, by that time Chicago had a long history as a sort of “sanctuary city.” We had anti-slavery demonstrations, daring rescues, refugee enslaved people who became Underground Railroad conductors, heroes who put down confederate insurrections, sea captains willing to be branded (literally) as “slave stealers.” On this walking tour in the loop we’ll telling some of these stories and showing where they happened (though of course the buildings themselves were lost in the fire). Even if the old bricks and stone are gone, it’s a fascinating way to see how a small-but-growing city nurtured a tight-knit group of abolitionists. |