Peekaboo Gallery’s Exotikon hosts a celebration of historic spook shows at the Mayan

A few years after legendary magician Harry Houdini crusaded against spiritualists and mediums, spook shows started popping up throughout North America and beyond. Magic acts served as the centerpieces of these mystically-themed shows that began at or near midnight and typically featured both macabre and bawdy showmanship; had fantastical According to Mark Walker, author of “Ghostmasters,” the preeminent text on spook shows, these performances gradually lost their audiences due to a number of factors, including the rise of a new invention called television, the downsizing of movie houses, and rising operational costs. Among its extensive attractions, the event featured a presentation on tiki-inspired architecture by premier tiki historian Sven Kirsten; live music by a number of tiki-themed musicians — including the Tikiyaki Orchestra, one of the few first-rate exotica bands in the world — burlesque performances by a number of SoCal’s most well-known dancers; and an extraordinary tribute to Danny Balsz’s historic, Monterey Park amusement park, the Tikis, which thrived in the ‘60s and ‘70s. Regarding spook shows, in particular, he will be contributing an introduction to Mark Walker’s upcoming follow-up to “Ghostmasters.” “Spook shows have been a part of my life for 25 years, all because of this place right here, the Magic Castle,” Zabrecky said. It was this ephemeral experience where people might have been in your face — not dissimilar to an escape room.” He pointed out that as spook shows started fading from the cultural landscape, some theater owners recognized that there was still a market for midnight entertainment, which included other types of interactive events such as “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” and, more recently, “The Room.” “People are going to see that, and they’re throwing footballs around; they’re talking back to the screen, and that is not much different than what these spook show performers were doing,” Zabrecky said.