My Baby Turns 31 Today

It's not everyday a concept is born. It was April 15, 1988 at 7:00PM. It was in Cambridge in the lower level (read basement) of the Cantab Lounge in Cambridge. Little Joe Cook at the Thrillers were playing upstairs as the actors warmed up for the first performance of Death and Taxes by Phil Lebovits. The ticket price was $28 for dinner and the show and we squeezed in 80 people in a room that had no windows. The meal was catered by the Averof Restaurant in Cambridge and the 8 actors were ready to deliver their lines. A murder was going to take place, Granville Powell, who was running for President against Mike Dukakis was murdered and the audience solved the crime. The first murder mystery dinner theater in the US was launched and it was sold out.

The Mystery Cafe' was born when luck met opportunity. The Cantab Lounge was a stop on a tour I created called Barhopping, Boston's Sleaziest Bars as part of the offerings of Learning Adventure, an adult education and recreation company where I was the Program Director. My job as it is now is to create new ideas and market them to the public. It was a great starting position for a serial entrepreneur and the owner Frank Pinto lent me the $15,000 that I needed to start the Mystery Cafe. He also took a 50% interest in the company so there were a lot of lessons learned in those days. The Mystery Cafe was quite a ride as we licensed the script, logo and concept to producers all over the country. My father in Philadelphia; my college roommate in Providence; my college friend in San Diego; one of my actors in Minneapolis and so many more. At 26 I had launched a new concept and then shared that with others. Imagine if I had done that today in the start-up culture, working at a co-working space. No regrets though as it lead me to my wife, to my next business which is THE business I was meant to start, TeamBonding and everything in-between.

April 15th is tax day to you and everyone else but to me, it is the day I started my first business and there's no looking back, only forward.