The Eureka Room — Attraction in Austin

I attended this as part of a company off-site, and as the Eureka room demands, no one really knew what we were getting into. We had a private session booked for the 8 of us.

I will say it worked very well as a team-bonding experience, as we all talked about it for the rest of the evening, and I'm sure we'll continue to reference in-jokes from the experience. The attendant (I forgot her name, sorry - I know the creator of the Eureka room is Mike, and we were hosted by a woman) was very nice, she made sure to offer any accommodations people might need such as chairs, she made sure everyone was comfortable with the temperature.

That said, the actual Eureka room experience is probably about twice as long as it needs to be, for the same experience / effect. Each of the segments of the experience started to drag on, and I really felt they could have been cut to 75% of the time, or even half the time, and I would have enjoyed it more. The other folks in my group agreed when I suggested that feedback.

We're asked not to spoil the actual experience, so I won't reveal any more on that part.

I like supporting small and local artists, and I would have been happy to buy something in the gift shop, but there was only shirts. I think this would have been a great opportunity to feature work from other local artists for sale, or have more small items referencing the Eureka room experience (a poster, stickers, a notebook, etc) - otherwise I would suggest scrapping the gift shop part because it felt weird with such a limited selection of items, just like it was an...

If you have a giant trust fund, are extremely bored, and find the idea of setting fire to your own money ZANY!!! and WHACKY!!! and FUN!!!, then maybe the Eureka Room is for you. For anyone else, do yourself a favor and go anywhere else among the dozens of fun Austin possibilities (Wonderspaces, Blanton museum, Contemporary, Mexic-Arte Musuem, walk East Chavez, walk 6th St, go hear music, botanic garden, South Congress, BookPeople, Laguna Gloria ... even aimlessly walking around for an hour would be better). We came based largely on reviews - ignoring the red flag that nearly all reviews, as well as the info online, are extremely vague about what happens at the Eureka Room. Big mistake. What happens is a series of games that are pulled from preschools, such as passing plastic vegetables around a table and learning how to give high-fives. It was, above all else, boring; even most preschoolers would find these "games" dull and uncreative. The experience reminded us of nothing so much as the story "The Emperor's New Clothes," or an experiment in seeing how many people will join in the "FUN!!!" of throwing away their money and then being unwilling to admit they got suckered. Do yourself a favor and recognize that the vagueness of all descriptions is a red flag. You have dozens of better ways to spend precious time and money in Austin; do one of...

NO SPOILERS

I really struggled with this place. I am pretty silly, always been called weird my whole life, and I love absurd humor. But this just was not it for me. Without spoiling anything, this very much had the same kind of energy as a early internet ebaum’s world type of viral video from the early 2000s. Which I found hilarious when I was in middle school and love for nostalgia’s sake, but that stuff doesn’t hold up well 20 years later.

There were 2 main activities. I enjoyed both at first, but they both got old fast. Each activity involved very simple (albeit absurd) steps, repeating steps over and over and over, going on wayyyy too long. If the activities were shorter, and there were more than these 2 very basic activities, I may have had more fun.

Giving 2 stars instead of 1 because I loved how queer this place was, suuuuper queer friendly. People are allowed to be themselves here which I really appreciate.

Also warning — if you have any physical disabilities that make standing for more than a few minutes uncomfortable and painful, this is NOT for you. You stand for 1 hour in a small enclosed space with a total...