Esotouric

Kim is the creator of 1947project, the crime-a-day time travel blog that spawned the popular Crime Bus Tours, including Pasadena Confidential, the Real Black Dahlia and Weird West Adams. When the third generation Angeleno isn't combing old newspapers for forgotten scandals, she's editing Scram (a journal of unpopular culture) and books like "Bubblegum Music is the Naked Truth," "Lost in the Grooves" and an oral history of the cult band Neutral Milk Hotel. Her campaign to save the historic 76 Balls from destruction resulted in ConocoPhillips agreeing to donate the gas station signs to museums nationwide.

photo credit: Ricardo DeAratanha

Nathan is the author of "Los Angeles Neon" and a founding member of the 1947project time travel blog and the Crime Bus Tour. He is active in the Los Angeles architectural preservation community through ModCom and the Conservancy, and has been known to drag home enormous, filthy metal signs that were otherwise headed for the landfill. His tours include The Real Black Dahlia, Pasadena Confidential, Weird West Adams and Halloween Horrors. Nathan is currently working on a book about America's historic mortuaries.

Kelly is a performance and visual artist, musician, public access television star, journalist and arts educator. Some know her as the Bubblegum Queen, others as a Riot Girl sensation, but it's her passion for Southern California noir fiction and the myths and lures of downtown Los Angeles that make her the perfect hostess for Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles and John Fante's Dreams of Bunker Hill. As a working artist in downtown L.A., she is the modern incarnation of Fante's Arturo Bandini. Ask about her black light poster collages.

Richard has been at various times an art historian, a mason, an independent film producer, and a computer programmer. On his tours, Richard fuses these otherwise exclusive experiences into a very special view of the city. Richard's tours include Blood & Dumplings, Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles, John Fante’s Dreams of Bunker Hill and Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles (coming soon). Richard created and maintains this website, and produces the audio-visual presentations for all Esotouric bus adventures under the LaTeX document preparation system.

Crimebo is the 1947project's crime clown, a master of the inappropriate remark, a maker of headless balloon animals, a wearer of mismatched plaid patterns and caretaker of "Crimebo's Big Book of Horrible Crimes," from which he shares the most hideous occurrences of this or any year. Crimebo can be found on occasional Crime Bus tours, and is available for private bookings for birthdays, bar mitzvahs, anniversaries and wakes (he even does telephone greetings). Under the greasepaint and manic grin is Michael Perrick, a voice and theatrical actor, event promoter and graphic artist.

Let Crimebo make your special day a little more upsetting with one of his personalized presentations. Want to know what terrible things happened on your birthday or anniversary? The clown knows all, and can't wait to share.

Crimebo offers two tiers of performance:
1) Personalized, with special details of the crimes and horrible happenings that took place on the date of your choice. ($200 in person for local LA appearances, $100 US phone call)
2) Generalized, with a more generic creepy clown performance. ($150 in person for local LA appearances, $50 US phone call)

Travel is also available.

Interested? Contact us with any questions, or to ask if your desired date and time are available.

Gene Sculatti is a writer, editor and music-business veteran whose work has appeared in USA Today, Rolling Stone, Creem and the Los Angeles Times. His positions have included Editorial Director of Warner Bros. Records and Director of Special Issues for Billboard magazine. His books include The Catalog of Cool, Too Cool, San Francisco Nights: The Psychedelic Music Trip and The 100 Best Selling Albums of the 60s. With Kim Cooper, he co-hosts Where The Action Was, Esotouric's rock and roll history tours.