Today in Las Vegas Magazine

The Business of Spooks is No Laughing Matter

Who would’ve thought that Robert Allen, producer of Haunted Vegas Tours, would end-up doing something related to the supernatural? Nothing in his 30-year show business experience – most specifically as a stand-up comedian in “Folies” and the now-defunct “Splash” – ever pointed in this direction.

On the contrary, Allen says, “I’m a psychic, and have been since I was 12. It was really a hobby for me, in the beginning, but then when I retired from the comedy business in 1999, I started going around haunted places and writing a book. So now I’m producing instead of performing.” Well, not really. Yes, he conceived the tour and is running the business, but he also still “performs” as one of five “hosts” in the show.

Haunted Vegas Tours is almost four years old, which says a lot about its popularity in this day and age, compared to some shows on the Strip that open and close within a month. If anything, Allen seems busier than ever, in his “retirement years.” Tours depart daily, six nights a week, though it’s dark on Fridays (excepting of course, on Halloween this year, which falls on that day). He, along with other hosts, Jac Hayden, Adam Flowers and Bob Baltus, first prep the audience with videos and commentary on ghost stories and the like, prior to the tour starting. All the hosts are actors, comedians and trained ghost hunters. Hayden, for example, has lived in Las Vegas since 1979, and has performed in casinos, conventions and has even produced a TV show. He is also the only ghost-tour guide who is also a licensed mortician and embalmer. Adam Flowers, on the other hand, delves into interactive magic when he’s not busy playing tour guide; while Bob Baltus, who hails from Chicago, is an authority on the mob and only hosts Vegas Mob Tours. All tour participants are provided with a dousing rod as well.

Saying I was “too chicken” to attend the tour, Allen is quick to point out that “It’s not scary, it’s educational.” At any given night, the tour bus is filled with those who are very interested in the paranormal. Allen says he gets about 30 people, on average, per tour, adding, “Our business has been very good every day of the week. Of course we do better in the last 10 days of October, although we’re closed for the entire month of January.”

Allen also shares that he spent a year and a half developing this tour, together with paranormal researcher Timothy Cridland (who also hosts Haunted Vegas when he’s in town).

Of course, there is also Vegas Mob Tours, though while not as “creepy,” is just as entertaining and gruesome. It’s been running for the same time as Haunted Vegas, though it took longer to develop – about two years. It more than makes up for it in authenticity, though, as Allen’s historical consultants are the infamous Frank Cullotta, who had ties with the mob and was a friend of Tony Spilotro; author Dennis Griffin and retired FBI Special Agent Dennis Arnoldy.

Fans of the supernatural have a few other things to look forward to – a new show, “Las Vegas Séance” and (hopefully) a new book, penned by Allen, entitled “Confessions of a Ghost Stalker.” Slated to open in November, the nightly show will be an up-to-30-person mass séance to be held in a haunted location; while the book is currently still in the works, with Allen on a one month Eastern European tour, researching more haunted locations and ghost stories, saying, “Hopefully in the next six months, I’ll have the darn thing done.”

Till then, looks like you’ll have to get your fill with the hauntingly-good Haunted Vegas tour.

-Rachel M. Sugay

Haunted Vegas Tours
Now departing from Royal Resort, 99 Convention Center Drive. Tour times are 9:30 p.m. for Haunted Vegas and 6 p.m. for Vegas Mob Tours. Tours run six nights a week, Saturday-Thursday. Tickets are $56.25. Call 866-218-4935