Evermore: The Theme Park That Wasn't 

Waiting in line 40 minutes for a zoom call you weren't prepared for is one of the funniest things I've heard of in awhile.

Wow what a once in a lifetime horrible event. Thank god Jenny would never go on to have a second, equally dismal theme park experience

Jenny suggesting an app where you can scan QR codes feels like foreshadowing

At least you weren't behind a pole

evermore whould've used AI art for promo if it'd been around sooner and you can't convince me otherwise

In a way this was the most accurate RPG experience ever: unhelpful NPCs, reused assets, glitches, and buildings you can’t enter.

Running screaming while telling people to get out is probably the worst possible thing you could do in a park

The real hero of this story is the dude who made $50,000 by convincing a CEO that his old doll totally has a ghost haunting it

Having a character say "do you want me to go to bed with him?" in a family park is insane

I feel like everyone on the Evermore team could have benefitted from just playing Rollercoaster Tycoon for a few hours

It honestly took me way too long to realize the puppets were a Jenny gag. I genuinely believed that was how Evermore would want to relay information. Guess my expectations were too high.

It's so funny that you are supposed to go around asking for "a quest" and when you do, the employees mock you, but still in-character.

Can you even imagine you go to a Disney park and you literally can't stop running into Bob Iger?

Food: $5 Employees: $2 Fireproof Clothing: $1 Gravestones: $100000 Buildings: $3 someone who is good at the economy please help me budget this. my park is dying.

It took me about an hour to realize Bretschneider was his last name instead of his name just being Brett Schneider

As an actor, trying to explain that they have mic issues in character when your character is supposed to be in medieval times is a fate that I wouldn’t wish upon my worst enemy.

Buying real gravestones and putting them in a theme park for decoration, saying 'maybe we'll get some ghosts!' is truly appalling. Utterly tasteless

Can you imagine being at an unfinished theme park in the US, hearing a bunch of yelling and screaming and seeing people running, thinking you're about to be a casualty of an active shooter but it's just the evil Fae King and his minions acting up

Aaaaaaand we're back here after her Starwars Hotel video.

thinking about guests being lost on the story, i can't help but think it'd be really fun to have a guild of pixies or something that are known gossips; they just spend their time going around, probably sticking around the edges of scenes, and guests know that if they're confused or curious, they can ask the pixies, and they'll very enthusiastically fill them in on all of the juicy details they missed out on

Your sister is a real sport. Watching this after the Galactic Starcruiser epic and it’s clear she’s a powerful ally.

I’m a little horrified that Gamblin’ Goblin was a paid employee being made to go barefoot in an outdoor, concrete-surfaced theme park.

The fact that she literally asked the CEO for a t-shirt and could not obtain one is insane.

i still can't get over the lady who is clearly a witch and the guy in a whimsical tea-kettle helmet derisively saying that a quest "sounds like fairy tales"

I used to be a "actor" working at Magiquest (I recommend a deep dive on that whole thing as well). We were given freedom to create our own characters and the company bought us costumes (I was a princess, so dress and crown etc.) But we suffered from the same issues as the Evermore characters. Guests coming every day, and being waaay too involved with us in character. I had co-workers who would receive flowers from grown men (we were college students) and we all had to be escorted out of the building at the end of our shift because guest (usually grown men) would be waiting for us.

The fact that you struggled to buy a t shirt at a theme park is beyond mindblowing

My favorite part of any Jenny Nicholson video is repeatedly thinking ‘well surely that’s the whole story’ and then seeing there’s still 2 hours of video left

I cannot believe that anybody, ever, would end an email where they describe an incident where their mismanagement and cost-cutting causes an actor to be permanently injured by breaking their leg with the phrase "break a leg!"

We took our kids 3 times. Twice for Halloween and once just after Christmas. I (bitterly) remember my then 9-year-old son on one of those visits trying to do a quest that required making a specific character laugh. You literally just had to tell him a joke - BUT the actor was being really pedantic/annoying about it. It took 5 attempted jokes from A CHILD before he "laughed." The first couple of jokes he just said that he'd heard them before. I wanted to smack him and say "of course you've heard them before, this is a child trying to tell you a joke!"

"If I'm the only customer and I order soup then technically everybody is ordering soup" is my favorite one liner.

Imagine being an introverted fantasy gaming fan in the middle of nowhere and hearing there is a whole theme park made just for you and all there is to do is talk to people outside.

The statue is the most Utah thing about this, to me. What should we put right in the center of our fantasy theme park? How about an enormous marble statue of an angel striking down satan. That belongs, thematically and aesthetically, sure.

At this point Jenny should sell her services as a theme park experience consultant. A lot of her suggestions are really good ideas

I love how Jeffree Star was just quoted saying “no one watches long form content anymore” and I’m here watching a 4 hour deep dive on a theme park I’ve never heard of

Jenny's costume swaps actually makes it pretty easy to recall where you fell asleep so you can pick it back up

This all made SO MUCH MORE SENSE in the context of “some tech millionaire from Utah went to Sleep No More”. When you mentioned that it all clicked.

An interesting bit of context that i have from living in this area is regarding the location. In the video, Jenny states a few times how Provo is a “humble” area with not much for young people to do, and SLC isn’t a huge tourist destination etc. She’s only half correct here, SLC, Provo, and the whole valley are huge areas for Outdoor enthusiasts. The Provo Canyon and many areas in SLC offer world class hiking, camping, climbing etc and that’s what most people who live here spend their free time doing. SLC is a huge hub to visit National Parks, considering there are 5 in the state and we’re only 5 hours from the Tetons and Yellowstone. Not to mention what SLC is *actually* a huge tourist destination for - Skiing! Thousands of tourist come every winter to ski Park city, Alta, snowboard, Brighton, Sundance, and all the major ski resorts in the area. I say this to add to her point, that the actual things that make this area a destination are so disconnected from the idea of a huge theme park. I don’t think there is a lot of overlap in these communities. So it just seems so odd.

A kindly young fairy approaching you asking to buy your t-shirt, and then turning out to be an all powerful witch who destroys your livelihood when you say no, sounds like a fairy tale story worthy of a fantasy themepark.

I can't stop thinking about someone getting talked out of self-harm by a character actor in the park and then the actor realizing they need to be somewhere for a scene where they get murdered by a wizard in front of that person's eyes

Jenny in 2023: “The park is going to die!” Us, in the present: “The prophecy has been fulfilled.”

Instead of getting the employees to volunteer I think the questing was a missed opportunity, "Ahoy there young lad, I've a quest for ye. First empty out the trash cans, then clean the toilets ye scallywag and finally put some EMT conduit on the exposed wires, yarr. And perchance do ye know anything about operating a construction crane?"

This video is the epitome of "I'm not mad, just disappointed...no wait I'm mad too".

They wanted volunteers for carving pumpkins? Why didn't they just made that an in-park activity? Make it a quest for guests to carve a pumpkin, give them a gold or whatever, and then use the pumpkins to decorate. This was a missed opportunity.

This entire park is like a WoW server exclusively populated all the sims who got stuck in a corner and starved to death.

Struggling not to cry that a baby dragon puppet in a dead theme park in a RU-vid video has broken wing and was found in the woods. I love him so much.

Being afraid to quit your job where you're being abused, overworked, and endangered for little to no money cause you don't want to risk making a suicidal park guest you're forced to talk to everyday feel abandoned is genuinely one of the scariest and most horrible things I can imagine a person having to live with.

All of the evermore clips can be summarized as Jenny going “oh” excitedly and then “oh” disappointedly

My head canon about the founder of Evermore and why he blew so much money on imported building features, antique stained glass, and actual tombstones is that he's secretly some kind of necromancer who is trying to re-create some kind of ancient village as authentically as possible so he can resurrect the dead. To achieve this end, he has cleverly masked it as a LARP theme park and duped the employees and volunteers into helping him. Unfortunately, necromancers aren't too good at handling money, so he blew his funds and was unable to complete his master plan. Of course, the reason that he didn't pay his employees properly is because he is evil, but that's just a given.

I think a neat thing they could have done on top of a website is having a "fortune teller" corner of the newspaper that can inform people on which day does what and hinting the special days, so people who are interested in a particular event or vibes can plan around somewhat

The fact that they spent tens of thousands of dollars on expensive and pointless antiques to make the scene more authentic just to park an suv in the middle of an attraction is wild to me 😭

I've been conceptualizing a Franz Kafka theme park for a while now, and I think that Evermore provides the perfect model. Quests with no discernable purpose, characters providing conflicting or erroneous information, the impression that everything that happens is part of some larger story that no one is actually privy to... It's genius.

"the park looks better in the dark, which is a compliment I receive a lot too" underrated part of the script; thanks for your hard work.

Having most of your arcade floor taken up by big tables and then not selling food at the venue seems like a really odd design choice

Do you think if Jenny gets enough youtube success she'll become an eccentric rich guy who builds a park

"But surely Utahns are within their right to file lawsuits if their children are immolated by a warlock." This sentence has never been said before. It is one of my favorite sentences.

To me one of the craziest parts of Evermore is the apparently totally authentic vintage tombstones??? Like what? Did they buy them from a cemetery/graveyard? Were living relatives or descendants (if there were any) consulted at all? It just boggles my mind how goddamn casual they are with the fact that they PURCHASED real genuine TOMBSTONES that at one point MARKED AN ACTUAL LIVING PERSON’S GRAVE. Genuinely insane that they just had that in the park. What the hell happened to those tombstones now that the park is closed??? Also Jenny I am genuinely sad you didn’t include any of the fun stories the server told about Charlie the adorable haunted doll.

jenny acting as an unwitting evermore NPC, approaching random people in utah and saying "hello, fair traveler! by chance have you heard of evermore?"

As a gardener, I have a bit on a unique perspective on this. Disney never gets enough credit for their stunning commitment to authentic, grown in landscaping. I once visited a reclaimed tree yard where they care for very old, large trees with unique character, with their root systems entirely in large wooden containers and watered on a drip system. The owner of told me Disney had spent TWO MILLION DOLLARS on ONE SINGLE TREE at one of their parks. TWO MILLION DOLLARS FOR ONE TREE. They wanted a specific size, shape, and age for their tree, and they put down the money for it. This reclaimed tree yard was in SoCal, and Disney was a frequent customer of theirs. The amount of care and attention to detail put into their landscapes in astonishing, plus all the actual maintenance and irrigation that goes into maintaining the landscapes, all of which happens during the hours the park is closed so the guests are none the wiser! Omg, and the idea of turning your theme park into a Botanical garden because it’s an easier, cheaper option is HILARIOUS to me. Clearly an idea conceived by someone who has never worked for a public garden. Just wow.

Distracting Americans by just putting a fuckton of pumpkins everywhere is the funniest, most relatable thing.

I had multiple friends that were actors at Evermore. All of them were hired while we were still in high school and I would constantly hear horror stories of how they were treated, the terrible business discissions or what have you. Every single friend of mine was overworked, underpaid and taken advantage of. I'm surprised they stayed open for as long as they did.

I think its important to remember that most people who 'make money in tech' do so by half building projects and desperately hoping you convince some venture capitalist to buy you out before you actually have to release a finished product and then the whole pattern of behaviour/business model makes a lot more sense

As someone who has put his literal blood, sweat, and tears into performing at Evermore I appreciate Jenny putting all this effort into telling this story.

As an electrician, the exposed wires segment of this video is scarier than any horror movie

It’s funny how actually nerdy that pleasant grove Utah area actually is. Literally home to the second biggest fantasy writer - Brandon Sanderson- who owns DragonSteel company that is located there. Huge missed opportunity of the park to not have tried to do events with him at the park for his Cosmere books??? Literally how do that that utilize such a big fantasy guy for your fantasy park????

"The document points out that Taylor Swift has acted in projects such as Valentine's Day and The Lorax," It always comes back to the Onecler . . .

Since Evermore is a land out of time with portals, they could literally have a security staff throughout the park dressed as old-timey UK Bobbies or 1930s policemen. It wouldn't break immersion, and then the actors / guests would have someone to turn to if something went wrong.

Imagine doing free work for a company that paid $50,000 for a real ghost.

The dedication Jenny puts into these videos- the puppet readings of emails/legal writing, costume changes, and bespoke ending song with lyrics that summarize the video cleverly- is so impressive. She put more thought into these videos than the CEO of Evermore did into any part of the park.

Update for those passing by: Evermore Park has closed as of April 8th 2024. Rest in peace, my beautiful trash fire. You will be missed... By some.

my mother is the costume designer seen in the video and i’ve seen kens incompetence first hand. she put so much love and effort into those costumes, but was treated like complete garbage.

I love the idea of Taylor Swift's whole career, and whole motive for doing everything that she does is purely to shut down a theme park that no one's ever heard of before.

I literally looked up this theme park *when it was open* and thought it was still unopened because all the website had was concept art. The fact that they continuously kept using it after opening is insane to me.

So glad you made that observation about the "night Evermore went dark" being too reminiscent of instances of mass violence for comfort. My uni had a shooting a little over a year ago, so I (as well as some of my classmates, I'm sure) am very jumpy around stuff like what was shown in the videos. It was interesting in theory, but just seeing the clips left me so certain that I not only wouldn't have enjoyed it- I probably would've had a panic attack and spent the rest of that night in a state of paranoia. It really drove home why you commended the Star Wars hotel for its fake alarm system as well; it hadn't crossed my mind just *how affected* I would be by something like that if I wasn't told it was fake in advance. Edit: I'm a certified archery instructor, and as far as I know, that safety talk is mandatory for first timers on any range. I've been shooting for a long time but still have to hear at least a truncated version whenever I go somewhere new. (And even if it isn't mandatory, I will say that I've also gotten one at every Ren Faire I've ever shot at. So there's precedent at the very least.)

since worldwalkers are a part of Evermore Park lore, I'm confused why they couldnt have some employees who both are/arent in character as 'experienced worldwalker guides' to help guests

Hi, former Evermore actor here. I was part of the initial cast all the way to the Covid shutdown and a season or two after. I am the actor in the green robe shown at 3:29:30. Random “fun fact” about that scene: after it ended with three beloved characters dying at Maxwell’s hands, I was personally subjected to harassment and abuse from park guests who were too deep into the story. And no, Evermore never had counseling available. We just had to deal with it. It was a great start. We all did believe in the vision for the park. Like you said, I gave so much free time to make what I believed was my dream job work. But over time, the abuse, mistreatment, and being strung along with promises of full time employment made me incredibly jaded. That was not just mine, but many former employees stories. Another anecdote: I went for Halloween this year to support friends still working there. The CEO was serving hot chocolate and hot cider. He looked me dead in the eye, and did not recognize me. He should, because I did days of volunteer right alongside him. Just goes to show how little we mattered.

Honestly that Buzzfeed video portion made it look so amazing 😭😭 it’s sad that this park never became a reality because the possibilities were incredible

Watching this after the Star Wars Hotel video, thank you for the creation of these 8 hours of content, it was very informative and fun to listen to.

The palpable envy of “which she got” when referring to Ginny’s map of the park may have been my favorite little moment of this epic.

My fiance and I went to the park last year for Valentine's Day. We went in, walked around and decided we wanted to ride the train before we left (it was in February and right before close and very cold). The employees were very young, but nice. The employees said we couldn't use the caboose. They saw someone and got immediately skittish - turns out it was that same CEO guy. He held up the train for 20 minutes to show his date a special hidden room inside the initial tunnel the train goes through. When he's done, he goes to the back of the train AND GETS IN THE CABOOSE. Yes. That's why you can't use the caboose. ITS FOR HIM ONLY. Then we go to leave and almost can't get out of the parking lot because he parked his Porsche in the middle of the ONLY EXIT to the parking lot. Seems like a great guy who's really fun to be around.

Regarding the need for mics, I always remember a bit of advice I was given when I started moving from the participation side of LARP to the planning side: reality is unrealistic. It's easy to fall in the trap of going 'well people don't need microphone kits in real life so why would our people when they're just interacting'. But the thing is, people's expectations and the realities of performance demand slights of hand like that. It's very, very hard to have any kind of range and emote when you have to speak loud enough to be heard. Is a costume starchy and rigid with more internal support than real life? Yes, because in real life wind exists.

These quests sound like hazing rituals at construction jobs, like "go buy me some stripy paint".

So when "Evermore Went Dark", were there no people sitting in a tavern for the past 2 hours waiting for their food, now having to evacuate? Was there no food currently being cooked by a famously patient and understanding chef, who definitely didn't mind having his proudly made food go cold and wasted because of a sudden nonsense event? Was someone cooped up in a toilet, hearing screams outside but unable to just suddenly stop doing what they were doing, so they just bunkered down in their toilet stall waiting for the police to come and save them, only for no police to come? That entire happening was just.. incomprehensible. Someone came up with this idea, nobody gave it a second thought, nobody stood up and said, "yo, what the f--k?", everyone agreed to do it and then _did_ , seemingly not even trying to calm confused bystanders down, just pouring fuel onto the fire. Insane.

Building a Satyr version of the springlock suits from FNAF, causing an employee to get severely wounded in the legs, and then releasing a company email telling employees to blame the Dark Elves and ending with a bad joke about the performers injury is still one of the craziest things that I have ever seen.

I was drinking water when she talked about asking for a craft single over her salmon and I started choking from laughing.

I'm a little more than halfway through (came here direct from the Galactic Starcruiser, naturally), but it honestly just feels like the owner/found has both millions of dollars and also zero executive function? Like, the whole thing where he's constantly starting new businesses, getting bored immediately and abandoning them to start OTHER new businesses is what I do, except with, like, video games, because I do not have Starting Theme Park money. The impression I get is that none of these businesses actually get his full attention, because how could they? So inevitably, they start leaking money, he winds up scrambling and can't pay his contractors or employees, he never sticks with anything long enough to actually get decent systems and processes put into place to keep things running with minimal intervention required on his part, and rinse and repeat. I wonder how far in the red this guy is by now.

I can not imagine how uncomfortable it is to have a multiple hour long conversation with a patron about their home life troubles. That’s crossing a line

i will NEVER stop giggling at "YOUR GRACE, HE MEANS YOU HARM!"

I'm on board with the theory that they thought Taylor Swift couldn't be bothered to duke it out in court and would just pay them a rounding error in her bank account like whatever. What they failed to remember is that Taylor Swift is the same person who once sued a photographer for $1 to make a point.

Jenny should clearly be paid as a consultant on any park attempting “immersion”

So I actually got to see Josh Steadman, the Director of Show Design (that guy on the podcast at the end of the video) present at a panel about themed entertainment at ComicCon this past year. Not two minutes into his introduction, he mentions working on Evermore and says "but I guess people would rather listen to girls wearing elf ears on RU-vid than actually visit the park, so..." with the added bonus of showing THE SAME MAGIC TREE CONCEPT ART. I'm so happy I watched the girl with elf ears first 😂

It's true, Americans subconsciously want to see the maximum number of pumpkins and get very happy when there are more pumpkins than expected.

My favorite lore event is when the staff members all scream "fire!" in a crowded room.

The logical syllogism of "If I'm the only customer, and I'm ordering the soup, technically everyone is ordering the soup" had me laughing out loud.

***AUGUST 2023 UPDATE*** I paid a Saturday visit during August 2023 for the Mythos event. This is a list of the changes that have been made, or have not been made since this video was published Upgrades Made (probably in response to this video) -The Drakenhaven building is complete and is well decorated. -Two permanent maps of the park have been displayed! -Bow and arrow safety training is now mandatory! (In fact, it is so exhaustive and thorough that most patrons chose to walk away without shooting rather than endure it, including me. It’s seriously like 10 minutes long.) -I didn’t notice any exposed wire! -Axe throwing & bow and arrows are permanently included with the cost of admission -The aerial performers have moved to a more visible location -Evermore installed a pre-recorded audio storyline/mystery that visitors can engage with by pushing buttons throughout the park. (It has great potential, but it’s impossible to follow the story or solve the mystery because several buttons don’t work. But this is a step in the right direction!) -The Skype aspect of Louden’s Rest (the crypt building) has been removed! It’s now just a cool portal to take selfies with. (There’s also a quest button next to the portal that doesn’t work) -The lower level of the Louden’s Rest was open. (Nothing happens, but it is aesthetically stunning) -The summer lantern festival featured a handful of lanterns! -The fairies had wings! -I didn’t witness any cast members openly weeping or using pyrotechnic effects. -The cast members are still heroically always in character. God bless ‘em. -The lighting at night is still magical. Problems that have not been addressed -The church has made no progress. (Nothing has changed since opening day. It’s weird that Ken Bretschneider found money to build The Grid, but not finish the church) -The park entryway is still empty and lifeless. -There are still no cast members welcoming guests or offering instructions. (This has been a complaint since day one and would be free to fix. WTF Evermore? So many guests, including me, were wandering around confused. Help us out!) -Since every cast member is deeply in character, there is still no one to approach to ask questions like “Where is the nearest bathroom?” or “Where can I buy food?” or “Is there a gift shop?” It’s incredibly frustrating. -There’s still no signage describing attractions. I wanted to ride the train, but couldn’t find any information about whether or not it was free, where to buy tickets, etc (Evermore, help us give you money! We want to!) -Cast members still mainly interact with other cast members and don’t have much to say when guests build up the courage to approach them. -Quests are still meaningless. If you are lucky enough to find a cast member willing to give you a quest, it will be something dumb and nonsensical that relies on the honor system. There is no reward for completing quests. -The elaborate prosthetic costumes are still nowhere to be seen. -There is still no merch or gift shop available. (The third-party vendors host the only actual quest in the park. It’s simple and easy, but it was refreshing to find something to do. Finally! Somebody with basic business skills!) -Vanders Keep is closed. The food game is still really bad. (The website says Vanders Keep opens for special occasions) -Evermore still doesn’t advertise -They still use names like “Lore” that don’t make any sense to the general public, ensuring that they will only ever cater to a niche market of die-hard LARPers. -So many bugs. The spiders at night were ginormous. (Perhaps that made it more authentic?) -The park is still operated with the mentality that guests need to make their own fun. If that’s the case, what are we paying for?

2:55:38 Jenny saying "If he doesn't like it, he can meet me in the parking lot" while wearing the wizard beard & hat is so powerful.

I teach archery and I can just say that yes, this is extremely unsafe and unprofessional. Archery can be extremely dangerous. Bows are not toys, they are weapons of war. Safety should always be the first priority of anywhere offering archery. They should also have hired a professional to at least give some pointers to the guests, as bad form can cause pretty dangerous accidents - arrows flying sideways, for instance. Speaking of form, though, yours isn’t actually terrible :) I think your feet should be a touch wider apart, though, and your elbow shouldn’t be quite as high. Also technically, the bow appears to be a low poundage longbow, and drawing a longbow has a different stance, but for a bow that small it doesn’t matter so much.

I went to the park a grand total of 3 times, one time for an Oktoberfest they organized last year. All 3 times I went, over the course of about 2 years, that church was permanently under construction, a sizable chunk of the buildings were closed, and there weren't that many story moments occurring. However, I still managed to have some fun. We went to Vander's keep for an Oktoberfest themed meal that was decent, we ate and drank mead next to the stage while musicians played fantasy music. Had a couple other drinks throughout the park. Every time I went the lower section of the crypt was open and we walked through, but there wasn't really anything jumping out, but one time there was a puzzle we solved with a character so that was neat. We did the axe throwing and archery, this time both with a proper safety briefing. There was a big tug-of-war happening that we participated in that was fun. We shopped at the vendors, got a photo at the stockade. Saw the bird show in the greenhouse. The cafe was even open, and we got ice cream at the confectionary. Towards the end of the Oktoberfest night there was a bratwurst stand, and I ordered some, but never heard my name called. Instead, it appeared they ran out for the night and the cooks just ate my order lol. They apologized and gave me the literal last brat they had so that was fun. I personally had an overall better experience that you did in this video, but I knew the whole time that the park was doomed to fail. It just never seemed close to being "finished". Always some immersion-breaking construction somewhere and stuff that just felt mediocre and underwhelming. Props to the actors, though, they were great!

Obviously I hope Jenny doesn’t get sued, but if she does it would be really funny if the only thing she asks for in the countersuit is a t-shirt.

I’m 90% sure I was your waitress at Vander’s Keep! I didn’t even recognize you. I was also an actor during late 2019-2020. I have been abruptly let go three times from this company- the most recent being when the restaurant was abruptly shut down October this year leaving both my husband and I jobless with a brand new mortgage. The only notice any employee received was a text the morning before our last shift. I was involved with the restaurant from the beginning (joining them just after the evermore mass firing) and the Vander’s Keep saga is a whole ‘nother side of this story that wasn’t even touched. If you want to make a part 2, I am still in contact with 80% of the restaurant employees and we are all willing to share our stories.

1:33:32 Ah yes. The three garden types. Time period, linguistic group, and fiction genre.