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Real Escape Room Richmond features live-action puzzle adventures

Posted at 10:31 AM, Jan 04, 2016
and last updated 2016-01-04 10:31:11-05

RICHMOND, Va. — As a hypnotist, Larry Volz uses his craft to help people try to quit smoking or lose weight. As a magician, he performs his slight-of-hand act at conferences and college campuses. With his newest vocation, set in a small storefront in Midlothian, Volz locks groups of people in a room and asks them to diffuse bombs or pull off an art heist before they leave.

Last month Volz opened Real Escape Room Richmond, which hosts live-action puzzle adventures that take place in different themed rooms. He has set up shop at 9840 Midlothian Turnpike in the Governors Square shopping center.

The rooms can handle teams of up to 10 people who have one hour to achieve the room’s goal. Current room offerings include “Heist,” in which players must overcome a laser obstacle course to steal a piece of art; “Boom,” where players have to diffuse a fake bomb; and “Patient Zero,” in which participants try to avert a zombie apocalypse.

Volz, 50, is a magician and hypnotist who does both therapy and entertainment. He has been doing hypnosis for about 15 years. His practice, Richmond Hypnosis Center, keeps an office at 4100 Brook Road in Bellevue. He said he does mostly magic for larger audiences but incorporates hypnosis for smaller crowds.

Larry Volz recently opened an escape room venture, in which one puzzle requires players to defuse a bomb. (PHOTO: Michael Thompson)

Larry Volz recently opened an escape room venture, in which one puzzle requires players to defuse a bomb. (PHOTO: Michael Thompson)

His shift into the escape room business came after he tried the experience for the first time earlier this year in New York.

“I became obsessed with it,” he said.

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