Bounce Around at Trampoline Hall

Trampoline Hall is not, as the name implies, a hall full of trampolines. It is far better. Instead of jumping around on synthetic fibers you jump around on concepts. Lectures, if that is what they can be called, have never been so fun.

The most recent Trampoline Hall was based on sleep and all things related to sleep. A hypno-fan was present to help people relax and become "sleep-zombies." Topics of discussion included, but were not limited to, reasons why school should start later to one speaker arguing that insomniacs are demonic (or at the very least have demonic qualities).

Upon entering Sneaky Dees I saw people sleeping in beds on the stage while a man was telling us that the show hasn't started. That man introduced himself as Misha and he hilariously hosted the event. He told the audience what the protocol is for Trampoline Hall.

The one rule that I really appreciated was that during the question and answer period if you have something to say it better be a question - no comments. It must be about the presenter and their material and must be in the interrogative. This rule ensured that no audience members tried to ask "questions" that were really comments meant to show everyone how smart they are. The punishment for rule braking is public shame.

By far this was the smartest audience I've ever seen at Sneaky Dees, or for that matter, at most lectures. The people who go to Trampoline Hall are observant, well educated people; this element shows when the speaker has been perceived to make an error. Not small errors, like mispronouncing something, errors in the speaker's methodology or logic were pointed out.

Errors are bound to happen since the best part of Trampoline Hall is that they have experts from one field speak about something that they are not an expert in. The "experts" can research their topic if they choose, or they can just say what they think about it.

The evening ended with the audience demanding that the on-stage sleepers be woken up. Some slept through the presentations, one woke up because of the vibration of the streetcar outside - not the blaring music played between each presenter. Two sleepers described their dreams and it sounds like Trampoline Hall would be fun to sleep through. I enjoy being awake for them though.

If you have the chance you should go to Trampoline Hall, but be sure to get tickets quickly has they tend to go fast.