Meet Sherry & Darryl Wade | Owners/Writers/Performers, The Black Fedora Comedy Mystery Theatre

We had the good fortune of connecting with Sherry & Darryl Wade and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Sherry & Darryl, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
Many (many!) years ago when Darryl was in his early teens, his parents took him on a month-long vacation out west that included a stop in Deadwood, South Dakota. Spending such an extended length of time with his parents was quite special as his Dad was a long-haul trucker who wasn’t home as often as Darryl would have liked. The family certainly didn’t get the chance to go together to movies or plays very often, so it was a bonus treat that while in Deadwood they attended a live, interactive show called “The Trial of Jack McCall” (which still runs today.) The show started out on the street as an old-west shootout before moving inside for an historical courtroom comedy. This led to a treasured family memory when Darryl’s Dad – who was bald – was approached by the “town drunk” who loudly exclaimed that “this poor man has clearly been scalped.” The memory of his Mom and Dad laughing throughout that night stayed with Darryl all of his life; though he had no idea how much the memory had also meant to his father until after his Dad’s death, as Darryl was helping clean out his Dad’s possessions, when he ran across a ticket stub from the show in his Father’s wallet … where his Dad had kept it for thirty years.

The best advice we were given on starting a business was, “Choose your Favorite Customer.” Now you’re probably thinking any customer willing to pay for my goods and services is my favorite customer, but if you keep in mind the old adage “you can’t please everybody” then you’ll realizes you might as well choose who it is you’d most like to serve, and aim for pleasing them. You can still welcome any and all customers, of course, but so the theory goes, if you make 90% of your decisions based on drawing in/serving your favorite (type) of customer, then at the very least you and they should be pleased. And by extension, those who may not be as pleased aren’t the people you’d most like to draw in/serve anyway.

And so this is what we did: we built a live entertainment business to serve customers very much like Darryl’s family – to create a family memory for our customers just as the good people in Deadwood did for Darryl’s family all those years ago. Now, certainly we also welcome to our shows corporate groups, bachelorette parties, and all the rest; but whenever we need to make a decision, however small or large, we use the same process we used in starting the business: how will this specific choice affect our “favorite customer,” which in our minds is the tourist couple or family coming for a shared experience.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
We own the Black Fedora Comedy Mystery Theatre, where our audience-interactive comic mysteries run most evenings. Guests can volunteer to play a character or choose to just watch, while enjoying appetizers, homemade desserts, and drinks including beer and wine. We opened the theatre 12 years ago with a small business loan, after a couple decades of doing corporate entertainment and video production in Atlanta. We are completely aware that our business works because our friends — the actors and staff running the place — are talented, friendly, funny, and (most importantly) kind people. And our shows are less about us and more about our guests having a fun and joyful experience.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Charleston, South Carolina, is one of the most popular vacation spots in the southeast. Lots of history, great architecture, culture, beach activities and food, Food, FOOD! We suggest your trip start with a visit (in person or virtually) to the Charleston Convention & Visitors center on Meeting Street. (www.charlestoncvb.com) There are smaller, independent visitor’s info centers around the city though beware, most are there to sell you on various tours and such. Visit the main location downtown, and/or the locations in Mt. Pleasant (under the Ravenel bridge) or in North Charleston (connected to the Fire Museum.)

You’ll find plenty to do with the visitor’s center’s help, some of our favorites being: a day at the beach on Isle of Palms Beach.
Folly Beach, or Sullivan’s Island Beach; a walking history tour or bus tour downtown, a boat ride out to the Ft. Sumter National Monument, half a day touring one of the plantations, a couple hours at the Aquarium, or just spending time walking around the city, being especially beautiful down by the Battery, Waterfront Park and Rainbow Row. If you like shopping or night life, check out King Street or the Downtown City Market area. And as far as food, there are great restaurants everywhere, including but by no means limited to: Magnolias, Hanks Seafood, Fleet Landing, Peninsula Grill, the Marina Variety Store, Lewis BBQ, Home Team BBQ … the list goes on and on.

Oh, and an insider’s tip on the best views for seeing downtown – go up to the top of the city parking decks such as the one at Church Street & Cumberland Street near the market. You’ll have a 360 look around the city.

‘Course we highly recommend you plan to spend at least one night at the Black Fedora Comedy Mystery Theatre!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
It’s hard to answer this without sounding trite, but we would have no business if it were just the two of us. We were both supported from early on by parents who stressed education, kindness/manners, good financial health, and at least some type of relationship with God. We met while obtaining strong liberal arts educations from a little college in Atlanta, Oglethorpe University. And we unintentionally “learned our trade” in separate first careers: Sherry honing her business skills in book publishing and web marketing, Darryl his creative skills with a small, corporate comedy troupe. So we owe a lot to those parents, professors, employers, clients and colleagues, as well as the friends who encouraged us. (A special shout out to the Atlanta troupe members, Brent, Andy, Keith, Peter, Sarah and Willy in particular.)

So that got us started, but we’d never have maintained such success if it weren’t for our business’s employees and customers. We have the most loyal, talented, friendly team: in fact, we pride ourselves on hiring persons who bring not only a presence to the business, but a kindness as well. And our guests have shown their own kindness to us through such a wealth of positive, heartfelt online reviews over the years that TripAdvisor ranks us in the top five things to do in Charleston, while Yelp (in partnership with Entrepreneur Magazine) recently named us one of the top 150 Mom & Pop Businesses in the U.S.

Website: https://www.charlestonmysteries.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/charlestonmysteries

Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/the-black-fedora-comedy-mystery-theatre-charleston

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdcw7PYpYL8