Lawrence.com

Would you crawl around under a bridge at Mary's Lake looking for a Golden Animal? Or dodge cars to have a dance party in the middle of Massachusetts Street? Matt Armstrong, Kitty Mitchell and Andy Morton are the creators of The Lawrence Hunt, an all day scramble that is part conundrum, part endurance feat and more fun than a meat bikini. The Hunt requires contestants - often more than 50 in number - to shed their inhibitions, and occasionally their clothing, in the quest to win prizes supplied by Lawrence businesses. Drawing heavily on local history, geography and culture for game clues, The Hunt directs contestants to Lawrence's nooks and crannies, pocket parks and obscure monuments, dive bars and strip clubs - all in the quest for loot and lopsided glory. On Sept. 23, The Hunt presents its seventh game: a twelve-hour marathon entitled Mirth Burglars. Armstrong, Mitchell and Morton slink into our veal-draped podcast studio to explain the methods behind their street-level madness.

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lawrence.com: Kitty Mitchell, Andy Morton and Matt Armstrong - you are the masterminds of The Hunt, which is NOT a scavenger hunt this time. Why?

Morton: Sometimes it's a scavenger hunt, but this particular game is not a scavenger hunt ... For lack of a better explanation we've been saying it's very "Amazing Race" ...

The last one involved people wearing meat bikinis and streaking weddings...

Armstrong: That was two games ago. That was the Dare Game.

Morton: And nobody got arrested that day ... nobody got hurt and one person got The Hunt tattooed on her foot ... And their team came in second, which makes it even funnier.

Armstrong: I saw her the other night and she kind of gave me a go-to-hell look. It was just knives.

One of the beauties of this ... is that its very Lawrence-centric. Was that part of the original concept?

Mitchell: Andy and I had thought a lot about it. Since we're both from Lawrence and were reminiscing about our childhoods, playing the treasure hunts that KLZR did. ... And then I started talking to Matt about it and he told me about the games he would write and organize in Dallas ... So we managed to mesh the two...

Explain what people can expect once they pay their sign-up fee ($15). What happens after that?

Armstrong: Ooh, ooh - can I say "Expect the unexpected"?

Mitchell: ... It sounds ridiculous to say but you have to expect the unexpected.

So how do you describe it? What is this venture?

Mitchell: It's kind of indescribable. It's the game to end all games.

Armstrong: It's part brain-teaser; it's part map-reading; it's a test of your knowledge of Lawrence and the surrounding area. There's a lot of logistics as far as route-planning; there's physical challenges...

And there's fun. On the Dare Game I saw people dancing in the middle of Massachusetts...

Mitchell: ... One of the things we did was fly a kite. I've never seen so many friendships on the brink of breaking...

Morton: We had a married couple nearly kill each other over flying a kite.

Do they compete as individuals or in teams?

Morton: In teams.

Is there a maximum or minimum number of players?

Mitchell: In this game, no.

Morton: ... In the past we've done where everybody had to be in one vehicle. ... This one, because its linear-because it's A to B to C to D - there's no way for them to have an advantage. So we're allowing them to break up into a couple of vehicles...

Speed is of the essence on this one, then.

Morton: It's more of a race - at the legal speed limit.

Mitchell: Obeying all traffic laws.

And you go through all this and what do you win? What's the Prize?

Mitchell: Glory.

Morton: We have a lot of local businesses that sponsor it and they donate prizes to the prize pool ... We're using some businesses as locations - as stops - on this one ...

Armstrong: ... When you're trying to find locations, every business here in Lawrence has been amazing.

They're just so willing to help.

Give me a couple of quick memorable moments from the seven Hunts you've put on.

Mitchell: Erica streaking a wedding, and then

Larissa going up to one of the groomsmen and taking her picture with him after they'd interrupted the wedding ... Or somebody convincing a stripper to not only let her do a pole dance on the stage but also wear said stripper's costume, and take a photograph of it...

Morton: One of my favorites that we did ... they had to travel around all day with an egg and they couldn't break it. And at the end of the day we had an egg drop off of the parking garage downtown ... And we did have one team break two or three cars in one game. They broke an axle, they broke a window and their air-conditioner went out - they went through three cars.

Sounds like a great time. Thanks for stopping by to talk about it.

Armstrong: Can we laugh while we fade out?

Sure.

(Roaring laughter)

Armstrong: Esteban! More wine!