Ep. 82: John O’Sullivan One Minute Tours

[00:00:00] Mall of America. It's home to world-class shopping, great dining, and amazing attractions and events. And these are our stories presented by Bloomington, Minnesota Travel and Tourism. Welcome everyone to this edition of So Much More. I am your host once again, Dan Jasper. Today's episode is going to be a little different than typical. Normally we have two hosts and we have one or two guests and today it is just mano um mano or whatever the saying is. I am here with

[00:00:29] somebody that I have recently met, John O'Sullivan, but I have actually been a fan and a follower of John's One Minute Tour videos on TikTok, ironically, and started following him a while back and loved it because there's a lot of amazing Minnesota content on that show and I've loved it so much. He has a huge social media following for his One Minute Tour videos and he creates

[00:00:55] video tours of places in Minnesota and others, but Minnesota I love and I have learned. I thought, I'm a Minnesota guy, I thought I knew pretty much everything about Minnesota. I don't. I know like 8% of it. They're fun, they're informative, they're one minutes long, so I would like to formally welcome John to the show. John, thanks for joining us. Thank you for having me. It's nice to have you. We actually met a couple weeks ago. You were out shooting a project here, but before we get to that,

[00:01:22] so our audience gets to know you a little bit. Tell us, you're a Minnesota kid, tell us your background, how you grew up here and kind of your journey. Yeah, so I grew up in Mankato, just an hour southwest of here. Went to St. John's University, graduated in the middle of the financial crisis, which was not an ideal time to graduate, and so after losing two jobs in one year, I decided to go overseas to go on a journey of self-discovery, and that one year turned into 12 years. Wow, that's a

[00:01:50] journey. All over the place, yes. I lived in Ireland and Wales and England, and I met two women who changed my life while I was over there. One was my wife and the mother of my children, who I live with here in Minneapolis now, and the other was a tour guide who told me about this job that you can have with a microphone on a bus going to countries around Europe. Fast forward all this time later, I've now been a tour guide for 13 years now, giving tours in over 30 countries in the world,

[00:02:18] on buses, on boats, on foot. But with the pandemic, we kind of had a call to come back to Minnesota. We'd had a kid during this time. I wanted my kids to have a relationship with my parents who are still in Mankato, and so we came back, and I had this skill set that I'd developed of being a tour guide, and I thought what an interesting opportunity to apply that to the place that I grew up as opposed to having a foreign lens of talking about Rome or Prague or Sydney or wherever.

[00:02:45] Yeah, because as somebody who grew up here, you have some new insights and deeper insights, right, to the things you're talking about. I think that there was a bit of a permission structure that I was given by returning back to this place and being able to just look into stuff. I mean, you just said you thought you knew everything about Minnesota, and that is a trait of someone who grew up here, right, and who knows this place and doesn't think to go dive deep into why is 494 the way it is,

[00:03:12] which you can see right out the window here as we film. Why is our highway structure the way it is, and what decisions did they not make when they did it? What I've learned in making these videos is that there is no end of the rainbow when it comes to interesting facts about where we're from. Anything that you decide to drill into, whether it's like development of this building that we're in right now at the Mall of America or like the highway system or policy, the more you drill into it, the more interesting stories you end up uncovering. There are stories and histories

[00:03:42] everywhere. I actually may test you on some of that in a little bit. I don't know. You got me curious now because I know a few tidbits about our highway system and a few tidbits about Mall of America as well. But I want to go back to your initial time in Europe when you were over there. You got on the bus with the microphone. What was day one like? So there was a six-week unpaid training trip that they sent us on, and it was the best experience in my life. Everyone in my life advised me against doing this because not only was it unpaid, they

[00:04:12] made us pay a deposit to go on it. And the reason is like it's kind of a dream job, and they were taking us on six weeks of travel around Europe, all accommodation paid for, all transport paid for. And so like, yeah, they say, give us 500 pounds for the deposit is what it was. So I did. And I went on this boot camp-style training trip where throughout the day, they would test us on the bus. We'd have big binders of research, and we'd be learning about Italian language or Czech cuisine. And then

[00:04:40] on the bus ride, the long, long bus ride from, say, Munich to Paris, they would say, all right, Marty, get up there on the microphone and give us an Italian language spiel. After Marty finishes, John, you're going to get up there and give us the history of the Third Reich. And then Amelia, I want you to tell us about the best food recommendations in Croatia. And so we got up there and all of us had to just spin our wheels. None of us were allowed to sleep because we were supposed to be

[00:05:06] taking in this information. And yet they were keeping us up until two in the morning, waking us up at six in the morning. It was insane. And if you started to nod off on the bus, they hit you up the back of the head and then they'd give you a punishment. You had to wake up earlier and clean the bus. That is like military training camp almost, right? Well, there's a reason. They had 10 coaches across Europe at any given time, plus a handful of other adventure trips that didn't have coaches involved. Basically, all of us were running our own little business in different parts of Europe.

[00:05:34] And we were the sole person of responsibility in those situations. And so when someone slipped and fell down the stairs in Sorrento, I didn't have a boss to call and say, can you come help me with this? I had to be able to think on my feet and problem solve. And what they were doing is they were intentionally trying to separate the wheat from the chaff. They were trying to get the people who were not the right fit out. They intentionally overbooked the training trip so they would lose maybe 10% of the people. And those who had gotten through, we worked too hard to quit.

[00:06:02] Absolutely. What was the final day like of your training? It was like a graduation day. Exhilaration? All of us were in Paris and the one bus came out and one of us were picked to be that guy on the first day. We all watched this guy and we waved goodbye. And then we all separated across the continent. It was crazy. We just landed in these cities and we went to meet the bus. The company was called Busabout and they did hop on, hop off bus trips in Europe. And so rather than

[00:06:29] what you think about, like if you go to London or New York with a hop on, hop off bus where it's during the day, this would be like a three month pass and you take the bus from Amsterdam to Berlin, you'd hop off, stay in Berlin as many nights as you choose. And a bus came every two days. And then you'd come in and hop the bus onto Prague and in Vienna and then Venice and Rome. I'm actually remembering the map as I say it to you right now. So as the tour guide on those buses, obviously you had ever-changing clientele, right? Because

[00:06:55] they're hopping on and off at their own leisure. Did you do all of your tour guide messaging and storytelling on the bus or did you actually get off and do stuff in the cities? The unique thing about this is that once they got to the cities, I didn't see them anymore. Because it was hop on, hop off. And so they would get off in Berlin, I would continue on to Prague and I would lap them around Europe. I'd come back four days, five days later, see the same group again, but they would have gone one city further. And so I'd be able to create this community and get relationships with people that maybe I wouldn't see for a few weeks and then

[00:07:24] catch up with, did you take my advice on going to this museum or did you go on this bar crawl that I sold you? Because I had sold tickets on the bus. So I had a captive audience on that bus, but I also had a medium that was always moving, which was a coach. Whenever that coach bus had a green light, it was going to go whether or not my story about the Soviet Memorial in Berlin was finished. What is, having traveled all around Europe as a guide, what was your favorite destination personally for you?

[00:07:52] As a guide, Berlin. Berlin is my favorite city in the world. I think it is such an incredible place that has the entirety of the 20th century's history right there. And it's a city that's gone through some stuff. A lot of stuff. You see it. Like you walk through this, they literally have stumbling stones there where victims of the Holocaust were taken away from their homes never to return again. And so that they may never forget that they put brass plaques into the ground, which are intentionally meant

[00:08:21] to make you stumble on it, look back and see the name, birth date and deportation date of these people. And so like, there's a thickness to this, but then the contrast is that it's got this amazing nightlife scene and some of the cheapest beers in Europe and incredible electronic music scene, alternative culture. And it's just this total smorgasbord of everything. I love it. And what is your favorite European city for dining? Ooh, I mean, Berlin is great. Berlin's very good. London's pub culture is also wonderful.

[00:08:50] But to me, like I love, I do love a nice fancy meal, but to me, atmosphere is what it's all about. And Ireland can't be beat. Like I mean, going to the country pub with an open hearth and a guy playing Irish music, the Bodren in the background, like you're not just dining, you are communing with centuries of history over there. My full name is John Francis O'Sullivan. So there's a little background there. There's a little bit of sympathy over there. But I mean, Ireland to me is like a really special place to dine in.

[00:09:19] Ironically, before you arrived today, we were talking our techs and they were saying, Ireland's an amazing place to visit and so many great memories there. So, and I've heard that I need to go there sometime. I would love to go there. It's cheaper than ever. We just have a direct flight that's been introduced from the airport. We can see across the street. Yeah, we're right next to MSP airport and there is that direct flight now. Aer Lingus, I think, just reserved the flights over there. Which is awesome. You also spent time in Australia. Yeah. And why in Australia? I know the answer, but I'm going to let you answer.

[00:09:47] My wife's from Australia. So that's why I lived there for six years. But I actually went there before my wife and I got together because I felt such a connection with the place. When I was doing that training trip I told you about, I was the only American. It was all Australians and all the clientele were Australian. And I felt a kinship with these people. So much so that actually earlier, about a year ago now, I got my Australian citizenship. Oh, wow. Really? Really. Like, it's more of a profound thing that I've really been able to articulate to people because

[00:10:16] this country has meant so much to me and its people have meant so much to me and I intend to live there eventually again. I just find such a comfort from that place, from people who cut out all pretenses, a place where they have an expression that they cut down the tallest poppies, which means if you talk too much about yourself or how great you are, they cut you right down. And the best form of affection is to make fun of someone over there. And so

[00:10:42] I just really appreciate that about the place. On top of that, that's actually what my answer should be for best food in the world is Melbourne, Australia specifically, because they have such an amazing multicultural scene over there. I love it. And in fact, we talked earlier about TikTok and how that's how I first found you as a fan of yours. I actually follow a guy who's a scrapper in Melbourne, Australia, Pauly Prophet. He's awesome. I love him, right? And I can watch his videos all day long.

[00:11:10] Before One Minute Tours was what it is here in Minnesota. It was called Depot Adventures and it was in Melbourne and I got national media attention over there. And it was kind of a novelty. I was doing what I do here, but I was the American telling Australians about their history. And that had an interesting different hook to it. And the whole point of that was I had a walking tour company. In fact, I continue to have the walking tour company. If you're ever going to Melbourne, DepotAdventures.com, you can look it up and book the tours that I wrote. I've got seven employees

[00:11:36] down there who give tours 21 times a week. And so I started this TikTok account to promote the tours and it blossomed into its own thing. Oh, that's fantastic. And then when you came back to the US, to Minnesota, you started TikToking about Minnesota. When did that start and how did that journey go? Pretty quickly. I mean, I got a job at the Minnesota Historical Society in St. Paul at their headquarters. I was an interpreter, which meant that I was a guy in the gallery helping people understand what the exhibits were about. The training program was fantastic

[00:12:05] and I make no excuses. I just ruthlessly took their training there and then learned as much as I could. And it was such a good starting point. And then I've just grown from that and expanded that base of knowledge from there. So as I was learning by just literally being in these galleries every day, I'd walk to work on Summit Avenue and I would take out my phone and I would just film something interesting about Minnesota that I'd learned recently. Okay. And so that was the origin story. I started like literally, I think it was a snowy day walking down Summit Avenue and I just did this little thing with my phone with no microphone,

[00:12:34] no gimbal, nothing. And I just thought, well, I'm doing this every day. Why don't I just do a video every day as well? And then eventually I left that job and got a corporate job, but I kept going with it because I started building an audience because it very quickly blew up more than I expected it to. Well, it's awesome. And when I first, I was scrolling through TikTok one day and I caught one of your videos, right? In Minneapolis, I think it was, and you were talking about some history and I was like going, oh, I'm going to watch this for a minute. And the cool thing

[00:13:03] is they're a minute, right? They're short and concise. And you talked about something that I wasn't aware of, which really my ego was shattered. That's all I'm going to say is, but it was fun. Now I know, I've done thousands of videos. I have no idea what you're talking about. I don't remember what it was, but I remember thinking, I didn't know that. How did I not know that? But then I started following you and it was just really fun way to learn more about my local community. And the cool thing is that you do them in such short form content,

[00:13:31] right? That I don't have to spend a lot of time. I can scroll through and go like, oh, there's John. I'm going to watch this one, right? Yeah. What is the art form? It's hard to tell a story in a minute. Right. How did you learn to do that? It's a bit of a magic trick, right? I mean, I think half the battle is just convincing someone to watch it. Like I have tons of books on Minnesota history at home, but I've not read many of them because it's a lot of work to read a book, but a minute of your time when you're

[00:13:57] on TikTok for an hour, you're like, oh, cool. And it's not just a subject matter. I guarantee you the reason you stopped and watched wasn't because I was talking about Minnesota. I bet there's a big part of it. It's like, oh, he's in a place that I've been to. I recognize it. Right. And so all the videos I do, I've actually written down the shooting style just for my own benefit. They all are unbroken takes that are give or take one minute long. They all get to the point very quickly, have an immediate hook in the first three seconds, ideally first half second,

[00:14:27] and the visual hook as well. And they have me moving the camera around a lot in a familiar place. And so if you start the video and I'm at US Bank Stadium, well, a lot of Minnesotans have a relationship with the US Bank Stadium. So even if they're not interested in what I have to say, or even if they don't want to look at my face, they might be like, oh, where's he going with this? Yep. I recognize that. It feels comfortable, familiar. I just saw this. I don't know if you just did this, but you did one outside the Thresher building. Oh yeah. That's a recent one, I think, wasn't it?

[00:14:57] Filmed that I think about five weeks ago now. Okay. It just came across my feed. So I just saw that. I posted it yesterday. I don't post the same day I filmed it. Okay. And it was awesome because it was a different video style. You had somebody across the street and you were walking down a block speaking about this, but you were in the distance. Yep. And I thought, and that caught my attention because it's like that, I'm not used to this. This looks different to me. I described that as a Mario shot. That's what I had in my head for it. It's like a Mario with the side scroller, like the old Nintendo one. That's what it looked like.

[00:15:24] That's what I wanted. I wanted to walk along the street, have the camera follow me and have all this stuff in the foreground happen. Yep. So that was the idea. But actually, I actually have a hat tip as well. Emmeline Childs filmed that, who you may know. She's a pretty well-known influencer here, a content creator in town. She did a sound that went super viral a few years ago that people still use, which was walking through the icy snow with her breath showing in the air. And she repeated this mantra over and over again. She goes, we don't have earthquakes.

[00:15:51] We don't have hurricanes. We don't have alligators. We don't have earthquakes. We don't have hurricanes. We don't have alligators. And that sound has been repeated millions of times. So many creators have used that. So anyway, she and I were actually just meeting up socially. And I said, hey, I got an opportunity to go over to this place and film a thing. Do you want to film it for me? Yeah. And that ability to have someone else film it, like that opened it up. That said, that video did not do very well. Oh, really? If you look at the numbers. Okay. I was happy with it, but there's like a style that people seem to resonate with. So it actually

[00:16:19] hasn't been released yet. This is an exclusive for the podcast. The second take of that video is going to come out in a few weeks. I want to give it enough space so people, you know, new eyeballs see it. Absolutely. But that one, I'm holding the phone just like my normal videos. Same content, but different view. And I'm experimenting with that and seeing where the limits of this thing are. It's one of the interesting things about having this brand, which isn't my name. It's not John O'Sullivan. Yeah.

[00:16:44] It's One Minute Tours, is I have created a monster. I've created a monster that has to look a certain way. And if I get too much out of that lane, it doesn't work. A little bit out of the lane kind of works. For example, if I talk about, you know, a contentious issue around local politics or something, occasionally that's kind of worked, even though it's outside of what I normally do. But if I get too far out and I do the Mario shot, people are like, oh, I don't recognize this. And they move on. They swipe too fast. That's interesting because maybe they just don't connect with it, right? Because it's not what they're expecting. Yeah.

[00:17:14] But I saw it right away. Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt. But I saw it right away and I went, this is really cool. What's he going to do? That caught my attention. When you're on TikTok and you're scrolling, like how fast will you, how long will you consider before scrolling on? Four seconds. Really? Pretty fast. That's pretty slow, man. Oh, really? Yeah. They say the average is 0.5 seconds. Oh, wow. So maybe I'm over-exaggerating. First of all, I'm old. So my finger doesn't

[00:17:39] work that quick, right? But honestly, I don't last long. I at least last a couple seconds, two, three seconds, I'm guessing. I give someone that chance. You can see when you look at the metrics on TikTok, though, it tells you how fast people scroll away. And they make that decision really fast. So in that case, in that video specifically, if you're thinking about the visual, it is maybe the camera is, oh, I don't know, let's say 100 feet away from me. And it starts with me opening a door. And so my face is obscured by the door for the first maybe eight frames of the video. And then I come out and I'm

[00:18:09] talking. You can hear my voice clearly, but I'm so far away, you might not be able to recognize who I am. And then the next thing I do is I introduce Aubrey, who worked at the place. I was going to say that. Yep. And so it wasn't diving straight into all those things led to potentially some confusion for the viewer. Who is this guy? What's he talking about? I'm not interested. Like confusion equals swiping on. It doesn't equal, let me watch more. So beyond the visual aspect of it, do you think people connect with your voice? Because honestly, the first time I met you, I knew your voice so well that I don't even think you were facing

[00:18:37] me and I heard you talking and it's like, ah, there he is. I get that a lot. I have people literally, I'll be like in line for like a fast food place or whatever. So I'll turn around when they hear my voice and I don't realize how much that connects because TikTok is a visual medium. I'd understand if I was a radio guy. Yeah. Um, but I have this way of talking. I mean, people, this is one of the other things you have to learn when you do this kind of business is like you have to get a thick skin because people will pick apart everything that they see that is unusual about you. And the way that

[00:19:03] I pronounce my S's is maybe not in the 90th percentile of what most people do. Right. Got it. It's also people will say, oh, what a list. Why is this guy drunk? Or they'll say this stuff. Uh, and you know, it can be hurtful, but usually what it is, is it's just like, you know, all right, this is something that people have, have like made some connection with the vast majority of people who watch never comments. And yet the fact that they recognize me from my voice says that it's distinctive enough that they'll stop.

[00:19:29] How do you handle that? When, let's say one of your first videos, TikToks down in Australia or whenever you started social media and you started to get some of that negative comments. Um, how do you protect yourself just emotionally? Oh man, I'm so glad I came to this at 35 years old. I'm now 39. Um, and I, I'm so glad that I came to it at this period of my life because I can barely hold on to the, to like what's going on. Like if I step out of line and say, do something and that's like, maybe

[00:19:57] people aren't happy with my take on something, which will happen in thousands of videos or in Australia, what happened is that everyone was in lockdown in Melbourne. We had one of the most locked down cities in the world. Um, I think it was like 160 odd days of lockdown. We weren't allowed to leave our house. When we did, it was only for an hour. And when we had the hour, we couldn't be more than five kilometers from our house. We'd get thousands of dollars in fines. It was a thing. It was a big thing. We, all of us in Melbourne went

[00:20:22] through a special kind of COVID over there. Um, and so I only in a business got a work permit. And I could have a work permit to go do certain activities so long as I was being COVID safe, not being inside, not being with people, being masked, all those things. So I did that to film these videos. But for the 5 million people in Melbourne who started seeing me, see me going viral on there, I was just some guy who was breaking COVID rules every single day. You're walking around. I got, I got kind of a, a bounty out on me for a while. People started diving me into the

[00:20:50] health department. They started talking about what a selfish jerk I was. Uh, and I started seeing my name in this really bad way. My wife came in and saw me on the couch one day scrolling through the comments on a Reddit post about how bad I was. And I really like was not good for my mental health. She took the phone away from me and I am a grown man. Yeah. And so it really gives me pause when I think about what I see on social video and the age that people are coming onto there and having to deal with something that we shouldn't really

[00:21:18] be equipped to deal with. Like, uh, this number of people talking at you is not a, it's a very new invention. I don't think we've come to terms with it. I don't either. And I think it's hard. We think of young folks going through this and spending so much time being isolated on their phone or thinking that's life reality. Right. And also old people, right. It's, it's, it's not stuck with one generation where, where can people find you? What platforms are you currently on? Uh, tell us that a little bit.

[00:21:45] So I'm one minute tours everywhere. TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, uh, Instagram, all the things. It's just one minute tours, all spelled out with an S at the end. You can also go to one minute tours.com, which kind of gives you the links for all the places. It tells you about the projects I'm working on. And then also I have a TV show that I'm working on, which we worked on recently. So we're working on a show called hidden middle. That's a whole other thing. And they can go to one minute tours.com and get the link for it, but it's, it's hidden middle.com. And very soon we'll be seeing more of your face on there because

[00:22:13] we're doing a piece about how the mall and our shopping habits are tied to our music listening habits through the years. And so we had a really interesting time. You and I going into the bowels of this building, into the back areas where the log flume is. Um, and we're still putting the piece together, but I'm really interested to see your reaction to the episode when it comes out, because I think there's just like we haven't totally

[00:22:40] digested the effects of social video. I don't know that we've totally digested, you know, the way that our shopping habits have changed in the last 50 years. And that's one of the things we explore in the episode. And it was fun. And one of the things that I enjoyed and that I was not prepared for, to be honest, was because I kind of went into it. I'm going to give this tour person, expert, a tour of the mall, which is what I do for Mall of America, one of my jobs, um, which was fun. We did that, but you also asked some challenging thought provoking questions. And I love that.

[00:23:09] That was kind of, you're digging deeper. Tell me what that means to you. And is that part of the purpose behind this new? Yeah. I mean, part of my brand, if you can put it that way, is like, it's authenticity, right? People see what I do and they see me as an authentic person. And I am, I don't try to put on, in fact, I actually have one of my co-producers kind of hit me upside the head when I start going to presentational. When I start saying, I'm John O'Sullivan, this is the thing, it's like, oh no, like, that's not what we're about. And actually when I stopped you and I-

[00:23:37] You did that to me. I interrupted you when you were like, oh, let me, I have to tell you the story because we're at this place. We need to do this thing. I'm like, no, no, no. We have a conversation we're having right now that's more interesting than that. And I actually watched the footage just yesterday and I saw your face go, oh, okay. And then you went with it. And I so appreciate you were game to have the conversation. But, um, that's part of the thing I recognize as a tour guide is like when this person is engaging with the conversation and when this person is like, oh no, I have to say this because I'm at this place now. And I always try to,

[00:24:03] with you or with any other tour guides that I work with when I'm training them, I try to knock that habit out of them. It's like, no, stay in a moment. Yep. Stay right where we are. And that's actually one of my favorite things about giving tours here at Mall of America is the opportunity to connect with people and to, you ask deeper questions and you carry the conversation, uh, longer and a deeper level than most of my groups do. But, um, but it's really fun to see their reactions and to share theirs. I have so many people, you have no idea how many people were at that,

[00:24:31] uh, concert that took place here. I don't believe any of them, right? They all have that memory that they all, you know, or, or they were at a specific game, uh, the Hail Mary game at the, at the old Metro and Met Stadium or something. And they all go, I was there. Right. And I think that's kind of our, our group owning this history is they relate to it and they may have been there. They may not have been there, but that's part of their history. And what, whether they were there or not,

[00:24:56] I think my raison d'etre is ultimately like, can I get someone to think more impactfully about the world in which they live? And so like, we all like coming to the Mall of America. We all like going on the roller coasters, but if we can pause and think about what was it that got us to this point where we could have a roller coaster inside a building, why did we get to this point? And like, what does it say about us as a people? And without giving away too much, cause I don't want to be a, do a spoiler or anything. Can you share a lesson or a story or something that you learned during your research on that?

[00:25:26] Yeah, sure. I mean, I think the thing that we're, we're starting to unpack a little bit is our shopping has changed so much since the middle of the 20th century, when it was a, a thing that you got dressed up to go do and you'd go have a meal at Dayton's in downtown Minneapolis. And it was a whole thing. Whereas now we've moved to this kind of split roads here at the Mall of America where it's ultimate convenience of driving in, going to the parking lot and getting what you need and getting out again, or flying in from Singapore and getting your Louis Vuitton bags

[00:25:56] and having the full luxury experience using the valet and the five-star hotel and all that. And it's kind of split in that interesting way. Um, and that's, that's something that, uh, I don't know that I have a lesson to share. It's more of a question that I'm asking myself is like, what does that say about us and where we are in 2025? It's interesting because, um, yeah. And I don't know, I don't have an answer for that either, but I was one of those people that grew up going downtown Minneapolis, Dayton's. That was the fancy

[00:26:24] place to go. And I think every metropolitan city in the U S has, uh, had a department store similar to that, right? That experience and then suburbination and malls changed that entire outlook and, and retail continues to evolve. Something else I've been thinking about as well with this is, um, the Mall of America is a planned city. I was thinking about this and since we talked last time about the way that the cities have developed, like there are planned cities in the

[00:26:51] world, like New York or Paris. And then there are medieval cities like London or Sydney, the cities that were built by happenstance or cities that were built by design. The thing is every planned city though, eventually evolves enough so that there have to be adaptations made to it. And the Mall of America at the age that it's at right now is at that point where it's having to make adaptations. I was just at the food court right now being like, oh yeah, that walkway didn't used to be there, uh, over there. And like, we're in this new wing

[00:27:17] of the mall as well. And so this place that was perfectly planned to be exactly what everyone needed in the early 1990s has now turned into a more organic thing as our shopping habits have changed. And it'll continue to do that right over time, just like our communities and our cities. Um, what is, I'm going to just ask the last couple of questions. Really, really quick ones. What are your, what are your, what's your favorite highlight as someone who lives locally of Mall of America or memory or story?

[00:27:47] Oh my gosh. I'm so glad I get to talk about this. I don't know anyone who remembers this, but there used to be a laser tag place here called Starship 3000. Yes. Do you remember this? Up on third floor. Oh my God. Yes. I took, my son had his birthday party there. Okay. So you can validate this in my life then, because I, I don't, my memory is that this is like a eighth wonder of the world. It is an incredible, there was a literal flying saucer coming out the facade of the store and it rotated around and you walked in

[00:28:14] and they had this pre-show thing where they suited you up for the laser tag, but then they're like, soldiers, you're going out to space. And they teleported you and a curtain came across and there's a mirror and then you disappeared in a mirror and they released you into the back of the shop, which was made to look like this like outer space neon fluorescence battleground. Yes. And then you would hide behind these little foam rocks, jump out, you'd get hit. The whole pack would vibrate. You'd have to go recharge this. I mean, I'm just describing laser tag

[00:28:40] at this point, but for my 12 year old self, there had never been something that cool invented ever in the universe. I remember it distinctly. My son, I think it was his ninth birthday party that that's where I held it. Yeah. Long before I worked here. Do you know where they, a chain, where they independent? Where are they now? I don't know. Is this flying saucer here on site? We have to get the answers. I actually have it right over there, behind this wall, behind us. Oh, you make me so happy. I wish I did. But I'm going to do some research and I'm going to find out for you and I'll get back to you on that.

[00:29:10] Which shop was it? Can we find out which shop it was and I can go in and recreate the laser tag journey? I will find out. I think I know which one it is, but I'm going to find out for sure. Oh, and actually on that note, one of the research things I want to ask you about, do you have a list of all the original stores from opening day at the mall? I have a list of all that are still here. I have a list of most of that were here opening day because I have the opening day magazine. So I have a copy of that, that list. So I think it does

[00:29:36] have a whole directory. So I do have that list and I can share that with you. So it's fun. It's fun going down memory lane. I've loved this place forever and I love Minnesota and I love hearing stories about Minnesota. So thank you for being my guest today, John. It's awesome. Remind our viewers, listeners, once again, where they can find your content. One Minute Tours on social media and OneMinuteTours.com. Awesome. And for those guests that are watching and listening, if you want to take a behind the scenes VIP tour here at Mall of America, I could be your tour guide and I would love to do that.

[00:30:05] Just check out Mall of America. He's good. He's good. You've heard it from an expert. And you can find us at MallofAmerica.com. And for those listening also, please like, share, subscribe to this podcast. We'd love if you would do that. And we look forward to you on the next episode. Thanks for joining us. Thanks for listening to so much more, a Mall of America podcast. Subscribe wherever you find your favorite podcasts. This show is presented by Bloomington, Minnesota Travel and Tourism.