I was hired for the Fyre Festival-esque Willy Wonka ‘experience’ — I felt like I was scammed

Jobs

By Brooke Steinberg

Just like Ja Rule did in the wake of the Fyre Festival, he also felt “hustled, scammed, bamboozled, hood winked, lead astray.”

An actor hired to work at the recent, disastrous Willy Wonka-themed event in Scotland feels his golden ticket was a scam.

Paul Connell, who played the part of Wonka at “Willy’s Chocolate Experience” at the Box Hub Warehouse in Glasgow, said the viral event was an “absolute mess” and one of the “most embarrassing things” he’s ever seen, South West News Service reported.

The calamity, which cost $45 a person, promised guests a “journey filled with wondrous creations and enchanting surprises” — but instead ended with kids in tears and furious parents.

Guests arrived on Saturday, Feb. 24, to a “dirty,” near-empty warehouse — which Connell further described as a “health and safety nightmare” — with a printed AI background, a sad bouncy castle and lackluster props.

There was also virtually no candy at the “Chocolate Experience,” and Connell said he was told to give kids one single jelly bean each and a quarter of a glass of lemonade upon arrival.

Red-headed Connell admitted that an immediate “red flag” came when he was asked to portray Willy Wonka, rather than an Oompa Loompa — which he felt he better resembled.

“The first red flag for me was when I was cast as Willy Wonka. Anyone who looks at me and thinks Willy Wonka and not Oompa Loompa is out of their mind,” he quipped. “I give off major Oompa Loompa energy. But not like a good Oompa Loompa — like one that is at the back during the dance numbers, like falling over like your aunt at a line-dancing class on holiday.”

He found out he was cast the Thursday — just two days before opening and mere hours before people started to arrive — and was given a 15-page monologue of “AI generated gibberish” to memorize for the experience.

“One of my favorite lines was: ‘There’s a man who lives here, his name is not known, so we call him the unknown. The unknown is an evil chocolate maker who lives in the walls,’” Connell shared.

“What is an evil chocolate maker for a start? Does he make evil chocolate, or is he an evil man who makes chocolate? And what do you mean he lives in the walls?” he continued. “I had to perform that line with gusto and validity — and that was a challenge as an actor.”

The bizarre vaguery may partly be explained by the website for the organizers of the event, House of Illuminati, which noted that the experience “is in no way related to the Wonka franchise, which is owned by the Warner Bros. company,” according to Today.com.

Connell claimed that the actors still have not gotten paid for their parts — and they suspected early on that they wouldn’t — but they decided to keep doing their best for the sake of the kids, who were excited to attend the event.

When Connell came back from his lunch break, that’s when the nightmare experience “got a little bit out of control,” he said.

“Rightfully so, people were furious, they were shouting. There were people filming things on their phones, there were things being broken.”

Eventually, as Connell was allegedly told to “hide,” police were forced to break up angry crowds of visitors who were expressing their frustration toward the House of Illuminati, which canceled the event within hours of opening.

“We didn’t take any abuse but we gave abuse to the people running it,” Connell told The Independent in an interview. “The whole thing was disrespectful to the families and us as promising actors.

Organizers were reportedly forced to issue more than 800 refunds to upset guests.

“I really hope that everyone gets their refunds that they deserve,” Connell said. “It was an absolute mess. And the fact that I was a part of it is one of the most embarrassing things that’s ever happened to me.”

“I feel for anyone who bought tickets to this event – people who were expecting a magical chocolate experience and got me in a top hat in a dirty warehouse in Glasgow. People who wanted Timothée Chalamet and got Timothée Charlatan.”

The House of Illuminati apologized for the horrendous experience on their Facebook page.

“I am truly sorry for any upset and disappointment caused at the weekend. Refunds have been issued and will continue to do so. This was an event gone wrong, The House of Illuminati will NOT be holding any other events in the foreseeable future,” the post said.

A user in the comments mocked the event and compared it to the infamous Fyre Festival, writing, “Are you related to Billy McFarland?”