April 24, 2017

Meet Troy Taylor of Weird Chicago Tours

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Troy Taylor.

Troy, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
The Weird Chicago Tours started in 2006, soon after the release of my book WEIRD ILLINOIS. I created the tour with my friend, Ken Melvoin-Berg, really out of our love for the city and for its “weirder” side. We wanted to present a different side of the Chicago than just the usual ghost or gangster tours, so we created something really unique, combining all of the most exciting stuff in Chicago into one really great tour. As time went on, we expanded, added more guides — all with an interest in the strange, unusual and supernatural — and added more tours, beyond our “Haunted History Tours” of the city’s spookiest spots to include:

* Chicago’s first “Devil & the White City Tour,” about the 1893 World’s Fair and serial killer H.H. Holmes.
* “True Crime & Mystery Tour,” with historic spots related to serial killers and unsolved crimes.
* “Roaring 20’s” Speakeasy Pub Crawl, that visit sites from Prohibition days
* Our “Blood, Guns & Valentines” Gangster Tour
* and our “Red Light District” Tour, America’s only sex tour that includes history and current sites related to Chicago’s notorious past. It’s been featured on Showtime and several TV networks

Honestly, we never thought the tour would take off the way that it did. I have several other ghost tours in other parts of the state, but the Weird Chicago Tour is my favorite because I think it really offers something that you can’t find anywhere else. We’ve just started our 11th year and we’ll be adding more things to the tour soon, always trying to keep things fresh.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Definitely not — but we have always rolled with the changes that came along. It’s been a little of everything from changes to city rules and regulations, the demise of our beloved old buses, and a rotating staff in the early years. We also hit some bumps in the road with various other companies stealing our material to create their own tours. They say that “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery” but I think that may have been said by someone whose material wasn’t being stolen! That problem has definitely improved over the last couple of years, though, especially because we frequently change out tour routes to include new things that no one else really knows about. It’s fresh for us, new for our guests, and a lot harder to copy!

As far as the rest of the issues go, we worked those out, too. We work with an outstanding bus company now and most of the staff we have has been with us for years. We have hired a couple of new people in the last few years that have really blended in well with the rest of us weirdos — so that’s been awesome. I wouldn’t trade our guides for anyone! They’re really the best!

Please tell us about Weird Chicago Tours.
The Weird Chicago Tour takes guests who come to the city and offers them an unusual experience and a look at the “other side” of Chicago history — the kind that is different, off-the-beaten-path and not what you’ll find everywhere else. It’s a big city with a lot of secrets and we love showing that off. We honestly feel that we have the best ghost tour in the city. We also created the first H.H. Holmes and 1893 Columbian Exposition Tour in Chicago and I’m actually pretty proud of the fact that — although aggravating, too — so many other companies have decided to steal the idea. We’re the only company that offers the quality of true crime tour that we do and definitely the only company that offers the Red Light District Sex Tour, which is a lot more fun than sleazy.

Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
Well, I had a pretty unusual childhood, so that’s a tough one to answer. I spent a lot of my early life on the road, traveling and seeing the country, so I’d have to say that it really instilled in me a love for travel and new experiences. I have lived in a lot of places and have created more than a dozen different tours in my career, so it had an effect on me. I like giving people unique experiences when they come to visit any town where we have a tour, especially Chicago.

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