WEIRD CHICAGO TOURS: YOUR WEIRD GUIDES!

TROY TAYLOR

Troy Taylor is a co-owner and creator of the Weird Chicago Tours and the author of Weird Illinois, Haunted Chicago, Haunted Illinois and nearly 50 books about hauntings and the unexplained in Illinois and America.

Along with writing about the weird and unusual, Taylor is also a public speaker on the subject and has spoken to literally hundreds of private and public groups. He has appeared in newspaper and magazine articles and has also been interviewed hundreds of times for radio and television broadcasts about the supernatural.

He has also appeared in a number of documentary films, several television series and in one feature horror film called "The St. Francisville Experiment". Critics called him the "best actor in the film", which wasn't saying much since he was playing himself. He will also be featured in the horror documentary, Children of the Grave.

When not pounding away on a typewriter and chasing ghosts, Taylor is also the owner of the Illinois Hauntings Tour Co., which operates ghost tours (and the Weird Chicago Tour) all over the state. He began his career with ghost tours in high school, where he was well known for his interest in "things that go bump in the night", by taking his friends on informal tours of haunted places all over Illinois. Some of these friends still speak to him today!

Taylor created the Haunted Decatur Tours in 1994 (the third longest running ghost tour in Illinois) and the Alton Hauntings Tour in 1999. He would wind up putting Decatur on the map as "one of the most haunted cities in the Midwest" and Alton as "one of the most haunted small towns in America." Fortunately, Chicago needs no assistance in being perhaps the weirdest city in the country! Taylor started the Weird Chicago Tour in 2006, the same year that helped start other Illinois ghost tours in Springfield, Jacksonville & Lebanon as well.

Troy and his wife, Haven, currently reside in an undisclosed location, pending the dismissal of charges in Key West, Florida involving the theft of several turtles.

ADAM SELZER

Adam Selzer is a co-owner of the Weird Chicago Tours author, Chicago historian and part-time rock star with a lifelong interest in things that go bump in the night.

Adam got his start in the "weird" industry by hosting a public access paranormal TV show in Des Moines at the age of 12, which very few people saw. Later, he hosted a folk music radio show, which very few people heard. Undaunted, he is now a noted expert on Chicago-style hot dogs and a scholar of Chicago's "historical bohemia." His first subversive young adult novels, "How To Get Suspended and Influence People" was released in 2007 and his "Pirates of the Retail Wasteland," will be published by Random House in 2008. With his first book, Adam also proudly joined the ranks of authors like Mark Twain and J.D. Salinger by being banned in some school libraries.

His hobbies include eavesdropping on El riders, waiting in long lines, arguing with people who think the Earl of Oxford wrote Shakespeare's plays, hanging out in coffee shops, making prank phone calls to "people who are just asking for it," and digging through Bob Dylan's garbage. Check out his homepage at and his Chicago hot dog page

Here are some excerpts from Adam's "official biography" (some of which are even true):

* He has Jim Morrison's old doorbell in his bedroom
* In 1987, he was an up-and-coming gymnast
* In one hour, he beat two men with cities in their names (Seattle Phil and Toledo Taylor) at pool, as well as one man (Saskatchewan Sal) named for a Canadian province.
* He moved a rubber tree plant nearly 14 feet in 1987
* As a small child, he discovered six dinosaur bones, two lost cities, and a working tractor while digging in his sandbox
* He campaigned for Mayor of McDonaldland, and was only narrowly beaten by Richard McCheese
* In 1992, he assisted in the building of a monument to the Loch Ness Monster in Urbandale, Iowa.
* On two occasions, he went trick or treating dressed as a building. Neither occasion happened to be halloween.

Adam currently resides in Chicago and can occasionally be found berating people who put ketchup on their hot dogs.

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KEN BERG

Ken Berg is a co-owner of the Weird Chicago Tours, a professional psychic, an expert on the occult & supernatural and widely known authority on Chicago's secret places.

Ken got his start with the "weird" as a child, when it was not uncommon for him to either sense the presence of ghosts or regularly predict

the deaths of family members before they occurred. This made him especially popular at family gatherings.

He has also been a bouncer at the Metro, a pararescue medic in the Air Force, a game designer and an owner of an occult bookstore. He was originally brought to Chicago to work with the famed psychic Irene Hughes at her Psychic Faires. Irene tought him her system of meteorological Astrology and performed his wedding ceremony to his wife, Cherish.

Ken is also Kreamy the Clown, and adult clown that has no inner monologue and drinks lots of scotch. Kreamy the Clown opened for the Smashing Pumpkins during their final show.

In addition to being a scotch drinking psychic clown, he is also a great tour guide and has been giving tours in one form or another about the ghosts, gangsters and oddities of Chicago for over a decade.

Last but not least Ken is also a Psychic Detective that works with law enforcement agencies around the world helping with murder suspect identification. Since 1987, he has assisted with the conviction of 17 individuals around the globe. Recently he has had a fascination with pirates and has become The Dread Pirate Ken (yarrrgh!!!)

Ken lives in Chicago with his beautiful wife, Cherish the Burlesque Goddess, the snake dancing wonder of Chicago, 3 black cats, 2 dogs (a basenji named Mojo, and a greater Chicago alley hound named Lolita), and one large red tailed boa constrictor named Pagan (Cherish's dancing partner).

See Ken's Website

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