‘Mystery Hour’ crowdfunding for 5th season

Fresh off winning a Mid-America Regional Emmy Award, Jeff Houghton is utilizing crowdfunding for the fifth season of his TV talk show, “The Mystery Hour.”

Via Indiegogo.com, the campaign seeks $3,000. With 23 days left, the project has raised $825, or 28 percent of goal.

In the campaign’s introduction video - which features a cameo by City Manager Greg Burris - Houghton calls on funding to expand the show to a national audience, further syndicate and fly in more celebrities.

“We’re a local late night talk show, a community passion project. No one’s making any money, least of all me,” Houghton said in the video. “We need your help to make ‘The Mystery Hour’ go.

“We want to make our scrappy little show worthy of a national audience, and we want to make a show that Springfield can be proud of.”

Houghton hosts “The Mystery Hour” at the Gillioz Theatre, where he has grown crowds to as much as 700 from 90 when it started. Taped in front of a live audience, it airs Saturdays on Fox KRBK.

Through the show, Houghton has interviewed former Evangel University President Robert Spence and former NFL player Grant Wistrom, as well as nationally known actor Jay Jackson, who played newscaster Perd Hapley on NBC’s “Parks and Recreation.”

Through the campaign, “The Mystery Hour” plans to fund production costs, including payments to its production companies, Hite Media and Goodwin Films.

Houghton is scheduled to appear Nov. 17 at Hilton Garden Inn as Springfield Business Journal’s monthly guest for live editorial interview series 12 People You Need to Know.

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