Oddball who charged for Willy Wonka wonderland joked about it on US TV

When Matt Waterfield had an enquiry about hiring his occasion house for a ‘absolutely immersive household expertise’ he was impressed by plans for what appeared to be a splendidly modern new attraction.

The enquiry, which got here from the impressively named House of Illuminati, centred on a Willy Wonka Chocolate Factory Experience — themed across the beloved Roald Dahl novel and up to date movie franchises — hosted in Glasgow‘s 23,000 sq. foot Boxhub venue.

‘On paper, it sounded nice,’ 25-year-old Boxhub director Waterfield displays. 

But because the Mail reported earlier this week, all those that arrived on the occasion final Saturday, having forked out £35 for tickets, have been confronted by a largely empty warehouse ’embellished’ with a number of randomly scattered props, hanging plastic backgrounds, and a sweet station that dispersed one jelly bean per youngster.

The a lot anticipated chocolate fountain did not materialise in any respect.

Complete with bewildered-looking younger actors, ‘Willy’s Chocolate Experience’ proved such a sorry spectacle it rapidly went viral, lined by information channels as far afield because the U.S., the place comic Jimmy Kimmel featured it on his well-liked late-night speak present.

Little marvel organiser Billy Coull was compelled to cancel the occasion three hours after the doorways opened, apologising that his ‘imaginative and prescient of the inventive rendition of a widely known e-book did not come to fruition’. He insisted he would refund the 850 clients.

No one who has set eyes on the forlorn photographs uploaded to social media by sad mother and father would dispute the occasion was a catastrophe. So what on earth went incorrect?

While some — together with Matt Waterfield — counsel it got here right down to naivety on Coull’s half, loads of others are much less charitable.

‘The entire factor has simply been terrible,’ Kirsty Paterson, one of many actors employed to be an Oompa Loompa, advised the Mail. ‘I’m laughing about it now, however I used to be so offended for the children and the mother and father.’

This week, a Facebook web page known as ‘House of Illuminati Scam’ had garnered almost 3,000 members, with many saying they thought Coull was nothing lower than what one known as a ‘unhealthy apple’.

Certainly, it seems that it’s not the primary time that the 35-year-old Glaswegian and father of three has discovered himself on the centre of controversy.

While he has latterly taken pains to delete his social media accounts, eradicating each his LinkedIn profile and a YouTube channel the place he introduced himself as a life coach and enterprise guru, his X web page, stays stay, the place he’s described as a ‘physician of metaphysical science and ordained reverend of the common church of life’.

A Billy Coull additionally has an writer web page on Amazon which hyperlinks to 16 books — certainly one of which, Operation Inoculation, guarantees a ‘conspiratorial journey into vaccination reality’ associated to the ‘Deep State’.

Could this be the identical Billy Coull who promised an immersive chocolate expertise?

One Glaswegian mum or dad actually thinks it feels like him, posting on Facebook that she as soon as lived subsequent door to Coull and located him a ‘delusional’ Walter Mitty character claiming to be in flip a banker, a medic and a lawyer.

‘I as soon as added up all of the years’ expertise and surmised that both he’s 87 years outdated, or shock horror . . . he was mendacity,’ she wrote.

Certainly, Coull appears to have dabbled in various completely different schemes through the years.

In 2015, he was promoting for individuals to hitch what he known as the ‘worldwide e-commerce revolution’, saying he was searching for individuals to hitch his staff of ‘home-based enterprise entrepreneurs’. 

It was not, he emphasised, some ‘get wealthy fast scheme’ nor a ‘rip-off’.

What occurred to this enterprise is unclear — the location he posted is now not lively — however as of early 2021, Coull was co-directing a Glasgow foodbank known as Gowanbank Hub that he claimed fed 1000’s of households a month.

By December the identical 12 months, nonetheless, Gowanbank was mired in drama when a deliberate £95-a-head Santa’s Grotto occasion was cancelled on the final minute amid what Coull mentioned have been rising Covid circumstances. 

He mentioned donated presents can be distributed to these in want. Nonetheless, suspicion lingered that the entire episode was not totally above board. Either method, the Gowanbank Hub is now firmly shut and cellphone disconnected.

Which brings us to the House of Illuminati, Coull’s occasion firm which was registered with Companies House in November final 12 months, together with two others known as Billy De Savage and Nexuma Holdings.

The former lists its actions as ‘e-book publishing’ and ‘actions of extraterritorial organisations and our bodies’, the latter as ‘promoting’, whereas the House of Illuminati has an internet site filled with AI-generated artwork promoting ‘unparalleled immersive experiences’.

With Boxhub — a transformed warehouse — solely having been open for ten months, Waterfield discovered Coull’s enquiry in the beginning of this 12 months interesting.

‘We’ve performed some nice occasions right here however clearly we’re engaged on constructing our profile and this was new territory,’ he says.

Indeed, at first, all appeared to be continuing nicely: ‘There have been detailed plans with props and lighting — lots of stuff was dropped off the week earlier than, and I knew they have been hiring actors.’

Among them was Kirsty Paterson, a 29-year-old yoga instructor and performer whose glum, orange-painted face is without doubt one of the photographs that went viral. 

She reveals she answered an advert providing £500 for 2 days of appearing work, however arrived on the warehouse for rehearsals final Friday shocked at how underprepared the entire occasion appeared to be.

‘It wasn’t a completed manufacturing, simply the beginning,’ she recollects. ‘They saved happening about how you may simply improvise.’

She left having been reassured that the manufacturing staff can be ‘working by means of the night time’.

And Matt Waterfield, who’d turned up after 11pm on Friday night time — lower than 12 hours earlier than doorways have been opening, discovered a venue he assumed was nonetheless a piece in progress, solely to be advised by Coull it was completed. ‘He appeared completely happy with all of it,’ he recollects.

It was all removed from the fantastical imaginative and prescient of Coull’s promotional supplies however, having signed a contract, the actors felt they’d little possibility however to carry out, or — to make use of Kirsty’s selection phrase — ‘put sprinkles on s***’. 

Michael Archibald, an 18-year-old aspiring actor, was known as at 8pm the night time earlier than the ‘rehearsal’ and requested to play Wonka himself.

‘I arrived and met Billy who mentioned he had been eager about the expertise for a very long time and had been engaged on his scripts for 2 months, but it surely did not appear like it,’ he advised the Mail.

‘The script was clearly generated by AI because it made no sense in any respect.’

Few might argue with that sentiment, when confronted with a pattern line: ‘There is a person. We know him because the Unknown. This Unknown is an evil chocolate maker who lives within the partitions.’

Nonetheless, Michael duly turned up for work on the opening day at 8.30am.

He felt sorry for the feminine workers, who had been wearing what he describes as ‘celebration store horny Oompa Loompa’ costumes.

We now know what occurred subsequent: three hours of more and more irate mother and father and sobbing youngsters. 

Many mother and father say they haven’t but acquired their a refund. Nor have the actors had their promised £500 funds both.

For Waterfield, in the meantime, it is his enterprise’s fame which is at stake: ‘It’s been a tragic enterprise, and sadly our venue has change into related to that.’

And what of Billy Coull? ‘I’ve been making an attempt to pay money for him, however I believe he is gone into hiding,’ Waterfield confides. 

The Mail was additionally unable to contact Coull regardless of repeated makes an attempt.

But all could but not be misplaced — along with a devoted band of oldsters and a number of the actors, Waterfield plans to attempt to organise a free substitute present with the assistance of sponsors.

It’s a beautiful sentiment, and no matter they do, at the least one factor might be just about assured: nothing might be fairly as unhealthy as what went earlier than.