Mitch Gorshin: Revel’s Mr. Fun

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

By David J. Spatz 

Add Comment | Comments: 1 | Posted Apr. 4, 2012

Mitch Gorshin’s arrival in Atlantic City nearly two years ago could probably be summed up with the most quoted line from author Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” 

Gorshin, a creative savant specializing in the science of “guest-ology,” signed on as a consultant to Revel when the project was stalled because its financing had run out. That was the worst of times. 

The exterior of the building, rising 710 feet over the beach, had been completed; the tower was essentially a hollow shell. But where others saw an empty cavern encased in concrete and steel, Gorshin saw an opportunity to put his creativity to the ultimate challenge. 

For him, it was the best of times. 

“It was the proverbial blank canvas,” says Gorshin, who was eventually hired by Revel Entertainment and given the most unique job title in Atlantic City: executive director of creative and fun. 

Sid Yu, who had been Revel’s “fun maker” and now serves as senior vice president of branding and revenue, initially contacted Gorshin and told him what Revel was trying to accomplish in Atlantic City.  

The company wanted to create an experiential destination resort that could best be compared to a cruise ship that never leaves the dock. It would have outstanding dining, multiple venues for the entertainment, nightlife and day life, a world-class spa, retail shops, massive amounts of convention and meeting space and yes, even a casino.  

The key was that the gaming area would simply be one component, albeit a revenue-generating important one, of the Revel experience. But it wouldn’t be the singular or even first focus of guest attention. 

“It was going to be a new kind of place and have a new level of fun, and it caught my imagination,” Gorshin explains during a conversation last week on the first of Revel’s three “play nights” designed to test out the property’s systems. The property had its soft opening Monday, April 2.  

“I got excited about it and started to sink myself into it and understand it a little more,” he says. “The last couple of years have been an amazing thing for me.” 

Gorshin’s background is nothing if not eclectic. 

The son of the late comedian and actor Frank Gorshin, he spent his childhood surrounded by Hollywood’s trappings when his dad starred as The Riddler on the 1960s TV series Batman. When the series ended, he spent summers living in a series of luxury suites in Las Vegas casinos, where his dad was a headline entertainer. 

Next came the suburbs of New York — Connecticut, actually — when his father began performing in Broadway shows and playing gigs in Atlantic City. 

And, finally, there was Gorshin’s mish-mash years of college, first as a pre-med major, then a couple of years studying aeronautical engineering and finally finishing up with a degree in film, photography and design. 

When he signed on with Revel, Gorshin realized all of his experience working for hotels, destination resorts and theme parks around the world — including a 14-year association with The Walt Disney Company and its creative arm, Disney Imagineering — was merely one big and long dress rehearsal for his Revel assignment. 

After leaving Disney, he formed his own company and literally traveled around the world six times in seven years consulting on a variety of projects designed to enhance guest experiences. But at Revel, he keeps going back to his Disney roots. 

“Everything I learned during my many years at Disney I’m putting into Revel,” he says. “It’s fun, it’s playful, but it’s on a completely different level. For me, it’s like Willy Wonka opening up the chocolate factory.” 

One of Gorshin’s most visible contributions to Revel created a sense of mystery in February when a large white golf ball-like globe was set into place at the top the blue-grey glass tower. 

Known inside Revel as “the pearl,” the dome will essentially become the building’s “sign,” because there are no other signs or marquees anywhere on its exterior. The pearl can be lit in a kaleidoscopic way and will be programmed to perform all kinds of eye-catching patterns and colors. 

Gorshin came up with the idea for the pearl while walking on the Boardwalk and eating a piece of pizza. He balled up the pizza’s aluminum foil and was about to toss it in a trashcan. But then he paused, closed one eye and held the crumbled foil at arm’s length with Revel in the background. 

That’s when he realized he’d come up with Revel’s visual signature. 

“[By day], it compliments the architecture [of Revel] in a very sophisticated and minimal way,” he says. “It actually serves as a piece of modern art. But at night is when this other personality comes out. It’s really quite amazing.”

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