The Night Owl Podcast – Episode 54: Spirits at Sunset Strip – Part I
Original Air Date: November 25, 2024
Host: Stephen Belyeu and the Night Owl Paranormal Research Society

Overview

In this episode, the Night Owl team kicks off a two-part investigation into the Sunset Strip Comedy Club, located on Austin’s infamous Dirty 6th Street. Famed for its vibrant nightlife and storied buildings, the club occupies the historic J. A. Webb and Brothers building (dating to 1873) and sits atop layers of the city’s social and—allegedly—paranormal history. The team interviews owners, employees, and frequent guests to unravel a flood of chilling paranormal accounts suggesting the venue is home not just to laughter, but to restless spirits and a legacy of tragedy.

Table of Contents

• History of 6th Street and The Sunset Strip Comedy Club
• Interview Highlights
  • Christina – Club Owner
  • Cassidy – Server
  • Philip – Morning Barista/Comedian
  • Peyton – Frequent Guest
  • Quinn – Comic, Door Guy, Server
  • Tasha – Manager (Happy Chicks/Eden)
  • Sarah – Owner of Happy Chicks/Eden
• Recurring Phenomena and Themes
• Lore of Tragedy at the Stairwell
• Quotes & Memorable Moments
• Timestamps for Key Segments

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History of the Location and Sunset Strip Comedy Club

• 6th Street, originally Pecan Street (est. 1839), is one of Austin’s oldest and most diverse commercial corridors (03:50–07:00).
• The building now housing Sunset Strip dates to 1873. Previously, it was The Parish, an iconic live music venue (07:35–09:00).
• Sunset Strip Comedy Club opened April 2023 on the building’s third floor (10:27).
• Other establishments within the building: Happy Chicks (1st floor, fried chicken restaurant), Eden (2nd floor, speakeasy, formerly a “paranormal bar”).
• Layout described in detail so listeners can visualize where activity occurs (09:44–10:27).

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Interview Highlights

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Christina — Club Owner (10:27–21:40)

• Unexplained Smells:

  • During cleaning and organizing, strong odors reminiscent of “rotting animal” appear only to vanish, especially in the back green room and apartment (10:35–12:34).
  • "We've gotten exterminators in here...there's nothing to be concerned about. So the whiffs and the timing of it is just very interesting because it's always around showtime..." (12:09)

• First Apparitional Sighting:

  • Philip, a staff barista, sees multiple ghostly figures moving across the club while opening one morning—he’s so frightened he won’t open the club alone (13:28–14:15).
  • Security video captures Philip’s visible reaction, though not the apparitions themselves.

• Other Manifestations:

  • Persistent banging/knocking on a thin wall between the women’s restroom and a back bar, untraceable to mechanical causes, lasting up to 40 minutes before abruptly stopping (16:50).

• Electrical Oddities:

  • The motion sensor back stairwell light malfunctions only for Christina, shutting off as she ascends; “it's like a little game that we play..." (18:34).

• Presence in the Back Office:

  • Overwhelming darkness and unease in the back office, even after repainting. "There was an energy that was not allowing me to go back there..." (19:15).

• Others’ Accounts:

  • A real estate agent described a demonic presence in the back office; at that moment, a door slammed in a prospective comic’s face (20:19).

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Cassidy — Server (21:42–25:12; 24:07–25:12)

• Disembodied Voices:

  • Heard someone say “hey” right outside her shower at home, then the same “hey” at the club’s green room the next day—felt as if “walked right behind me” (21:50).

• Names Being Called:

  • “Everyone has had an experience here...did you just say my name?... everyone’s like, no.” (22:15)

• Electrical Disturbances:

  • Light dimmer physically shifts by itself multiple times, especially when Cassidy is in the building, sometimes coinciding with her movement (“as soon as I opened the door, the lights dimmed again…” 23:20).

• Back Staircase:

  • Very uneasy feelings, reported by numerous staff, especially at the bottom of the back stairwell (25:03).
  • “I try to avoid [the back staircase] at all costs.” (25:03)

• Sensitive Visitor Reports:

  • Sensitive visitors detected a “guy and a woman” near the back stairwell who “didn’t like how loud we were.” Cassidy and others separately sense a female energy in the green room.

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Philip — Morning Barista/Comedian (25:35–35:35)

• Daily Experiences Alone in Venue:

  • Frequently senses being “poked and prodded or just kind of messed around by spirits” as the first staff in the morning (25:53).
  • Noted that even homeless acquaintances recounted ghost sightings from the Parish era (27:09).

• Visual Apparitions:

  • First Sighting: “I see something run from basically where we are now…like a silhouette…it cut off visually by the pillar and then come start running at me.” (29:04)
  • Second Sighting: Two shadowed, full-bodied apparitions “almost like a shadow person…they had like bronze, almost metallic trapezoidal heads…I’m sober…it’s 10am.” (29:46–30:25)

• Physical Sensations:

  • Overwhelming dread, cold, and paralysis after apparitional sightings; watched himself frozen on surveillance footage (30:34–31:20).

• Feminine vs. Male Presence:

  • Feels distinctly male, angry, older (but able-bodied) energy by the stairwell and bathroom; softer, Victorian feminine energy in the green room.

• Back Stairwell:

  • Always feels watched—“like someone’s breathing down your neck”—when using back stairway, especially when alone at night (34:38).

• Lights and Electronics:

  • Light dimmers change on their own; common enough to be a staff in-joke.

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Peyton — Frequent Guest (39:28–43:13)

• Bathroom Encounter:

  • “I was so incredibly aware that someone else was in there...heard keys jingling...phone clinking...look over both shoulders—no one’s there—there’s only one way in and out.”

• Strange Sensations:

  • Little “puffs of air” hit her glasses out of nowhere during a show (41:24).

• Disembodied Voices (Secondhand):

  • “I know our friend Phil had quite a big experience...cans and glasses flipping around” (42:09).

• Stairwell Avoidance:

  • Felt compelled to “clench” her body and steel herself while ascending the back stairs (43:00).

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Quinn — Comic, Door Guy, Server (43:13–54:12)

• Echo & Ominous Feeling in Stairways:

  • Notes the uncommon upstairs location and echoey, ominous stairwell (43:23).

• Name Called By a Woman’s Voice:

  • Hears her own name called by what she assumes is the GM; repeatedly finds no one there (44:42–45:00).
  • “That seems to be a super common thing...usually always a woman’s voice” (45:05).

• Apartment Attachment:

  • The small apartment/storage area “never feels like you’re in there alone,” with inexplicable sounds like doorknobs turning or movement (45:34–46:20).

• Back Stairwell’s "Lore":

  • Light only triggers for someone in the stairwell, not the green room side, but often comes on with no visible source (48:01).
  • Describes a “sad energy” in the back stairwell, enhancing any existing personal sadness or anxiety—felt even before learning about the deaths associated with the space (50:00–53:30).

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Tasha — Manager (Happy Chicks/Eden) (55:19–58:13)

• Death of John Waller Stevens Jr.:

  • Claims a man was found dead of lysol ingestion under the stairs in the 1920s, initially ruled a suicide, later believed to be a homicide covered up as a car accident (55:19–56:15).
  • Reports that glassware rattles and things are knocked over especially when the spirit is active and the club is empty.

• Apparition Details:

  • Describes seeing “a tall, thin, silhouette made of smoke” moving into a closet, and a physically large, imposing apparition standing in the stairwell (57:08–58:13).

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Sarah — Owner of Happy Chicks/Eden (58:55–65:44)

• Early Experiences:

  • Immediate sense of interdiction and dread at the back stairwell; staff frequently comment, “Did it get you? Did it talk to you?” (59:00).

• Multiple Deaths and Remains:

  • Documented Suicide: There used to be a death certificate displayed for a man (John Stevens) who took his own life in what is now the Eden bathroom, beneath Sunset Strip’s back stairwell (61:11).
  • Cremated Patron: A longtime patron’s ashes were mixed into the 1st-floor concrete when he had no next of kin (62:56).
  • Shooting: Reports a young man was shot coming out of the back stairwell after a dispute at the nightclub (64:00).

• Other Activity:

  • Staff in Eden have had similar experiences of hearing familiar voices when alone, “called by” coworkers who were not present (65:11).

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Recurring Phenomena & Themes

• Disembodied Voices & Names Called: Especially common, sometimes mimicking staff (female voices most often).
• Apparitional Sightings: Full-bodied shadow figures, often eerily detailed (e.g., “bronze trapezoidal heads”).
• Malfunctioning Lights: Back stairwell sensor notably unreliable for specific individuals.
• Inexplicable Odors: Strong and sudden “rotting” scents, always in the green room/apartment.
• Physical Sensations: Feelings of being watched, not alone, or ill at ease occur throughout, but most consistently in the green room, back office, and stairwell.
• Unexplained Sounds: Banging, knocking, keys jingling, doors moving with no source.
• Attachment to Tragedy: Multiple deaths—suicide, homicide, and shooting—clustered near or in the stairwell and adjacent bathrooms, with one set of ashes actually interred in the concrete.

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Lore of Tragedy at the Stairwell

• The narrow, dimly-lit back stairwell emerges as the central locus of unease, tied directly to:
  • The suicide (potentially homicide) of John Waller Stevens Jr. in the 1920s.
  • Unexplained audible phenomena and apparitional sightings.
  • A club patron’s cremated remains being entombed in the building.
  • A shooting of a young man following a nightclub dispute.
• Energy in the space is consistently described as “heavy,” “sad,” or “not evil but potent.”

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the Smells:
  “Once the smell would just disappear, that's when we started raising questions of why they were just whiffs of this...it would be when we were organizing, reorganizing or cleaning or making some kind of change to the club.” – Christina (12:09)

• On Apparitions:
  “He saw what he describes as a figure coming towards him from the stage...he kind of froze...everything disappeared. But he said it was one of the most terrifying things.” – Christina recounting Philip’s sighting (13:28)

• About the Back Office:
  “There was an energy that was not allowing me to go back there. I haven't really been over there, even after it's painted white.” – Christina (19:15)

• On Being Alone:
  “I would get so spooked I'd go down and smoke cigarettes with homeless people because I didn't want to be up here alone.” – Philip (26:08)

• On Apparitions' Details:
  “They had like bronze, almost metallic trapezoidal heads...I want that to be known. I'm sober. It's 10am, I'm opening up a coffee shop.” – Philip (30:09)

• Cassidy Describing the Green Room:
  “It definitely feels like there’s like a feminine energy. Like she’s kind of just here. She’s not like in your face...She’s just hanging out. Like maybe this was their space for a long time.” (24:07)

• Stairwell-Linked Dread:
  “Almost always there is like an automatic light switch...that light won’t turn on if there’s somebody on our side of the door...that light will just turn on, and there’s no real access to it unless you’re coming up there from Eden.” – Quinn (48:01)

• On the Sad Energy:
  “There's something about being back there that feels heavy. Not inherently bad or evil or scary. Just like a heavy feeling in that back stairwell.” – Quinn (53:14)

• Lore of a Covered-Up Death:
  "He died of lysol ingestion...after some investigation...it was found out that it was a homicide and not a suicide. His father...had his death covered up as an automobile accident...I genuinely believe that he's here." – Tasha (55:39–56:16)

• On a Cremated Patron:
  "His ashes were mixed in with the concrete when we reported the floors...So he is buried here in the building with us." – Sarah (62:58)

• Atmosphere of Sunset Strip:
  "This is, like, the best place ever...Even when I'm not working, I'm here" – Cassidy (66:46)

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Timestamps for Major Segments

• Intro & Historical Overview: 00:00–09:44
• Venue Layout: 09:44–10:27
• Christina (Owner) Interview: 10:27–21:40
• Cassidy (Server): 21:42–25:12; Sensitive visit recount: 24:07
• Philip (Barista/Comedian): 25:35–35:35
• Peyton (Frequent Guest): 39:28–43:13
• Quinn (Comic/Door Guy/Server): 43:13–54:12
• Tasha (Manager, Eden): 55:19–58:13
• Sarah (Owner, Eden/Happy Chicks): 58:55–65:44

Closing Thoughts

The first part of the Night Owl Podcast’s Sunset Strip investigation sets the stage for a deeper probe into multiple, converging tales of tragedy, unexplained events, and supernatural sightings. The team promises more research, interviews, and the possible involvement of a psychic medium in the upcoming second part. The Sunset Strip Comedy Club emerges as a fascinating intersection of historic tragedy, urban legend, and contemporary haunting—a living (and possibly after-living) character on Austin’s storied 6th Street.

Next Episode Teased:
Further research on deaths, more interviews—including unaffiliated sources—and a psychic medium’s walkthrough. Release date: December 30th.