About Puzzlement Experiences
Puzzlement Experiences started with a stubborn belief: a well-built puzzle isn't a detour from real connection, it's actually the shortcut to it.
Put a roomful of strangers in a good trivia round and by question eight they are high-fiving each other over a category nobody knew they cared about. Drop a small group into a locked scenario they have to solve in 60 minutes and you will watch the person who has never spoken at staff meetings become Indiana Jones. That is the thing we are after. The puzzle is the excuse. The connection is the job.
MEET ALEX HEY
The person behind Puzzlement Experiences is Alex Hey — Sioux Falls-based, dog dad to Ace, named after Ace the Bat-Hound because Batman is a non-negotiable, and a devoted member of the “ohhh, of course” club. His two favorite fictional characters are Batman and Sherlock Holmes, which is basically the personal brand of every trivia host you have ever loved.
Alex is an author, avid writer, improv performer, and lifelong puzzle enthusiast. He has published several books, including Eugène de Mazenod: A Saint for Today, Poems I Found in My Prayer Journals, Catholicism and ADHD: Finding Holiness Despite Distractions, and several books on ADHD. He also writes extensively through the Reset ADHD blog and his Substack, where his love of curiosity, reflection, humor, and human nature shows up often.
Before Puzzlement Experiences, Alex spent years in front of audiences through coaching, speaking, hosting, writing, and improv. He is an avid improv performer who has even met Colin Mochrie, which feels like a required credential for anyone trusted to make a room laugh without making it weird.
The core of Alex’s work is his belief is that people are at their best when they are engaged, laughing, and a little bit stretched. He believes “if it’s not fun, it won’t get done,” which is also the heartbeat of Puzzlement Experiences. Trivia should challenge people, but it should never feel like homework. It should feel social, playful, and just puzzling enough to make the answer satisfying when it finally clicks.
Required Reading
Alex Hey is an anagram of Yeah Lex
same seven letters
Here is a thing that will not leave your brain now that you know it: ALEX HEY is an exact anagram of YEAH LEX. Same seven letters. Same energy. Anagrams are going to keep happening on this site. We run a puzzle company. It would be weird if they didn't.
Why “Puzzlement?”
Because that is the feeling we are after. The “wait — oh” moment. The good kind of stuck. The one that makes a roomful of people stop checking their phones long enough to argue cheerfully about whether Venus or Mercury is closer to the sun. (It's Mercury. On average. Most of the time. Actually, Venus, by another measure. Fine — moving on.)
What We Stand For
FUN
If the event isn't fun, nothing else we built matters. This is the non-negotiable. “If its not fun, it won’t get done” are wise words from Alex Hey.
BRAINY
Smart questions, clever puzzles, real satisfaction in the figuring-out. Your crowd is sharp. We write for them accordingly.
CUSTOMIZABLE
Every event is built around the people in the room. No recycled question packs. No generic trivia script. Your cause, your crowd, your jokes.
clean by
design
Because churches and nonprofits are core to who we build for, our content stays clean by design. No blue humor. No cringe-adjacent categories. No content you would have to apologize for at the front desk on Monday. Warm, welcoming, and sharp is the setting, we don't even have a dial for anything else.
Let’s Build Your Event
If you have read this far, we already like each other. Reach out and tell us what you are planning.