The tour begins on a humid New Orleans evening, when the gas lamps take their small, steady breaths and the pavements of the French Quarter start to hold the day’s warmth. A guide waits in front of Ryan’s Irish Pub as the crowd gathers—20 or fewer people, each carrying the deliberate curiosity of someone ready to trade a predictable night for a string of bars and a few good stories. The city’s rhythm is immediate here: brass filters out from a corner club, the Mississippi’s current seems to push the air south, and the first clink of ice in a shaker announces the start of a walking performance punctuated by cocktails.