This Fresno business lets you get the anger out by breaking stuff. It even cleans up

At first glance, Art of Anger looks like a thrift store, what with the massive amount of stuff stacked around the front entrance.

There’s a wicker basket full of assorted wine glasses. There’s a coffee maker and a guitar that’s missing a few strings. There’s an old printer, a plastic wall clock and several panels of mirrored glass.

It’s all there to be broken in a fit a anger, controlled as it may be.

Art of Anger is Fresno’s first smash room, where patrons pay for 5- to 45-minute “rage sessions.”

“We wanted to create a place where people could deal with their rage,” says Melissa Knight, who opened Art of Anger with business partner Lindsay Shifflett last month.

“It’s a clearly needed outlet,” Knight says.

Guests don plastic jumps suits and gloves (for the glass — there’s lot of glass), plus hard hats and plastic face shields.

They can choose from a range of weapons. Metal baseball bats are popular. There are also tennis and badminton rackets, rubber mallets, hammers and pipes. If all else fails, they can just throw stuff at the wall, or smash it against the ground.

A 5-minute session — or flash smash — will run you $22. Longer sessions cost $56 to $99, depending on what you break.

Glass and plateware are popular (the sound is so satisfying, Knight says) along with old office equipment and cell phones (which are not easy to break). Most of the items come from local thrift stores (hence the aesthetic of the place), though guests are encouraged to bring in their own goods to smash.

The items must fit into the smash-room guidelines.

Larger items aren’t unheard of, and will make their way into the room eventually. The store recently got in a grandfather clock. There’s a water ski, an ATV and a scooter, though those will likely be saved for special events, Knight says.

They’d love to invite people to smash a car and will, as soon as they can find someone willing to lend them a parking lot.

After each session, the remnants get cleaned and sorted and sent out to the recycling center, Knight says.

Rage rooms popping up across the country

Smash rooms, also known as rage rooms, started about a decade ago and have only recently started catching on in big cities like San Jose and Los Angeles. The rooms tend to fall into the same kind of novelty night-out option as ax throwing or escape rooms.

In fact, it was just this year that insurance companies created a category for this kind of business, Knight says.

Trauma was never meant to be a destination

For Knight and Shifflett, Art of Anger is more than an entertainment option. Both women are certified energetic healers and have a holistic approach to dealing with stresses and trauma. That includes confronting anger and then working to release it.

It’s Art of Anger’s motto and mission.

“Trauma was never meant to be a destination,” Knight says.

“But they get stuck there.”

Society mostly deals with anger with “management,” Knight says, and that is usually accompanied by some amount of shame.

Here, anger is treated as a normal, human emotion, one that can be expressed safely.

Breaking stuff is fun

Of course, not everyone is going to find the process therapeutic. Some people come just for the fun of being able to smash stuff without having to worry about the consequences — or the mess.

“We’re going to clean up,” Knight says.

“There is some catharsis in that, too.”

Details: Art of Anger, 1328 N. Wishon Avenue at Hedges Avenue. Call or text for a session. 559-420-7706, www.theartofanger.com

This story was originally published December 11, 2019 at 12:37 PM.