COSMIC BOWLING EXPERIENCE\Alley to dim lights, turn up music.

Byline: Alicia Doyle Daily News Staff Writer

It's called cosmic bowling. With a flick of a switch and a crank of the stereo volume, a bowling alley is transformed into a glow-in-the-dark musical experience.

And it's coming to a Simi Valley bowling alley tonight.

"It's new and it's different and it should attract a wide variety of people," said Ken Knox, manager of Brunswick Valley Bowl on Cochran Street.

For the past two weeks Brunswick workers have pasted, hammered and painted inside the alley for opening night of cosmic bowling. The evening will feature glow-in-the-dark bowling pins and bowling balls, fog machines, laser light shows, and, of course, rock 'n' roll.

Brunswick put roughly $20,000 into prepping Simi Valley's alley for the special event.

"It's our first night, so we're making sure all goes well," Knox said.

The idea for cosmic bowling sparked about three years ago in a different Brunswick alley, after several bowling lanes were re-finished with industrial scotch tape. The tape itself contained an ultraviolet additive, so when the lights were turned out, the lanes glowed.

"One of the engineers said, 'Wouldn't that be a neat concept,"' said Fred Florjancic, president of the Brunswick Indoor Recreation Group headquartered in Michigan.

Brunswick then combined the glow-in-the-dark idea with "rock 'n' roll bowl" created years ago.

"We had been thinking about ways to liven up our bowling centers, and ways to attract a younger crowd of people," Florjancic said.

Cosmic bowling now is running in 35 cities in 23 states, and will expand to 45 more locations by mid-June, Florjancic said.

Knox anticipates that opening night will be a success.

"It's been successful everywhere else," he said.

Cosmic bowling will premiere tonight in what Knox hopes to be a packed house at Brunswick Valley Bowl, 5255 Cochran St. Bowling for the special event will be held from midnight to 2:30 a.m.'He added that at these particular locations, revenues are up 20 percent vs. 3 percent at the alleys without cosmic bowling.

Those who have participated in the activity range in age from 18 to 25 - the target age group Florjancic had hoped to attract.

"It's a segment of the population that likes to party and have fun and enjoy life - and they seem to have fallen in love with the concept of cosmic bowling," Florjancic said.

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Photo (color) A bowler's glow-in-the-dark ball streaks toward the pins amid laser lights, black lights and fog machines at Brunswick Valley Bowl. Andy Holzman/Special to the Daily News