Jim Critchlow’s WHITE STAR

Jim Critchlow's WHITE STAR

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What The Audience Sees:

"Wow, after Jamie did that trick with the card on his head he asked if he could show us something a bit more serious. We said "Yes!", of course, and he pulled out a Ziploc bag of old photographs. He gave me the photographs to hold and said he'd explain what they were, in a minute, but for now, he simply wanted me to deal them into a couple of piles onto the table. After I did that, he told us that they were actual photos of people that were on the Titanic. And when we flipped them over, the photos had either the word SURVIVED or DIED on the back. Well, here's the thing- all the DIED were in one pile and all the SURVIVED were somehow in the other pile- it was crazy spooky!"

How It Went:

White Star might be my favourite effect of 2008! No kidding. I started off the Friday crowd with Matthew Johnson's "Card On Head" and then utterly destroyed them with White Star. It went so well, that instead of saying, "I killed them!" when tricks go well, I might start saying, "I White Starred them!"! It really went that well.

I would start off, as per the instructions, of just having them sort out the photos and then would go into my presentation, which was thus:

"Okay, so these are actually pictures of people from the Titanic. My wife and I were at that flea market that they have over on Main Street, you know the one?"

-I let people talk about the flea market (Every city has one).

"Yeah well they're themed every week. Like one week's "war artefacts" and another week's "nostalgia". Well this weeks' theme was "crap" apparently. You should have seen the junk! However, there was this guy who's great grandfather, or his great, great grandfather, I can't remember which, had apparently been on the Titanic and had survived. Anyway, he became obsessed with the Titanic and started collecting photographs, and wrote things on the back and so on."

-Millisecond pause

"You know, I had no idea that people survived on the Titanic. I don't know why, I just didn't know that."

-Someone would ask at this point if I hadn't seen the movie.

"Lol, I know. I just thought that they all died. Like this guy here.."

-I would start sorting, sifting, mixing through the photos in my hand.

"Mr. John Borebank. He died…"

-I would show them the back, where it says, "DIED"

"But some people actually lived. Like…"

-Sorting, sifting, mixing

"…Mr Frederic Spedden. He Lived."

-I would show them the back where it said "SURVIVED"

"So my question to you, is this. Who decided who lived and who died on the Titanic?"

-I would start showing more from my hand.

"Was it Fate?… Was it Luck?… or… was it the hands…"

-I would point at the participants

"…of a Higher Power? Please turn over your photos."

-At this point people began to seriously freak out. Seriously freak out. A perfect effect. People would then begin talking about the Titanic and such. This would be the only trick you would have to do all night if you went out to dinner or went to someone's house. I loved it, as did they.

Best Lines:

"SHOUT…YOUR…MOUTH!

-I was silent at this point, lol.

"HOW did I do THAT?!"

-The fact that she said "I" and not "You" was ideal.

Angry Bob Rating:

For those of you reading this article for the first time, Angry Bob is a co-worker who has an understanding of some magic because his uncle was a magician. Angry Bob knows that TT’s exist, for example, but he has no desire to become a magician himself. He also has an anger management problem that can be experienced first hand if he can’t figure out how a trick is done. A high rating means he has no idea.

"Hunh…You're a total dou&**^%&&.

-He then walked away. 5/5.

My Rating:

10/10. Any time you can fill an entire night with story and discussion because of one single effect, you have to take notice. That's all I need to say about that.

The JDG Tip:

Okay, a problem I ran into from the very outset was that whoever ended up with the DIED pile would invariably say,"Awwww. My people died…" and I could tell they weren't happy about it. Until later in the day when one girl freaked out after the effect and her co-worker came in. When she asked what happened, the spectator told her that, "Everyone who I had a good feeling about Lived, and everyone who I had a bad feeling about Died!"

Now, that's not what happened. But she thought it did, and it was better. So I thought, "Why can't that happen?" and I changed the presentation.

Now, instead of saying, "If you have a special feeling." I started saying to the first spectator:

"If you have a BAD feeling about the person, place the photo on the table. If you have GOOD feeling, please place it in my hand."

and for the second person,

"Now we'll change it for you. If you have a GOOD feeling, place it on a separate spot on the table. And if you have a BAD feeling, please place it in my hand."

This turned the effect into the first person not having their special feeling causing a bunch of people to die, but rather that they simply knew who wouldn't make it. It also explained a bit more clearly why there was a mix in my hand for some reason.

It also enabled me to do it very clearly for a single person. I would make the first half the BAD pile, and then ask them to stop and to start making a GOOD pile.

It worked wonderfully!

Closing Thoughts:

It's been a long time since an effect really turned my head for a loop. And the additional bits that Jim has in his book did exactly