Being a Ghost Story of Christmas

[RealityOne]

What in the Dickens am I talking about? Exactly. Charles Dickens's Christmas Carol which is subtitled Being a Ghost Story of Christmas. I was reading the description for an effect last night which involved a reference to "spirits" and it got me thinking... wouldn't a visit by Dickens three ghosts be an amazing presentation for a magic effect or routine?

I'll be brainstorming over the weekend to come up with something, but I figured this would be a good exercise in developing a presentation piece.

What effects would you do while telling the story?

 

[Gabriel Z.]

Cool idea, let us know how it turns out.

 

[DaveWmson]

Appearance of a joker (scrooge) at the beginning. at the end transform that joker into a jack (?). different routines for tiny tim etc

 

[Maaz Hasan]

Building off the Scrooge idea, building it around a disappearing coin routine seems fun.

 

[Timewise64]

What in the Dickens am I talking about? Exactly. Charles Dickens's Christmas Carol which is subtitled Being a Ghost Story of Christmas. I was reading the description for an effect last night which involved a reference to "spirits" and it got me thinking... wouldn't a visit by Dickens three ghosts be an amazing presentation for a magic effect or routine?

I'll be brainstorming over the weekend to come up with something, but I figured this would be a good exercise in developing a presentation piece.

What effects would you do while telling the story?

What in the Dickens am I talking about? Exactly. Charles Dickens's Christmas Carol which is subtitled Being a Ghost Story of Christmas. I was reading the description for an effect last night which involved a reference to "spirits" and it got me thinking... wouldn't a visit by Dickens three ghosts be an amazing presentation for a magic effect or routine?

I'll be brainstorming over the weekend to come up with something, but I figured this would be a good exercise in developing a presentation piece.

What effects would you do while telling the story?

Seems like this is a perfect 'story' for a cups and balls routine with disappearing and reappearing ghosts, maybe mix in a chop cup to really do the impossible.

Or maybe a good story for a Sponge Ball Routine? I have some green and red Sponge Balls I use for the Christmas Holiday, I then have a black Sponge Ball pop up as an evil influence on the Christmas Spirit....Maybe this would work as the Ghost of Christmas Past...

 

[CWhite]

I think Jay Sankey already did this....

lol..... kidding by the way....

 

[Tower of Lunatic Meat]

I like the idea of cups and balls in the beginning to maybe explain that he’ll be visited by three ghosts.

For the first Ghost, maybe having something like spongeballs or making multiple impossible items appear from a chop cup to illustrate his love of money and greed

 

[MattieuZ1]

This could open up an avenue for mentalism: the Ghost of Christmas Past reveals something about the spectator that's impossible for you to know, the Ghost of Christmas Present reveals something the spectator is thinking of right now, and the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come is a prediction. It could be done with cards, billets, anything you want, just an idea.

A presentation of it could be "Does anyone here know the story of Charles Dickens's Christmas Carol? He was visited by 3 ghosts who showed him the past, present, and future of his life. Now, I don't know about you, but I regularly talk to them, we go out and get beers, though Yet to Come talks to much about his performance issues when he drinks too much so we try to keep him to eggnog. (Don't say this if it doesn't fit your style obviously)" Then from here, you could talk about how they revealed certain things to you, it would be a fun Christmas twist on mentalism.

 

[JoshL8]

Just thinking of the feeling I would want to convey.

Some reading on the subject.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/461345?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

I like the idea of rediscovering innocence seems magical to me!

https://www.jstor.org/stable/44372249?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents

Hmmm, a fiction used to manifest generosity on others...kind of more behind the scenes bit for a trick.

 

[RealityOne]

Just thinking of the feeling I would want to convey.

Some reading on the subject.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/461345?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

I like the idea of rediscovering innocence seems magical to me!

https://www.jstor.org/stable/44372249?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents

Hmmm, a fiction used to manifest generosity on others...kind of more behind the scenes bit for a trick.

You have just taken this to another level... game on.

 

[Timewise64]

Wow, the creativity on this website is something!

 

[JoshL8]

I am quite the novice and I am stretching myself here a bit but its the thinking I am trying to incorporate in my presentations. If anyone has any constructive feed back PLEASE feel free! This is the arc I think I will try to follow when constructing this, its not set in stone yet but appears okay to fiddle around with. I see this as a series of effects that leads to a transformation. Just a note, I took a bit of liberty with some of the story elements interpretations.

Scrooge/object/idea is introduced. Each ghost would be represented by some effect that embodies their purpose. Marly would be the opener a wakeup something that grabs the attention.

Christmas past an effect or object that embodies self discovery. A look into the past that got us to where we are now. Time travel effect?

Christmas present, an effect embodying joy found in others. Or perhaps it embodies the possibilities we have open to us now. Scrooge sees he can choose happier times. Maybe choices of many presents and the spectator chooses the right card/object etc?

Christmas future an effect embodying consequences. Or perhaps a catalyst to change? Change not from fear of punishment but empathy for others. Tiny Tim and Scrooges death comparison might be represented by a sympathetic reaction where what happens to one object happens to another.

Ending with a transformation of Scrooge/object that maybe was shown near at the start. Maybe the card back is different etc.

So four or five-ish tricks in this set is what I am aiming for. No patter or running time yet obviously.


I have been playing with card effects in my head to this framework but my lack of knowledge here hinders me. I kind of also don't want to limit myself to just cards since that may seem monotonous. I will be going through some of my books to see if any effects grab my attention for a decent fit and post what I come up with later but this is what i am working with at the moment.

 

[JoshL8]

Gotta give my wife credit for this take;

She was thinking of patter involving the chains that Marley describes we forge in our lives. Through the routine Scrooge would be breaking these chains as he makes his revelations from each ghost. In the end the transformation is shown by forging new chains out of gold. A cut and restored rope or thread routine can be used.

 

[RealityOne]

I'm thinking of a bizarre presentation would revolve around four words... "Remember", "Regret", "Repent" and "Rejoice" each representing the visits of the three ghosts and Marley's conversion. Thinking about spirt cabinets, Glorpys, slate writing and Frixon pens. Something along the lines of getting a sense of a seance where the ghosts actually visit and participate. Maybe finishing using a deck of blank faced cards with writing on it and having the spectator pick a single card ("like Scrooge, you have a choice") which is turned over to have the word "Rejoice" on it and then turning over the rest of the cards to show words like "death", "loneliness", "forgotten", "forsaken", "hate", "guilt", "selfish" etc.

 

[JoshL8]

That sounds nice. Much more coherent than what I have so far!