Starcle Gospel Patter

I was asked to put on a gospel magic show for a local church. I knew one of the effects I wanted to do was Dan Harlan’s Starcle. I chose it to be the effect I closed with but I wanted it to have a strong gospel presentation. I thought and prayed about it for two weeks and did not have anything I liked. On the day of the show I came up with the presentation below. I hope you like it also.
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The performer starts off by quoting, Isa 60:1 “Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee.”

While holding the napkin the performer asks the audience if they know the difference between the moon and the sun, the sun being a star. Fold the napkin while explaining that our star the sun, produces light, but the moon produces no light, it merely reflects light from the sun. So when you look up and see the “light of the moon”, you’re not really seeing the moons light at all, you are just seeing light it’s reflecting from the sun.

Sometimes you can look into the sky and see a quarter moon; sometimes you see a half moon. You may even look into the night sky and see no moon at all, but that does not necessarily mean the moon is not there. It is just is a place where it reflects no light at all. We call this the new moon. When the moon is biggest and brightest is when we have a full moon. That is were the moon reflects the most light, and it is a beautiful sight to see.

Tell them you will demonstrate the full moon by making a single tear in the napkin. Make your tear and allow a chosen spectator to tear off the star shaped piece to be revealed later.

The performer unfolds his piece and holds it in front of his face to show the moon. He asks the audience what they see. Some may even say “the man in the moon”, if they do not, feel free to clue them in. You state that’s it’s funny that they say that because the moon represents us. You see we reflect no light of our own, but we have been called to reflection of God and his son. When people look at us, we want them to be able to see God in us. We should desire to be a reflection of His image and His glory.

What would happen if we spent more time with the Lord and more time in His presence? Wouldn’t it be great if when people looked at us the first thing they would see is not us, but the Lord in us? While saying this, the performer wads up the paper moon and places it into his right hand which is lifted high. After the final sentence he opens his had to reveal the moon has completely vanished.

Ask the spectator to open her piece which she has been holding onto. She opens it to reveal a star. If we are the moon, then Jesus is our star. To be a reflection we have to spend time with Him and get to know Him better.

End by asking people if they were a moon reflecting the glory of the Lord right now what kind of moon would they be. Would you be a new moon, which is completely dark and reflects no light at all. Would you be a quarter moon or a half moon that reflects just a little light? Or would you be a full moon that completely reflects the fullness of the glory it has received from being in the presence of the Son?
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I performed this yesterday for the first time and had a great response from it. I had more comments on this and the patter than any other effect I did. I would be glad to hear comments and suggestions to make this better.

Thanks,

Allan

Allan:

I love Starcle. You have done an excellent job creating a gospel presentation for this great effect!

Kevin

Nicely done Allan!

I too have loved Starcle since I first saw Dan do it many years ago. I finally got around to picking up a video with the effect on it, but didn't have the routine that I was comfortable with to use for it.

Your routine is very nice and I especially love how God provided it to you, when you had exhausted your own resources. And as usual, God is not just "on time", He is always "in time"!

Thanks both for sharing the routine, and God's faithfulness. It is a good reminder!

BroDavid

Thanks for your comments guys. I forget to describe the basic effect of the trick in case anyone has not seen it or heard of it. Dan Harlan puts it out and it is well worth looking into.

The Effect as described from Harlan's Pack Small Play Big All Purpose Show: A charming story of watching the full moon rise and the first star appearing in the night sky is illustrated by tearing a circle from a paper napkin. Incredibly, the circle changes to a star although it has been held by a spectator the entire time. This curious souvenir is given to the spectator as a treasured memory.

I hope this helps some of the readers better understand the use of the original patter I presented in the first post.

Allan

Most Gospel presentations make me cringe. Yours is one that I really like. I'd love to use it, with your permission.

Bridgewater,

I hope that you not only use it but improve it and post you suggestions.

God Bless

Here is my Christmas/ Gospel presentation for STARcle... I call it "The Christmas STARcle"

PERFORMER walks out and sits at a table, lights a candle, and picks up a napkin.


The other night, I was looking up in the sky, and I saw a brilliant star. This star shone brighter than all of the others, and it reminded me of a story...

In the Bible, we are told that in the beginning was the Word.

PERFORMER starts folding the napkin.

And the Word was with God and the Word was God. We are also told that God created man and woman for relationship with Himself. Now through an act of disobedience the man and the woman destroyed that relationship forever separating them from their Creator.

PERFORMER tears part of the napkin off and places it inside a wine glass sitting on the table, (Or hands the pieces to a participant).

This left an emptiness, a hole if you will, in the hearts of men and women... Even today.

PERFORMER opens the napkin to show a circular hole in the center of the napkin.

Now, God could have turned His back on His creation. If He had done so, He would have been perfectly within His right, but there would be no relationship. His creation would have been forever lost.

PERFORMER balls up the napkin, makes a magical pass over the ball, and then shows the napkin has vanished.

But this time of year, whether we like it or not, we are all reminded of a special baby whose birth we celebrate.

You see, that night, there was a star. It pointed to a stable where the answer, and solution to the problem was born.

PERFORMER picks up the portion of napkin that was ripped off, and slowly opens it. It is a star.

Now, I don't know if you believe this or not, but you have to wonder why a great many people are filled with joy and wonder during this season, even when the rest of the year, they are not. Could it be, that this baby, born 2000 years ago WAS the star? We are told that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. He was the light of the world.

Wouldn't it be great, if we could take the star... the light... with us past this season, and share it... share Him... with the world....

PERFORMER holds the star over the candle flame, and it transforms into a cross.




I have been toying with doing the old "Napkin switch" instead of vanishing the ball, and place a duplicate with a star shape ripped out of the center, and, instead of changing the star to a cross, open the duplicate napkin and show that Jesus, the Star, can perfectly fill the hole left by sin....

Allan-I am going to use your Starcle Gospel patter in Lighthouse Kids in a few weeks. Just exceptional. I originally was going to go with a "creation" theme, yours is much better! Thank you for posting this 13+ years ago 🚃🌃

Thank you very very much for sharing!!!

Anyone know how 'harris' is - sent 2 p/ms in Aug. nothing?? . Ralph

Found he's OK - thank you-

See our post 10/15/18- Society of American Magicians - just a reminise - RR

Great trick. And Nice Christmas routine.