![\"Jaymes](\"https:\/\/divine.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Jaymes-White-VTV2-800x1067.jpg\")
<\/p>\nJaymes White has four years of sold out, critically-acclaimed live s\u00e9ances under his belt. This year, COVID-19 changed everything and White had to look at things differently. He could have just cancelled this year, but White is resourceful and decided to try his first virtual s\u00e9ance \u2013 Evoke. It is an experience to be shared since it\u2019s success is based on participation. Even though White is experienced in the art of the s\u00e9ance, he did have some reservations:<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom our research, we learned that people don\u2019t like Zoom shows. Entertainers haven\u2019t had a lot of luck with Zoom, because people think of it as their business feed. It makes it feel more like a Zoom meeting. That was a fear of ours. We realized though, when you experience the show, it actually does become entertaining, especially when everyone participates. It may not be the Beverly Street s\u00e9ance, but it is still something to experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
We wanted to do a deeper dive into what it takes to make the virtual magic happen, so to speak. We spoke with Jaymes White about Evoke, the planning it took and crucial the audience is to the success of the virtual s\u00e9ance.<\/p>\n
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I only had a short time to write Evoke.\u00a0 We didn\u2019t know what was going on [due to COVID]. I was doing 200-300 shows a year and all of a sudden, you lose that. We had to think about how we were going to survive and think of ways to keep Halloween alive. You want to do something that\u2019s unique, but safe for everyone and still have that Halloween vibe.<\/p>\n
I wrote Evoke so quickly. I started three weeks before we launched Evoke. It was stressful to come up with something that involves everybody. My biggest thing is that it had to be about the audience, not about me. How do you apply that into a s\u00e9ance? That was the challenge plus the fact that I had never used Zoom before.<\/p>\n
When we do the Victorian s\u00e9ance that I am known for, it is four months of planning. We start by looking for a haunted location. We are very focused on that. When you think of Evoke, we can\u2019t really do that, because we are all in different locations so I had to come up with something different. For the past ten years people have been sending me photos of their loved one to get them into the s\u00e9ance, but that was never my thing. I thought this time, why not do a tribute to them and bring them into the s\u00e9ance? We thought what if we have only one picture where the person is actually dead and the rest are alive and see if the audience can pick that up using collective unconscious. If anyone was able to do that, we wanted to see if anyone could guess about what the person\u2019s life was like without knowing them.<\/p>\n
When I train law enforcement, I can tell when people are lying but it probably took me 20 years of practice to be able to do it. I\u2019m trying to teach you to trust your gut, trust your instincts and that\u2019s what we are trying to build. What a lot of people say about the paranormal is that maybe mediums are able to pick up things that other people can\u2019t. It\u2019s about going with your intuition. I thought it was better to take that approach then trying to create something scary that may just feel weird. If I was sitting here, and something fell over, people would know that it was fake \u2013 let\u2019s be honest \u2013 unless it happens to you in your house. Instead, we made Evoke psychological. It\u2019s all about you doing it, and that\u2019s how Evoke came about.<\/p>\n
This was something else that pushed me to do the s\u00e9ance through Zoo<\/a>m. When my team did the research, new technology comes into play every 15-20 years and somehow always becomes associated with the paranormal. If new technology comes in, a bunch of mediums claim that they are able to use that technology to get a response. Alexander Graham Bell created the telephone and he actually believed that you could connect to spirits through telephone lines. The same was true when the television was invented, John Baird believed that he could talk to dead celebrities, like Edison, through the static. So, I started thinking to myself that Zoom is a new technology that we haven\u2019t explored, let\u2019s see if we can do something.<\/p>\n I had been thinking about this idea [a virtual s\u00e9ance] for a few years, but I never thought that I would actually do it. With the pandemic, I thought let\u2019s go for it. I think that from doing so many s\u00e9ances and mindreading for more than 20 years, that I\u2019ve gotten to the level where I know what will work and what doesn\u2019t work and I have the ability to tailor it. A lot of it is not about the s\u00e9ance, it\u2019s about the audience participation and how I can control it and who does what and I can still do that through Zoom.<\/p>\n It\u2019s 100% the participants. With a live s\u00e9ance, you are going to hear real stories about what happened to the \u201cdead\u201d.\u00a0 With Evoke, I\u2019m not telling you very much about the person and how they died. I\u2019m trying to see if the people can guess details about their lives. All of the participants make the s\u00e9ance. It\u2019s not the story, it\u2019s not anything else it\u2019s all of you that make it.<\/p>\n I want to see what everyone is able to do. A s\u00e9ance is all about the group dynamic and the collective unconscious and working together as a team. It\u2019s about people\u2019s reactions and freestyling, that\u2019s what makes it good. If something happens to someone during the s\u00e9ance, like a door opens, we have to capitalize on it. The strength is in the participation. That is what changes the direction the s\u00e9ance is going in. Sometimes people will tell me about things that they experienced after, and I wish that they had told me at the s\u00e9ance. The hardest thing at times is getting people to talk.<\/p>\n Nothing. The thing that is the most fun for me is creating the group dynamic. There are always going to be true skeptics and true believers, people from all walks of life, especially with Evoke.<\/p>\n The live s\u00e9ance takes more out of me because they are such big experiences and because I have to run around a lot. They are two hours versus Evoke which is about 45 minutes to an hour.\u00a0 On Zoom, I\u2019m also in one spot.<\/p>\n I go in wondering if anything will work and if anyone will get any of the details right. When things start going right and I know that something is going to work, I get really excited. That\u2019s always the scary part. It depends on the group dynamic and what they are willing to put into it. I find it is harder to get people excited on Zoom because I\u2019m not in person there with you. It\u2019s also harder to read people, because I\u2019m only seeing people\u2019s faces and they are in the dark. I think the more I do this, the more I\u2019ll understand what I\u2019m looking for. When you are at a live s\u00e9ance, you really can\u2019t watch everyone else because you are paying attention to the environment and anticipating what may happen.<\/p>\n At a traditional s\u00e9ance, I have to pay attention because people have free reign of the house. With Evoke, it\u2019s completely about us. It\u2019s about your experience at home, how you feel and I\u2019m playing off of that. If you are interested in psychology, it is interesting to watch how people think and act. With a my live s\u00e9ance, there is a lot more going on \u2013 people are running around from room to room. With Evoke, everybody is together. It\u2019s cool to see and a very different perspective. You are putting people in a weird situation and seeing what happens.<\/p>\n Zoom presents some challenges because I can\u2019t necessarily see people on the screen all at once. You are looking for small visual cues with people and that can be a challenge with the Zoom tiles. I\u2019m trying to find out who is reacting and it\u2019s harder to pick up on who I think is going to work because I can\u2019t see it. Picking the right person for each step of the s\u00e9ance is also hard.<\/p>\n I think it\u2019s because people want to believe that there is something more out there. You don\u2019t want this to be it. Just think about losing a loved one or someone close to you. You need to believe that some-how they will be with you forever.<\/p>\n If somebody else doesn\u2019t believe in the paranormal, that\u2019s not a bad thing either. Everyone has their own views but hopefully, they are open to others. I\u2019ve heard ghost stories and I\u2019ve had things happen to me, but I try to stay neutral. I think for my job that I have to be somewhere in the middle of skeptic and believer. That works out well for my s\u00e9ances because I am open-minded to everyone and I don\u2019t dismiss anything.<\/p>\n Here is what you need to know about Evoke:<\/p>\n Dates:<\/strong> Until November 28th, 2020<\/p>\n Duration:<\/strong> Approximately 45 minutes<\/p>\n Group Size:<\/strong> 10 people<\/p>\n Price:<\/strong> $24.99 per person (Private group up to 10 ppl \u2013 save 20%)<\/p>\n For more information and to buy tickets, visit jaymeswhite.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Every one of your s\u00e9ances has an interesting cast of characters, from the dead that you are trying to conjure to the participants.\u00a0 Who do you think is more crucial and why?<\/h2>\n
What do you actually know about your audience before the s\u00e9ance begins?<\/h2>\n
Which type of s\u00e9ance requires more energy \u2013 the live s\u00e9ance or the virtual s\u00e9ance?<\/h2>\n
How different is it for you trying to read the group dynamic virtually?<\/h2>\n
Why do you think so many people want to believe in ghosts and the paranormal?<\/h2>\n
![\"Virtual](\"https:\/\/divine.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Evoke-Artwork.jpg\")
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