July 2007 Winner

[dustygirl121]

The Roaring 20s themed "Murder At the Four Deuces" was roaring success with college students! When my friends from the dorm that I live in decided to throw a murder mystery party, the word spread fast. By the night of the party, we had 25 participants! Good thing we ordered the character expansion pack! To manage such a big group, three of us became hosts. Although we hosts didn't have our own characters, we were busy throughout the entire party bartending at the "mocktail" counter, taking 300+ photographs, and manning the host table when people had questions about their characters.

Before the party, we went on a quick shopping trip. We bought decorations and drink ingredients which gave our party extra pizzazz. We decorated the community room in our residence hall with green, red, and black table cloths, a giant "welcome to the four deuces" sign, string curtains of card suits in the doorway, and poker chips and playing cards scattered across the tables. We had 1920's jazz music playing in the background. It had been really fun hunting down music from artists such as Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington.

We were very impressed when the guests arrived. They were decked out in boas, sequins, tassels, and fedora hats. But the most impressive part is when we had everyone give a quick introduction of themselves. A number of people had Chicago accents! By the end of the night, almost everyone had picked up the accent. If the decorations and costumes didn't set the mood, the transformation of my friends into their roles definitely did. During introductions, Madam MeMe and Don Wannabe totally stole the show- which is very fitting since this was their grand opening party! This was great news for us hosts, because we realized we could pawn off a lot of the announcements on them. So for the rest of the night, they introduced all of the new guests (whose old character had died) and they made everyone laugh and were highly entertaining!

The death of Big Jim was very successful. He made a wonderful impromptu toast and thanked all of his family, friends, and business partners for celebrating together. But as soon as asked everyone to raise their glasses, the lights went out, there was a gunshot (a host popping a balloon), and a couple screams from the guests who were genuinely caught by surprised. When we turned the lights back on, Big Jim was lying on the floor with blood (ketchup!!) on his head. For the next 10 minutes, Carrie Crooner-Ravioli was in shock and practically in tears. Later on in the evening, to pay tribute to her dead husband, she got onstage and sang "their song" to the rest of the guests. It was beautiful. The hosts were really pleased they had picked someone who actually loved to sing to play the sultry songbird- her performance was totally her idea!

After the weapons/actions had been distributed, 2 more murders were committed throughout the night. First to go was Mary Toosteal. Because she wanted a divorce, Congressman Toosteal killed his own wife...and put on a good performance of grief afterward! The other murdered character was Don Wannabe. Capo ToTo Tequila convinced Rhett Bumbler to use his weapon card on him. I already mentioned that Madame MeMe was entertaining at the beginning of the night; well she went ballistic after the murder of her husband. She was inconsolable and she had the whole room staring at her. That's all the murders that occurred during the evening, although many others had been discussed. Al Capone LOVED inventing stories about upcoming murders. He told a half dozen people that there was a price on their head (there wasn't) and he could prevent it for a fee (Cassandra Steal believed him and he got easy money out of his lie!).

We were really glad that we had set up a speakeasy bar. Because even though all of the drinks were non-alcoholic, many of the characters appeared to be drunk by the end of the night. And that just enhanced all of the great acting that had been going on. The Baroness was especially "drunk". She was hanging on people, talking really loud (in the Chicago accent), spreading secrets, and drinking their drinks. She was hilarious!

We are also really glad that we had the expansion pack of characters. Lester Jester kept putting "shoot me" signs on everyone's backs. It was really funny especially since some of those characters actually did get shot! After Big Jim died, he came back as Georgio Gigolo and flirted with EVERYONE (girls, guys, hosts, etc). After Don Wannabe died, he came back as Dr. Heckle/Dr. Love. He LOVED that role. He went completely crazy when he was Dr. Love and was very confused about his transition when he was Dr. Heckle. One of the funniest moments of the night was when Georgio Gigolo gave Dr. Love one of his business cards, and then when he turned into Dr. Love he was absolutely repulsed that he was carrying this card for a "companion service".

The night ended with the Inspector (who rocked his role by intimidating others into telling him their stories) reading the solution. No one guessed Big Jim's murderer- that person covered their tracks quite well! Then we went around the room and everyone shared their secrets, goals, and some of the entertaining situations that happened to them throughout the night. This is something I'd highly suggest to anyone having a murder mystery party because you wouldn't believe how much stuff goes on that you don't see while you are playing. "Murder at the Four Deuces" was a GREAT party! I took many great pictures throughout the night, but even the pictures can't portray the extent that everyone was performing as their character. It was a very fun night and it was all anyone could talk about for weeks afterward! Thanks so much for providing a great party!

[2coolbaby]

Thanks for such a great review of your party. Your post points out just how easy it is for people to slip into character. They do not have to be actors or even particularly outgoing. It just happens naturally. More dramatic people do make it very entertaining, but even a roomful of reserved people will come out of their shells with our games.

I have seen so many introvert, stadoffish and uptight people really bloom playing our characters. For example: It is really hard to not participate when someone comes up and threatens to expose to a mob boss that you have been skimming funds from. This is a situation that will require you to think and decide how to handle it. Ignore it and do nothing and a mob boss will be picking his teeth with your finger bones! How you decide to handle this will cause other situations to develop.

It really is facinating to watch! You are also very correct that not one person will be aware of 1/2 the stuff going on right under their noses. It is just so much fun being bad without actually being bad

[dustygirl121]

Thanks Mary Lee for picking my group as the July winner and thank you for creating such a fun activity!

[2coolbaby]

Did you get your Gift Certificate I sent?

[dustygirl121]

No I didn't. How did you send it?

[2coolbaby]

I just emailed it to you again. Check your junk folder if you do not get it in your inbox.

[dustygirl121]

Yep! I got it this time! Thank you so much!