What Happened at the Meeting on Friday 15th August 2025

The theme of the meeting was "Free Choice" (again) hosted by David Whitson.

David Whitson started things off with an impressive and well executed white cane to scarf.

Al then demonstrated a card routine with rows of cards narrowing down to a single selection. This was themed to the story of depth charges and submarines in World War 2. The single depth charge hits the chosen card and we learned a lot about radar in the process.

Noel performed a transposition, turning a large silver coin into gold and then back again, before following up with a routine involving coins appearing from nowhere and being caught one after the other in a metal goblet.

John used his knowledge of chemistry, taking a red liquid from a bottle and pouring it into a regular plastic cup before turning it upside down to reveal no liquid at all, only a dry red silk falling out of the cup. He followed this up with a card effect using photocopies. John showed various double sided black and white photocopies of a pile of cards, noting that only one card is face down. He turned the copy around to reveal that an earlier freely selected card was the only one facing the other way. 

Steve Irwin convincingly performed a baffling self winding bolt several times in a very close up environment. He also performed a stunning trick with three cards from a borrowed deck. The spectator chooses one card in secret and then mixes up all three. Moments later Steve is always able to reveal their chosen card.

Warden continued the theme of goblets, this time four of them with a poisoned message in three. Spectactors freely chose three goblets and then were able to switch several times at will. Upon opening the messages, all three spectators had chosen the poison while Warden was left with the safe goblet. Killer material!

As an encore, Noel performed a quick coin through table complete with sound effects.

Finally David Whitson used a change bag to share a great routine with knitted coloured coils. First the separate different coloured coils are changed into linked coils. Next they are changed again into a single long piece of coloured rope. Finally, much like the colour spectrum, all of the colours change into a single length of white rope. David also showed the empty Tarbell cone, modified to make a heart, before producing a red silk from inside. Next was a silk penetration contraption from the Graham Holstein estate. A long multicoloured silk is threaded through then chopped with a wooden card that has a hole in the middle. Upon removal, the wooden card has the silk threaded through the hole. Utterly convincing! To finish off, David performed a routine with sticks, tassels and a mysterious relationship between them.

What Happened at the Meeting on Friday 18th July 2025

The theme of the meeting was "Free Choice" hosted by JD.

Al commenced the performances with an educational back and forth about the different Australian coins before performing an effective routine of coin transpositions using playing cards and five cent pieces.

Raquel performed a convincing card trick with three piles representing the soccer teams for Portugal, Argentina and Qatar. With help from Dianne she was able to correctly predict and reveal a "drafted player" in the form of a card revealed.

Still working with cards, Steve Irwin had an audience member freely select a card and then later any number. He carefully counted through to accurately reveal the chosen card at the exact number that was specified.

Next it was Mia's turn and she presented a convincing demonstration of the magic rising wand.

Joel showed three lengths of coloured rope tied at both ends. After extending them out and repeating the simple knots, the three separate pieces were merged into a single length of rope and the knots disappeared. Very impressive! Joel also stunned with a variant of the cups and balls that started with a card selection, continued with a standard cups and balls routine using balls of paper, was accentuated as the balls turned into flashes of flame and finished with the selected card appearing under a cup. An excellent combination!

David Whitson finished with the sudden production of a bunch of $100 notes in the form of a bouquet. He also demonstrated a change bag with a varying collection of silks, some with mismatched holiday phrases. Next was a paint tin that was shown empty but later revealed a variety of sponge shapes, especially hearts of different sizes. After sharing some Magic Club badges for members that did not already have one, David finished by reciting a 52 card love story using all of the cards in a jumbo deck.