What Happened at the Meeting on Friday 11th April

Joel Howlett hosted this evening, with the theme of "Silk Magic", and he opened with an effect in which he divided one silk into two, and we were about to say “that’s nice”, when, “Bang !” – a bottle of wine appeared in the middle of the two silks, and we said “that’s magic !”

A four silk blendo was the first item presented by John Ferguson.  Next, he vanished a silk, and it appeared inside a Coke bottle (the Coke bottle was so old that one magician present joked that it would be worth something to a collector !). John also presented the “Crystal Tube” in which silks placed individually in a clear tube come out knotted together.  Then he displayed a classic effect, the Silk Pedestal.  A silk is vanished, and it reappears inside a (covered) glass that has been in full view all the time standing on a pedestal.

Joel produced a white silk, then a red silk, and from these a red-and-white striped silk.  He then showed us the 20th Century silks routine.

Steve Irwin was neat.  He changed a blue silk into a red silk, then changed the red silk back to the blue silk.  Colour change is a big part of silk magic.

David Whitson started with a sad clown face on a silk, placed the silk into an empty cloth bag, and then showed that the silk in the bag had changed into one with a cheerful happy face.  He formed a silk into a floppy column, and showed how we could move the silk around, with an “invisible hair”.  With a play on the word “hare”, he then produced a rabbit silk.

Joel showed  a black scarf with a yellow silk tied to it, then he turned this into a massively long multicoloured streamer, then caused the yellow silk to jump back on the black scarf.  Your reported regrets that he has missed some details here, but, frankly, the routine was so fast-paced that he was left gasping for breath!

Noel Clair caused a silk to change colour when pulled through his hand.  Then he moved on to something different – Needle through Balloon, except that Noel put the needle through two balloons. This is the first time your reporter has seen this.  Noel also gave us some valuable tips with the needle through balloon effect – which is remarkably hard to do.  He uses a Jumbo balloon, and uses vaseline on the needle.

In all, it was a fine evening - thank you to Joel and all the performers.