David Whitson led off the magic with “Farmyard Frolics” in
memory of Edwin, and his "Supreme Magic Company", an English manufacturer of magic
items. For many years this company
produced large numbers of excellent children’s magic items. David also performed the Linking Rings as a tribute to
magician Richard Ross.
To honour local magicians, Joel Howlett had brought along
his personal archives, and displayed them for us to explore. Magicians represented were Brendan Montana,
Tim Ellis, David Whitson, Troppo Bob, Super Hubert, Peter Jones, Uncle Rex
Sinclair and “Horace”, Tony Laffan and Chris Kelly from Ship O’Fools.
John Ferguson gave a tribute to Gary Neville, a member of
Newcastle Magicians who had passed away last year. Gary had built a set of Tumbling Rings for John, and he
demonstrated them, and gave the URL for a video of how to make them -
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JbeQyk_rFQ].
Gary was particularly fond of these.
He was also fond of Bar Betchas. John performed a number of Bar Betchas, including some balancing
items that Gary had himself demonstrated on the TV show “Reach for a Rainbow”.
A Canadian magician, Stewart James, was active in the 1940’s
– 1960’s and invented a massive number of magic tricks. One of his most famous was a card effect
that he called “Miraskil”. Steve Irwin
did a card item that was quite like Miraskil.
He also performed “Mother Goose”.
Our club’s Patron, Graham Holstein, gave tributes to Rex
Sinclair. “Uncle Rex” was a well-known
Newcastle magician and radio announcer that continued performing to an advanced
age here in Newcastle. Graham gave
reminiscences of his association with Rex, remembering Rex’s magic shop in
Scott Street in the City. Then Graham
did a stunning performance of the “Magic Square”.
