What Happened at the Meeting on Friday 15th February

DAVID WHITSON started the magic with the item Two Ropes Become One, and moved on to Professor's Nightmare.  He continued with the fascinating item, Pavel's Knots on Rope.   David could make the knots appear and disappear, and then showed they were real, because to remove them he had to untie them !

JOHN FERGUSON did a rope item called "Zip stitch".  Winding a rope around the fingers of one hand, he told a story of a farmer's conflict with a thief.   The rope tie, known as Zip Stitch, which appeared so firmly attached to his hand, was magically removed in one pull. The farmer prevented the thief stealing his grain by using the rope, whipping him and binding him up.

NOEL CLAIR (our host) performed a bottle cap matrix, and then showed us how it can be turned into a story – "Escape from Alcatraz", in which bottle caps representing prisoners are magically transferred from the prison across to boats on the dockside.  In "Random Aces" he asked a spectator to use a coin to push some cards out of the pack.  This was repeated four times.  The four random piles were incredibly shown to have aces on top of each pile.  In another transference effect, coins moved from his left hand to a glass in his right. Again, he took a talon of cards, and then he rubbed one card with his hand on the table, and the card vanished.   

He performed another matrix in which coins were covered with playing cards, and the coins moved across one at a time.   He again took cards – four of them this time, and first showed all the cards were identical, then showed all the cards were different.   Finally, using a Boston Box type effect, he passed coins through the table.  We regret that it is not possible to give detailed descriptions here of the massive amount of magic he performed for us.

STEVE IRWIN used the Stiff Rope (surmounted by a Mickey Mouse) to entertain us, and next he produced many paper flowers from  thin air, throwing them into a receptacle – a very smooth illusion.

JEFFREY CLARK also displayed the Stiff Rope, changing it into a normal soft rope.  He performed his version of Professor's Nightmare, and his version of the Vanishing Knots. It is helpful to see how different performers approach the same trick !