Steve Irwin, hosting this meeting on "Balls on Other Things",
starting by inflating a balloon and running a needle through it. He showed a
mechanical marvel in which a brass screw winds on to a threaded rod by itself,
and its speed and motion is under the control of the magician. He then vanished a red silk handkerchief and
displayed an egg in its place.
President David Whitson gave us a surprise with an exploding
ice cream ! The cleverly made plastic
ice cream ejected the ice cream (plastic ball) when a spring was pressed. Since the theme was "Balls", he
showed us a round sponge ball and it changed to a cube, and a yellow sponge
ball changed to a large yellow star.
Al Hischel demonstrated the use of a coin box, sending a
coin right through his hand onto the table.
This lead to a discussion of the various kinds of coin boxes that one
could obtain – Okito, and Boston boxes, and others.
Jeff Clarke displayed the Travelling Blocks – three coloured
balls keep changing their positions inside the tube that covers them for a moment. This puzzling item was neatly done! Next, he took a spectator's mobile phone and
trapped it inside a blown up balloon.
This was a night for sponge ball magic, and Andrew Pickard
returned to the main theme, with items of magic in which sponge balls were
transferred from one hand to another.
Another magician to do sponge ball magic was Joel
Howlett. A purple sponge ball changed
into a silk banner sign appropriately saying "Impossible !" He then did the classic Cups and Balls trick,
using the equipment and script of magician Jim McKeague, now living on the Atherton Tableland.
To finish, Al Hirschel gave us a short workshop on the
Needle through Balloon.
