AL HIRSCHEL, the host for the evening, opened the theme of
"Paper and Everyday Objects", with a newspaper tear. The torn and restored newspaper item worked
brilliantly. Next he cut up a business
card very carefully with scissors in a special pattern in order to prise it
apart to fit over a person's head.
Next there was a surprise performer – NEIL LYNCH, who rolled
a handkerchief into a thin cylinder and asked Al to cut it in the middle. Your
reporter saw it was actually cut in two – Neil cheekily put each of the pieces
into Al's ears – and then with a shake,
Neil restored the handkerchief, whole, undamaged !! Your reporter could not believe what his eyes
were telling him! – and is eager to see more magic from this surprising
performer – thank you, Neil!
JEFF CLARKE asked a volunteer to remove a double page from a
newspaper, and add the page numbers, front and back, together. The answer was the same as the number that he
had predicted, although of course he did not know what page from the magazine would
be chosen ! He also did an iphone trick
in which a video of a cockroach crawling across the spectator's hand becomes
frighteningly real when the spectator turns his hand over, and a (plastic)
cockroach is attached to it – not everyone's cup of tea!
Classic paper items were the focus of DAVID WHITSON. He performed the vanishing cane in newspaper,
with a heritage right back to Fantasio, and then he transformed paper pieces to dollar bills – the
money production. Nice items !
JOEL HOWLETT displayed an ordinary door key, and had it
inspected. Then with a wave of magic he showed it again, and the shank of this
strong brass key had been twisted through 180o and one of the magicians teased him that he
would find it hard to get back into his house !
Next, he displayed a square of paper with one hole punched in each of
the four corners. More magic, and the
four holes all got together in one corner.
Then, since the theme was paper, he did a "tear and restore"
item – he tore up one double page of a magazine, and then restored the magazine
whole, for us to inspect.
Using the excuse that he felt tired, JOHN FERGUSON did a
trick called the "Lazy Magician", in which he chose a card from the
spread, keeping the face hidden. Then he dealt
cards from the spread so that a small pile was assembled on the
table. A spectator then dealt this pile
down into two piles, and he turned face up the last cards dealt. Using the indices of these cards, John showed
they corresponded to the hidden (prediction) card he had dealt earlier. John workshopped this item for the club.
This workshopping provoked STEVE HOWLETT to himself do a
workshop on the Twenty-one card trick, which was very informative and easy to
follow.
