Hosted by David Whitson, the meeting had the theme
"Free Choice". Eight
performers presented items as follows,
which was encouraging.
Andrew Pickard commenced the magic with a sponge ball item
in which one sponge ball formed two in the spectator's hand. He moved on to a levitating knife, the handle
of which glowed with an eerie red colour.
Having had five cards chosen, he focussed on one of them, placed all five into the pack
and pushed them through and back four times, and one – the chosen card – was
displayed.
Noel Clair did several items
- a finger ring threaded on a
ribbon came off six different magical ways, a ring in his hand vanished and
reappeared, a ribbon threaded around his
finger passed through it. He
demonstrated a vanishing knot. A ring
threaded on a loop of ribbon came off magically. Your reported was hard pressed
to get any notes on Noel's very fast and very smooth performance!
Jeffrey Clark performed a comedy item with a banana placed
in a black silk. "We start by
bending the banana in two….."
A young visitor, Mason, did a shrinking arm illusion for us.
Joel Howlett performed a card item and located a chosen
card, and did a four ace trick.
David Whitson showed us a fan in which all the blades had
been separated. He healed this useless fan
using magic. He threaded a needle
magically – how I wish I could do this when I need to get a thread on a needle
! His egg bag changed colour and changed
colour – seven times ! A stiff rope
collapsed at his command. He showed us
the Professor's Nightmare, and the Chinese Sticks, telling us the legend that
goes with them.
Graham Holstein brought us reminiscences of Rex Sinclair
(Uncle Rex, Rex Sinclair Steel) for whom our magic club was formed, and who was
such a strength in the club for much of its life. Rex delighted in trick decks, and Graham had
brought along several that he had purchased from Rex, including his well known
One Way Forcing deck. Members told
stories of their encounters with Uncle Rex.
John Ferguson gave us a workshop on the card item "J C
Wagner's Supercloser", invented by Wagner in the States. It is a complicated item, and the explanation
of how it works was lengthy.
In summary, a huge variety of very interesting material !
