What Happened at the Meeting on Friday17th January 2020

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 !