The meeting, with the theme "Apparatus Magic", was hosted by Andrew Pickard. Using a Square Circle, and showing it completely empty, Andrew produced several brightly coloured silks – a nice display. Later, he carried out the "Great Wong Illusion". In a quick trick, he waved his wand near a small scarlet silk and caused the silk to instantly vanish, at such speed that no-one could catch it! He also had a card chosen, and then displayed a wooden frame filled with sand. After covering the frame and uncovering it, the sand drained away to reveal the chosen card.
David Whitson used the corona virus theme to devise a trick. The colourful mask he was wearing to ward off corona virus was turned inside out four times to magically display a different patterned mask each time. Next, he showed a bouquet of green leaves, and it bloomed instantly with red roses. He showed the rising wand trick, saying it was one of the first tricks he had ever learned. Then he showed us the item called "What's Next" in which black spots on a jumbo card keep multiplying until the card is full of spots!
Jeffrey Clark did another routine with his puppet – a cartoon like crow figure, that is quite entertaining. Jeff performed coin magic. He showed us a calendar and did a mathematical trick on a square of dates to achieve the date chosen by the spectator, and predicted by him.
Coin magic was also performed by Al Hirschel. A bronze coin and a silver coin ware individually inserted in leather pouches, and shuffled. By holding each pouch close to his ear and concentrating, Al was able to determine which coin was inside the pouch.
Neil Patrick Harris is an American actor/magician, and John Ferguson performed a card trick that Harris had published. He asked the spectator who had chosen a card to carefully deal cards from the same pack on to the table. The spectator ended up with his chosen card. Again, a card was chosen, and John displayed a metal wire. When he heated the wire in the flame of a match, the wire formed the shaped of the name of the chosen card – e.g. "K" and a spade shape.
John asked Noel and Diane Clair to assist with this next card trick – the Split Deck. A jumbo deck cut diagonally was used, and Diane chose a card (a half-card). Noel was asked to choose from the other half deck, and yes, he was able to get the other half of the same card! The "Impossible Sheet of Paper" was a puzzle for us all. Finally, a card was chosen from a deck by a spectator. A card frame was displayed that showed a jumbo card that was a jack, and it was tipped out on the table – it had changed to be the chosen card !
Steve Irwin built a tower of three blocks each of which had pictures on the faces. He covered the blocks with a wooden sliding cover. When the pulled the cover off, the blocks had reassembled to make a picture of a monkey!
