What Happened at the Meeting on Friday 9th October 2026

The theme of the night was "Paper and Apperatus" hosted by Steve Irwin.

Al started us off with a beautiful story while completing a well practised torn and restored newspaper routine. It was especially convincing and poignant considering the cost pressures being faced by all recently. Al continued the magic with his famous radar trick. In this effect, he shuffles the deck, divides it into two, picks one of the packs, picks a favourite card from this pack and sandwiches this card between the two packets. Now the story begins with a destroyer commander out in the ocean. The cards are dealt into four columns face up and the column with the selected card (4 of Spades) is gathered. This pile is dealt into three rows of three, with one extra card eliminated for symmetry. Next, three cards are eliminated due to false radar reflection and another three are eliminated due to sonar rain reflections. Ships sitting side by side eliminate two more, leaving us with just one card. Sure enough, it is the 4 of Spades, bullseye! This interesting story gives a good overview of destroyers, radar and sonar throughout the magic. Al then took a request and continued with his islands card effect in which four islands (Cards) are inhabited with four diamonds, four lieutenants, four girls, four spades, four bears (So they needed clubs), four worried mothers (Who loved their sons) and four concerned fathers. The four columns that have been dealt are gathered and cut multiple times, as there is a cyclone on the island which goes on for a few days. The cards are then dealt out into eight different piles, at which point we find all of them back together again - Nothing is mixed, the four spades are in the same pile, the four diamonds, the four clubs and so on for all involved in the story. A neat ending!

Noel continued the show with a walking stick which he can twirl deftly. From the cane he grabs blue and red loops which very quickly transpose position from top to bottom several times, a trick taught by Tom Blunden. Next, Noel has a blue scarf and ring around it. He threads the scarf through the ring and then the ring moves by itself up the length of the scarf several times. On the same theme, Noel displays two white ropes parallel to each other and has a red scarf tied around the pair. He then ties a purple and green scarf as well, all around centre of rope. The rope is fed through a small container and a lid is placed over the top of all of the scarves. The rope is tied just once and both ends are held by two participants who pull firmly and the rope comes straight through the entire setup by magic. Very deceptive and convincing.

David Blunden recounted a story about telephone books before giving a sealed envelope to an audience member. He then displays a strip he has cut from the phone book and starts moving a pair of scissors along the length. He cuts when the audience member chooses. The audience member reads the top line from the clipping and sure enough, it matches the address on the envelope. Upon checking the top address on the reverse of the clipping, it is revealed that the letter inside is sent from that person. This is too big a coincidence to be anything other than magic!

Steve Irwin was next with a good joke that hasn't come out yet. Steve then displays a tube with three balls and a bus motif. The three balls are red, yellow and green, with the bully denoted by the red ball. Despite putting the balls into the tube with red last, when the tube is lifted, it always finds its way to the first position. This is repeated several times until the bully is talked to by the principal. Finally, they stay in the correct part of the bus. This is a very clever routine. Steve continued with a coin from nothing routine in which the coins multiply, once, twice, before the coins diapppear and we were back to two, one, and finally, nothing. This is similar to a Mark Wilson sponge ball routine but with coins.

David Whitson presented us with a production of $100 bills in a floral arrangement from nowhere. He then produced five coloured wands in total from just one wand. Next, David displayed a large yellow flower and an associated story. After an accidental sneeze, the yellow flower is lost, leaving only the green stalk. David covers the stalk with the scarf and the yellow flower disappears from a change bag, but the new flower has not regrown yet. While attempting to restore the flower, the audience can see a yellow flower in David's magic wand, but the performer doesn't know. Finally with a bit more magic, the flower regrows itself from the green stalk.

Warden finished off the show with some mathematical magic. He asks for any number between 20 and 80, with 34 chosen by the audience. Within moments, he completes a 4 x 4 square filled with numbers, in which all rows, columns and diagonals add up to the chosen number. Checked for accuracy and spot on, this was some fast mathemagics.

What Happened at the Meeting on Friday 17th July 2026

The theme of the night was "Impromptu & Everyday Objects" hosted by Steve Irwin.

Al commenced with a classic. He shows a 10 cent piece, a salt shaker and a serviette. Try as he might, he cannot make the coin go through the table by covering it with the shaker and the serviette. After a few tries, he crushes the serviette and sure enough the salt shaker has gone straight through the table instead! Short and sweet but very effective. I first saw this trick taught in the Klutz book of magic.

Joel started off with just two cards, a five and a nine. He gives them both to Steve Irwin who holds them between his hands. Now Joel removes just the nine and Steve notes that he can still feel a single card. When it is revealed, however, it is just a blank card and there is no more sign of the five or the nine. Flowing on from this, Neil initials a blank card with a sharpie and holds onto it, hidden, while Joel initials one from a deck of blank cards. Moments later, the initials completely disappear from Joel's card and Neil reveals that both are now written on the card that was held in his hand the whole time!

Noel was next, performing a very deft coin sleight whereby the coin disappears from the grasp of his hand and appears on the top of his palm. This was followed by the classic disappearing coin appearing from an ear. There are coins everywhere it seems, even above the door! Sticking with the everyday objects theme, Noel tells a story about a chicken that was adopted, went for a walk and was hit by a bus. Now flat and demonstrated with a hand towel, he picks/rolls it up and reveals that after a visit to the hospital, not all is lost... at least a roast chicken is still possible.

Steve Irwin had four free choices drawn on pieces of notebook paper by Joel, Raquel, Noel and Al. These were all folded up and handed back before Steve proceeded to put Dianne in a trance. He then opens up each piece one by one and after a false start or two, Dianne was able to divine correctly who drew which image. Some additional impromptu mentalism was demonstrated when Steve used his mind alone to convincingly bend a spoon, first a little, then at right angles and finally totally snapped in half. Cracking! Steve's last effect involved taking a piece of tissue paper and ripping off the corner. He places the corner on the table in full view before tearing apart the rest of the paper multiple times. Moments later he unfolds the tissue paper and it is completely intact, aside from, of course, the corner, which perfectly matches the corner still sitting on the table. He also shared a joke about seeing a butterfly which I'm not going to reveal here because I think I might use it in my act some day.

David Whitson rounded out the performances with several effects involving everyday objects. He began with a handkerchief, for which he finds the middle, ties an invisible hair to it and then the middle moves in line with the hair. He is then able to manipulate the handkerchief to appear just like a rabbit. Next he proceeded to show the classic "finger jump" using two hair ties. After it jumps from the first and second to the third and fourth fingers and back, he is able to repeat this with a band interlaced across the top of the fingers. He calls this the "Twister Sister" and we can see that the band jumps without resistance. Finally for something new, the band jumps from the fingertips directly through the barrier and down to the joints and back again. Taking us back to our childhoods, David gets Al to select a card by saying stop during a hindu shuffle and then displays a jumbo paper chatterbox. This is used to find the card with the spectactor picking a number and the chatterbox counting. There are two more rounds with the spectator picking a shape and then a season, both being counted through. There is one last selection before David reveals that many other options existed within the chatterbox. The chosen one only says that the spectator will choose a number card and that it will be black. However when opening up the entire construction there is large clear picture of the chosen card, the four of clubs. Quite nostalgic.

What Happened at the Meeting on Friday 26th June 2026

The theme of the night was "Free Choice Close Up" and "Bellbird Revision" hosted by David Whitson.

There were only a couple of performances for this meeting as everyone was understandably focused on preparation for the Bellbird show the following day.

Noel started us off with a classic chicken, library and frog joke which was both clean and funny. His routine featured a very deft coin through hand which he repeated twice. He then followed this up with a whole coin metal container straight through the hand as well which was quite impressive. Moving on to silks, Noel has three coloured scarves appear from an empty hand. Between each appearance he shows that the hand remains empty every time. Following this, the yellow scarf is fed into the red scarf in the hand and disappears, it has been absorbed by the red scarf. This is repeated with the blue scarf, which also disappears into the red scarf. Finally the red scarf is poked into the hand before everything disappears completely and we are left with empty hands again.

Al Hirschel was next up with a quick "Little Johnny" joke, where Johnny asks what he is and is not allowed to do. It probably doesn't translate well to the blog, but rest assured we all got a good laugh from it.

David Whitson returned us to the performances with a smooth white wand to scarf. After this he used a clear tube and a thick yellow rope. Upon passing the yellow rope through the tube, five knots appear as if from nowhere. These knots are untied and the rope rolled around the hand. Upon unfurling, now there are four new knots on the rope. Baffling! David finished with a fan that shows three different solid colours when spread. The final display of the fan shows a multicolour rainbow.

Steve Irwin ended up the jokes for the night with a test of a new "funny bunny" joke. I don't want to be a party pooper and say it here, but I think it made it into the next day's performance.

What Happened at the Meeting on Friday 15th May 2026

The theme of the night was "Card Tricks with a Borrowed Deck" hosted by Al Hirschel.

Al borrowed a deck and started us off with three effects, the first of which I'm going to call the "two card coincidence". Telling a story about how coincidences are actually more common than you think, Al has two cards selected from the pack. After some shuffling and rearrangement, their pairs of the same suit and spot value are revealed randomly at the top and bottom of the deck. Keeping with the story theme, Al has a card selected and then discusses depth charges for submarine hunting during World War II. The cards are dealt into four piles, which are then narrowed down with various submarine, sonar and radar themed criteria. The final card left, which receives the depth charge, is the correct one! Sublime! To finish, Al performed a sequence effect with four aces, four knaves, four hearts, four bears, four spades, four diamonds and four queens. The story goes that four knaves are marooned on an island. The cards are dealt into various piles before a storm comes and mixes all of them thoroughly. Despite this, when dealt at the end, everything is magically and neatly ordered in piles.

David Blunden also performed three effects. The first trick has a selected card returned to the middle of the pack. The deck is spread out and sure enough, the selected card is face up... or is it? It's the wrong card! Magic works in funny ways and with a little counting based on the spot value of the upturned card we come to the correct one. The kicker is that all of the cards in the middle that were counted out are all aces. Sticking with the aces theme, David performed a Mark Wilson classic, placing an upturned selected card in between the two red aces. With a little magic, the upturned card disappears and reappears in the middle of the pack, but this time, face down between the two black upturned aces! With assistance from Raquel, David finished with a spelling routine. Raquel picked a card, returned it, and then confirmed that the deck was a genuine borrowed one. Raquel spelled out a random card, dealt out letter by letter, and sure enough that card appears. Next she spells out her chosen card and it is revealed in exactly the right spot also!

Noel demonstrated a playing card that played like a harmonica, before sharing several card flourishes. His first card trick told the story of four diamond thieves and a famous investigator. Despite finding the four thieves (The four aces), time and time again the guarding constables lose sight of them. The aces, despite being put into piles with a number of regular cards, consistently disappear and appear in their own pile. Perplexing stuff! Noel also performed a detailed ambitious card routine with a story about people we may all know who are consistently ambitious. A card placed into the middle of the deck rises to the top, even after being placed back into the middle, near the top or right at the bottom. This 'ambitous card' was unstoppable - No matter the method used, it kept coming back to the top. Even after splitting the deck into two separate piles, it still gets to the top of a separate packet. Finally, the deck was reduced to just a small packet of three. Even in this restricted set, the ambitious card is always on top.

Raquel showed what she called an eyesight test with help from Dianne. She dealt four cards, each time ending with a king. These were clearly dealt onto the table so that everyone could see that each fourth card was a king. Two piles are removed, leaving us with two piles, each of which should have only one king. Raquel clearly moves just one regular card from one pile to the other and just one king in the opposite direction. Now, suddenly, all four kings are together on one pile and the other pile just has the regular cards! For her second trick, Raquel has seven cards chosen and Dianne picks one. Dianne is then asked to spell out any card of her choice from the pack, with one card dealt for each letter. After this, a decision is made on whether to spell out truth or lie. With the cards dealt accordingly, the correct card is revealed on the last letter!

Ben, a new visitor to the club, wowed us with some fast and dextrous routines. First he spells out cards quickly, revealing the five of spades from the top of the deck, as predicted. Next, a chosen card is placed back into the deck. With a few shuffles, this card is returned to the top of the pack... or is it? No, it's the five of spades again! This is attempted three more times with various shuffles, but each time, it's the five of spades revealed. It's the ambitious card all over again! In the end, it turns out that the chosen card was sitting face down on the table all along. For the next effect, Neil freely chooses the seven of diamonds. Two jacks are dealt onto the table and then lost into the deck. Within moments, the chosen card is found and revealed right between those same two jacks. During the following fast trick, a queen is randomly chosen. With only a few deft cuts, all four queens are found and revealed rapidly. For his final baffling routine, Ben has Noel pick a card before covering it with his hand on the chair, it can't go anywhere. The four queens are going to find Noel's card, although only three of them are face up, what's the face down one? It's the chosen card! So what's under Noel's hand? Of course, in the reveal we find out that it is the missing queen. Royally entertaining.

Warden was up next with a lightning fast trick. Raquel picks a card freely and yet Warden knows what it is immediately. Following this, the card is inserted randomly back into the pack and fanned out. Sure enough, it is the only one facing up in the fan. In his final effect, Warden deals four piles of four cards onto the table. He cuts the pack multiple times, he rearranges the pack, he goes through a number of steps to show that they could not hold the same order, and yet, upon dealing again, all cards remain in their respective piles. This is in keeping with one of the emerging themes for the night, which surely was "piles of four all arranged in order"!

David Whitson was the last performer, starting out with an explanation of the different shuffles, including classics like the the hindu shuffle, Australian specifics like the ASIO shuffle and of course the universal political reshuffle. He also demonstrated a "playing card" that plays a tune like a flute, similar to Noel's harmonica. To conclude the night, David presented a story using jumbo cards. This detailed story, called the Adventure of Diamond Jack, uses every single card in the deck and is packed full of puns. Jack was an Ace in the war, not flush, but went on a date with a redhead Queen and her sister. Unfortunately he was King hit and wound up in the hospital. The story has a happy ending though, with a marriage, two of a kind and of course two hearts as one. Happily shuffled together ever after!

A great night of card tricks, dexterity, trickery and at least three crimes against probability. No rabbits were harmed, but several decks are now emotionally unavailable.

What Happened at the Meeting on Friday 17th April 2026

The theme of the night was "Silks and Handkerchiefs" hosted by Steve Irwin.

Steve started us off with a very smooth large silk handkerchief colour change. He started with red and made it change to white through his hand. Afterwards, of course, the hand is shown empty. Following from this, Steve put the red into his fist before it disappeared completely. As a twist on the standard routine, Steve puts the white handkerchief into his hand again and makes the red gradually appear out the bottom of his fist. Now both silks are on display. For a final flourish, Steve puts the red handkerchief away and just puts the white one into his fist. Yet again, it turns into red, despite the red handkerchief having been put away. The hand, of course, is still empty! An impressive colour change routine.

Noel was next and presented a card effect using four aces that are to represent four robbers in a casino. Three of these robber cards are placed in different locations of the deck, all clearly around the middle, with a single ace remaining on top. The story is about a casino robbery with the black jack acting as Poirot the policeman. Poirot (the jack), goes into the middle of pack, riffles up "the stairs", arriving out on top, but now has all four aces up there with him. Deft exeuction of a clever move in this story. Noel now arranges four piles, each containing a single ace and three policemen. One by one, the four aces disappear from their packs of four and now it is unclear where they have gone. It's Poirot to the rescue again, as he reveals that all four aces (robbers) are together again in a single pile. No jailbreak today!

David Whitson ended up the night, starting with a long white staff that disappears in an instant and deceptively changes to a large white silk. David then demonstrated a long and large rectangular box with a drawer which is empty. Waving a colourful scarf up and down in the air, it gradually turned black before everyone's eyes - All of the colour had disappeared, presumably into the closed box. Sure enough, upon reopening the box, a large, almost neverending colorful scarf is found inside. Impressive, and definitely requires a lot of time to prepare or reset.

What Happened at the Meeting on Friday 27th March 2026

The theme of the night was "Packet Tricks", hosted by David Blunden.

David Blunden started the performances with a definition and historical description of Packet Tricks. He then proceeded to perform four different variants. First was seven letters on cards spelling out "NEW DOOR". The goal was to make one word using all of the letters, but apart from answers in Flemish, none were forthcoming. With a little magic and a card dealing sequence, the letters were indeed rearranged to create one word. This was an old Rex Sinclair effect, complete with hand written instructions. David then demonstrated the Magic Computer, where a spectator chooses a number between 1 and 64 before answering whether it appears on a series of six cards. With only the answers, the number was revealed correctly. This may be an old trick but it works using a very modern principle that we come across every day. The next trick used six cards, all face down. Three cards are turned face up, showing three aces. After a few magic words, all six cards are face down again. Even upon repetition, it still works. Finishing off with a rhyme, David turned a set of four jumbo black cards to red and back again.

Warden was next with a great performance involving a small borrowed packet of cards from a regular deck. A card is selected before the stack is arranged into a large fan. After straightening up the cards, they are pushed from the top down, flipped, then pushed from the top down again. Each time the number of cards out of line decreases until finally after five pushes, only the selected card is still on display outside of the packet. This is a really baffling effect, convincingly executed.

Mia continued the show with an empty magic hat. After showing it clearly bare, a magic incantation reveals a bunny rabbit! Moments later, the bunny rabbit disappears again and the hat is empty once more. You have to be quick to see it, it's so fast. To finish off Mia revealed a coin from thin air which made its way into the appreciative club donations rabbit.

Joel used rubber bands clearly twisted around his hands and fingers and yet right in front of an audience member they pass straight through. Impossible! This was followed by a crazy man's handcuffs routine including several repetitions and audience assistance for the final "melting through" of the bands. Some Copperfield level sleight involved here. Up next, an innovative twist on the original was to take one of Joel's business cards, fold it in half and lock it onto the top level of a "cat's cradle" created with a rubber band. With some magic, this dropped instantly on demand from the first level to the second, third and finally the bottom level of the band. The band was revealed to show that there was no abnormal configuration. Great to see something so clever! Joel finished his routine with a convincing and very dextrous colour change of scarves. All were certain there was a scarf left in the hand at the end, but sure enough it was empty.

Steve Irwin displayed a Jack, Queen, King and Ace. As he counts through, the Jack turns around, facing the other way. After another count, now it's the Queen. This is repeated for the King and then finally the Ace. Upon turning the cards around we see that every card has the same coloured back, except for one. Placed on the table, the audience is sure this is the Ace as it was displayed moments ago. Revealed, however, it is the Joker. A great twist!

David Whitson was the last performer of the night, first demonstrating the "Spots Before Your Eyes" predecessor, which is a regular sized playing card which displays one, four, three and six spots respectively across several flips. The night started with a Rex Sinclair classic and sure enough it ended with one too! David Whitson rounded out the performances with a demonstration of one court card passing directly and impossibly straight through the other. Not a piece de resistance, but a pierce de cards!

What Happened at the Meeting on Friday 20th February 2026

The theme of the night was "Ropes and Stuff", hosted by Noel Clair.

Noel started us off with an intricate rope routine. Knots were created magically at both ends of a rope before vanishing. Next, a knot made within a fully enclosed loop turns into two regular knots. Some dexterity was required to create a knot in a swaying rope. Another complete loop was created with the ends of the rope separating away into another rope before a knot appeared in the middle of the original rope loop. It could only be magic. Somehow Noel managed to undo the knot in the looped rope before adding a length of rope to the loop and restoring the rope to a single length with two ends for the finale. Loopy!

John Ferguson offered up a number of books with magic instructions, including some very old translated magic notes and manuals. Also on offer was a large number of convention notes, some internet prints, a collection of pamphlets, including "Happy Magic" magazines, some magic for teaching and various other rare materials. The translated olde English explanation of tricks formerly believed to be witchcraft is a good read.

Raquel demonstrated a card trick with Neal as a volunteer. Neal selected a card before Raquel created a number of piles or shapes with the cards and asked the audience whether a card was in each group. She then put the cards in two piles with a little help from Neal, before eliminating a pile, dividing again, choosing again and eliminating again, all with the help of Neal's hand which was hovering. After a few more eliminations the correct card was revealed.

Mia's magic was so fast we almost missed it. She shows a single large die in a jar which suddenly turns into numerous small dice after a shake. A second performance was required so the whole room could capture the magic.

Joel Howlett performed a dextrous and polished routine, starting with a blue magic 'wishing' flash paper that turned into a genuine large coin. The coin disappears with some help from a magic sharpie. The swift routine includes the coin becoming a pen, the pen becoming a coin, a knuckle coin roll and coin through hand with some impressive sleight. The coin then appears and disappears again behind a scarf. Just when we thought the coin would show up again, a whole shoe appears behind the scarf. What?! Next came some audience participation. John Ferguson just thinks of a card and one card appears under the box, it's the Joker (Wildcard). Moments later we try again and now it's the chosen card under the box. Following this, the box and card turn into just the card and the stack of cards appears underneath the deck over the other side of the table. This act is 100% ready for Vegas!

David Whitson showed a change bag with an empty zippered bottom. A set of colourful scrunchies go in and come out linked. Now the scrunchies go back in and come out as a single length with multiple colours. David then performed the equal unequal ropes (aka Professor's Nightmare) with thick ropes. Of course, the ropes become the same length then moments later revert back to short, medium and long. David also demonstrated the equal unequal ropes with magic wand style crotchet props. The next trick involved two red ropes, one short, one long, which quickly become a single rope. Rapid fire magic! David continued the routine with a rope that knots itself as it is passed through a clear tube. After the five knots are untied manually they then turn into four new knots upon repetition. David finished his act with four coloured ropes which, after being tied into four separate loops, are revealed as a single multicolored circle.

Steve Irwin told a story about Egyptian cotton. The cotton shown is rotten and keeps breaking. A wizard pharoah took all the broken pieces of cotton and magically put them back together into one piece. An impressive effect from antiquity.

Noel rounded out the night with a medium ring and shoelace style string. The intricate routine starts with rope through finger, before the ring joins the string and is removed magically. Even with a loop knot the ring passes straight through again. With help from a volunteer, the rope is double looped onto the ring but is pulled dirctly off once again. The ring is placed onto the string again right up in front of the eyes and in slow motion. One last time, the ring goes onto the string under the light and at a slant, something that is very clearly impossible and rather stunning! Noel's last trick was with a green shoelace which he calls the security rope. A small ring is legitimately threaded on but comes straight through immediately. It melts straight through on a second repetition as well. Even with the ring wrapped onto the rope, secured, and with a volunteer holding the rope, the ring still comes through. The conclusion was a fast removal of the ring one last time and then an instant return. Very impressive!!

What Happened at the Meeting on Friday 9th January 2026

The theme of the night was "Free Choice", hosted by David Whitson.

David Whitson started us off with a few gags, including Trix, a fried egg due to the heat, a toast for the New Year and an all red Rubik's Cube for beginners. There was also a plastic melted ice cream gag and the classic bifocal close up glasses with eyes on springs. On the magic front, David performed a convincing effect with large cards depicting Africa and various wild animals. With the Africa folder sitting on one side, the Cheetah appears in various locations behind large cards before jumping across to the folder. Uganda be kidding me!

Noel then performed some coin magic, including single coin through table, then three coins together through the table. He also demonstrated coins jumping from one hand to the other with arms outstretched and three coins from a small steel box right through the table and into a glass. Next up was a large ring that goes onto a shoelace but then merges straight through. The ring is then tied securely onto the shoelace before coming off again. Following this, the large ring is thrown onto the lace and captured instantly. Finally the ring is impossibly put onto the shoelace very slowly in full view of everyone. Impressive! On the same theme, a small finger ring was merged straight through a green shoelace (Aka "security rope"), before sliding straight off twice. The third time, the ring comes off the shoelace after audience participation and appears on Noel's finger. To finish, Noel demonstrated another quick throw on and off of the ring on the green shoelace at the end.

Steve Irwin was next, starting off with a good joke. His card trick has two Jacks set up as investigators and various cards as suspects. A card is selected before the pack is put together and cut, then dealt out in a down/under method. The final suspect (card) is found, revealed and correct! For his following card trick, three piles are created. Noel chooses a card freely from one of the piles and returns it. After this, five hand poker piles are dealt face up. Steve asks which pile the card showed up in and was able to quickly and easily reveal the selected card. This is a great simple effect and all were pleased to get an explanation of the method from Steve.

Neil finished off the night demonstrating a memory effect with a wallet. Noel viewed a card with symbols, promising to remember them all and signing his name on it. David Whitson took it out of the wallet and held onto it for safe keeping. After performing a chant, Neil made Noel forget one of the shapes he saw. Noel recalled that there was a triangle, a circle and a square, but the signed card held by David Whitson revealed that a cross had been completely forgotten, perhaps due to the mystical memory erasing chant!

What Happened at the Meeting on Friday 21st November 2025

The theme of the night was "Free Choice", hosted by Neil.

Noel started off with some large coins and a disappearing coin routine. The coins absorbed, vanished and changed - At one point the large silver coin became a gold coin before changing again into a sponge ball. This led into a sponge ball routine with some beautifully smooth sleights. Noel finished by performing a convict escape story with 8 bottle caps that move from under the left hand to the right as the convicts escape from jail.

David Whitson demonstrated magic that he will be using in the new year, including a caution deck with several decorative fan methods and a showing of the Viking Magic diminishing cards. Next up was a poker hand routine where Warden had a freely chosen series of 5 cards. This left five cards for the magician. Warden ended up with a full house but of course the magician won with a straight flush. David has also made a self constructing jumbo card tower that can be created rapidly. A large "Woo Hoo" banner accentuated a number of performances.

Raquel performed a brief but funny routine with a moving crocodile that has a little accident right on the table. Steve Irwin would approve!

Warden brought a massive book of Fairy Magic from Rex, donated by Eric in Melbourne to the NSOM, which included multiple Rex artefacts such as books, articles, documents, programs, cue cards, tricks including an egg bag and breakaway wand, a silk factory, several props and some schematics. Warden notes that the Magic Circle in Melbourne scanned everything in for their archives as well.

As an encore, Noel performed the jumping dots routine with a standard table knife. Cutting edge!

What Happened at the Meeting on Friday 17th October 2025

The theme of the night was "Free Choice" and was accentuated by thunder and lightning outside!

David Whitson started by demonstrating raining money using a Supreme branded dollar bill dispenser.

Mia was taken with this and repeated the performance before showing a clever and convincing split pencil. The pencil is shown whole, suddenly split into three and then magically restored shortly afterwards.

Joel was up next with some concepts developed through his work as an MC. He started with a series of funny laminated phrases before moving on to a number of humorous notices and advertisements in a newspaper. Next up was a mathematical notebook that goes over the number of days worked by the average person each year with a surprising conclusion. Finally Joel performed an effect involving silks and a long candle all from a small rectangular box which is repeatedly shown empty. Impressive!

Steve Irwin dazzled us with a brief but effective coin manipulation routine involving three large coins. They all disappeared faster than the eye could follow.

David Whitson started with the classic levitating wand behind the palm, followed by a polished Spots Before Your Eyes routine. He ended his series of effects using a change bag containing various silks with partial variants of the Australian Flag. After several changes he was able to reveal and display a full Australian Flag. 

What Happened at the Meeting on Friday 15th August 2025

The theme of the meeting was "Free Choice" (again) hosted by David Whitson.

David Whitson started things off with an impressive and well executed white cane to scarf.

Al then demonstrated a card routine with rows of cards narrowing down to a single selection. This was themed to the story of depth charges and submarines in World War 2. The single depth charge hits the chosen card and we learned a lot about radar in the process.

Noel performed a transposition, turning a large silver coin into gold and then back again, before following up with a routine involving coins appearing from nowhere and being caught one after the other in a metal goblet.

John used his knowledge of chemistry, taking a red liquid from a bottle and pouring it into a regular plastic cup before turning it upside down to reveal no liquid at all, only a dry red silk falling out of the cup. He followed this up with a card effect using photocopies. John showed various double sided black and white photocopies of a pile of cards, noting that only one card is face down. He turned the copy around to reveal that an earlier freely selected card was the only one facing the other way. 

Steve Irwin convincingly performed a baffling self winding bolt several times in a very close up environment. He also performed a stunning trick with three cards from a borrowed deck. The spectator chooses one card in secret and then mixes up all three. Moments later Steve is always able to reveal their chosen card.

Warden continued the theme of goblets, this time four of them with a poisoned message in three. Spectactors freely chose three goblets and then were able to switch several times at will. Upon opening the messages, all three spectators had chosen the poison while Warden was left with the safe goblet. Killer material!

As an encore, Noel performed a quick coin through table complete with sound effects.

Finally David Whitson used a change bag to share a great routine with knitted coloured coils. First the separate different coloured coils are changed into linked coils. Next they are changed again into a single long piece of coloured rope. Finally, much like the colour spectrum, all of the colours change into a single length of white rope. David also showed the empty Tarbell cone, modified to make a heart, before producing a red silk from inside. Next was a silk penetration contraption from the Graham Holstein estate. A long multicoloured silk is threaded through then chopped with a wooden card that has a hole in the middle. Upon removal, the wooden card has the silk threaded through the hole. Utterly convincing! To finish off, David performed a routine with sticks, tassels and a mysterious relationship between them.

What Happened at the Meeting on Friday 18th July 2025

The theme of the meeting was "Free Choice" hosted by JD.

Al commenced the performances with an educational back and forth about the different Australian coins before performing an effective routine of coin transpositions using playing cards and five cent pieces.

Raquel performed a convincing card trick with three piles representing the soccer teams for Portugal, Argentina and Qatar. With help from Dianne she was able to correctly predict and reveal a "drafted player" in the form of a card revealed.

Still working with cards, Steve Irwin had an audience member freely select a card and then later any number. He carefully counted through to accurately reveal the chosen card at the exact number that was specified.

Next it was Mia's turn and she presented a convincing demonstration of the magic rising wand.

Joel showed three lengths of coloured rope tied at both ends. After extending them out and repeating the simple knots, the three separate pieces were merged into a single length of rope and the knots disappeared. Very impressive! Joel also stunned with a variant of the cups and balls that started with a card selection, continued with a standard cups and balls routine using balls of paper, was accentuated as the balls turned into flashes of flame and finished with the selected card appearing under a cup. An excellent combination!

David Whitson finished with the sudden production of a bunch of $100 notes in the form of a bouquet. He also demonstrated a change bag with a varying collection of silks, some with mismatched holiday phrases. Next was a paint tin that was shown empty but later revealed a variety of sponge shapes, especially hearts of different sizes. After sharing some Magic Club badges for members that did not already have one, David finished by reciting a 52 card love story using all of the cards in a jumbo deck.

What Happened at the Meeting on Friday 23rd June 2023

The theme of the meeting was “Bar Betchas” hosted by Jeff Clarke, who led off with several items.  He did the “Giraffe turn around” and the “Fish  turn around” using kebab sticks.          Next, he dropped three dice into a glass of water.   Drawing attention to the numbers visible on the dice, he asked us to predict the total of the numbers on the bottom of the dice.

David Whitson  displayed mismade flags – A Union Jack without blue colour, a Union Jack with red but no blue, and the flag of Australia, correctly coloured.  These he produced from a change bag.  He also showed us large posters – “Stop Pollution” from his antipollution show.

One item performed by Jeff Clarke was repeated by David Blunden – he did the Fish again with kebab sticks.  He also did the “squashed dog”.  Laying out a mathematical equation with the kebab sticks, he showed how to solve it with a minimum of moves.   He asked a spectator to “Do As I Do” – to copy his moves, and the spectator was unable to do so.

Steve Irwin has been preparing for our show later in the year, and he rehearsed his introduction for us.

Joel Howlett did a Spiderman Card trick. In this he used a deck with a card that had a spider inked on it. The he exchanged torn corners of playing cards.  He tore a corner off, gave it to a spectator to hold, tore a corner off a different car, and then magically swapped the corners over.

The “Piano Card Trick” is fully explained in “Royal Road to Card Magic” page 119, and this was performed by John Ferguson.  Two piles of card are dealt, and one odd card is added to the pile chosen by spectator.  Magically, the magician makes the odd pile become an “even” pile, and you can’t see the odd card magically move over.  He gave us two URLs of youtube videos – performance and tutorial :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFY7YOv-zEg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCRY5Guppck

What Happened at the Meeting on Friday 21 April

The theme of the evening was “Colour Changes and Classics”, and David Whitson (our host for the night) performed Pavel’s colour changing records, in which small vinyl records change colour to match the colour of the silk that has been threaded through the central hole of each record.  Then he did a Duane Laflan effect  in which a large black and white silk with a sad drawing of a clown changes into a fully coloured silk face of a laughing clown. Great fun !

John Ferguson performed a couple of items from his Chemistry Magic show – the explosion of lycopodium flame using a lighter, and “red water to silk” – a red solution is poured into a glass, which is then turned upside down and instead of the water falling out, a (dry !) red silk floats down instead. He did a card item in which a  thin wire is heated and it forms the initial letters of the chosen card. He next showed us a comic item -  Karrell Fox’s magic glasses – a chosen card cannot be found by the magician, who then puts on his magic glasses, which happen to have the chosen card pasted on their lenses.

A square of paper was displayed by Steve Irwin.  It had a small hole in it.  The hole was obviously far too small to allow a playing card to go through, until Steve cast a spell on it – then the card went through with ease !

Noel Clair did colour changes with his usual flair.  Holding a yellow silk, he made a red centre appear  in his hand, like a hibiscus flower.  Then the colour of the “flower” changed to blue !

The well-known card item “Card Warp” was nicely performed by Jeff Clarke.  A card folded inside another card appears to turn inside out just by itself every time it is pulled through the outer card, and this left us thinking “this can’t be happening”.

This great night of magic was wrapped up by Joel Howlett.  Showing us a blank deck – cards with both sides plain white – he magically printed the faces and backs. The great “Ambitious Card” routine was extended by Joel to feature a card with the spectator’s signature.  He then launched into the “Cups and Balls” using a routine devised by Jim McKeague.  It was a romantic story  that made the cups and balls item really come alive, and was a fitting tribute to Jim McKeague.