Meetings
Newcastle Society of Magicians meets
on the third Friday of each month (except December) at 7.30 pm at
Mayfield Bowling Club, 2A Ingall St, Mayfield. The Club is opposite
Albion Street, beside Park Street on
one
side and the Mayfield Swimming Centre on the other. Check at
the bar to find the room we have been allocated.
The meeting starts at 7.30 pm with those present
performing magic (if they wish) for the others present. Around 8.30pm
to 9pm there is a 10 minute break to get refreshments, then a business
meeting starts that can last for a half hour to an hour depending on
what events are coming up.
Contact Details
If you want to contact us by phone, you
can ring our President, David Whitson, on 4947 4980, or our
Vice-President, Joel Howlett on 4942 3593.
But, Will I Be Welcome ?
Anyone
with a genuine interest in magic is welcome to our meetings. The usual
procedure is to attend for three meetings and then to apply to join the
society. The current membership fee for one year is $20.
Because
we meet in a registered club, those under 18 are expected to be
accompanied by parent or guardian. While this may be inconvenient for
some folk, meeting in a club means that room hire is only a modest
expense, and we can keep our club fees down.
Friday, May 19, 2017
What Happened at the Meeting on Friday 19th May
The theme this month was “classics and colour changes” with
President David Whitson as host.
David opened with his “blooming flowers” followed by another
colourful children’s magic classic – “The Magic Colouring Book”. Next came
David’s very polished and well-rehearsed “Egg Bag Routine” followed by the “Chinese
Sticks”.
Steve Irwin took the floor next with his version of Duane
Lafflin’s "Colour Change Silk Routine”. This is the one with the false explanation
and the sucker finish. Steve is doing the moves very well and he left us “baffled,
bothered and bewildered” …………
Michael Blakemore entertained next with his version of the
two card transpo effect. A card seemed to change on a spectator’s hand – well done
Michael. A very magical looking effect!!
The night’s program closed with Joel Howlett who performed
the classic “Wild Coin” effect (three Australian coins change to three Chinese Coins
with apparently no moves) and the classic “Mental Photography Pack” (blank cards to printed cards).
After a short break of informal magic discussions, the
business meeting followed.
Saturday, April 22, 2017
What Happened at the Meeting on Friday 21st April 2017
Joel Howlett was leading the meeting, and the theme was
“Silks and Handkerchiefs”. He commenced
by showing us Silk from Rose, then Coin from Silk. This Coin production led into him producing multiple large
coins. Showing us a circle with paper
across it, Joel punched a hole in the paper and from it produced a silk
fountain. He turned a black sash into a
rainbow streamer. What a cascade of
colour !
Steve Irwin, the next performer, showed his right hand
empty, and then asked Al to imprison that hand in a plastic bag and tie the bag
to his wrist with rope so that nothing could get in. Steve then took a red silk in his left hand, vanished it, and it
instantly appeared inside the plastic bag held in his fingers in his right
hand. Everyone gasped with amazement,
because it was so unexpected.
Next, Joel showed his ability with the Massal tube. Showing
a square of material empty, he twisted
it into a tube, and from the tube produced a black and white silk picture of a
flower in a pot. Asking us to throw the
colour from our clothes at it, he then produced a silk picture similar to the
black and white one before, but with coloured splotches over it. Then with a magic word, he produced a silk
that not only was a fully coloured flower in a coloured pot, but also was of a
size that was four times as large.
We know the zigzag effect with cards, with a banknote, and
even with a woman. The next performer,
Noel Clair showed us a zigzag with rope – a device that gave the illusion that
the rope was pushed sideways into two pieces, then he restored it. He did ring
off rope, and made the ring disappear.
He did his rope routine, in which knots appear on a rope and
disappear off it; the ends disappear off the rope; he tied a knot in the centre
of the rope and removed the knot, then he put the ends back on the rope. Next he made a rope pass straight through
his finger. A ring tied firmly on the
rope came off easily, then went back on firmly. When he threw the ring at the
rope, it went on to it immediately.
Joel produced a silk from his bare hands, vanished it, and
made it reappear from mid air. Next he
did the Twentieth Century Silks.
Brad Burgoyne did a nice classical sponge ball routine: he
appeared to break one sponge into two, transposed one sponge then two from his
hand to the spectator’s, and multiplied two sponges to three. The old classics have an inherent magical
power !
Another classic is the Gung Ho Silk Box, which was used by
John Ferguson to produce green, then red, then green, then red silks and so on
as an introduction to “Traffic Lights”.
This is a chemical magic effect in which a liquid, swirled in a plastic
bottle turns red in colour. Then when
the bottle is shaken, the liquid suddenly turns green. The colour change can be
repeated many times – as long as there is air in the bottle !
Anthony Roberts showed us a small box, empty. Opening it, he produced a silk. These small silk production boxes are very
useful. Next he dealt cards fairly on
to the table for one to be chosen – the 2D.
Opening a box in plain sight on the table all the time, he showed us the
prediction he had written – the 2D.
The very useful prop, the Change Bag, was used to good
effect by David Whitson, who used it to vanish red, white and blue silks, and
then to produce from the empty bag a 2 metre silk Australian flag. Noting that we should be welcoming to
others, he said that the bag was made in Japan, the silks in India and the
Aussie flag in Indonesia….. From the
change bag he next produced silk costumes of various animals such as a gorilla,
that could go around our necks – and he challenged the spectators to put them
on !
A new use for a classic prop, the Money Printer, was shown
us by Andrew Pickard. He used it to
vanish a silk, by winding the silk into the printer. Taking a tubular cover off a wine bottle, he showed the bottle
was normal. When he covered it up and
removed the tube again, the vanished silk had appeared tied around the neck of
the bottle !
What a night of magic !
Tuesday, March 21, 2017
What Happened at the Meeting on Friday March 17th
The theme was “Coins”, hosted by Steve Irwin, and the night started with
Steve doing “Coins Across”, with a smooth transfer of coins from one hand to
the other.
David Whitson commenced by promising us that if we could stay
to the end of his act, he would share one million dollars with us all. He showed us that classic trick, the coin
slide, then promised if we stayed, he would share $100,000 with us. Next he used a coin fan to produce a coin,
promising us $10,000. He explained the
Miser’s Dream, then promised us $1000.
When we eventually saw the colour of the money, it was the $ 1 million
paper cover of a block of chocolate. He
then shared the chocolate with us - thank
you David !
New member Brad Burgoyne did a nice card trick in which he
made the chosen card turn invisible, and then found it as the fourteenth card
in the deck.
Our host, Steve Irwin, was also telling us about millions of
dollars – especially one $5 million dollar note. He told us a story of $5 million dollars stolen and recovered,
and illustrated it by showing us 5 ordinary bills together with one $5 million
bill. The $5 million dollar bill
vanished and then reappeared.
We had new visitors, Anthony Roberts and his father,
Jack. Greetings to you ! Anthony did a card and coins
item, “The Prediction”. Much
appreciated, Anthony, especially for your first time with us.
Noel Clair continued the session on the “Miser’s Dream” of
David Whitson, above, giving us hints on performance of this classic item.
After the official magic time was over, Michael Blakeman,
Brad Burgoyne and Anthony Roberts were noticed sessioning on card magic
items. This sort of informal
encouragement is one of the aims of our club !
Monday, February 20, 2017
What Happened at the Meeting on Friday February17th
The theme of the meeting was “Ropes and Strings”, and this
was introduced by President David Whitson doing a mysterious “Knots on Rope and
Knots off Rope”. This led into a smooth
rendition of “Professor’s Nightmare” /
“Equal & Unequal Ropes”.
Michael Blakeman did the card trick “Triumph”, popularized
by Vernon. The final revelation of the
chosen card as the only card facing up in the entire spread is always a
surprise.
Andrew Pickard did a sponge ball routine taught to him as a
young magician by our Patron, Graham Holstein.
It was neatly done, with good interaction with the spectator.
Steve Irwin took on the classic “Cut and Restored Rope” and
did it magnificently.
Sunday, January 22, 2017
What Happened at the meeting on Friday 20th January
Quite a large number of our members performed a variety of
tricks , with ribbons, coins, cards (including a nice Invisible Deck
presentation, and a smooth packet trick), colour changing silks, and a stage
size colour block release for mentalism.
This was an excellent time with much camaraderie.
We were delighted that a visitor, Brad Burgoyne, attended
the meeting for the first time and joined the club. Thank you, Brad !
Tuesday, November 22, 2016
What Happened at the Meeting on Friday 18th November 2016
The theme of the meeting was “Packet Card Tricks”, hosed by
John Ferguson, and he led off with a “Prediction Card” effect in which the
spectator chose four cards, and more cards were dealt on top of each of these,
then by counting down to the total of the indices of the four cards, the
predicted card was revealed. He later
performed “8-card Brainwave”, a.k.a. “Red Hot Mama”, in which the one card of
the eight displayed that is chosen by the spectator is the only one with a
differently coloured back.
Joel Howlett performed
five close up items. He did
three classic rubber band tricks – Crazy Man’s Handcuffs, Band through Thumb, and Travelling Cash. In
this, Joel asked Tom Blunden to fold a $5 note around one of four strands of
rubber band between Joel’s fingers. When Joel flexed the rubber strands, the
note moved by itself down to the next strand. It was nice to see these classics
carried out again so neatly. He
followed these with sugar grains to filled sugar packet, and torn and restored
paper napkin.
David Whitson presented three single-coloured cards to pick,
and the one chosen by Al Hirschel was the one he had predicted.
Then David showed us a packet trick of four king cards called the “Mystic
Kings”, purchased many years ago. The
chosen king vanished. Al Hirschel
recalled that Alf Hayes who ran De Larno’s so long ago in the Piccadilly Arcade
had told him that of all the packet tricks he had, “Mystic Kings” was the most
popular ! Next, David had a card chosen, and it appeared sliding out of a large
colourful card frame.
“Mind Reading Extraordinaire” was the theme of Michael
Blakeman’s item. He tried to find the
card Steve Howlett had chosen by questioning him Steve about it, and judging from his
facial expressions what the card was.
He succeeded. Twice. This was impressive ! His next item, and the final item of the
night, was a chosen card revelation by making the chosen card reverse face up in the
middle of the spread face down deck.
This was a very visual conclusion !
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