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 !  

What Happened at the Meeting on Friday 20th September

AL HIRSCHEL, the host for the evening, opened the theme of "Paper and Everyday Objects", with a newspaper tear.  The torn and restored newspaper item worked brilliantly.  Next he cut up a business card very carefully with scissors in a special pattern in order to prise it apart to fit over a person's head.

Next there was a surprise performer – NEIL LYNCH, who rolled a handkerchief into a thin cylinder and asked Al to cut it in the middle. Your reporter saw it was actually cut in two – Neil cheekily put each of the pieces into  Al's ears – and then with a shake, Neil restored the handkerchief, whole, undamaged !!  Your reporter could not believe what his eyes were telling him! – and is eager to see more magic from this surprising performer – thank you, Neil!

JEFF CLARKE asked a volunteer to remove a double page from a newspaper, and add the page numbers, front and back, together.  The answer was the same as the number that he had predicted, although of course he did not know what page from the magazine would be chosen !  He also did an iphone trick in which a video of a cockroach crawling across the spectator's hand becomes frighteningly real when the spectator turns his hand over, and a (plastic) cockroach is attached to it – not everyone's cup of tea!

Classic paper items were the focus of DAVID WHITSON.  He performed the vanishing cane in newspaper, with a heritage right back to Fantasio, and then he  transformed paper pieces to dollar bills – the money production.  Nice items !

JOEL HOWLETT  displayed an ordinary door key, and had it inspected. Then with a wave of magic he showed it again, and the shank of this strong brass key had been twisted through 180^o  and  one of the magicians teased him that he would find it hard to get back into his house !  Next, he displayed a square of paper with one hole punched in each of the four corners.  More magic, and the four holes all got together in one corner.   Then, since the theme was paper, he did a "tear and restore" item – he tore up one double page of a magazine, and then restored the magazine whole, for us to inspect.

Using the excuse that he felt tired, JOHN FERGUSON did a trick called the "Lazy Magician", in which he chose a card from the spread, keeping the face hidden. Then he dealt  cards from the spread so that a small pile was assembled on the table.  A spectator then dealt this pile down into two piles, and he turned face up the last cards dealt.  Using the indices of these cards, John showed they corresponded to the hidden (prediction) card he had dealt earlier.  John workshopped this item for the club.

This workshopping provoked STEVE HOWLETT to himself do a workshop on the Twenty-one card trick, which was very informative and easy to follow.

What Happened at the Meeting on Friday 16th August

Steve Irwin, hosting this meeting on "Balls on Other Things", starting by inflating a balloon and running a needle through it. He showed a mechanical marvel in which a brass screw winds on to a threaded rod by itself, and its speed and motion is under the control of the magician.  He then vanished a red silk handkerchief and displayed an egg in its place.

President David Whitson gave us a surprise with an exploding ice cream !   The cleverly made plastic ice cream ejected the ice cream (plastic ball) when a spring was pressed.  Since the theme was "Balls", he showed us a round sponge ball and it changed to a cube, and a yellow sponge ball changed to a large yellow star.

Al Hischel demonstrated the use of a coin box, sending a coin right through his hand onto the table.  This lead to a discussion of the various kinds of coin boxes that one could obtain – Okito, and Boston boxes, and others.

Jeff Clarke displayed the Travelling Blocks – three coloured balls keep changing their positions inside the tube that covers them for a moment.  This puzzling item was neatly done!   Next, he took a spectator's mobile phone and trapped it inside a blown up balloon.

This was a night for sponge ball magic, and Andrew Pickard returned to the main theme, with items of magic in which sponge balls were transferred from one hand to another.

Another magician to do sponge ball magic was Joel Howlett.  A purple sponge ball changed into a silk banner sign appropriately saying "Impossible !"  He then did the classic Cups and Balls trick, using the equipment and script of magician Jim McKeague, now living  on the Atherton Tableland.

To finish, Al Hirschel gave us a short workshop on the Needle through Balloon.