Ring NO. 46, OKLAHOMA CITY, OK – Seymour Davis Ring

Meets 7:00 pm, 1^st Monday of the month at the New Beginning Fellowship Church, 15601 S. Pennsylvania in OKC

LEE WOODSIDE, Secretary. Email: WoodsideLee@hotmail.com.

www.okcmagic.club

Mike Stelzer kicked off our August meeting by having a card selected, which turned out to be the four of hearts. When he dumped the contents of his travel mug onto a tray, there were four heart-shaped ice cubes.

Our theme for the meeting was “Let’s Make Magic,” which is always one of the more popular meetings of the year. President Cassidy Smith taught Karrell Fox’s “Washington’s Wig” effect wherein a half-dollar coin disappears.

Rick Martin showed of his pyrotechnic wand. He then provided everyone with a parts list and instructions for how to construct his or her own wand.

Lee Woodside showed how to mark a deck of Bicycle cards using a blue or red fine-point Sharpie. He then taught a card trick where the selected card is revealed in a photograph. He provided everyone with the necessary photos and full instructions.

David Teeman, who has performed at every Ring 46 meeting he has attended for several decades, had a participant lift up a stack of three sealed decks of playing cards. He then had him lift only the topmost deck. The participant swore that the one deck was heavier than the weight of the three combined decks.

Cassidy Smith showed off his roping skills, ala Will Rogers. He twirled a large lasso vertically and jumped back and forth through the loop while the rope was spinning. He said that this feat is known as the “Texas Skip” and is a whole lot more difficult than it appears.

Cassidy then showed us his US Army surplus utility belt and bag, which he keeps stocked with magic tricks. Brian Tabor performed a ring on rope routine and then magically changed the ring into a coin. Cassidy closed the meeting by announcing that our next meeting will be our annual flea market and auction.

Lee Woodside

Ring NO. 46, OKLAHOMA CITY, OK – Seymour Davis Ring

Meets 7:00 pm, 1^st Monday of the month at the New Beginning Fellowship Church, 15601 S. Pennsylvania in OKC

LEE WOODSIDE, Secretary. Email: WoodsideLee@hotmail.com.

www.okcmagic.club

We held our first live meeting in over a year in July. The theme for the meeting was “Comedy Magic.” Jim Green started the festivities by inviting Riley Beeson to join him “on stage.” Jim began by claiming he could poke Riley’s head through a small brass ring. This gag bit got several groans. Jim then had Riley hold a loop of chain and linked the brass ring onto the chain in a split second. He did it again for those who blinked the first time.

Michael King performed the “Kate and Edith” card trick. This led to a discussion of the use of one-liners in a magic routine. Michael talked about how hard it is to come up with good original comedy material. Lee Woodside commented that some of the best lines come from things that audience members say during a performance.

Lee Woodside invited Jerry Bowzer to assist him in a magic routine. Lee showed a list of famous actors and singers and had Jerry secretly count to a card based on the name of his mentally selected celebrity. Lee then asked Jerry if he would be surprised if a photo of the star was on the back of the list. Sure enough, the photo was of a baby, but he/she was holding a playing card, which turned out to be the very card that Jerry had “selected.” Lee said that this was an effect from Roberto Giobbi’s CARD COLLEGE LIGHTER which he and Jim Short had improved upon.

David Teeman showed that he held a red sponge ball in his left hand. He “magically” caused it to travel to his right hand. Then he caused it to travel back. He then admitted that the skeptics were correct in assuming he had two sponge balls. He showed a yellow sponge ball in one hand and a green one in the other and his hands were obviously otherwise empty.

David then enlisted the help of Derrick and Riley Beeson. David handed Derrick a large envelope containing three other envelopes. The largest of the three envelopes contained three TIME magazines and David asked Riley to choose the one that would be used. He had Riley select a random page and point to any location on that page. The word he was pointing to was “executive.” The second envelope contained a Thesaurus and David asked Riley to look up the word “executive” to find out its meaning. However, the page was missing. The third envelope contained the missing page and the word “executive” was circled.

Cassidy Smith performed a “wild card” routine where ugly ducklings turned into swans. He then showed an Aldo Columbini effect where a ring was thrown onto a rope and ended up within the knot that he had previously tied in the rope.

Lee Woodside

IBM Ring 46 presented its annual “Pandemonium of Magic” show on June 19, 2021 at the New Beginning Fellowship Church in south Oklahoma City. The 2020 show was canceled due to Covid 19, so it was great to dust off our magic props and perform again.

Cassidy Smith was the emcee as well as the opening act. He began by magically creating knots in a rope and then performed a cups and balls routine that was worthy of his elegant Sherwood cups.

Darryl Brooks performed card productions and flourishes, no doubt learned from Jeff McBride. Darryl then showed off his mind-reading powers by performing a no-force mental epic routine.

Rick Martin came out dressed as a full-fledged wizard named Professor Ludicrous. He said that he was a Professor of Wands at the lesser-known Pig Snout Academy for Young Wizards. After having an audience member select a playing card, he invited a young man from the audience to help him levitate the card matching the selected one from a deck of playing cards displayed on a table on stage. After several amusing “failures” by the young wizard, Rick saved the day with his pyrotechnic wand, revealing the correct playing card.

J. David Teeman began by producing his three lovely young female assistants from a pair of giant dice which had been shown to be unmistakably empty. Next he showed three silk scarves, two black and one yellow, suspended from a horizontal rod and magically commanded the scarves to change places. Finally, he enlisted the help of a young lady from the audience to cause a silk scarf to vanish. After multiple attempts, each with a bigger wand, he finally succeeded after his assistants carried out a wand that filled the stage.

During the intermission, Justin Teeman performed rolling magic (his version of strolling magic) for the audience members. Justin is an accomplished artist with the pasteboards.

Lee Woodside opened the second act with a tribute to his late friend and Ring 46 Life Member Joseph “Shyster Joe” Diggle. Lee performed “Captain Lee’s Magic Medicine Show,” with lots of gags and bits of business that would have warmed Joe’s heart. The magic included the “Squircle” newspaper trick and Multum in Parvo.

John Shack, who is a full-time professional magician and no stranger to comedy clubs, began his act by having an audience member choose one of eight socks. After showing one foot to be sock-less, John showed that he had the matching sock on his other foot. John then enlisted the aid of a young boy and a young girl and had each count out ten cards and place them in envelopes. He magically caused three cards named by audience members to pass from one envelope to the other. John ended with a danger effect. He placed a razor blade in the middle of an Oreo cookie and mixed that cookie in with four others. As audience members selected each cookie, John devoured it, until he was down to the last cookie, which he showed to contain the razor blade.

Derek Beeson got a volunteer from the audience, handed him a book, and then stood back-to-back with him. As the volunteer selected a page in his book, Derek would divine the words on the page using a second copy of the book he had retrieved from his pocket. After much byplay, he revealed that all the pages in his copy of the book were blank. He then performed an interactive egg bag routine with his volunteer assistant.

Michael King, AKA “The One-Man Circus” amazed the audience with his juggling, cycling, and plate-spinning skills. He closed his act and the show by juggling bowling pins while riding a unicycle.

Pandemonium has been a Ring 46 fundraiser for decades. We look forward to many more years of amazing audiences with our magic.

Lee Woodside

Ring NO. 46, OKLAHOMA CITY, OK – Seymour Davis Ring

Meets 7:00 pm, 1^st Monday of the month at the New Beginning Fellowship Church, 15601 S. Pennsylvania in OKC

LEE WOODSIDE, Secretary. Email: WoodsideLee@hotmail.com.

www.okcmagic.club

Our June meeting was strictly a Zoom meeting. However, we are planning to go back to 100% live meetings in July. Eleven magicians signed on. This meeting was our annual Close-Up Contest.

Lee Woodside kicked off the contest with his “Western Mental” routine. Lee showed a number of images and asked Cassidy Smith, Justin Teeman, Michael King, and David Teeman to each mentally select an image. Lee then correctly divined each image: a horseshoe, a honkey-tonk piano player, a sheriff’s badge, and a “No Bull” sign. Lee said that he had originally made up the effect for Joe Diggle when he was performing his Wild West Medicine Show.

Darryl Brooks showed four handkerchiefs of different colors, each representing a different element: earth, air, fire, and water. He pattered about how combining the elements can create new materials. After poking the four hankies into his hand, he brought for a multi-colored handkerchief. He then showed a list of famous cities. He had someone tell him to stop as he move a paperclip down the list of names. Sure enough, the city selected matched the name of the city in his prediction envelope. He ended by having a playing card selected, lost in the deck, and then found by the world’s smallest magician.

Mike Stelzer placed four Aces in a matrix on his close-up pad and added three more cards on top of each Ace. At his command, the four Aces all migrated to one stack. He next place a number of playing cards into a hat. After removing only two playing cards from the hat, he showed that the rest had vanished. He ended by passing a key through a coin.

David Teeman showed a deck of cards made up of cards with different back designs. When Darryl Brooks called “Stop,” David showed that the two cards thus chosen were both black Jacks, which matched the two cards still in the box. David then showed that all the other cards in the deck were red Jacks, with different back designs. David next showed a clear tube and covered it with a red silk scarf. When he removed the scarf, he pulled a scarf showing a royal flush poker hand. David ended by making a red sponge ball travel suspiciously from hand to hand. He finally admitted that he used two sponge balls, but it turned out that they were now green and yellow.

The acts were judged by the Ring officers (excluding Lee Woodside) after the meeting. Darryl Brooks took first place, Lee Woodside second, and David Teeman third.

President Cassidy Smith performed a Broken Wand ceremony for Joseph T. “Shyster Joe” Diggle, who was a Life Member of Ring 46. Joe was a mentor to many magicians.

Cassidy gave a glowing review of Duane Laflin’s Silk Fountain. He said that it provides color and what looks like difficult manipulation with only a limited amount of practice. He also showed a “The End” silk scarf, which he said is a great way to close a children’s show.

Justin Teeman showed us DON ENGLAND’S T.K.O.s, by John Mendoza that he recently obtained. He also showed us Mr. Jennings’ TAKE IT EASY.

William Rader, our former President who now lives in Colorado, announced that copies of his new “Artisan Tarot” decks have now been printed for distribution to reviewers. He is looking forward to positive reviews so that he can print copies for sale.

Cassidy Smith said, “Money doesn’t grow on trees, but this does,” referring to the leaf that he was holding. With a magical pass, the leaf changed into coin of the realm. He and William Rader then had a discussion about loads for cups and balls. One bit of advice: don’t use a real tomato; it can make a real mess in your trouser pocket.

Lee Woodside

Ring NO. 46, OKLAHOMA CITY, OK – Seymour Davis Ring

Meets 7:00 pm, 1^st Monday of the month at the New Beginning Fellowship Church, 15601 S. Pennsylvania in OKC

LEE WOODSIDE, Secretary. Email: WoodsideLee@hotmail.com.

www.okcmagic.club

Our May meeting was once again a “hybrid” meeting. Seven magicians showed up at our meeting place and another six joined us via Zoom. Our theme was “no-touch magic,” which meant magic where the audience members did not have to touch the props.

David Teeman has performed magic at every meeting he has attended for the past several decades. Tonight was no different. He was wearing a t-shirt with images of lots of dice arranged in rows and columns. Three sides were visible on each die. First he sent an image to Cassidy Smith’s phone, but asked that he not check it yet. He then invited Cassidy to mentally select one die, add up the spots, and move left and right that many times to arrive at a second die. He then had Cassidy use the top number on the new die and move up and down that number of times. Finally, he let Cassidy pick any one of the three numbers on that die and move diagonally that many times. Sure enough, the die ultimately selected matched the image sent to Cassidy’s phone.

Lee Woodside announced that he had received word that Ring 46 Life Member Joe Diggle had passed away February 1^st in Pearblossom, California. Michael King showed a video that he had prepared of Joe’s performance at our 2001 Pandemonium of Magic. It may be watched by searching YouTube for “Shyster Joe and his Magic Medicine Show.” President Cassidy Smith said that he would conduct a Broken Wand ceremony for Joe at our June meeting.

Using the magic of Zoom, Derrick Beeson treated us to a tour of his magic domain, a room in his home devoted entirely to magic. Highlights included his “floating” bookshelf, his wall of playing cards, bookshelves full of magic books in his closet, a jewelry chest with his coin magic props, and a cabinet with DVDs and more books, including the late Dean Dill’s personal copy of EXPERT COIN MAGIC, signed by David Roth.

Jim Green showed us his lighted message board that he uses for shows. He said that it is available at a very reasonable cost from online shopping sites.

Our very brief business meeting focused on our upcoming annual public show, which was canceled in 2020 because of COVID. This year’s show will take place on June 19^th.

Cassidy Smith gave a review of the four DVD collection of Denny Haney’s magic. He said that the fourth DVD, with interviews of Denny, was good. However, he said the other three had poor audio and video quality and lots of repetition. He said that as much as he hated to, he had to give a thumbs down. He then showed us the top-of-the-line Sherwood cups he had purchased. He said that his girlfriend told him he could have bought a car for what he paid for them. Lee Woodside pointed out that in ten years, the cups will definitely be worth more than the car he could have bought.

Cassidy then asked if anyone else had seen things that were not magic props, but looked like they should be. He showed a very fancy chopstick and said that it looked to him like a magic wand. He backed up his statement by doing a strike vanish with the chopstick. Lee Woodside showed a letter opener that looked like a miniature sword. He said that it looked perfect for stabbing into a deck to locate a card. He also showed two key chains. One had a working roulette wheel and the other contained a full deck of playing cards. Lee said that he had worked up a gambling-themed routine with them. He also showed a dollhouse candlestick that he said he uses for his “Leprechaun Seance.”

Cassidy demonstrated and then taught a four ace production using a fan of cards and several flourishes. He then assisted David Teeman in a mental experiment. David laid out three cards with a different color dot on each card. He gave Cassidy a pen and asked him to point to one of the cards with it. He then asked Cassidy to read what was on the pen. Sure enough, it predicted the card he would choose.

Michael King brought out three books and asked Alex Riera to select one. He then had Alex choose a word in the book. Michael divined the word letter by letter until he announced the chosen word.

Shaun Clark placed a deck of cards on the table and asked Justin Teeman to cut the deck and hold onto the card he cut to. Shaun shuffled the remainder of the deck and handed it to Justin. As Justin went through the deck, Shaun named each of the cards of the suit of the chosen card in order. He then announced the name of the chosen card.

Lee Woodside

Ring NO. 46, OKLAHOMA CITY, OK – Seymour Davis Ring

Meets 7:00 pm, 1^st Monday of the month at the New Beginning Fellowship Church, 15601 S. Pennsylvania in OKC

LEE WOODSIDE, Secretary. Email: WoodsideLee@hotmail.com.

www.okcmagic.club

Our March meeting was once again a “hybrid” meeting. Six magicians showed up at our meeting place and another five joined us via Zoom. Our theme was “ebay magic” and everyone was challenged to perform something he had obtained on the auction site.

President Cassidy Smith started the meeting off with some magic. He showed a penny and placed a magnifying glass over it. When he removed the magnifying glass, the penny had actually grown to the size of a half dollar. When he temporarily covered the penny with his hand,

it grew to three inches in diameter. Cassidy then showed a set of the signed BOOKS OF WONDER that he had bought with the “Buy in Now” option.

Lee Woodside showed a frame with slots for five ESP cards on each side. He placed five ESP cards on one side of the frame, with the backs toward the audience. He then attempted to send the digits 1 through 5 to Jerry Bowzer and placed the other five cards in the slots Jerry named. When the frame was turned around, all five of the pairs of ESP cards were seen to match. Lee then showed a set of Mikame wooden, nesting chop cups that he had purchased on eBay.

Derrick Beeson showed us all five of Bruce Cervon’s CASTLE NOTEBOOKS that he said he purchased for the price of one volume. David Teeman showed a Z-fold wallet that allowed him to show the wallet empty and then produce a bouquet of mylar spring flowers. He said that the trick had been thrown in free with a purchase he had made on eBay.

Cassidy asked if anyone had tips for creating a balloon swan using a white balloon. Mark Christiano offered his wisdom and also made a beautiful balloon swan for us while we watched.

David Teeman showed a mesh bag that contained five Easter eggs of different colors. He had Cassidy withdraw the eggs one at a time and open them. The first four were empty. The last one in the bag contained the note, “You will select blue last.”

Cassidy led a discussion based on the question, “What do you reveal of yourself in your magic?” Several magicians offered their responses to this question.

Michael King produced a flower using a wand. He then added ingredients to a pan and ended up “cooking up” a bunch of spring flowers. He described a child’s party where he was commissioned to produce a really large birthday cake for the birthday girl. He said that the clients did not balk at his price, but then the home they lived in was 14,000 square feet.

David Teeman showed ten Sharpies of different colors. He and a participant took turns eliminating pens. It was shown that the remaining Sharpie was the only one where the color of the Sharpie matched the color of the cap.

Cassidy showed us a replica non-firing Colt revolver that he has been practicing with. He then demonstrated some of what he has learned with a lasso, including the “Texas Skip.”

Derrick Beeson showed us a finger ring that had been crafted from a Morgan silver dollar. He used the ring to wow us with some ring moves that he had practiced.

Lee Woodside

Ring NO. 46, OKLAHOMA CITY, OK – Seymour Davis Ring

Meets 7:00 pm, 1^st Monday of the month at the New Beginning Fellowship Church, 15601 S. Pennsylvania in OKC

LEE WOODSIDE, Secretary. Email: WoodsideLee@hotmail.com.

www.okcmagic.club

Our March meeting was once again a “hybrid” meeting. Seven magicians met at our normal meeting place and another six signed on via Zoom. Our theme for the month was low-priced magic books. For example, Dover has published a number of classic books at very reasonable prices.

Michael King showed a book where the first page displayed a cell phone, a key and a pen. He asked Jerry Bowzer to choose any one of three items. Jerry chose the cell phone. When Michael flipped through the pages of the book, a hand came out and grabbed the cell phone. Later Michael shuffled a deck of cards and cut to each of the four aces. He then performed a “Twisting the Aces” routine.

David Teeman showed two one-dollar bills and then unfolded them to show that it was really only one bill. He said that he got the trick from KARL FULVES SELF-WORKING PAPER MAGIC, which he found marked down at Barnes and Noble. Later David showed a Tarot card that he found in his back yard after our recent storms. It was the “Hermit,” a terrapin with a lamp on its back.

Lee Woodside showed a spirit cabinet that he said he built from pieces of wood he got from an old haunted house. He poured a red ball out of a goblet and closed the curtain. When he reopened the curtain, the ball was in the goblet. He ran a cord through holes in opposite ends of the cabinet and then placed his college class ring into the cabinet and closed the curtains. When he pulled the cord out, the ring was not only threaded onto the cord, but was pinned in place with a safety pin. Finally, he had a card selected. He showed a slate empty on both sides and placed it into the cabinet along with a piece of chalk. Sure enough, the spirit wrote the name of the card on the slate. Lee said the routine is “Sefalaljia,” a Stewart James effect that he got from Annemann’s PRACTICAL MENTAL EFFECTS, published by Dover. Lee said that when he performed the effect years ago at a late-night session of an Oklahoma Cavalcade of Magic, Roger Klause was sitting in the back row and was explaining every move to the gentleman sitting next to him. Lee said that what was irritating at the time is now a fond memory.

Jim Green blew up a balloon inside a plastic liter bottle. The balloon stayed inflated even though it was not tied off. At Jim’s command, the balloon deflated. Jim graciously shared the method along with some performance tips.

Cassidy Smith produced a silk scarf from an invisible pocket on his shirt. He vanished the scarf and then made it reappear. Finally, he magically changed the color of the scarf from red to yellow.

Jonathon Taylor caused a silver coin to vanish and then very convincingly removed it from his eye. It was worthy of a side-show act.

Justin Teeman showed THE ART OF MAGIC, by S. H. Sharp that he recently acquired.

Cassidy Smith demonstrated his proficiency with dice stacking, a new skill that he has been working on lately. He then flipped a coin and asked someone to name “heads” or “tails.” As the coin landed on his arm, a tail dropped out of his hand into the participant’s hand.

Lee Woodside

Ring NO. 46, OKLAHOMA CITY, OK – Seymour Davis Ring

Meets 7:00 pm, 1^st Monday of the month at the New Beginning Fellowship Church, 15601 S. Pennsylvania in OKC

LEE WOODSIDE, Secretary. Email: WoodsideLee@hotmail.com.

www.okcmagic.club

Our February meeting was a “hybrid” meeting. Five magicians met at our normal meeting place and another 17 signed on via Zoom. Our theme for the month was “Classics of Magic.” Darryl Brooks kicked off the magic by pushing a pencil through a five-dollar bill and ripping the bill. He then magically restored the bill.

President Cassidy Smith demonstrated a few coin magic moves. His retention vanish of a coin is a thing of beauty. He then performed a routine where four half dollars visibly changed to English pennies and were dropped into a coffee mug. When he dumped the coins out of the mug, they had changed back to half dollars. He also showed us several versions of an appearing knot on rope. He finished by performing a rope through neck.

David Teeman tied a knot in a silk scarf and then magically caused the knot to disappear. He said that he learned the trick by carefully watching Bill Bixby perform it on an episode of “The Magician.” He said that he later saw it in Mark Wilson’s book and in Tarbell Volume 2. Later he placed two cords behind his neck, tied one of them around the front, and then magically caused both cords to penetrate his neck.

Jim Green blew up a 12-inch balloon, but did not tie it off. Amazingly, the balloon remained inflated until he gave it a magical thump with his finger.

Anthony Bruno performed an ambitious card routine. For the finale, the chosen card shot out of the deck and then came back down and stuck in the deck.

Mike Stelzer discussed the book THE BOY WHO CRIED MAGIC, by Andi Gladwin. He also showed us the book DELAND: MYSTERY AND MADNESS, which he said came with a deck of gaffed cards.

John Stack, who sometimes performs as “The Stoned Sorcerer”, showed cards with the names of various strains of marijuana written on them. Two different colors were used. He asked William Rader to mentally determine which stack to put each of the cards into. Sure enough, the colors were separated. It was “out of this world.” John also talked about some of the things needed for a Zoom magic show, including microphones, cameras, cables, lighting, and audio interfaces. He also discussed marketing techniques for Zoom shows.

Jay Relkin allowed his iguana, Aries to perform a card trick. Three different participants arrived at the name of a playing card. A large mustard green leaf was given to Aries and he chewed out a “4” and a club to demonstrate his psychic ablities.

Michael King, wearing an “I Can’t Breathe” Covid mask, opened a new deck of playing cards and began shuffling them. He asked Justin Teeman to name a card and then began cutting the cards, asking Justin to say “stop” whenever he wanted. Sure enough, the top card was Justin’s selected card. Michael finished by cutting to the four Aces.

Lee Woodside said that a normal book test would be difficult under the conditions of a Zoom meeting. Instead, he brought out a book and began going through it looking for interesting words. He asked Justin Teeman to pick one of the words as he read them. Lee then began divining the letters in Justin’s word one letter at a time and finally announced the word. He said that he learned this “Anytime, anywhere book test” from Lee Earle’s SYZYGY.

Michel King pulled a card from his deck and held it with the back toward the camera. He challenged Lee Woodside to name the color of the card. Lee said, “Red.” Michael asked for the suit. Lee said, “Hearts.” Michael asked for the value of the card. Lee said, “Four.” Michael turned the card around and it was, indeed, the Four of Hearts.

Jerry Bowzer performed an over-the-phone lie detector trick. He asked Michael King to remove seven cards from his deck and mentally select one of the cards. After following Jerry’s instructions and either lying or telling the truth at each step, Michael ended up with the selected card.

William Rader showed us a smaller size Tarot deck that he is now marketing. He has also been marketing full-size Tarot cards with a very artistic design.

Lee Woodside showed the book CONJURER’S WISDOM, by Joe Hernandez which he recently purchased via an eBay auction. The book contains such pearls of wisdom as “If you have a deck of nines of spades, don’t try to force the three of hearts” and “Stop accumulating stuff and start accumulating skills.” The book contains 3,333 quotes.

Jerry Bowzer gave a good review of the “In and of Itself” program by Derek DelGuadio that is now streaming on Hulu.

Lee Woodside

Ring NO. 46, OKLAHOMA CITY, OK – Seymour Davis Ring

Meets 7:00 pm, 1^st Monday of the month at the New Beginning Fellowship Church, 15601 S. Pennsylvania in OKC

LEE WOODSIDE, Secretary. Email: WoodsideLee@hotmail.com.

www.okcmagic.club

We started 2021 with a lecture that was free to paid-up members. Because of COVID, our 2020 memberships were rolled over for 2021. Twenty magicians signed onto the Zoom session hosted by our Vice President, Justin Teeman.

Comedy magician Matt Fore stressed the importance of good segues, gags, running gags and callbacks in creating a magic show that is entertaining to an audience and generates repeat bookings. He gave many good examples and gave some great ideas for improving our shows. For any magician who has been performing for a while, the material he taught was much more important than learning another new trick.

We had enough time following Matt’s lecture for our members to participate. Jerry Bowzer recommended the DVDs “How to Handle Cards.” Michael King showed off the new Tarot cards that are now available from our former President, William Rader.

John Shack showed his new and improved version of split cards. The cards will now magically restore themselves in full view. David Teeman showed a gift box with an interior that was red and white and held a green handkerchief. With a wave of his hand, the box changed to green and white with a red handkerchief.

Cassidy Smith gave a positive review of Al James’ CONJUROR AT THE TABLE, which is all about restaurant magic. He also recommended Kainoa Harbottle’s “Inferential.” Justin Teeman showed his signed copy of ULTRA CERVON, by Bruce Cervon.

To conclude the meeting, Cassidy Smith demonstrated his new handling of the false count for the Professor’s Nightmare rope trick. He said that the method gives him much more confidence in the performance of the sleight.

I was informed by Justin Teeman that our unofficial roundtable launched again on the second Monday of 2021 at Buffalo Wild Wings with appearances by Michael King, Jay Relkin, Zach Heath, J David and Justin Teeman, Derrick Beeson, Shaun Clark, John Shackleford, Jonathan Taylor, and new to OKC Anthony Bruno. Aces Assembled, coins traveled across, and rings visibly melted through fingers, making for a wonderful evening of good fellowship and a great time had by all. We hope to keep these going as the season allows.

Lee Woodside

Ring NO. 46, OKLAHOMA CITY, OK – Seymour Davis Ring

Meets 7:00 pm, 1^st Monday of the month at the New Beginning Fellowship Church, 15601 S. Pennsylvania in OKC

LEE WOODSIDE, Secretary. Email: WoodsideLee@hotmail.com.

www.okcmagic.club

Nineteen magicians signed in for our December Zoom meeting and annual stage/parlor magic contest. Anthony Bruno led off by showing two decks of cards and asking Zach Heath to name any playing card. Zach called out the five of diamonds. Anthony said that he would make the five of diamonds vanish from the first deck. The magic worked a little too well; all the faces of the cards had become blank. Anthony then showed that the five of diamonds was the only card that was reversed in the other deck. Not only that, it was the only card in the red-backed deck with a blue back.

Daniel Buster showed four pieces of string, each about a foot long. One of the pieces of string had a treble hook attached to the end. He placed the ends of the string, including the hook into his mouth. He invited Cassidy Smith to select any one of the strings. He jerked the selected string from his mouth. He did this two more times. Finally, he showed that the one remaining string was the one with the dangerous looking fish hook attached to it.

J. David Teeman showed a mailbox that he explained was for magically sending letters to Santa to the North Pole. He showed an envelope addressed to Santa and placed it into the mailbox and closed the door. When he lifted the flag to indicate outgoing mail, magical holiday music played briefly. He opened the door to show that the letter was now gone, magically on its way to Santa.

Mike Stelzer demonstrated his ventriloquist skills by carrying on a lively conversation with his pet orangutan. Following Mike’s performance, President Cassidy Smith announced that the Ring Officers would meet via Zoom later and determine the contest winners.

Cassidy Smith showed off his impressive collection of magic wands. Wendy Wylde gave a glowing review of the “Monster Mentalism” DVDs by Docc Hillford.

David Parr showed off his bound volume of Charlie Miller’s Magicana columns that were published in Genii magazine from 1964 to 1978. Michael King showed a collection of books that were given to him because he is a magician. The books included RAPID MATH TRICKS AND TIPS, by Edward H. Julius. He said that despite the title, the book was not a magic book, but a book on how to perform rapid calculations. He also showed the FAMOUS ROTH’S MEMORY COURSE.

Lee Woodside said that Walter Zaney Blaney’s memorial service was last week and included a video about Blaney. Look under www.facebook.com/StillZaney. Walter Zaney’s quote is very appropriate for magicians: “Die young as old as possible.”

Zach Heath, the inventor of “Ash and Ember” performed a finger ring routine that looked like movie special effects. Many hours of practice had to be involved.

David Parr showed a clip from his Halloween special that he performed on Zoom. He was in a very spooky-looking old house. He walked up a staircase and set a box on a stair and placed a ball in it. He walked down the stairs and called on the spirits. Sure enough, the ball rolled out of the box and bounced down the stairs.

Junior magician Lincoln Reed Thomas pushed a silk handkerchief into his fist. After making a magical gesture, he opened his hand to show that the hanky had disappeared.

The Ring 46 Officers met after the meeting to determine the winners of the stage/parlor magic contest. Daniel Buster won first place and will receive a $30 gift card to a magic dealer. David Teeman won second place and will receive a $20 gift card. Anthony Bruno took third place and will receive a $10 gift card.

Lee Woodside