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

Meets 7:00 pm, 1^st Monday of the month at the Contemporary Arts Building, Oklahoma State Fairground.

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

www.okcmagic.club

The highlight of our June meeting was our annual close-up contest. We had eight contestants this year and lots of good magic.

Shaun Clark invited Derrick Beeson to select and sign a playing card, which was returned to the deck. Shaun removed his wallet from his pocket and the signed card was found inside the wallet. After the card was returned to the deck, it again appeared back in the wallet. Shaun then had Derrick shuffle the deck and spread the cards face up while he wrote a prediction. He then had Derrick name three numbers. The deck was squared and as Shaun counted to each of the three numbers, he set those cards aside. Sure enough, the cards matched his prediction.

David Teeman started by performing a very clean pen-through-quarter effect, showing the quarter impaled on the pen both front and back. (Look Mom, no trap doors!) He then showed a box with different colored blocks in it. The blocks were held in place by a rod that went through holes in the blocks. David removed the rod and dumped the blocks onto the table. He had a participant name two of the colors. After replacing the blocks and inserting the rod, he was able to open the lid of the box and dump out the two selected blocks. David ended with a card trick where the selected card had a different colored back from the rest of the deck.

Jay Relkin started by performing the “Chicago Opener,” which is a classic card trick. He then performed several effects with a finger ring, such as causing it to jump from finger to finger. He then invited Shaun Clark to select a card from a deck of playing cards. He went through a process where Shaun used a finger ring to progressively eliminate playing cards from the spread deck until only one was left. The remaining card turned out to be the King of Hearts that Shaun had selected. As a kicker ending, Jay showed us that his socks had kings of hearts on them.

Mike Stelzer performed a miniature version of Mental Epic. He successfully divined the color, suit and rank of a selected playing card. Showing that great minds can think alike, he also showed that his socks matched the chosen card.

Jordan Johnson performed a very nice “printing” effect using a playing card to print copies on “special” blank card stock.

Darryl Brooks began by performing a Sefalaljia-like ring on string routine; however, he performed it standing up rather than at a table. He used a piece of cloth formed into a tube around his arm to hide the dirty work. Next he performed a playing card penetration of a two-dollar bill. He finished by bending a previously examined fork with the power of his mind.

When the votes were tabulated, Jordan Johnson claimed first place and a $30 Penguin Magic gift certificate. Darryl Brooks took second place and received the book STAGE FRIGHT NO MORE, by Rand Woodbury. Jay Relkin took third place and received a magic instructional DVD.

After President Cassidy Smith led a very brief business meeting, we began our member performances. Our first performance was by a fellow IBM member visiting from Florida, who had brought along some local friends and relatives to enjoy the magic. He performed a less scary version of “The Web,” ending with a 1-cent postage stamp rather than a spider on the participants hand.

Michael King showed off a special deck of Bill Malone playing cards that he had recently received. The Kings in the deck were Bill’s mentors and the Jokers were he and his wife.

Derrick Beeson gave a glowing review of the recent “Pebble” underground magic convention that he recently attended in Texas, hosted by one of our own local magicians who was a good friend of the late Roger Klause.

Cassidy Smith performed a four-coin production, followed by a four-ace production. He then had a playing card selected and returned to the deck. Amazingly, the selected card shot out of the deck. As a kicker ending and as something of running gag, he showed that his socks also matched the selected playing card, the King of Hearts!

Lee Woodside

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

Meets 7:00 pm, 1^st Monday of the month at the Contemporary Arts Building, Oklahoma State Fairground.

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

www.okcmagic.club

Max Krause graciously allowed us the use of his home/magic shop for a lecture by Scott Alexander. Scott is a consummate professional who has performed in many different venues from stages to cruise ships. It was a pleasure to watch him perform and teach. It was also refreshing to attend a lecture that concentrated on something besides cards and coins, as so many do.

Scott began with a candle to flower routine that he credited as a variation on Roy Benson’s “Oh see the pretty thing.” He next showed a trick he called “Thought-Toon,” which was similar to “Card-Toon” except that a freely chosen word appeared on the tiny magician’s easel at the conclusion of the effect. He showed how this could easily be reset for strolling situations.

Scott showed a routine where the audience participant is apparently hypnotized and becomes either strong or weak under the hypnotist’s power of suggestion. He then taught an egg bag routine, which culminated in the production of a shot glass of libation.

One of the strongest routines Scott performed was a bill to lemon effect. Scott’s routining of the effect made it seem absolutely impossible for the signed bill to end up inside the lemon. Scott did perform one trick involving playing cards, but it was one that would be perfect for stage or parlor. He showed us a very clean cards-across routine which was easy to learn, yet very convincing. He said that it was based on a routine from the book MY BEST, edited by J.G. Thompson, Jr.

Everyone is familiar with the routine where five paper bags are used and one of them contains a sharp spike. In fact, many magicians and a few innocent audience participants have been impaled during the performance of such a routine, which is why the Magic Castle has banned them. Scott showed his version, which looks dangerous, but completely removes any chance of possible injury. He concluded by performing the venerable Color Monte, reciting a poem that he had written as he performed the effect. I highly recommend Scott Alexander as a lecturer and think that most magicians would come away from his lecture with something they could use.

Our theme for the May meeting was packet tricks, and our featured performer, Jordan Johnson performed several for us. He began with “Poker Test” by Erik Casey. Five blue-backed blank-face cards turned into a royal flush with red backs. He next performed an oil and water routine that he credited to the book SECRETS, by Anthony Owens. Instead of black and red cards, Jordan used Republican and Democrat cards and showed that the two sides could never come together.

Jordan performed a “Hunters Monte” routine, which he said was from “The Art of Card Splitting” DVD. He then performed Max Maven’s wonderful “B’Wave” effect. Next Jordan removed the four jacks and the four fives from a deck. He had Justin Teeman select any one of the four suits. He caused the jack of that suit to switch places with the five of that suit. He ended his performance with a four-ace effect.

President Cassidy Smith led a discussion on what packet tricks are the best. The group came up with 3-card monte, tree of hearts, wild card, twisting the aces, presto printo, six-card repeat, eight-card brainwave, oil and water, NFW, color monte, cards across, Daly’s last trick, card warp (not sure I’d call that a packet trick), free will, and lie detector.

Darryl Brooks gave a report on his recent experience attending a Jeff McBride “Magic and Mystery School” on street magic in Las Vegas. Darryl said that he learned a great deal and hopes to put his newfound knowledge to use as a licensed street performer in Oklahoma City’s Bricktown tourist area.

Our business meeting was very brief and included a report by Treasurer Michael King, signing out of tickets for our upcoming annual public show, and announcement of a lecture by the ever-popular Dan Fleshman.

Our member performers for the evening mostly followed the packet trick theme. Justin Teeman performed a blackjack-themed routine where four jacks turned into four aces. Jay Relkin performed his version of “Will The Cards Match?”

Ezekiel Jump asked Cassidy for his email address and sent him an email. He then handed Cassidy a Rubik’s Cube and invited him to randomize it. When he had done so, Ezekiel asked him to check the photo he had emailed and, sure enough, the photo matched the randomized cube.

J. David Teeman showed us some convincingly real-looking foil covered chocolate half dollars, which might make a nice production item during a coin routine. He then performed a stage-size version of “B’Wave.” He said that the reason he gives an audience for using such large cards is that it is cheaper than buying a set of binoculars for everyone.

Shawn Clark performed a monte-like routine where he showed three cards, one of which was a queen. He showed that the queen was on the bottom, but also in the middle and also on top. He then showed all of the cards as different.

Lee Woodside showed how he performs Jim Steinmeyer’s nine-card trick from his book IMPUZZIBILITES in a walk-around situation, where there are no tables and people tend to be holding drinks. Joe Coover performed a delightful storytelling routine called “Gemini Twins” using just four court cards from a borrowed deck and ending clean.

Brian Tabor performed a ring-on-string routine and climaxed by vanishing the ring and having it appear in his wallet along with a previously borrowed five-dollar bill. Mike Stelzer removed five large playing cards from an envelope and showed them to be an ace of clubs and four sevens of diamonds. The ace then vanished from the packet and was shown to be back in the envelope.

Lee Woodside

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

Meets 7:00 pm, 1^st Monday of the month at the Contemporary Arts Building, Oklahoma State Fairground.

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

www.okcmagic.club

President Cassidy Smith led off our April meeting as featured performer. He magically produced a half dollar, did a coin roll with it, and then changed it into a jumbo coin. He then performed a ring and rope trick, causing the ring to link onto the rope and then removing it. He then threw a knot onto a rope and magically removed it. After a nice wand spin and vanish of the wand, he concluded his performance with a production of the four Aces from a deck of cards.

David Teeman gave us a review of the Penguin Magic event in Dallas, Texas. He said that it was very enjoyable and that there was a good turnout.

Lee Woodside presented a glowing review of the Cavalcade of Magic in Eureka Springs, Arkansas that he had just returned from. He said that there was lots of magic and plenty of magicians to meet with.

Max Krause said that he had attended Rob Lake’s charity fund-raising show for a local animal rescue group. We all remember when Rob was our Junior President of Ring 46.

Our theme for April was “Let’s Make Magic.” This is always one of our more popular meetings of the year because each person not only gets to learn new magic, but goes home with the props necessary to perform the routines.

David Teeman taught what he called “Psy-Color Card Choice.” Four cards of the same rank, but different suits, are shown face up. The participant chooses one of the cards. The magician lays it aside face up. He then shows that the remaining three cards have blue backs. The chosen card is now turned face down to show that it has a red back.

Derrick Beeson taught a card to impossible location effect. At the beginning of the routine, he had a playing card folded into quarters and clipped on the outside of his shirt pocket using a pen. The participant chose a card, signed it, and returned it to the deck. Derrick then removed the card clipped to his pocket and unfolded it to show that it was the selected, signed card.

Cassidy Smith taught the production of a giant contact lens. He followed this by having a selected card grow to become a jumbo card.

Lee Woodside brought along a hundred feet each of red and blue cord along with an electric hot knife. He cut a length of cord for each magician and then demonstrated three tricks that the cord could be used to perform. One of the tricks was a finger penetration that his father had shown him when Lee was five years old. The trick was later performed by Robert Redford in the movie THE HORSE WHISPERER.

After a very brief business meeting, Derrick Beeson led off the member performances section of the meeting causing a finger ring to vanish and then reappear on his finger. Michael King performed the “Charming Chinese Challenge” using a cord and metal washers. The washers penetrated the cord multiple times. Michael said that when he performed the effect with Chinese coins, the audience members thought they were trick coins.

Jonathon Jordan performed a delightful routine using just a deck of playing cards and a tiny plunger. (Just like you’d find in the bathroom of a Barbie Dream House.) He demonstrated how the plunger could pick up one card or multiple cards at once. He then had audience members name numbers and showed that the plunger could pick up exactly the specified number of cards from the deck. He then showed that the plunger could cut to a card that had been freely selected and lost in the deck.

David Teeman showed a trick that he said he had performed with enough magicians to establish a Guinness Book of World Records for the most magicians performing the same trick at once. He magically produced a scarf, tied a knot in it, and blew on the knot to cause it to vanish.

Jay Relkin had a participant select a card, which was lost in the deck. He then used a finger ring to locate the card. He now showed that the selected card (Ten of Hearts) was printed on the outside of the Bicycle card box.

Jonathon Meyers magically produced a coin, performed a coin flurry effect and climaxed with a jumbo coin. He attributed the routine to David Roth. Mike Stelzer caused a nickel to stick to his forehead. He offered to let any one else try the effect, showing that the coin actually had a spike attached to it.

Terry “T.Lo” LoSawyer demonstrated how he could remove a ring strung on a cord that was stretched around a participant’s fingers. He said that he had one many beers with this one.

Brian Tabor performed the venerable Ball and Tube mystery. A steel ball sank into a steel tube that was too small to hold the ball.

The names of all the performers and teachers for the evening were placed into a hat. “T.Lo” and Derrick Beeson were the lucky winners of the chance to take an item from the “Magical Chest of Mystery” brought by Cassidy Smith.

Lee Woodside

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

Meets 7:00 pm, 1^st Monday of the month at the Contemporary Arts Building, Oklahoma State Fairground.

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

www.okcmagic.club

Our theme for March was liquid magic. Lee Woodside kicked things off with “Captain Lee’s Magic Medicine Show.” He began by pitching his Captain Lee’s Magical Medicine for Mysterious Maladies. Next he showed how he tests the water he uses for its special magnetic properties. (Hydrostatic glass.) Then he told about the magical mountain spring discovered by his good friend “Shyster Joe” Diggle on land sacred to the Shoshone during one of Joe’s many summer visits to Cody Wyoming. (Lota bowl.) Lee concluded by showing how the magic medicine would multiply to meet the needs of all his family members. (Multum in Parvo.)

President Cassidy Smith led a group discussion on the many magic effects that use liquids. We also discussed the advantages and disadvantages of liquid magic.

Jim Green demonstrated his custom made top hat table that also has a shelf for holding magic items and a hook to use for linking rings. He then showed us the magical self-lighting light bulb that he had constructed.

Darryl Brooks told us about his first paid gig. He recently performed strolling magic for a party with 300 attendees. He said that performing street magic in Bricktown in downtown OKC helped him to prepare. He also thanked those who had mentored him and said that belonging to the club had helped him immensely.

Derrick Beeson gave reviews of several magic items that he recently obtained. He gave his highest recommendation for the new book THE MAGIC RAINBOW, by Juan Tamariz. He also liked the Italian leather coin purses marketed by Michael Rubenstein. Finally, he demonstrated the T-1000 by Nemo and Hanson Chien, which allows for an effect very similar to the “Crazy Man’s Handcuffs,” except using key chains rather than rubber bands.

Lee Woodside led off the member performances by showing how his magic medicine knows how to magically target the correct location in the body. He used a “Liquid Penetration” effect with three drinking glass which were stacked one on top of another. He showed that he could pour the medicine directly into any of the three glasses. He ended by separating the glasses, which caused some gasps in the audience.

David Teeman performed a card trick using a deck of Tony Chang playing cards. When he turned the card box over, “Tony Chang” became “Drunk Asian.” Darryl Brooks and Derrick Beeson each chose a playing card and reinserted it into the deck. Miraculously, each of the cards turned face up in the face-down deck.

Terry “T.Lo” LoSawyer said that he grew up on a farm and his family used a well for water. He then demonstrated how a well works. He punched a hole in the top of Darryl Brook’s head and poured in some water. He then held a funnel and a bucket under Darryl’s arm while he had Derrick Beeson pump his other arm. Sure enough the water flowed into the bucket.

Darryl Brooks inserted a string through a green Starbuck’s straw. He folded the straw in half and cut the straw into two pieces. He was then able to restore the string.

Michael King showed a large cheese balls container that was filled with ping pong balls. He removed one ball and tossed it into the audience. He had that person name a digit from one to nine and then toss the ball to someone else. Once he had three digits, he said that he had counted the balls earlier and written the total on a piece of paper that was at the bottom of the container. He had Lee Woodside hold a fishing net as he emptied the container of ping pong balls into the net. Sure enough, the piece of paper contained the three-digit number arrived at by the audience members.

Derrick Beeson performed the classic egg bag trick. When he pretended to place the egg under his arm, he showed that instead of an egg, it was a lemon. He concluded by producing a shot glass full of liquid.

Jordan Johnson poured water into the folds of a newspaper. He then rotated the paper through a full 360 degrees without any water coming out. He finished by pouring the water back out of the newspaper.

Michael King demonstrated amazing card flourishes while Cassidy Smith wrote the names of all the performers on pieces of paper and placed them into a hat. The lucky performer whose name was drawn won a very nice Himber wallet.

Lee Woodside

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

Meets 7:00 pm, 1^st Monday of the month at the Contemporary Arts Building, Oklahoma State Fairground.

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

www.okcmagic.club

Jonathon Meyer was our featured performer for February. After Darryl Brooks freely selected a card and returned it to the deck, Jonathon retrieved the card from his pocket. He then caused the deck itself to vanish and he retrieved that from his pocket. Another card was chosen and returned to the deck and this time the card was found in the previously empty card box. Finally, the deck transported to the card box. Jonathon ended by tearing open a package of sweetener and pouring it into his fist. The sweetener vanished as he openly displayed his thumbs to prove that no TT had been utilized to create the magic.

Out theme for the month’s meeting was kids show magic. David Teeman showed us some of the tricks he uses when he performs for children. He began by showing a net bag with an egg in it. He would take the egg and invisibly toss it to one of the “kids” in the audience. When that person would toss the egg back, it would visibly appear in the bag. David said that he likes to use this a warm-up. David then got lots of audience interaction with his magic coloring book. He next showed a cloth bag that changed colors every time he turned it inside-out. He performed a die box routine using a Rubik’s Cube rather than a die. When the cube appeared back in the top hat, it had magically solved itself. A black and a white silk scarf were placed into a change bag and turned into a black and white caterpillar silk scarf. When colored scarves were added and placed into the bag, a beautiful full-color butterfly silk scarf emerged from the “cocoon.” David said that he always has extra “no-fail” tricks on hand just in case.

President Cassidy Smith led a discussion on what is important for a successful kids show. Some of the ideas were that kids love repetition, the magician should let the kids win, avoid dead time, show enthusiasm, save the best for last, gear your show to the age of the audience, make things simple, visual and fun, and don’t vanish an animal unless you can make it reappear.

Our business meeting for the month was very brief, keeping with our philosophy of more magic and less boredom. Cassidy announced upcoming lectures by Scott Alexander and John Carney. Lee Woodside announced that the Ring’s 2019 Grimoire was hot off the press, or more accurately, hot out of the computer as a PDF on CD ROM from our longtime Grimoire Editor Malaki, AKA David Swanson. Lee handed out free copies to those who had submitted material and sold additional copies at five dollars apiece.

Derrick Beeson presented a review on some of the magic items he has recently acquired. He had high praise for the trick “Mr. Golden Balls.” He also recommended the close-up version of Martin Lewis’ “Cardiographic.” Derrick further recommended the coin books THE LONG GOODBYE, by Geoff Latta and INSTITUES, by Jeremiah Zuo.

Max Krause performed his version of the venerable 5-card repeat using special cards that he came up with and markets. After showing five cards that spelled ‘CARDS,’ he removed two and then had five cards that spelled ‘TRICKS.’ After getting rid of four cards, he had five cards that spelled ‘MAGIC.’ After throwing three more cards away, he was left with four cards that encouraged the audience to ‘CLAP.’

Michael Clark performed a “D-Lite” routine and then a routine with sponge balls. Darryl Brooks performed the venerable ball and vase routine, but surprised us with a kicker ending when the ball actually changed color.

Lee Woodside showed a number of jumbo cards with pictures of animals on them. He had Jonathon Meyer and Derrick Beeson each mentally select one of the animals. He asked each of them to mentally transmit to him the animal chosen, which he attempted to sketch. Sure enough, each of the two sketches matched the chosen animal. Lee said that this trick was marketed under the name “Deja Zoo.”

Mike Stelzer showed a seven of clubs and four fours of diamonds. He magically turned each of the fours into a seven of clubs.

Michael King shuffled a deck had an audience member name any card. He then had the person select any card, which turned out to be the one he had named. He repeated this several times. He showed the deck to be in a random order, but after a few more shuffles, he spread the deck to show it in new deck order.

Cassidy Smith produced a red sponge heart, caused it to split into two hearts, and then performed a sponge ball routine using the hearts and a Cupid’s arrow wand. He climaxed the routine with a giant sponge heart and said that he chose this routine because Valentine’s Day is right around the corner.

Michael Corley performed a coin through the hand routine. He then placed a copper coin in one hand and a silver coin in the other and commanded them to change places. Sure enough, they did. He next caused a coin to travel into the cap of a pen and concluded by driving the pen up his nose and removing it from his mouth.

Lee Woodside

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

Meets 7:00 pm, 1^st Monday of the month at the Contemporary Arts Building, Oklahoma State Fairground.

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

www.okcmagic.club

Derrick Beeson kicked off our first meeting of 2019 as our featured performer. He began with a routine using a leather cylinder open at both ends, four silver dollars, a small cork disk and a magic wand. He caused the coins to vanish and then reappear under the cork disk within the cylinder. He used four small linking rings to amaze a visiting young magician named “T.J.”. Derrick next had a playing card chosen and signed by an audience member. He tore it into four pieces and proceeded to visually restore the pieces one at a time. The restored card was given to the audience participant as a souvenir. Derrick ended his set of very professional magic by performing a rope routine that included the professor’s nightmare routine plus magically linking one of the solid steel rings to a loop of rope.

President Cassidy Smith led a discussion on what qualities an opening effect should have. Members suggested that the opening routine should establish the magician’s character, engage every member of the audience in some way, be visual and easily understood and set the tone for the show.

Justin Teeman showed us the effect that he uses to open his shows. He showed three cards to all be Aces of Spades and then showed each of the cards to be a different Ace.

Cassidy kept our business meeting short and sweet so that we could dedicate the rest of the meeting to magic. Me notified us of dates for upcoming lectures and Michael King reported on our financial status. There’s nothing like a five-minute business meeting and lots of magic to keep the members coming back.

Our theme for January was “firsts,” so members were encouraged to show the first trick they started with in their magic careers or the trick they start their show with. Alternatively, members could show or perform the magic they got for Christmas.

Darryl Brooks showed a large ball vase that he said was his first magic trick. He opened the vase and removed a silk handkerchief, which he poked into his fist and changed into a golf ball. He caused the golf ball to vanish and then reappear in the vase. He handed a wand to a member of the audience and had him wave it over the vase. Voila, the ball changed back to a silk handkerchief. A beautiful routine using what some would consider a throwaway trick.

Jordan Johnson performed and rated several effects that he recently acquired. He began by producing a flaming business card from his “Pyro Wallet.” The card was blank, but he waved it to produce printing. He next showed his new “Turner Watch.” He asked Justin Teeman to think of a happy memory and the time associated with it. He pulled out the stem of his watch and set it to a time and then placed the watch face down onto Justin’s palm. Justin named the time of the first class he taught and when he looked at the watch, it was set to that exact time! Jordan then showed us the “El Hilo” torn and restored thread routine. An audience member tore up a length of thread and rolled the pieces into a small ball. Jordan, showing his hands completely empty, picked up the ball and restored the thread. He ended by handing out a Gatorade bottle, a playing card box, a crayon box, a toothbrush, a pencil and a crayon for examination. He then took the items back and performed a laws of physics-defying balancing act with them, ending up with what might best be described a surreal 3-D sculpture. Jordan pointed out that most of these effects have been priced to discourage the merely curious.

David Teeman tied a knot in a scarf and caused the knot to vanish by blowing on it. He said that he learned the routine by watching Bill Bixby as “The Magician” on TV as a kid. He said that Bill Bixby had used this effect to “charm” a snake and then catch it in the scarf.

Dale Shawn invited four audience members to join him on stage. He had two of them each cut the deck. Each participant then took a card a returned it to the deck. One of them dealt the cards into two stacks and each stack was then shuffled. Each of the remaining two helpers was given one of the stacks and told to look through and find the lost card in that stack. Amazingly, each was able to do so. Dale then had a participant select a card. After floating the card, Dale returned it to the deck face down. However, when he spread the deck, the selected card was now face up.

Lee Woodside showed Meir Yedid’s “Total Destiny,” which he had purchased on eBay over the holidays. He said that had he paid anywhere close to retail for it, he would have felt ripped off. It is basically a piece of dry erase board with a four by four grid silk screened on it and can be used for forcing numbers. It would be good for performing a magic square except that no room was provided beneath the columns for writing totals.

Jerry Bowers, who is retired from IBM (no, not the magic organization) showed us an arm-twisting exercise that he used as a warm-up prior to his training sessions. He had us all stand and interlock our arms. He then rotated his hands 180 degrees, which no one else was able to accomplish.

Jay Relkin had Michael King select a card, which he then shuffled into the deck. He placed the two black queens on the top and bottom of the deck. When he threw the deck to his other hand, there was now a card sandwiched between the two queens. It turned out to be the selected King of Hearts.

After about ten minutes of visiting before we had to leave the building, the hardier members of the group repaired to the local watering hole for some late-night sessioning. Ring 46’s New Year had gotten off to a great start. If your travels happen to take you through OKC, please join us at one of our meetings.

Lee Woodside

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

Meets 7:00 pm, 1^st Monday of the month at the Contemporary Arts Building, Oklahoma State Fairground.

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

www.okcmagic.club

We had a great turnout for our December Holiday Party meeting. We even had four ladies in attendance. We began with a feast. The Ring provided the meat and drinks and members brought side dishes, casseroles and desserts. We were pleased that Thom Parkin was visiting us from Ring 170 in Orlando. He was in Oklahoma to do business with Tinker Air Force Base.

After our meal, we proceeded with our annual Parlor and Stage Magic contest. Terry “Mr. T-Lo” LoSawyer and his wife, Lauren performed a Chinese-themed act. Terry began by placing a small cabinet on Lauren’s head and impaling it with swords. When he opened the front door of the cabinet, the swords were visible, but her head had vanished. Once he pulled out the swords, she was restored. They concluded their act by showing a pagoda empty and then producing two giant 6-foot silk scarves.

Darryl Brooks began his act with a color-changing silk scarf routine. He performed a 4-ring linking ring routine and concluded with a very nice rope routine.

Mike Stelzer penetrated the body of an audience participant with two long ropes. He concluded with a vent routine with his diminutive assistant and even sawed him in half.

Lee Woodside placed five ESP cards into a frame. He then invited Lauren LoSawyer to instruct him on where to place the other five ESP cards opposite them. Amazingly, all five symbols were matched up.

Jordan Johnson performed a very professional routine using Rubik’s cubes. He solved a cube behind his back, placed a mixed up cube in a sack and pulled out a solved one, but then folded the sack flat to prove that he had not merely switched cubes. He climaxed his routine by having an audience participant place a cube behind his back while he put another one behind his back. They both mixed up their cubes, but when they were brought out, the cubes matched perfectly!

Malaki Dracwin (AKA David Swanson) was dressed in the robes of an 18^th century explorer to China. He performed a routine using cups and balls that he had made himself. In addition to the classic cups and balls effects, he vanished a cup from his bare hands. He ended the routine by producing gold, silver and bronze orbs from beneath the cups.

When the scores were tallied, Jordan Johnson had won first place, Malaki second place, and Darryl Brooks third place. The members of Ring 46 had been treated to a wonderful holiday magic show.

Visitor Thom Parkin showed off his artificial intelligence app for a smart phone. Participant Derrick Beeson selected a card and based on his answers to questions, Thom’s app correctly divined the card he had selected.

David Teeman showed off his minimalist hand puppet, which he said he likes to use to entertain small kids in the checkout line at the grocery store. He then had a participant select a playing card. He showed that the piece of paper in which the deck had been wrapped had a photo of a deck of face-up playing cards along with one face-down playing card. When the paper was turned over, all the other cards were face-down and the selected card was face-up.

Lee Woodside

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

Meets 7:00 pm, 1^st Monday of the month at the Contemporary Arts Building, Oklahoma State Fairground.

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

www.okcmagic.club

Max Krause hosted a Ring-sponsored lecture by Michael Kaminskas on October 24^th at his home and magic studio. Michael’s magic was primarily for close-up and parlor settings. He stayed pretty much with the classics, but his many years of experience allowed him to show us techniques to turn good magic into great magic.

Michael performed a nice routine with a purse frame. He pulled out another purse frame, three silver dollars, a giant coin, and finally a super-jumbo coin. His chop cup routine was not the usual “guess where the ball is” ploy that can be irritating to audience members, but the ending was classic, with the production of a potato under the cup.

His “Clinger” effect, where a Sharpie clings to the magician’s fingers was a fooler and the Sharpie could be immediately examined by member of the audience. In his “Candy Caper” routine, he tore off the top of a package of Skittles, poured some candy out of the bag, and then immediately restored the bag and handed it out. Both of these routines used items every magician should already have. His “Anniversary Traveler” was a very nice addition to the Anniversary Waltz genre of card tricks.

Michael’s “Bill in Sharpie” routine was a real fooler. A signed one-dollar bill ended up rolled tightly inside a Sharpie. He showed how to make this up using a standard Sharpie pen and a gimmick available at the nearest Staples store.

Prior to our November meeting, Vice President Justin Teeman led a workshop on “oil and water” routines. After Justin performed and explained a very nice routine, Jim Short showed us one that could be performed with only one sleight, an Elmsley count.

Our featured performer for November was Darryl Brooks. He performed his “Maneki Magic” show. “Makeki” means “welcome” in Japanese and Darryl is fluent in the language and actually worked for years as a translator of technical manuals. Darryl performed a knots off silk routine. After two knots were tied in a yellow scarf and then removed, he showed that the scarf now had a happy face on it, with the eyes being holes in the scarf. He next tied two red scarves together and placed the tied ends into a wine goblet. After vanishing the yellow scarf, he showed it to now be tied between the two red scarves. He placed a large sponge rabbit into a jar and placed a scarf over the top and secured it with an elastic loop. He pulled the rabbit through the glass jar and then removed the scarf to show that the jar was empty. Darryl ended his routine with a four-ring linking ring routine choreographed to music.

Our election of officers for 2019 took only a few minutes. All four of the current officers were retained by acclamation: President-Cassidy Smith, Vice President-Justin Teeman, Secretary-Lee Woodside, and Treasurer-Michael King.

Cassidy Smith led a group discussion on “Endings.” We all contributed thoughts on how to end both individual effects and shows. David Teeman demonstrated a method for getting the audience to clap.

Jim Green demonstrated a blendo-bag trick where he placed short lengths of rope into a bag and then opened it up to show that the pieces of rope spelled out “The End.” He said that these are now being offered on eBay by the person he commissioned to make his.

Cassidy Smith gave a review of the book THIS IS THE END FOR YOU – HOW TO END EVERYTHING, by Curtis Kam. He highly recommended it. Later in the meeting, Cassidy also recommended PERFORMNG MAGIC WITH IMPACT, by George Parker.

Jim Short placed a rubber band around his wrist and then pulled it through his wrist. He credited the routine to Joe Rindfleisch. He told us that Joe offers some excellent rubber band magic routines.

Lee Woodside said that this Veterans’ Day will the 100^th anniversary of the end of WWI. He played the official song of each branch of the military and handed an American flag to each veteran in the audience. He then talked about what is required to be a good soldier, sailor, airman or marine and tied each trait to one of the colors red, white and blue. Lee then placed the three silk scarves into a bag (dropping the blue one “accidentally”) and pulled forth a flag that was missing the field of blue. After placing this flag along with the blue scarf into the bag, a proper American flag was produced.

David Teeman showed his linking craft loops routine. He emphasized how the ending he now uses for the routine prevents him from being “caught” by the audience members.

Mike Stelzer brought his vintage Milton Bradley “Electronic Talking Magic Works Secret of the Sphinx” trick to show us. Two audience participants selected cards and returned them to the deck. When the deck was returned to the Sphinx and the cards removed one at a time, the Sphinx revealed the cards that had been selected.

Jordan Johnson performed an 8-card brainwave effect. The one card selected by a participant proved to be the only one of the eight cards that had a different colored back from the others.

The names of all the evening’s performers were placed into a hat and three names were drawn. The first winner received a magic-themed tie that had been worn by Doc Eason at the Tower in Colorado. The other two winners each received a magic DVD.

Lee Woodside

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

Meets 7:00 pm, 1^st Monday of the month at the Contemporary Arts Building, Oklahoma State Fairground.

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

www.okcmagic.club

Prior to the October meeting, President Cassidy Smith held a workshop on the color-changing knives. He showed several moves with the knives and then taught a very effective, but easy routine.

Our featured performer for the evening was Michael King. His first effect was “closed captioned.” Michael did not speak, but had his participant read what to do from a set of large flash cards. After a playing card was selected and returned to the deck and then to the card box, Michael revealed that the chosen card was, in fact, in his mouth. Michael showed a shopping bag that was folded flat. An audience member freely selected a book from a list of books. Michael then opened up the bag and brought out the chosen Harry Potter book. Michael then showed a small book and opened to the first page to show drawings of a key, a phone, and a pen. He asked that one of the items be selected and the key was chosen (no force). When he flipped through the pages of the book, a drawing of a hand came out and scooped up the key. Michael closed his performance by having a participant shuffle cards face up and face down. He showed a folded prediction of the face-down cards and every statement proved to be exactly right.

Our theme for the October meeting was “Magic of the Mind.” For those just getting into mentalism and mental magic, Lee Woodside recommended Ted Anneman’s PRACTICAL MENTAL EFFECTS, which is available inexpensively as a Dover publication. Although not a mentalism item, Jim Short recommend the Impression Vanish of a Penny by Peter Boie and Bacon Fire’s penetration of a credit card by a rubber band. Cassidy Smith recommend the Mini Cups and Balls book available at arotofmagic.com.

Jim short showed a weekly day planner on which he had written the name of a playing card on each week in the planner. He also showed a small envelope. He asked for an audience member to call out his birthday. He turned to that date in the planner and it had “King of Hearts” written for the week. He opened the small envelope and it contained the King of Hearts. Jim next brought out two large Bicycle decks. He had an audience member cut one of the decks three times, each time turning the selected card face up. He then went through both decks one card at a time. No cards in the two decks were in the same positions except for the three freely selected cards, which were all matches.

Cassidy Smith performed a very visual coin production, vanish, and reappearance routine with three half dollars. He told us that he was very impressed with the magic of Eric Mead.

David Teeman presented a hot rod type effect, but with a Jacob’s ladder. There were six different colored ribbons and when one was selected, a flip of the Jacob’s ladder turned them all to the selected color. He showed about ten different colored Sharpie markers. One was selected by a process of elimination and it turned out to be the only one where the cap matched the actual color of the Sharpie. David then showed a giant domino with magnetic spots. When the participant rearranged the spots, David showed that he had predicted what the domino would look like. He ended by performing a trick involving the colors of a traffic signal light.

Jordan Johnson brought out three bottle caps. He had an audience member hide a quarter under one of the caps. Each time, Jordan was able to divine the cap under which the quarter was concealed.

Mike Stelzer demonstrated his “Occult Board.” He was able to divine a color, a number, and a playing card that were writen by audience members after Mike wrote his prediction.

Lee Woodside presented a book test using Dan Brown’s DAVINCI CODE. Michael King selected a page number from among several written down by members of the audience and Lee was able to read his mind and draw what was described on the page he selected.

Jay Relkin invited two audience members to stand and close their eyes. When he touched one of them, the other felt that he was touched in the same place.

The names of all the performers were placed in a cup and two names were drawn. The lucky winners of magic DVDs were Jordan Johnson and Mike Stelzer.

Lee Woodside

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

Meets 7:00 pm, 1^st Monday of the month at the Contemporary Arts Building, Oklahoma State Fairground.

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

www.okcmagic.club

Because the Oklahoma State Fair takes over the fairground in September, our meeting was held at the New Fellowship Church. Thanks to David and Justin Teeman for arranging to make it available for us.

President Cassidy Smith introduced David Teeman as our featured speaker for the September meeting. Our theme for the month was linking rings, so David started by showing how the “S” shaped hangers that can be placed over a door for hanging clothes on can be utilized to hang linking rings on. This keeps the rings in order and makes them easily retrieved when ready to perform. David then performed a routine with black plastic rings that turned into sparkling colored rings. David showed a set of mini linking rings that are perfect for walk-around performances and concluded by demonstrating some linking ring moves.

Cassidy Smith performed a full linking ring routine using a standard set of eight rings. He climaxed the routine with a chain of eight rings. Darryl Brooks performed a routine using four rings. He used music to enhance the entertainment value of his routine.

Michael King performed a very nice eight-ring routine. He employed some comedy byplay by having the rings “accidentally” link to the ring of keys on his belt. Michael then performed Troy Hooser’s “Charming Chinese Challenge” using washers in place of Chinese coins. He explained that some audience members don’t recognize Chinese coins and think they are gimmicked in some way. Mike Stelzer demonstrated how to switch in a “key” ring using his coat.

Lee Woodside told of buying his first set of linking rings from Gene Jeffries after watching him demonstrate them at the magic shop in the old Black Hotel in downtown OKC back in the early 1960s. He then demonstrated a “ring drop” move that he learned from Terry Lunceford and has never seen anyone else use in a performance.

For a change of pace, Cassidy Smith conducted an exercise where he challenged us to write down our most-loved magical routines, whether they are ones we actually perform or just enjoy seeing. He then asked us to home in on the top five of our list. He had several members read their lists and explain why they picked the routines they chose.

Darryl Brooks led off the member performances with a sliding knot routine. He climaxed the routine by showing that the red knot on the white rope was a section of the rope that was actually red. Jim short produced a magic square by first having four different audience members choose numbers to put along the top row of the four by four grid. He said that he had learned the method from an article in GENII by Harry Lorayne.

Jordan Johnson had a participant choose one of three business cards and place it in his pocket. He then had the participant hold one of the remaining cards in his left hand and the other in his right hand. When the business cards were turned over, the message on each correctly predicted where it would end up.

We were fortunate to host a lecture by Kainoa Harbottle in mid-September. Those who arrived early enjoyed watching Kainoa do a fingertip muscle pass with Wheat Thins crackers. He had three different people each select a playing card. Each card was returned to the deck. After shuffling the deck, Kainoa revealed each card in a different manner and climaxed the effect by showing that all the other cards in the deck were jokers.

Kainoa started his lecture by producing a finger ring and doing some magic with it, finally turning it into a coin. He then performed a “coin flurry” routine.

After a number of entertaining coin routines, Kainoa brought out a set of four small linking rings. He performed a routine that he credited to a Japanese magic family other than the one Shoot Ogawa belongs to. There were a number of “wow” moments in this routine.

One highlight for me was when Kainoa brought out a brass goblet and performed a miser’s dream type effect. He produced coin after coin and used his two hands like a coin ladder as he coin-rolled the coins into the goblet. He finished by dumping the coins out of the goblet and it seemed to contain more coins than could be held in both hands.

Kainoa showed that coin magic did not always have to be confined to close-up. He invited Darryl Brooks and his wife Nanci to sit at a table “on stage” and performed a “coins across” routine that utilized a small rocks glass. He showed how a shell coin could be place in a spectator’s hand without detection by using the right management skills.

Kainoa finished his lecture by having coins disappear until only one was left and then changing that coin into the finger ring that he started the whole thing with. It was a pleasure watching a master at work even though I may work up only a tiny fraction of the magic he performed.

Lee Woodside