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

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

Lee Woodside started off the August meeting by recognizing a few of our members who have recently shown up in printed media. Lee showed a photo that appeared in that day’s paper of Michael King caught in the act of entertaining. He was juggling clubs while riding a unicycle. Lee then showed the July 2018 “Linking Ring” magazine and noted that Ring 46 member Mike Stelzer had contributed routines for his own “Parade” article. Finally, he showed the “YourLife” section of the July 23, 2018 OKLAHOMAN newspaper, which had a large photo and article about Rob Lake, whom we all know as our former Ring 46 Junior President Robert Calonkey. Congratulations to Rob for getting passed along to the live show on “America’s Got Talent,” where he will face some stiff competition from fellow magician Shin Lin along with many other talented contestants.

The theme of our August meeting was our annual magic flea market and appraisal auction. The way the appraisal auction works is that when the gavel falls, the seller may choose to either sell the item for the amount of the high bid or pay the high bidder a fifty-cent fee for “appraising” his item. Our auctioneer for the evening was Lee Woodside, who has been doing the auction for many years. We had lots of spirited bidding and a lot of good magic apparatus, books and DVDs changed hands.

Following the auction, our featured performer for the evening was Jay Relkin. Jay gave us the benefit of his many years in magic and sales and discussed ways of approaching people and giving them a magical and enjoyable experience. Jay also performed several tricks, including a coins-across that happened in the spectator’s hands.

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

My thanks to Vice President Justin Teeman for taking notes at the July meeting, which I was not able to attend. The meeting was held a week later than usual because of July4th.

Our featured performer was Jim Green. Jim floated a condiment packet in a water bottle. He also performed an arm through mirror illusion and then led a discussion on the power of leaving spectators with “impossible” souvenirs of the magician’s performance.

The theme for member performances was card tricks without picking a card. David Teeman led off with a packet trick. Jordan Johnson performed Gemini mates with an Ace revelation.

Darryl Brooks amazed us with a one-ahead triple prediction. President Cassidy Smith performed “Royal Acrobats.”

Justin Teeman performed a spectator finds the aces routine and “Reset 21.” Treasurer Michael King demonstrated an ace-cutting trick with a color change. Max Krause performed a Dai Vernon ace-cutting routine from the STARS OF MAGIC.

The highlight of the evening was a creativity contest. Each team of magicians was presented with a grab bag of goodies and given thirty minutes to come up with a magic routine using those items. The items were things like Play Doh, gummy life savers, twizlers, and balloons. The winning team was made up of Shaun Clark, Marty Ludlum, and Jordan Johnson.

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 presented our annual “Pandemonium of Magic” public show on June 2^nd at the Contemporary Arts Theater at the Oklahoma State Fairground. President Cassidy Smith emceed the show and kept things moving along.

Derrick Beeson led off the show with a linking rings routine and a torn and restored signed card. David Teeman enlisted the aid of a little girl from the audience to change silk scarves into a beautiful butterfly.

Darryl Brooks performed his knots off silk scarf routine to music. He then performed a sponge balls and bowl routine with sound effects from a squeeker.

Lee Woodside performed his own version of “What’s Next.” He then used the mis-made flag routine for a tribute to the military veterans in the audience. He finished with the venerable die box.

John Jolly performed a routine by Jim Steinmeyer involving “Droodles,” which are unusual drawings which require thought to be interpreted. John set one drawing aside, which proved to predict what the audience participant would choose. John then made very good use of the “Baby Gag,” which culminated with a more current picture of Tom Cruise, the celebrity chosen by an audience participant. He finished with a very commercial “Invisible Deck” routine.

Cassidy Smith showed off his mastery of the cups and balls. Mike Stelzer carried on a spirited dialog with his furry primate puppet friend.

Terry “Mr. T.Lo” Losawyer began by producing colorful silk scarves and then closed the show with a “Metamorphosis” routine with his daughter, Rebecca.

We had a great audience and actually made a profit on the show. However, our main objective was to promote our Ring and give our members a valuable chance to perform on stage.

Our June meeting was our annual close-up magic contest. We had seven contestants and a great variety of magic.

Darryl Brooks began by changing four Jacks to four Aces. He then changed two quarters to a half dollar. He showed two washers with holes in them. He had an audience participant hold onto one of the washers and was able to remove the hole from his own washer and have it travel to the one in the spectator’s hand. Darryl next vanished a borrowed, signed quarter and showed that it had traveled to a matchbox inside a playing card box. He concluded by tying three different-colored ropes into rings and changing them into one large rope.

Terry “T.Lo” LoSawyer changed a two-dollar bill into two one-dollar bills. He showed that he could shop anywhere in the world by cutting pieces of newspaper into the size of the local currency and changing the pieces into real bills. He next interlocked a five-dollar bill and a one-dollar bill and caused them to pass through each other. He then caused the two bills to change places and finally turned them into two fives, saying he would quit while he was ahead. Terry ended by divining the card a participant chose and then showing that the rest of the cards in the deck were all blank.

Mike Stelzer showed off his escape skills. First he escaped from standard handcuffs. Next he escaped from shackles like those used for transporting prisoners. Finally, he escaped from inside a mailbag, which was secured by a crossbar and padlocks.

Derrick Beeson pulled some loose change from his pocket. As he held the coins in his palm and concentrated on them, one of the coins magically tilted up. He concluded by performing the “pothole” trick, using two of his business cards.

Shaun Clark placed a wooden stick into a paper bag. He broke the stick into multiple pieces with the help of a participant, but when he removed the stick, it was intact. He then performed a solid through solid effect by pulling a stick through a drink holder. His final effect involved coffee rings on a napkin, but I was too far back to see exactly what happened However, those who were closer were very impressed.

Jay Relkin performed the “Chicago Opener” for Lauren and Rebecca and followed with a coins across routine. David Teeman had a card selected and took another card for himself. The participant placed his chosen card into his pocket while David tore his card into quarters. David caused the two cards to switch places, that is the torn card was now the value of the one the participant chose and the other card was now in his pocket.

Max Krause had a card freely named by an audience participant. He then showed that that very card was the one between the two jokers in his deck of cards. Max had Alex cut to a card. When he made a phone call, an answering machine named the chosen card. Max concluded by having three different people cut off packets of cards from a deck, remember one card, and shuffle their packets. The deck was reassembled and Max was able to divine each of the chosen cards.

While we were awaiting the contest results, Derrick Beeson gave positive reviews of both the Penn & Teller show at the Rinverwind Casino in Norman, Oklahoma and David Blaine’s “Don’t Blink” show in Dallas, Texas.

Our official contest judges announced a very rare occurrence:  a tie for second place. T.Lo and Max Krause shared second-place honors while Derrick Beeson claimed bragging rights as this year’s close-up magic champion. Each winner got to select from a treasure trove of magical prizes and each will receive a trophy at a future meeting.

After a very brief business meeting, Cassidy Smith concluded the evening with a very visual magic effect. He had a card selected and returned to the deck. After shuffling, he formed a pistol with the deck and “fired” the selected card into the air.

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 featured performer for May was Lee Woodside. Lee performed selected portions of Cody Fisher’s “Cody’s Comedy Book Test,” but said that he would never perform the ending that Cody uses because he does not believe in embarrassing his audience participants. He then invited Darryl Brooks to join him for a fantasy Las Vegas gambling adventure. Darryl chose a casino, grabbed some giant hundred-dollar bills to bet with and selected cards for his blackjack hand. Sure enough, Lee had predicted all three correctly. Lee credited this routine to Larry Becker.

Our meeting theme was “May the force be with you.” With that in mind, Lee led a discussion on various methods of forcing objects, numbers, colors, words or playing cards. Justin Teeman and Cassidy Smith followed up by demonstrating various card-forcing techniques.

President Cassidy Smith gave a review of the two-DVD set “Knockout Magic,” by Caleb Wiles. He said that it contained some very powerful card magic and was well worth the money. He then performed the “iDeck” routine for us.

After a very brief business meeting, Michael King signed out tickets for our annual “Pandemonium of Magic” public show. Cassidy Smith discussed the plans for the show.

Darryl Brooks led off our member performances with a linking ring routine choreographed to music. Jordan Johnson performed a book test. At the conclusion, he showed that the actual selected page had, in fact, been ripped from the book before the show.

Dale Shawn had a participant select and sign two playing cards. At the conclusion of the routine, the cards had not only found each other, but had fused together as one.

Cletis Shawn performed a truly impromptu book test. He borrowed a book and a deck of cards. He had two playing cards selected to determine a page number and then was able to divine the contents of the selected page.

Mike Stelzer showed off his skills as a ventriloquist with his recently acquired monkey. David Teeman drew a dot on one side of a small paddle and then had the dot appear on both sides, and finally vanish altogether.

Cassidy Smith performed a muscle pass and a coin roll with a half dollar and then changed the coin into a jumbo coin. Michael King had a card selected from a well-shuffled deck. After replacing the card in the deck and shuffling further, he showed that not only was the deck now in new-deck order, the selected card had transported back to the card box.

Lee Woodside