Secretary Report – April 2015

IBM Ring 46, OKLAHOMA CITY, OK – Seymour Davis Ring

Meets 7:00 pm, 1st 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 provided the following review of Eric Jones’ lecture in March: ”Eric began his lecture with his beautiful three coin production and vanish sequence ‘Mirage Et Troi.’  He was thorough and made sure everyone was ‘getting it.’  He followed that up with some visual coin flourishes including an amazing coin across the arm move that had everyone practicing it.  Many coins were dropped but much fun was had.  The second half of the lecture focused on practical theory & it’s application in performance. Other highlights included a great (and really easy) coin in hat routine and some well thought out card work.  Eric was down to earth and a truly great teacher. We were lucky to have him and recommend him highly to other clubs.”

Our lecture by Lee Earle in April was a bit more exciting than we were planning for.  At the time the lecture was scheduled to begin, the tornado sirens started going off.  As we huddled in the center of the building, we could hear baseball-size hail hitting the roof above us.  We told Lee, “Welcome to Oklahoma.”

We are fortunate that Lee Earle is taking the time and effort to bring his years of experience with mentalism to us in his final lecture tour.  He started his lecture by stressing that, unlike magic, mentalism requires that there be at least the possibility of belief by the audience.  As Lee said, “There is no such thing as a fake mentalist.”  He also said that things we do as magicians can betray us as mentalists.

If you’ve seen Lee lecture before, you’ll still want to make sure to not miss his lecture.  Rather than create completely new material, he has carefully refined his repertoire and you’ll want to make sure to get the benefit of his latest thinking.  He taught a wonderful memory demonstration, a powerful and easy to master pseudo psychometry routine, a great book test, and a lottery prediction routine that would make a great closer.

Our April meeting focused on sharing magic.  Jim Short began by extolling the virtues of the breather crimp, which he credited to Dai Vernon.  He asked Derrick Beeson to pick a card and return it to the deck.  After Derrick cut the deck several times, he spelled the name of his card, and when he turned over the card he ended on, it was his selected card.

Zach Heath balanced a Bic lighter between the turned up pop tops of two soda cans.  He then removed one can and the lighter was suspended.  It was rather like a miniature chair suspension.

J. David Teeman provided each member with an empty soda can and some thread. He then showed us how to have someone tie a loop in the thread and when the thread is dropped into the opening of the can and pulled back up, the can is suspended from the thread.  Amazingly, it is actually looped around the pop top.  The pop top can be broken off and given to the spectator as a souvenir, with the thread still attached.

John Shackelford removed the cap from a Sharpie and handed the pen to a husky guy.  He asked him to pull the pen apart, which he could not do.  He then handed the pen to a 13-year old boy, and the boy was able to pull the Sharpie apart with little effort.

Terry LoSawyer showed four face-up cards.  One at a time, he caused them to turn face down.  He ended by turning them over and showing that the four backs had all changed to different credit cards.

Cassidy Smith shared ideas on a number of props.  He said that a purse frame can be referred to as a “portable trap door.”  He showed a set of Indian cups and balls and suggested that paper flowers could be used as final loads.  He finished by performing a coin and pen transposition that he has been working on.

Lee Woodside

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