Secretary Report – April 2016

Ring NO. 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

We were pleased to host a lecture by Alex Pandrea on March 18th. Alex began by performing and teaching routines that required minimal technical skill. His “Arson” routine caused a “burn” to appear on a chosen playing card after a cigarette lighter was waved under the deck into which the selected card had been returned. Then, magically, he was able to restore the card to its original condition.

His “Bandito” is a very visual penetration of a finger ring by a rubber band, with multiple phases. Alex then presented a nice “sandwich” effect using easily constructed gimmicks in place of card skill. He performed a strong routine where choices were made by the audience volunteer on what cards to eliminate until the final remaining card proved to be the one predicted. This routine made use of a Svengali-like deck that Alex developed.

Alex then covered five sleights in five minutes, providing expert tips on the moves magicians do most frequently. For the final phase of the lecture, I just sat back and enjoyed the magic while the “card guys” focused on the moves. This is where Alex showed fully developed routines using advanced sleight of hand.

Lee Woodside taught a workshop on a mathematical based card trick prior to the April meeting. He credited the effect to Stewart James. He said that it is the one mathematical card trick that still fools him, even when he performs it.

The featured performed and lecturer for our April meeting was Oklahoma TVP Steve Lancaster. Steve is a professional magician and owns Top Hat Magic in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He said that making a living in magic requires being willing to do several things. In his case, he performs, manufactures props, produces CDs, has a brick and mortar magic shop, and handles Internet sales.

Steve began with a beautiful “coins across” routine that he credited to Al Schneider. He finished the routine by producing jumbo coins, including one that was super-jumbo.   He said that he performs only magic that he can do standing because so many venues make it difficult for him to be seated.

Steve gave some great tips on the venerable French drop sleight and his advice on the pass was “just do it.” He recommended always having a word-for-word script for routines that one performs regularly. Staying with the script helps prevent the “and a” and “you know” speech that happens when magicians or other speakers are nervous.

Steve performed the vanishing cane in newspaper and recommended using a plastic cane for vanishing rather than a steel one.   The steel cane is the one to use when an appearing cane is desired.

After answering questions from the magicians, Steve demonstrated some of the magic props that he sells and recommends highly.   We thank him for taking the time to drive down from Tulsa. We hope he visits again soon.

President Cassidy Smith read a “thank you” card from the Todd family for the flowers provided by Ring 46 for Harold Todd’s funeral.   Cassidy then performed the broken wand ceremony for Roger Ryan, who passed away in March. After the ceremony, several members shared their good memories of Roger.

The performance theme for April was “Mathematical Magic.” Michael King invited the members of the audience to tell him the cubes of two-digit numbers. He was able to divine the original number without the use of a calculator. For example, if he were given the number 456,533 he would think for a few seconds and then give the answer as 77.

Lee Woodside had audience members select digits to form three 4-digit numbers. The total of these proved to be the number that Lee had predicted. Junior guest Landon Wright had a participant sum the digits of a selected number and was able to divine the total.

Jim Short performed the ACAAN (sort of) routine that was written up in a recent “Linking Ring.” Gary Trosper performed a color-changing rings routine.

Cassidy Smith performed the 10-count sponge balls routine. The counting to ten was the mathematical portion of the routine.

David Teeman used blocks with numbers printed on them to demonstrate rapid addition. He was able to consistently beat an audience member using an iPhone calculator app. He said that he had studied at the Evelyn Wood speed course in adding. (The blocks were made of wood.) Only the older members got the joke.

Steve Crawford dramatically demonstrated how an “on-the-air” divination of playing cards by a psychic visiting a radio station might work. Mike Stelzer showed us the principle behind the old “guess your age” cards that have been around for years.

Lee Woodside

 

 

 

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