Ring NO. 46, OKLAHOMA CITY, OK – Seymour Davis Ring
Meets 7:00 pm, 1st Monday of the month at the New Beginning Fellowship Church, 15601 S. Pennsylvania in OKC
LEE WOODSIDE, Secretary. Email: WoodsideLee@hotmail.com.
President Cassidy Smith introduced Lee Woodside as the featured performer for our August meeting. Lee invited Jerry Bowzer to assist him “on stage.” Lee pulled a blue drawstring bag from a champagne cooler and stated that he had found a good use for Crown Royal bags. He said that he tosses his spare quarters into the bag and when he gets enough quarters, he buys another bottle of Crown Royal. He said that he is also saving up for a bottle of champagne for New Year’s. He invited Jerry to scoop up a handful of quarters from the bucket and place them onto the table. Lee then removed several sheets of paper from a manila envelope. The first said, “I will have as many coins as you.” Jerry counted eleven quarters and Lee removed that many from the bag. The next sheet said, “Plus three more” and Lee removed three more coins from the bag. The last two pages said, “Plus enough left over to bring your total to $5.75.” Lee handed Jerry the bag and asked him to count the total of his coins and those in the bag. Sure enough, the total was correct!
Lee explained that when he was an engineering student at Oklahoma State University, his roommate in the dorm was an accounting major. Lee said that his roommate could add and subtract with the best of them, but when it came to multiplication and division, he could only multiply or divide by two. Lee then demonstrated how his roommate would multiply two larger numbers using those constraints. He called this “Aggie Math.”
Cassidy Smith led a discussion on mathematical tricks. Justin Teeman mentioned that Martin Gardner’s MAGIC, MATHEMATICS & MYSTERY book was a good source of material.
Jerry Bowzer showed his recently acquired book, 52 EXPLORATIONS, by Andi Gladwin and Jack Parker. He said that it was not a book for the beginner because it references sleights without explaining how to perform them. He said that it does, however, contain some killer routines.
David Teeman led off the member performances with his rapid addition blocks. The four blocks, each with four numbers printed vertically on each face, can be arranged in multiple ways to create an addition problem with four 4-digit numbers. David proved that he could add the four numbers in his head faster than Jay Relkin could key them into his phone’s calculator app.
Jim Green performed his variation on Jim Steinmeyer’s famous nine-card trick. He then asked for a number from the audience and created a magic square where every conceivable addition of four numbers yielded that total.
Malaki Dracwin (AKA David Swanson), our longtime scribe, showed his leather-bound collection of ten years’ worth of our annual Grimoires. He has actually been the editor of our annual Grimoire for over twenty-five years. He said that he is working on a new edition to come out in early 2023 and invited submissions from our members. Each magician who submits an article, trick, essay, joke, or any other magic-related item will receive a free copy of the Grimoire. Those who do not submit may purchase it for a nominal fee.
Shaun Clark performed a routine that he learned from the book that he won as a prize at the last meeting. (The book was STANDUP CARD MAGIC, by Roberto Giobbi.) He had a card selected and shown and then he placed it face-down on the table and set a stemmed goblet on top of it. He then showed a Joker and placed it back side out in the goblet. After talking about Houdini’s famous “Metamorphosis” illusion, he showed that the two cards had switched places.
Derrick Beeson showed off his new “Magic Card Plus” credit card. After asking for a random three-digit number and performing some math, he showed that the calculated number matched the expiration date on the card (10-89). After performing a couple more effects with the credit card, he brought out a deck of cards, pulled out one card, and laid it face-down on the table. He then had an audience member name any number between one and ten. He counted down to that number in the deck and showed the two of diamond. He turned over the card he had set on the table and it was the two of hearts, the mate of the one chosen.
“Magic Mike” Stelzer asked young Tucker Taylor to select a number. When Tucker chose 34, Mike quickly drew out a magic square where every row, column and diagonal added to the chosen number.
Malaki showed us his jewel-encrusted thimble and proceeded to wow us with his manipulation skill. He said that he had constructed the thimble in his Wizard’s Workshoppe.
Jay Relkin demonstrated his ability to divine the fifth root of numbers. He had audience members secretly select two-digit numbers and raise them to the fifth power. When they told Jay
the resulting number, he calculated the fifth root of the number in his head. For example, Lee Woodside gave him the number 537, 824 and Jay correctly gave the fifth root as 14.
The names of all the evening’s performers were placed into a hat and one name was drawn. Shaun Clark was the lucky winner for the second month in a row. He became the proud owner of Michael Skinner’s CLASSIC SAMPLER.
Cassidy Smith announced that he would host a magic cruise for magicians and their plus-ones on August 22nd. Cassidy is a longtime Captain and tour guide for the river cruises on Oklahoma City’s Bricktown Canal.
Lee Woodside