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.
Our February meeting was a “hybrid” meeting. Five magicians met at our normal meeting place and another 17 signed on via Zoom. Our theme for the month was “Classics of Magic.” Darryl Brooks kicked off the magic by pushing a pencil through a five-dollar bill and ripping the bill. He then magically restored the bill.
President Cassidy Smith demonstrated a few coin magic moves. His retention vanish of a coin is a thing of beauty. He then performed a routine where four half dollars visibly changed to English pennies and were dropped into a coffee mug. When he dumped the coins out of the mug, they had changed back to half dollars. He also showed us several versions of an appearing knot on rope. He finished by performing a rope through neck.
David Teeman tied a knot in a silk scarf and then magically caused the knot to disappear. He said that he learned the trick by carefully watching Bill Bixby perform it on an episode of “The Magician.” He said that he later saw it in Mark Wilson’s book and in Tarbell Volume 2. Later he placed two cords behind his neck, tied one of them around the front, and then magically caused both cords to penetrate his neck.
Jim Green blew up a 12-inch balloon, but did not tie it off. Amazingly, the balloon remained inflated until he gave it a magical thump with his finger.
Anthony Bruno performed an ambitious card routine. For the finale, the chosen card shot out of the deck and then came back down and stuck in the deck.
Mike Stelzer discussed the book THE BOY WHO CRIED MAGIC, by Andi Gladwin. He also showed us the book DELAND: MYSTERY AND MADNESS, which he said came with a deck of gaffed cards.
John Stack, who sometimes performs as “The Stoned Sorcerer”, showed cards with the names of various strains of marijuana written on them. Two different colors were used. He asked William Rader to mentally determine which stack to put each of the cards into. Sure enough, the colors were separated. It was “out of this world.” John also talked about some of the things needed for a Zoom magic show, including microphones, cameras, cables, lighting, and audio interfaces. He also discussed marketing techniques for Zoom shows.
Jay Relkin allowed his iguana, Aries to perform a card trick. Three different participants arrived at the name of a playing card. A large mustard green leaf was given to Aries and he chewed out a “4” and a club to demonstrate his psychic ablities.
Michael King, wearing an “I Can’t Breathe” Covid mask, opened a new deck of playing cards and began shuffling them. He asked Justin Teeman to name a card and then began cutting the cards, asking Justin to say “stop” whenever he wanted. Sure enough, the top card was Justin’s selected card. Michael finished by cutting to the four Aces.
Lee Woodside said that a normal book test would be difficult under the conditions of a Zoom meeting. Instead, he brought out a book and began going through it looking for interesting words. He asked Justin Teeman to pick one of the words as he read them. Lee then began divining the letters in Justin’s word one letter at a time and finally announced the word. He said that he learned this “Anytime, anywhere book test” from Lee Earle’s SYZYGY.
Michel King pulled a card from his deck and held it with the back toward the camera. He challenged Lee Woodside to name the color of the card. Lee said, “Red.” Michael asked for the suit. Lee said, “Hearts.” Michael asked for the value of the card. Lee said, “Four.” Michael turned the card around and it was, indeed, the Four of Hearts.
Jerry Bowzer performed an over-the-phone lie detector trick. He asked Michael King to remove seven cards from his deck and mentally select one of the cards. After following Jerry’s instructions and either lying or telling the truth at each step, Michael ended up with the selected card.
William Rader showed us a smaller size Tarot deck that he is now marketing. He has also been marketing full-size Tarot cards with a very artistic design.
Lee Woodside showed the book CONJURER’S WISDOM, by Joe Hernandez which he recently purchased via an eBay auction. The book contains such pearls of wisdom as “If you have a deck of nines of spades, don’t try to force the three of hearts” and “Stop accumulating stuff and start accumulating skills.” The book contains 3,333 quotes.
Jerry Bowzer gave a good review of the “In and of Itself” program by Derek DelGuadio that is now streaming on Hulu.
Lee Woodside