IBM Ring 46, OKLAHOMA CITY, OK – Seymour Davis Ring
Meets 7:00 pm, 1st Monday of the month at City Arts Center, Oklahoma State Fairground.
LEE WOODSIDE, Secretary. Email: WoodsideLee@hotmail.com.
Our new Vice President, Justin Teeman led a workshop just before our January meeting. Justin taught card effects using the double lift and showed various methods of performing the sleight.
To kick off our first meeting of 2015, Treasurer Michael King presented a plaque to Glenn Fain honoring his many years as a magic dealer in Oklahoma City. Glenn is now retired, but for many years owned Party Bazaar, which sold quality magic products and also hosted the Mid-America School of Magic. Glenn recounted a funny story about how, when he first bought a magic business, he couldn’t figure out why there was loose change in the magic display cabinet. So he put it into the cash register. Turns out, he was giving out Johnson gimmicked coins as change.
Our featured performer for January was President Cassidy Smith. Cassidy performed a beautiful linking ring routine using a set of eight rings. He then introduced his duck, who he claimed is good at finding selected cards. Sure enough, the duck found the card, even though he had been blindfolded. Cassidy finished with his classic cups and balls routine, which he has polished to perfection.
We were very fortunate that Rob Lake was able to take time from his busy performing schedule to visit us. Rob is a professional stage magician who has performed all over the world. Many of us remember when he was a junior member in our Ring and performed professional quality stage magic at our annual public shows. Rob talked about his adventures performing, answered questions, and also offered some advice, including: always leave a theater better than you found it, be easy to work with, have a great show, and connect with your audience. We hope that Rob will be able to join us occasionally for future meetings.
Cassidy recognized and welcomed first-time attendees. He offered each of them a magic trick from a box of tricks donated by our Past President, William Rader.
Our theme for member performances was to show something Santa had brought for Christmas. Jim Short started by performing a lie detector card routine that he got from the book SOLOMON’S MIND, which he had received as a Christmas gift.
David Teeman tied a knot in a silk scarf. When he blew on the knot, it dissolved. He said that he learned the trick by watching Bill Bixby perform it on his TV series, “The Magician.”
Shawn Clark had two different people cut a deck of cards and look at the bottom card. Despite the fact that the deck was reassembled and shuffled, he was able to divine their cards.
He then had a participant deal cards and stop at any point he wished. Shawn was holding four cards in his hand. The card the participant stopped on proved to fill a straight flush poker hand for Shawn.
John Shackelford performed a great “3-fly” routine with half dollars. Michael King showed off his considerable dexterity with the pasteboards by continuously finding Aces amid fancy cuts and shuffles.
Following the meeting, we had about 30 minutes for visiting and sessioning. We’re looking forward to a great year of magic.
Lee Woodside