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 featured performer for January was Michael King. He handed a book to Jerry Bowzer and asked him to select any word in the book. He riffled through the pages of another book and asked Rick Johnson to say “stop” at any time. He asked Rick to pick a word on the selected page. Mike then directed attention to a large envelope at the back of the room. Inside was a prediction that Jerry would choose the word “receptionist.” There was also a page torn from a book. Mike asked Rick to confirm that it was the page he had selected and that the page was now missing from the book.
Mike handed a small purse to David Teeman and asked him to remove the contents. Inside was a ribbon with three disks with holes threaded onto it. Mike caused one of the disks to penetrate the ribbon. He then caused a second disk to penetrate the ribbon. With the remaining disk still on the ribbon, he had Rick Johnson tie the two ends of the ribbon around the back of Mike’s wrist. When Mike opened his hand, the disk had vanished.
Mike handed out a Rubik’s cube and asked that it be passed around and mixed up. He then brought out a second cube and showed that the six sides perfectly matched those of the cube mixed by the audience members. He then placed the mixed up cube behind his back and solved it “blind.”
Vice President Justin Teeman led a discussion on what makes a good opener. He performed a three-card routine with aces and then told why he thought it was a good opener: it was not a pick-a-card trick, audience members had probably not seen it before, and he knows the routine by heart.
We were very pleased to see Joe Comet return to the club after many years. Joe reminisced about watching the late Jim Smithson perform his comedy waiter routine and his burnt bill routine where he would grill a hot dog while the envelopes burned and put it on a bun and eat it during his act. Only Jim could get away with such things. We miss him.
Cassidy told us that he likes to perform some quick magic while asking those at a table if they would like to see some magic. He also told us that he likes to perform magic for those waiting their turn on the water taxi ride on the Bricktown canal. Cassidy is one of the boat captains.
Jim Short told us that one of his more awkward situations was when a waiter spilled food all over his props. He also told us of the serendipitous situation where he asked someone to name her favorite card and it happened to be the top card of his stack.
Lee Woodside told about the time that he, Tom Todd, and “Shyster Joe” Diggle were having breakfast with Doc Eason the morning after Doc’s lecture in OKC. Lee took out his micro-cassette tape recorder and before he could bring out his deck of cards, Doc blurted out “Nine of Hearts.” Since that happened to be one of the outs on Lee’s tape-recorded prediction effect, Lee forgot about the deck of cards and just played the tape. Doc was floored.
Joe Comet told about the time he was doing magic for a gentleman who was with his girlfriend when the guy’s wife walked into the restaurant. Joe put the girlfriend on his arm and walked her out of the restaurant. He said that he received a fifty-dollar tip for his quick thinking. He also told about the time he threw the deck at the ceiling for the “card on ceiling effect” and the deck disappeared, but the selected card was stuck to the ceiling. Joe then asked an audience member to select a card and draw a fish on the face of it. Joe dropped the card to the floor. He then showed a card that he would use as “bait.” He waved the “bait” card over the “fish” card and the bait card turned into the marked selection. The card on the floor turned out to be the bait card.
David Teeman performed his linking craft loops routine. Cassidy Smith then challenged both Joe and David to perform their routines without speaking. Both magicians proved to be up to the challenge.
Lee Woodside showed off two magic sets that a girl friend of his girlfriend had found at an estate sale and bought for him. The sets dated from the 1970s and contained some interesting tricks. Lee then read a card that he had received from Dayna Davis Savage, the daughter of our Ring 46 namesake, Seymour Davis. Dayna thanked everyone for keeping her dad’s magic alive.
Cassidy Smith performed the coloring book effect with a Bible stories coloring book. The black and white drawings magically changed to color.
Rick Martin showed a zig-zag card frame using a jumbo card. He had made the beautiful prop with his new laser cutter, the latest addition to his professional workshop.
Jerry Bowzer reported that one of his hobbies is the collection of card decks. He likes to buy two of each deck so that he can open one and leave the other sealed. He said that he has about five hundred decks and stores them in boxes made for baseball card collectors.
Jim Short showed off a box of 99.999 gold playing cards that he received as a Christmas present. He also showed a one-hundred-dollar bill. He asked Jerry Bowzer to pick a number from one to fifty-two and a card suit. Jerry picked the number 27 and hearts. Jim dealt 27 cards to the table. He then used that packet to deal the number of cards arrived at by adding the digits of the number 27. When he turned over the top cards of the two packets, there was an ace of hearts and a jack of hearts. Jim now showed that written across the hundred-dollar bill was the word “blAckJack”.
Michael King showed that his skill was not limited to card tricks and book tests. He retrieved a set of juggling clubs and a unicycle from his vehicle and wowed us by juggling while riding his unicycle. Of course, in his younger days, he did run away and join the circus for a year.
Cassidy Smith put the names of all the performers in a hat and had one name drawn. The lucky winner was Joe Comet and he took home a Pendragons magic DVD.
Lee Woodside