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
Max Krause graciously allowed us the use of his home/magic shop for a lecture by Scott Alexander. Scott is a consummate professional who has performed in many different venues from stages to cruise ships. It was a pleasure to watch him perform and teach. It was also refreshing to attend a lecture that concentrated on something besides cards and coins, as so many do.
Scott began with a candle to flower routine that he credited as a variation on Roy Benson’s “Oh see the pretty thing.” He next showed a trick he called “Thought-Toon,” which was similar to “Card-Toon” except that a freely chosen word appeared on the tiny magician’s easel at the conclusion of the effect. He showed how this could easily be reset for strolling situations.
Scott showed a routine where the audience participant is apparently hypnotized and becomes either strong or weak under the hypnotist’s power of suggestion. He then taught an egg bag routine, which culminated in the production of a shot glass of libation.
One of the strongest routines Scott performed was a bill to lemon effect. Scott’s routining of the effect made it seem absolutely impossible for the signed bill to end up inside the lemon. Scott did perform one trick involving playing cards, but it was one that would be perfect for stage or parlor. He showed us a very clean cards-across routine which was easy to learn, yet very convincing. He said that it was based on a routine from the book MY BEST, edited by J.G. Thompson, Jr.
Everyone is familiar with the routine where five paper bags are used and one of them contains a sharp spike. In fact, many magicians and a few innocent audience participants have been impaled during the performance of such a routine, which is why the Magic Castle has banned them. Scott showed his version, which looks dangerous, but completely removes any chance of possible injury. He concluded by performing the venerable Color Monte, reciting a poem that he had written as he performed the effect. I highly recommend Scott Alexander as a lecturer and think that most magicians would come away from his lecture with something they could use.
Our theme for the May meeting was packet tricks, and our featured performer, Jordan Johnson performed several for us. He began with “Poker Test” by Erik Casey. Five blue-backed blank-face cards turned into a royal flush with red backs. He next performed an oil and water routine that he credited to the book SECRETS, by Anthony Owens. Instead of black and red cards, Jordan used Republican and Democrat cards and showed that the two sides could never come together.
Jordan performed a “Hunters Monte” routine, which he said was from “The Art of Card Splitting” DVD. He then performed Max Maven’s wonderful “B’Wave” effect. Next Jordan removed the four jacks and the four fives from a deck. He had Justin Teeman select any one of the four suits. He caused the jack of that suit to switch places with the five of that suit. He ended his performance with a four-ace effect.
President Cassidy Smith led a discussion on what packet tricks are the best. The group came up with 3-card monte, tree of hearts, wild card, twisting the aces, presto printo, six-card repeat, eight-card brainwave, oil and water, NFW, color monte, cards across, Daly’s last trick, card warp (not sure I’d call that a packet trick), free will, and lie detector.
Darryl Brooks gave a report on his recent experience attending a Jeff McBride “Magic and Mystery School” on street magic in Las Vegas. Darryl said that he learned a great deal and hopes to put his newfound knowledge to use as a licensed street performer in Oklahoma City’s Bricktown tourist area.
Our business meeting was very brief and included a report by Treasurer Michael King, signing out of tickets for our upcoming annual public show, and announcement of a lecture by the ever-popular Dan Fleshman.
Our member performers for the evening mostly followed the packet trick theme. Justin Teeman performed a blackjack-themed routine where four jacks turned into four aces. Jay Relkin performed his version of “Will The Cards Match?”
Ezekiel Jump asked Cassidy for his email address and sent him an email. He then handed Cassidy a Rubik’s Cube and invited him to randomize it. When he had done so, Ezekiel asked him to check the photo he had emailed and, sure enough, the photo matched the randomized cube.
J. David Teeman showed us some convincingly real-looking foil covered chocolate half dollars, which might make a nice production item during a coin routine. He then performed a stage-size version of “B’Wave.” He said that the reason he gives an audience for using such large cards is that it is cheaper than buying a set of binoculars for everyone.
Shawn Clark performed a monte-like routine where he showed three cards, one of which was a queen. He showed that the queen was on the bottom, but also in the middle and also on top. He then showed all of the cards as different.
Lee Woodside showed how he performs Jim Steinmeyer’s nine-card trick from his book IMPUZZIBILITES in a walk-around situation, where there are no tables and people tend to be holding drinks. Joe Coover performed a delightful storytelling routine called “Gemini Twins” using just four court cards from a borrowed deck and ending clean.
Brian Tabor performed a ring-on-string routine and climaxed by vanishing the ring and having it appear in his wallet along with a previously borrowed five-dollar bill. Mike Stelzer removed five large playing cards from an envelope and showed them to be an ace of clubs and four sevens of diamonds. The ace then vanished from the packet and was shown to be back in the envelope.
Lee Woodside