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 opened the November meeting as our featured performer. He started by magically producing a bouquet of flowers. He then brought out a length of rope and created and vanished knots via several methods: disappearing knot, cowboy knot, nautical knot, archer’s knot, sliding knot, and Will Rogers knot. After performing a cut and restored rope effect, he folded the rope in half and caused the ends to move from one end to the other. He then placed the ends in his coat pocket and they traveled to the other end. He completed his performance by placing hard candies into a bag and magically changing them to Tootsie Rolls.
Brian Tabor continued his lecture series on stacked decks and mnemonics. He showed a “find a card” routine and a numerology birth date routine using a planning calendar. He generously handed out lecture notes to everyone along with the find-a-card trick.
Our business meeting was short and sweet, as usual. The current officers were elected by acclamation for 2022. Lee Woodside announced that he had been contacted by our once junior member Robert Calonkey, who now performs illusions under the stage name Rob Lake. Rob is scheduled to perform a benefit for animal welfare in December and has invited Ring 46 members to attend his show at a greatly reduced price and then join him for a holiday celebration. Everyone agreed that this was a great idea and that we should take Rob up on his generous offer in lieu of our normal December meeting and Holiday Party.
Our theme for November was “turkey magic.” The idea is to show a prop that looked great in the dealer ad or on eBay, but turned out to be less amazing than anticipated.
Lee Woodside showed a “Hoffman’s Rising Card” straight out of “Modern Magic.” It was advertised on eBay as being a gorgeous prop with beautiful wood inlay. What was not mentioned in the ad was that it was manufactured in a third-world country and not the highest quality. Lee had Michelle Tabor, Jerry Bowzer, and Rick Johnson each select a card and then replace it anywhere in the deck. Lee placed the deck into the rising card houlette and asked Rick Martin (AKA Professor Ludicrous) to use his wand to invoke a levitation spell. Alas, the cards did not rise. Lee asked Rick to adjust his wand to a higher setting and repeat the spell. This time there was a loud bang from the wand and the three selected cards flew out of the houlette.
Jim Short performed an effect with two pens featuring a popular search ending logo. One of the pens had a multicolored logo and the other was in purple. He said the pens were in image search mode and they shouldn’t touch or they’ll get stuck. As he went to adjust the settings on the multicolored pen the two accidentally touched, leaving both logos purple. He then handed both pens out for examination.
David Teeman proved that you don’t have to spend a fortune on props to amaze people with magic. He showed us his “$10 Act” that he performed for the “trunk or treat” night at his church. He had a vanishing/reappearing egg in a mesh bag, a “six-foot” ruler for measuring the height of youngsters, a “wand chooses you” giant wand with a toilet plunger on one end, and a drawer box for use in handing out candy. David’s enthusiasm in performing his magic reminds me of the late Bob McAllister.
Mike Stelzer showed us a prop for allowing an arm to be severed in half. However, he said that the effect of the illusion was not very good. I suspect that perhaps that Mike’s muscular body-building arm may have been a bit large for the apparatus.
Michael King told us about a nut and bolt trick he had where the nut would unthread itself visibly from the bolt. He said that the problem was that even in a loud nightclub, the workings were too noisy. He then showed us the new book about the history of magic that David Copperfield has recently published. (NOT part of the turkey magic.)
Cassidy Smith put the names of the performers into a hat and drew names for winners. Each of two winners go to select an item from the magical bag of mystery. Jim Short chose a DVD of performances by famous magicians. Mike Stelzer took home a Juan Tamariz DVD.
Lee Woodside