IBM Ring 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
David Teeman held a workshop on the paddle move prior to our October meeting. He showed us a routine with drinking straws that are available at the low price of “all you can steal without getting caught” from the local taco emporium. The straws have the name of the establishment printed on them in a way that is perfect for the paddle move.
Our theme for the evening was “A Tribute to the Masters.” Our three featured performers were Lee Woodside, Cassidy Smith, and Steve Crawford.
Lee Woodside presented a tribute Joseph T. “Shyster Joe” Diggle, a former member of Ring 46 who has now retired with his wife, Sharon LaNeil to sunny Southern California. “Captain Lee” performed a portion of the magical medicine show that Joe used to perform professionally. Lee not only received Joe’s blessing for reviving the show, but Joe gave Lee all of the magic props to perform it. In addition to the medicine act, Lee also recited Joe’s favorite poem, “The Cremation of Sam McGee,” by Robert William Service. (There was a parody of this poem in a recent “Linking Ring” magazine.)
Cassidy Smith went all out by disguising himself as Dai Vernon and performing “The Professor’s” famous cups and balls routine. Cassidy even had the voice down pat. The audience loved it!
Our local escape artist extraordinaire, Steve Crawford, paid tribute to his idol, Harry Houdini. Steve first demonstrated an escape from a straightjacket. He then escaped from a padlocked packing crate that was examined by all of us magicians both before and after the escape.
William “Bill” Crawford performed his snake basket routine and then showed off his latest book, which is “hot off the press.” He offered to sign a copy for anyone who purchased one. His latest book is MAGIC MYSTERIES AND HAUNTED PLACES, which is a collection of short stories about a magician who solves crimes using his magically expertise. It should be available soon through Amazon.
Cassidy conducted a short business meeting. He invited submissions for our Ring’s 21st Grimoire and announced that Gazzo would present a lecture for us in November. We also discussed a performance date for our annual Pandemonium of Magic. Cassidy then brought up the idea of having a Ring 46 Parade in the “Linking Ring,” which has never been done before as far as we know.
Michael King performed Jay Sankey’s routine where a ring penetrates a soda straw. David Teeman performed the drinking straw routine that he had taught in the pre-meeting workshop. Steve Crawford showed us how to show our business cards as blank on both sides and then “print” them magically and hand them out. Magical Michael Stephanic showed us a great impromptu card trick that he said his sister had taught him when he was in high school.
We rounded out the evening with a great open discussion of problems that arise during the real-world performance of magic. For example, what do you do when you’re table-hopping and an audience member wants to borrow your deck of cards to show you the trick with 21 cards that his uncle used to perform?
Lee Woodside