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.
Vice President Justin Teeman reported that several members of Ring 46 convened at Buffalo Wild Wings in Moore on the third Monday of September for an informal Roundtable. They and some of the patrons and staff enjoyed some distanced deceptions in the outdoor dining area.
Twenty magicians logged on for our October Zoom meeting, hosted once again by Vice President Justin Teeman. The theme of the meeting was to perform as a character other than yourself. Lee Woodside, dressed in a vest and cowboy hat, performed as “Captain Lee.” He began by giving a pitch for his “Captain Lee’s Magical Medicine for Mysterious Maladies,” an elixir that he claimed would cure a multitude of ailments. He claimed to have gotten the formula from his good friend, Joseph “Shyster Joe” Diggle. Lee then explained how he obtained the magical waters used in the medicine from a small mountain spring on land held sacred by the Shoshone. Using an earthenware jug, he showed how more water was always available from the spring.
President Cassidy Smith mentioned “Master Payne” as magician in the Seattle area who offers his magical services in the form of many different characters. Cassidy said that he also liked Michael Skinner. He proudly showed off his signed copy of Michael’s CLASSIC SAMPLER.
Jerry Bowzer said that he enjoyed Daryl as a teacher and performer. Wendy Wylde talked about Richard Webster and the mindset to “believe all stories whether I am hearing them or telling them.” She said that perhaps she and Richard were “squinty eyed” psychics, a play on words of the “shut eye” pyschics.
Jonathon Taylor said that he enjoyed the performances of Kainoa Harbottle. Anthony Bruno, a magician who recently moved to Oklahoma, said that he really enjoys performing “Steam 2.0,” by Ali Nouira.
Justin Teeman told of an encounter with the late René Levand. When he asked Senor Levand for advice on a trick, he was told to first perform it himself. As Justin retrieved a deck of cards, René put down a close-up mat with the comment, “A jeweler never displays his wares without laying a pad down.” Justin said that he continued his studies in Spanish just so that he could hopefully one day converse with René Levand. He said that, in fact, he got the chance to translate for him.
David Parr said that he was impressed by the sincerity of Doug Henning. He said that Doug’s demeanor made people want him to succeed. He said that other role models for him were Tony Andruzzi and Eugene Burger.
Anthony Bruno showed a treble fish hook. Four strings hung down, one of which he said was actually tied to the hook. He placed the hook and one end of the strings in his mouth. He then had audience members select one of the strings. He would yank the selected string out of his mouth. Using the fourth string, he gently lifted the hook out of his mouth. He then showed us a “haunted deck” routine that he attributed to Jeke Yo.
David Teeman mentioned that he enjoyed the magic of Rudy Coby. David then talked about performing his own version of the “obedient ball” for Dan Sperry.
David Parr invited Anthony Bruno to use his own deck to perform a trick. David had Anthony select one card, memorize it, and lose it in the deck. He then dealt the cards into five piles. Anthony then look at each pile to see if his card was there. If not, the pile of cards was discarded. When he came to the pile with his card in it, David had him show the cards on screen one at a time. Sure enough, even though David had not previously seen the face of the selected card, he was able to divine the correct card.
Todd Reis told a story that he said he heard from Max Maven about Karrell Fox auditioning to perform at trade shows for Ford Motor Company. Karrell performed a “find a card” trick for the Ford executive, but selected the wrong card. He then had the executive open his office window and there was a plane in the sky writing the name of the chosen card. He got the job.
A week after our October meeting, we were pleased to host a Zoom lecture by David Jonathon. David performed and explained seven effects and also gave us the benefit of his thoughts on creating new effects.
David led off with a very visual and eye-popping effect. A card was freely selected, signed, and returned to the middle of the deck and the deck was placed back into the card box. A rubber band was placed around the outside of the card box. When David snapped the rubber band against the box, the rubber band instantly vanished. When the box was opened and the deck removed, the rubber band was around the selected card. This effect would be a great opener or a lead-in to other card or rubber band tricks. He markets this as “With the Band.”
David brought out a “rainbow” deck, showing that not only were all the cards different, but all the backs were different as well. He invited Lee Woodside to roll two dice. David counted down from the top of the deck to that number and lay the card on the table face down. Lee again rolled the dice and David counted the cards from the bottom of the deck and removed that card and placed it face up. The prediction envelope that had been on the table at the start of the trick was now opened and the one card inside was removed. Sure enough, it matched front and back the cards selected by rolls of the dice. David calls this trick “Fortuity.”
David went on to perform an effect where he wrote the prediction of a card to be selected on the card box, a sandwich effect using the two black kings, a number prediction effect using UNO cards, a “free will” prediction effect using picture cards, and a killer book test with an impressive “kicker” ending. I highly recommend David Jonathon’s lecture to any magic club whose members are looking to learn innovative magic and, more importantly, to learn the process of creating their own cutting-edge effects.
Lee Woodside