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 introduced Jerry Bowzer as our featured performer for October. Jerry invited Cassidy to shuffle a red deck of Bicycles while he shuffled a blue deck. Jerry then discussed the astronomical odds against two shuffled decks being in the same order. For example, he compared the number of possibilities to the number of protons that would fit within the volume of the earth. However, when Jerry and Cassidy compared the orders of their decks, they were miraculously in the same exact order.
Cassidy Smith said that he had a show coming up where he would be performing for “super seniors,” where the youngest audience member would be 77 years old. The venue was a church rather than a nursing home. He led a discussion about effects that would be appropriate for such an audience.
Vice President Justin Teeman led the “teach a trick” portion of the meeting. He showed us a very visual, but easy-to-do method of producing four aces from a borrowed deck.
Jim Green showed five two-dollar bills. With a flick of his wrist, they all turned into twenty-dollar bills. Past-president Bob Caldwell, who recently moved back to Oklahoma from Tennessee, commented that if you are changing a bill borrowed from the audience, always change it to a smaller bill. Otherwise, they will want to take possession of the larger bill.
Jay Relkin said that he had started performing tricks with the “baby hand.” He said that the audience reaction has been phenomenal.
Cassidy Smith announced that we would have an impromptu magic contest. It would be truly impromptu because it was not announced in advance of the meeting.
Jay Relkin caused a finger ring to jump from finger to finger. He then had a finger ring magically pass through a folded plastic drinking straw.
David Teeman showed three matchbooks and invited Derrick Beeson to choose one. When he turned over the chosen match book, “You will choose this one” was written on the back of it. The other two matchbooks had no such message.
Lee Woodside invited Jerry Bowzer, Cassidy Smith, Rick Martin, and Bob Caldwell to select three-digit numbers. Sure enough, when Justin Teeman crunched the numbers, the total arrived at matched a prediction that Lee had handed out earlier.
Justin Teeman performed a trick with three cards. He first showed that all three cards were the Ace of Spades. Finally, he showed that there were Aces of three different suits.
Derrick Beeson performed the audience-pleasing “paper balls over the head” for Jim Green. Shawn Clark demonstrated his healing powers by restoring a broken cookie.
While the committee judged the impromptu contest, David Teeman showed off a tiny skull on a string that would stop anywhere on the string at his command. When the judges returned, David Teeman was announced as the winner of the contest. Each participant in the contest received a color-changing silk scarf.
Lee Woodside led off the member performances by showing the small cabinet that he had built from materials he obtained from a haunted house that was being demolished. A goblet and a red ball were displayed and the curtains on the cabinet were closed. When they were reopened, the ball was inside the goblet. Next a cord was threaded through holes in the sides of the cabinet and David Teeman and Shawn Clark were invited to hold the ends of the cord. Lee borrowed Rick Martin’s wedding band and put it into the cabinet. David was asked to let go of his end of the cord and Shawn was asked to slowly pull the cord from the cabinet. Rick’s ring was now on the cord and held in place by a safety pin. Finally, Lee asked Jerry Bowzer to freelly select a playing card. A child’s slate was shown to be blank on both sides and was placed into the cabinet along with a piece of chalk. After scratching sounds were heard, the slate was removed and “THE NAME OF THE CARD IS” was written on one side of the slate, but the other side was blank. After cursing the spirit, Lee erased the message and it changed to “NINE OF HEARTS.”
Lee said that when he performed this effect at an Oklahoma City Calvacade of Magic back in the 1990s, underground card legend Roger Klause was sitting in the back row with a friend. As Lee was performing the effect, Roger was whispering to his friend how it was being done.
David Teeman showed an envelope labeled “CURE.” He then laid out six pictures of a voodoo doll being stuck with a pin in various places. When Bob Caldwell selected one of the pictures, David removed the prediction from the “cure” envelope and it showed a large band aid over the location of the chosen wound.
Cassidy Smith placed the names of all the performers into his hat. The winning name was drawn and Jay Relkin claimed the prize of a chop cup with chopped dice and an eight-ball final load.
Lee Woodside