Author: jim

Mark Paulson was feeling devilish this evening as he performed “Treasure Hunt Prediction” by Henry Holava. Mark’s presentation involved a Christmas gift twist where he received the only lump of coal, while everyone else who chose a bag received gold chocolate coins. Mark said that he had been a bad boy as he removed his cap to reveal horns on his head!

Chuck Kleiner performed a very nice “lie detector” routine where after a card was freely chosen and mixed back into the deck, the spectator named each card as he turned it over and when he got to the chosen card Chuck could tell by his voice that it was the chosen card. Chuck was able to take this performance even further with a phone call to “The Wizard”. Without any verbal interaction from Chuck at all, the spectator called a phone number who then proceeded to perform same routine over the phone.

Ed Loveland performed some great close up coin productions, changing 1 coin into 4 and then moving into a very visual four silver dollar from cards production where the spectator twice choose two cards and Ed would produce a coin from each pair. Ed then tore one card in half and produced the 3rd coin from those halves and finally tore the last half card in half to produce the 4th coin.

Dan Kennedy started off with an empty hand sponge ball production that looked very magical, splitting the single ball into two and continuing with a quick two ball routine. Dan did a great close up magic piece with large glass beads representing five sheep and two robbers where the beads changed places in his hands at the end.

Ken Mash performed a Las Vegas dice routine where a single dice changed color to green, then red. The dice transformed into a single die made up of smaller multi-colored dice, and finally to a large multi-colored die.

Larry Dimmitt performed a nice hypnotism piece where he convinced the spectator that the chosen card wasn’t to be found in the deck. Larry also did a mind reading trick that included writing down the correct prediction from three different spectators.

Jim Earnshaw performed Jay Sankey’s “No Jacket Required”, followed up with the “explanation” of how the trick works by showing 4 coins getting “stored inside” of one coin via Sankey’s “Mass Consumption” coin routine.

Bob McSwane performed a nice “prediction gone wrong” card trick with large cards, only to reveal the chosen card in a very direct visual transformation. Bob also pulled out his pet monkey to help reveal a chosen card. Bob’s performance style was very engaging.

 

 

December 3rd was election night. Mark Paulson was elected as the new president of Assembly 200, and Jim Earnshaw was elected as the new secretary. The theme was Pot Luck, or bring whatever you wish.

Ed Loveland began the magic by telling a story of voodoo. He then performed a bizarre voodoo prediction utilizing voodoo cards and a voodoo doll, complete with needles in it. Next, Ed performed Jim Critchlow’s ’Til Death Do Us Part. Ed told us of a marriage that had ended in murder. He then showed us ten very old wedding photos and one was randomly chosen and torn up. It matched a torn and taped photo in an envelope on the table. Ed then borrowed a deck of cards and performed New Deal, a mentalism effect by Michael Weber, in which Ed psychically revealed the name of a card in a poker hand.

Dan Kennedy showed us a trick with buffalo nickels which went through the table, and then he changed the nickels to pennies.

Chuck Kleiner performed Sympathetic Cards by Emerson and West. His story was very entertaining and made us laugh, and his handling of the cards was flawless.

Next up was John Cameron, who performed an original bizarre effect about a mystical quest to join the Royal Order of Runes. His effect used rune stones, Tarot cards, and numerology, and in the end, the quest was completed and amazed the room.

After that, Mark Paulson performed a two-phase rubber band trick called Linking LoverBands by Alan Wong (taught to Mark by S.A.M.’s own Steve Marshall while visiting Japan last March).

Then Ken Marsh did a quick four-queens assembly, and Bob performed the Professor’s Nightmare. Last up, Jim Earnshaw performed David Regal’s “Puppy Trick” with an added touch of his own. Then Jim performed a three-coin transposition. Finally, he performed Renegade from Oz Pearlman’s Triumph DVD.

The theme for the November 5th meeting was bizarre magic.

Ed Loveland performed a scary card effect called The Card of Nosferatu, by Tony Chris. One of his cards ended up sucking the red out of another card.

Jim Earnshaw did a very good coin transposition by Jay Sankey, called Mr. Clean Coins Across. Jim is quickly becoming the club’s coin guy. He then performed a nice card-packet trick from Steve Dobson called Miss Direction, in which the cards changed from red backs to blue backs to pictures of Miss Direction.

Larry Dimmitt’s first effect of the night was the story of a gambler, Badlands Bob, who lost his life with a roll of a die. Larry had Jim name a number to see if he could break the curse, but alas, the die was shown to be Jim’s number. For his next effect, Larry brought out a magazine, a book, and a government report, which were all about aliens. He performed a terrific book test by Mark Edward called the Roswell Effect, which involved several of the club’s members.

New member Chuck Kleiner performed a spooky effect utilizing an imp bottle. He showed us how to capture a genii which lived in the bottle with a piece of flying carpet (Glorpy). This was an effect he got from Paul Diamond. Next, Chuck performed a magic square effect, in which the final number was the number of our club. He got this from Martin Gardner.

Last up was Mark Paulson. Mark performed his version of Jay Sankey’s Third Eye. He used a psychic connection with a ventriloquist dummy’s eye to “see” three cards which had been secretly selected by Chuck.

 

Tonight’s theme was spooky or mental magic. Larry Dimmitt told us a bizarre tale involving shrunken heads from the Amazon. He showed us photos of three shrunken heads – one with eyes sewn shut, one with mouth sewn shut, and one with no ears. His shaman card predicted which of the three heads a club member would choose. For his second effect, Larry brought out some Gypsy Fortune Telling cards and performed Paul Harris’ Deep Astonishment II, which was a very nice revelation of a randomly chosen name. Dan Kennedy related the story of how Houdini could escape from a milk can. Using mini-props, Dan showed us how Houdini performed the impossible feat.

John Cameron performed Psychic Suds, a three-phase mentalism routine which resulted in locating a chosen card with a beer bottle and the thoughts of three club members.

Mark Paulson performed a spooky Tarot card effect by Stephen Minch called the Rite of Daeron, found in Minch’s The Book of Thoth.

Hugh Castell performed a great mentalism effect with cards which he recently found in the October 2009 Genii. The effect is from Stephen Minch’s article, “Who Do You Thrust?”

Ed Loveland brought out a black envelope addressed to him which contained five tarot cards and a black card on which the word redemption was written. He told us a story about how he once got revenge on his annoying neighbor. He meant to just put a small spell on him, but things turned terribly wrong. In the end, Ed was so horror-struck by what he had done that he took out a razor…and it was the neighbor who ended up getting redemption.

Last up was Larry, who brought out a PSI Deck. He was able to divine which of the twenty-five symbols Dan was thinking of.

 

Ed Loveland started off the evening by showing us an antique telegraph key, some old documents and photos of the Titanic. Ed showed Jim Earnshaw and Dan Kennedy a group of photos of people who either survived or died during the sinking of the Titanic. Using their intuition, Jim and Dan either selected or rejected the photos they were shown. In the end, Dan had picked all the survivors, and Jim had all the victims.

Larry Dimmitt asked Hugh Castell to think of a city. Hugh wrote the city’s name on a card, and Larry was able to determine the name of the city which Hugh was thinking of. For his next effect, Larry had five members stand against a wall and had each of them put a personal object in small white boxes, which were then mixed up. Larry was able to match the objects with the owners.

Ed was up again. This time, he brought out a black velvet bag containing four white stones and one black stone. He passed the bag around until five people each held a stone. Ed eliminated the people who were holding white stones until there were just two left. Then he was able to divine who held the black stone.

Dan Kennedy performed Ring of Truth with Ken Marsh and Mark Paulson. Dan was able to tell that between Ken and Mark, it was Mark who held his ring.

Hugh Castell performed a very entertaining version of Sympathetic Cards by Paul Vigil. It had several phases, involved many people, and ended with ten cards making up a phone number, which when dialed, ended in an unusual cell phone call.

Jim Earnshaw showed us a cool coin trick in which two half dollars became one, and then Jim snapped them apart again.

Mark Paulson brought out a deck of cards and an envelope and then had Hugh look at a random card from his deck. Then Mark reached into his pocket and took out four imaginary magic markers, each a different color. He asked Hugh to imagine the card in front of him, choose one of the pretend markers, and draw a simple shape on it. After this was done, Mark revealed what was in his envelope: a nine of diamonds with a red triangle drawn on it, exactly as Hugh had imagined (Jay Sankey’s Just Imagine).

 

Dan Kennedy performed a ring on chain effect while telling a story of Merlin and Guinevere. Dan then brought out four half dollars and had Joe Toles memorize the date on one of them and place it in a coin purse. The selected coin matched Dan’s prediction. Dan then performed John Cornelius’ “My First Card Trick,” which had a surprise ending. Dan’s last trick was a version of Gemini Twins with a very good story about twin Kings who went to a bar with their twin wives. They end up meeting two redheaded couples. In the end, there are four different cards.

Newest member Joe Toles showed us a card trick which featured bottom deals and palms. Joe has had lots of practice recently performing street magic along the Seattle Waterfront and has become quite proficient in handling. He then performed Skinner’s Monte which flowed quite nicely.

Larry Dimmitt brought out a dictionary and had three members come up with a random three-digit number. Mark Paulson turned to that page number and looked at the first entry while Larry read his mind. For Larry’s next effect, he had Dan draw a simple geometric shape on a pad of paper. Larry was able to duplicate the drawing with the powers of his mind. For Larry’s third effect, he performed a trick in which one card placed in the middle of the deck went back in time and switched places with another previously selected card

Mark had Hugh Castell shuffle a deck of cards and cut them while Mark wrote down a prediction. Hugh then dealt the cards into three piles, after which he turned the three top cards face up. The three cards matched Mark’s prediction. This was Jay Sankey’s Shufflecutdeal. Next, Mark had Dan select a card from his deck and replace it. Then Mark showed the group three pieces of special see-through digital mind film he bought in Japan. He had Dan hold up one piece of the digital mind film and stare into it. Mark brought out a digital camera and took a photo of Dan holding the film. When Mark showed everyone the photo, Dan’s previously selected card appeared on the film.

Last up was Hugh Castell. Hugh performed a gambling routine from Paul Harris called Reset. Four Aces and four Jacks came together and separated again.

 

Now that the new library has opened in Burien, the members voted to return to the Burien Library starting in September.

Larry Dimmitt started off the evening with a mentalism effect called Fat Man. He had Dan Kennedy riffle shuffle a deck of cards and then Dan dealt thirteen cards on the table. Larry then asked Dan to hold the thirteen cards in a spread, and Larry was able to name each card, one by one, using nothing but the power of his mind.

Ed Loveland performed Bruce Bernstein’s PSI-Deck. Ed fanned a deck, placed a rubber band around the middle, and then asked two spectators to take a peek at one card in the deck. Ed was able to divine which cards both men had seen. He then dealt the cards one by one on the table and asked a third member to say stop. The selected card matched a prediction which was in a sealed envelope held by the third spectator.

Zinger was up next. While telling the story about the origin of the silver thaler, or dollar, in Joachimsthal Bohemia, he showed us four silver dollars and proceeded to push them through the back of his hand, one at a time.

Jim Earnshaw displayed some fine coin magic using two fifty-cent pieces. He vanished the coins on invisible Sky Hooks and brought them back, using an effect he learned from John Carney. He ended with Carney’s Slo-Mo Coins in which he slowly made coins disappear and reappear.

Mark Paulson showed us a three-coin vanish he had learned from a Joshua Jay lecture. He displayed three fifty-cent coins in his right hand and one by one he took them with his left hand and made them magically disappear.

Our last performer was Dan Kennedy, who presented a short mentalism effect utilizing three cards with a blue, a red, and a yellow circle on them. He asked Mark to think of one of the colors. After naming the color, Dan revealed to us that he had correctly predicted which color Mark would pick.

 

Larry Dimmitt began the June 4th meeting performing a mentalism effect. He brought out a blank deck of cards and asked Mark Paulson to draw a shape on it. Without looking at the cards, Larry was able to duplicate the shape Mark had drawn. Next, Larry did a mental effect in which he had Mark write down the name of any historical person he would like to have dinner with. Larry accurately read Mark’s mind and came up with the name, Kellar.

Jim Earnshaw performed John Carney’s Exchanged, Expanded and Extracted, a routine with silver and copper couns and a handkerchief.

Ken Marsh showed us an effect in which a ring is placed into a box, a rod is inserted through the box, and the ring is shown to have mysteriously appeared on the rod. He then performed “Future Mental”. While his back was turned, Ken asked Jim to pick any one of three colored balls, show it around, and place all three in a small box. Ken deduced which ball was chosen.

Hugh Castell borrowed four cards and did a three-phase routine in which two of the cards were turned over in his hands, but when he turned the whole packet over they were all face down.

Mark Paulson performed Larry Becker’s Ultimate Matrix. Freely chosen cards formed numbers which opened a combination lock which held three of the club members’ rings. Mark then brought out a yellow, blue and red stick, each containing random designs. Mark turned his back and asked Hugh to select any single design on all three sticks, get a mental image of the design, and then mix up the sticks in his hands. After Hugh covered the designs with his hands, Mark passed his own hand over the sticks and was able to divine which of the images Hugh was thinking of.