Meeting Minutes – Page 3 – Emerald City Wizards

August 2014 Minutes

Our August meeting had members sharing new effects, books and even giving away magic. Mark Paulson kicked off the meeting by sharing all of the upcoming magic events in the area. Roger Sylwester shared some stories from “The Magician and the Cardsharp.” He also showed us some beautifully engineered billiard balls. Tom Payne shared ideas … Continue reading “August 2014 Minutes”

Reymarx Gereda shared a Mike Close effect called Way of the Duck where he claimed that luck was involved, but this amazing routine was clearly based on skill. Jim Earnshaw first gave away a set of rings and then gave us some amazing moments with his Okito Box routine. Chuck Kleiner magically sent a selected card from the past into the future.

Mark Eskenazi shared his experiences from the recent PCAM in Vancouver and Ben Eskenazi performed a routine where five spectators mixed up a deck and then ended up dealing a straight flush. Bill Murray predicted the identity of two selected tarot cards and then described the cards in detail.

Hugh Castell shared a book that was entirely about the bill switch. This led to a lively discussion on whether or not to use a thumb tip for this effect. John Cameron gave us a nice routine based on the McCombical Prediction. Larry Dimmit closed our meeting by bringing a huge box of old magic and letting all of the members select any tricks they wanted. This had younger members excited about tricks they’d never seen before and older members reminiscing about tricks they hadn’t seen in a long time. In magic, everything old can be new again.

July 2014 Minutes

Our July meeting was “Mental Magic or Magic That Makes You Crazy.” Michael Jacobs started off the magic with an effect he’s been improving each month. It’s his own creation where a bust inhabited by the spirit of Houdini visibly escapes from ropes, handcuffs and other shackles. Crazy. Roger Sylwester blew our minds with a pack of cards he bought at a magic convention that said the thought of card would be forty down from the top. A spectator thought of any card and when he counted down forty it was there. Jim Earnshaw, our resident coin expert, showed us a very magical wooden Okito Box and wand routine with coins appearing and disappearing in mid air. Jim is crazy good. More mentalism was shared by Larry Dimmit as he showed how two minds could have one thought, He showed a picture with multiple celebrities and both the spectator and Larry’s selections were the same. Mark Paulson made us laugh with a little mentalism humor where he and the spectator thought of the very same thing. He also shocked us by selecting three random books from the library where we meet and predicted a randomly selected word on a freely selected page of one of the books. Mark’s mentalism could make you crazy if you try to figure it out. John Cameron dug around in his magic drawer to find a long lost packet trick where some cards had purple circles and some had purple backs. When a card was chosen it was the only one with a red circle and when a number was chosen it was the only one with a red back. I’m sure it motivated some of us to search through our old magic to find a long lost treasure. Since we met on Mercer Island this month, Chuck Kleiner shared a mentalism effect he created for the local Mercer Island Farmers Market. Chuck predicted which letter in the Market’s name would be freely selected by a spectator. Moving from mentalism back to crazy, Tom Payne inhaled a rubber band. He then showed us a card effect with rubber bands where the chosen card escaped from the bonds of two rubber bands.

June 2014 Minutes

Our June meeting was “Packet Trick Night.” Some of the wizards showed us interesting packet tricks and some wowed us with other magical effects. Magic that happens in the hands of everyone in the audience was performed by two of our members. John Cameron had us all select random times on a clock and after … Continue reading “June 2014 Minutes”

Our June meeting was “Packet Trick Night.” Some of the wizards showed us interesting packet tricks and some wowed us with other magical effects.

Magic that happens in the hands of everyone in the audience was performed by two of our members. John Cameron had us all select random times on a clock and after following his instructions we all ended up on one o’clock. He then taught us Jim Steinmeyer’s One O’clock Mystery. J.R. Russell performed Robert Giobbi’s Einstein trick where we all magically discovered the exact card we had been thinking of.

Michael Jacobs shared Aldo Columbini‘s Jumbo Coincidence with a jumbo deck that had been sliced in half. Miraculously he not only had the selected card matched in both halves but then had all of the cards match after numerous shuffles. Ben Eskenazi demonstrated a Michael Ammar effect where the selected card had a different colored back than the rest of the packet. Roger Sylwester showed us some serious sleight of hand with a slick three card monte routine.

Hugh Castell had a prediction sealed in an envelope in a wallet that matched a card that a spectator had him stop on. Mark Paulson continued to amaze us with his evolving mentalism repertoire by performing Richard Osterland’s Hands Off. We welcomed a new magus, Gary Parrish, who shared some of his background and his desire to find effects that could be performed without the use of the magician’s hands. We’ll all be thinking about that challenge.

Bill Murray amazed and amused us with a Juan Tamariz effect where we used negative vibrations to find a card leading to a positive conclusion. Chuck Kleiner shared his version of an old Emerson & West packet routine called Color Monte.

We closed out the meeting with a matrix routine from Mike Battistoni using only two cards and four silver dollars. We felt that if he could do it with two cards what about just one card. Instead, he performed the routine with no cards blowing our minds. The cries of “Do it again, do it again,” made our club sound like a bunch of kids at a magic show. Mike shared that he had help from Dean Dill in developing the effect.

Maybe it’s me, but the magic at the Emerald City Wizards’ meeting seems to be getting better and better every month. Can’t wait for next month’s meeting.

May 2014 Minutes

Our May meeting was “Bookworm Night.” Our wizards shared books they were reading and performed magical effects from those books. We also learned some false shuffles. Michael Jacobs kicked off the meeting with an Acrobatic Jacks routine from a pamphlet he shared. The jacks were quite athletic even performing a quadruple summersault. Hugh Castell performed … Continue reading “May 2014 Minutes”

Our May meeting was “Bookworm Night.” Our wizards shared books they were reading and performed magical effects from those books. We also learned some false shuffles.

Michael Jacobs kicked off the meeting with an Acrobatic Jacks routine from a pamphlet he shared. The jacks were quite athletic even performing a quadruple summersault. Hugh Castell performed a nice wild card routine from John Bannon’s High Caliber. Jim Earnshaw not only shared the book Secrets by John Carney, he also performed a cool one coin routine and then gave away a close up pad. Wow!

Ralph Huntzinger shared a whole suitcase of books focusing on how to be a better magical performer. He talked about Fitzkee and Nelms and how character development and persona are critical to creating a memorable performance. Ben Eskenazi shared the book Laughter Legacy by David Ginn, and then amazed us by moving a hole in a card in the flash of an eye.

Ric Ruidl shared Burling Hull’s 101 Things You Can Do with a Svengali Deck. He then fooled us by using a bridge deck, a poker deck and a jumbo deck. Roger Sylwester brought his comedy encore routine where he recited Little Red Riding Hood in a humorous ancient dialect.

Mike Battistoni, one of our newer members, showed us a well handled card routine from Earl Nelson’s Variations called Sweet Aces. His performance showed us what real magic looks like. Larry Dimmit performed a Mystery Novels book test that had us all scratching our heads wondering how he could possibly have known the thought of word.

Chuck Kleiner shared Juan Tamariz’s Verbal Magic and performed a routine from the book. It was fun having everyone experience the magic in their own hands.

Finally our more experienced members graciously shared their favorite false shuffles so I’m sure we’ll see some cool effects requiring a stacked deck in future meetings.

April 2014 Minutes

You get it all when you attend a monthly meeting of the Emerald City Wizards! Toward the end of the evening of April 3rd, Ben Eskenazi and his dad, Marty, told the Wizards about a plan they had to offer magic to nursing and retirement homes in the near future. They were seeking input about the experiences of others; of which there was plenty. Rule number one: keep it simple! The Wizard Leader, JR Russell recounted one performance when, after he had performed his best stuff, someone in the audience approached him and said: “JR, could you play some Country Western?” Despite the bittersweet humor in this, Rule number two comes into play: retired and nursing home audiences are very appreciative of our magic.

The meeting began with a brief overview of business and then we got straight to the raison d’être of the Wizards: the MAGIC. On a “special” deck of cards carried 90 miles from Whidbey Island expressly for the evening, Ben Eskenazi had Roger Sylwester select any card—and I mean ANY card without a force—and to everyone’s surprise, Ben predicted that very card! JR Russell took pride in seeing Ben perform the magic because he was the one who brought the deck so far.

Ralph Hunzinger had a potpourri of magical works in progress which he wanted to share. First up was “Newton’s Miracle”; an anti-gravity tube device that, with the right incantations can speed or retard the speed of objects that pass within it. Then we saw his “Numerology” blocks that shows, no matter how things are manipulated, that they always add up to the same result: 15. Last Ralph showed his “Vanishing Box” prototype where a rose is not a rose but it becomes a daisy. It’s flower power!

Michael Jacobs performed a short, but intriguing card trick where a Queen appeared where we least expected it. Roger Sylwester then did a twist on Michael Close’s “Erma la Fource.” Completely by random did a card get selected by the entire gathering. There’s absolutely no way that Roger could have predicted what the Wizards proposed. But, in the end, strong magic had its way: the prediction he made was identical to ours. Roger said he tested this trick many times with student audiences in California during a recent visit there.

Dan Kennedy then brought out some “royals” who, through their card avatars, performed a little soap opera of the tantalizing type. The red hair women and the black hair women had little trysts with others besides their husbands and yet, at the end of the night, all was how it was supposed to be although there was a lot of hanky panky going on. Bro. John Hamman’s Gemini Twins is used and there are only four cards even though it seemed many more.

Larry Dimmit performed a prediction card miracle: the “Teacher Knows.” It was baffling. Following this was Jay Boiselle who was a newcomer to the Wizards. He operates the Seattle Juggling and Magic Shop. When asked what magi were buying, he recounted a tale about a man really interested in a thumb tip although he had no apparent interest in magic. It turned out that he had sliced a portion of his thumb off and needed a handy prosthetic. Little did he know that the heat and relatively inflexibility of the plastic version he purchased would eventually do him no good. The vanity of it all.

Chris Carlyle had five Wizards select cards. And by five different means, including reading the lumps on the cards behind his back and by dropping a card, he was able to divine all five cards. Mike Battistoni, another newcomer to the club but not to magic introduced himself. He developed his chops, now a little rusty because life got in the way, at the Magic Castle. But he’s raring to get back into the swing of things.

Bill Murray asked Chris Carlyle to help him in a little prediction exercise by selecting a number of cards. Using the Tamariz Stacked Deck (Mnemonica) technique, Bill was able to predict not only the number of cards Chris selected but all of the exact cards within the packet. Mark Paulson then told about Ricky Jay appearing on the “Tonight Show” recently and performing a trick that he had no clue as to how it was done; and then Mark did the same thing: a royal flush. It’s always interesting when things can change so quickly from humble origins.

Terry Burlison performed a clever Ninja card trick using the Elmsley Count. There was always a problem with too much ink on the Ace of Spades. Following this, we had a discussion about the Elmsley Count from JR Russell and Reymarx Gereda. Each showed different techniques; the most useful being that simply putting the last card on the bottom rather than on the top resets you back to the same Elmsley Count. Rounding out the evening of outstanding fooling, Reymarx Gereda baffled with a repeating, computer-like knowledge of how many cards were cut by a helper. How does he do it?

January 2014 Minutes

Our January meeting commenced with the election of new officers. Congratulations to J.R. Russel, President; Mark Paulson, Vice-President; and Chuck Kleiner, Secretary. Our magic began with Ralph Huntzinger showing us an ABC block prop that was immediately purchased by Michael Jacobs at a bargain price which included change of a $1,000 bill. Tom Payne followed … Continue reading “January 2014 Minutes”

Our January meeting commenced with the election of new officers. Congratulations to J.R. Russel, President; Mark Paulson, Vice-President; and Chuck Kleiner, Secretary.

Our magic began with Ralph Huntzinger showing us an ABC block prop that was immediately purchased by Michael Jacobs at a bargain price which included change of a $1,000 bill. Tom Payne followed with an innovative creation that involved string theory and demonstrated how ten dimensions could change into the four dimensions that we can perceive.

Chuck Kleiner had everyone take nine cards and after numerous individual selections every member found the card they had selected at the same position as everyone else. Bill Murray, Ralph Huntzinger, Ric Ruidl and Roger Sylwester all shared interesting magic books and magazine articles from collectors’ items to new releases.

Jim Earnshaw wowed us with his amazing sleight of hand set to music. He performed a routine with silver dollars, a salt shaker and a dinner knife where the silver dollars magically vanished from his hands and appeared either under or on top of the salt shaker. Michael Jacobs taught us the word “Houdinize” and then performed a very creative version of grandmother’s necklace using props he developed. John Cameron made us laugh with his kid show cut and restored rope routine which he gave us permission to use in our shows. Ben Eskenazi fooled us with two card routines. Danny Dragon shared a story about his PTSD ( post traffic stress disorder) where an arrow showing traffic direction first changed direction and then changed color and position.

Chris Carlisle performed a Joshua Jay routine where he not only found the selected card but also dealt a winning blackjack hand, straight flush and perfect bridge hand from a mixed deck. Larry Dimmit talked about robots and showed us a control panel with three different colored lights and three matching switches. Even when the switches were moved or the bulbs were changed the switches always lit their matching color bulbs. Finally a thought of color lit just with the power of the spectator’s mind. George Zuk showed us a cool effect with hair tie bands named Mister Muscles and Little Pinkie. Mark Paulson wrapped up our meeting with a cool mentalism effect where he predicted the color of a ball selected by one of four volunteers.

December 2013 Minutes

Our December meeting had a light turnout but the small group shared a lot of ideas from good local performing venues to stories about dealing with pre-performance jitters. Our theme was “liar, liar, pants on fire,” and we saw magic with false counts, multiple outs, and just plain lying. Tom Payne shared card preparation secrets … Continue reading “December 2013 Minutes”

Tom Payne shared card preparation secrets on how to split, powder and scrape cards. Danny Dragon amazed us with his version of a John Bannon effect called Royal Scam where cards magically flipped over and changed their back designs. Michael Jacobs wowed us with a deck of jumbo cards where every card had been cut in half. Two spectators each chose a half of a card from the deck and they ended up being a perfect match.

Mark Paulson gave us a brief history of the evolution of Tarot cards into modern day playing cards. He then proceeded to have a spectator think of any favorite date in the calendar. The date was looked up in a calendar that had a different card marked on each date. Mark not only had a sole matching card in an envelope, but he had the spectator count the cards in a deck that had been on the table the entire time and there were only 51 cards and the prediction was the only one missing. Mark’s routine was based on Chronologue by Bob Cassidy. Keeping with the theme of the night, Chuck Kleiner performed a variation of Banachek’s Ring of Truth where he identified who was telling the truth and who was lying. Ric Ruidl gave us some deep thoughts on the number four and then wrapped up the meeting with a nice presentation of Nick Trost’s Four Flush where seven four of spades turned blank and then reprinted magically.

We all learned something new which made for an excellent meeting. And that’s no lie.

November 2013 Minutes

Ben Eskenazi started off the evening of magic with a great card prediction effect. He was not only able to show that the card dealt to by the spectator was the same as he predicted, but that in fact the rest of the deck was blank. Ben is really coming along with his magic. Chuck Kleiner continued … Continue reading “November 2013 Minutes”

Chuck Kleiner continued the magical evening with a funny routine involving holding a carton of broken eggs over the spectator’s head, that magically turned into Hershey’s Kisses. This group thought this was a great trick, especially since we all got to eat the chocolate!

Jeff Dial presented a very nice ring on rope routine using a normal rope with many magical links and unlinks. He continued the ring / rope theme by vanishing a spectator’s ring and have it appear on the chain around his neck.

Mark Paulson performed his baffling mind reading magic under test conditions, where he was able to divine a card that was simply thought of. This is a strong effect that Mark has perfected.

J.R. Russell performed Joshua Jay’s Inferno which got a very good reaction from the club. It is certainly good magic packed into a small space.

Michael Jacobs presented the world’s fairest card trick! He had the spectator cut a deck into three piles and he was able to match all three cards using a different deck he cut and dealt.

Roger Sylwester performed a nice card through handkerchief / card transformation using a lovely new Burberry handkerchief that he had just received as a gift. Roger has such a great gift for story telling the magic is always an “extra” gift!

Danny Dragon told the story of Bruno, his scam artists of a cousin. Lucky for Danny he knows a bit of magic and was able to not only get back his money from his cousin, but to outwit him in a game of chance that couldn’t be won.

Larry Dimmitt continues to amaze with his mental ability. He was able to divine who would get the most correct guesses of heads or tails in a group of three spectators, with each one spinning a coin on the table.

Bill Murray presented a very nice color changing deck routine that looked quite magical. Bill is always working on presenting unique stories to go with his magic.

October 2013 Minutes

The October meeting was full of magic with a lot of members present and performing. Michael Jacobs presented some nice card magic where a spectator’s card as well as one he chose were the only two cards shown to be reversed in the deck after a spread. Ben Eskenazi continued the card magic with a … Continue reading “October 2013 Minutes”

The October meeting was full of magic with a lot of members present and performing.

Michael Jacobs presented some nice card magic where a spectator’s card as well as one he chose were the only two cards shown to be reversed in the deck after a spread.

Ben Eskenazi continued the card magic with a great performance of Search and Destroy by Aaron Fisher. Ben is the youngest member of the group, and continues to get better each meeting and it is always fun to see him perform.

Roger Sylwester tried to show us a trick involving certain cards, but his deck kept changing to blank cards, or cards with all backs. It was a very funny routine where cards just kept turning blank and he had the whole club laughing.

Danny Dragon presented a couple of spooky tricks for the October meeting including a haunted key and haunted deck routine set to a nice story.

Roger Needham continued the haunted deck theme with a very funny Wizard of Oz story that ended with the witch’s hand cutting the deck. It was a great visual to add to this routine.

Dan Kennedy continued the Halloween theme with a very cool trick from Peter Marucci called Victim of the Vampire, where a spectator chooses a victim which is then revealed to have been bitten. It is a quick trick, but very powerful.

Mark Paulson performed a scary knife stab routine where he had a spectator pick what cup he crushed under his hand. Lucky for Mark the spectator picked the right empty cup, because all the other ones had cupcakes under them.

Chuck Kleiner showed the group a bit of magic he did for a sales presentation that involved a quite clever visual illusion. Chuck always comes up with great presentations for his magic.

John Cameron performed a unique card to impossible location involving a bagel and some very interestingly shaped cards. Even adding the “lox” (locks) to the bagel couldn’t keep the card out.

Larry Dimmitt continued to show his mind reading abilities when he was able to divine the words that two spectators had picked randomly from a book.

Reymarx Gereda showed a very cool iPhone application that made it possible to use the phone as a X-Ray machine to look down through the deck to reveal a selected card. The app lovers in the room were immediately downloading it.

Ken Marsh entertained the group with a nice shrinking cards routine. Jim Earnshaw performed a quick in the hands coin matrix and there were talks given by Ralph Huntzinger and Tom Payne.

July 2013 Minutes

The theme for the month was magic using the “one ahead principle”. Bill Murray presented a nice prediction effect with cards where the spectator choose three cards from a deck and Bill was able to select the matching pair from the deck for each card selected. Chuck Kleiner presented a similar version of the effect … Continue reading “July 2013 Minutes”

The theme for the month was magic using the “one ahead principle”.

Bill Murray presented a nice prediction effect with cards where the spectator choose three cards from a deck and Bill was able to select the matching pair from the deck for each card selected.

Chuck Kleiner presented a similar version of the effect except the spectator was able to pick from the deck the three cards that Chuck was thinking of. Chuck had a very nice presentation to go with the effect as well.

Hugh (Danny Dragon) Castle told his theory on how early man was able to survive with the help of extra sensory perception. Danny had a spectator write the numbers one through nine on business cards and the spectator was able to correctly choose which card had which number on it.

Roger Sylwester had a wonderful prediction effect where he correctly predicted in envelopes a spectator’s choice of where they would shop, what they would buy and how much it would cost based on the a random selection of sale tags. The effect was enhanced as each envelope was clearly labeled with the prediction number on it. Roger tipped the method which was quite clever.

Evan Reynolds presented Dan Harlan’s “The Awakening” with a very nice story line he had been working on. Evan told the group about the psychic little person who was on the run from the law as he presented the effect.

Ben Eskenazi presented a very nice effect where he had a spectator choose a favorite card while he chose a least favorite from a different deck. The decks were switched and cut revealing that both cards where the same.

Mark Paulson gave a great demonstration of his memorization skills where he asked people to name ten random items from the group and Mark was able to recall all the items that were simply thought of.

J.R. Russell showed he would never be without grapes as he had a spectator take a small bunch of three from a larger bunch and continued to produce more grapes while eating them or putting them in his pocket. J.R.’s magic was very entertaining per usual.