Category: Meeting Minutes

“Street” Magic

SEATTLE, WA – June 3rd

The topic for the evening was “Street Magic”. There were quite a few good performances this evening as well as a guest performer. We also welcomed a new magician, Roger Sylwester to the meeting.

Larry Dimmitt performed an extremely visual key bending routine called psi-key where a key is visibly bent. He even gave the key to a spectator and the key continued to bend in his hand.

Mark Paulson performed an impressive prediction routine where he wrote down some information on a piece of paper and placed it on the table. He had a spectator shuffle a deck of cards multiple times and had the spectator deal off three packs in which the top card of the packs matched his prediction number.

Ed Loveland performed a neat Max Maven trick that involved the spectators free choice of pairing envelopes in which it turned out that the ESP cards inside each envelope pair matched as well.

Dan Kennedy performed a very clean, quick sponge ball routine. His production of the first ball is especially good and always amazes me. Dan also performed a nice ring on rope routine with multiple phases.

John Cameron did an excellent job preforming “Vegas Mentality” by Kevin Burke, where two chosen cards, a “casino card” and “lucky card” reveal a sealed prediction card in an unusual method.

Chuck Kleiner continued to amaze with a transportation effect where a blue card chosen from one deck, disappeared from a pack only to re-appear in a closed red deck another spectator was holding. The blue card was also the specific number from the top that the spectator had earlier mentioned. It was a wonderful display.

Joe Toles showed the group some very interesting cards from China that had symbols on both ends, and were about a quarter the width of normal cards. I’m sure Joe will come up with some good tricks using this odd deck.

Jim Earnshaw continued with his love of coin magic and performed a three-fly routine from Ponta the Smith’s “Sick” video.

The group was also able to enjoy the award winning performance of Brian Cook. Brian was a guest of the group and he performed some very magical effects to the delight of everyone.

 

SEATTLE, WA – May 6th

The May meeting included a visit from Texas magician, Bertil Fredstrom. Bertil was in Seattle on business and we were delighted that he could join us for the evening. He performed a lovely mind reading trick involving celebrity post cards, where a prediction card and chosen card both changed to match each other as the climax.

John Cameron performed a trick from Roberto Giobbi’s Card College Lightest called Further than Ever, where the revelation of cards continue to build on each previous revelation. John added the final climax where the remainder of the deck were all blank.

Hugh Castell continued his performances based on a mind control and ESP theme. Hugh did a very nice performance of Paul Curry’s 13 Cards where Hugh not only revealed the selected card, but showed that he had also been able to select all other cards of the same suite from the deck as well.

Ken Marsh did a nice four ace production as well as a prediction effect where showing one card from one side of two decks you are able to predict the next card from the second deck.

Dan Kennedy performed a couple of close up tricks for our guest Bertil, including John Cornelius’ “My First Card Trick” where a spectator chooses a card from a picture of cards, and after a few simple questions the card is reveled face down in another picture.

Larry Dimmit performed a very nice prediction effect where a sealed envelope contained a number. Flash card numbers were handed out two three spectators who were able to shuffle them and each one turned over a number, making three sets of three. The total of these numbers matched the number in the envelope.

Mark Paulson was working on a nice comedy routine of magic involving “balloon animals” and a psychic bird gone wrong. Mark also finished up with a crystal tube magic trick where three silks magically tie together after being placed through the tube.

Ed Loveland performed Key-munication by Rick Maue. The trick involved matching pairs of ESP cards and a revelation of person who has passed away. Ed always does a great job of story-telling with his tricks that really bring them to life.

Joe Toles showed some of the street magic he has been performing regularly on the Seattle waterfront, including an ambitious card routine and a nice matrix effect where coins move through a table cloth.

 

 

Larry Dimmitt started out by displaying a box with a nail in it. He explained that the nail had been the property of a witch and that it had strange powers. He waved the nail over a penny in his hand causing the penny to rise. He then brought out a pen with a lottery ball on top. By spinning the pen you could cause numbers to drop into the pen. After he had Hugh spin out six numbers, Jim picked one of the numbers chosen. Larry revealed the chosen number from a business card in his wallet. Mark Paulson performed a great book test routine called A Lesson in Mentalism by Tony Corinda, where dice were randomly rolled and totaled, leading to a number of cards which leads to a page, row and word in a book. Mark already had the word written down in a notepad left on the table in full view. The revelation also included knowing the card that was chosen by the dice total. It was a great revelation trick. Mark followed that trick up with a razor blade eating trick. He placed razors in his mouth along with string and then proceed to pull out the razors attached to the string.

Ed Loveland pulled out an ear on a necklace from an old box along with tarot cards and told a great story about an evil man named Azelrod who after being told of his demise by a gypsy fortune teller had her killed. However after his own death and dismemberment you could still hear the screams of the gypsy if you listen closely to the ear. The performance included a matched prediction death tarot card and actual screams coming from the ear.

Hugh Castell did an ESP routine by Paul Curry where he had everyone place a dollar bill in separate envelopes, and mixed them up. One was given to Hugh and he was able to divine the serial number of the bill.

Jim Earnshaw performed a spellbound coin routine from Ponta the Smith’s new video “Sick” where two different coins visual change back and forth and finally vanish at the end.

Dan Kennedy started off the magic with a nice coin’s across routine where three quarters start on each side of the mat, and one by one three travel from one side to join the others. The final transposition happens in the spectator’s hands. He followed up later in the evening with a performance of “Beyond Probability”, a card prediction effect using a random number rolled on a dice to determine a matching card. Hugh Castell performed “El Cheapo Magic Show” with rubber band and card box. Hugh did some nice rubber band tricks with themes based on large scale illusions, including a broken / restored band, linking bands, and a cute “rabbit” pulled off the band. He finished with a very strong effect where a labeled rubber band jumped from the outside of a card case to the inside around a deck of cards.

Larry Dimmitt performed an original routine called “Fire-Rune” where a blank rune was wrapped in paper. The spectator eliminated various runes on a piece of parchment at which point the paper was lighted and the selected ruin image was burned into the previously blank rune.

Mark Paulson, sans devil horns, started with Max Maven’s “Wagers of Sin” where a spectator unknowingly signs a contract with the devil as a card is revealed. Mark followed up with a nice divining rod routine that would be great for walk around where a paper clip is used to determine what envelope held a silver coin. Mark continued the devil theme with a card revelation that at first showed the chosen card to have a picture of the devil on the back of it, only to then show it normal after he had used the power of the dark one to reveal the choice.

 

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.