Our November meeting started off with elections of new officers for 2012. Then president Mark Paulson recapped the events for Magic Week, which included a charity show for a local nursing home with members Jim Earnshaw, Fredrick Turner, and Mark Paulson performing.
The evening’s magic began with Dan Kennedy performing Houdini’s Bell. A small green plug representing Houdini is locked into a red wooden barrel with a metal dowel, and Houdini inexplicably escapes.
Next up, Ed Loveland performed an eerie Living and Dead test with photographs of ladies from Jack the Ripper’s era. Two club members were able to pick out which ladies were victims, and which ladies survived.
Larry Dimmitt demonstrated what hypnotism looks like by having Roger Sylwester choose a card in a deck, and then Roger was unable to see the card in the deck.
Roger Sylwester performed an entertaining version of O. Henry’s card trick, in which a black card was chosen. Then we saw that it was the only black card in a packet of red cards. Next, Roger showed us his Diminishing Cards, which utilized some moves by Bro John Hamman. His effect entertained us all.
New assembly member Ron Wells performed some close-up effects that he likes to do around town. He showed us a few tricks with dollar bills, and he also demonstrated his fire wallet.
Mark Paulson performed Banachek’s book test, Word of the Ring, and he followed up with a close-up effect using some toy people from Pete McCabe’s Scripting Magic called “Pete and Re-Pete.
JR Russell performed a Halloween themed card trick based on an idea from Caleb Wiles. A freely chosen card was found to have the words, “Happy Halloween” written on the back. He then showed us ways we could adapt the trick to various holidays and special occasions. JR closed the meeting with a very well-received routine he’s working on which involves a chain escape. His routine involves time travel to the 1904 World’s Fair, and it has plenty of comedy which had us rolling with laughter. His routine is a keeper.