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SEATTLE, WA – Our December meeting started off with elections for 2011. Mark Paulson will have a second term as club president, Hugh Castell is the new vice president, and Jim Earnshaw begins his second year as club secretary.

The magic began with new member Chuck Ising performing an Eric Jones 3 Fly routine, and he did it very smoothly! Chuck also showed us a nice ring on rope routine.

Larry Dimmitt showed us a mind-reading effect in which he displayed five jumbo cards, including a joker. In the end, all the cards turned into jokers (which were wild).

Roger Sylwester had Chuck select a card, and then asked for his birth date. Then Roger produced a book on birthdates. Next to each date was printed the name of a playing card. The card written next to Chuck’s birthday was shown to be the exact same card he had selected. This was Michael Close’s The Birthday Book.

Dan Kennedy showed us a couple of card tricks. He had Dave choose a card (the six of spades), but when Dan revealed the Queen of Spades, Dave said it was the wrong card. Upon closer inspection, Dan showed us that the Queen was holding Dave’s card in her hand. Dan also showed us an interesting version of the 21 Card Trick.

Mark Paulson took out a balloon and blew it up. He then borrowed a cell phone and proceeded to push the phone into the balloon and let it deflate. When he tore open the balloon, all could see that it was the borrowed phone inside. This was Danny Garcia’s Pressure. Mark then performed Garcia’s Greed, slowly and visibly turning a $1 bill into a $5, a $10, and finally a $20 bill.

The last performer of the night was new member Dave Buck. Dave performed Eugene Burger’s version of Out of This World, using the four Aces as locator cards.

 

On Oct. 30th, The Emerald City Wizards put on a performance for the Sunrise Senior Living community on Mercer Island, WA. The show featured members Larry Dimmitt, Jim Earnshaw, Chuck Kleiner and Ed Loveland with club President Mark Paulson providing master of ceremonies duties. The group felt that the show was a great success and is looking forward to more performances in the future.

At the regular meeting, Ed Loveland preformed a nice story driven routine around the sinking of the Titanic. He showed two spectators various pictures of people from the Titanic and each person decided if the person shown in the picture had lived or died. After all the pictures were sorted it turned out that the choices made by the spectators were correct.

Larry Dimmitt told a great story of a gypsy who could determine the name of a person of importance to a spectator with fortune cards. Larry had Dan think of a person and presented him with fortune cards that eventually pointed to cards in a wallet. When Larry took out the cards they spelled the name of the person Dan was thinking of.

Mark Paulson had Larry shuffle a deck of cards and turned over one card at a time having Larry stop whenever he liked. Mark had a “big money” (a large size hundred dollar bill) bet that his prediction card would match the card that Larry stopped at. It turned out Mark was able to keep the money as his prediction card matched.

Dan Kennedy performed a nice quick trick with a small wooden bell that passed through a solid rod. Dan framed the trick around a Houdini story line. Dan also performed a card prediction effect where he had the spectator choose two cards he called for.

Jim Earnshaw practice for the group a quick set of magic he was trying to get ready for a future performance that included a bullet catch duck using a wooden card duck.

 

While the club turnout was somewhat small this month, we did have several guests at the meeting who also performed some very nice magic including a very visual cut and restored ribbon and a nice memorized deck routine.

Club President Mark Paulson presented a neat trick where he had a small wind-up walking brain toy that he used to help divine a spectator‘s chosen card. The brain was said to be that of Howard Thurston and Mark had it walk over a pile of cards stopping on the card that was chosen. Mark also showed a prediction envelope and had a list of various items on a piece of paper. A spectator told mark where to cut the paper and the cut turned out to be on the word skeleton. Inside the prediction envelope was a small skeleton cut in two.

J.R. Russell performed an interesting witch test with member Larry Dimmitt. He had Larry sign a picture of a witch and when J.R. waved the picture under a flame picture changed showing the witch flying away. J.R. said that room should sign a goodbye card for Larry and once it was returned he showed the card to not only be a different color, but to also have travel stamps on it as well.

Jim Earnshaw performed a winged silver routine by Ponta the Smith, where 4 coins traveled from one hand to the other individually and then all together. Jim also performed a Jay Sankey coin effect where 3 coins are “eaten” by a 4th called “Mass Consumption”

 

New Member, Bill Murray performed a Paul Gordon trick where the spectator’s card was determined by a “lie detector” machine made up of a packet of cards. The performer could tell the truth or like, and the cards revealed the truth as well as the chosen card.

James “JR” Russell, performed a very nice triumph routine that included a pretty card flourish (Ballet cut). JR also performed a quick coin disappearance and was kind enough to give everyone at the meeting the means to perform the same coin trick.

Chuck Kleiner performed an interesting routine using a poster board that continually changed showing different pictures and items each time he turned or moved the board that highlighted his “sales pitch”

Mark Paulson performed a Dan Harlan mentalist effect where the spectators choose four parts of mixed up torn pictures of famous people. When the four pieces were put together the picture of Lincoln matched the prediction that Mark had in an envelope; a Penny!

Dan Kennedy performed a card prediction trick from Genii magazine (Feb – May 2006) where he had the spectator deal cards face up to a stopping point of a single face down card. The spectator spread the rest of the cards face up and Dan produced a printed picture of the spread, including the face down card selected.

Larry Dimmitt did a nice mentalism routine where he had four participants take a quarter of a shuffled deck of cards and he was able to divine which person had each card.

Hugh Castell performed a very nice card routine where the faces of the cards would change and backs of the cards changed to multiple different backs, with a climax of the entire deck changing color. Hugh’s card work has really been nice.

John Cameron performed a great card trick where he started with blank backed cards and he would rub the cards together and the printing from one card would transfer to the other so various cards would have different front and backs. The climax of the trick was when he pressed one card to his shirt and the card’s back had the same pattern as his shirt.

Roger Sylwester performed a three card monte routine from Jack Carpenter using Aces, and Queens where the Aces end up turning to jokers and the Queen disappears and returns to the deck.

 

MIXED BAG OF TRICKS

SEATTLE, WA – The August 5th meeting began with Ed Loveland having Dan Kennedy take a packet of cards from a deck, select one, and then shuffle it back into the deck. Then as Dan dealt the cards face up on the table, Ed was able to tell which card had been selected. Next, Ed brought out a very ugly, evil-looking antique doll. A club member was asked to write down the name of a dead person and several living people. The doll was able to give a sign when the dead person’s name came up.

Up next was Dan Kennedy. He brought out four invisible coins from different countries. RW picked one, tossed it into Dan’s coin envelope, and when Dan dumped the coin on the table, it matched RW’s selection.

James “JR” Russell showed us a couple of Steve Bargatze’s effects that he learned from Mr. Bargatze on the recent PCAM cruise. One was a mind-reading routine involving two people thinking of two different words. In the next effect, JR was able to tell whether cards drawn from a packet under the table would be red or black.

Paul Volkman wowed us with a die in a box. No matter which number on the die was chosen, Paul was able to read our minds and tell us the thought-of number. As a follow-up, Roger Sylwester performed a very charming dice routine from Classic Secrets of Magic.

Next, Mark Paulson looked at JR and wrote down a prediction. Then he asked JR to select a page number from a book. Mark pulled off his ring, placed it on the page, and slowly moved it down the page until JR told him to stop. Then he moved it across the page. The word seen in the ring matched Mark’s prediction. This was Banachek’s Word of the Ring.

The last performer for the night was Larry Dimmitt. After dimming the room lights, Larry held a light bulb in a clear plastic bag. He asked us all to concentrate on it. After several seconds, the bulb began to flicker brightly. We decided to try this again, as it was very illuminating. I guess we were concentrating too hard because this time, the bulb exploded. Since the room was dark, we ended the meeting.

SUMMER FUN

SEATTLE, WA – In an earlier ceremony, Assembly President Mark Paulson welcomed new member Paul Volkmann to the S.A.M. Our July 1st meeting started off with Ed Loveland showing us twenty cards with voodoo dolls on them. Ed had Joe Toles place three cards with pins drawn on them in the deck. After the pins were matched to various body parts, Ed revealed a real voodoo doll that had three pins stuck in it, all matching the cards.

Next up was John Cameron, who performed Matchic, a hot effect in which a randomly chosen matchbook from a hotel matched a room key John had earlier placed in his prediction envelope.

Joe Toles did a fine job of performing coin through handkerchief, and then he showed us an effect using unusual cards from China.

Ken Marsh performed an effect called DeLong’s Card, which utilized a sheet with dozens of miniature playing cards on it and a penny. Ken always knew which spot you placed the penny. Then Ken performed Magi Trick by Hardin, in which he mentally deducted three free choices made by three different people.

Larry Dimmitt performed a mentally enlightening effect for us. He showed us a light bulb in a clear plastic bag. We all concentrated on it, and the light bulb began to flicker. As soon as it was fully lit, it exploded.

Up next was Mark Paulson, who performed three mentalist effects. First, he performed Dick Barry’s 52 on 1 card prediction, then he performed Keith Fields’ Sweet and Sour prediction, and he concluded with Keith Fields’ book test, Running the Numbers.

George Zuk, one of tonight’s two guests, performed two effects for us. The first was Jay Sankey’s Stop Me Here, using business cards. Then George showed us a nice effect using the four Aces, Kings, Queens, and Jacks. Each time the cards were dealt into four piles, the same cards would come together by value or by suit.

For Tonight’s finale, Hugh Castell asked our other guest, J.R. Russell, to pick a card, place it back in the deck, and make it rise. It didn’t rise, but the chosen card appeared in the deck in a very mysterious fashion, ala Annemann’s The Magical Thrust.

 

“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.