Tag: Society of American Magicians

May 2019 Meeting Minutes

Attendance: Jim Earnshaw, Brian Cook, Rick Swaney, Sam Chamberlain, John Cameron, Roger Sylwester, Ralph Huntzinger, Richard Gerlitz, Larry Dimmitt, Joy D’avanzo

A fun evening of magic and friendship at this month’s meeting.  There was quite a bit of performing and some great magic.

John Cameron brought some wine to the meeting.  It was quite magical that it matched a chosen card selected by a spectator.

Larry Dimmitt performed some mentalism where he was able to influence and match a selection of ESP cards.  Larry also presented a quick impromptu trick where only one selection out of five was a “winner”, it was lucky that the audience member selected the correct item.

Roger Sylwester presented a very nice multi-phase three card monte routine that involved cards magically changing to different values.

Richard Gerlitz showed the group an amazing cryptex device that he made.  Richard is quite well known for his magic craftsmanship and the quality of the device was stunning.

Rick Swaney performed a card to box routine with a very nice vanish of a selected card sandwiched between two other cards.

Joy D’avanzo showed the group some work she was doing with rope magic.  Joy is becoming quite good with her rope magic.

Ralph Huntzinger wanted to get some input on his ring on string routine.   The club brainstormed a bit to offer insight into options on vanishing a ring.

Jim Earnshaw performed his Okito box routine, using a beautiful wooden box and wand made by Brian Cook (MagicCrafter).

Brian Cook was nice enough to present each of the members at the meeting a nice set of playing cards.  So everyone was a winner!

Feb 2019 Meeting Minutes

Attendance: Jim Earnshaw, Brian Cook, Rick Swaney, Sam Chamberlain, Louie Foxx, Enzo Lombardi This month’s meeting was the first meeting with our new President Louie Foxx.  While the membership was small the magic was a lot of fun.  The club had a visitor (Enzo) from out of town, which is always nice. Brian Cook showed … Continue reading “Feb 2019 Meeting Minutes”

Attendance: Jim Earnshaw, Brian Cook, Rick Swaney, Sam Chamberlain, Louie Foxx, Enzo Lombardi

This month’s meeting was the first meeting with our new President Louie Foxx.  While the membership was small the magic was a lot of fun.  The club had a visitor (Enzo) from out of town, which is always nice.

Brian Cook showed off his cylinder and coins props.  Brian has a lovely set of coins and leather cylinder and has started working on what I’m sure will be a great routine.

Rick Swaney showed off his electric personality with a very clever and simple prop that allowed him to heat up a metal coil.  It was a great visual trick.

Sam Chamberlain performed some science magic, suspending water over the head of Jim Earnshaw.  Jim was provided some safety glasses as well as a poncho just in case things got out of hand.  The resulting outfit was quite funny.

Jim Earnshaw performed his Star Trek themed Zone Zero routine along with a presentation of three fly.

Louie Foxx showed off some original routines including some metal bending as well as some 3D printed keys that had some very special properties that allowed some great magic.  Special thanks to Louie for taking some club video and producing a nice club “commercial”.

July 2018 Meeting Notes

Attendance: Mark Paulson, Sam Chamberlain, Brian Cook, Jim Earnshaw, Reymarx Gereda, Terry Osborn, Chris Carlisle, Marian Schwartz, Abe Schwartz This month’s meeting welcomed three newcomers to our club; Terry Osborn, Abe Schwarts and his daughter Marian. Abe is 97 years young and has recently moved from New York where he has been an active member of … Continue reading “July 2018 Meeting Notes”

Attendance: Mark Paulson, Sam Chamberlain, Brian Cook, Jim Earnshaw, Reymarx Gereda, Terry Osborn, Chris Carlisle, Marian Schwartz, Abe Schwartz

This month’s meeting welcomed three newcomers to our club; Terry Osborn, Abe Schwarts and his daughter Marian. Abe is 97 years young and has recently moved from New York where he has been an active member of his local club for over 50 years. Abe had some wonderful stories to tell the club members. Terry relocated from Arizona and was looking to become active in a local club.

It was the last club meeting for long time club member Mark Paulson. Mark is moving out of the state and I am sure that whatever local club he joins will be excited to have such a great new member. The club will really miss Mark. President Brian Cook presented Mark with the President’s award for club service.

President's Award

Jim Earnshaw entertained the club with quite a few coin tricks as well as a version of David Regal’s Red Streamlined Corvette based on a Star Trek theme and red shirts being beamed up to the Enterprise.

Club member Chris Carlisle presented a real “gift” of magic to the club with a nice rendition of The Gift. Chris used a little outside of the box thinking for a unique presentation.

Mark Paulson gave a final mentalism demonstration to the club showing he correctly predicted where a spectator placed a pin in a map for his traveling destination.
Reymarx Gereda presented his card computer routine which turns a normal deck of cards into a computer that can be programmed to find the aces. I always enjoy this routine.

More magic was shared with members and a fun time was had by all.

April 2018 Meeting Minutes

Attendance: Ralph Huntzinger, David Pham, Rich Waters, Mark Paulson, Jim Earnshaw, Sam Chamberlain, Brian Cook, Elly Hartman This month’s magic meeting had a guest stopping by wanting to learn about the club and magic for a school project she was working on.  The club members welcomed Elly and her mom to the meeting. Elly in … Continue reading “April 2018 Meeting Minutes”

Attendance: Ralph Huntzinger, David Pham, Rich Waters, Mark Paulson, Jim Earnshaw, Sam Chamberlain, Brian Cook, Elly Hartman

This month’s magic meeting had a guest stopping by wanting to learn about the club and magic for a school project she was working on.  The club members welcomed Elly and her mom to the meeting.

Elly in under the tutelage of a local magician and she was very receptive to advice the club was able to offer her.  Of course the chance to perform for a non-magician made the night a lot of fun for everyone.  There were card tricks, coin manipulations, great mentalism and Elly herself performed a couple of the tricks she was going to do for her school.

There was plenty of time to give some helpful suggestions regarding presentation and technique from the membership.  Club president Brian Cook even had the club members brain storm certain ways to recover from a trick gone wrong.  It was a great meeting filled with magic.

The next month’s theme is envelope magic.  Club members are encouraged to use or perform magic with an envelope.

February 2018 Meeting Minutes

Attendance: Rick Swaney, Mark Paulson, Felix Huang, Randall Chin, Sam Chamberlain, Larry Dimmitt, Brian Cook, Jim Earnshaw, Ralph Huntzinger, Roger Sylwester The theme of the evening was Valentine’s magic.   There was plenty of good magic, even when it didn’t follow the theme. Jim Earnshaw presented an original Okito box routine that he had been working … Continue reading “February 2018 Meeting Minutes”

Attendance: Rick Swaney, Mark Paulson, Felix Huang, Randall Chin, Sam Chamberlain, Larry Dimmitt, Brian Cook, Jim Earnshaw, Ralph Huntzinger, Roger Sylwester

The theme of the evening was Valentine’s magic.   There was plenty of good magic, even when it didn’t follow the theme.

Jim Earnshaw presented an original Okito box routine that he had been working on a new script for.

Brian Cook presented a very vexing card reveal trick using a borrowed deck and a very hands off handling he was able to divine the thought of card.

Roger Sylwester presented the “President’s challenge”.  This is a rotating challenge taken up each month by a club member to present an effect from a set of lecture notes the previous performer provides.  The current performer then provides a new set of notes for the next challenge.  Rick Swaney took the challenge for the next month.  Roger displayed an in the hands false riffle shuffle and the club discussed some options for false shuffles.

Randall Chin presented a very nice themed sponge ball routine scripted around bacteria, and the club offered some suggestions to enhance the routine.

Mark Paulson is really trying to get his new sleeving routine down which provided some great laughs.  Mark also presented a nice bit of mind reading involving thee spectators and knowing three randomly chosen cards.

Felix Huang presented some very nice mentalism where he was able to divine not only who wrote down something from a mixed set of note cards, but also what they wrote.

Sam Chamberlain presented a baffling trick where he was able to tear a playing card in two and show that information written on half by a spectator magically changed places with the information Sam had written down on his half.

 

January 2018 Meeting Minutes

Attendance: Rick Swaney, Mark Paulson, Felix Huang, Randall Chin, Richard Gerlitz, Sam Chamberlain, Larry Dimmitt, Brian Cook, Jim Earnshaw January was officer election month for the club.  All officers remained in their current position.  Brian Cook remains club President with Mark Paulson vice president, Jim Earnshaw as secretary and Larry Dimmitt as treasurer. We started … Continue reading “January 2018 Meeting Minutes”

Attendance: Rick Swaney, Mark Paulson, Felix Huang, Randall Chin, Richard Gerlitz, Sam Chamberlain, Larry Dimmitt, Brian Cook, Jim Earnshaw

January was officer election month for the club.  All officers remained in their current position.  Brian Cook remains club President with Mark Paulson vice president, Jim Earnshaw as secretary and Larry Dimmitt as treasurer.

We started off the meeting with a rat race.  Rick Swaney had adapted a maze trick with small cards to be performed for a larger audience by building some custom props.  The trick was impressive, and everyone really appreciated the work Rick had put into his props.

Mark Paulson continued the magic with a story about his past ventriloquism years and his connection to his dummy Jay.  Unfortunately Jay had been torn up by his dog, however Mark still had a magical connection to one of Jay’s eyes, providing for a successful remote viewing experience.

Felix Huang demonstrated some wonderful card skills with various tricks.  However his best trick of the evening might have been convincing the waitress that he has true psychic ability later that night at the bar.

Randall Chin performed a unique routine he was working on involving credit cards.  Randall had taken various card plots, adapt them to credit cards, and was able to put together a very nice sequence of tricks.

Sam Chamberlain not only entertained us, but educated the group about protostomes as well with his custom version of wild card, or rather wild “crab”.

Larry Dimmitt continued to show his mind reading ability revealing what box was chosen from a group of boxes as well as noting what was inside the selected box.

Jim Earnshaw presented a chop cup trick based on Star Trek characters and the transporter.  Finishing with a malfunction and cup full of tribbles.

The group was challenged with a riddle by Richard Gerlitz and a shown some lovely custom wood working by Brian Cook from his Magic Crafter business.

 

June 2017 Meeting Minutes

Attendance: Jim Earnshaw, Roger Sylwester, Larry Dimmitt, Michael Jacobs, Aidan Adams, Mark Paulson, Sam Chamberlain, Rick Swaney, Reymarx Gereda, Louie Foxx This month’s theme was “Mental Mysteries”.  Members were encouraged to perform a mentalism-inspired routines.  Regardless of the theme, there was some great magic and fun. Inspired by the previous month’s performance from Brian Cook, … Continue reading “June 2017 Meeting Minutes”

Attendance: Jim Earnshaw, Roger Sylwester, Larry Dimmitt, Michael Jacobs, Aidan Adams, Mark Paulson, Sam Chamberlain, Rick Swaney, Reymarx Gereda, Louie Foxx

This month’s theme was “Mental Mysteries”.  Members were encouraged to perform a mentalism-inspired routines.  Regardless of the theme, there was some great magic and fun.

Inspired by the previous month’s performance from Brian Cook, Jim Earnshaw presented a nice Okito Box routine.  Jim purchased his box and wand set from Brian’s Magic Crafter business.

Louie Foxx showed the group a real digital fooler where he took a picture of the spectator holding a random card they were unaware of yet were later able to freely pick choose the same card from a mixed deck.

Rick Swaney presented a Bob Farmer effect called Deja Voodoo.  Rick has obviously put a lot of work into the trick and the results were very magical.

One of our new members Aidan Adams showed off a very nice multi-phase card to pocket routine that had well timed misdirection and very smooth handling.  Aidan will be fun to watch in the future for sure.

Larry Dimmitt involved the entire group when he solicited written words sealed in envelopes to reveal that a prediction he made matched the randomly selected choice.

Michael Jacobs presented a nice card effect where he was able to divine not only the selected card, but also the number of cards left inside of the card box.

Roger Sylwester presented a very nice self-contained routine by Cody Fisher called “Fifty-two Thoughts”. This routine has a lot of funny moments and quite a magical ending.

Mark Paulson used his mind powers to influence multiple spectators to tell him when to stop his ring over a random word in a book.  The word matched an earlier prediction he had made.

Reymarx Gereda had the spectator grab a random amount of cards from a deck of cards and was able to divine every card chosen.  It was a very nice mentalism piece.

Sam Chamberlain presented a want ad prediction where he was able to divine where a spectator would have him cut though a piece of newspaper.  Multiple cuts were made and Sam still was able to predict the correct ending.

Next month’s theme is “Magic with Cups”.

April 2017 Meeting Minutes

The theme of this month’s meeting was coin magic, although there were quite a few types of wonderful magic presented…

The theme of this month’s meeting was coin magic, although there were quite a few types of wonderful magic presented.

Vice President Mark Paulson was able to psychically divine a specific chore that was selected by a spectator from a list given to him by his wife.  If only getting the chores done could be as magical.  Magician Roger Sylwester presented a very nice three-card Monte routine with multiple card changes and surprises.  Igor Dvorkin turned a spectator into the magician presenting a well-crafted ambitious card effect.  Michael Jacobs presented an effect from John Scarne that was a real miracle card finder.  Ralph Huntzinger presented his coins through hand magic that has been his go to coin routine allowing him to really have a polished effect.  Rick Swaney performed a very nice formal sit down coin routine where coins appeared, disappeared and traveled magically from hand to hand.  Sam Chamberlain presented a magic piece involving a magic growing penny that continued to get larger and larger.  Secretary Jim Earnshaw made a signed coin disappear and then reappear inside of a locked keychain.  President Brian Cook presented a portion of his Magic Castle act involving copper and silver coins that magically transported around the table.  Magician Ben Eskenazi used a spectator’s phone to take a picture of the future, showing a chosen card as the only card face up in the picture.  It was another great meeting filled with magic and friendship.  Next month’s magic theme is “Magic with Music”.

August 2016 Meeting Minutes

Magic in the Summer Our August meeting began with an update on great magic events coming up followed by some serious magic from our members. This was our first meeting at the newly renovated Mercer Island branch of the King County Library. John Cameron fooled and entertained us with a prediction effect using three bottles … Continue reading “August 2016 Meeting Minutes”

Magic in the Summer

Our August meeting began with an update on great magic events coming up followed by some serious magic from our members. This was our first meeting at the newly renovated Mercer Island branch of the King County Library.

John Cameron fooled and entertained us with a prediction effect using three bottles of Moosehead Canadian Beer and a deck of cards. He gave credit to Mark Striving’s Psychic Suds for this effect. Michael Jacobs shared a psychic card effect utilizing a very strong directive persona that seriously held our attention. He performed Karl Fulves’ Unseen Powers.

Larry Dimmit brought out a roulette wheel, dice and cards for a casino prediction effect developed by Jules Lanier. Larry’s mentalism is always amazing. Mark Paulson showed us 15 cards, each with a picture of a different billiard ball. He revealed the chosen card by producing a full sized billiard ball that matched the ball on the selected card.

Ralph Hutzinger performed a smooth version of coins through handkerchief by Michael Ammar. Roger Sylwester treated us to his performance of Mac King’s Other Rope Routine. Chuck Kleiner showed us how some of the first tricks we learned can be successful with lay audiences. He performed a stage version of Mental Choice and Michael Ammar’s Magician’s Insurance Policy.

Finally our youngest member, Otto Miller showed us an Oil and Water routine that he’s been working on. Otto’s magic amazes us every time. Although all of our members are young at heart, it’s great collaborating with the next generation of magicians like Otto. Magic is a great way to bridge the generation gap. If you’re ever in Seattle on the first Thursday of the month come and visit our magic club. No matter what your age, you’ll definitely fit in if you enjoy magic!

August 2015 Meeting Minutes – Summer Magic

Our August meeting began with an update on the great magic events our members attended in the previous month and an update on the upcoming magic in the Seattle area. Tom Payne told us about the closing of an old magic shop and the opening of a new one. Our president, Jim Earnshaw, welcomed our … Continue reading “August 2015 Meeting Minutes – Summer Magic”

Our August meeting began with an update on the great magic events our members attended in the previous month and an update on the upcoming magic in the Seattle area. Tom Payne told us about the closing of an old magic shop and the opening of a new one.

Our president, Jim Earnshaw, welcomed our newest member, Dave Buck, to the S.A.M. and to our club. Dan Kennedy, who recently injured his hand, showed us that he could still do card magic without touching the cards. He had a spectator handle the deck and follow his instructions to find the selected card. The effect was based on Daryl’s “Untouched.”

Larry Dimmit helped a spectator see through his own third eye and the spectator unbelievably divined his own ESP card. Roger Sylvester performed an ACAAN effect where the card is found reversed in the exact location in the deck. It was based on Dai Vernon’s trick that can’t be explained. Jim Earnshaw performed a manipulation act using three coins, a salt shaker, a butter knife and a napkin. The coins appeared and disappeared to the beautiful music of the Blue Danube.

Mark Paulson told us that his father never let him play with cards but that he’s always been drawn to them. Each card in his deck had a different name on the back. The spectator’s freely chosen card turned out to be named Satan. Maybe his dad was on to something. Mark also showed us a balloon that we all burst with the power of our minds.

Chuck Kleiner performed Docc Hilford’s “Wizard’s Manual.” Otto Miller showed us a matrix routine with four cards and four coins where all of the coins magically moved from one under each card to all four under one card. He then upped the skill level by performing a matrix routine with no cards, just the coins and his two hands. Now that’s magic!

Our club has nurtured a positive and supportive environment where members can workshop new routines and get positive feedback on how to improve them. Michael Jacobs took the workshop opportunity this month and demonstrated the difference between a magician and a mentalist. Michael’s effect was based on Milbourne Christopher’s “Concentrate on a Card.” He got a lot of ideas from Brian Cook, Jim Earnshaw and other members on how to improve the effect. We hope he shows us an update at a future meeting.

If you’re ever in Seattle on the first Thursday of the month come and visit our magic club. You’ll definitely see some cool stuff!

Dave Buck Membership