15th December 2020.
With the Covid-19 Pandemic virtually eliminated in Australia and only occasional outbreaks of one or two people each month Sydney is returning to normal. The efficient tracking of the virus via the sewerage system and contact tracing is allowing us to have normal meetings and family our entertainers are having a normal busy Christmas. Most performers have had nine months of virtually no shows but this December is almost as busy as previous years.
The December meeting was our usual Christmas Party, this time a barbecue on the deck at the home of our treasurer Peter Wood in the Sydney suburb of Lane Cove. Ladies, Michelle and Laura cooked the steaks, sausages and chicken which were served with the usual accompaniments of fried onion, salads, bread rolls and sauces. Much later a large array of hot and cold deserts including Christmas pudding, pavlova and apple pie with ice cream and hot brandy custard. Drinks were available to wash everything down.
The performers included Peter Wood with his own routining of a burnt, signed bill to Lemon. The routine commenced with Larry Becker’s Monte Inferno which was taught to Peter by our own great Clifford Warne. Instead of the signed note appearing in the remaining envelope however Peter discovered it in a lemon. Conway Restom then performed the very involved Woody Aragon’s Dorset which is based on Paul Harris’s Reset. He used just eight cards four queens and four Aces, the Aces were placed in the card case, the queens became double backed cards then changed places with the aces. The routine was performed with just the eight cards, all just normal and un-gimmicked. Peter Rodgers performed Star Warp, Howie Schwarzman’s version of Roy Walton’s Card Warp using a dollar note and just one playing card as published in Harry Lorayne’s Apocalypse magazine during the late 1970’s.
Bruce Glen asked us all to follow along and nearly all of us were successful in producing four aces face up in his presentation of Virtual Triumph by Adrian Lacroix. Our president Dale Trueman discovered three chosen cards by starring into the chooses eyes. Stephen Bell made a great attempt at the Linking Coat Hangers but he thought that he should offer his apologies to Mike Caveney who performed the routine in Sydney almost thirty years ago. Phuoc Can Hua performed a delightful ring on rope routine to music. Phuoc explained that he had learned the moves from a video tape in the German language.
That concluded the performers but our visitor, Daniel Shields showed a cheap but substantial lightweight table stand available on eBay. He offered to make table tops for anyone interested. Jack Sharp with the assistance of Joe Szabo then played Santa Clause and gave gifts of magic props to everyone in attendance.
We all agreed that this was a great meeting to conclude a very ordinary and in many parts of the world a disastrous year.
Ring 102 has organised for a large group of members to attend “James Galea’s Best Trick Ever” at the Sydney Opera House in early January. It will feature five of Australia’s top magic entertainers including the great Raymond Crowe. Currently with the pandemic audience numbers are still restricted, however theatres can now be filled to 75% capacity as long as COVID-19 health requirements are followed.
Peter Rodgers
Sydney Magic Club 