December 2021
From Ring Reporter Peter Rodgers
Our December meeting is also our Christmas party and following recent practices it was again held on the deck at Peter Wood’s (our Treasurer) home at Lane Cove. Possibly because the night fell only a few days before Christmas or because of the spread of the Omicron variety of Covid-19 the number of members at this years party were reduced. In fact we had more visitors than members. People started to arrive about 7:00pm with everyone bringing their own drinks of choice. Pizza’s were delivered at 7:30 and salads and deserts produced by our host and Michelle, one of our delightful visitors for the night.
Peter Wood commenced the entertainment with John Carey’s Invisicard where a chosen card vanished and then reappeared in a small packet of cards after the Down Under Deal. He then performed a Gimmickless Get Sharkey where a chosen card mysteriously appeared in his pocket. The effect although lacking the impossible card vanish of the original method was a fine effect. Peter then performed an Ambitious Card routine based on a Jay Sankey effect including a Repeat Card to Pocket using a George Schindler idea and finishing with the signed card ending up in a Tom Mullica Wallet.
Peter was followed by one of our visitors Brendon Voigt. Brendon has been a magic fan since childhood but is only now coming back to the art after a lapse of many years. He caused a card held by a spectator to mysteriously change. He then located three chosen cards whilst the pack was in his pocket. We are hoping that Brendan will join the ring in the new year. Peter Rodgers followed with just two effects, he started with Star Warp, a version of Roy Waltons Card Warp using a dollar note and just one playing card. Star Warp was a Howie Schwarzman routine that appeared in Harry Lorayne’s July 1980 issue of Apocalypse magazine. It was actually Bob McAllister that originally had the idea of performing Card Warp with just one card and a dollar bill and his routine subsequently appeared in Richards Almanac September 1983. Over the years the routine has evolved in Peter’s hands and it now includes some of Mike Close’s ideas from his version that appeared in the Workers series. Peter then performed his adaption of Ed Marlo’s “A Miracle With Cards” from Ibidem 8.
Otto Patterson has been coming to our meetings for some months as a visitor has now joined our Ring, welcome Otto. He vanished a red silk handkerchief in his bare hands, performed Equal Unequal Ropes, made a sponge penetrate the table top and stretched his thumb. Phuoc Can Hua has been working on his phone effect again. This time he placed the phone in his shirt pocket and requested a spectator to imagine they were walking through a department store. They moved through different departments then just focused on one item to purchase. It was a mans neck tie, the spectator removed the phone from Phuoc’s pocket and the image on the phone was also a tie. Phuoc is developing a very novel routine.
Steve Miller has only been in magic for about a year but his performances at our recent meetings show that he understands the basics of deception and he is thinking about his routines. Instead of performing tonight he decided to discuss an effect that he had recently developed and performed with great success. He had been impressed with Jonathan Levit’s “The Stranger” which has been widely promoted over the last few years. Steve wished to create a simplified version of this effect and he developed a code to send the value of a chosen playing card over the telephone. He used our member Conway Restom to act as the psychic at the other end of the phone. Steve had inadvertently reinvented the now classic John Northern Hilliard Telephone Trick that originally appeared in the February 1905 The Sphinx magazine and has appeared in many other sources over the years. ( ie. Over the Telephone – David Devant, The Wizard – Scarne on Card Tricks etc.) It just shows that great minds think alike.
It was now time for our final performer of the night, Conway Restom. Conway commenced by producing the four aces one at a time. The first materialised, the second was found reversed in the pack, the third sandwiched and the fourth just appeared in his fingers. The pack then changed from blue back to red and to finish the backs of the aces themselves changed from blue to red. Conway had just given us a great performance of John Guastaferro’s “Wonder Aces”
We must again thank our treasurer, Peter Wood for providing his home for another great Christmas Party meeting and Michelle for assisting with the catering and been the one layperson in attendance to assist all of tonight’s performers.
Peter Rodgers
Sydney Magic Club 