From Ring Reporter Peter Rodgers
Ring 102 Sydney NSW Australia – The Maurice Rooklyn Ring
Our April meeting fell on the Tuesday after Easter which is still in the middle of the Autumn school holidays and as such we were low in attendees, but high in quality. Conway Restom, the organiser had spent some time in finding some fine performers with some good magic. Conway had chosen “Mind Games-Mentalism and Mind Magic” for the topic and he had organised the program but unfortunately he was unable attend himself because of persistent chest infection.
Dale Trueman our president opened the meeting and introduced Peter Wood who had volunteered to stand in as the compère of the night’s entertainment. He commenced with a performance of Marc Oberon’s E-Wave which proved to be a real fooler. He showed five ESP cards and a Whiteboard stand. The effect commenced as just a 50/50 decision with two symbols, “which hand is the named symbol”? The odds became higher with extra cards added with no mistakes until we witnessed the strong finish of all ESP cards matching a predetermined prediction. A great effect.
Peter then introduces another Peter, your scribe, Peter Rodgers who commenced by transmitting a two digit number to a spectator. The spectator said 68 and Peter opened the slip of paper sticking out of his breast pocket, it disclosed the number 68 printed in large writing. This was “Way Out”, another effect by Marc Oberon which shows the genius of this magic creator from the United Kingdom. Peter continued with a book test using the recently published, but un-gimmicked, novel “Double Deal” written by our member John M Green. He then concluded by reading the minds of virtually everyone in attendance by divining cards that they cut to. It was actually Peter’s variation of an effect from issue number 8, that’s the December 1956 issue of the P. Howard Lyons great Ibidem magazine. This was the Edward Marlo issue and the effect, A Miracle With Cards, showed Marlo’s magic wasn’t all based on pure sleight of hand. Peter had commenced performing this routine in the early 1980’s and has had great success with it. It is often his, “go to routine” when trying to create a strong impact with either magicians or non magicians. He had recently re-read the instructions and realised that the effect has evolved so much in his hands that it has little similarities to the original Marlo presentation.
We never think of Phuoc Can Hua as a performer of mind-reading effects but tonight he played with our minds with great success. He turned on his music, but it wasn’t music, was it a metronome, or was it a ticking clock? He opened his case and removed some curious object wrapped in a towel. When unwrapped it appeared to be a wooden framework with hinges about 60 centimetres (two feet) high. He then unwrapped another parcel which turned out to be a ceramic looking human head. He attached the head to the wooden frame which now as it was opened up started to have the appearance of a small human body with legs and arms. With the head attached Phuoc held on to the hand of the “Supernatural Puppet” and with the appropriate sound effects and a ringing bell he walked across the stage. Was it a puppet or was it a Psychokinesis doll? Why did Phuoc need to wear a golden headpiece himself? Was it to make contact with the hidden forces, it was all very eerie and left a big impact on tonight’s audience. Phuoc later told us that he got the idea of a Supernatural Puppet from the GeniiCon convention held in Sydney in four years ago and his doll has had a few variants over the last 3 or 4 years.
Peter Wood then brought on president Dale who showed us a packet of about a dozen cards. He had one picked, it was printed with the word “Yours” which didn’t get any reaction until he showed that all the other cards were printed with “Mine”. Steve Miller was next, Steve has only been into magic for a few years but he thinks about his magic and he is always entertaining. Steve started with a bunny doll that he used as a mascot on his table. He asked “who believes in the psychic?”, being magicians we all shook our heads, he then asked, “who believes in a gut feeling”? This time we all nodded until Steve pointed out that they were basically the same. Steve then performed Christian Grace’s Inevitable Choice. After having a spectator choose a card he dealt cards face down on the table requesting the spectator to say ‘now’ about ten times. He then repeated this with just the ten cards this time eliminating all but three card. Two more cards were eliminated leaving just one card which proved to be the original chosen card. He concluded with the photo of a famous freely chosen celebrity actor holding a playing card proving to be the same as as a freely chosen card and actor chosen by a spectator. The combination of the old “The Baby Gag” principle plus some new mobile phone technology gave us a new routine.
Anthony Dillon was next, he had a spectator predict his favourite VIP hotel using Anthony’s collection of hotel room keys. We ask the question, has Anthony really stayed at all these five star hotels? It was a fine performance of Executive Suite available from Alakazam Magic in the United Kingdom. He then produced three medallions/coins from his collection. One was freely chosen and it was shown that Anthony had pre determined the choice. Anthony is very generous with his methods at our meetings and he explained the method to those in attendance. The method proved to be a great use of multiple outs which can make an effect almost unfathomable to a lay audience. Anthony calls this routine “Multiple Outs Plus”.
Peter Wood started the entertainment with a fine routine and he came back to conclude the night in the same way. He showed 4 large white pearls and one black one. Maybe its just me, but I suspect that they were not real pearls. They were all examined then dropped into a small “marble” type bag. Five spectators were invited up and one by one they took a pearl out of the bag. All the pearls were held tightly in their clenched fists so that nobody new had which pearl. Peter turned his back, had the spectators carefully check the pearls in their hands without exposing it. Now the only person that new who had the black pearl was the person with it. By asking the people to lie and tell the truth and by using the techniques of Charles Gauci Peter was able to deduce the owner of the black Pearl bringing the entertainment to another successful conclusion.
We then adjourned to a lite supper and some informal fraternisation.
Peter Rodgers
Sydney Magic Club 