We finally agreed on an updated constitution for Ring #6. Hard work by the committee headed up by Archie Strong resulted in a simple, well-thought out document to guide our group into the 21st Century.
Business done, we got down to fun.
First, book dealer Fred Mitchell did a short talk on magic books that he recommends. He outlined classics such as the Tarbell series, mental books, the Books of Wonder, some Dai Vernon works, and some of the newer books such as Josh Jays’ The Complete Book of Magic. Even with wonderful DVDs of magic, Fred said that there is so much to learn from the print medium. He also discussed selling and buying books on eBay, and finding the values of books in our collections.
Jim Capobianco performed a mental effect using four jumbo cards and two volunteers from the audience. He called it his version of Premonition. After some funny by-play, Jim showed that one of the cards was the card that a spectator had thought of, and the other spectator had mentally reversed in the packet. And the other three cards had blank faces! Jim then outlined the thinking that he did to make it such a simple, direct, and effective piece of mental magic. He explained why he uses two volunteers, how he directs the “force,” and the many outs that he has. And Jim said sometimes he gets lucky, as he did tonight, when he asked one volunteer their favorite card, and it was the Queen of Hearts, which was the card he wanted! When this happens, Jim says, the trick becomes a true miriacle.
Ron Geoffries took over with the gag 52 cards on the face of a jumbo card. He then demonstrated a very practical little sound system, a Crate Amplifier, with extended battery life. Ron then did a dynamite card effect where a spectator cuts to the four aces from a shuffled deck. It looks like the spectator does all of the shuffling and cutting. Ron said that it was loosely based on some ideas in Frank Garcia’s Million Dollar Card Tricks.
Ron finished the teaching part of the night with a wonderful seven penny trick, where one of the pennies kept vanishing from a spectator’s hand, and no matter how hard any of us looked, we could not see how Ron did the magic.
A great night at Ring #6.
DAVE KELLY, Recording Secretary