Last Month's Meeting: Magic Works in Progress

Our February meeting began with a Front Table by John Hutsebaut. John demonstrated and taught how to get a rubber ball to penetrate into a sealed coffee cup. He also demonstrated and explained a Chop Cup routine that used a Starbuck's cup. Finally, he explained the Elevator Rubber Band Trick

Next, President Mike Kamlet gave the Est night awards to Terrence Hunter and Paco Perez, who came in first and second in last month's contest. Mike also announced that next month would be the Mike Powers lecture and the Joe Diamond lecture would be in May.

Our program for the night was Works In Progress where you share something you are working on and get feedback from the members.

First up was Terrence Hunter, who showed a hefty bag with his first magic hat and coat and his first school book briefcase. He opened the briefcase and pulled out a real bowling ball! He also showed his first book, which, when opened, had a butterfly flying out of it. He finished with a comedy multiplying tennis ball.

Asher Stuhlman got a volunteer to assist in a fortune cookie trick. The volunteer cut the deck into four piles and turned over the top four cards: 2, 4, 7, and 6. He then opened a fortune cookie, and his “lucky numbers, per the cookie, were 2-4-7-6.

John Hutsebaut showed his “Light Fingered Glove” trick, a prop in search of a trick.

Dennis O'Neil talked about the power of his mind and how you could manifest your thoughts. He had Jay name a card (3C) and produced the card. He had Alec name a number (68) and then emptied his pocket to see if he had that amount of change. He then had Alec initial a coin and hold it in his hand. When Alec opened his hand, the coin was bent. Kristen then thought of a book (Murder on the Orient Express) and then thought of a word in the book. He correctly divined that she was thinking of the word “money”.

Jay Collen shared a card move where he essentially did a double lift but he did it from the center of the deck.

Mike showed an effect from a Gary Brown book. Mike dealt twelve picture cards, face up. His volunteer picked six of them. The selected cards were in one pile and the others were in a separate pile. As each card was was turned over it matched the card back from the other pile.

Alec Schraegle performed the latest effect featured in the Linking Ring Card Corner, Mar Locato Revisited, by Mike Powers.  He had a spectator cut the deck and look at a card then pick a second card. Alec magically found the selected cards.

Kristen Kaniewski did a card reading for Alec. He cut the deck, several times, turning over the half he cut. Kristen demonstrated that she had total control over which card Alec selected.

Craig Reeder did an effect with a packet of ESP cards and asked for suggestions on how to force one of the cards.

To close the meeting, Mike showed off some interesting antique items from his magic collection.