We have been having a great time this year with different activities at our meetings....

We are also having a great selection of lectures this season...Thanks Mark, for working

Barry coming. We should really take advantage of these opportunities to see these guys.

You never know if the chance will come along again.

meeting for you to look at. Please let me know if you plan on entering. I hope you will

ALL enter.

Magic Musings

The theme for the March meeting is to bring the most unusual trick that you have ever

encountered. Hopefully, you will be willing to share some thoughts on this with the club

members. Hope to see you at the meeting.

Your President,

Chris Bryce

P.S. It is my fault that the Magic Musings is really late this month. I just could not put

my thoughts down into words. I was speechless !!

attendance. After a brief business meeting, several members entertained us with unique

tricks. The theme was puppet magic and it was followed by a lecture on the Wurli.

Brian Nadworny started out our evening with a trick using his marionette, Harry Potter.

He said that it was a gift that had been brought back from Czechoslovakia. This beautiful

porcelain marionette helped Brian do a card trick. After sending Harry into the paper bag

to find the card, Brian pulled out a rubber chicken holding the chosen card. Nice job,

Brian.

Professor Rem did an origami fold (called a flexigram) that showed a chicken and an egg.

The age-old question- what came first, the chicken or the egg? After folding and folding

and folding, it was decided that the egg came first. Professor Rem also showed us

another neat origami piece- a slinky made out of one-dollar bills. It was a working

slinky. VERY NICE!

Pat Ryan worked with her puppet, Ripley. Ripley the penguin did a trick with Brian

Nadworny, a “Do As I Do” trick. The goal was to put a ring on a shoestring. Each time,

Ripley was able to do it, but Brian was not.

Our prospective member, Don Aman did a neat trick using three colored silks and

making them disappear and then re-appear all being tied together. He produced them

from a case that lit up when he opened it and the light went off when he closed the lid.

Very nice, Don, very inventive.

After a break for refreshments, Mike Ihrig treated us to a lecture on the Wurli. He

brought a huge selection of Wurli's and talked about where each one was made and where

they came from. He demonstrated and performed them for us as well. It was very

interesting and informative. Mike also brought a selection of puppets that he uses in his

shows, and did a trick using one of them, a large sized Wizard. Mike had Professor Rem

choose a colored plastic chip, put it in a purple cloth bag and the Wizard guessed which

color he had chosen.

Thank You Mike, for a wonderful lecture.

Society of American Magicians and SAM Assembly 47! Be sure to congratulate Bill the

next time you see him. Thanks, Bill.

A simple method of location is that which follows. The basic principle together with the

disclosure make an exceptionally clean stunt, and while the principle is not new it has

been enlarged upon to the point where it will confuse even those who are acquainted with

or have used the old, single key card idea.

Effect: The deck is handed to a spectator while the performer turns his back. He requests

that the person deal the cards face down into a pile, singly and silently, and to stop

dealing at any time that he pleases. At such a time, he is told to look at the top card of

either the pile he is holding or the pile on the table, then to place the two packets of cards

together and cut the assembled deck a couple of times.

Turning around for the first time, the performer takes the cards, glances through them,

and finally says that it may be easier to locate the card while the pack is behind his back.

Putting the cards behind his back for a moment, he remarks that he has it at last, and the

deck is brought around and placed face down on the table. The spectator names the

pasteboard he originally noted, and the performer discloses it correctly and without a

chance of failure.

Method: While this is not a sensational trick, you will find it one of those nice

impromptu effects that is easy to remember and to present at a moment's notice. The top

and bottom cards are noted and remembered as keys before the deck is handed out. It will

be seen from the above directions, which are given very carelessly, that the spectator

receives the impression he does just about what he pleases. He stops dealing when he

desires, looks at the card on the top of either heap, puts it back on either heap, and places

the two piles together and cuts. And there is no chance that he may do the wrong thing as

far as the performer is concerned.

On running through the pack, the performer looks only for the card to the RIGHT or

under each of the remembered key cards. One of these is the noted card without fail. Both

are brought to the top of the deck and, remembering the top one, the performer states that

it may be easier to locate the card behind his back. The deck is placed behind his back for

a moment and the top card is pushed, face up, into the center of the deck. The hands are

brought to the front again and the deck is laid face down on the table as the spectator

names his card. The performer formally discloses it, either by turning over the top card or

by spreading the deck on the table to reveal the face up pasteboard in the center of the

spread.

Our next meeting is Tuesday, March 20. Please see our president’s challenge in her

column above. Let’s all be creative.

Also, election of officers will be held at our May meeting, as required by our constitution.

If you feel that you can contribute more to the club, please talk to Chris Bryce, or any

member of the Nominating Committee that will be named soon. We would be glad to

have your new ideas.

Check our web site frequently for the latest news, etc. Dan Welch does a great job in

providing the site for our club.

We welcome any member contributions of tricks, routines, magic news or want ads. If

you have magic items to sell, or are looking to buy a certain prop, members can place a

want ad in “Magic Musings” at no cost. Send an e-mail to Mark Ross at