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Stu
Club Night - 1 Jan 2007
The first meeting of the year was an intimate one (that means there weren?t many of us). However regardless of short numbers as always these clubs night feature some great debate and wonderfull magic learnt in huddled corners. I know some consider these the best meeting as something can be learnt on a one-to-one basis.
As far as the topics of discussion, Andrew brought in some books he?d recently read and enjoyed, including a book from a ?Secret Santa?. Reg also told us just how good the ?Hiding the Elephant? book is. We also went on to talk about the different ring flights. Matt P also asked for feed back about his version of the ?Snap Change? which was a lovely visual card change.
Stu
Don Simpson Lecture - 1 Feb 2007
This lecture played to a packed house, with members of both the Southdown?s Magicians and ACES in attendance. Good to see them all.
Don explained that he had been in the business for over thirty years mainly working in Restaurant Magic. He had some views on how to approach a table but his best tip was to adapt some adult tricks for children, approach the table and entertain the kids first and then the adults would follow.
He then showed an impressive array of tricks including ?Willy the worm? (Professors Nightmare), Chinese Wind chimes, Misers Dream, Torn and restored Napkin (which I noticed went down particularly well with the audience) Spoon Bending and Note in Beer Mat. All were quite obviously from his working repertoire. All these effects were shown and then briefly explained and the first half overran with his enthusiastic explanations!!
Back to the to the second half where we were shown his version of Ring on Rope (something to do with Elephants Wedding rings as I remember!), a quite stylish ?Two in the hand, One in the pocket? with diamonds (ice cubes?). A Sponge ball and purse frame routine was then demonstrated together with Chinese Sticks, 3 Card Tricks and a Coin Matrix.
A very packed evening of Magic - enjoyed by all.
Andy Hart
Stage Competition - 18 Feb 2007
In spite of the inclement weather 15 hardy souls attended Head Quarters for this years? Stage Competition.
The usual announcements preceded the Competition and this time included the following:- ? A request for a volunteer to stand for Treasurer, ? Committee Members ? Someone to help with the raffle for this years Dinner.
There were three entrants for the Competition, all of which were very entertaining. I do not know the name of all the tricks used, perhaps if I attended more often I would.
Andy Jeffrey was first up. He performed an interesting act using magic and numbers (and me). He opened with a coin routine accurately predicting the number of coins I held in my hand. He followed this with a reminder of Christmas where his ?stooge? selected useless presents from the bags available and could have won ?100 but didn?t.
Tall and Small followed. Small played the inner self of Tall, a magician suddenly thrust in front of an audience and urged to perform. An amusing commentary on how Tall was thinking was given throughout. A number of tricks were used including silk to cane and de-lite. The act finished with a rather gruesome hand thru? stomach.
Matt Parro completed the evening. Opening with a card transposition, he performed a number of card routines and some mentalism. The one that really struck me was where the value of a selected card appeared on Matt?s arm. Matt finished with two selected cards ending up back in the deck in their suits and the suits in card order.
The voting was very close and the winner by a narrow margin was Andy Jeffrey.
Well done to all who took part you certainly entertained me and congratulations Andy.
Reg also told us just how good the ?
book is. We also went on to talk about the different ring flights. Matt P also asked for feed back about his version of the ?Snap Change? which was a lovely visual card change.
