Newsletter: 115 for March 2006 David opened the meeting and gave apologies from Martin Lewis, Jon Cann, Gordon Burtenshaw and John Holden. Next meeting on 8th March is History of Magic by Geoff Hunt. Please bring friends and family along. The Blackpool Convention is 24th to 26th February. Peter Bennett is selling some of his props. He has a list with him if anyone is interested. This month’s challenge for Mike and Dave was sheep. Dave performed first and started off singing “Old MacDonald had a farm”. He lifted up a board to show a picture of various farm animals. He asked Terry to help and push the sheep out of the picture and placed it in a little barn. He then asked the audience to sing Old MacDonald and when he lifted the board again the sheep had reappeared and the barn was now empty. Mike showed everyone an empty picture frame and said that Mary wanted a picture of a sheep for the frame. He showed the audience an envelope with pictures of sheep inside wearing different coloured bows around their necks. We needed to choose Mary’s favourite coloured bow so Patrick was asked to mix up some cards which had the various colours on them and choose one, which was orange. When Mike showed the pictures to the audience again one had disappeared and he turned over the picture frame and the picture of the sheep with an orange bow was now in the frame. The evening was the close-up competition. Below are a few of the effects performed by the various competitors during the evening. Dave was first to perform. He had four ESP cards and four envelopes. He asked Patrick to put the cards inside the envelopes putting one in upside down and then mix them up. He then chose three envelopes and opened them one by one to show that the remaining one contained the upside down card. Dave asked Terry to take a card, look at it, remember it and then sit on it. He asked her to sit back in the chair, open her mouth and say Aaaarrrrrrgggghhhhh, as if she was at the dentist. He shone a torch in her mouth and then correctly guessed her chosen card to be queen of diamonds. Stan was the next performer. He had one red backed card in a pack of blue. He asked Caroline to pick up the cards and put the red card on top of the pack. He then lost the card into the deck, turned the cards over and spreads them on the table. He asked Caroline to move her finger over the cards until one attracted her attention and then got her to touch it. When the card was turned over it was the only red backed card. He then laid four blank cards on the table in a row and another four underneath. Caroline selected a card from the pack by placing a blank card in the deck. Stan then showed us a new process for printing cards. The chosen card was the ten of spades and Stan started by placing this under a blank card and when he peeled them apart the print of the ten came off on the blank card. He then printed a mirror image and continued to print various versions of the ten of spades some on the backs of cards, some only part of the card and even a smudged one. One card was even printed green after it was put on the table without putting the card underneath first. Mike Pettitt was the next up on stage. He had a small chest which belonged to his old Auntie. He looked inside and found a bag with a bead necklace and then asked Mike Elvin to choose a number which was “11”. He asked Mike to hold the end of the necklace and to pull the end and lots of beads fell off the string. When the remaining beads were counted there were 11 left. Mike took out a key and placed it on the palm of his hand and very slowly the key started to move until it has turned over completely. He then made a fist and place the key inside and again the key turned around. When he twisted his fist around the key then started to rise up. The last performer was Mike Elvin. He showed the audience a small black bag which Doreen examined and three magic eye coins, which she mixed up. Mike has made a prediction and asked Doreen to choose one coin and to place a second one in the bag, leaving the third for Mike. When the prediction was opened it correctly read “free will has been taken, I am holding the star, you are holding the square and in the bag is the triangle”. Mike took out a pack of cards and asked Peter to choose one and show the audience while he turned away. The card was placed back in the pack and the deck was cut a few times. Four helpers were needed so he used four cards to help find card. First one told him the colour, second the suit etc. but when all four cards were turned over they were all the jack of diamonds which was Peter’s chosen card. After the break Mike was announced as this month’s winner of the challenge trophy and Brenda challenged “Sponge balls” for March’s meeting. The Close-up competition was won by Stan Reynolds. Reg Moores then showed everyone the light bulb effect he had made up which he is selling for £10 and if anyone would like one please let him know. Bob Rickard also brought along some top hats and books/magazines to give away for anyone interested. Written by: Back

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