Newsletter: 150 for February 2009 A fun-packed evening was a sure fire bet this evening and after Dave had struggled through the reams of notices and taken tea and coffee counts, it was on to the first part of February’s meeting. Dave had bought his sponsor form for the half marathon he’s running on Sunday 15 February for a hospice close to his heart and by the end of the meeting about £100 had been pledged plus the coffee and tea money donated too! John Holden had purchased flowers for both Margaret (Reg’s wife) and Peggy (Bob’s wife) since the last meeting to say thanks for helping us raise some much needed funds via the auction in January. The Challenge from January from Patrick to Mike P. was signs and Pat was up first dressed like something from a YMCA video donning yellow hard hat and fluorescent jacket. Sadly no-one joined in with my very appropriate dance. Pat’s routine consisted of telling us all a lengthy story about his previous job as an arrow sign-maker and the confusion created when he made one sign incorrectly. Very detailed and very funny and he did look the part too. Mike was up next with a frame and chose Stan to assist. Stan shuffled eight pairs of road signs and with the help of a Highway Code card and moving the other pieces around following Martin’s instructions, a match with a set of traffic lights was made. Very good idea this Mike and one you could use at any one of your shows for seniors. They’d definitely appreciate this and might make sure they know their Highway Code as well. As ever, the choice was going to be difficult and very likely extremely close but we would see later on who came out on top! The main event for tonight was the Tom Hooper Close-up Award dedicated to a very dear departed friend whom Martin often refers to as his hero! We had seven competitors and Martin was up first looking every inch the professional that he is (he paid me to say that!) with black suit and white tie. The routine began with an introduction to Dave F.’s friend Erica who was assisting Martin tonight (I was sure this wouldn’t be the last time so was invited up to help!) with a new array of mentalism effects, followed up with a lost and signed £1 in stacking boxes. Martin followed this with an optical illusion mirror matrix finishing with all four coins vanishing. His finish was to show everyone how he had proposed with his now well presented and well mastered ring and ribbon routine. Colin took to the floor next with a couple of very well executed card routines using Dave P. as assistant. Dave was overheard to say that he wanted to learn both of them. Colin started with a shuffled deck and a spelling routine to find the chosen card. Colin’s performances are getting better and better and his confidence is definitely growing so it was good to see this new member happy to try his hand at winning a competition. He was certainly up to the challenge. Mike P. was up again this time in close-up mode starting his performance with a very clever coins across to bucket effect and following this with a coins across routine using copper and silver coins. Erica (who as I said before would be busy helping tonight!) was duly impressed with your skill but not so happy to have won a 2p over a £20 note during the second part of your routine with a pub borrowed mat. Mike is always able to find something new and must spend hours practicing each month as he is happy to perform all the time. Thanks Mike, the magician who has a trick for every occasion! After tea Dave F. was up next telling us the story of an old Aussie taking some time out with a new found friend in the outback. Very funny and a great hat. Well done Dave. This routine did make us laugh and that (to coin a phrase “is magic”!) John Holden appeared as himself tonight which was a rare treat. Pierre must have gone on holiday away from all the ice and snow we’ve had recently! He started off with Stan helping to retrieve the four 3’s from a shuffled deck. He went on to appear a chosen card which just lifted out of the deck. The four aces very quickly changed from blue backs to multi-coloured ones and then to Kings which was very good indeed (I couldn’t see the join!) and the randomly chosen cards of Mike and Brenda re-discovered in a trice! Excellent stuff John, but I did miss Pierre! David Croucher (“The Great Spaghetti”) instantly changed a Thai 20 Bhat into a fiver, materialised a drawn goldfish to appear in its bowl on a deck of cards and finished with a Harry Lorraine routine of finding three aces with an indicator card. David is always good to watch and I enjoyed this shorter than usual performance but very good entertainment value as ever. Mike Elvin was our last competitor using an elephants wedding ring (we just humoured him at this stage as we all know that elephants don’t wear them!) and followed up with a signed 10p routine of chosen coin from an array of 10p’s. The routine was continued with a portable hole in a card effect and finished with ropes on a tubes. Mike always makes me laugh even if sometimes it is with despair! Not really Mike, enjoyed all of this. Well done. So the evening finished and with votes taken, Martin will be really happy to be taking home the trophy at the Annual Dinner and with Pat winning the Challenge too only to be jumped on immediately by Martin to a theme of “Applied Heat” for March’s meeting! Heaven knows what either of them are going to pull out of the bag for this one. Good luck wishes were sent to Dave for his run and we all requested photographs for next time. March would be the visit by friends from Portsmouth & District Magic Circle who would be performing for us and it was agreed that members should bring nibbles to share but not necessarily a buffet worth just a few bits. Personally I can’t wait as I haven’t met many of the guys at PDMC before so it will be a good meeting. Written by: Nicky Lewis Back

Home | Diary | Join | Members | Newsletters | Photos | Effects | Links | Competitions | Email us | Login