I.B.M. Ring 362
The Maine Mystics
Bangor, Maine

Ring Report
March 18, 2007

The March Meeting was held at the Friars' Bakehouse in Bangor, Maine. The theme of the meeting was Impromptu Magic.

Dr. Wilson borrowed a dollar bill and used it to cut a borrowed pencil in half. He then asked whether anyone had an animal trap. Bryan-Keith Taylor just happened to have brought a nice Victor #3 trap, which Dr. Wilson examined carefully before placing it on a table. He removed a piece of 1 x 2 from his coat pocket, borrowed a staple gun, and stapled his tongue to the board.

Brother Don Paul took a stack of blank business cards and drew the five symbols of an ESP deck on them. Mixing them face down, he asked various members to guess which card held a particular symbol, drawing the symbols on the back to record the guesses. It must have been a very psychic crowd, because all of the guesses were correct. He then showed both sides of two blank cards and placed them together in a handkerchief. As he summoned Houdini, a ghostly hand moved beneath the cloth. When the cards were removed, both cards bore messages from beyond! Brother Don continued with a sidesplitting piece of comedy mentalism, playing the part of a bumbling fool with a very long-winded number prediction routine. As we held our sides and wiped tears of laughter from our eyes, he did the entire act over again with some new touches, still missing the number, finally taking his seat to howls of laughter and pleas for mercy.

Professor Miller performed Troy Hooser's "A Charming Chinese Challenge" in which he magically removed three Chinese coins from a ribbon, one at a time. He showed them threaded on the ribbon to our full satisfaction, then placed the stack in a spectator's hand. As we watched, the middle coin melted off the ribbon leaving two. The second coin came off while another spectator held the coins tightly. After briefly discussing the dangers of getting caught up in one's own illusion, Professor Miller gave the two coins to a third spectator who held them tightly. The third coin visibly disappeared from Professor Miller's hand only to join the other two in the spectator's hand.

Danny Baker gave a Teaching Table on Impromptu Magic, performing and then teaching five effects: Linking Bands (Michael Ammar), Broken and Restored Rubber Band (Karol Fox), Quarters to Half Dollar Transformation (Daryl), Coins Across (Al Goshman and Mark Wilson), and Coin in Hanky Penetration (Zal Puchkoff). Danny had some nice touches, using large hairbands instead of rubber bands for the Linking Bands. His demonstration of coin palming and the click pass left us admiring the smoothness that comes with practice. Danny convinced us that impromptu magic takes preparation, and handed out a nice set of notes with references and extra ideas.

Full details of the business meeting and photos are available on the Ring's web site (www.ibmring362.org).