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

Ring Report
February 17, 2008

The theme for the February meeting was Dai Vernon Night.

Chris Rodriguez opened with some card moves that he has been working on, enabling him to bury a selected card in the center of the deck and have it rise to the top. Wes Booth showed some Miser's Dream moves, producing coins repeatedly from the air, before tearing a card into four pieces and restoring it one piece at a time.

Dr. Wilson performed Dai Vernon's Poker Demonstration. He culled the four aces from a deck of cards and demonstrated the technique of stacking the deck during shuffling. After the cards were cut, he dealt five hands, dealing himself four aces. He pointed out that the other player's hands weren't good enough to play. He shuffled and cut the deck again, dealing out four promising hands that improved greatly after the draw. A flush, two full houses, and four of a kind lost to Dr. Wilson's Royal Flush.

Alan Drew showed some of the Dai Vernon books from his collection before having a card selected. He had the card returned to the deck and began cutting a heart silhouette out of red paper to honor Dai Vernon. He asked if the card was a heart; it was. When the card was removed from his coat pocket, it was blank. He apologized for having the card in his pocket when the coat was sent for dry cleaning. The image of the card, the King of Hearts, appeared on his handkerchief.

Brother Don Paul performed two versions of MacDonald's Aces. The feat began as the four aces were isolated and three indifferent cards were added to each packet. One at time, the aces changed to indifferent cards, until the final packet was revealed to contain all four aces. In the first version, he used four wine glasses display the four packets, converting this closeup trick to a piece of parlor magic. In the second version, the aces visibly vanished from the packets, leaving three packets of three cards each before the four aces were revealed.

Phil Smith showed some of his moves for the Cups and Balls, including Vernon's wand spin, and the Vernon ball vanish using the wand spin. Danny Baker followed with some Vernon moves for the Cups and Balls, including his practice techniques for the ball vanish using the Vernon wand spin. Danny then showed his Magic Shop in a Box, which he now uses to close his birthday parties. Members were sorely tempted to buy some of Danny's great magic, but he put it all away too fast!

Professor Miller presented a Teaching Table on Coin Box Magic. He gave a brief history of the humble origins of the Okito Coin Box, which remained a kind of one-trick device until David Roth developed routines combining sleight of hand with coin box moves. Professor Miller demonstrated a routine in which four coins leave the box one at a time, then return one at a time. He followed with a Copper-Silver transformation routine using the Okito Box. He explained both routines in full before showing us his collection of different Okito boxes and their kin, each with its peculiar strengths and weaknesses.

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