Ring Report
March 15, 2009

The theme for the March meeting was Magic Class. Brian Rodgers brought all of his professional video gear for a two-camera shoot in HD. Members were asked to perform and teach effects for a video to be provided to the magic class at Summer Festival of the Arts (SFOA). The DVD will be supplied to students together with Joshua Jay's book and DVD, Magic - The Complete Course.

Dr. Wilson played Matchbox Monte (Thurston) with two empty matchboxes and one full one. The hapless mark just could not follow the moves, no matter how slowly Dr. Wilson moved the boxes. He spilled the matches out on the table for a game of Nim (Tod Robbins and others); the mark just couldn't keep from taking the last match and losing. Dr. Wilson borrowed a ring and offered to get it onto a loop of string without untying the knot. He did so, with a pair of scissors. Then he caused one of the two knots to vanish (Tarbell). Dr. Wilson also taught two card tricks, You Do As I Do (Tarbell/Joshua Jay), and the Circus Card Trick (Tarbell).

Dayton Salisbury asked a volunteer to stack three dice while his back was turned, then produced a handful of pennies whose total added to the hidden spots. He then asked two volunteers for a set of numbers, which were added to two totals. He asked them to pick an item from a Chinese menu using one number; the price of the item was the second total.

Danny Baker performed and taught a sponge ball routine. Wes Booth performed and taught John Scarne's Topsy Turvy Deck. Wes Booth and Danny Baker each selected a card from a deck divided in half. Wes put Danny's card in his half, while Danny put Wes's card in his half of the deck. Wes placed half of Danny's cards, turned face up, on the bottom of his deck, and the other half, turned face up, to make a Topsy Turvy Deck. He gave the deck a snap and spread it face up. Two cards were face down; these proved to be the selected cards.

Prashant Srivastava performed an Ace assembly. He dealt out four piles of an Ace and three other cards. One at a time, the Aces changed into other cards. He showed that the last packet was all four Aces. Prashant used a gaffed deck rather than his considerable skill at card sleights. He followed with an ESP effect, in which Brother Don Paul shuffled and dealt five cards bearing the five ESP symbols face down to the table. Prashant dealt out a partner to each of the five ESP cards; his psychic abilities were confirmed when he showed that all the pairs matched.

Alex Turanski had a card selected from a spread fan. He dealt four cards, none of which were the selected card. Suddenly, one of the four cards turned into the selected card.

Performing off theme, and off camera, Brother Don Paul told the wonderful tale of The Fourth Nail, the story of how Gypsies were granted permission to steal in Jerusalem. The Gypsy who sold him the nail wrapped it in parchment and asked him to examine it in the morning, whereupon he discovered that it had vanished.

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