Ring Report
April 19, 2009

The theme for the April meeting was the Elliott Card Challenge. Contestants were given a new deck of cards of unknown design and had ten minutes to perform card magic.

Professor Miller selected two Jokers and a red Ace from the deck to perform the Three Card Monte. The hapless audience volunteer simply could not follow the red Ace, despite ample help and encouragement from the kindly Professor Miller. Finally, when the corner of the winning card accidentally became bent, she was doing fine until she was ready to bet for the first time. Professor Miller saw the bent corner, stopped the game, then casually showed that the card with the bent corner was a Joker.

Phil Smith had a selected card signed and returned to the deck, then made it rise to the top of the deck. He had the volunteer place the card in the middle of the deck, and once again it rose to the top. On the third try, the signed card moved to the inside of his shoe. He selected three cards, tearing an oval-shaped hole in the center of each card. The cards linked and unlinked in a most mysterious manner.

Prashant Srivastava shuffled the deck and attempted to cut to the Kings. He missed on each of four attempts, leaving four piles, each topped with an indifferent card. He pushed the top card of the first pile into the middle; it rose to the top. He pushed the top card of the second pile into the middle using another card; when the card was all the way in, he showed that the card he was holding was the top card. He took the top card of the third pile, rubbed it on the table, and it changed into another card. He took the top card of the fourth pile, snapped it with his finger, and it changed into another card. Finally, he took all four cards, explaining that they were actually the Kings in disguise. He dealt a fan of three cards to the table, then flipped them in the air with the fourth, face-up card. As the cards fluttered to the table, they changed into the Kings, as did the face-up card he was holding. He removed a card from the deck, folded it, and clipped it with a paper clip before giving it to a volunteer. The volunteer picked and signed a card. Prashant placed the card in the stack of four Kings, then showed that it had vanished. He showed that the folded, clipped card was actually the signed, selected one.

Wes Booth opened with some card manipulations and flourishes. He began with ribbon spreads, producing single and twin peaks. He moved on to card fans, then transformed cards as he passed his hand over them. He produced fans of cards from the air and from his mouth before settling down for some card magic on the table. Wes removed the four Aces, placing each face down on the table and topped them with three indifferent cards. An audience volunteer selected one pile. Wes magically removed the Aces from the other three piles, transferring them to the selected pile.

The 2009 Elliott Card Champion, selected by a vote of the I.B.M. members present, is Prashant Srivastava.