Caring Critique and Feedback
This month’s theme was for members to bring a trick to perform and we would give a critique to make the trick better. Colin Toepfer did a nice sponge ball routine where sponges would appear in a brass bowl. Shane Cohen had character names printed on index cards and he drew on a paper bag on his head what he thought the character would look like. When he took off the bag he was wearing a Jason mask from Friday the 13th. Richard Russett did a trick with the 7 Deadly Sins, Gluttony was chosen and the helper earned 11 donuts because Richard ate one! Chris York had cards shuffled and mixed up and after placing them in a bag he correctly assembled the deck in complete face down order. He also predicted that certain cards would remain face up and they were the only ones face up! Steve Davis did a coins across and a tossed out deck routine. William Rader had 4 helpers make up a random number and when totaled it equaled his prediction.
Mahdi Gilbert from Toronto passed through town and WOWED us with his card skills. He sat on the floor as we were seated around him; we all had a perfect view to watch him perform. It was unbelievable! Second deals, false shuffles, total card control, and turn over pass techniques are many of his skills. He demonstrated the Oil and Water trick that Fooled Penn and Teller. He got all of us to interlace fingers with the person next to us during that trick. Mahdi said he breaks the rule, ‘Never show a trick twice’. Even after seeing the trick the second time we still where in awe! Renee Lavand and Darren Brown were magicians’ books that inspired him to practice non-stop for 3-5 years before he showed off his card talents at a convention.
Past Present Future
Our January meeting was all about the new year! Magic Past, Present and Future!
Magic Chuck one of our junior members showed off his sleight of hand by vanishing sponge balls and made a Coke bottle vanish. Our other junior member Colin the Great connected three silks together and had a new twist using a Joker Tube with racecars. Our last junior magician was the Amazing Amanda had a shrinking wand and a color-changing scarf. Gary Hickok stretched a dollar bill, showed us his shrunken pants, chop sticks vanished, had a spinning fork and performed a three straw repeat trick that we had never seen before. Gregg Tobo, local pro performed his Thought Collector trick where after asking for information from different spectators, the answer met his sealed prediction. Glenn Proulx, our secretary, performed Card Warp using Jumbo Cards and The Immaculate Connection by Paul Harris. President Wendy Wylde had four envelopes selected. Three of them had a prediction sealed inside, which read Wizard. Wendy’s envelope said President! Bruce and Kitty Spangler showed us an antique Thayer champagne bottle trick made in 1923, which had amazing craftsmanship for the time. A woman’s ring was vanished and she was asked to sip from the bottle. The flavor was AWFUL. When the bottle was broken there would be a dead rat or guinea pig inside and attached to its collar was the missing woman’s ring! What a shock that would have been. Local pro magician, James Lopez vanished coins, and performed a mind reading card trick and announced that the Mile High Magicians will now be co-hosting the local, monthly, magic open mic night. Editor and local pro William Rader did his Psychometry, in which he can sense, energy from inanimate objects. He correctly guessed which spectator drew which picture. Past president Brad Montgomery had a chip hidden in a spectators hand and guessed which hand it was in every time! Our last local pro magician Mark Strivings, performed his own version of John Bannon’s Wait Until Dark trick. Our first meeting of the year was a blast.
There were 60 plus in attendance for an evening of great food and magic at the Fossil Trace Golf Club. Sharon Nuanes went above and beyond again with the making of lovely centerpieces for each table. Thanks Sharon!
Mitch Harwood our outgoing President was the MC for the evening. Gene R. Gordon presented a Lifetime Achievement award to our very own Dave Neighbors who then received a standing ovation upon his acceptance! The show started with Sharon Nuanes doing her beautiful act of silks, flowers and liquids to music. Next up was Shane Cohen, incoming VP. A barrowed $100 dollar bill changed to a coupon for one kiwi fruit! Next a painting of Mona Lisa surprisingly changed to Vincent Van Gogh’s painting! The kiwi seeds were passed out only to find the $100 bill inside the kiwi! Former MHMS President Matt Brandt used a taboo item a cigarette. The cigarette wouldn’t lite, vanished, changed to a lighter, then changed to a stick of gum as did ALL the cigarettes in the pack! He then had a card selected torn to pieces, one of which was given to the volunteer. The other pieces vanished, when the empty frame was shown a card with a piece missing was seen! The corner the spectator had matched it perfectly!
John Walker our resident Aussie presented a Murder case! Volunteers helped him sort out the murder and the weapon used. Evidence was eliminated and a lady committed the crime. Colin Toepfer our Jr. magician did a very nice “sponge ball to spectators’ hand” with repeat! Nicely done Colin! Jeff Jenson a crowd favorite did his newest piece with Rose’s to music. Next he did the walking knot/cut and restored rope. William Rader our favorite mind reader did a nice bit of mind reading. The spectator (Sam Teague) had a free choice of where to hide/put objects. The prediction, said exactly where the objects were! Gene R. Gordon came next and did his version of Six Card Repeat. With many laughs and a nice twist at the end, the cards turned blank and vanished “it all never happened!” Last up was Mitch Harwood and Co. They did a very fun and funny version of the Glass and Bottle transposition. Lots of comedy and magic surprises! 2019 was a great year for magic! See everyone in 2020!
This November, we lost one of our long time members and past President of the Mile High Magicians’ Society, Lindsay Smith. It was a sad time.
In spite of that set back, we also had two enjoyable meetings. The first one was our Three Trick Teach-in and we also had the Bill Wisch lecture. Gene Gordon performed DeLand’s $100 trick Stripper/Marked Deck to demonstrate some of the fun card magic that can be performed with this deck. Chad Wonder demonstrated the nickels to dimes routine, and referenced Tarbell 7 with a coin purse where the coins had a transposition. Next he demonstrated the Hot Rod and Professor’s Nightmare. Dave Neighbors demonstrated his Coins Across routine which we never get tired of seeing. Matt Brandt and Jeff Jenson gave a magic talk on live performance tips that will help your show. Ideas such as; (1) Have a notebook in which to write down ideas and things that worked or didn’t work in the show. (2) Keep up with pop culture, (3) don’t panic if a trick goes wrong, (4) ignore hecklers, (5) scripting is important (as is to know the running time of your act), (6) always have an out, and (7) music will definitely help a show. Gene Gordon suggested having a local mentor, read a lot of magic books, set a regular practice time, and stick to it. Practice and rehearse the moves 25-100 times before you show the trick to family and friends. All of the tricks we learned at our teach-in were available for purchase by members.
Bill Wisch, one of Tony Slydini’s former students, performed and lectured on his Killer Set which consisted of his IACAAN (Impromptu Any Card At Any Number), his Stand-up Helicopter Card trick, and his Xbox card trick. Bill demonstrated his Wisch WEDGE card control system, his Wisch-Craft Overhand Shuffle System, and he also performed a card trick by Claude Rix using an invisible die.
Our October, Evening of Odd was a pirate theme. Jeff and Karen Wake used skeletons as ventriloquist where the skeletons were going to mutiny off the ship. One of the skeletons was tied to the mast and then the rope passed through the mast and the skeleton. VP, Wendy Wylde has a spectator roll a dice and then they selected a bag with a surprise inside that they could keep. Wendy won the big surprise by getting the last bag and her car keys were inside. The others won, a pirate map, make your own eye patch kit, do it yourself ghost making kit, along with a plastic bag hand puppet and origami boulder! President Mysto brought a table he acquired from a neighbor that began to float on its own. Mark Strivings had a card selected, shuffled the deck face up, face down and then whey the cards where put inside a black bag they all righted themselves with the only card reversed in the deck was their selected card. Andrew Bates was our drunken sailor who also had a card selected and returned to the deck. After the spectator opened the chest, didn’t find their card but found a note instead that said, “Look at the other chest!” Andrew tore off his shirt and tattooed on his chest was their selected card! Rich Nakata’s spectators looked at a Skull Silk that vanished and ended up in a previously inspected empty can. Once it was opened, a spring snake popped out with the silk attached. Member Bob Brown had a cage with a pet rat inside. His story told about the rats that lived on the ship and one suddenly escaped, and his tail flew out and scared the kids. Gregg Tobo had a unique trick where a silk with a knot on it would magically untie itself behind his back. Then he explained how the captain lost his leg when a loose canon rolled across the deck, he lost his hand in a battle and poked his eye out with his hook also. Finally, Gregg balanced coins on his finger tips and bet a spectator if he could capture the coins. Marty Jewel, the queen of puns had a model ship that was lost at ‘C’ and it was found on ‘Sail’. Last was Treasurer, Chad Wonder whose selected lost card was eventually found in his back pocket.
Christian Engblom showed us some of his amazing card routines. He had three red and three blue cards and they where interspersed like oil and water. They melted through each other so that reds where on top and the blues on the bottom. Next the entire deck separated in half by color. He had a mind reading card trick where his helper could read the minds of the spectator who selected the card which was amazing. He explained how his gaff Pieces can be used for different tricks and how his deck switch gimmick can be used also. Thank you for coming to Denver!
Ring 131 and Assembly 37 meet the second Thursday of the month at Riverpointe Senior Community 5225 S Prince St, Littleton, CO 80123. https://www.milehighmagicians.comGlenn Proulx 303-794-5208, glennproulx@gmail.com
This month we learned about Stage Craft, which consists of lighting, sound, music copyright, low budget items for remotes, lighting, and microphones. Andrew Bates taught us via a recording that a gel is a plastic sheet that goes in front of a light to make it white light or to change the color. The term wash means to change the light color on stage. A green wash is good for a séance, red makes it hard to read, blue will make black colors not look the same. A run sheet should be given to the people running the lights so they know the act, scene, lights, curtain moves, sound levels and set change responsibilities. Bruce and Kitty Spangler taught us that the presentation is the most critical part of the act and you need a costume and music. Your music needs to end when the magic trick does! He made portable light and sound boxes that turned on and off using an extra head on a reel-to-reel tape player and metal cues for the head to pick up. Chad Wonder talked about using copyrighted music in your show and the penalties that could apply when prosecuted. If in doubt, use Royalty Free music. Chad also said that there is a difference between recording rights and that the music group has the song rights. John Walker showed us cheap and easy ways to add sound, by adding a remote that would hook up to your phone or iPad. He also offered suggestions for a low cost microphone that sounds amazing with speakers. If you want to add a 4-channel mixer it can enhance your show also. Many of us are now thinking of ways to put lighting and sound into our shows.
September 26th, we hosted a lecture by Midwest Magi, David Parr. David taught several effects which he used to illustrate several important aspects of magic: making things playful and even playfully spooky, how to think of your magic in theatrical terms, and how to let something be just silent instead of forcing humor at every juncture. He started with the Game of Life & Death using Fort Collins club member, Tim Pendergast, as a volunteer. Then followed that up by pulling his Slow Motion Swindle on Sergeant at Arms, Gene R. Gordon. Gregg Tobo volunteered to have his fortune told in David’s Fortune8 routine. David closed with his elegant, “Oldest Trick in the Book” effect using an origami bird to discuss the confident handling of props and effects that end with a souvenir. Upon presenting the origami bird, David, a vegan, made a plea to end live animal acts in magic. He finds them outdated and unnecessary. The author of Brain Food: Gourmet Edition left us all with much food for thought after this terrific lecture. Thanks again for the staff at Riverpointe for the use of their room for our meetings.
The Doc Murdock lecture was phenomenal! We had a good turn out to see legendary Doc perform all of his favorite elusions in including his well-known rattrap on his nose trick. He started out with his exploding wig with party poppers, which got our attention quickly and continued with an enlarged outlet drawn on a dry erase board. He plugged in a super sized plug and which played his music as he made his paper tree grow to over six feet tall. Doc also showed an empty card box and in a flash the cards magically appeared in the box! His lunch box started to ring and he pulled out and answered his phone. He did a $1 to $20 bill change with a very ingeniously easy method along with his puppet that had chattering teeth, spinning eyes. All along his tie kept popping up and would hit him in the face. Doc told us a story using the Chinese Sticks that help guide him through the forest and he even put a light bulb in his mouth and as it lit up to show him the way the tassels on the Chinese Sticks would move up and down even after being separated.
Riverpointe Thank You Show!
The folks at Riverpoint Golden Age Center let us use their facility every month for our magic meetings. As a thank you for their generosity we give a magic show to their residents every July.
Our Emcee, Steve Davis started off our thank you show with a Knots Off Silk routine. Mysto, our President, performed the Asiatic Dove Vanish. This vanishing and appearing dove wowed the audience with a jaw dropping results! Members of the club did not how he did it. Sharon Nuanes performed a lovely, classy, magic manipulation routine featuring flowers, silks, colored liquid, and the appearance of a 100’ silk streamer at the end. Max Davidson had a Rubic’s cube mixed and he tried to solve it while blindfolded. He was so close but failed, so he tossed it up into the air and it solved itself! Glenn Proulx performed Jim Steinmeyer’s Enchanted Tea Kettle. Gregg Tobo amazed them with his Cups and Balls routine and did a wonderful bill in lemon trick. Brad Montgomery had an audience member thought of a card and they had a 1 in 52 chance of getting it and they did! Brad also had a Rubic’s cube with numbers on the side and after adding up the numbers on the cube they matched his prediction. Steve Davis performed an Egg Bag routine where he ended up finding a small ball inside the bag instead of the egg. It was a wonder-full show and the audience of senior citizens loved it!
We had a lecturer this month. Master Magician, Damion from NYC taught us stage magic, manipulation, and stage craft. He covered ball manipulation, ropes, cards, how he sets up his act, thimble routines, and how to fold a silk in your pocket so it opens easily. He also showed us how he gets set-up for his doves and reiterated the importance of getting to the venue early for make-up, sound and to make sure the lighting is correct for your show. Thanks again for the staff at Riverpointe for the use of their room for our meetings.
Member Herb Padzensky, heropadz@q.com is trying to sell his magic collection $200 for all of it. Cards, Wooden Run Rabbit Run, Dove Pan, LUX soap trick, Performing trunk that turns into a table, Tricky Bottles, 8″ Linking Rings, Swallowing Razor Blades, Die Box, Buddha Screen, Color Changing Flowers, Diminishing Golf Balls, and more! Contact him for more information. He has a signed copy of the book Greater Magic! That price is in addition to the cost of the collection.
What a busy month for Denver!! We started with the Boulder Magicians Night. MC for the evening was Doc Murdock. Including Doc other performers were Eddie Goldstein, Braden Carislle, Larry Crowley. The whole evening was themed to honor long time magic shop owner Sam Kent who also performed a magic trick, Edward Hammon, Brandon Parker, and special guest Bob Sheets brought us great memories and magic as well! We saw paper trees, matching bills inside a walnut, balloons, a light board that when the different colored bulbs switched places the actual switch still turned on the correct bulb. Card tricks, a tossed out ball of paper matched the prediction of the chosen card and random 3 numbers, mentalism, and a wonderful TNR signed newspaper trick from Bob Sheets!
Mentalist, Mark Stivings did a lecture just a few days later. Mark; who has written over 30 books, expressed the importance of learning from your mistakes, how to be prepared, what to do if a trick goes south, and how to pack flat and play Big. He had a wonderful trick where 3 audience members sat in a chair and their 3 chosen cards matched which chair they sat in and the colors and numbers! Mark also performed a Larry Becker trick, his packs flat Dice Cards trick fooled us. Mark did a trick using poker chips and a money clip also. Letters on cards where held by spectators and they had to get the correct order to spell words and Mark kept track of the score. His prediction matched the ending tally.
Mark did a Master Class just a couple of days later. The focus was on secret writing techniques. It was an unbelievable class filled with tips, tricks, tools and books. Swami writing is an extremely useful tool to bring your magic to the top level! He suggested books on Mentalism, Swami writing and the importance of practice.
Steve Reynolds lectured for our club just a few days after Mark. He performed 3 amazing card tricks with a stacked regular deck back to back without having to set anything up! A chosen card vanished from one tabled pack to another and then moved back again. There was a Topsy Turvy gamblers trick that ended with a good hand for the dealer. Then there was the trick where Steve made a prediction and packets of cards passed out, shuffled and one card was upside down in the spread. The mate for that card was Steve’s prediction card! The next night Steve hosted a Master Class of his own on palming cards. Tips, tricks, and the mechanics for palming were taught in his class and he helped us get over the common fear that maybe ‘my hands are too small and I will get caught’.
Ring 131 and Assembly 37 meets the second Thursday of the month at Riverpointe Senior Community 5225 S Prince St, Littleton, CO 80123. https://www.milehighmagicians.comGlenn Proulx 303-794-5208, glennproulx@gmail.com
Mario The Maker hosted an electronic workshop in Denver this month and every participant went home with a dancing toy that we dissected to make move at our command. We learned a little coding, how to solder, and how to make anything electronic work in magic!
We also had two of our local restaurant pros teach us the in’s and outs of their business. Our MC was Gene Gordon and Dennis Michaels and Shawn Preston showed how they approach a table, what tricks they perform, and why easy resetting is very important. Dennis and Shawn both have different styles of walk around. Both say, they help out with long waits, entertain guests, get to work on new acts, and never approach a table where the patrons are eating, have menus or after dessert.
Another fun lecture we had was our own local magician, David Neighbors (aka the Coinjurer). Dave is known as one of the top coin magicians in the world. His coin magic is so visual and pure that it draws gasps of amazement from laypeople and fellow magicians alike. He is also and author of many books on coin magic and coin boxes.
He has a reputation as a prolific creator of new and innovative coin magic. On his birthday he had a special lecture for Colorado magicians. Dave shared some of his most treasured secrets, many of the miracles he taught were within reach of the beginning/intermediate coin magician, and there were a few non-coin effects that he taught us as well!