Reports | Mile High Magicians Denver Colorado

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!

Are you ready for Prime Time? That was our theme for this month. Do you have a trick or effect you want to work on, do you get nervous, do you have wobbly legs when performing for the club? Well, this was the night for those people to get in front of the club for more practice. Melissa Neumiller opened the evening with an an X-ray vision card trick where the deck of cards where shuffled up and down and she successfully told us how many cards where face up in the deck. She also trained cards to flip over one at a time in the deck, and finally, she had a fortune telling deck placed under her matt and predicted the next card pulled out from the card box. Jeff and Karen Wake gave us 13 tips to prevent wobbly legs and how to calm your nerves. They opened with a fun poem using knots and scarfs that was very entertaining. During intermission, Gregg Tobo’s hosted our new Point/Counter Point segment with Wendy and Mark debating the topic “Should mentalism have a disclaimer?”. To continue the Wobbly Legs evening, new member Jason Toepfer had a card selected, shuffled and then the cards were sprung to a card frame. The card was found under the glass inside the frame! It was his first time performing in front of people in years. He did a nice job, too. Jess Ward, also performed for the first time, and she did Ton Onosaka’s Card Mirage. She loves close-up magic! Glenn Proulx had two VCR tapes examined and then one melted right through the other. It was a strange old Jim Steinmeyer trick that Glenn made relevant in his routine. Our club got gifted several years of old Topps magazines. William Rader hosted a new segment for our meeting performing tricks from these old magazines. Gregg Tobo performed a mentalism card trick. . James Lopez found three selected cards from his spectators! Gene Gordon did a card trick. William also stole a watch, wallet, and sunglasses from his helpers after a card was picked, returned, and ended up reversed in the deck. Cool tricks from the old magazines! FISM winner, OLMAC was a guest lecturer who visited us several days later and did a great job teaching us card controls, routines, and vanished a cigarette lighter. He vanished a whole deck of cards more than once, did some coin magic, had a special super mini briefcase, which the spectators signed card ended up in, a credit card ended up in, and a finger ring! He has mad skills and is a pleasure to watch. He makes everything look so easy and so magical. If OLMAC comes through your town, try to book him!

Please accept my sincere apologies to John Luong, Bob Brown, James Murphy and the others that performed during the intermission at our last meetings. This is a new thing we are trying and I blew it. I did not record who performed. I am sorry. Now, let’s get on with the March meeting. Bernardo Sedlacek came to Denver and he talked about the psychology and theory of performing magic. He showed us a Tantalizer trick that he adapted from Royal Road to Cards it was a mathematical trick and it was liked by all. Bernardo said that he really doesn’t get flustered when a trick goes horribly wrong while performing because they did a riffle shuffle instead of an overhand shuffle. He has always considered it a challenge to find the selected card! He performed a reverse card in box under the table so that neither he nor the spectator could see the card. When the box was opened, the card he predicted WAS reversed! He also suggested that if we need more time finding a card during a trick to ask the question a second time, that will give you more time to located the card. Another event was a field trip down to see Joe and Carol Givan’s Theatre of Dreams where four of our members performed. Melissa Neumiller, Glenn Proulx, Mark Paulson and John Walker received great feedback from our World Famous friends.

We also had our MHMS Annual Flea Market and Swap Meet. For the last three+ years, Bob LaRue and David Breth, have been working with local Filipino performers via the Angeles City Magicians Hub (see on Facebook), to improve their magic and their marketing. One of the challenges is, these performers are universally poor. The MHMS will have a donation box at the Flea Market and we will send it to the Philippines afterwards. Many magical donations were given and we also had a donation box for the Denver SYM for kid friendly magic, which will be in the library of magic we are assembling.

Terry Hedges arrived in Denver and we had a fun night where he taught us some easy top changes, another way to use the D’Lite that may be sitting in your magic drawer at home and a really cool False Cut to keep the deck in the order that you want it in. Terry did a coin under your watch, which fooled us pretty good. He performed Dai Vernon’s “The Trick that Can’t Be Explained” and reiterated that a Top Change and Classic Force are two staples all magicians need to know. His Blank Fusion trick was a hit.

Next, we had Seldom Seen Faces Night where members that have not come to a meeting or performed in a while had a place to shine and showcase a new effect that they have been working on. MC Wendy Wylde hosted the evening and set up a great line-up of magicians. Dennis Michaels performed a cards across, TNR card trick then performed a dangerous CNR electrical cord which turned off and on a light! Don’t try that one at home! Colin Toepfer did a nice Cups and Balls where at the end the balls changed into Rabbits! Janine Aronson mixed up some cards face up and face down and they all righted themselves. Four Aces where removed, lost and by counting AND spelling out the name of the Aces, they were found.

Gregg Tobo hosted Point/Counter Point with Andrew Bates and John Walker discussing whether it is better to learn from books or video. Marty Jewell used her ‘puns’ to entertain us with a change bag, urn and sled. Member Christian Chackmool showed us his Mentalist skills by having us write down an animal, food, person’s name, and place on different colored pieces of paper. After a mixing in a box, a handful of slips where pulled out and his predictions on a pad of paper matched the slips of paper. At the end, he unrolled a paper tape and ALL of his predictions were printed on the paper roll! Dave Elstun blew a lucky kiss into a container and later in his show the vapor kiss turned into a real “Hershey Kiss”. Dave performed a $1 to $100 bill change and did an amazing job at the Professor’s Nightmare.

Shane Cohen set up an amazing intermission with close-up artist John Luong and Bob Brown entertaining the members with Johns innovative magic and Bob’s adept card handling.

Glenn Proulx
Secretary, MHMS

Installing New Officers

MC and new President, Brad Montgomery lead us off into the New Year with 67 members showing up, 14 were brand new attendees! Thank you to last years Executive Board, President Andrew Bates, Vice-President Steve Davis, Secretary Glenn Proulx, Treasurer Chad Darnell, Sargent-at-Arms Gene Gordon. This years’ Board is President Brad Montgomery, Vice-President Mitch Harwood, Secretary Glenn Proulx, Treasurer Chad Darnell, Sargent-at-Arms Gene Gordon. Special thanks to our Editor/Web Master William Rader, and we added Wendy Wilde our Facebook guru, and Gregg Tobo our Lecture Chairman. We had door prizes and a fun Bingo warm-up to meet and great new and old members. Erica Sodas performed a memory and mind reading effect that wowed all of us. Joe and Carol Givens, World Champions at FISM who won the Gold Cup, performed a card trick where three different people chose three cards and Carol successfully named the cards! No clue how it was done. Wendy Wylde did a multiplying dots trick that mesmerized young Colin. Then our youngest performer Colin showed us a stiff rope act. Glenn Proulx did a pencil through a borrowed bill, and then the bill and pencil were passed out for examination. He also had popcorn kernels added into an examined napkin lined Derby, covered it with tin foil and fire heated up the Derby. Spectators could smell the popped popcorn then ate it. Will Rader and Ralph Macintosh did a point/counterpoint bit where they debated the topic if it is OK to expose magic to non-magicians, also when is it OK to expose magic to magicians of different skill levels. Each had 90 seconds to debate. Mentalist Anthem and Aria Flint successfully used mental telepathy to find out words written on paper from our members. Answers included; the names of songs written down, mixed in a bag, selected and revealed. Other objects that Aria predicted while blind folded were cell phones, rings, combs credit cards and the finale was to read the ENTIRE serial number off of a borrowed bill! Our year is off to a great start.

Holiday Banquet in Denver

Thanks to Steve and Chad who found a great place for the banquet this year at Fossil Trace Golf Course. They have a full-scale replica of a Triceratops in the entry! Gene did a wonderful job as the MC and with 75 attendees all had a great time with food, friends, and magic. President Andrew Bates performed a Broken Wand ceremony for Lin Kier while his family was present. Andrew did a ring on rope routine and Dave Neighbors did some fantastic coin magic. Dave also changed a red silk into white and then blended them together. VP Steve Davis did a comedy cards across routine. John Walker from Australia did a fun jumbo card stab with a huge knife and his helper successfully stabbed the correct card and not a finger. Mysto performed his cups and balls routine, which ended up with three huge puffballs and then a coconut, appeared under his hat! Gary Jenkins did a Do as I Do routine where a chicken was used to signal the next spectator that it was their turn to continue with the sequence. Chris Manos did a $6 repeat bill routine. He ended with numbers being called out by spectators and he wrote them on a white board. Chris made a prediction, then without looking, the ‘wipers’ wiped off the white board. Low and behold the only numbers remaining were his predicted numbers! His niece and her friend Kimberly and Leah used a Joker Tube and the Magic Switchboard for their act. Gregg Tobo tried a fantastic new routine with coins appearing out of thin air. Next, at his command, his magnetized wand floated at his fingertips, then he pulled out all of the same suit cards and they traveled from his hand into his pockets and he finished up with a new ring routine. Gene vanished a deck of cards numerous times until he was holding plastic cards! Incoming President Brad Montgomery tore out pages and cut up words from a book. The words where placed in a bag and a word was selected. Letter magnets were dumped into a bag and shook along with a small piece of metal from his refrigerator. The letters attached to the metal and spelled out the word that the spectator selected! He also had Mr. Potato Head metamorphosis into French fries.

Thanksgiving Table Magic and Betchas

With the table set and Thanksgiving rapidly approaching our meeting was centered around magic that you can perform after dinner with friends and family. Along with “Betchas”, I bet I can do this, before you do that, or make some sort of prediction. Our MC Gene Gordon set up the following member magicians for the evening. President Andrew Bates borrowed a woman’s finger ring and under the cover of a hanky, while the ends of the rope were held mind you, the ring ended on the center of the rope with a safety pin holding it in place! Bruce and Kitty Spangler did a floating vase and flower bit from props found at the dollar store. Marty Jewell, the “Queen of Puns” cooked a turkey with a pill-gram, drum stick, and grey V, if you get the gist of how this worked. Gregg Tobo did a TNR napkin where the napkins restored and actually changed places in the spectator’s hands. Gregg also played the game NIM and won every time! Elliott Baskin gave us the religious and history meaning of Thanksgiving by showing us marks on the back of a $1 bill and separated pepper from floating on a water. Editor William Rader, made a betcha prediction that worked well while Jean-Luc performed a card trick. Amy Marschak created an improv poem, which is her specialty, with words suggested from the members. Treasurer Chad Wonder performed a 2 Card Monte routine that was fun and Sargent of Arms Gene Gordon tore off and ate part of a $1 bill then restored it to normal! He also performed a TNR IOU card trick where he won $100 of fictitious money from his helper. His helper held on to the corner of the card as a receipt and it matched. He also did a dice trick where white dice changed places with a red then a green dice.

Assembly 37, Ring 131 meets the second Thursday of the month at Riverpointe Senior Community 5225 S Prince St, Littleton, CO 80123. https://www.milehighmagicians.com Glenn Proulx 303-794-5208, glennproulx@gmail.com

October is our Spooky Magic night and is always filled with fun magic and amazing food prepared by Karen Wake and Sharon Nuanes and appreciated by the club for all of their hard work. Bob Brown electrocuted many pickles with his pickle helmet, which he wore for safety. From Rocky Flats Nuclear Arsenal, member Lew Wymisner found and ant farm and wooden blocks of different colors which floated. Due to nuclear radiation? The ants were huge and correctly predicted the author’s name, which ended up inside of the ant farm. AJ the Great, likes bugs and he also had a large fly mounted on a board. Having a recipe randomly selected from a cookbook, the recipe name was written down. Using the spectators’ psychic powers the name of the recipe was transmitted from one helper to another. VP Steve Davis had spooky music and a spooky story about an empty pumpkin found in an abandoned house. Suddenly, inside the empty pumpkin, spiders, bats, ghosts, goblins and rats appeared! Chad Wonder cut a young spectator in two with a saw whose blade was 10” long. He survived! Jeff and Karen Wake had a card selected by a spectator then found a bag of bones and put them into a box. With the lights and switches thrown, the skeleton assembled him self and the card prediction were found by the skeleton. Mark Strivings had a dead dung beetle from Roman times, which then pushed over a block of wood. President Andrew Bates did a two deck Tarot card reading and matched the cards the spectator held. Steve Aldrich said the only way to get a vampire to come to your house on Halloween is to leave blood from the Needle Through the Arm drippings on the cookies! When you look through Joe Givens goggles you saw a combination, then messages on the wall, then ashes where dumped on paper which formed a shape, which Joe predicted after cutting his hand open.

Penn and Teller Fooler and “Deception” show consultant Francis Menotti lectured and performed the trick that fooled P&T. Francis also passed a signed coin through his shirt. Also a blank card was signed and placed back in a deck, then shuffled. Using a Rubics cube with numbers on the side, the numbers where totaled up. That number was the place where the spectators signed card was found in the blank deck!