Our Holiday Dinner was hosted at The Lumber Baron by Walt Keller. There were over 50 people in attendance made up of our members and their families.
First off, to correct an error in our last report: Joe and Carol Givan WERE at, and performed at our 10th annual public magic show. Carol, with a broken shoulder I may add, performed their “Freaky Carol” act. She was tied up with rope, and managed to put on a gentleman’s sport coat under the rope!
Emcee Jeff Jenson did a Chinese Rice Paper, AKA- toilet paper to mouth coil. Then a signed $20 bill vanished and landed inside a lemon! Matt Brandt performed a signed card trick which was marked with a “Magic Marker” and Tyrone, the T-Rex helper, helped find the card. Then, Matt shot the deck and a burned card was stuck to the wall. The burned card then transformed into the signed card. Jonathan Buczkowski did a card trick where both spectators picked the same card, followed by a mind readingtrick using an imaginary book.
Daniel Macmillan, WOW! Daniel performed one of the best card to pocket routines we have seen. Spectators would pick which card they wanted him to vanish from his hand and it would end up in his pocket!
Joe Givan’s faith healing with band-aids is always fun. Initials on a healer and healee band-aid magically trade places while in plain view. Gene Gordon did a few coin routines where coins vanished then, when dropped on the floor, split in 2!! Coins across to a glass with the theme ‘Christmas Carol’ Past, Preset, and Future, was done with a flaming wallet. William Rader’s mind reading was impressive! He drew a picture where every object would end up in a different predicted place on his helper and it worked! Steve Aldrich cut and restored ribbon mystery was fun, his Miser’s Dream and Silk in Egg was impressive. Steve placed the sticker on his forehead then as he peeled it off the silk came out of his brains.
Thank you to our President Andrew Bates for all your hard work and dedication to our club!
We meet the second Thursday of the month at RiverPointe Senior Community (5225 S Prince St, Littleton, CO 80123).
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Dan Fleshman came through town and performed many of his favorite working magic routines, his Ninja Rings and Professor’s Nightmare with a ring to name a few. He gave us ideas of what to perform for walk around that was easy to reset. His Jiggernaut, Extreme Burn, Kinetic Key, and Multiplying Rabbits, along with his 3 Card Monte were a hit!
Our 10th annual public show was a great time with many local performers. It is our main fundraiser of the year and we had great attendance. Comments from the crowd at intermission were very favorable. Matt Brandt was the MC and introduced Gregg Tobo, William Rader, Mysto the Magi, Jeff Jenson, John T. Sheets, Chad Wonder, Keir Royale, and Tommy Walker. Gene Gordon entertained in the lobby at intermission.
Bizzaro came and performed many great tricks that he invented. A chosen card was shuffled, returned to the deck and then boxed. A straw was put in the card box like a juice box and the spectators card was found and sucked up through the straw! He split pop cans in two, and made entire 6-packs of pop visibly change places. His sponge ball routine was amazing! He poked holes in Oreo cookies, did his Hidden cash, and broke off teeth from a comb, placed them in his mouth with string and they all came out attached to the thread!
Thanksgiving Table Crap night is always a lot of fun because it is an open night where anyone can perform using anything that they may find on their Thanksgiving Table. Silverware, napkins, and sugar packets were common props. Gene Gordon gave us an impromptu set, including some wandering matches. Steve Aldritch presented a beautiful Ring on wooden spoon, and Marty Jewell magnetized a spoon to her nose and thumb, and Bruce and Kitty Spangler took Table Crap to the literal and logical conclusion.
We meet the second Thursday of the month at RiverPointe Senior Community (5225 S Prince St, Littleton, CO 80123).
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October was filled with four events. First, we had Barry Schor come to town and do his lecture. He shared what he carries in his pockets to perform. Professor’s Nightmare is a perfect trick for young, old, and it is even a trick to cross all language barriers. He performed Match to flower, told us how to fix a flipper coin, how to make a marked deck, performed his Fred’s Mental Miracle trick!
Second, we enjoyed Karl Hein. Wow! What a great lecture. He did an amazing TNR card trick, changed $1 bills to $100. He also amazed us with his card handling, did a family trick with a change bag. With a BORROWED deck and a few shuffles he put it back in new deck order!
Third, we had our scary Evening of Odd. Rich Nakata had a Spirit Box that would tie knots in ropes, and bend steel. Sharon Nuanes had a scary story about a hat pin that stabbed a person. Anthem and Auria performed a blind fold psychic bit and she defined held up keys, lip balm, cell phone and could read the mind and serial number of a member holding a $20 bill! “Marticia”, Marty Jewell, did a card stab with a balloon, her Frank in Stein routine with an arm chopper! William Rader, had a prediction in a sealed envelope and played Ro sham bo for someone to win money. His prediction was correct and he won the money. Chad Wonder did roulette routine with staple guns and survived. Karen Wake made AMAZING food as always and told us a story by Edgar Allen Poe where the body was hidden in a wall. Mark Stivings did book test and correctly guessed all of the contents. Gregg Tobo is a human calculator, and performed his award winning Pi routine.
Lastly, we had a round table get together to learn a new trick The Code by Andy Nyman. Attendee’s got the trick, learned how to perform it and brainstormed how do other routines with the cards.
We meet the second Thursday of the month at RiverPointe Senior Community (5225 S Prince St, Littleton, CO 80123).
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Our September Teach-in meeting was a lot of fun as always, and we all learned a bunch of new tricks. Matt Brandt taught us two cool Bottle from Silk routines and a Bottle in Shoe. One from three silks, another from Toilet Paper, and the last was a bottle of lemonade in his shoe. Matt also explained different gimmicks that can be used to hold or produce a bottle.
William Rader taught us two mentalist routines, one with multiple outs. Three coins were hanging invisibly in mid air and the spectator was asked to pick two. One invisible coin was marked by a free choice on ‘Tails’. Another spectator was holding a coin since the beginning of the trick in a closed fist. The third coin was presented and sure enough, there was and ‘X’ on the tails side! Four people came up to help and each was given a card marker to draw their favorite toy they played with as a child. William used his powers to correctly predict who drew each toy! He explained his method when th trick was done.
Kier Royale hooked us with a cool card trick called “The Code”. He didn’t divulge the secret and kept us all wanting more!
Jeff Jensen performed an amazing signed card which vanished and was found inside to a sealed bag of potato chips! He also took a sandwich bag and made silks change colors back and forth then those silks vanished and blended into a one new silk. His method was explained as well.
Gene Gordon our MC for the night performed a 6 card repeat and fun patter. Next he blew bubbles which he got from a wedding and produced a glass crystal bubble. Once that bubble was heated up with a lighter, it too changed into a red crystal bubble. Once again, another fun night of learning magic was had in the Mile High city.
We meet the second Thursday of the month at RiverPointe Senior Community (5225 S Prince St, Littleton, CO 80123).
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Our August meeting was filled with our meeting of Old, Unique and One of a kind magic. We also had the pleasure of having the Penguin Magic Live Expo attend Denver later in the month!
To begin our August meeting, Gene Gordon brought in some of his favorite old magic books. Some were older than us! Aiden and Tyler helped with a coin trick from Tarbell’s coins across. Tyler Vanourek performed an original trick where a card was chosen, vanished, and reappeared inside a Pringles can. First from the can was a snake, which scared us! Connie Elstun was helped by Steve Aldrich and drew a picture on a pad of paper, which after a magical gesture, the picture magically had color.
William Rader showed us his Edward Brown magic book: Mental Magic. Jonathan and Scott helped with this trick which was a fun cards across where a card that was merely thought of traveled across. Jean-Luc demonstrated he ability to capture snaps in a clear bowl. Chris Shore showed us a broken and restored match inside of a hanky. Chris used a toothpick randomly picked out a box of toothpicks by his helper Mysto. The toothpick was covered, broken, and it was fully restored to he handed back to Mysto.
Chad Darnell had Jasmine volunteer to be a Princess. There was also a Frog, Prisoner, and a Fire Breathing Dragon. Jasmine had a tough time trying to figure out which one she wanted to kiss so a Change Bag was used to help her make her decision. Eventually the Frog changed into a Prince even without the kiss.
Mysto (Mitch Harwood) brought his antique Card Sword. Dave selected a card, tossed them in the air and voila, the selected card was stabbed. Steve Aldrich performed 4 of his wonderful homemade tricks: first was his version the Magic Switchboard with the help of mini-Tesla. His Malini bag produced DOZENS of eggs, a card selected was vanished and ended up inside a scotch bottle. Finally, Tyler selected a card and the deck was put in a bowl of water. The entire deck vanished except for his card!
The highlight for us was having Penguin Magic Live Expo, over 100 local magicians attended, and their crew of Brent Braun, Chris Smith, Nick Difatee, Paul Richard, and Greg Wilson amazed us with their magic products and mini lectures. If you get the chance to have them come to your city, DO IT!
We meet the second Thursday of the month at RiverPointe Senior Community (5225 S Prince St, Littleton, CO 80123).
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Gene Gordon made a grape changed place in the spectators hand then turned a ball into square with squeaker, and his rendition of the blank deck.
AJ Perea took a taught rope and played violin music then performed the Professor’s Nightmare trick. It was an awesome trick!
Sharon Nuannes made a silk appear into a cane, then her scarf production turned into a big scarf! Liquid was poured into newspaper, vanished, then colored liquid from a champaine bottle appeared. She made a scarf vanish and it ended up tied in between other scarfs. The Crystal Tube was next with a multiple scarf ending.
Joe O’Brien did a Coins Across in short sleaves!
Gregg Tobo did a remarkable Thumb Tie, with long gauze strips and caught solid rings.
John Luong did a salt pour bill, and an initialed bill vanished and ended up in a bill tube and multiple rabbits appeared. He also brought his lunch and large chop sticks that changed colors!
Tyler Vampires demonstrated various card shuffles, a card chosen and the image was mentality transmitted to him and he drew the card the card on large art book.
Matt Brandt did a card trick where 4 cards were passed out and torn up. He eliminate face down pieces after tossing them in the air. His prediction was the King of Hearts and one of the torn corner pieces matched his prediction. A marked quarter was wrapped in dollar then placed on ground. He stepped on bill and the quarter vanished! After he took off his shoe the quarter ends up inside sock. He performed a card trick and kept finding numerous jokers. At the end all of the red card backs changed to different backs except her card was the only red back!
We meet the second Thursday of the month at RiverPointe Senior Community (5225 S Prince St, Littleton, CO 80123).
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June was our Annual Mile High Family Picnic. Instead of at the park we decided to try something different and host it inside to see if we would have a better turnout. We had a wonderful turnout and it rained a ton that night so we lucked out. Burgers, dogs, rain and magic…what a night!
Gene Gordon performed the 6 card repeat, collected invisible money for the misers dream, then a large coin bugger fell out of the spectators nose. A clear net was shown and eyeballs passed through it and across his massive chest. We all kept our eye on the ball! Dismembered lady was performed with dental floss, arms and legs were cut into pieces and put it back together. The floss broke and he never liked that lady anyway! Chinese Sticks that were connected in the back were separate and the tassel’s still returned up to the sticks! Cards were shuffled and he performed a conman-flim-flam trick. Three cards were mentally selected at random, another invisible card was tossed back into the deck and was the only card upside down in the deck. The 3.5 of clubs ended up as a Jumbo card. A signed card rose out of the deck, vanished, then the signed card ended up in an Altoid box!
Jeff Jensen performed a wonderful Silk-in-Egg routine, which amazed everyone! The kids gasped when the hole vanished and Jeff pealed off the sticker! He also performed Andrew Maine’s newspaper tear. The newspaper was signed, restored, then Jeff passed out the newspaper as a souvenir! He did a cards across trick and ended his performance with a Signed Bill to Lemon.
We meet the second Thursday of the month at RiverPointe Senior Community (5225 S Prince St, Littleton, CO 80123).
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Jon Armstrong came to Denver for our April meeting. He performed a wonderful 3 Card Monte using blank cards. Needless to say for the first few guesses, we found the blank card every time! Then, Jon had one of the two spectators; Mike and Gary, sign their name on the blank card. They found their card a few times, then Jon changed it up by adding a sticker on the back of their card to help them keep track of their card. Obviously they lost, but what a cool idea to use blank cards.
Next he taught us an easy way to do a fool proof classic force and did his version of an Eddie Field’s card trick where the spectator dropped a poker chip randomly on a face down spread out deck of cards. Their card was found and Jon shared with us the proper way to do a top change.
He also performed his Tiny Plunger routine, which was amazing, a rubber band through the neck, a gin pick to double lift cards that were tabled! Lastly, Jon performed his Out of this World card trick.
Our second magic lecturer for April was magician David Corsaro. David performed and shared his secrets for Mad About You, Getting to Know You – which is wonderful way to make your magic more personable for your audience. Wild Birthday can be perform at children’s magic show where the birthday guest goes home with a gold coin.
Mallrats is a Peter Duffy effect that had us all confused until he told us the secret! He shared many ideas to increase the number of your shows and profits, how to select a person from the audience so they feel they are a valued helper, how to approach a table while doing restaurant magic. David also shared what he keeps in his ‘Emergency Kit’ in case he is asked to perform.
The Baby Gag was fun to see, and Baci is a great trick where Hershey Kiss’s appeared! His last effect was Can I Call You Sometime? His collection of female phone numbers written on cocktail napkins was presented. Matt, our past president, randomly picked ‘Nicole’s’ number. The deck was cut into four piles. The cards were shuffled face up and face down, what a mess…. in the end, magically all of the cards turned face down except Nicole’s phone number to a great applause!
We meet the second Thursday of the month at RiverPointe Senior Community (5225 S Prince St, Littleton, CO 80123).
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March Madness usually means basketball, but not in the Mile High City; we had one club meeting and three guest lecturers! We started off with our annual Flea Market, and members bought and sold magic treasures that were old to some and new magic to others. The sellers at the flea market each donated quality items, which were raffled to the attendees.
We also had Tom Frank demonstrate 4 Aces, 3 Fly, Cups and Balls with a cool way to load a ball under the cup, Tom’s Poetry Linking Ring routine was very good. Silk Scarf and Coin routine based on Dai Vernon’s Silk and Silver was presented and explained well. Tom also performed a very cool signed card to wallet. Seven of our members were called forward, each selected a card, the cards were then lost in the deck and Tom found all seven!
Martin Mercy was next and he demonstrated his opening acts, and talked about restaurant magic. Flash paper was used and magically a Hershey Kiss was produced that was given to Kitty Spangler. John Luong helped out with a gambling effect called Indian Casino Blackjack. Connie Elston helped with a ‘Love’s Me, Love’s Me Not’ card effect! Three different effects were presented with an Invisible deck that Chad Darnell helped with and then there was the Bermuda Triangle coin effect in which member Jim Murphy placed numerous coins in the Bermuda Triangle and they kept vanishing! Jeff Stark helped out with a Mentalism trick.
Eric Jones was another of our Magic Madness Month lecturers. He performed the coolest 3 Fly coin routine we have seen in a long time. Eric spent 45 minutes teaching us the moves, letting us practice and checking our progress. Members Dale and Mysto along with Preston and John helped with different card routines. Eric taught Chad a cool flying coin vanish that ended up in your pants pocket. When the coin vanished and you heard the “clink” of it landing in his pocket it was amazing! Eric’s last trick was a rising card trick that was spectacular. Thanks Eric and you got the standing ovation, well done!
We meet the second Thursday of the month at RiverPointe Senior Community (5225 S Prince St, Littleton, CO 80123).
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Comedy night was well attended and was a great time to get together with magicians that we haven’t seen in a while. We also welcomed a couple of new members who signed up that night to our club as well. Steve Spangler told us some fun pranks you can play on the school nurse and his boys, Mark and Scott performed a “voice protector” on their grandma, Kitty, which was the sword through the neck. Next was a bottle of water that had holes poked in it so when it was opened it would dribble all over you. AJ Perea helped out with the bounce, no bounce balls.
Aiden Darnell and Danny Baldini did a tribute to Tom Bergoon with Timmy toilet paper and Peppe.
Gene Gordon’s helpers were Max Hansen and Jean-Luc. Max helped with more bounce, no bounce routines, while Jean-Luc helped with the pencil through bill routine. Max and Aiden helped Gene perform a card and thumb cuff trick where Max’s signed card was found under a cloth while being bound in the cuffs.
Jeff and Karen Wake performed a myriad of tricks with a mirror box, cups and balls, and a production box to a dueling cowboy magicians theme with banjo music.
Steve Aldrich was our next performer did a fun trick with scarf’s producing a ‘strawberry spread’ and has his ‘mystery box the infantibulum’ where scarfs would appear and disappear at random!
Our ventriloquist was Ned Nebalski who did silent trick needless to say we were all speechless!
Brad Montgomery did a juggling routine, card trick and shish kabobbed his tongue to amaze us all.
Shawn Popp did his 1-100 dollar bill routine with his helpers Luis and Tanya. Mary helped him with a fun card to pocket trick.
Door prizes where given away from Steve Spangler and Brad Montgomery and we had good food!
We meet the second Thursday of the month at RiverPointe Senior Community (5225 S Prince St, Littleton, CO 80123).
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