The Secretary’s Report

We had a record turnout, fantastic giveaways and great magic at our April 2022 meeting. The theme was Egg Bag Magic.

Phil Mann kicked us off in style as the featured performer with a whirlwind sequence of magic. Phil opened with the Bandana Banana routine, followed  by a unique Multiplying Bottle routine using a beautiful set of wine bottles. Next was a presentation of Wonder Bubbles with a soap bubble turning into a solid glass ball. Phil followed that with an entertaining and unique torn newspaper to mouth coil routines. Next was a production of silks and a stuffed animal from a duck bucket, quickly followed by a card sword routine where Phil successfully skewered the chosen card out of the air with his trusty foil. Phil wrapped up his kickoff act with an 8 ring linking Ring routine with April Barett from the audience. I'm out of breath just writing this!

Next up was a round of introductions, answering the question "What was the first magic trick you remember seeing performed?". Answers ranged from Rice Bowls on a TV commercial to the French Drop. We also learned a surprising number of wives did not learn that their husbands were magician's until it was too late, oops, I mean until after they were married :-). A number of new or not so often seen faces included Autumn Marshall, April Barett, John & Ronda Russell, Mary Oesterwind, Johnny New York, Dynamite and Debbie Mann.

President Dan Jones announced that Karl Rabe has agreed to assume Club Secretary duties.

A raffle was held for two framed Thurston prints Kevin Peshick framed and generously donated. Mike Bogdas and Barbara each won a print.

Next up was members performing. We may have set a new record for the amount of magic performed at this meeting.

• Mike Bogdas kicked us off with a beautiful vintage Square Circle passed down in his family. A rubber chicken was produced and then a full size bird cage, an egg bag and an egg.
• DynaMike performed a glass card frame routine where the audience matches a six card prediction of Mike's.
• Karl Rabe ordered a pizza on his iPhone and it was immediately delivered by Bill Rabe dressed as a pizza delivery man. The pizza kept disappearing from the Smokey Mountain Pizza Oven and finally appeared in an Egg Bag.
• Johnny New York presented an original routine on a classic multiple selection / multiple reveal card trick. A half dozen members of the audience received signs to hold designating them as members of Johnny's extended family (Uncle Joe, Aunt Sally, etc). As each card selection was made, we learned a bit about each relative's foibles and follies in a very funny bit of original comedy. Finally each relative's cards were revealed in unique ways.
• Ming & Barbara used some old business cards to collect random handwriting samples from the audience in a fish bowl. Ming was then able to correctly predict each author.
• Ken MaGee performed as Sandy Wedge golfer and successfully predicted a randomly selected golf score, revealed by the number of juggling bounces of the golf ball on Sandy's wedge.
• DynaMike was back up with a selected card reveal and as a climax the deck turned to a glass block in the spectator's hand.
• Finally, Phil Mann was back up. He led with a 20th century like sock trick where socks "washed" in paper bags magically changed places and one sock became knotted between two others. Then Phil performed a head sword box routine. After placing a spectator's head in a box, the box was penetrated with a half dozen illuminated swords. The box was opened to reveal that spectator's head had disappeared with the lit swords filling the box. Reversing the procedure the spectator was restored to normal health with possibly just a slight headache.