June Meeting

Our meeting kicked off with Karl & Bill Rabe performing their "Go Blue / Go Green" color changing silk routine. A large maze colors silk and a large blue colored silk match Karl's University of Michigan shirt and hat as Hail to the Victors plays.. then the record scratches and the music changes to the Michigan State Fight Song as Bill changes the silk to Green and White. This occurs several times as Karl and Bill try to encourage the crowd to cheer for their favorite university in the intra-state rivalry. The routine concludes when the music changes to the Notre Dame Fight Song and a huge Fighting Irish flag is produced by Karl and Bill.

President Dan Jones who announced this will be his last term delivered his first of six retirement speeches. Dan also introduced our newest member, Brian Mielewski. Welcome Brian. We discussed the recent local Houdini lecture "Just Wild About Houdini" presented by Jeremy Dimick of the Detroit Historical Society. Then we had a quick recap of our Spring Parlor Show which went off without a hitch and Dan Jones presented each of the on-stage performers with a signed and framed copy of the show poster. Our Treasurer, Rob Krozal, provided a recap of our finances for the show. We discussed ways to increase attendance.

Then it was on to the learning session. This month's topic was Color Changing Silks.

Dan Jones shared a variety of gimmicks, including a hank ball and various sizes and shapes of palm-o balls.
Our VP Sean Howell then demonstrated use of the palm-o ball for a color change.
Mike Thornton jumped in and provides some hints and tricks on showing both hands empty while using a palm-o, as well as loading and dumping the loaded palm-o from a hat. Mike showed his method for popping the silk out the top of the hand when completing the color change.
Our Secretary Karl Rabe shared a few more palm-os including a rubber one, as well as a metal dye tube with a sliding baffle from Rice Silks. Karl also shared the Massall change tube including a home-made one.
Don Oesterwind discussed a variety of silk effects.

Then it was on to performances.

Kevin Peshick performed an entertaining and funny Henrietta the Mind Reading Chicken routine.
Mike Reuter performed a stabbed card in bag with Tara assisting. Mike produced a shot of bourbon from the bag as a finale.
Tara McAllister demonstrated a change she is making to her butterfly effect using a larger butterfly and larger fans.
Bou-Yu Chen performed a card trick with Don Oesterwind assisting. The selected card disappeared from the deck and then later re-appeared but upside-down.