The Secretary’s Report

We kicked off our meeting with our featured performer Fred Lenter. Fred did a great one-handed card trick, where a peak card disappeared from the deck and appeared in Fred's hand which also happened to be in his pocket for the entire trick. Then Fred did a variation of the Multiplying Billiard Balls with more of a two in the hand - one in the pocket flavor. This clever routine included an original ball from mid-air appearance which was a real fooler. Finally Fred wrapped up with an "Intuition" trick. The spectator selects one card from the deck which they feel is "not garbage". After being returned to the deck the spectator randomly throws cards from the deck into the NG (not garbage) bag until only one is left in their hands.. which turns out to be the selected Not Garbage card.

Then it was on to a few bits of business.

We celebrated the club's 54th birthday by not singing Happy Birthday. It was announced that free posters commemorating our 54th year were available for all members to take home.
Three guests were introduced. Brian Derringer and Russ Kennedy were club members from the 1990s, and Tom Lybrand paid a visit from Ring 22.
We reminded everyone that John Luka from Ring 22 is recovering from broken ribs and his planned lecture is postponed until he is feeling better.
We will be sending out an email soon with information on signing up for our Close Up Competition scheduled for our April meeting.
Members were reminded that they can sign up to volunteer for our Magic Summer Camp and/or to be a Featured Performer or to deliver a Learning Session. We are now using SignUp Genius. Check your emails for details.
We announced that a new feature of our meetings is "Show and Tell". Members who have a collection are encouraged to bring in some pieces to share. A couple of tables will be available in the back of our meeting room to display your collection. During the Jam and Socialize time at the end of our meeting stand by your table and SHOW members what you have and TELL them about it. No pre-planning is required just show up with your collection at a meeting and we will accommodate you. This month Dan Jones brought in his collection of Harry Blackstone, Jr. memorabilia including a signed photo with a young Dan Jones. bla bla blah...

Then we had an open brainstorming session with members on some of our regular events.

Mike Thornton raised the topic of the amount of time allocated for featured performer. There was a mistake in the email we sent and it has been corrected. Featured performers that open our meetings typically run in the 15 min range. More is fine and less is also fine. We want all skill levels to be encouraged to perform.
We discussed the format of the Close Up Competition. Mike Thornton suggested that 5 minutes was a pretty short amount of time. He also thought that it would be better not to break the audience up into such small groups. A number of people chimed in on the topic. The board will discuss when we meet next week. One concern the board was trying to avoid was a format that discourages beginners from signing up. The original intent was to create a format to showcase close-up by members. The competition aspect was secondary.

Then we moved on to a learning session. This month's topic was Gimmicked Key Cards led by Karl Rabe. Karl provided a hand-out and a variety of premade gimmicked cards including short, double, double and short, corner short, so members could experiment with the different variations. We then walked through making a breather card. A number of great tips were offered by members. Mike Thornton shared his technique for creating a breather card. He also shared a sequence for returning the card and going right into a shuffle that controls the selected card to the top. Johnny New York suggested a very slight pencil mark on the key card's edge to aid in locating and cutting to it. Fred Lenter shared how he used a key car. Karl shared a key card he makes which he calls the Heavy Breather.

Then it was on to member performances.

Lincoln Stone performed a nice rope and ring routine. He then did a selected and revealed card using the tag on his magic case.
John Smith did a routine where cards are mixed, mixed and mixed again with spectators making many decisions in how they are mixed, only to result in the four cards selected by a spectator appearing face up in a face down deck.
Dan Jones did a jumbo monte style routine.
Mike Bogdas did a Padlock with Multiple Keys. Keys selected fairly by the spectators won't open the lock, but the one remaining key does.
Our guest Russ Kennedy did a nice rubber band routine, where colored rubber bands switch places.
Mike Thornton did a deck memorization routine where a shuffled deck is split between two spectators and Mike correctly identified the location of every card.
Tara McAllister shared the linking ring routine she is working on.
Karl Rabe did a variation on Bill Abbott's Stabbed and Shot, using a digital thermometer.

Photos by Dan Jones, Karl Rabe and Mike Palko.