By Mike Bogdas

As I flip through dusty old magic club magazines from years gone by, it’s fun to revisit the creative ways our Ann Arbor Magic Club kept the wonder alive before everything went digital. Back then, sharing a great lecture meant more than just hitting play — it often involved real effort, creativity, and a touch of old-school showmanship that feels charmingly antique today.

Remember when our in March meeting of 1985 was grandly advertised as “M&M Nite” and Ron Sturgell single-handedly turned the church basement into a 1980s Blockbuster? In an era before smartphones could hold an entire magic library in your pocket, Ron heroically dragged in a television the size of a small refrigerator and a VCR that looked like it could double as a medieval torture device. He wrestled that beast into the room with all the grace of a magician attempting the Miser’s Dream with bowling balls.

The payoff was pure gold: first up, the legendary Ed Marlo calmly demonstrating card sleights so devious they still make today’s Instagram card flourishes look like a toddler playing with Uno cards. Then came the riotous Tom Mullica show, taped live at The Tom Foolery in Atlanta—a man so smooth he could vanish cigarettes, bills, and probably your dignity, all while leaving a room full of jaded magicians howling with laughter. And because nothing says “sophisticated magic lecture” quite like a giant bowl of M&Ms being passed around the room with the precision of a classic Cups and Balls routine, we had Marlo, Mullica, and M&Ms—proof that even the treats were performing sleights of hand that night.

Fast-forward to today, and we just pull out a phone, tap once, and boom—same classics appear instantly. No extension cords that could trip a herd of elephants, no frantic rewinding, and zero chance of the tape getting tangled like a botched linking rings routine. Times have definitely changed, but the magic remains eternal!