The meeting had the theme “Silks and Handkerchiefs” and was
hosted by Vice President Joel Howlett, who led off the magic. Among several effects, he produced a rabbit
silk from a top hat silk.
Our President, David Whitson, rehearsed aspects of his
Ecology show – the turtle puppet we saw last month came to talk to us
again with variations, and David also showed us a seagull puppet and a
round globe puppet of the whole world strangling itself in plastic.
Our newest member, Michael Blakeman, performed two clever
card items. We clearly saw him place
the black two and the black three into the middle of the pack. So how did he, with a flick of his hand,
produce them from the pack as he tossed it on the table ? Impressive.
In the next item, he had a card chosen but it did not match the
prediction written on a piece of paper being held by a spectator. No problem to Michael – he heated the paper
with a lighter and the prediction changed to read the correct chosen
card !
Joel came back with a red ribbon and a white ribbon pushed
into his closed fist, and then they both changed into a red/white striped
ribbon which he pulled out of his hand.
Next, he put a silk with a black horse picture and one with a white
horse picture into a paper bag. He
burst the bag, and out popped a silk with a picture of a black and white
striped zebra !
Steve Irwin loves colour changes in the hands, and this time
for us he produced a blue ribbon from nothing, changed its colour and made it
turn red in his hand, and then vanished the lot !
Handkerchiefs were the subject of several items from Noel
Clair. He did the amazing item that we
have read about but never seen – in which a large safety pin, clearly pushed
through a handkerchief, is pulled along to the other end of the handkerchief
without tearing it. It’s amazing when
you see someone do what you’ve read about – and your doubts about it are
removed. He passed the body of one
safety pin through another. He made a
white mouse puppet out of a handkerchief – and it “came alive” as it ran up his
chest and round his neck. Wow it looked good !
He did a “world first” with linking rings passed through thumb tie. His own thumbs, and also the thumbs of two
spectators were tied together, but this was no barrier to Noel’s passing two
linking rings through them.
