The Harry Riser SAM #31 September 2011 Meeting Report More than twenty magicians of all ages made it to the combined SAM #31 and IBM Ring 10 meeting which was held at The Forum retirement center so that Harry Riser could be in attendance. The theme was favorite card tricks. As you can imagine, nearly everyone had a favorite card routine--except for a few hard and fast coin guys! Ten magicians performed and we saw everything from the classic Curry's Out of This World presented by George Nataros to a Stinky Card Trick created by Taylor Martin. Dee Saul did a variation of Larry Jennings' Invisible Palm, but added coins to the card effect. Significantly, out of the ten card routines, there was only one "pick a card" trick. A highlight of the evening was Harry Riser, our club's namesake, teaching us several one handed routines. Harry is recovering from his stroke and is still working on regaining function in his left arm and hand. Thus, he has developed right handed routines. He taught us the right thumb break and demonstrated other lessons in smooth card handling. As always, Harry's teaching was clear, to the point, and interspersed with interesting and relevant stories from his magic career. There was enlightening discussion regarding what makes card magic so compelling to magicians. Many of those attending noted what originally attracted them to cards.There was also dialog regarding the three moves most essential in card magic. The consensus was the double lift, the break and the false cut. An important observation made by Dee Saul is that card magic is like playing a guitar. It is easy to play it poorly, but is is very difficult and takes much practice to play it well. The other magicians who performed included Sean Hull, David Lee, Jay Newby, Joe Scott, Don Miller and Barry Rice. SAM #31 meets the first Monday of the month at 7:00 pm unless there is a conflict with a holiday weekend. Unless otherwise announced the meeting location is the Irvington United Methodist Church, 10 Audubon Road on the east side of the city. See our website for details: www.sam31.com.