The Harry Riser Assembly #31 began the evening by recognizing Tom Winterrowd for his 35 consecutive years of membership in SAM. Taylor Martin and Ted Baer are close behind with 27 years as members. Our master of ceremonies for the evening, Jim Croop, introduced our theme, Spooky Magic. Several of our spookiest magicians then presented their Halloween effects. Tom Winterrowd, who did his first public magic performance seventy years ago, shared with us his Jack Daniels official Tennessee Squire certificate and then proceeded to capture the "spirits" of Jack Daniels using his Tennessee Squire bandana and two appropriately sized empty glasses which remained on the tray even when the tray was turned from the horizontal to a vertical position. Daniel Lee shared a spine tingling story regarding Susie, Tony and Billy Spade and the four Hamilton sisters, who turned out to be witches. In Daniel's version of the cannibal cards, the witches devoured the spade siblings accompanied by spooky music and multiple sound effects. Taylor Martin invoked the ghost of the silkworm which made the silk which Taylor proceeded to tie and untie around the volunteer's wrist in amazing ways. The knots would come and go with no apparent help from Taylor. Taylor also told the story of The Yakuza, Japanese criminals who lost their fingers due to selected crimes. While telling the story he produced his ancient wooden finger chopper and surprised us with an unexpected finale. Don Miller demonstrated a trick which he had just received in the mail from England and had never practiced. It had something to do with a spirit, and obviously needed a bit of polishing. He was still looking for the directions when he sat down. Following an interesting conversation about the history of spooky magic and spook shows, we then adjourned to the tables for part two of the evening. Jim Croop proceeded to walk us through chapter one of The Royal Road to Card Magic by Jean Hugard and Frederick Braue. The key is being able to control cards. With Jim doing the teaching, together we reviewed, or learned as the case might be, how to hold the deck, the top to bottom overhand shuffle, milking the deck, how to run cards and the jog shuffle. Various breaks were also discussed. While practicing the techniques, the conversation was livened as the experienced magicians related their particular approach to the method for each move.