This is the report being sent to MUM magazine regarding our February 6, 2012 meeting. It seems to take the magazine a couple of months to get the report in, so expect to see it in the April issue. The theme was magic with everyday objects, also called household or impromptu magic. Whatever we called it, the meeting had to do with how to do interesting magic with the objects around you, often, but not always, on the spur of the moment. Before we began the magic, the Assembly took time to recognize Taylor Martin, who was the recipient of a well deserved President's Citation for "keeping magic alive in the public eye." (The January 2012 issue of MUM Magazine includes an article describing all of his extensive "magic in the public eye" activities.) Master of Ceremonies, Jim Croop, then began the everyday objects evening by mysteriously passing a pen through a ten dollar bill with no damage to the bill. He then took off his ring, placed it on the same pen. Suddenly it disappeared from the pen and ended back on his ring finger. The tone being set for the evening, Daniel Lee borrowed a woman's ring and slid it off and then back on the "eating end" of a spoon. Steve Spence took another household item, a newspaper, and entertained us with the Axel Hecklan version of the torn and restored newspaper. Phil Dubbs started out with a sponge ball on his nose, which upon removal became as many as ten sponge balls and then back to two. He credited Martin Gardner for the effect. Phil announced that sponge balls are definitely household items, at least in his house! Don Miller, assisted by eight year old Jack Thompson, shared his newly developed patter with the Horizontal Card Rise. He covered the dome with a towel, clearly a household item, although he did claim that it was a magic towel! Mike Root topped off the evening with some fast paced rubber band magic. Several members of SAM #31, Taylor Martin and Don Miller among them, worked as professional entertainers at the Super Bowl Village which took place in Indianapolis the ten days before the Super Bowl. They performed an exorbitant number of hours on the street, met some very interesting Patriots, Giants and Colts fans, and had a really good time. They received very positive feedback from the Indianapolis Super Bowl Committee, and represented with distinction our city, the profession of magic, and the Society of American Magicians.
Dale Benson
IML Lecture Series 
McKellip Michael
