Assembly #31 members and regional VP Steve Spence performed at the Veteran's Home in West Lafayette, IN, along with David Kirby and Irish Joe. Taylor Martin, as Rodney The Younger, mc'd, along with 30 year S.A.M.member Phil Dubbs. This all took place on Oct. 26. About 50 veterans who are residents, plus their families, were in attendance. The show was also streamed to the rest of the hospital for those that could not leave their rooms. David Kirby did his classic magic act with a straight jacket escape, Irish Joe did a set of children's magic, Phil and Steve did closeup before the show, and Taylor performed his famous Bullet, Block, and Ribbon. He also provided the music for the event. All that attended seemed to enjoy the performance. A fine piano player named Linda played patriotic tunes and incidental tunes. We thank David Kirby for arranging the show.

The compeers of Assembly 31 were in a festive mood as we celebrated our October theme, Holiday Magic.

Jeff Higgins kicked off the festivities in order, as he said, to guarantee that he was "the best youâ??ve seen thus far tonight." Jeff first magically rearranged a skeleton without laying a hand upon him, leaving him first standing on his head and then removing his head entirely to another location and then causing it to invisibly fly across space and reattach itself to the body. Jeff concluded his presentation with an Christmas-themed effect inspired by David Ginn involving Jack Frost, Nick the Christmas reindeer, Santa Jerry and Mt. Jim.
 
Mike Root demonstrated his hatred of spiders with his presentation of Tommy James "Come Back Spiders". Mike demonstrated how one giant Jack-o-lantern seed can quickly be transformed into a Jack-o-lantern and a dozen other giant seeds. Mike concluded his part of the evening by relating the story of a town named "Celebration" and how Christmas was saved through love.

Taylor Martin demonstrated an "1890 version" of color vision whereby he not only demonstrated how he could divine the color placed face up in the box but later he could divine the spectator's chosen color which was placed on the bottom of the closed box.  
    
Jay Newby suffers from Auditory Coin Recognition ("ACR"). Jay was able to discern how much change a spectator had in his pocket merely by having him shake the coins in the spectator's hand. Jay concluded with a J.B. Magic effect by pulling a chosen card that the spectator placed back in the deck, not out of his hat but, rather, out of his shoe.
 
A first-time visitor, Nick Geigle, shared a Halloween-themed effect that he first saw in David Seebach's column, "Illusions of Grandeur": in the December 2011 M-U-M magazine. He chose a "six year old" played by Jeff's lovely wife, Kristen, from the audience. By answering two simple questions and putting two silk handkerchiefs into a bag  which magically were transformed into candy she won all of the  candy from a second bag.
    
David Kirby topped off the evening with a little rubber band magic. As an added bonus, our President Taylor Martin, briefly informed us of the plethora of Halloween magic that can be found in Tarbell, Vol. 2.

Submitted by Steve Spence, Scribe