Silks and More

The month of May started off with a bang with a lecture by IBM president and SAM member, Shawn Farquhar. Shawn has a natural, easy-going style. and his magic mastery is amazing This FISM champion beguiled us with his stories and dazzled us with his magic for over three hours.

Only four days later we held our normal monthly meeting. Silks were the theme of the night but like always all magic was welcome. President Taylor Martin started us off with his famous “pouriscuity” test by pulling a knotted silk through aspectator’s wrist. Taylor also utilized touches of Mark Wilson, Tarbell and Slydini to create a most satisfying silk routine. Next up was our soon-to-be member, Brendon Ware. Brendon had Jim Croop assist him by selecting a card. Using a non-functioning gorpy silk (that he purchased as a young boy) Brendon covered the deck and tried, without success, to find Jim’s card. Finally, he let the silk find the chosen card. Brendon finished his routine, using his silk as a sweat cloth to wipe his face. When he removed the silk, miraculously a pair of sunglasses covered his eyes. With each swipe of the silk, the glasses changed to a different color. Taylor next did an encore performance from his working repertoire teaching the history of the terms “two bits, four bits, six bits a dollar” in which he did a torn and restored coin routine. Don Miller strayed from the theme of silks (but no one minded) by testing Brendon’s telekinetic powers. Don had him try to move a light bulb that was enclosed in a clear plastic bag using only his mind. Brendon’s powers were greater than he thought because the light bulb exploded instead. Then using a mentalism effect combining the handlings of David Hoy and Gozo, Don threw out a deck of cards to six different spectators who looked at one card. Don then divined each spectator’s card. Long-time member Ed Filby demonstrated how he uses silks and a disappearing crayon to teach children a lesson about life. Finally, Chris Henderson showed us the “smart phone card trick” where he has the spectator pick a card and then using the spectator’s own android phone, the card appears on the phone’s screen.