Beware the Ides of March! Also beware magicians tasked with presenting “Dangerous Magic” (this month’s theme). After a brief business meeting during which we approved the upcoming May 17, 2014 lecture by Joshua Jay and also once again nominated Steve Spence for Central Plains RVP, things got seriously dangerous.

President Taylor Martin presented “Truth”, an effect designed to discourage bullying in which the “bully” is required to promise that they will never bully another person in the future. The punishment for lying is being cut in half by a rope. Fortunately, the “bully” passed the test. Next up, Tom Winterrowd presented the mystery of a tube in which he placed a golden wooden cube. The tube was bisected with a dagger and yet the golden cube passed straight through the dagger, undamaged. Daniel Lee shared that he became fascinated with dangerous magic after watching Barry Rice perform his razor swallowing act at last year’s Winter Spectacle. Daniel’s mother made him promise right then and there that he wouldn’t swallow razors. Instead, Daniel dazzled us with his gut wrenching needle swallowing routine, ably assisted by compeer Jim Croop who verified that Daniel had truly swallowed the 20 or so needles before they reappeared from his mouth, threaded upon black thread. Jay Newby continued the theme using a switchblade, a brown paper bag and a deck of cards. After brazenly announcing what his real name was (for security reasons I won’t list it here) prior to entering the local witness protection program, he proceeded to find a chosen card by blindly sticking the knife through it. Don Miller, ever the professional, called Jay (if that is his name) back in front of the room to try out his rope through neck routine that he swore he’d only just learned that day. Fortunately for Jay, Don is a quick learner and no blood was spilt. Finally, although diverging from the theme, Doug Jave, after swearing us all to secrecy, demonstrated and explained his unique and original method of producing a sponge ball from the flame. What made it unique was that after the production the audience visibly sees smoke emanating from inside the sponge ball. Additionally, he demonstrated how he could do a double production using the same principle.

Thankfully, considering the theme of the night, all compeers left the building unscathed and unscarred!