SAM 29 Newsletter

Alright, lets get the important stuff out of the way because the bi-annual auction is next month. Here's the skinny, McFinney...
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The Next Society of American Magicians Harry Houdini Assembly #29 Meeting will be taking place:

When?: Monday, SEPTEMBER 22nd , starting at 7:30pm

Where: Salem Lutheran Church on 14 Salem St. in Naugatuck, CT

The Theme of This Month's Magic Shall Be: BI-ANNUAL AUCTION
(If you know any magician who wants to sell anything, bring them along!)

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So we've been making some changes the past few months at S.A.M. #29. The major change is that we realized that we have a large number of working professionals in our assembly, and the schedule (taking off july & august months) didn't truly suit us, along with being in CT, we almost always have to cancel a meeting due to poor winter weather. So, our new schedule is as follows:

MEETINGS WILL NOW TAKE PLACE FROM
JANUARY- NOVEMBER
(WE TAKE DECEMBER OFF)

AND IF THERE IS A CANCELLATION DUE TO WEATHER, WE WILL SEND OUT AN EMAIL TO MEMBERS, ALONG WITH POSTING IT ON THIS WEBSITE, RIGHT ON THE FRONT PAGE SO IN THE WINTER MONTHS, BEFORE YOU GO TO A MEETING, CHECK YOUR IN-BOX OR THIS WEBSITE.
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So with that being said, here's the themes for the remainder of 2008:

Howdy you magician folk! The auction just around the corner. Here's the deal for whats going on in March:

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The Next Society of American Magicians Harry Houdini Assembly #29 Meeting will be taking place:

When?: Monday, MARCH 24th, starting at 7:30pm

(Please don't get confused.... it's the FOURTH MONDAY of the month)

Where: Salem Lutheran Church on 14 Salem St. in Naugatuck, CT

The Theme of This Month Shall Be: BI-ANNUAL AUCTION...Yay Captialism!

(For Auction Rules, go to www.SAM29.com/auction )

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Our February meeting's theme was silk magic, but it seemed to have a wickedly ulterior motive... magic crossing language barriers. One of our members, Marie Padilla, had brought her father who only spoke Italian but still loved magic. Some of the other Magi of Assembly 29 saw it as a welcome challenge. Joe Lantiere started off the evening with a combination of magic involving card manipulations, billiard ball manipulation, magic with rope and the evening's theme. It was all extremely visual and translated easily.

Young magician Shawn Segal was up next and started with his version of Self-tying shoelaces, going right into a color-changing record routine using three different colored silks and a record sleeve. He talked about his friends using them in DJ-ing, proving that records still had a place in today's culture.

Joe Lantiere followed up with an alternate version of the color-changing record that didn't use a sleeve. He moved the colored silk over the record and it transformed from one color to the next until at the end, he moved all three silks and the record became multi-colored! He then presented a card silk routine using an old-style production box- very cool stuff indeed.

Shawn Segal, carrying on the seeming Dueling Banjos type atmosphere with him and Joe going back and forth, performed a card effect in which he found all the Threes from a shuffled deck.

Breaking up the banjos (and the testosterone) was Marie Padilla who started with four colored silks in plastic cups on the table. She had a card chosen, returned to the deck and then pulled out a large card of many colors. Someone chose a number from 1 to 16 and she counted to that color on the card, and revealed that, inside the silk that matched the color they chose was the selected card! This was good, because in the other three silks, there was money, which Marie got to hold onto (and we all know how hard it is for magicians to make money in the first place).

Daniel GreenWolf (that's me, for the uninitiated) was up next and performed Eugene Burger's Fading Coin and his version of U.F. Grant's Out of this World. Neither of them were silk effects and I was, of course, beaten soundly for not following the theme. For the curious, I'm sure I'll be healed by the time of the next meeting.

Finishing out the evening was member Mark Heiss who, interestingly enough, was late to the meeting because he had been taking a French class. He performed a fantastic version of the six coins across, where six coins magically traveled from one hand to the other one at a time.

That's all for this month. If you're ever in the area, you should come on down and enjoy the goodness of CT magic in all it's glory. We hope to see you there, because if you're there and we don't see you... well that's a dang good trick.

-Respectfully Submitted,
Daniel GreenWolf
S.A.M. 29 Secretary
All-Around Swell Guy (No...really)

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FEBRUARY 2008

Well that took me long enough! Actually, I want to thank those for the kind wishes for my father and I'm sorry for the lag in my Secretary type duties. Luckily, I'm back on track and you folks have to put up with me once again. BWHAHAHAH! Anyways... before we get into the report, here's the deal for February's meeting.

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The Next Society of American Magicians Harry Houdini Assembly #29 Meeting will be taking place:

When?: Monday, FEBRUARY 25th, starting at 7:30pm

Where: Salem Lutheran Church on 14 Salem St. in Naugatuck, CT

The Theme of This Month's Magic Shall Be: Silk Magic (Which does NOT mean we're encouraging our members to show up in silk shirts. Dear Gods... the thoughts sends shivers down my spine. But you also don't have to stick to the theme because frankly, we cant legally enforce it... although we've tried dang it)

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Our January Meeting became our Annual Holiday Party (due to December’s inclement weather) and our members brought in the new year with good food, lively discussion, in-depth analysis of our assembly’s goals, amazing magic, ribald jokes, and the sacrifice of a virgin goat (okay, we didn’t do that last one. I just wanted to make sure you’re paying attention).
          After our regular business meeting, our young guest Shawn Segal started off the magic performing a piece with a deck of cards and what appeared to be a piece of X-Ray film. After making the deck of cards appear from nowhere, Shawn had a member select a card and, after losing it in the deck, was able to pull the image of the card from the deck onto the piece of X-Ray film. If that wasn’t enough, the radiation from the film was so strong it erased the rest of the deck! (We watched our credit cards around Shawn the rest of the night) He then showed us an effect using the classic Magician’s Insurance Policy, which proves there’s at least one kind of insurance that’s inexpensive for magicians in this world.
            Next up was our President Larry Parsons, doing some classics of magic (admittedly using decks that may have been around when the tricks were invented) including the production of a card castle that on one side showed all the same card, which happened to match the card chosen previously!
            Up to the magical plate next was our Treasurer Joe Lantiere, who began with the transformation of four aces into a royal flush that was visually stunning. He then used a deck of cards to empower a member with X-Ray vision... luckily only in reference to playing cards because otherwise, I’d feel violated! He then finished his set with a demonstration of the Psychic Home Shopping Network, which sends you a bill for items that you’ve just thought about buying (It’s Ebay’s next step, I guarantee it!).
            To finish out the evening’s festivities was Past President, Prime Professional, and Peak Performer Jim Sisti (you ever just feel like random alliteration?) who started off with a joke about an Actor and a cannon which, due to the advanced language, I can’t really transcribe here, but you should ask him about it sometime. This joke also started a long line of sometimes funny, but often painful jokes after Jim’s magic, but that’s neither here nor there. Jim performed a David Regal effect known as “Self-Evident” in which one card, dealt by one of the members, turned out to be the only red backed card in an entirely blue backed deck without any switching or sleight of hand! A very cool concept indeed.
            Our evening was filled with magic of all kinds and helped us get back into the swing of things. We have a lot in store for 2008 from planned lectures to our bi-annual auctions and more great magic and we look forward to your joining us. See you soon!

P.S.- No Virgin Goats were harmed in the making of this Assembly report. Assembly #29 does not condone the sacrificing of any kind of animal, virgin or otherwise for personal enjoyment or professional gain. We do however encourage the sacrifice of bad magicians.

Ahhh, It's finally the great month of May. Spring is in the air (and it smells like rising gas prices... go figure). For us outdoor festival magicians, it is the time when we start to get work again after the the lean winter months. When grad parties start to bloom and large corporations have "Family Day" picnics in a vain attempt to pretend they care about the personal lives of their employees... anywho, it is also a time of Memorial Day. A day when we remember our veterans by eating large amounts of grilled food and watching children ignite themselves with illegally bought fireworks... forgive me everyone. I forgot to take my cynicism medication. *Temporarily leaves computer and hits self with "happy hammer". Returns after regaining consiousness*

ALRIGHT everyone! There's a teeny-tiny change to our normal meeting date so please look at the info for this month's meeting... gee the world is so Grand!

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The Next Society of American Magicians Harry Houdini Assembly #29 Meeting will be taking place:

WHEN?: Monday, MAY 21st, starting at 7:30pm
(Normally, it'd be the 4th Monday but we moved it back due to Memorial Day)

Where: Salem Lutheran Church on 14 Salem St. in Naugatuck, CT

The Theme of This Month's Magic Shall Be: Patriotic Magic (And it doesn't necessarily have to be American Patrotic Magic... if you have Patriotic Magic of the Great Land of Togo, which I would personally love to see. But as always, you can do magic that doesn't follow the theme. Which of course, would make you Anti-American... or Anti-Togan... you traitor.)

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So the meeting started much like any other meeting. However, the notable absence of our Treasurer Joe Lantiere due to his leg injury (which, unconfirmed reports say he received while parachuting into a mission recovering top-secret military documents from North Korea. Those same reports say that he did complete the mission with one leg, however) was felt by all. By the way, a quick treasurer's note:

If you have not paid your dues for 2007, you will not be Champions, my friends! (Seriously though, pay your dues!)

During the meeting, it was brought up to make contact with several members. C.J. May was sent condolences for the passing of his father, Joe Lantiere was sent a get well soon card for his parachuting-related accident, and Milt Schorr and Peter Haddad were sent cards to let them know that we were all thinking of them.

Congratulations was also in order for several of our Assembly members. They have reached different points of achievement in stickin' around the S.A.M. for as long as they have. They are, as follows:

Congrats to you all and may you be forced to sit through many more business meetings for years to come.

Under New Business, the vote was made to move the May meeting from the 28th to the 21st, due to Memorial Day (Thanks a lot, Togolese Republic!) And just in case you can't put it together... the vote passed.

President Larry Parsons opened this idea of a S.A.M. 29 show during Magic Week in October. The idea of moving it to the last week of September was raised and shall be discussed moreso next month.

Also, it was announced... sigh... thatmagicianDavidMartinwouldappearatthePalaceTheatreinWaterbury,CTonApril24that7:00pm...

The meeting adjourned and then the magic began! The theme was impromptu magic and of course, only one magician was prepared to perform anything (I'll let that joke take a moment to sink in) and so we started off with Jim Sisti.

He presented a piece of mentalism using a coin, a set of keys, and a lottery ticket. Member Tony Feliciano mixed the three items on the table and placed them in different pockets. Jim Sisti then correctly determined which item was where, including showing a prediction of the lottery ticket because it was printed ON the ticket itself!

Jim then performed Michael Skinner's flawless color-changing Knife routine. Every time he performs it, he gets me! (Frankly... its starting to irk me Sisti... you'd better watch it! I don't care how many of your fruit knives you carry dang it!)

Then, afterwards, the other members tossed different favorite impromtu effects back and forth. Overall it created yet another fantastic learning experience for all of the members at good ol' S.A.M. 29.

That's all for this month. I am certain I shall see all of your smiling faces soon at the May Meeting and... if not... just remember how it may effect the poor Togans. You... just... remember!

You ever have one of those weeks? You know... you're bouncing around doing everything humanly possible in the world of magic to make rent and you type up this great newsletter... and you THINK you send it... but it sits in your in-box until, one night, you're listening to the Broadway production of "The Producers" and you're up 3 dollars on Poker Stars... and realize that "Hey, no one has sent me a reply to the newsletter". Needless to say... I'm an idiot, folks. So here's the April newsletter. First, the basics:

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The Next Society of American Magicians Harry Houdini Assembly #29 Meeting will be taking place:

WHEN?: Monday, APRIL 23rd, starting at 7:30pm
(The 4th monday of the month)

Where: Salem Lutheran Church on 14 Salem St. in Naugatuck, CT

The Theme of This Month's Magic Shall Be: Impromtu Magic (But, as it says in one of the gospels, you don't HAVE to follow the theme of the month, just bring any magic you wish to perform. Take a look, its in there!)

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The March meeting was our bi-annual auction. And here were some of the quotes overheard:

"More and Better Fart Sounds!" -From the package of one of the items for auction... and possibly our Assembly's new charter.

"Let me find the ass." -One of our sellers.

"I'll GIVE you the buck! THAT was fun!"- Jim Sisti, our auctioneer to Chris Hulbert

And that was just a sample of the shennanigans that took place at our auction. Even though there were effects, it seemed that knowledge was a big seller, as books, DVDs, and VHSs were the spotlight of the evening, including a mint condition set of Tommy Wonder's "Books of Wonder" which went for a steal! (Your faithful secretary wishes he brought more money with him)

Jokes flew left and right, and our auctioneer Jim Sisti played ringmaster quite well. One thing that our auctions seem to do is help point out the absolute absurdity of some of the products on the market.

One interesting question was about the Showoff DVD (which deals with CD manipulation). It came with a practice CD, but we wonder how you can watch the DVD and practice at the same time... who knows?

The auction was well attended and fun was had by all. Interestingly enough, it was also used to ambush our auctioneer for his birthday was right around the corner and his wife Sandy decided that the best gift you can give is embarassment. Of course, she was right.

As you can tell, the auction was a event not to be missed and if you missed it, you have somehow broken the laws of physics. Well, DON'T DO IT AGAIN because breaking the law is bad! Come on down and join us for the fun.

On a final an more somber note, fellow SAM 29 member C.J. May's father, Joe May, passed away April 18th. I, as I am sure all of SAM 29, is sorry for C.J. and his family's loss. Much love, C.J. .

That's all for this month, see you folks soon and also, welcome to all the new folks on the email list. Please take a look at the website www.greenwolfmagic.com/sam29 and read the past newsletters if you'd like to catch up.

-Respectfully Submitted,
Daniel GreenWolf
Secretary of S.A.M. 29

P.S.- Congratulations to Chris Hulbert for the premiere of his new mentalism show, MindGaymes. I'm sure it'll be a hit!

Due to nasty weather, the February meeting was cancelled so you folks get to dodge the bullet of me trying to be witty and/or entertaining this month (at least for any length of time). And due to being nastily sick last week, I dropped the ball on getting it out to you folks- I'm deeply sorry (you may sack me at your leisure). However, a couple of things to note about the auction and, more importantly this announcement.

The Next Society of American Magicians Harry Houdini Assembly #29 Meeting will be taking place:

WHEN?: Monday, MARCH 26th, starting at 7:30pm
(The 4th monday of the month)

Where: Salem Lutheran Church on 14 Salem St. in Naugatuck, CT

The Theme of This Month's Magic Shall Be: Stuff to be Sold! There shall be no official meeting due to the auction so bring your money and your stuff to sell!

Alrighty... here's a few things, and then the AUCTION rules:

1. PAY YOUR DUES! If you were planning on paying them in February and could not and went out and spent that 15 bucks on a new packet trick that you still have no reason to perform... worry not! Just bring ANOTHER 15 dollars to the March Meeting and our treasurer will only too gladly take it from you (Bad Packet Tricks will not be an acceptable form of payment... sorry).

2. At the auction, we shall be writing down as many email addresses as possible so we can cut back on the number of postcards we have to send. Its our lil' way to cut down costs and pass our savings onto YOU the customer.

"That's AMAZING Phil!"

"It IS Jenny... but WAIT... THERE'S MORE!"

"More?! Are you CRAZY Phil?!"

"Yes Jenny... very... very... crazy..." he said as he began eyeing the 28 piece chef's knife set with longing.

"...okay... lets take a caller."

(This edition of "S.A.M. #29 Theatre" was brought to you by GreenWolfMagic.com)

3. Here are the basic rules of the auction. (A more complete list will be posted shortly)

All original material. I.E.- No copies of any videos, manuscripts, etc. and so forth.

This is a MAGIC auction. Only items relating to magic and magic performance may be sold. Don't bring your "Magic Wheel Barrow" because you carry your props in it.

Please group lots with a minumum value of $10.00.

In the event of multiples of the same item up for auction by the same seller, we will allow previous bidders the option to purchase the duplicate items at the final auction price. In a case of many bidders, the option will be given to the 2nd highest bidder, than the 3rd and so forth until the stock is exhausted.

Members do not have to pay a fee to get into the auction.
Non-members is 3 dollars.

Murray will sell his magazines first. He'll have the last 6 months of MUM, LINKING RING, GENII, and MAGIC magazines. (okay okay... its not a RULE but it might as well be!)

Please do not bring your junky sword suspension and expect it to go for $5000 and get all angry at the assembly when it doesn't sell because YOU think "they're obviously no professionals here" when the truth is no one wants your three forks and piece of folded-up tin foil with three shoelaces attatched you little punk you. (Believe it or not, this IS kind of a rule for sellers. Be intelligent and realize that people go to an auction looking for deals and/or items they couldn't get otherwise. So minimum bid responsibly.)

If any lot has a minimum bid, make sure you mark it on your lot somehow (or stand next to the auctioneer and when he asks you to tell him, do so).

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Well, thats all for now folks! Hope to see most of you at the upcoming auction!

-Respectfully Submitted,
Daniel GreenWolf
Secretary of SAM #29
Likes to Dance, Magic, Dance... don't visualize it.

Greetings fellow Magi! I hope you got through the ghoulishly-slow January in one piece! I beg your eternal forgiveness for the tardiness of this newsletter (you may flog me later if you so wish...) but as I prepare to leave for New Jersey for an indoor ren faire, I figured I should get this done first. This month shall be a small, but noble newsletter with PICTURES! Huzzah for pictures! No more staring at endless line anfter line of obnoxiously-written type (okay... you'll have to do that too, but at least the picutres will break up the monotony of it all. Let's get to it!

The Next Society of American Magicians Harry Houdini Assembly #29 Meeting will be taking place:

WHEN?: Monday, FEBRUARY 26th, starting at 7:30pm
(The 4th monday of the month)

Where: Salem Lutheran Church on 14 Salem St. in Naugatuck, CT

The Theme of This Month's Magic Shall Be: Valentine's Day Magic (That means you can bring your Head Choppers!)

(But since there are no current laws enforcing that you follow the theme, you may perform whatever you wish. But note I AM working on the legislation for it, so watch yerselves you future law breakers you!)

The Month of January meant business as usual for us S.A.M. folk and, despite the small number of members in attendance, we still managed to have one heck of a time. Speaking of which, if you would like to remain one of us happy S.A.M. 29 folk, treasurer Joe Lantiere would like me to remind everyone with a little note:

PAY YOUR DUES! (or be thrown into the Sarlaac Pit... sorry, its a geeky Star wars reference)

But dues are due so if you do do your dues that are due than you wont have dues until the next date the dues are due. (Got that?)

After that was brought up, the old business of the Website was discussed... hey... here we are! Obviously, its going swimmingly and things are looking good on the web end of things. However, I will once again stress the desire to see promo pictures and short bios from members of the assembly so I can post them on the Website. (If not, I shall start stealin' pictures from the internet and fabricate your bios based on a random mad lib that I shall create... and you don't want that, do you?)

News business brought about the discussion of having lecturers come down to S.A.M. #29 based on the fact that we seem to be growing a rather sizable kitty in our treasury, we can afford to have some fairly top notch lecturers come in. It was generally agreed and it would be brought up more so next month.

In Good & Welfare, the Mystical Magic Co. is moving to a new space! But strangely enough, it's still in the same building! That's right, predicted for some time in March, the West Haven magic shop has plans to move to the bigger space at the front of the building they currently occupy. Plans for the bigger mouse trap shall follow soon after.

Also, Joe Lantiere shall be performing at the Hartford Civic Center prior to a HARTFORD WOLF PACK game. He performed on January 26th and shall do so again on Friday, February 16th from the hours of 6 to 8pm. I'll make a post on the shows section of the site.

After the business meeting ended, there was a talk of tech so geeky that I am almost shamed to admit I was a part of it. It was a discussion on the history and future of Hi-Definition technology and the formats before it (VHS, DVD, Beta Max). I personally wonder how invisible thread might look on Hi-Def. The world may never know.

Then onto the magic! Joe Lantiere started us off with a card effect he created called "Luck O' The Irish". President Larry Parsons chose one of three Irish symbols and Joe revealed his prediction and they matched! Joe showed both versions of the effect, the other being one with a more adult-oriented "end" to it. (You had to be there to see it. If not, you're behind on the joke)

The effect is available through Mystical Magic Co. and both versions are included in the one price. A very simple, but well-designed piece of fun strolling magic and well worth the low price.

It was Jim Sisti's up at bat, and he bewildered us with some beautiful paste board work. He started by showing us an old Dai Vernon & Bruce Cervan effect known as the Devil's Elevator where 4 black cards constantly seemed to penetrate 4 red cards and rise to the top on the table (NO... not another ambitious card routine, different and cooler).

He then performed a Karl Fulves variation on the classic Oil & Water routine where black and red cards separate into their persepective colors, despite all attempt to blend them together! He then explained the methods and excellent thinking behind these routines.

He finished off the evening with Roy Walton's Oil & Queens. A fantastic version of oil and water where the red cards separate from the black cards and then, out of nowhere, turn into the 4 queens!

And so ended another meeting of Society of American Magicians Harry Houdini Assembly #29. Before we go, I leave you with a small thought that occured during Jim Sisti's performance. I believe that there is a conspiracy in the magic world against any playing cards 6 through 9. Think about it... when any card is needed to be "forgettable" in close-up magic, it's always a 6, a 7, an 8, or a 9! I believe the earliest perpetrator of this outrage is Alex Elmsley (may he rest in peace) with his "ghost count". It then carried on through the Hammond Count and so on. I happen to know that all 6 through 9s aren't so forgettale. In fact, I know an 8 of Clubs whose the lead in his local theatre community. A 7 of Hearts who is working with Green Peace to make the world a better place. Are we to forget these cards so easily because they can confuse and resemble other cards? Doesn't that sound like ANOTHER old style of thinking that's equally oppressive? Or do these cards simply all look alike to you?

Magicians! Let us band together, through vocabulary, to change the way the world looks at these poor cards. As opposed to "forgettable", how about "Visually deceptive through similarity of appearance"? It says the same thing but without the harsh terms.

***-The preceding tirade was a satiric parody, not meant to be taken literally. The views expressed by our crazy and, obviously sheltered, secretary do not in any way reflect the views of the SAM Assembly #29. We're sorry for the inconvience and, if you were offended, return you to your normal life of non-humor and, most likely, accounting. ****

****- The preceding jab at accountants was uncalled for and was the fault of our editing department. We believe accounting to be a noble and important career and we here at SAM #29 feel anyone who chooses to do to be a righteous member of his or her community. For this behavior, the entire editing department has just been sacked. Thank you.

Happy New Year fellow magicians! I hope your holidays went well and that you were able to Magish to your heart's content (whatever that means to you). I got myself a bonafide laptop computer, which means you'll probably be hearing the tippity-tap-typing from me during the business meetings... until you tie me to a stake and burn me for my witchcraft with the odd-looking book. But any who, There's alot to tell you so lets get to it!

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The Next Society of American Magicians Harry Houdini Assembly #29 Meeting will be taking place:

WHEN?: Monday, JANUARY 22ND, starting at 7:30pm
      (Back to our standard 4th monday of the month)

Where: Salem Lutheran Church on 14 Salem St. in Naugatuck, CT

The Theme of This Month's Magic Shall Be: New Magic for the New Year

(But because we don't wish to stifle your creativity... and more so too lazy to enforce the theme... perform whatever magic you wish)

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December Meeting:

"Apparently Some of these Kids have the attention span of a ferret on crack."
             -Jim Sisti commenting on different online magic advertisements and YouTube performances

I figured I'd start by giving the quote that best summed up the evening.

Being that it was our annual Holiday party (and by Holiday I, of course, mean Weasel Stomping Day) our actual business meeting was relatively short. The only thing of any real interest that arose was talk about the newsletter, the web site, and the assembly report (my job, my job, and also my job... why does it always have to be about me?).

Allow me to officially announce the brand spankin' new S.A.M. ASSEMBLY #29. Until we get the official web site linked up, you can see it at:
www.greenwolfmagic.com/SAM29

It's pretty, it's shiny, and oh yes, its got pictures.

Some of the areas are going to be updated constantly, such as the newsletter (which is a nicer version considering it's got pictures and all that), the magic events, and the member biographies (HINT HINT). But I can’t do all of it alone. I need YOU to take the initiative and send me your performer biographies, a picture of yourself, and if you're performing anywhere, the information. So far, I've got 3 bios... and one of them is me! Come on and be the self-promoting publicity seekers I know you can be!

After the business meeting, we got to the party part. In the way of food there was everything from pizza to ice cream cake. During the feast, Nelson entertained us with past horror stories of F.I.S.M. events he attended. Later, an interesting discussion about Internet magic became the focus. After that, we moved onto our monthly raffle and the magic!

The raffle included a few classic packet tricks and wizard memorabilia. I'm happy to say the Wizard Pen is resting comfortably in my home (and if you ever wish to see it again, you'll send one million dollars in unmarked bills to... sorry, got carried away).

Joe Lantiere started us off with our Holiday themed magic. He used a Christmas themed deck of cards where a selected card disappeared! It reappeared inside a strange treasure chest, inside an actual cryptex.

Joe then took another card signed by our Vice President and returned it to the deck. The deck was hidden in a napkin and small replica of Excalibur was thrust into the deck and found the signed card!

Jim Sisti offered his variation of the card stab effect. His version was the same done by Frank Garcia. Very visual.

I continued the new theme of card stab effects with the "Divining Fork" routine by Scott Alexander where a card is found on the end of a fork after its shoved through a wrapped deck. A very excellent effect!

I then went onto perform my version of Jim Sisti's Jazzy Transposition 2 where jokers change places with blank cards, but through telling the story of the Ferryman of Greek mythology and souls of the dead (I figured it followed the Christmas theme). I then offered a less intense version where the plot was always seeming to lose objects and find them in the last place you look. You can find a full review of Jim's original effect here.

I finished the evening's performances with a demonstration of the 203rd card force, created by Henry Christ and told to Ted Annenman. I used this force to great effect to baffle magicians at Tannen's Magic Camp a few years ago to great effect. I suggest you look it up.

Well, that’s about everything for this month. I hope to see you all in January. Until then, keep your feet on the ground, and keep your head in the... (::lawyer stops him, whispering in his ear:: "What do you mean COPYRIGHTED?!! I owe WHO a nickel?")

Respectfully Submitted (and annoyed by the legal system),
Daniel GreenWolf
Secretary

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