Centre Michigan Magic Club ReportInside MagicMagic News Updated Daily for the Professional Magician

Occasionally, Susan Hachette sends us the Centre, Michigan Magic Club reports. You can read about the background of the club here.

Centre Michigan Magic Club Report ? November 8^th, 2004

MagiCal’s Latest, Card Worm!

We met as usual at Elks Club, Vandergraph Avenue, Centre, Michigan. If you are ever in town and would like to come to see us, we?d love to have you stop buy. We are not a big magic club and none of our members are really famous but we have a good time and do some interesting things.

The November meeting?s business portion was to arrange for the upcoming Magic Banquet and Installation of Officers. We usually have this annual event at the Centre Center downtown. As some of you know, the Centre Center was renamed thanks to a corporate sponsor as the Kingsford Charcoal Center. Ironically, it burnt down about two months after it received its new sponsor. The police and fire department suspect arson and are seeking suspects with a keen appreciation of irony and a bunch of gasoline soaked rags. (I made up the suspect information as a joke). They are still trying to determine the cause of the fire.

We had to find a new location for our banquet. Our Out-Going President (thank God!) Bill “I love my own voice” Post suggested that because we hadn?t found a new place for the banquet, we shouldn?t change officers until we could have a proper installation banquet. No one would second his motion; not even his brainless gal on the side, Marci would second it. As mentioned in earlier reports, Marci is now hooked up with JAX as his assistant and since JAX figured he would be the next President, she knew enough to not help President Post. …

Occasionally, Susan Hachette sends us the Centre, Michigan Magic Club reports. You can read about the background of the club here.

Centre Michigan Magic Club Report ? November 8^th, 2004

MagiCal’s Latest, Card Worm!

You would think President Post would be embarrassed but he wasn?t. He went on to the next order of business: a report of the Banquet Committee on a new location. Calvin “MagiCal” Jorgenson was the committee chairman and he started his report by saying he could get us a great deal downstairs in the banquet room at the magic bar in town. Cal was a bartender at the Thumb Tip Inn and thought he could get the room for free. This was about $2,230.00 cheaper than the old Centre Center. The recommendation was put to a vote and all but President Post agreed. He said it wasn?t appropriate to have a banquet that would bring kids and women (non-magician women, I guess) into a bar.

MagiCal told the president what he already knew: first, all of the after club meetings were held at the Thumb Tip Inn; second, the banquet room was downstairs from the bar; third, the kids and women had all been to the Thumb Tip Inn for the club?s Houdini Night S?ance and Party; and, fourth, that it didn?t really matter what the President thought because he wouldn?t be president then.

Marci

Some giggled and laughed at MagiCal?s rebuff of the big man. Marci looked to JAX first to see if the teenage phenomenon would allow her to show emotion. He nodded and she giggled, and then went into a wheezing coughing fit mixed in with un-lady-like guffaws. This made everyone else laugh (everyone except JAX), and that made Marci laugh more and wheeze more. She was laughing so hard and so rudely that she started crying.

Don Vesben ? who we all thought couldn?t talk because he must have had a stroke or something ? suddenly piped-up and said, ?I think she?s going to pee her pants!? That made us all laugh even more and Marci could barely catch her breath. JAX grabbed her and took her out of the room. They returned later and they both looked so serious but when we all saw them, we started laughing again. JAX took his new assistant and left the meeting.

We voted to hold the banquet at the Thumb Tip Inn.

The nominations for the offices were made and because JAX wasn?t there, he didn?t get nominated. His absence was almost a gift. We all like the guy and wish we had his talent and rich parents to pay for us to tour the country giving lectures, writing books, ?inventing? tricks, and competing in contests. But we all think he?s moving a little too fast and the accolades his store-bought illusionette act has brought him only swelled his 17 year old head. He was a big deal, according to reports in magic magazines and The Magic Caf? and Genii Forum. They reported how he met so-and-so a The Magic Castle. How he was the youngest magician to make it to the final rounds at FISM in Portugal. How he was the best young magic writer alive today. All that would be fine if he was more normal.

Anyway, he didn?t get elected President or even nominated.

Yours truly got nominated for Vice President by her ex-husband. Maybe he thought the position paid something and it would decrease his alimony or child support or maybe he was finally coming around.

Marci was nominated for the same position even though she wasn?t there. Her ?secret ex? nominated her. There was kind of a strange respect for President Post for nominating his former ?friend? and ?student? and occasional ?baby sitter? for his kids. It had been an awkward break-up (even though no one admitted they knew it happened) and even more awkward to see her go to the overly-manicured hands of JAX.

She?s a sweet girl and I promised that if she won, I would do everything to support her.

MagiCal was nominated for President and so was Harry Blackstone. Harry has the bad (or good) fortune of having the same name as the other Harry Blackstones and being a magician. It really is his real name. He carries a birth certificate with him every where to prove it when he is challenged. His parents had no idea there were other Harry Blackstones when they named him. He didn?t have a middle name so he couldn?t even change the name to Jack Blackstone or something.

Harry worked over at Vanishment Magic, an Internet magic shop. There wasn?t really a shop because they sold almost everything over the Internet. He worked there with his cousin, Howard Thurston. (I am not making this up). They were going to call the shop, Blackstone and Thurston?s Magic, but figured this could confuse people. ?They might think we?re saying we?re the Blackstone and the Thurston.?

Harry and Howard are both great guys and deserve the success they have enjoyed with Vanishment Magic. They regularly donate tricks to the club for door prizes and contest awards. Howard was the shy one of the two young men. He rarely talked and when he did, he was always looking down at the ground. The Internet shop was a great idea for him and kind of a waste for Harry. Harry is debonair and has a great voice. His presence on stage does make you think of Harry Blackstone, Jr.

My old job of secretary/treasurer received only one nomination. I nominated my ex-husband. Everyone went ?oooohhhh!? He blushed, it was cute.

The election came out kind of weird, though. I got written in as the Secretary/Treasurer (apparently, even my ex wrote my name in). I lost as Vice President. Marci was the Vice President. MagiCal lost for the fifth straight year trying to win the Presidency and Harry Blackstone won.

Current President Post pointed out that he was still the President until the actual induction ceremony at the Banquet. We all nodded and rolled our eyes.

It was then time for magic!

MagiCal emceed the show and up first was a new member of the Youngster Club, Todd Whitman. Todd did a Color-Changing Silk and took a bow. We applauded the 12 year-old because we thought he was done. He wasn?t. He waited for the applause to die down and then did a routine that he must have found in some old Robert Orbin book somewhere.

?This is an imported silk,? the young boy said in his crackling, squeaky voice. ?I got it from a broad!? Some of us laughed. But not everyone. He then went on to set up the 20^th Century Bra trick on one of the member?s wives. I won?t mention her name here.

Todd said to the woman 30 years his senior, ?you remind me of an old girlfriend of mine. She used to wear a black garter just above her knee in memory of all the men who had gone beyond!?

No laughs.

He then proceeded to make jokes about her chest size and tried to stuff the silks down her sweater. ?I had to let three of my girlfriends go. I found out they were two-timing me.? ?Do you know how many of me it takes to change a light bulb when you come to visit me? None, I like the lights nice and low when I?m with you. You need all the help you can get.?

MagiCal ended the routine before Todd could get the silks loaded into the woman?s sweater and ushered the boy off with a suggestion he take a cold shower and a long walk in the snow.

Mike Mental did his fantastic PK effects. He made a pen turn on the table by itself, he covered it with a glass box and it still moved on his command. He made silverware bend and then bent a half dollar from one of the audience members. One of the elder members of the club suggested there was something he should use his PK powers on. I won?t give the whole statement ? it was rude but funny ? but it dealt with Todd?s ?magic wand.?

Susan Hachette

I did a quick variation on Out of this World. I had three spectators shuffle the deck and then hand them to another volunteer to put a rubber band around it and toss it to a fourth volunteer to bring them up to the table for the red and black separation. I have to thank my ex for being the one who agreed to help in the switch before tossing it to the last volunteer. He did it so well that I was kind of worried he didn?t switch it at all and I was going to fail miserably.

We closed with MagiCal?s newest trick ? currently on the Vanishment website, I think ? the Card Worm. It is like the Card Viper except the worm is real and the deck of cards aren?t put in a basket. The cards are messed up on the table and the worm is let go. He (or she) wiggles its way towards one of the cards and stops dead (I think it really does die) on the card. Sure enough, it is the selected card.

MagiCal had a hard time getting the ?special substance? he needed to market the trick for a long time until he found a source on the Internet that sold the apparently tasty worm poison. It isn?t technically legal in the US but he justifies it by saying he is not using it as an gardening chemical.

If you buy the Card Worm from Vanishment, they give you enough to do the trick about twenty times (you need a new earthworm each time) and tell you where you can buy more of the chemical on the Internet.

We ended by heading over to the Thumb Tip Inn for some informal sessioning. I was happy to tell Marcia about her new position and even happier that she was sitting in the bar alone. I don?t usually think it is a good thing for a girl to sit in a bar, drinking Long Island Iced-Teas alone but this meant JAX and she had parted ways. There is hope for her yet.

—- Susan Hachette, Club Secretary / Treasurer (2004 & 2005).