The first of our two monthly meetings was held on June 2 at 6 PM, as the Phoenix Magic Club brings together IBM Ring 55, SAM Assembly 248 and an assortment of independent mystery performers from across the Phoenix area and beyond. The club continues to thrive with a diverse mix of enthusiasts, hobbyists, and full-time professionals. With strong participation, the club proudly hosts two meetings each month at the Denny’s in Old Town Scottsdale.
The Club’s new fiscal year will be 6/1-5/31 of each year. We are pursuing a 501c Not for Profit status under the guidance of Treasurer Doug Northway. In conjunction with the Kerr Cultural Center, we will stage two public performances, one focusing on close-up and another show of stand-up & parlour magic. We are also looking at one meeting at Denny’s and another set of satellite meetings on each end of the Valley going forward in July.
Magic this evening included fourteen in attendance with ten performing. The theme for the evening was Predictions. Member John O’Hare started us off with his version of Reaction vs. Prediction where emotions stem from the heart. President Bill Halmi followed with Flip using a coin flip to determine direction and then presenting the prediction from a sealed envelope. Ravi Gahunia presented his Gambler’s Box while Frank Prochaska did a combo Movie and Number prediction, which matched the values and suit of the chosen card.
Frank Ferrante presented his Grandfather’s Clock prediction when a selected card is shown at the hour the volunteer selected and is shown to be the only card of value in an otherwise blank faced deck. Jay Jennings followed with his Child’s Play presentation with a fast Tic-Tac-Toe surprise. Dave Goldberg showed us a Time Travel prophesy and Dave Boehm demonstrated a matching value and color augury. Anvesh Yalamanchili predicted a Powerball number from a scratcher ticket and Jeff Peterson finished up using four volunteers to predict a combined four-digit digest PIN.
Our second meeting of the month was held on June 17 at 6:00 PM with social media Czar, Ravi Gahunia, hosting a 360 Photobooth to create an intro video of several club members. (This is available for viewing on the Club YouTube channel, Instagram, or on this site).
The first satellite meetings will be held at the clubhouse at Jay Jennings’ community in Mesa on July 15th with a second satellite meeting being held at the other end of the valley in North Phoenix on July 16th. This is being done to see if we can draw more interest to the club by making the second meeting of the month more accessible to new members and those who cannot drive all the way to Scottsdale.
Magic for the evening, based on “Magicians In Trouble,” began with Brad Zinn’s story of Harry Anderson’s straight jacket escape, while his wife performed the Houdini 100’ rope escape at the same time to see who would finish first. Bruce Kundin used two assistants to pull off his “SMOOSH” to predict the number of red cards and mated cards in two piles of “smooshed” cards. Tank Hanna shared a story of David Copperfield getting out of trouble on stage.
Bill Halmi wowed us with a Phantom Deck routine. Then Jay Jennings showed the Dream Sequence effect where a card is just “thought of” and is found with a card of the same value in a different suit. John Thornton used a Jumbo deck to perform a McCombical Deck routine. Anvesh Yalamanchili continued to amaze by reflecting on a visit to NYC, then using a random number to find a selected card where that card is in the photo from his visit AND is also tattooed on his arm!
Continuing with the Magicians In Trouble theme, Frank Ferrante told of an appearance at The Magic Castle, where his dove died prior to being produced. David Goldberg did a nice No Fail card effect where the selected card is not in the deck, but shown on the Magic Insurance Policy. Ravi Gahunia showed a deck of cards that were cut through using two spectators to select one part of a card — they did not match, but he pulled out a card that had both selected cards on a single card. The evening finished with Doug Northway’s Vanishing Bandana (Banana) step-by-step audio instruction with the end result being the vanished banana turning into a silk bandana imprinted with a banana for a surprise finish.
Report by Frank Ferrante; photos and videos by Jay Jennings and Ravi Gahunia.
