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On the 9th January 2004 we had our New Members' evening and Party Night, where the entertainment is a mix bag of goodies.
Melvyn Shalks started off the evening by showing a video of clips he had compiled from videos he had taken of Bradford Magic Circle members performing magic at various different events, ranging from the Hey Presto Show to our own monthly meetings. The film started with the MGM (was that the right company?) lion roaring at the start, although on this occasion it was Christine doing the roaring! Damian was shown on the TV in 1987 (or sometime around then) performing for Children in Need. We saw him doing his bubbles routine where the bubbles machine churns out gallons of the stuff, allowing Damian to catch one and float it, a la Zombie.
Philip Crowther was seen guillotening Steve Gore's head off - Steve didn't look too sure on this one! Arnie Baumanis did a rope routine. Nicholas Mohammed found a number (at least I think that's what happened, as the sound wasn't very good at this point. Ray Roberts appeared as Robbo's Magic Circus, and we saw part of his excellent Robbo & (Scare)Crow routine where Ray's arm is part of the puppet. At the end, Ray finished by having a duplicate Crow's head on his own.
Patrick Maddison appeared briefly with a coin matrix; before Stevie B turned up on the Hey Presto Show with his Three Card Trick - well at least the first part of his Three Card Trick as, much to the relief of the whole audience, Melvyn had edited the rest out! Steve Gore made another appearance, before the film finished by showing Shahid Malik performing an escape outdoors - I'm guessing it was when he appeared in Manningham Park. He was bound into a straight jacket and hung upside in the air from a large crane. The rope was set on fire, and Shahid was shown escaping from it before the rope burnt through. Finally a picture of Bob Eaton was shown as the video came to an end.
Melvyn received a huge round of applause and the gratitude of all the members present for taking the time to put the film together.
Mark Waddington compered the new members night. He started with a torn paper, from which he read snippets, before restoring it. Vic Brown told a lengthy story of a magic dealer who was selling items which, supposedly, belonged to Harry Houdini. Starting with a rope, this allowed Vic to work his way through various rope effects, utilising many other items along the way.
Mark then got his assistant, Stevie B, to follow his actions with a skittle and a tube. Stevie never managed to get his skittle to keep the same way up as Mark's. Tom Johnson started by juggling with eggs - rubber eggs! He also showed various other pieces of juggling skill, not least juggling with five balls. I could see Steve Gore green with envy!
Mark came back with the rope with four ends, before Oliver Parker performed close-up for the assembled throng. He had 4 eights placed upon the table. The pack was cut and the eights placed in, apparently at random. The 4 eights appeared back on top of the deck. His assistant, Sarah, then chose a card. This card was replaced into the deck. Oliver shuffled the cards, some face up and some face down. When he spread the cards, they were all face up apart from Sarah's chosen card.
Mark finished with more humorous cuttings from the paper, and everyone received a well deserved round of applause from the audience for the efforts they had made.
The evening progressed as everyone ate and drank all the refreshments which had been brought - thanks to everyone who brought something along, and to those who helped serve it all up and tidy up afterwards.
Whilst this was going on, some of the members attempted to identify eyes of famous personalities which had been put up on the walls. The winners turned out to be Henry & Sarah Norris, who walked away with a box of chocolates and a bottle of wine.
