 2nd March 2007
The last time Brian Sefton entertained us was at the 2005 Dinner Dance. His mixture of sophisticated magic and manipulation brought a touch of class to the after dinner entertainment. Brian brought that same air of sophistication to the March meeting. The evening started with President Colin Gough giving out the usual club announcements. There seemed to be an awful lot of them and the members present wondered if Brian Sefton had actually turned up or if Colin was just covering for him. Eventually, Colin got round to introducing Brian, who made his appearance in a very smart tail coat, waistcoat, white gloves and tie. The very dapper outfit was not just for show as we were to find out later as the lecture progressed. Brian told us that he was going to do something very disgusting and was apologising for it in advance. Members of the audience sat up and took notice at this point but it turned out that Brian was only going to lick the fingers of his white gloves. Brian presented part of his manipulation act by producing what seemed like hundreds of playing cards from his gloved hand, vanished a cane and produced eight different coloured billiard balls from his empty hands. He also did some very clever manipulation of thimbles. Having done all that he set about the task of telling us all how it was done. He said that he had picked on manipulation as a branch of magic to specialize in as it was cheap. There was no assistant to pay, no boxes to cart around and no script to learn. If you got it right it looked like magic, if you got it wrong it looked like juggling. Brian explained about the equipment and where he kept it. It became obvious as he revealed pockets and hidden loops under his tail coat why he was dressed up to the nines for our meeting. As he had already produced all of the items concealed about his person he did his act ‘backwards’ replacing cards, billiard balls etc as he went along. Asked if he does all his own sewing, Brian replied that he did as it was trial and error where the various pockets and holders were placed. As he worked his way back to the start of the act he explained how to ‘break in’ the Waddington No 1 cards he uses by pulling them under a rounded pencil in all directions and applying fanning powder. Brian did spend a bit of time explaining his technique for back and front palming, and to finish the first half members had him showing the palms from all angles. After the break Brian continued with a nice little trick involving a box, a cone and three billiard balls. Brian explained how the trick was done and how he had improved on the original which was known as Vernon Balls and Cone. While on the subject of billiard balls Brian showed us some nice bits of business with some balls and shells. He doesn’t usually use shells but he said that some people liked them. Another tip that he gave was do not use silicon billiard balls for manipulation. Their rough surface makes it very difficult to slide them easily in and out of the holders. For the last part of his lecture Brian performed and talked about his version of the Zombie Ball. He explained the different elements used and the various techniques used to execute the effect. All in all it was a great lecture and was enjoyed by all the members present. Colin and the members thanked Brian and the meeting ended about 10:45. | 
