The Billet Article - Bradford Magic Circle Party Night

This article is taken from The Billet Issue - 443 - Feb 2009, Authored by Jules Mullins

Bradford Magic Circle Party Night

This was my first experience of a BMC party night, and having been asked by Paul to step into his ‘Assistant (To?) The Editor’ shoes and write a report, I duly turned up with my notebook and pen in hand, not really knowing what to expect. Part of being involved with magicians (as all you long suffering partners know) is that things are not always as they seem and you can never be sure quite what they’re going to do next. What I didn’t realise was how competitive they can be; I shall certainly be brushing up on my general knowledge before the next quiz takes place or Paul will not be allowing me on his team again!

Twenty three members braved the freezing cold weather to turn up with food and drink contributions, and wrapped up magic tricks for the Secret Santa. The evening started with everyone standing around the radiators, warming up and chatting. When it was time for the quiz, the atmosphere became tense and you could almost hear the ticking of the brains. There were four teams competing, and the first and most important challenge was for each team to come up with their own name. If there had been a prize given for the best and most original, it would surely have gone to Stevie B’s team, who were called - wait for it – ‘Stevie B’s Team.’ However the decision to spend more time on the first task, which was listing all the States in America, than on their team name proved to be the right one as they finished this in record time. Not to be outdone, Sticky Fingers also completed the list thanks to Steve Gore and his unbelievable knowledge ... of just how quickly you can download information to an I-phone without anyone noticing.

The competition heated up as we moved from American States to the London Underground. With the pressure on to complete this in 15 minutes, there were several heated debates taking place with lots of shushing in case the other teams overheard any answers. Quizmaster Jon took on a headmaster persona as he strolled between the tables, hands behind his back, peering at our answer sheets and smirking every now and again in a very smug way. Our sheets were then passed round for the other teams to mark and there was much discussion and protests over just how precise the answers had to be. Quizmaster Jon managed to restore calmness and prevent fights breaking out by assuring everyone that it was just only a game.

The third round involved each team being given a very precise amount of playdough. One member of each team had to make the item that Jon showed them out of their plasticine for their other team members to guess, and the first team to shout out the answer was the winner. Those unfortunate not to be good at modelling had a measure of playdough removed after each round and the team who had the most playdough left at the end was the winner. To stop any cheating and make it fair to all, Quizmaster Jon had brought along an official Playdough measuring cup, so that each team were given the same amount, and the same amount was removed each round. Several teams thought that this was a bit over the top, as it was just a game and the insinuation that any magician may cheat was deeply offensive to them. Sticky Fingers was the only team to not voice this opinion; was this because they had already thought of other easier ways to cheat? Or did they do so well due to Steve Gore being a natural Playdough moulder and Paul Sunderlands’ mind reading techniques. I doubt we’ll ever know the real answer to that!

Next came that all important general knowledge round and a special mention must go to Quizmaster Jon who deserves a big thank you for finding such interesting and unusual questions. I was not the only one to wonder just how many evenings were spent practising the pronounciation of these words, and we all agreed they were very impressive, even if we didn’t really understand them fully. But the joy of multiple choice questions is that you can tick something anyway, and sighs of relief could be heard all round as Sticky Fingers realised that they wouldn’t be left with the possibility or embarrassment of handing in a blank piece of paper at the end! With an atmosphere equalling an X-Factor final, we waited for the results with high hopes of winning a prize. Quite what the prize was nobody was really sure, but Sticky Fingers team agreed that it was the winning that was most important anyway. And as each team sat there, with fingers crossed and hope in their hearts, you can imagine the reaction when Quizmaster Jon announced that there could only be one winner.... and that was nobody! Which brings me back to the beginning of this article, proving that only a magician could put a twist like that at the end of a quiz and get away with it!

A final word from Paul – he’d like to thank the person who stuck to the Secret Santa rules of not wrapping just a pack of cards – the enthusiastic recycler donated an open box with not just one but two pre-shuffled packs, and a set of six dice but with one missing. Paul would like to know if finding the missing sixth dice is part of the trick, and if so how does he do it???

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