The Billet Article - Stevie-Tarial

This article is taken from The Billet Issue - 447 - Jun 2009, Authored by Stephen Bellerby

Stevie-Tarial

Hello Wizards,

We’ve certainly done well for May, haven’t we? We had a great start to the month with Steve Naylor’s wonderful lecture on table-hopping and the business involved therein. I suppose members could be forgiven for their naivety, if they felt the meeting wouldn’t be up to much as such as he’s “just one of our members”. Those of us, who have known Steve a number of years, certainly knew the breadth of his knowledge in conjuring. The only downside of his lecture, and one that was inevitable, as there may have been too many asides to many of the members. This will happen on home turf. Hopefully, one or two other societies will book Steve’s talk and tap into his knowledge. I think my favourite moment was when A. Customer was on the phone and Steve was talking across the room to him and looking right at him at the time before realising and remarking on it!

Of course Steve was booked for the normal meeting of the month, as the guest lecturer we’d intended booking wasn’t available to us on that day and we didn’t want a huge break between the April and May Meetings. We certainly did not want a small break between the May and June meetings. This worked out well for us, as we still were able to book Shawn Farquhar as an extra meeting. I wonder if Shawn is “just one of the members” at his home club, in Vancouver. Maybe he is as he mentioned that he hasn’t lectured there yet. The meeting also brought in some income to the Circle to offset the cost of the extra meeting, with several members of our neighbouring clubs attending as well. Being the last lecture of the tour, it was good to see that there was still plenty to buy and certainly enough to meet the needs of those who were there and at some very affordable prices albeit, not £9.99!

Shawn’s enthusiasm was apparent from the moment he arrived. In fact, it was apparent earlier than that. Paul Sunderland, Mark Waddington and Gary Brook went to the Premier Inn Hotel in Crossflatts, where we’d booked his accommodation. The all came to the meeting in Gary’s car. As this was his final lecture on a hugely successful tour, thanks are expressed to them for extending such hospitality to Shawn on behalf of Bradford Magic Circle.

By the way, what did you think of his cups & balls routine? It was okay wasn’t it? I was so pre-occupied with trying to follow the balls that I didn’t see any of the cups get switched over! I emailed Shawn a few days after to thank him for a superb lecture on behalf of the Circle and to ask him four questions put to our members several years ago by Honorary Life Member, Arthur Russell. I’ll share the answers with you when I receive a reply. In the meantime, why not ask yourselves the same questions and maybe share your answers with the rest of us. You may just find the questions rather difficult to answer or they may be a doddle.

Anyway they are:

1. What was the first magic trick that you remember seeing? 
2. What was the first magic trick that you performed? 
3. What is your favourite trick
   
1. to perform
   
2. to see being performed?
   
4. What trick made you “goggle”?

Easy or hard? I look forward to reading your answers. This month, we welcome Pavel to our Circle and judging by the plaudits he’s received; it would be fair to say that he has brought to rope magic what Shawn Farquhar has brought to Close-up. As most if not all of you will be aware, Mark Waddington was successful in his audition to become a member of The Magic Circle, so congratulations are expressed to him. I hope that it proves beneficial.

We’re well into summer now and as such, Wimbledon will be almost upon. More importantly, so will the Travis Perkins Assembly in Ferrybridge! Danny Hunt has been brought on board as part of the team by Travis, Esme insisting that Annette also joins her knitting circle which meets in Port St. Mary, Isle of Man! This can only mean that the event will continue to go from strength to strength. Tragically, this has meant that in spite of the economic downturn, the admission price has had to undergo another increase. This increase is a huge mark up to £3.50! outrageous, Mr. Perkins. Still, it’ll be a good day, so I’m still going.

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