The Billet Article - Competition Night 2003

This article is taken from The Billet Issue - 384 - Nov 2003, Authored by Keith Pickles

Competition Night 2003

On Friday October 3 it was our competition night, with both the close-up and stage competitions taking place. We welcomed along Shirley Ray as our magical judge; with Kim Wroot and daughter, Amy, as the lay judges. There was an exceptionally high turnout for the evening, and it was nice to see so many friends and relatives come along to support the competitors.

Mike Weston got the close-up competition under way by giving 2 spectators the chance to win a £5 note which one of them had placed in a tube. The tube was mixed with 3 others, and Mike successfully chose the one with the £5 note in. A chosen card was replaced in the deck. The deck, pen and a mouse were placed inside a box. The mouse correctly marked the chosen card.

Simon Jackson produced a goldfish bowl complete with goldfish; from beneath a handkerchief. He placed a card under the goldfish bowl and then had Victoria choose an invisible card. When she named it, it turned out to be the card under the bowl. A ring on rope routine followed, before he closed with a small chop cup routine.

Henry Norris had an assistant choose a card from a face-up red backed deck. He showed that this was the only card with a blue back. All the cards were then shown to have blue backs, except for a chosen card, which was red. This then turned blue. Henry then brought out a teddy bear that squeaked. He had a card chosen (the JS). The card was found in the base of the teddy bear. Finally Henry had rubber bands jumping through a card.

Anthony Heaton took out a flat card packet, from which he produced a full deck of cards. A card was chosen and replaced in the deck. Anthony found it, and then magically produced the four aces from the same deck. Anthony had a card chosen and placed face down on the floor. He mixed the cards face up and face down. When he displayed them all the cards were face down except for the diamonds. The 5D was missing. This was found to be the card on the floor. Anthony threaded three coins onto a ribbon. He magically made each coin come off the ribbon individually. The final coin jumping into the spectator's hand.

Stevie B extracted four coins from a purse frame. He then performed coins across, but when he got to the part where the 4th coin jumps to join the other 3, instead all the coins went back to their original positions. Stevie then had 8 coins, 4 at each side. They came across to the same side one coin at a time. Finnaly Stevie performed his version of Out Of This World, where a spectator guesses whether cards are red or black and finds that they have been correct.

The stage competition had Mike Weston doing a Pass the Parcel with 7 children (if you can call Alan Driffield a child,) and using a spectator's watch. The parcel was passed following instructions in a book. The final child had the correct card and so the spectator got their watch back. Mike then had spectators choose their favourite male actor, female actress, car and flower and had a card chosen. He correctly predicted these by writing on post-it notes, which were placed into a spectator's handbag before the name was revealed.

Stevie B did a variation on the 6-card repeat. He borrowed Dough Haigh's jacket and did knife throught jacket, with a very funny bit where he pretended to sneeze and the jolt made the knife, inadvertently, go through the jacket. Stevie also swallowed a balloon, and did an unequal ropes routine with a helium voice.

Ken Mitchell gave us the rope with 6 ends to an entertaining story. He also did cup and ball, finishing by producing a juggling ball, an orange and @y an onion from underneath. Next came a skipping rope routine, which involved cutting the rope, and then having the 3 knots he tied falling off to leave the skipping rope in one piece. To close Ken told a story about going to McDonalds for a big Mac. Nothing was big until he came to the drink - the straw he got with it was massive - so saying he pulled an enormous straw out of the McDonalds bag.

Simon Jackson started with several jokes until he produced a large bowl of water from a flat bag. He covered the bowl with his hand and a goldfish appeared in it. He took a bottle of rum from a bag and replaced it. He then showed a bottle of coke and replaced it. Eventually he took out the bottle of rum and squashed the bag flat. Getting up son, Joshua, Simon turned him into an instant magician by dressing him up. Putting his arms through the arms of the jacket, Simon produced a sponge ball vanished a silk, used the SilverSceptre (rising wand), displayed a strung pack, and produced 6 boxes from an empty bag., all to music and bubbles from a bubble machine. Finally he got daughter, Lucy, on a platform. He had a feather floating, before he took away the pillar holding the platform to have his daughter floating in the air.

A lovely end to an excellent competition evening.

The judges deliberated long and hard on what had been a superb evening's entertainment. Every one of the competitors received a long, warin and enthusiastic round of applause for spending the time getting an act together and then getting up and performing in front of an audience of magicians, the hardest audience there is.

Finally the results were announced - they were:

• Close-Up Competition Winner Stevie B
  • Runner-Up Anthony Heaton
• Stage Competition Winner The Jacksons (Simon, Joshua & Lucy)
  • Runner-Up Stevie B

The trophies will be awarded at the Dinner on the 21 November at the Midland.

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