On the 5th January 32 members and friends turned up for our annual party night coupled with a new members evening. The evening started with Stevie B attempting to compere the event in his own inimitable style. Despite heckling from the usual quarter (and John Hotowka, Steve Naylor & Paul Sunderland just happen to spring to mind), both he and the new members Ken Mitchell started the evening off with the Hypnotic Rope. He linked large safety pins very nicely, before showing his skill at dice stacking. This is definitely a skill to become accomplished at as there are very few people doing this nowadays. Some of you may remember Geoff (and I have forgotten his last name, I am afraid to say) who used to come to the BMC. He was so adept at this skill that he could stack large numbers of dice with a chosen number on the top of each dice. He even has his name in one of the big magic books in the BMC library naming him as one of the country's top dice stackers. Ken also showed the rope with two ends which accumulates another two, before losing them; and finished by placing a silk into a gun, firing it at an empty glass, whereby the silk appeared in the glass. A very good show, with story lines that showed he had thought about the presentation. lan Wight started with card productions from apparently empty hands. He included a bare handed card vanish, making the cards reappear. Finally he produced cards from an empty silk. Despite one or two hiccups along the way, this was a very good attempt at this difficult art, and with practice, lan has the chance to make a good act from this skill. Dennis lan Calvert gave us a demonstration of his juggling skills, starting with three ball juggling, and finishing with nine ball juggling! Actually he had a little help with the latter, as he had three groups of three balls bound together! Having an assistant choose a card, he showed a card in a frame, which was the incorrect card. The card then spoke to Dennis' assistant telling him the name of the card. Unfortunately this item did not come over too well, as the audience could not hear the card speaking. Also Dennis had his back to the audience for some of the time. A good attempt, but the presentation needs working on. Dennis' final effect had him placing a yellow silk into a change bag. He asked for colours to be called out, and finished by producing a long multi-coloured streamer from the bag. A colourful end to an act with promise. Michael Moore coped admirably with the heckling that occurred at the start of his act - not, I hasten to add at Michael, but at the previous incumbent of the stage, Stevie B. Michael borrowed a ring which he had held in a hankie above a glass by the lender of the ring. The ring was then heard to drop into the glass. When the hankie was removed, the ring and had vanished, and was found in Michael's wallet. John Hotowka chose a card, which Michael marked by placing a sticker on it, which John signed. The card was replaced in the deck, and John held the pack whilst Brian Waite shot an imaginary gun at it (complete with sound effects!). When the deck was examined, the chosen card, complete with sticker, had a hole through the centre. An excellent shot by Brian! Again, some thought had been put into the effects, which, with work on the presentation, shows a lot of promise. The final act, Geoff Robertshaw & Angela, suffered several mistarts, but eventually got off the ground with a flaming cane into rose effect. This was followed by flash string into cane, and then a wand into silks. A black & red silk were made into one large silk, from which Geoff expertly produced a dove. He then lit a cigarette, but when Angela didn't like this, he proceeded to make it vanish and reappear several times, before a final vanish. The final item had Geoff making a silk rabbit appear from a silk top hat; making it vanish and reappear from the silk. A nice ending to a routine in which they coped admirably with the various hiccups which occurred. All the acts received a very well deserved round of applause at the end, even the compere, Stevie B - although I think that was more in delight that he wouldn't be coming back on again! The rest of the evening consisted of everyone eating and drinking of the various food and drink that people had brought along for the night, and sharing various magical thoughts between themselves. As only three people had brought along a Christmas magic gift to share, there was very little swapping of magical presents this year. Perhaps next year!
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