Mystic 13 Meeting Minutes
Caring
June 24, 2010, Sam Assembly 205
Rochester MN met at the Comfort Inn on 5708 Bandel Rd NW. We agreed
to make this our regular meeting place. In response to hard
economic times our club is sponsoring a new costume and membership
dues for a member in need. David Moitzheim, reported on his show at
the Pine Island Cheesefest. Brent Coggins announced that he
performed a charity show for the local homeless organization. A
couple members performed elements they will be doing for our club
show. This included mentalism performed by Joe Swicklik and David
Moitzheim. Kieth Anthonisen did some beautiful silk work.
Diverse Routines
May 12 2010. Joe Swicklik and David Moitzheim started Assembly 205's evening of magic at the Library in Rochester, MN. Five random members were selected and given a
different card. Joe closed his eyes while the five members randomly
switched the cards back and forth among themselves.
David played the part of assistant and Joe used his mind reading power or x-ray vision to name
the card held by each member. Joe and Dave called their routine the
man with the x-ray eyes.
Keith Anthonisen, as Merlyin Fu Soo, performed an elegant oriental routine containing multiplying
parasols, silks, and linking rings. He ended by producing a chain of
silks which he transformed into a giant dragon silk.
Isaiah Foster shared a routine using a
stamp collection he acquired in his travels around the world. And he
shared some of the strange and magical devices he pick up in his
travels. It was an educational and entertaining magical routine with
an exotic feel.
Greg “Whozeenie” Chalmers unveiled
his new routine. He attempted a balloon to dove routine that failed
miserably. He couldn't inflate the balloon, then once inflated it
wouldn't pop. He stuck a needle in the balloon. Nothing happened.
He beat on it with a hammer and tried a saw with no results. He
found a magic wand which finally burst the balloon filling the air
with feathers. Lying on the floor was a featherless dove that looked
like a small rubber chicken. Whozeenie tried sticking the feathers
back on the poor pathetic bird with a band-aid.
Isaiah closed the evening with Devon
Knight's Baby gag.
Fire Magic
Fire magic was the theme for
the April 2010 meeting of the Rochester Mystic 13. In
hindsight, the fact that we meet at the local public library should have prompted a
re-evaluation of that idea – but our members fearlessly pressed on
without causing any arson-related catastrophes.
Following a brief business
meeting, Isaiah Foster kicked off the magic portion of the program by
producing a basketball from a briefcase. He then
demonstrated a Miser’s D-Lite Pro-X. While
technically not ‘fire magic,’ the members were so fascinated by the
effect that his thematic faux pas was quickly forgiven. He
finished with the Simplex Salt Pour featured in the April 2010 edition
of M-U-M (thanks Dennis Loomis). Isaiah attempted
to save face by arguing that salt is a common fire retardant – and received kudos
by all for his broad interpretation.
Our resident pyro-magician,
Brent (Sin’Gee’) Coggins was up next demonstrating a tiny portion
of his fire-related magic collection. In all,
Sin’Gee’ presented an appearing torch; six different variations of
torches to canes; a cane to torch; a flame-to-flower and its reverse
effect, flower-to-flame; three different flash wands; three more fire
wallets; a flaming business card; and finished off the demonstration by
setting his bare palm on fire. Sin'Gee' truly
lives up to his professional billing as: ‘The Magical
Entertainer with the Fiery Touch.’
As we vented the room
following Sin’Gee’s performance (and formulated our alibis should the
library’s fire alarms
activate) Joe Swicklik took center stage to demonstrate a
Phoenix-From-the-Ashes effect using flash paper and an origami paper
Phoenix. Citing a strong desire to remain in the
good graces of the Rochester
Fire Department, Joe encouraged us to use our imaginations to
‘visualize’ the fire as he changed an un-burnt piece of paper into the
legendary bird of resurrection.
Our newest member, Dylan
Weese was granted amnesty from the fire magic theme after offering some
strategic bribes (he paid his membership dues). He
rounded out the evening by doing a beautiful rope routine and an
original card prediction. He also led an
arts-and-crafts session on the construction of Ted Lesley Teleport
Envelopes. Dylan is no stranger to the Mystic 13,
being a former member of the club’s SYM group. It’s
wonderful to have him as part of the main Assembly.
Money, Money and Nails
On March 25, 2010, Assembly 205 met at the Rochester Public Library - the
theme for the evening was money magic.
When we start our evening of magic we have a New Board
Member, Joe Swicklick, and we have selected new officers for the year. David Moitzheim did such a good job last year
as club president that he retains the title for another term. Isaiah Foster is Vice President. Brent
Coggins is Treasure and yours truly, Greg Chalmers, is Secretary once
again. After the business stuff is over with we
were able to get to the good stuff. The cry went
out "Show me the money!" Our New Vice President
did just that, Isaiah Foster did a delightful
presentation of “Everybody’s a Winner.” Our
resident law officer, Greg Skillestead, strayed from the theme, but no
one complained. He performed his version of “No
tear paper tear” producing his own personal coloring book.
Joe Swicklick got us back on track asking us
“cash or credit” and then he turned a dollar bill into a credit card in
plain sight. Cody Story
was going to do some coin magic for us but apparently he spent all but
his last dime. So he did a coin roll with his
last dime. Later he confessed he was challenged earlier in the week by
another magician to perform such a feat. He won
the challenge. It was amazing to watch that
little dime dance across his large hands. And
then he showed us the trick he spent all his money on, “The Devil’s
nail." He gave a sharp performance that made the
audience squirm in their seats as he smashed paper cups one at a time.
Under one of those cups waited a nail sticking through a small block of
wood ready to pierce his unprotected hand. He
chose wisely and avoided injury. Good thing too
or he would no longer be able to do the coin roll with a dime. I was
able to assist David Moitzheim. He shrunk a coin in my hand. I felt it
the moment the magic happened. The group let me know it looked as good
from where they sat as it did from where I stood. He
let us in on the method, he used “The Raven”. Greg Skillestead finished the
evening up for us after his detour to paper magic he decided to give us
some money. Well, money magic anyway, he did a
very solid “Scotch and Soda” routine for us.
Imaginations
Rochester, MN-On the twenty-fifth day of February 2010, Assembly 205, the Rochester Mystic 13, met at the Rochester Public Library. Cody Story kicked off the evening presenting a lecture and demonstration on a simple way to mark a deck of cards. Stirring the imaginations of the group with unlimited possibilities for magic routines. Brent “Singee” Coggins followed by delighting the group with his imaginative routine. He shared a number of articles with us about the Mystic 13 that he had clipped from newspapers over the years. With a little bit of magic he went back in time and restored the articles into a whole newspaper page. He later confessed that he used the "No tear, paper tear" to accomplish the amazing feat. Isaiah Foster entranced us with two beautiful illusions. He performed rubik's cube by Tora. His next illusion was perfect for a February magic meeting he performed a romantic version of Mikame Craft's heart of gold. Greg “Whozeenie” Chalmers our resident clown tried to follow a set of instructions to do the classic magic trick of producing a rabbit from a top hat. Unfortunately his instructions where printed out of order. He finally succeeded in producing a sponge rabbit from a miniature top hat after he did a torn and restored paper routine to get his instructions back in order. He used the torn and restored mismade message from Bruce Johnson's book Creativity for Entertainers Volume Three. Joe Swicklik finished up the evening by performing a portion of the kids show he has been developing. He combined elements of Geoff Williams's electrical artlet with a magic light bulb and magic power cord of his own design combined with a touching story about a little boy and his imagination. Joe used origami to illustrate the story. It was a beautiful finish to an imaginative fun evening.
Ropin' Up Some Magic
On January 28, 2010, SAM Assembly 205 held its first meeting of the year at the
Rochester Public Library, which will be the club's new regular meeting place. The theme for the evening was rope magic,
and our members stepped up to the challenge with some fun and
original effects with string and rope.
Our clown-in-residence, Greg 'Whozeenie' Chalmers, kicked off the
night as he struggled with the workings of the Professor's
Nightmare. He failed miserably and gave up - claiming that ropes
did not stretch enough to do the trick. Ever the thinking man's
clown, he speculated that balloons would work better because they
would stretch more - and they did! His approach stood out as a
unique variation on a classic of magic.
Isaiah Foster
performed 'Jump Ropes' from Hocus Pocus. He showed two gift bags,
a red one containing a red rope, and a white one with a white rope.
With a quick snap of his fingers the ropes traded places. After
a bit of by-play with the ropes jumping back-and-forth, Isaiah
reached into the bags and removed red and white candy-striped
ropes - and the bags were completely empty!
Brent 'Sin'Gee' Coggins delighted us with four different rope tricks.
He started with 'Clean Cut' and then performed 'Knot a Chance,' revealing a
six-dollar bill knotted onto the center of the rope. Brent also
shared an out-of-circulation Magic Hands effect 'Long Short,' and
ended with 'Quad Ropelets.'
Dylan Weese performed part of his rope routine. It's a very beautiful
and elegant combination of 'Fiber Optic,' 'Tabary,' and some of Dylan's
original moves. Obviously, the most polished set of the evening.
David
Moitzheim shared some of his research on thumb ties and did
a demonstration of Bruce Cole's 'Thumb Tie Extraordinary.'
The
meeting wrapped up with a DVD review of our 2009 annual show
and plans for two more club performances in 2010.
Memory Lane
On July 23rd, Assembly 205, the Mystic 13 took a walk down
memory lane
and watched some pieces of videos from the club’s past. During our
meeting an unexpected phone call came asking if our we would be
interested in hosting a lecture by Geoff Williams. The call came in
just after a couple of tardy members arrived an hour late, it was like
the caller was some kind of mystic magician who knew. We agreed to
sponsor the lecture on August 2nd at 2:00pm at the Trinity Lutheran
Church here in Rochester. Brent Coggins showed us a couple different
colored coins from his coin collection. The coins were locked inside
the special plastic cases coin collector use. Holding a coin housed in
its case in each hand he made the coins trade places. Brent announced
he would be performing on August 11th at the Gift of Life House.
Whozeenie the Clown (Greg Chalmers)
performed some balloon magic. He pierced a bee body balloon with two
wooden stakes and used another balloon as a band-aid to "plug” the
holes he created. He ended up with a balloon sculpture of a bee.
Whozeenie also performed a card trick where he found the spectators
card after a few failed attempts and juggling with the deck of cards.
Whozeenie reported his experience at the 2009 Fellowship of Christian
Magicians conference.
On
June 25th, Assembly 205, the Mystic 13 of Rochester Minnesota met in
the home of Brent Coggins our club treasure. Our club president David
Moitzheim gave us a sneak peek into the show he was going to be
performing on Saturday, June 27th, at the Rochesterfest show called
“Rochester Has Talent.” Our club president has a lot of talent. He
performed the perfect square routine and left my mind spinning. Then he
performed a book test routine. It was the best book test I had ever
seen. Our guest, Joe Swicklik, shared with us a dice trick in which he
would peel spots off the dice and put them back on. He did a pencil
through coin trick that ended up vanishing the coin, he later found the
coin in his shoe. Joe finished with a linking safety pin routine. My
mind was so blown away by the performances of these two gentlemen I do
not remember what anyone else did for magic, their performances were
all I could think about.
Practicing for the Show
The May 28, 2009 meeting of the Mystic
13 Assembly 205 met at the home of Brent Coggins. Brent Coggins
announced that Sin Gee will be in the Kris Olsen and Friends magic
show at 7pm June 13th at the Sheldon Theater in Red Wing.
Sin Gee will also be preforming at the Ronald McDonald House in June.
After these short announcements we moved right into the magic. Sin
Gee presented the ten minutes he is planning to use in our upcoming
club show. He opened with a flaming cane, then he presented a
multiplying glasses routine, silk to egg, egg with color change to
disappearing glass tying all his magic together with an uplifting
and motivational message. Keith Anthonisen who carries the stage
name Merlyin Fu Soo followed with his segment for the show. Merlyin
performed producing parasols, producing silks, mis-made parasol,
linking rings, a snap silk production, a production box with giant
silk Dragon production, and a silk fountain all with the flavor of
the orient. After each performer's presentation a brief explanation
and critique took place. It was a very entertaining evening.
Auction
On April 23, 2009 Rochester Minnesota
Mystic 13 met. It was lovely evening and so moved the meeting
outside. The weather was great but the business meeting ran a little
long as we discussed updates to the web pages and the upcoming
magic show we are planning to present. The secretary's report was
submitted with corrections and approved. The treasurer's report was
accepted as read. We decided to provide a member's contact page or
list page paid members get a detailed listing and discussed listing
non active members without the details. We discussed creating two
advertising pages one for members in good standing which will be free
of charge with a paid membership. The second page of advertising is
for non members for a fee of $25 per year. Isiah Foster was
confirmed to be a paid member in good standing. It was requested that
the members wishing to be in the upcoming show would have a 10 minute
routine ready to show at the May meeting. And a request was made to
add charitable events to the website calendar. We also kicked around
ideas on how to increase traffic to our website. After which we
adjourned the business meeting portion to magic portion of our
meeting.
We had an auction of magic props
donated by a former member of the Mystic 13. The auction included Brent Coggins demonstrating of many of
the props being sold. Some of these tricks included the Tenyo
“Crystal Clever”, “Trickey Bottles”, and “Hippety Hop
Rabbits”. William Story demonstrated how to put a bottle cap into
the the bottle it came off of. The highlight of the evening was when
David Moitzheim presented Russian roulette type game with his
mentalist routine of “Shattered” as he risked his hands against
broken bottles hidden under paper bags.
New Board
The Mystic 13 of Rochester MN met on
March 26, 2009 at the home Brent Coggins. Brent Coggins was voted in
as a Board member. The new board then met and officers were decided
upon. The new line up of officers for the Mystic 13 stands as David
Moitzheim as President, William Story as Vice President, Brent
Coggins as Treasure and Greg Chalmers as Secretary.
SinGee announced that he will be
performing at the March of Dimes walk on April 25. We then moved on
to the magic performances. Greg Chalmers introduced a new magic
mountain man character and routine that contained a very unique form
of linking rings combined with a ring on a rope routine. The members
of the group responded very positively to the piece and gave very
constructive feedback. William Story shared a beautiful piece of coin magic he has been working with that utilized a flip coin. This
piece led to a very nice discussion on coin magic techniques. Brent
took us on a walk down memory lane when he shared with us an original magic trick that he used to propose to his wife. It is a version of
ring on string which has never been published.
David Moitzheim also generously
shared some literature from his private library with the group.
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Meeting Minutes
