The members of Ring 216 had the pleasure of welcoming CHRIS CAPEHART as their lecturer at the November meeting. The hard truths of making a living as a street magician came tumbling out of Chris as he recounted how he enabled his rabbit to collect crowds; what he did for his fifteen minute act that he repeated throughout the day, every day; how he recognized the different personalities of tip-givers and induced them to generosity (a trash-can-sized tip jar helps); and how that rabbit was able to grab the correct selected card out of the deck with its teeth.
Chris shared the secrets of his fun, fooling magic. Two spectators combined their numbers and counted down to that location in the deck to find the card that had already been predicted. In another prediction effect that badly fooled the members, a spectator was given a note to hold, another spectator freely dribbled cards from a full and shuffled deck, stopped anywhere, and that card was the very one already written on the note. A multiphase six coins to purse routine kept the audience on their toes. The effects built up to the wonders of the floating table and the ring appearing in a nest of boxes. The climax of the lecture was Chris’s famous three-ring routine. This routine, which has inspired many performers, has twists that even fooled the ring experts in the audience. It was a most enjoyable evening with something for everyone.
