Meeting Report: June 2020 - Jan Sankey On-line Lecture

Ring 216 held a live on-line lecture with Jay Sankey on June 10, 2020. The Zoom Room was packed for what can only be called a brilliant and fast-paced presentation (to use Jay’s words). With one eye to the demand for socially distant effects, Jay set off with a selection of three cards and a swift three-coins across routine, followed by linking zip ties and predicting an item chosen randomly from a list—with a surprise handling of the reveal. His presentation was peppered with advice and Sankeyisms: “Give the magic its due. Slow down.” “Be self-effacing, not challenging.” He demonstrated one of his favorite openers: four cards named from a face-up deck turn into four queens—a good example of a card trick suitable for remote work. (Jay: “I am a bit wacky. I do go on and on about details.”) Tips on vanishing a coin were followed by an impromptu spoon bending and forcing the bowl of the spoon through a borrowed finger ring. Tricks with soda straws followed, including what was perhaps the biggest magician-fooler of the night: a borrowed finger ring placed on a straw is visibly pulled through the straw's center. In the closer (updating the version done by David Blaine), mentally selected cards pass into a balloon. He rounded off the evening by answering questions and reminiscing. And giving more advice: “Most magicians are perfectionists. Perfection isn’t real. It is this shiny thing. It is an illusion. Relax. Seeing the imperfections around the edges is what is most interesting to people.”