San Jose Trickery News: June, 2003 [7.6]

Scott Freda was the winner of our performance award for this month. The randomly drawn category for the award was Most Impressive Flourish which is defined as the most amazing manipulation that the audience is supposed to see. Scott caught the judges attention with not only a sparkling Triumph routine, but also a 7 packet Leno cut. Coincidentally Scott is the youngest and a more recent member of our club.

Congratulations, Scott!

The May Performers

John C. Signa was the first performer explained about a cursed card player (a monkey who always wins). Carey Klenetsky assisted because he couldn't resist the monkey. John shuffled some jumbo cards and dealt off 10. Carey shuffled those. Carey wagered 2 D-sized batteries on his poker hand (the Monkeys favorite currency). Carey got a pair of 10s, but Claps (the monkey) had two pair. He gloated upon winning. The cards were re-dealt with Carey selecting which of the cards he wanted. Again he lost. Using a new set of 10 cards, Carey chose which of the face down cards to keep for himself, and which to give to Claps. Carey then chose which of the last TWO cards he wanted after looking at the cards and his hand. Unfortunately Carey's Full house was bested by the monkeys straight flush. The monkey gloated again as he had predicted not only the win, but that his straight flush would beat a full house.

Scott Emo brought a broom and explained that all brooms can fly. Scott explained that this only really occurs when it is pitch black making it difficult to verify. He covered the broom to confuse it and after mounting the broom floated with both shoes visible.

John Bodine demonstrated his pet rubberband. He shot it out about 20 feet and it returned to his feet along the floor quite quickly. John next did an assembly with Kings. 3 Kings were placed across the top then 3 indifferent cards nearer to him. The KH was slid beneath the indifferent pile and then all the kings moved to the indifferent pile and the 3 cards across the top were found to be Aces.

Patrick Reed demonstrated two-in-the-hand, one in the pocket routine with 3 little nuts and a bolt.

Carey Klenetsky observed that people often pay in cash but leave their change. Patrick offered a quarter which to which he applied a pink sticker on which his initials were written. Carey then squeezed the coin into invisibility, flipped it into the air. It returned only to be lost. Carlucci helped by opening the two outermost boxes. Carey emptied the 3^rd box into Patricks hand where he found his marked quarter.

Scott Freda demonstrated ways to shuffle the cards including some really impressive cuts (among them a 7 packet Leno cut). He cut off packets and alternately turned them face up and face down. Shuffling them back together he showed their disorder (face up/face down) after a final shuffle, he showed that all the cards had returned face down except the four aces. Scott won this months performance award for his great work!

Ken King, wearing an Uncle Sam hat talked about patriotic themes laced with jokes. Tying together 3 different colored ropes (Red, White and Blue) he made them join into one rope.

Richard Myer showed a folded card secured with a paper clip. Joe Atmore selected a card. Any card would work except the Q of D which Joe selected 3 times in a row. Eventually he selected a 6 of C which he signed on the face. Sure enough the signed card turned out to be the one on the paper clip. Next Joe selected the Ace of Spades which was placed into the deck. After some fair shuffles, Joe was asked to answer some questions. Richard dealt off one card for each letter in the answer (some of the answers were lies!) Astonishingly the last card dealt was the selected card!

Willdini (Will Chandler) had just received his AAMTD (Acme Amazing Money Teleportation Device) and was eager to demonstrate it. Will managed to get Joe Caffall to loan him a dollar. Will ripped the serial number from a quarter of the bill and gave it to Joe. The rest he placed in the clip atop the AAMTD. He then handed two lemons to Joe who tossed one back (at the wrong time). Operating the machine the bill burst into flames and was no more. Will proposed that the bill had teleported into the lemon that Joe kept. Slicing open the lemon found a scorched, damp bill. The corner matched and the serial numbers matched. Will was concerned that since only Joe and he had seen the original bill there might have been some collusion. Therefore Will had Ramona Heimlich sign the bill and select an egg from among six. Returning the bill to the clip of the device it too went up in flames. Opening the raw egg revealed a bill with Ramonas signature!