The evening got of to a quick start with a Svengali Deck Pitch by Roger Blakiston, their new president. This fast talking British gent entertained for some ten minutes with this simple deck of gimmicked playing cards. He gathered a crowd around his table (not easy to do with a room full of magicians who know exactly what it is you are pitching) and hardly took a breath as he explained the virtues of the deck, performing many amazing feats, which he assured us that any of us could do too, if we simply followed the instructions provided with the decks. I'm not sure how many he sold to the magicians in the audience, but at $5 a deck, I am sure they don't last long when he pitches them to a lay audience.

Robert Bluemle was truly a Master of Ceremonies that evening, and he kept the show moving along quite well. He introduced Pat Holcombe as the next performer. Pat is the immediate Past President of Assembly #248. He performed a baffling cards across effect. Two spectators were chosen from the audience, and each counted 15 cards from a deck. The first spectator sealed his cards into an envelope, while the second had three other audience members select cards from his packet of 15. Those cards were noted, and replaced into the packet, which was also sealed into an envelope. Pat then caused three cards to invisibly pass from the second spectator's envelope into the first spectator's envelope. Upon opening and counting the cards in the envelope it was discovered that the first , and the second spectator's envelope held only 12 cards. Even more amazing was that when the three audience members called out their selected cards, they were found among the 18 cards in the first envelope! I heard more than one magician in the audience express their amazement.

The next performer was a young female magician who is a graduate of the Chavez school of magic, and you could see that influence in her performance. KJ performed some classic manipulation, beginning with billiard balls. Her ball routine included a nice effect in which the ball penetrates a silk scarf, pausing half-way through. Very pretty. KJ finished with a nicely choreographed split fan routine with a card production finale.

One of the top minds in mentalism today, Lee Earle was up next. Lee is the editor of the premiere mentalism journal SYZYGY. If you are into mentalism, this is the place to find the best stuff, with contributions by the best mentalists around the world. Lee's performance this night showed why he is in demand as a lecturer all over the world. Lee's portion of the entertainment began with the aptly named "Bold and Beautiful Prophecy." Three audience members answered some questions, and it was discovered that Lee had written their responses, including their names, ahead of time on three business cards. This was followed by "A Szechuan Sampler" which is a very nicely routined piece which can be played as mentalism or magic. The one-liners flowed fast and furious -- "this restaurant serves 'Dragon Milk' - it comes from short legged cows!" -- as four audience members selected four different items, an appetizer, a main dish a side dish and a dessert, from the menus of four different Chinese restaurant menus. When added up, the prices matched the total on the gift certificate which was in view the entire time. Lee then performed "Postcard Vision" which might have more aptly been named "Postcards from the Edge" given the challenge we gave him that night. But Lee demonstrated why he is a professional as he persevered. "Deep Sea Digits" closed Lee's performance, with an amazing demonstration of his ability to memorize a long list of numbers, randomly called out by the audience.

Many readers will recognize the name of George Sands. And if you don't recognize his name, you'll recognize his work. George is one of the most prolific inventors of rope magic ever. If you do any rope magic, you probably do some of George's material, and you probably use his lines as well. It is always a treat to see a master at work, and tonight was no different. George amazed with his needle threading variations, which fooled many in the audience, and earned the respect of others as they witnessed the results of years of hard work and creativity. To close, George had many magicians shaking their heads as he caused ten cards to fly invisibly, one at a time, to his (previously) empty pocket.

Jolly Roger, Roger Blakiston, took the stage again, and performed some kids magic. With only two kids in the audience, and an effect which required three, Roger improvised and used Brett Shaw, our club historian as the third child. Any attempt at a description of Roger's style would not do him justice. Suffice it to say that he carries the tradition of Terry Seabrooke and Ali Bongo quite effectively. His fast talking British accent put the kids on stage immediately at ease, as he was in constant motion. In some respects the effects he performed were really secondary to the entertainment that he provided along the way. He was also a master at making the most of his volunteers on stage. Realizing that he had a gem of a volunteer in Melanie Meyers (5 year old daughter of member Chris Meyers), he played it to full advantage. She stole the show, and the hearts of many in the audience.

The Masters of Fake Believe, Jay Malbrough and Jenny, were the next to grace our stage. They presented a cabaret style act, beginning with the production of a pearl necklace from two goblets full of individual pearls. Their act continued with some silk magic, including the Twentieth Century Silks. Jenny proved to be a wonderful assistant for Jay. Her actions all pointed to, and supported the magic, providing the perfect complement to Jay. During the Origami Card Trick, Jenny showed herself to be more than a capable assistant, but an integral part of the act. The Mutilated Parasol was a perfect ending to their time on stage.

Mark Strivings, lecturer and author of Mobile Mentalism, performed a quick effect using a deck of Budweiser^® playing cards. His patter explained that each deck of cards now comes with a Budweiser frog, and the one he received with his cards turned out to be a psychic frog. It seems that Mark was telling the truth as the frog had correctly predicted which card would be chosen from the deck.

Joe Sterbenz was up next. He explained that his job as an engineer at Motorola keeps him too busy to create any of his own effects, so he showed us an effect which combined all of the best card tricks out there in "The Card Trick to Beat All Card Tricks" And it was. It combined Giant B'Wave, with Color Monte, Twisting the Aces, and the (W)hole Card Trick, with an ending that caused a spontaneous ovation of applause and laughter. Very creative.

Our Emcee took the stage as his alter-ego, Dr. Juris. He performed a mental effect using a dictionary. After asking an audience member to hold the dictionary, he asked another volunteer to think of a word, at least 5 letters long. Dr. Juris then attempted to "divine" the word and wrote something on a grease board. The volunteer selected the word "sense." The grease board was turned around, and on it was written "You will not choose the ward 'antidisestablishmentarianism.'" A true statement. Dr. Juris then attempted to redeem himself by showing that he actually knew before that the word would be chosen, and he had brought something along which had the word "sense" printed on it before the show began - and he retrieved the dictionary. Sure enough, the word "sense" was there, and it was printed before the evening's show began. Still not a great feat of mentalism, Dr. Juris had the spectator open the front cover of the dictionary. Inside the cover was a name card. When the spectator removed the card, the prediction was found stating that the word "sense" would be chosen by a spectator.

A recent arrival to the Phoenix area from Hawaii, Jim Huntsinger was next to take the stage. He began with a comedy rope escape, and then borrowed a ring from a lady in the audience. He caused it to disappear and reappear in a nest of boxes, and then disappear again, only to reappear in his key case. Jim ended his time by juggling three machetes, with no harm done to anyone. I don't think I've seen Robert Bluemle move quite that fast before . . .

Steve Michaels was next, and began with a $100.00 test. He showed that although five audience members had their choice of six envelopes, Steve ended up with the $100 bill. The volunteers did go home with real Lottery tickets. No word on whether any of them were winners yet. Steve then had a spectator call out a card. He showed that the card was the only card missing from a blue deck of cards, and that it had been placed into a red deck of cards, both of which were on the table the entire evening. Quite a baffling effect.

The final performer of the evening was the world renowned Larry Becker. With a blue clipboard and a few books, Larry took the stage and entertained with some powerful mental effects. He ended with an amazing bit of mind reading by having one of our members select any word from a page from a book. He then had another member turn to a page in a book of 300,000 words, look in a specific column at the 18th word down. The two words matched. Once again Larry Becker proved why he is held in such high esteem in the mentalism (and magic) community.

I would like to thanks all those magicians who retaliated from the Phoenix area. We look forward to performing for you again next year, and to your retaliation performances in 1998.