May's magic theme was Rope Magic, and the performers turned out for this one. Our newest officer, freshly voted in as Sgt-at-arms, Brett Shaw, tried his hand at handling the Master of Ceremonies duties, intoducing each act for the members.

First up was Darrel Wilson, who seemed to be having some problems getting his white rope to stand up. In a fit of exasperation he informed us he was seeing red, and tossed his rope into the air. As it came back down he caught it, showing all that it had changed colors - to red, of course.

Norm Marini showed up next, offering to pull a piece of rope through his body. Norm fairly placed the rope behind his back, bringing the ends out to the front on either side. As he counted to three, we all watched in anticipation as, with great effort, Norm pulled the rope through his body. Amazingly his top half remained connected to his bottom half. You can see here why Norm is such a popular performer in the Tucson area.

Our departing Sgt-at-arms, Mark Milano, was up next to perform an interesting bit of rope magic. He began with four ropes. Three white ropes of differing lengths, and a red rope. After stretching the white ropes into the same length (a la Professor's Nightmare), the red rope sprouted two new ends, and changed into two ropes. The ends then disappeared, and by the end of the routine, all was back the way it started.

A new face graced our performing area as Mimi Furst presented a mental effect, for a change of pace. Pattering about a swami who left her some magical papers, she handed them out for members to write their name and favorite movie on. After balling up the papers, each member dropped it into a hat. Mimi reached into the hat and pulled out one of the balls of paper. Holding it to her head, she was able to divine what each member had written! Great job for a first time performance!

Tom Potter was up next, presenting a "challenge" needle threading. Even though the "eye of the needle" became continually smaller, and his wrists were held by a spectator, the needle was threaded successfully every time! Take a look for yourself.

Rod Robison didn't have a rope effect, but with a borrwed hank of rope manged to entertain for a few minutes. He told us about a rope who experienced some discrimination at a restaurant and was forced to disguise itself as, you guessed it, a "frayed knot". You had to be there... and if you weren't, through the magic of the internet, you can at least see the end result.

I'm always interested in what Bruce Martyn, aka The Boston Man, will come up with. Once again, the wait was worth it. Weaving a story about three attorneys, Bruce caused three ropes of differing lengths to become the same length, change to two ropes, and perform several other impossible feats before returning to the original three ropes. A clever, well thought out routine, Bruce!

Katherine the Great was next to grace our stage with her presence. Stretching the rope theme a bit, she produced a "rope" of pearls. Cutting the string (rope?) which held them together, she dumped the individual pearls into a goblet. She then put the string in her mouth, and chased that down with the pearls. After some by-play, she reached into her mouth, and, well, you can see the rest!

We thought all was through, but Bruce Spell decided to try something new. He took a rope and tied it into three loops. After cutting the loops, he popped the knots off of the rope, restoring it whole once again... well almost. I guess we won't be seeing that one in the act anytime soon.

All in all a great night of magic. Thanks to all the performers, and don't miss June's meeting with a magic theme of "Each One Teach One"!

Last updated May 21, 1996 by Mark Newhouse