Events

4th July - Dealer Demonstration - Barrie's Magic

The club's last meeting was the highly anticipated dealer demonstration from Barrie's Magic. Barrie had originally been booked in with us a year ago but had to cancel due to other commitments, so it was good to see him after all this time.

Adrian started the evening off with the parish notices including a shows update from Rick. We also welcomed Tony Draper to the club following his successful audition at the June meeting. Well done Tony, it's great to have you with us.

So on to Barrie's presentation. For those unaware, Barrie used to be a genuine pop star, though as a musician he'll probably hate me for calling him that! BAck in 1975, (for music boffs, after a spell with Pinkerton's Assorted Colours), Barrie was the bass player with the band Jigsaw, whio had a huge hit with the song 'Sky High' - orignally written and recorded for a kung fu movie starring George Lazenby. It was a cracker which I;ve played many time on various radio shows over the years!

Anyway, on to the magic. Barrie explained that he had started in the business building illusions and larger stage items for various clients, something which he still does today. If anyone has an idea for a particular stage effect and needs props building, BArrie would be a good first port of call. On to the demo, and Barrie had brought plenty of stock with him; he went through some of his favorite items including a simple egg bag routine, the stiff rope effect, a nice force bag based 'just chance' effect using plastic eggs, and calling on Rick to help him demonstrate a beautiful dancing canne which was illuminated with red or blue LEDs. Also included was a jumbo find the queen routine using special cards, the Bag o'Lites effect where D-Lites can be visually dropped and collected in a paper bag, and 'It's a Match', an effect involving the prediction of which book of matches would be randomly selected from a varied collection.

Although the demo was kept short, this left plenty of time for members to talk to Barrie and look at what he had on sale, and there was plenty to choose from. Several purchases were made during a busy time at the sales table and the evening ended up as a really nice relaxed meeting which everyone seemed to enjoy.

Barrie runs his business via an internet trading site and welcomes enquiries at any time. You can find his online shop at www.barriesmagic.co.uk. Visits to his studio can also be arranged but are by prior appointment only.