Mark Mason demonstrated his magic prowess to members of the Society of American Magicians, Assembly 112 (Diablo Chapter, SF Bay Area, CA) in June at a special lecture sponsored by the Assembly at the California Magic showplace in Martinez, and he dazzled, delighted, charmed, and amused us – and knocked us over with amazing trick after eye-popping trick. And then he knocked us over again showing the magicians how each trick is done.
Among the amazing effects he showed, and then explained, were his Ace of Hearts; the Think-of-a-Card trick; the signed card in the shoe; Blind Spot, a wowser in which he transferred a coin from his hand into a soda bottle; and a bit where he placed a card between two other cards that had large holes cut in their center, so the sandwiched card could be seen; a flick of his wrist, and the sandwiched card—disappeared, right in front of our eyes! The trick was amazing – and his demonstration of how he did it was even more amazing!
There were more clever gimmicks and astonishing bits of magical imagination stuffed into one two-hour evening than you can imagine. It was very worth the $20 ticket price (and for your correspondent, the 45-minute drive through rush-hour traffic!).
SAM112 sponsored the lecture, and while we got a decent crowd and broke even financially, we were disappointed that more members didn't take advantage of this rare opportunity to learn at the hands of a real master. Mason was not only informative, delighting in showing his clever gimmicked coins and cards to an appreciative audience of magicians – he was also witty and entertaining. Members should try harder to make time for these lecture events, as they are all top-quality evenings, vetted by Dr. P and guaranteed to be worthwhile.
Mark showed another effect using a unique method of holding a coin hidden in the hand, using a crooked thumb. He showed an adaptation of Ben Harris' Fandango involving flicking a card through a cut deck just as it is being put back together.
Mark's Double Deception uses a unique form of coin clipper; in performance, he has two audience members hold open a silk between them, drops a pair of coins into the center, reaches under the silk, and yanks – the pair of coins in the silk instantly becomes a single coin, and Mark shows the second coin which he magically "pulled" through the silk. He demonstrated "Perfect," with a very unusual gimmicked deck of cards that manages to turn up a "2" card every time, though when spread out on the table the deck seems perfectly normal.
His flair for adding his own twists to classics was obvious when Mark did the torn-and-restored newspaper gag—but instead of tearing up a newspaper in front of us, he started with bits of torn newspaper sticking out of various parts of his outfit—put them together one by one, apparently just reading off funny headlines from each one – then restored the stack of torn papers and surprised the audience.
He also did an interesting twist on "Pocket Money," where he displayed six coins, each a different size and from a different country, had an audience member choose one, then put all six into his pocket, only to find, when he took the coins out one by one, that the one he had selected was now missing—from his own pocket!
Mark did his amazing Come Fly With Me, a sleight of hand in which he appeared to transfer three coins back and forth between his wide-spread hands. He finished up his wow performance with Cardiograph, where he shows three cards, signs one, has an audience member sign another, then somehow both signatures end up on the same card – which the audience member had been holding down on the tabletop the whole time.
Mark offered for sale DVDs and packaged versions of most of his tricks, including a truly baffling one involving a card that ends up inside an empty card box sitting to the side on a table. (His material, including DVDs detailing many effects, is available at http://www.jbtvusa.com.) It was a satisfying evening of magical performance and education, evidenced by the many exclamations of astonishment by our members during the evening. Thanks to Mark Mason for coming by, to Dr. P for persuading him, and to Gerry for the use of California Magic's facility for the evening.
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