Cylchlythyr Hud Gogledd Cymru

The North Wales Magic Circular

The

Griffin Vol. 74 No. 6 April 2017

Free to Members

PLANES, TRAINS AND

AUTOMOBILES

CHRIS AND JAY TAKE

A ROAD TRIP

THE NEXT

GENERATION

NEWS

REVIEWS

MORE

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3 From the Lectern

Thoughts you never wanted in a way you never wanted them.

4 Hail to the Chief(s) Back from Carmarthen

5 Magic News What’s new in the world of magic and mystery.

7 Road Trip Chris and Jay hit the road to Carmarthen

In This Issue Vol 74 No 6

12 Review Xpand reviewed by Chris O’Brien.

14 From the Vault The loss of a friend just last year.

15 The Jedi Younglings The first meeting of the Young Magicians’ Club

19 The Next Meeting The Mental Magic Competition

20 Podcast of the Month Ask Paul

21 Merlin the Magician Who was he really?

23 Profile Bob Scott

24 Diary Keep up to date on what’s happening in your society and others.

This Month’s Member Contributors (in no particular order);

Janet Newman-Carty Jay Gatling Chris O’Brien Chris Baglin Robert Scott External Contributors;

Charles Evans-Gunther Sandy Mewies The Griffin is kept going by your contributions, thank you.

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From the Lectern

Tinkety-tonk, Old Fruits, What a busy time we’ve had,

we’ve been to Carmarthen (more on that story later if I can stop our President giving the denouement away in his address!).

This is our first issue on the new publishing schedule. I hope that this development will allow for more time for events, lectures and competitions to be written up. This has unfortunately made a bit of a shorter deadline so we will have to catch up with Eddie and others next issue.

Did you know our logo is wrong? The one on the front of this Griffin and in various other places? There is something miss-ing! I noticed it for the first time recently when I happened to look more closely at my small metal pin badge from the Circle. The

dragon on that badge has a magic wand! It must have been based on an early version of the logo.

The wand has a long tradition in both legend-ary and real magic. Math and Gwydi-on both used a hudlath to work their magic in the

Mabinogion, and some early de-pictions of Jesus have him work-ing his miracles with a wand of some sort. A wand, whether that be a long rosewood number, a Sharpie pen, or even a finger is a badge of office for a magician to this day.

So with your permission I have restored the wand to it’s rightful owner and you will see, from now on the wizard and the dragon in our symbol.

No top hats, though, that would be twee.

As ever, I remain,

Your Faithful Servant

Prof. Llusern Pp.

Chris Baglin Et Salve ad Iasonem Isaacs

Hap

py W

and

erer Wan

d

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Hail to the Chief(s)

reetings one and all.

A great adventure was un-dertaken recently by myself

and our Griffin editor Chris Bag-lin. We travelled there and back again to that far off exotic land known as Carmarthen; home of the legendary wizard Merlin. A festival was being held in his hon-our with jesters, knights and many oddities for sale. Amidst all this five masters of magic entered the town to face off against each oth-er and attempt to win the title of Merlin Magician of the year. With cards, cups and balls and rope at the ready battle commenced.

Indeed, Chris and I had been short listed to compete in Carmar-then’s first ever magic contest, it was a beautiful day and we per-

formed around the town in five different locations entertaining young and old alike as they en-joyed the festival around them.

We had some stiff competition in the form of local magicians Craig Lewis and Tom Dodd and International street performer Mario Morris!

We each took to the paved stage, within a strange circle painted upon the ground, and showed off our skills to a panel of judges ranging from professionals to laymen. I can safely say that Chris and I did the Circle proud giving a good representation of what we could do. If you’re on Facebook you can see a section of our acts. But as is the way in these magical duels, only one can be crowned the winner. And that magi was (Oi! Spoilers!- Ed) Well there is to be a more in depth re-view later in this very issue so find out there.

Let’s not forget that we have our own exciting stuff

(Continued on page 6)

G

Ch

ris and

Jay Mo

ving

Rig

ht A

lon

g

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Magic News

Our Circle News

Young Magicians’ Club

Last month saw the inaugural meeting of our new magicians’ group for school age children. As readers of the Griffin will know this has been a long time in the making, with many, many bridg-es and hurdles along the way. But thankfully the dedication of some of our members including, but not limited to, Steve Ashcroft and Janet Newman-Carty has finally come to fruition.

The Griffin would like to join the Circle in wishing those run-ning the Youth Group all the best as we are sure it will go from strength to strength. For a full write up see page 15.

Merlin Magic Competition

President Jay Gatling and the Griffin Editor’s alter ego Profes-sor Llusern went down to Car-marthen to take part in the (hopefully) annual Merlin Magic Competition. It was quite a trek down and the experience was brilliant. It was felt by some of the competitors that there was some confusion over what kind of magic competition this was to be, i.e. was it to be a David Blaine style Street Magic show or a busking style street performance. As it turned out it was a bit of both but the Griffin is confident this will be clarified in time for next year’s competition.

More on the competition on page 7.

The Annual Dinner Dance and

Cabaret

Bookings are still being taken for this year’s Dinner Dance and Cabaret, and the instalment plan is in place. Please see Bob Scott

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Magic News

for more details.

Tickets are priced at £35 for din-

ner and cabaret. Cabaret only

tickets are £20.

The Wider Circle

Magic on the Mersey

There will be a new convention taking place on our very doorstep this September. The event is be-ing organised by Paul Stone and

promises a good line-up including Paul Zenon and Bob Kohler and sessions on everything from mak-ing mentalism commercial to put-ting comedy into your act. There will even be a special perfor-mance of Paul Zenon’s Linking Rings.

Prices vary so check out the website for more details

www.magiconthemersey.com

All items are accurate at the time of going to

press. We try our best but sometimes mis-

takes will creep in, please bear with us.

Please address any complaints to British

Airways, London N1

coming up for the circle this year, the next thing being our Mental-ism Competition in May. If you’d like to compete then have a word with comp organiser Ste-ve Ashcroft.

And that’s all for now, but as always come on down to this year’s meetings as much as you can, catch up with friends, learn something cool and of course have fun. We’ll see you there.

(Continued from page 4)

Allons-Y!

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Like Webster’s

Dictionary... Chris and Jay are Carmarthen Bound

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I looked out at the eager crowd. Not as big as I had hoped, but we have all been there. As the ring-ing tones of the announcer faded away I realised he had said my

name. I took a breath and began. “Bonheddigion a bonheddig-

esau…”

This was what we had been building towards for some time now, ever since the first an-nouncement went up on the mem-bers’ pages of the North Wales Magic Circle. The annual Merlin Festival of Carmarthen was hold-ing its first ever magic com-petition, and they were looking for competitors. The word had gone out for would-be contestants to submit a short video, and so several of us did, along with many others up and down the land, and from these performers

were chosen five finalists to at-tend the… erm.. final.

And that is how it came to pass that Jay Gatling and myself found ourselves sharing a car down through the picturesque hills and valleys of mid-Wales. We had elected to travel together to save on costs and set off on the Friday afternoon to queues of traffic bet-ween Wrexham and Newtown, before the roads opened up to the afore mentioned roller coaster of ups and downs between Llanid-loes and Carmarthen. We staved off pre-match nerves with conver-sation on music, films, Doctor Who and, of course, magic.

Jay had arranged accommoda-tion in a 17th Century coaching inn in the centre of town, The Boar’s Head, a hotel with beauti-ful period wood panelled walls. We were checked in and out for dinner, then back to the rooms for practice and chats and an ex-change of more magic ideas. But no matter what we did it was only

Merlin Magician of the Year

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The Road to Carmarthen

a matter of time before we would be competing for the title of Mer-lin Magician of the Year. A bro-ken sleep for me (a town centre on a Friday night is not the best for a peaceful night’s sleep) then to the contest.

We met our competition the fol-lowing morning at the Tourist In-formation office which is housed in the former police station. We were placed in the cells, as befits our rank, and I introduced myself to my fellow vagabonds.

First was Craig Lewis, a Swansea based magician with a fantastic moustache and a nice line in tweeds! He has been per-forming magic professionally for at least ten years and was a musi-cian before that.

Second was the youngest entry, Tom Dodd, who is a wedding magician and a street magician in the David Blaine style. He has been performing magic since the age of twelve (five years ago, don’t it make you sick) and his youth and energy was to be an advantage in this competition.

Third was Jay Gatling himself, as you all know he is a consum-mate professional with many years of experience performing in diverse circumstances, and an

award winner of good standing himself. I’d have to watch this one.

Then it was myself, Old Thun-derlungs Baglin, dressed like a Victorian sideshow barker and giving out some bi-lingual family magic.

Finally though, and last to ar-rive (making an entrance, no doubt) was the heavy hitter in this contest, Mario Morris. Those who follow street magic and per-formance will no doubt be famil-iar with Mario, he is a Cardiff based magician who has per-formed on streets across the globe, every year he runs a three-day School of Busking which at-tracts speakers from around the world. And he was Magic Week’s favourite!

We were given our spots and

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running order and wouldn’t you know it, I was to be first at the lo-cation where judging was to take place. Well, it had to be someone, but I would have preferred a chance to perform at least once before heading into judgment, just to get my hand in. But if wishes were horses, as they say, and at least I knew that my president was behind me. Four hundred yards behind me! He was per-forming at the market clock and I also knew his next stop would be here to be judged. We were all ul-timately in the same boat. So I did what we all do in these situations, I got on with it.

I have to say it went quite well, I had some willing volunteers, laughter and amazement. It was-n’t all plain sailing, as these

things often aren't, the biggest problem being when I dropped my load for the Miser’s Dream. Noisily and obviously. Some quick thinking in the heat of the moment I thankfully remembered a rather nice Coins Across I learned from a DVD of Daryl’s (heddwch i'w lwch) which came from the Circle library (you’re welcome, Eddie). Still all was over far too quickly it seemed but it was a full half hour by the clock. Never seems that way in competition.

I then went on to try to entertain in the rest of Carmarthen, in Nott Square, Red Street, Guildhall Square and by the market clock, so unfortunately none of us per-formers actually got to see each other perform and had to go by word of mouth. I know some of what others did by reputation, for instance I know that Jay presented his linking rings, and that Craig dragged a chair suspension around town with him, that Tom managed a multiphase Ambitious Card that was worth seeing and that Mario presented his version of the Cups and Balls with table-cloth pull.

The rest of the day was a little different, I only did one more

Merlin Magician of the Year

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Carmarthen

“circle” show, but instead there was a lot of what they call door-way magic. This was good as I could pull out some other effects like a card to mouth, and the Three Card Monte, and for a while there I had a few followers who would come from place to place. A notable location was Red street, where I was having trouble getting people to stop in the allocated spot. I was just picking up my table to move it somewhere more suitable when one of the organisers popped along and pointed out a place not far away that others had used be-fore me. (This had the added ad-vantage of being directly oppo-site the Jehovah’s Witnesses, I do like to annoy a bigot.) The crowds did not stop immediately and worship at my altar but I knew all you need is one to start out. I spotted a little girl with her parents looking at me out of the window of Greggs so I started

performing a silent Cups and Balls to her through the window. It wasn’t long before a few more punters had stopped and I ended with one of the best crowds of the day.

All to soon it seemed it was time to return to my starting posi-tion for the denouement of the day and the presentation of the Award. And I was so happy when my name…no, obviously, it went to Mario Morris. However, that does not diminish what we achieved in being selected for the final. And we were given to un-derstand it was very close on marks so we did justice to our-selves and the NWMC as a whole. I hope we can go back again and try once more next year.

We enjoyed ourselves immensely and

hope to be back to win next year.

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I was going through some of my old props the other day, trying to sort out some to dispose of, but after a couple of hours, I decided just to pack them back in the cas-es and try again another day. But the effort was not wasted because in the process I came across some old magic tricks that I had not seen for a very long time. This review is about one of them, it's called XPAND, by Brandon Da-vid, Christyrious, and Justin Mil-ler.

I had the gimmick in my hand, and I had a vague recollection of how it worked, but the DVD was nowhere to be found. I decided to look up the trick on YouTube to refresh my memory. The effect

starts out in the usual way with a spectator selecting and signing a card, so far, in their mind, noth-ing was unusual. Then things get very weird and the spectator soon realizes that this is not the typical “pick a card” “find a card” trick. With their signed card in full view the entire time, they witness something impossible. The magi-cian is seen to visually shrink their card. After he has changed the physical properties of their signed card, he then restores the card to the originally signed con-dition and hands it out for imme-diate examination.

Watching the clip sparked an interest in the effect but after a couple run throughs, I remem-bered that I never really got on with the prop, and that's why I had put it away in the first place. However just to see if maybe I had missed something important the first time around, I decided to look for the DVD but with no luck.

Then I then looked it up on some dealers’ sites and I got a big surprise. That first effect is just the start of what is now possible with the Xpand gimmick. Origi-nally it was released as a single effect with only one main appli-cation and that must be the one I

Xpand: Review

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Review (continued)

had bought, as I only remember having the one instructional DVD.

According to the new sales blurb, magician Justin Miller has added a second bonus DVD, with over an hour of additional ideas, including an application with the cut and restored card plot, making it much better value than previ-ously. You now get the handmade mechanical card gimmick and 2 DVDs for under £20, that is at least £10 under the price I paid for the one effect some years ago.

The original effect really in-vites close scrutiny and because of that, the gimmick may be seen, but the bonus ideas that use the gimmick might be better. It's not that the original is a bad trick, in

fact, it looks fantastic on video. It's just that in my opinion the original trick not fool proof live, and I would hazard a guess that the added bonus and price reduc-tion confirms that. So I won't be investing in the newer offer, but I will keep looking for that missing DVD, and if any of you decide to buy the new offer, I would be in-terested in having a look at the bonus disk, if that is ethically ac-ceptable? I think it probably is since they have had my money and the new content is a bonus, but if any member has a different opinion please let me know.

I can only give it 2 stars as I have it, but to be fair the new price and extra effects could push that much higher.

Chris O'Brien aka COBERMAN

"The Sit-down Magician”

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From the Vault April 2016

This time last

year we had

lost one of the

pillars of our

society, Noel

Massey. Many

of us knew

Noel well and

counted him

among our

friends.

It is with

sadness and

pride that we

reprint this

newspaper

article which

featured as

part of the

Griffin piece

on Noel

Massey in the

April 2016

edition.

The article

was originally

written by

Sandy

Mewies.

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Young

Magicians’

Club

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Young Magicians’ Club

Last month saw the beginning of the new NWMC Young Magi-

cians’ Club or NWMCYMC, (try saying that without your teeth in- Ed) Here is Janet with what went

on…

The much anticipated inaugural meeting of our Young Magicians’ Club was held on Tuesday 7th March. It was a pleasant surprise to walk into a room full of excit-ed faces, full of expectation (though we were probably even more excited than the budding young magicians).

Steve opened the meeting by in-troducing us and setting out the goals of the club. This was fol-lowed by a demonstration of vari-ous genres, presented by Steve, Jay, Mike, Clive and myself, along with our individual stories

of how we became interested in the art of magic. The youngsters were captivated by the traditional cups and balls, linking rings and cut and restored rope, and mes-merised by the more modern card and mentalism effects and Jay’s latest Rubik cube technique. There was plenty of interaction and laughter as our mentors and young magicians grew ever more confident in each other’s compa-ny.

We decided that on the first night we would begin to teach them one of the most fundamen-tal card sleights – the double lift. Having provided them each with a pack of Bicycle cards, our close-up connoisseurs explained the intricacies of the various han-dlings, doing their best to answer

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The Report

the inevitable questions along the way such as ‘what if my hands are too small to do that move? They did a great job, evidenced by the young magicians all gath-ered around, earnestly practicing the move.

All too soon, our first meeting was drawing to a close. For a fi-nale, Mike had provided a projec-tor and showed a very poignant video clip of Daryl stressing how important it is to practice, prac-tice and practice some more in order to preserve the magic and not give anything away.

The young magicians each re-ceived a personalised folder con-taining hints and tips on handling a deck of cards, along with the double lift explained, lest they forget. This will be the basis of a

valuable resource as time goes on.

It was good to have some of the parents along too, as it gave us the chance to show them first hand that magic can provide their children with a great many bene-fits and opportunities if they choose to take on the challenge of mastering the art.

Here’s to the next instalment of the YMC...!

Janet Newman-Carty

In an issue or two we report on the Mental Magic Competition. So more from Janet then. Watch

this space.

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Advert

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Our Next Meeting

April 4th 2017

The Mental Magic Competi-tion

It is competition time once more. This time the mind readers, bizarrists and psychological illu-sionists come out to play.

This is reprinted as a reminder from the society rules.

Competition Rules: Mental See Rule 7 Competition Rules:

Mental Competition Main Points

7.5.1: The contest will take place on a stage, if available.

7.5.2: The performance shall be not less than 15 minutes and not more than 20 minutes. A warning signal will be given at 18 minutes. Any over-run shall be penalised as follows:- • 1 point to be deducted for each 30 seconds or part thereof. • After 3 minutes the competitor shall be disquali-fied.

7.5.3: The judging panel will consist of at least two Lay people and two Magical Judges.

Members/Associates £5

Visiting magicians £10

7-30pm for 8pm start.

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Podcast of the month

What is it? The Ask Paul Podcast does

pretty much what it says on the tin. Each episode Paul Brook answers a question posed by one of the great un-washed. That is you or me.

Why you should listen:

If you are interested in mental magic Paul Brook is a profes-sional mentalist who talks from a position of experience on the practicalities of this form of magic.

If you are not particularly in-terested in mental magic the podcast also contains transfer-able skills an information.

Still not convinced, then feel free to ask your own question on a magical subject that suits you.

What are the downsides?

It is early doors and many interesting podcasts run out of steam before their first year is out.

The podcast is reliant on a decent level of questions from the public. So it some ways it is down to us.

Number of Episodes?

8 so far, one a week.

Highlights so far?

Episode 1 - Stage vs. Close-Up and Mental Magic vs. Mentalism

Episode 7 – Back of Room Sales

How can I find it?

It is possible to find it on iTunes or just type the URL below into your browser and enjoy

http://www.heknows.co.uk/ask-paul-podcast/ Heard a podcast you like? Let the

Griffin know at nwmcgriffin@gmail.com

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Merlin

With Jay and Chris taking part in the Merlin Magic Competition this month, The Griffin thought it might be worth finding out a little

more about the Grandfather of Wizardry. So we asked historian

and student of Arthuriana Charles Evans-Gunther to chip

in.

The image of Merlin for many years was an old fellow with a long white beard and pointy hat but in recent years a younger ver-sion has become popular with the BBC drama series “Merlin”. The TV drama was full of magic and placed the young Merlin at the court of Uther Pendragon and Ar-thur at Camelot. This is the ste-reotypical image of this fictional character.

Merlin was invented by a “magister” (teacher) living and working in Oxford in the first half of the 12th century. His name was Geoffrey of Monmouth and he is known to have written three books, including the De Gestis Britonum, better known as Historia Regnum Britanniae (History of the Kings of Britain). The Historia became a best seller, introduced the character Merlin and, of course, made King Arthur famous.

Merlin here appears only a few times – first as a boy to prophe-size to King Vortigern, later to move the stones to build Stone-henge, then to explain the arrival of a comet in the skies to Uther Pendragon and finally to help said Uther to get access to Igerna,

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Who he?

the wife of Gorlois. Merlin then disappears from the rest of the book. In later tales, coming main-ly from France, Merlin developed into version of the character most people and the Mass Media know today.

From Geoffrey's introduction comes the Merlin who gets Ar-thur the throne of Britain and Ex-calibur, has the Round Table built, begins the search for the Holy Grail and eventually gets caught up in female problems with his protégé Viviane. In more recent times he became the teach-er of young Arthur and has since been transformed into a druid or shaman. One group of people even claimed that Merlin was go-ing to reappear, like a messiah,

but he didn't come.

Was there a real Merlin? The short answer is no, but it is possi-ble Geoffrey of Monmouth based his character on two persons found in Welsh legends and poet-ry. The first was Ambrosius (called Emrys in Welsh), who prophesized to Vortigern, and the second was Myrddin, who was sent mad by the horrors of battle becoming a wild man and a prophet. The later may have been a real person but everything is vague and uncertain. He certainly wasn't a wizard or a magician. It is also unlikely Myrddin is linked to the place-name Caerfyrddin but some would like him to be.

Charles Evans-Gunther

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In Profile

This month is the mystery wrapped in an enigma and dipped in chocolate that is our treasurer. The Griffin tries (and fails) to see

a very private man.

Name?

Bob A.K.A. Robert E Scott

How and when did you first get into magic?

Over 50+years ago a Rep from a Seed Firm did a Cigarette Pull on me and had to show me or sacrifice an Order! Then introduced me to a friend who I didn’t know was in NWMC.

What keeps you in magic?

No idea.

What is your Go-To effect?

Pass. (Ah, but which pass, Bob, which pass? - Ed)

Who are your influences in and out of magic?

Pass again.

What is your greatest achievement to date?

Have I had one? .

What do you hope to achieve in the future?

Survival.

What was the last film you saw?

Don’t watch films.

When you hear the words the book, which book comes to mind?

A non magic one.

Best sandwich?

Victoria. (Now you are talking! - Ed)

Next time– Coberman, Chris O’Brien

Treasurer

Bob Scott

The

Griffin

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Next Issue

2oth April: Chester Guild Meeting

2nd May: Mental Magic Competition

4th May: Mahatma Star Wars Theme night

6th June: Summer Social

4th July: Lecture – Shoot Ogawa

1st August: Stage / Cabaret Competition

5th September: Lecture TBC

3rd October: President’s Night

31st October: Halloween Séance at the Hen Llys

7th November: AGM

25th November: The Annual Dinner Dance and Cabaret

The Jasper Blakely Write up

Guest Feature on the technical side of the theatre

Podcast of the Month

More reviews

More on Tarbell

Forthcoming Meetings