Author: The Bangalore Ring

BANGALORE, JULY 20: Owing to nearly 20 of our members registering and attending the Annual IBM Convention this year, our monthly meeting was moved by a week and the Ring met on the third Sunday, being the 18th of July. The meeting gained importance to us not only because there was so much to discuss from the fantastic week of magic that everybody was part of thanks to the International Brotherhood of Magicians, but also because our Ring Elections were scheduled for this day. 

The meeting began with our Secretary Nakul Shenoy sharing the wonderful experience that his sons and our junior members Inesh Shenoy and Ishaan Shenoy had, participating at the Lance Burton IBM Teen Seminar. The iTwins not just got to attend but also had the incredible opportunity of presenting their acts at the Seminar before all the participants. Both their acts were appreciated and lauded by Lance Burton, Jeff McBride, Dr Larry Hass, and all others present. In fact, they even got a couple of favourable mentions during actual Online Convention via Lance Burton, Simone Marron, and even the International President Stephen Bargatze! Inesh and Ishaan were flying high on cloud nine, as all the members congratulated them on their wonderful representation of The Bangalore Ring and India at the Seminar.

Various members also took the opportunity to speak about their experience of attending their first IBM Convention, and were thankful to the IBM HQ for  organising this first of its kind online convention and helping all of us attend no matter where we were in the world.

Nakul Shenoy began the discussion, saying, “The highlight of the online zoom sessions was the ability to catch up with old friends and make new ones, even as we watched lectures, performances and interviews. The virtual event brought the IBM family together as never before, and we hope that this initiative is continued in one form or other — as it will definitely help grow the organisation. The International Brotherhood of Magicians is credited with having introduced the magic world to conventions a 100 years back, and it is now time for it to reimagine it for the next 100 years. We hope these online conventions are here to stay and only get better as time goes on.”

Our member Balasubramanian Chandran (Balu) put it best as he tried to share his joy in attending the convention, “It was an wonderful experience. My first ever IBM convention, glad I made it because it happened virtually (Thank you, Covid). Even though I was unable to watch all the sessions live, due to time difference, it was a great pleasure to join the big minds and watch them share their knowledge. I loved Henry Harrius lecture the most as much as Dani DaOrtiz. There were great performances by Rune Carlsen, Nikola Arkane, and Paige among the few I happened to watch. The best was the breakout rooms, where much more knowledge was shared. Thank you, Shawn! Overall, it was a great experience. Kudos to Ryan and the tech team too.” 

Anand Omanakuttan, our member based in the Middle East, had a lot more to say summarising what most of us were feeling about attending this wonderful convention, “My very first IBM convention! Indeed, it was a great experience gaining insights into how magicians across the globe have been thriving and moving forward, entertaining their audience using online platforms and the likes. Though the time zone differences made it a little difficult for me to focus on a couple of lectures and performances, it was just amazing! Truly loved the ones from Dani DaOrtiz, Boris Wild and Henry Harrius. Unfortunately, I seemed to have missed a few great ones too, like Justin Willman’s session for which I hope to catch the recordings soon.

Again, thoroughly enjoyed Ben Seidman’s humorous quick wit and Rune Carlsen’s performance and sharing of their expertise hosting virtual shows and insights into the various possibilities of introducing new online effects to virtual shows. It was great to have Shawn Farquhar with his interesting anecdotes – good vibes!

Also, the breakout rooms paved a way to interact more closely with members who share the same area of interest (for me it was the virtual platforms and online shows). However, one thing here that they might want to consider would be to have a separate chat function exclusive for the individual rooms. As it would then enable members in each room to exchange links and any other relevant resources within that room itself. 

Nonetheless, the links to various external resources and dealers that were shared at the end of each session were beneficial. I bought the DaOrtriz Digital pack, and I’m excitedly looking forward to trying out a few effects from this. Finally, thanks to the entire IBM team (and of course, the pandemic!) who made the whole event an Online one – otherwise it wouldn’t have been possible for me to make it.”

Many more members shared their happiness and recounted their experiences of having been a part of this truly international convention. That it has to be the first time, that over 20 magicians from India attended this convention, only shows how an online convention like this can bring together the IBM community. The members were unanimous in the hope that more such online conventions be held by the IBM as it is helps us connect and make friends in a rather special way. 

Riding on this high note, the Ring Elections were held. The outgoing office-bearers under Ring President Prahlad Acharya were thanked profusely for taking the activities of Ring 177 online, and thus building the membership to unprecedented heights. As of the meeting we are at 45 Ring Members and look forward eagerly to cross 50 members soon! 

The elections were a smooth affair, and a new set of office-bearers (bearing a good mix of old and new faces) were duly elected unanimously and installed. The Ring 177 Office-Bearers for 2021-22 are as follows: Past President – Prahlad Acharya, Ring President – Nakul Shenoy, Vice President – Raja Moorthy R, Secretary – Ajit Badarinath, Treasurer – Karthik Rao, Youth and Membership Coordinator – Balasubramanian Chandran, and Sergeant at Arms – Kumaran Anandan.  

The official part of the morning was followed by the members performing a variety of magic effects in the Trick Session, which is always the highlight of our gatherings. Among the performers in the Trick Session were Master Inesh Shenoy, Nakul Shenoy, Kumaran Anandan, Ramkumar Cherukkot, Radharaman Azhakamkumarath, Clifford Norman Parakh, Subramanian M, Dr B L N Raju, and Prahlad Saldanha. 

Our next meeting will be held as per regular schedule on the 8th of August via Zoom. As always, we are already looking forward to this get-together. Meanwhile, two of our members Samir Surlaker and Vijay Deo are receiving their Order of Merlin award at the upcoming Annual Business Meeting, and we are looking forward to that event too. 

BANGALORE, JUNE 16: Sunday the 13^th turned most magical with fifteen of our Ringers and magician guests getting together for our monthly meeting via Zoom and making the day wonderful with their spells and varied discussions. These included Shankar Junior from Udupi, Clifford Parakh from Goa, Kumaran Anandan from Chennai, Saurav Mohanty from Bhubaneshwar, Subramanian Cholayil from Mallapuram, Sandeep Koralla and Saravanan Abbaisundaram from the Middle East, Avinash Sridhar and Shameer Salim from USA, Narayanamurthy from Coimbatore, Master Inesh Shenoy, Master Ishaan Shenoy, Nakul Shenoy, Prahlad Saldanha, and Soumyabrata Banerjee from Bangalore. 

The meeting was called to order by our Secretary, Nakul Shenoy, who welcomed the gathering and took the opportunity to introduce our latest members to Ring 177. In this past month, we had six new members joining the Ring and the IBM, viz. Master Inesh Shenoy, Master Ishaan Shenoy, Saravanan Abbaisundaram, Balasubramanian Chandran, Narayanamurthy K, and Magic Bala (Balanagendran G). With this latest addition, the Ring had attained a record 39 active members, and we hoped to cross the 40 mark soon, Nakul said. The new members were congratulated and welcomed by all. 

Nakul added that The Bangalore Ring now had a new, “full-fledged” Members Area integrated into our website – ibmring177.com, and each member had their own login credentials to access the Ring archives and video recordings of all our virtual meetings and other activities since August 2020. In addition to this additional magic resources provided kindly by the members were also available to our members. 

Elections for the posts of the office-bearers would be held next month and members were encouraged to sign up for the said elections, he added. After a brief discussion on the well-being of all the members and the current COVID situation across the country, the official part of the meeting drew to a close and it was time for the Tricks Session.

This was kicked off by Master Inesh Shenoy with a visual card act where one of four spot cards transformed into a King, individually till all the four spot cards were now Kings and what had earlier been Kings had transformed into the said spot cards. The iTwins, Inesh and Ishaan will be attending the Lance Burton Teen Seminar in July and so, Inesh followed his performance with another card act that he has submitted for consideration of the upcoming seminar. This act of elusive aces was as entertaining as it was perplexing.

Avinash Sridhar took the screen next and performed a long-distance prediction effect, where a merely thought of card happened to be the only card in his wallet that he had held in full view all the time. Illusionist Clifford showed the mystery of of Kings on Bicycles, and everybody was left pondering where they disappeared to. That the Kings were all now found together having a beer (that was the image on the card!) fitted in perfectly with Clifford performing this for all of us from Goa!

Just when we were still reeling from this, Shameer Salim divined a playing card merely thought of by Soumyabrata, by “reading his palm” all over zoom! He then followed it up by performing a “which hand” routine with every one of us in the call. This took everybody’s breath away. As always, Shameer was magnanimous in sharing the modus operandi of this wonderful effect, just one of the many possibilities, of a new magical app he is releasing soon. We all eagerly look forward to this release and hope we get Ring members discounts!

This presentation led to a nice discussion on multiple revelations, based on a related question on the same asked by Kumaran Anandan. A variety of ideas and applicable suggestions came firth that was to everybody’s benefit. 

When the trick session continued, Nakul Shenoy performed his “I know what you had for breakfast” act, a zoom version of the classic ‘Roundelay’ effect by Max Maven. The earlier discussion on multiple revelation effects also prompted Nakul to perform and share his nuances of the centuries old ATLAS-BIBLE mind-reading with cards effect.

Prahlad Saldanha performed an impressive your card at your number effect, using multiple volunteers each to define the suit, the value and then the position of the card. He kindly shared the workings of the effect, and suggested how perhaps it could be used in conjunction with the new product being released by Shameer. 

Kumaran Anandan came on next predicting the imaginary coin toss of a volunteer. He repeated this effect a couple of times, only to increase its impact in our minds. His clever use of projecting his mobile screen as he performed this effect, led to a few questions to the use of OBS and he was kind enough to share a few tips with the group. 

Shankar Junior was joining us after a couple of months and was  clearly the  most awaited performer of the day. He did not let us down, blowing our minds with a clever effect with zener cards. That these were his beautiful, custom-designed zener cards only added to the effect. 

Subramanian M performed a quick visual transformation of a playing card, and with this the trick session came to an end. Before we knew it two and half hours were up, and it was time to call the meeting to an end. And that is exactly what we did, wishing everybody well and good health. Our next monthly meeting coincides with the Annual Convention of the IBM, and will be held at 10AM IST on July 11^th. We hope to see you there.

Stay safe, make magic.

BANGALORE, JUNE 2: If there is a bright side to the pandemic, it has to be the opportunity to attend a lot of online sessions with fellow magicians from across the world. It is this idea that has encouraged The Bangalore Ring to schedule not just our monthly meetings online, but also a lot of additional “special sessions” for our members and the larger magic community in India. 

Ring 177 hosted an open session on 30^th May and we were happy to see good attendance and participation from our members and guests. We had no real agenda other than performing and (sometimes) sharing magic with our magician friends. And this meeting more than lived up to all expectations, spreading fun and cheer to everybody that joined in. 

As has been the norm in most of our recent meetings, the trick session was kicked off by the iTwins. Master Ishaan Shenoy performed a perfect coincidence effect, where a card selected by a volunteer was found predicted with two other cards – whose value and suit matched the freely chosen card! He was followed by Master Inesh Shenoy who performed a longish routine where aces appeared, transformed, vanished, and finally appeared in his pockets! 

Venu Vinjamoori produced a coin inside an empty clear plastic cup, and was kind enough to share the inner workings of making this effect work.  Dibya Guha came next and performed an over the internet effect, that created synchronicity with everybody playing along in their own homes. 

Prahlad Saldanha took inspiration from Nakul Shenoy’s “Hitchhiking the Matrix” act in the last meeting, and shared how he had worked on that idea and created a whole act around it. It was inspiring to all to see and learn the way Prahlad had worked on making an impossible prediction work. He was kind to share all the thoughts and nuances of making this effect work. 

Just when the members thought our minds were already blown, Nakul Shenoy then turned the tables on Prahlad by asking him to pull a book from the bookshelf behind him and went on to divine a word freely chosen by him. Master Inesh Shenoy, Dibya Guha, and Prahlad Saldanha then took turns and performed one effect after another, making this another fantastic outing (albeit inside our own houses) for all the attendees. 

  Other members that attended this fun session included Karthik Rao, Dr BLN Raju, Unusualist AJ, and Subramanian Cholayil. Before we knew it, two and half hours were up in what was meant to be a two hour session, and the members grudgingly called the special session to an end.

We now eagerly look forward to our monthly session that will be held on June 13^th at 10:00AM IST, being the second Sunday of the month. 

BANGALORE, MAY 12: The Bangalore Ring met on the 9^th of May for our monthly meeting via Zoom, as has been the norm since early last year. This meeting was well attended by our members and magician guests, and saw a lot of performances and discussions related to magic. 

The meeting began at 10 sharp and was called to order by our Ring Secretary Nakul Shenoy. He took the opportunity to welcome everybody, introduce our new members, and apprise everybody with news of the upcoming annual magic convention of the IBM. Our member Dibya Guha has been contributing many of his effects to numerous magic magazines, including the Linking Ring. The members congratulated Dibya on his recent publications, and discussed a few of the effects. 

The trick session began with Master Ishaan Shenoy performing his take on the impossible prediction over zoom. A card selected from a shuffled pack by a distant volunteer over zoom, was correctly identified by young Ishaan. He was followed by his twin, Master Inesh Shenoy who entertained everybody with a rendition of “your card at your number”. 

With the iTwins kicking off the trick session in style, all the members joined in with performances making this one of the best trick sessions ever. Kumaran Anandan presented an interesting take on twisting palm illusion, and everybody discussed the ways in which this could be presented over zoom. Our Ring Treasurer, Karthik Rao came next and showed how he could still divine a freely selected card, whether the volunteer lied or told the truth. 

Prahlad Saldanha, a friend of the Ring, who had joined us for the first time during these zoom sessions, performed a fascinating Triumph effect over zoom. Our star contributor, Dibya Guha took the screen and performed what he called was “a special trick for IBM Ring 177”. The meaning  of those words were evident to the group only when at the end of the effect the words, “IBM”, “Ring”, and “177” appeared on three hitherto blank cards.  Dibya followed this with a wonderful Kings & Queens transposition effect. 

Our resident tech guru and creator of a number of top magic apps, including Hydra, Shameer Salim took over the screen and performed an effect where a series of freely made choices were found to have been in our inbox for days! He was kind enough to share his thinking of making tech magic work for the audiences. 

One of our past members and top illusionist, Kuddroli Ganesh had joined the meeting from Mangalore and shared a couple of performance clips with the gathering. One was an beautifully choreographed Triumph like card act, while the second was a mind reading with music effect that Ganesh had performed in the local (Kannada) version of Big Boss. Ganesh who is an accomplished flute player, demonstrated how magic and music was combined by him to make this act entertaining and memorable for the Big Boss contestants, and of course all those watching from their homes.

The mind reading effect inspired Nakul Shenoy to perform next, and he warmed up with a routine of invisible dice. The values of two imaginary dice thrown by Dibya were easily divined by Nakul. He followed this with another mind reading act where he metaphorically brought the Hitchhikers Guide in contact with the Matrix, or at least a matrix of numbers and a freely derived number led the audience to the crux of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

Mind reading was in the air now, and our traditional magic specialist Subramanian Cholayil performed a fun trick where he divined a card merely thought of by Shameer. It was now the turn of Shreyas Vemenchery to perform an entertaining version of “card finding nose”. This ended with a neat surprise at the end when one card found by the nose, transformed into another – being the chosen card. The trick session was brought to a fitting close by our Sergeant At Arms, Unusualist AJ who performed and then shared his “Side Buckle Control”. 

This was followed by a discussion on motley topics involving magic, and especially magic in the pandemic. Others that attended the meeting included Illusionist Clifford, Srikanth VC, and Saurav Mohanty. The meeting was called to a close at the end of two and half hours, but with the promise of meeting for a special session on 30^th May. The members look forward to catching up at this additional session in two weeks.

BANGALORE, APRIL 11: The Bangalore Ring met to host its monthly meeting on Sunday, April 11th. As has been the habit since the pandemic first wrested control of our world, the members of IBM Ring 177 met via a Zoom Meeting for the two hour monthly session.

The meeting was called to order by the Ring Secretary, Nakul Shenoy, who apprised the group of the latest news and updates of the Ring. Our newest and 30th member of The Bangalore Ring, Avinash Sridhar, was officially welcomed to the International Brotherhood of Magicians and the Ring by Karthik Rao, the Ring Treasurer.

Avinash Sridhar who joined our meeting way past his midnight from Connecticut, USA, introduced himself to the group and was welcomed by all the members. Avinash also got the trick session rolling with a wonderful over the screen synchronicity effect with a pack of playing cards.

Master Inesh Shenoy and Master Ishaan Shenoy followed this with a couple of card effects. Inesh made the four aces appear at random places stopped by a spectator, and then he and Ishaan performed an impossible prediction effect, where a freely-selected, signed card exchanged places with a card that was kept in full view.

Karthik Rao, Avinash Sridhar, and Tharun Iyer all shared their experiences of a couple of magic effects they had procured recently, and other members weighed in on this with their thoughts. Nakul Shenoy then performed an over the zoom mind-reading effect where he divined a card that was chosen by one of the participants on the other side of the world.

This was followed by Tharun Iyer who showed off his prowess with a pack of cards, literally as he demonstrated a couple of cool cardistry moves. After that, Tharun blew everybody’s minds when he very visually inserted a card into the centre of the deck, only to have it return back on top.

Unusualist AJ brought the house down with a series of coin vanishes and transformations. His performance also brought the trick session to an end. Saurav Mohanty, Kumaran Anandan, and Dibya Guha were among the other members that joined the meeting today, making it so much interactive and fun.

The members have decided to host a special session next Sunday as a lot of other members had expressed their inability to join today, and expressed their availability and interest in a session next week. The topic of this session will be decided offline and communicated to all the members via our Signal group.

In addition to the regular activities of the Ring, Karthik Rao proposed that we have a Magic Book Club, that meets regularly to read, study, and discuss various magic books. The idea is to have a separate session with interested magicians to inculcate and help in the process of reading and learning from conjuring books.

The monthly meeting was called to an end by Nakul Shenoy, with the announcement that we would all meet on the 18th of April for a Special Session. Our next monthly meeting will be at 10:00AM IST on the 9th of May, being the second Sunday of that month.

Stay well, stay safe. Make Magic.

SECOND Special Session OF THE BANGALORE RING A RESOUNDING HIT.

BANGALORE, MARCH 28: We had a most wonderful time on Sunday, and wanted to tell you all about it! 

As announced earlier, over a dozen magicians of The Bangalore Ring 177 caught up yesterday morning for a special session on what is known as the oldest magic trick in the world. This second session in an ongoing series could not have gone any better with members joining this Zoom session from Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal. And of course, we had representation from Australia and the USA too! 

The session opened with the iTwins performing their Cups and Balls routines to the gathering. Ishaan Shenoy presented his comic-dom inspired storyline for why the balls kept penetrating the cups, and Inesh Shenoy followed with his story of finding three magical cups in his great-grandfather’s attic!

This was followed by a quick introduction to various types of cups and their advantages by Leons George, who has logged in from Australia. A quick recap of the most basic moves and handling of the cups was presented by Nakul Shenoy. Ajit Badarinath then shared some additional moves that would be of good use to the beginners. One of the most liked moves he taught was to appear the three balls one after the other at the end of the wand.

A hands-on session was then held with Abhilash Purohit (from Bangalore) and Shameer Salim (from USA) acting as the students, where they–along with everybody else in the session–tried all the moves that were discussed and got a basic routine going. Raja Moorthy joining in from Trivandrum then took center-screen and shared some nuances of handling the cups and a wonderful way of making the cups and balls appear as part of the opener.

Dibya Guha of Kolkata came up with a unique idea of producing the three balls and introducing them into play. Shyamal Kumar from Kolkata shared his take on using special cups, that are added in or exchanged for the real cups, to help accentuate the effects in interesting ways. Subramanian Cholayil from Kerala introduced the group to the most basic of the Indian Cups and Balls acts, using one cup and a ball. This as expected won everybody’s attention and admiration.

Raja Moorthy, Unusualist AJ, and Leons George also weighed in on the various type of balls, their pros and cons, and of course the variety of magic wands and when and why to use them. Overall, this was a fun hands-on session, with a lot of learning for all levels of performers.

The way all our members tried their hand at different moves and routines, and were wholeheartedly helped along by others, was the most wonderful thing to experience and be a part of. Before we knew it, the two hours were up and we grudgingly ended this session with the promise of getting back together to discuss intermediate and advanced handlings in a forthcoming session.

In addition to those already mentioned, we also had Arun Loganathan from Chennai and Dr BLN Raju from Hyderabad joining this session. The special session was called to a close and we now look forward to catching up on the second Sunday of April for our regular monthly meeting. We are also in the process of hosting more special sessions on specific magic topics and a very special international magic lecture! More on this soon.

We hope to see you in our next monthly meeting on Sunday, the 11th of April at 10:00AM IST. As always, it will be held over Zoom and we look forward to catching up with you. 

Stay safe, stay well. Make Magic!

BANGALORE, MARCH 14: While only a few members of IBM Ring 177 met for the March meeting on Sunday the 11th, they wholeheartedly proved that lesser attendance does not necessarily make lesser enthusiasm. As has been the recent norm, this meeting was conducted over Zoom, and our members joined in from all across India and one from the Middle East!

After a quick welcome and catch-up on sundry matters the meeting moved into the trick sessions. With each of the members performing multiple effects and sharing ideas, along tips and tricks, the meeting quickly became one of those where time just flies by!

Dibya Guha, who joined us from Kolkata, shared his experience of getting a few of his effects published in Vanish and Genii magazine. All the members were very excited at this news, and insisted Dibya demonstrate these effects to us. After speaking of these effects, Dibya kicked off the Trick Session with a wonderful performance of an old and water effect with a few playing cards, which ended with a surprise appearance of the four queens.

Master Inesh Shenoy took the screen next and performed a neat card effect, where four cards freely selected by a volunteer transformed into the 4 Aces. He was followed by Nakul Shenoy, who performed a rather interesting “I know what you had for breakfast” prediction effect.

This inspired Dibya to come back with an interesting “What is your favourite chocolate?” effect, where he not only predicts the chocolate that the spectator wants, but also eats it!

Kumaran Anandan joining in from Chennai, performed an interesting truth or lie effect where the answers freely given by a spectator lead us to a predicted card on a clock-face. This inspired Nakul to jump in and use the card clock-face set up by Anandan to perform the Clock Mystery and make a prediction over Zoom.

Clifford Parakh joining us from Goa presented a variation of a three card monte, performed with four differently backed cards and a few coins! With each repeat, the effect only got more unbelievable. Just when we thought this could not be beaten, Subramanian Cholayil of Kerala introduced a small orb-like vial containing some green water. As he held it in his palm and concentrated, the water defied gravity and began rising up into the top of the vial. All the members agreed that is one of the most magical effects we have seen.

Dibya Guha then came back with an idea he has been working on and performed an interesting card prediction effect, where the prediction appears on a small everyday object. We are sure this is an idea he will share with the larger magic community soon, so we will hold on to the secret. Anand Omanakuttan joined the meeting from Bahrain, thus fulfilling the criteria to also make this monthly meeting “international”.

Before we knew it the two hours were up, and the members decided to catch up for a special session on Cups & Balls on the 28th of March. This will be the second session we are hosting on the most ancient of magic tricks. Our next monthly meeting will be held at 10AM on 11th of April, being the second Sunday of that month.

Stay safe, stay well. Make Magic!

BANGALORE: February 14th is celebrated all over as Valentines Day, but for our members it was just another chance to profess their love for magic. As with every month, The Bangalore Ring met via Zoom to discuss, perform, and exchange thoughts on Magic. This meeting was well attended by our members from all over India and one from the USA.

As has been a tradition now, the meeting started with our young guest performers Master Ishaan Shenoy and Master Inesh Shenoy kicking off the trick session. Ishaan had a volunteer pick a card after shuffling a pack and choosing one of the halves. He then asked the volunteer to take the pack behind his back, and move a few cards up and down the deck without looking. When the pack was spread a moment later it emerged that the spectator had mysteriously managed to place one of the cards (a face up one at that) right next to his chosen card! Inesh followed his twin with an adept presentation of Triumph, all to pose a question to the gathered magicians: “How do I appear the four aces at the end of this routine?” A few ideas were collected, and he has promised to work on his solution before the next meeting.  

Kumaran Anandan, who joined from Chennai, took the stage next and amazed us with a wonderful divination of a card he was randomly stopped at. He then queried the group to their ideas on how the effect was performed. The resulting conversation threw up a lot of good ideas that can be used, but nothing was as simple and direct as the method that Kumaran had employed. Best of all, it made perfect sense for a Zoom show, such as our meeting was. 

Shameer Salim, who was joining from the US, then flummoxed us with his take on the ACAAN: a simple direct effect where any card named is found at a specific pre-defined number. Again the theories that abounded in the open session to how this could be achieved was fantastic, but not as simple and direct as the method employed by Shameer.

Abhilash Purohit took this as the perfect stage to share an interesting app that he had originally built to help kids learn coding, which had since turned magical. Using what seemed like a children’s memory app, he demonstrated the uncanny ability of a spectator to be seen as psychic! While the effect was powerful in its own way, members weighed in with ideas on how the impact could be further improved — which was to everybody’s advantage.

It was now Nakul Shenoy’s turn to perform and share a couple of effects that have become his go-to for online performances. He showed how a randomly chosen card was in fact always facing us on the wall behind him. He also shared a couple of his favourite forces and the nuances of the handlings that made them most natural. To top it all, Nakul shared how he had recently joined the new audio-only social media platform called ClubHouse and ended up performing what may well be one of the first magic shows there.

On February 7th, he had hosted an open Q&A on Magic and Magicians, but when the dozen odd people that joined did not have many questions, Nakul had to switch to performing some of his favourite radio and long-distance magic effects — ending up with almost 40 minutes of unplanned audio-only performance. The learnings from this would fill a chapter!

Others who attended the February meeting included Karthik Rao, Soumyabrata Banerjee, and Subramanian Cholayil. Before calling the monthly meeting to a close, the members decided to hold a special jam session within the next couple of weeks on the topic of Cups and Balls. With in-ring resources like Shankar Junior, Raja Moorthy, Prahlad Acharya, and David Nobo, this promises to be one heck of a jam session. We will tell you all about it in the next issue. Stay tuned!

BANGALORE: January 10th saw the first meeting of the new year for the Bangalore Ring. While attendance was sparse, the enthusiasm was not. Among those that attended this session were Saurav Mohanty, Shankar Junior, Shameer Salim, and Nakul Shenoy.

Staying true to the Zoom world we have been locked in, Nakul began the proceedings with a couple of over the screen effects. Joining him were his sons Master Inesh Shenoy and Master Ishaan Shenoy, both of whom performed magic with cards. Inesh made four aces mysteriously appear from a well mixed deck, while Ishaan performed a “Pick a Card” effect.

Then it was the turn of our guest Shankar Junior to regale us with some of his recent experiments with packet card effects. He was kind enough to not only share the workings of these effects, but also share the nuances of making them play big. 

Shameer who joined us from the US, shared with us some of the recent developments in the world of magic apps, and performed a new effect that he’s been developing. The interactions were so interesting that we did not know how the two hours just swept by. The meeting was called to a close and the Ring 177 will meet again on the 14th of February.

BANGALORE, DECEMBER 17: Sunday the 13th is always special for us and this time too it did not let us down. Our last monthly meeting of the year was attended by Raja Moorthy, Sanjay Subramanyam, Karthik Rao, Shankar Junior, Anandan Kumaran, Clifford Parakh, Soumyabrata Banerjee, Shameer Salim, Subramanian Cholayil, Nakul Shenoy, Master Inesh Shenoy, and Master Ishaan Shenoy.

After a quick welcome to all the members and guests who had joined, an update to the ring activities were given by our Secretary Nakul Shenoy. With the official agenda completed, the group quickly moved to the tricks session, which is always the highlight of our gatherings. 

Master Ishaan Shenoy then told us the story of four thieves (jacks) who went into hiding in different parts of the world (deck) only to be caught together by the most magical of detectives (Ace of Spades). Master Inesh Shenoy followed with two card effects. First he had Nakul freely select a card and return it wherever he wanted, and then take the deck and shuffle it. Inesh then went on to divine the card accurately, to the amazement of all the members. Inesh followed this effect with a four ace assembly, where the deck cut in four parts ended up with the aces on top of each pile.

Nakul Shenoy distributed a few cards in a five envelopes, and asked a volunteer to mix these up leading to a random total. He then demonstrated how these random choices made by the volunteer could be easily predicted. He later shared his thinking and the handling of this effect, his latest twist on an old classic. 

Shameer Salim, logging in from the USA, showed us how he could charge his phone even with a broken cable. This had everybody scratching their heads and wondering if there was an app at play. But it was none, as was evident when Shameer kindly shared the workings of this effect — a latest of his tech innovations. 

Clifford Parekh of Goa decided to test a volunteer’s intuitionally powers using a few zener cards. He laid out a few cards and asked the volunteer to freely decide whether certain unseen cards were going to match a card or not. At the end of it, it emerged that the volunteer was psychic as the cards he had said would match were found to be in perfect pairs, while those that he said that he did not, were found to be of different shapes. This wonderful effect kept the members thinking for a long time after. 

Rajamoorthy who joined us from Trivandrum performed a fascinating version of the polygraph test with cards. He had a card freely selected by a volunteer, and then mixed back in. He then asked him a few questions where the volunteer was could lie or be truthful. Despite all that, Rajamoorthy amazed everybody by accurately divining the said card.

Shankar Junior performed one of his pocket (packet) tricks, where he demonstrated the coin through table effect with a few printed cards. It completely took everybody by surprise when at the end of the act, the said “table” was found to have a hole, through which the coins had ostensibly passed through!

Subramanian Cholayil was our last performer of the day, and introduced a curious tiny hourglass with a green liquid on one of the halves. Subramanian held the hourglass with his fingers and concentrated his psychic energies on it and we were all amazed to see the liquid inside rise up to the higher half of the hourglass. This effect was so wonderful that he was asked to perform it again, and again. He kindly obliged and only added to our amazement each time. 

With this, the last meeting of the year, drew to a close. We ended the meeting, hoping for a better, pandemic-free 2021, and looking forward to meet in the new year. Our next monthly meeting will be on January 10th, 2021.

Stay Safe, Make Magic.