Bob Sheets Lecture

Saturday morning it rained. Imagine that. . . rain in Seattle. By early afternoon it had cleared up and I should have gone to the market to perform. Instead, I loafed around the house in my bath robe. I had a private party later in the evening and the Fenix that night so I didn't put too much pressure on myself. My choices were hit the market and bank some cash or go to the Bob Sheets lecture. I opted for the latter and thought I made a wise decision.

I parked my new 94 Chevy Cavalier in the lot at the Edmonds PUD shortly before the lecture started at 2:00PM. I paid my $15 at the door to Roger who was obviously thrilled to receive a baggie full of quarters. The lecture started on time and the fun began. There was a good turn out of forty magicians or so.

Bob Sheets is a good magician and a very funny guy. He started out his lecture with his variation of the Trevor Lewis trick "The Homing Card" with influences from Fred Kaps and his "Reoccurring Queen". The trick had a surprise, instant, mid flight card change that got us all!

Next was his take on the Sach's Dice Trick followed by a very clever variation of Pat Page's 3 Card Monte.

He then went into a marvelous rope routine. Hang em high & Insomnia.



A short break at the one hour mark gave me the opportunity to puff on my cigar and chat with the boys a bit.

After the break he did some more rope magic. Cards Across (to an envelope hanging on a long piece of rope) which set up his version of Robert Harbin's Rope thru Body. As with most good lectures, not only did we learn lots of good audiences tested routines but more importantly they were sprinkled with his thinking; for instance, rather than take painstaking efforts to prove at the end of the routine. . . "do all your proof before the effect so at the end, you can simply accept the applause. Sounds simple but a great point. I was also introduced to some nifty rope gimmicks I had never heard of as well as the idea of using marine epoxy to install them.

He finished his lecture with his trade mark work on the Three Shell Game. It's no wonder that he is considered one the the premier performers in the thimble rigging game of chance. FUN STUFF. He definitely has some original thinking on the subject.

As he admitted, "He stands on the shoulders, heads and faces of those who came before him", but what a job he does.



I really liked the wisdom that he shared as a result of his study with Bib Fitch in his theatrical workshops. He made the point, that as magicians, we treat our stuff. . . like stuff. We miss the details and this can take away from the magic we are trying to create. Another thing that struck a nerve, was that if something is important to us it will be important to our audience. It sounds simple, but we all do it. Sequences lack depth and punch because of our own self defeating lack of conviction.

I'm glad I went. I was bummed to have to split for my gig right after the lecture. I left at 5:30 and got to my gig right on time.