Comedy Magician Contest

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The other main event at the June meeting was the annual Winton Carroll Humorous Magician Contest, named after a former Ring 50 President known for his love of magic and his comedic routines. First up was former TVP John Roberts (right) as a screwball magician character whose magic went all wrong, especially the Needle Javelin through Balloon! He got big laughs with a Paper Balls over the Head in which he threw the balls over his own head!

Next was Bob Carnathan (left), who did a Spotted Silk Can with rhyming patter from his famous “Black and White” act. He followed with the Leopard Silk and Karrell Fox’s Invisible Deck routine.

Geoff Weber (right) did some original material, opening with a rod holding six index cards. He asked the audience helper to get him out of his daily rut by picking a random action written on one card. Her card read “HUG,” and when he turned to hug her, we saw that all the other cards said “KILL”! Geoff, or Geo as he is known professionally, then did a beautiful version of the Malini Egg Bag, followed by an original presentation for Bob Sheets’ Hang ‘Em High.

Two-time winner Reggie Rice (left) followed, with an unusual bowling ball production (no pad!), and a nice handling of Barry Mitchell’s Moo Masher with a young girl from the audience. As usual, Reggie got the most laughs of anyone in the show.

Brian Garner (right), the “Funny Magic Dude,” did a nifty bottle production and a nice routine with the Axtell Drawing Board. A card trick with a jumbo deck went wrong, whereupon Brian went into full “American Idol” mode, singing and getting dissed by the voice of Simon Cowell. He ended with a nice Kabuki Streamer and produced silks from the streamer.

Next up were two of our junior members, Alina Selnick and Karl Keat (left). They did a comedy sketch in which the Alina was the magician and Karl was her bumbling assistant who got the magic wrong. It was great to see them aiming so high so young, and we look for more from them.




Bert Udovin (right) had three people select cards and failed to find them and then cut holes in a folded newspaper to reveal the pips of each card in succession. He then did an Invisible Deck routine.



Last year’s winner, Hugh Turley (left), did an observation test with kids from the audience miscalling the colors of several silks, which were placed inside a tube, changing into a 20-foot rainbow silk streamer. This routine had lots of laughs and great interaction with the kids.

The final contestant was Theo Rushin (right), who has reworked the old Vanishing Bandanna bit with his own recordings on CD. He borrowed a signed $20 bill, sealed it in an envelope marked “Mine.” He gave an empty envelope marked “Yours” to the lender, who sealed it. Chaos ensued as the first envelope was shredded, the bill not in the helper’s envelope or seemingly anywhere else. A lemon contained the wrong $20 bill. Theo, dutifully following directions, found $1 bills in each shoe, all his pockets, and even taped to his chest! Finally, the borrowed bill was found in the CD case. Congratulations to our new DC Comedy Magician of the Year, Theo Rushin!

- Eric Henning
Photos: Bob Patterson