September 11th 2014

'Altered perceptions' – Doug Maddy

 Doug is a psychological illusionist, with over 15 years experience so we are in for a treat on this occasion with 'tricks' to confuse our mind into thinking in different ways.

Doug Maddy introduced himself as an illusionist and not a magician as in his words he 'can't do magic but can give the illusion of doing so'. He learned his trade from Paul Daniels and other similar 'magicians'. He amazed us with various 'tricks' and we couldn't see how he had achieved the effects even though we were very close to him. He used balloons, even 'swallowing' one and ropes with knots (or not!), paper tricks with a roll of loo paper which we could see what was going on but the unfortunate Chris who was his 'assistant', could not. Such is the power of concentration.  He had the inevitable pack of cards where he picked out the chosen card from a member and overall was very entertaining.

Competition: An optical illusion. This didn't inspire many entries but those who had made the effort amused the rest of the members.