Eddie welcomed Tony who is currently on a world tour, having travelled from his home in New Zealand to America and then onto the UK and Europe. Tony is the first I.B.M. president to come from the Southern Hemisphere. His presentation took the form of a twenty-minute stand-up routine, and then twenty minutes of close-up magic. Following which he invited questions on any of the material. His idea was to show what could be done with props that would pack small, and would play to both a lay audience and to an audience of magicians, as he would be encountering both on his travels. Tony’s stand-up routine incorporated a novel Wayne Roger’s touch on the Monkey Bar, and also good use of Wayne’s appearing Opinion Pole. We also saw the New Zealand Compass, Phil Goldstein’s Jumbo B’Wave, Ribbon, Ropes and Rings, Supreme Magic’s Ribbon Rings and a Finger Ring Vanish to a Ring Box, in a glass, wrapped in a silk, in a nest of paper bags.

After a short interval, Tony was ready to do twenty minutes of close-up magic, all his props coming from a small chocolate box. He showed us his Sponge Bunny transformation, a Peter Marucci idea from The Linking Ring which was a two-in-the-hand, one-in-the-pocket trick using the three little pigs. A novel version of the haunted Glorpy handkerchief had members intrigued, and a stand out item was Tony’s take on Ken Brooke’s Okito Box routine. Tony finished his close-up set using New Zealand’s national symbol, the Kiwi Bird. This was in the form of a wind-up toy which went on to find a chosen card. Lots of questions were asked about the material shown, and Tony’s ideas’ and approaches to magic.Eddie thanked Tony for a wonderful evening, and Tony then presented Eddie with the Fiftieth issue of Magicana magazine and a Ring 160 Newsletter and IBM Ring banner. He also presented him with an IBM President’s citation.