NRMC celebrates the 'Magic of Life'

Entertainer Gene Turner swipes the watch from the wrist of Dr. Ron Jones in a crowd-pleasing gesture during the Nevada Regional Medical Center gala Saturday night, at the Eagles Lodge in Nevada.

By Steve Moyer

Nevada Daily Mail

The next time you see him, ask Dr. Ron Jones what time it is. He'll probably give you a dirty look and check his wrist to be sure his watch is still there. Jones was just one of the many victims of America's friendliest pickpocket, Gene Turner, Saturday evening at the Eagles Lodge where the Nevada Regional Medical Center Magic of Life Gala was held.

Gene Turner makes his living as a "pickpocket" and offered this light-hearted disclaimer to the audience as he performed.

The evening started off with a social hour with many of the guests clustering in small groups to talk. Turner mingled with them, giving demonstrations of sleight-of-hand magic up close and personal. Guests were just inches away as Turner would do card tricks that defied the closest scrutiny and managed to confound witnesses as he would make objects appear and disappear right under their noses.

Jeff Feuquay gave the invocation before dinner.

After the dinner, NRMC Foundation director Kim-berly Cook, along with Foundation chairman Neal Quitno, presented awards to Dr. Jennifer Conley and Sara Lawhorne for their service to NRMC.

After the presentations, guests were entertained by Turner on stage where he continued to amaze everyone watching. Danny Torres "lost" bets he never made as Turner would ask assistants from the audience how many sponge balls or silver dollars they were holding, and no matter what they said it was never the right amount. By the time the end of the evening's entertainment came around Torres "owed" some $16,800, a daunting figure, even if it is only imaginary.

Jones was the second person called to the stage. As Turner went through his routine, Jones found he was missing his watch -- not once, but at least four times. Jones would get the watch back only to find it missing, sometimes within seconds.

Dr. John Torontow found it was his glasses, and his car keys, that Turner would pilfer. Turner would manage to get Torontow's glasses out of the doctor's pocket and onto his own head without Torontow's catching on to what was happening, then offering them back, saying he couldn't see through them.

Don Woods managed to confuse, if not confound, Turner with his own antics on the stage when he was called from the audience. Try as he might, however, Woods couldn't get anything over on the professional. As he was going through his routine Turner managed to stick red sponge balls all over Woods' clothing. By the time it was over, Woods was sporting more red sponge balls, many clearly visible to the audience, than could easily be counted.

After the entertainment Feuquay and Cook presented the winners of the raffle with their prizes. The top prize, a weekend in Las Vegas, went to Jama Bogart, nurse practitioner at the Rich Hill Medical Clinic. The second prize, a television, went to Martin Hill, owner of Precision Machined Parts.