Going, going GONE to the Highest Bidder!

The March 3rd meeting was the annual auction for Ring 50 members. Forty-nine members and guests attended the auction with 37 registered bidders. Auctioneers Dick Christian and Wayne Alan did a fantastic job demonstrating the live auction items and coaxing out the best dollar. Overall lucky bidders bought some great magic equipment, publications and videos.

An eight volume set of “The Tarbell Course in Magic” drew very active bidding but Danny Selnick gave the final bid of $120 and walked away with them. A break-apart wood wrist chopper was another piece of magic that drew a lot of bids but was won for only $115 by Theo Rushin. After escalating bids, Tom Bohacek succeeded in winning Richard Sander’s “Interlace: The Borrowed Ring on Shoelace Miracle” for $45. Larry Lipman walked away with a Crystal Silk Cylinder, another great buy. Avi Littky took home Nails Thru Arm Illusion.

Altogether, it was a very busy night with a total of 183 items being sold, of which 32 items were bought in the live auction and 151 magic items sold in the silent auction. Ring 50 collected $207.20 as 10% of the total auction sales and donations. The auction tabulators were Rucj Uffelman, Danny Selnick and Ring President Louis Meyer, led by Treasurer Bob Patterson. - Bob Patterson

March Magi-Gram is here!

You can view it, download and print it here. Thanks to Bob Patterson for his hard work on this!

New Magi-Whirl Website!

Thanks to Theo Rushin, the Magi-Whirl Website has a new look! The location is the same, at http://www.Magi-Whirl.org. Based on member comments, we've made the site cleaner and easier to read, the navigation simpler and easier to use. We are maintaining the old blog site as a blog for updates.

On the new site, you can see the lineup, get background on the performers and lecturers, buy show tickets (so can your friends!), register for the convention (so can your magic friends!), see the schedule, the dealers and travel and lodging info (for out-of-town friends).

Please email any suggestions to Webmaster Eric Henning.

February Magi-Gram Is Here!

You can view it, download and print it here.

Bizzaro, The Optical Illusionist, Lectures

The magician produced a red silk handkerchief, cleanly and magically. Ho hum. Then he pushed it INTO HIS OPEN PALM AND VISIBLY THROUGH HIS HAND, and we were off and running. Ring 50 had been pulled into Bizzaro’s eponymous world, where the magic is more than impossible – it’s uncanny.

For the next 90 minutes, Bizzaro showed us why he has been featured in Las Vegas and on network TV. Imagine your favorite manipulator combined with a Max Fleischer cartoon, and you can get close to the feeling. Bizzaro shared his own original work, plus his refreshingly different takes on classics such as the Bottle Production, Sponge Balls, Vanishing Sharpie™ and the Vanishing Bottle using – surprise! – a REAL bottle.

When Bizzaro punctuates his one coin routine by producing a jumbo coin, it’s nice, but normal. When he peels off the foil to reveal a chocolate coin, then visibly changes it back to metal, that is simply outrageous.

And that’s what makes Bizzaro….well, bizarre. He takes his magic a step further… and then runs it off the rails. A prime example is “One Step Ahead,” his take on the Ambitious Card, in which a signed selection does the usual dance through the deck (albeit very cleanly, with some nice moves for the move guys). So far, so what? Then the selection vanishes from the pack. A card that had fallen on the floor during an earlier routine turns out to be the signed selection!

He had our attention, and then spent the final 20 minutes or so on theory – which helped us to understand why his magic is so effective. He talked about the difference between style, persona and character, and how to use the boundaries of your character as fuel for creativity. His motto is “Don’t bend to the magic – bend the magic to you,” and he left us shocked and amazed and hungry for more. Bizzaro’s Website is www.smappdooda.com.