Fifty-three members and guests attended the June meeting.
Jim Flanigan, TVP Washington, DC conducted the installation and oath of office for the new officers for 2007-08: President,
Michael Taggert; Vice President,
Louis Meyer; Treasure,
Bob Patterson; Secretary,
Laurie Curry; and Sergeant-at-Arms,
Reggie Rice. The Board of Directors are:
Dwight Redman, Bill Wells, and
Don Freedman.
Three new members were voted into the Ring:
Gabriel Brehm, Alexandria VA;
Jay Krasnow, Arlington VA; and
Terrance Moran, Fairfax Station VA. This meeting was the Winton Carroll Contest Night. A contest to find the magician showing a unique ‘bit of humor’ in his act. There were 9 contestants vying for $100 prize donated by the Emma Carroll the widow of Winton Carroll, “The Magical Major”. This was a comical evening that won’t be forgotten.
Reggie Rice Wins Winton Carroll Award
Reggie Rice entered and produced a bowling ball from his brief case
. Through a series of dialog he took a lengthy worded sign and finally created his real story, “Will Do Tricks For Food”. His disappearing coke bottle had the kids amazed. With the help of
Becki Wells, Reggie does a paper trick using a roll of toilet paper. Reggie has the crowd laughing as Becky assists him with a "do as I do routine" and much to Reggie's surprise, she was suppose to follow Reggie and eat the paper. Although the crowd sees her stick
it in her collar, Reggie doesn't and the audience is howling with laughter as Reggie circles her looking for the paper. After Reggie eats his paper it is pulled from his mouth in an extremely long colorful streamer. Reggie was voted by the audience as the magician showing a unique ‘bit of humor’ and was awarded the $100.
The Legendary
Rick Beatty, as Mr. Memory, (in his shorts) had the crowd
in stitches when he performed a memory test using a 400-page telephone book. With his back to back with
Michelle, a member of the audience, Rick gave her a copy of the phone book and asks her to turn to any page and he will read from his memory what is on that page. This was repeated for several random pages. Unbeknownst to Michelle, Rick is reading from a copy of the phone book not his memory. Michelle is totally amazed until she turns around and discovers that Rick is reading from his own book.
John Roberts showed how a stuffed orangatang that could be thrown like a boomerang, called a boomerang-a-tang, and return to the thrower. Then he did a three ‘Singing Frog Monte’ in which one frog was silent and challenged the audience to keep track of it. Sadly, the silent frog expired but then was revived through the supportive audience members a la tinker bell.
Geoff Weber, (aka Geo) performed a comedy vanish illusion. With the
help of the audience, he attempted to convince a volunteer that they had disappeared, when in fact she didn't go anywhere. The audience tried to stifle their laughter long enough to provide convincing gasps of amazement. At the conclusion, Geo confessed that it had all been ruse, because if she had truly vanished the audience would have reacted like this.... with a whisk of a silk sheet; he revealed that the spectator actually vanished.
Noland Montgomery opened with an effect in which he produced a bowling pin from three colored scarves, and then performed a "bill to impossible location" effect involving two spectators, and two borrowed bills. After "accidentally" tearing the two bills into two, the halves of the two bills were made to disappear and reappear in a sealed envelope inside his wallet. The half bills inside the envelope matched the halves retained by their owners.
Jim Flanigan produced his own special presentation of the Mismade Flag to stage a
patriotic play about the creation of the first American flag. He cast Bill Wells, a former IBM president, as George Washington. He selected Betty Smith, wife of former Ring 50 President Buddy Smith, to play Betsy Ross. With Jim feeding the cast members their lines, George Washington asked the Philadelphia seamstress, "Oh say do you sew?" "Oh, yes sir," she replied. "From the dawn's early light to the twilight's last gleaming." Jim, after several attempts, finally made a US Flag in the proper colors.
Buggler (
Scott McDonald) attempted to mystify the audience with his amazing prowess of ESP to correctly identify four cards randomly chosen from a deck of 52 by four assistants. But alas, things did not go well for Buggler as his attempt to locate the four cards failed and he sent the spectators to their seats and went on to a cut and restored newspaper. After his first cut, to remove the middle of a folded newspaper, his assistant helped to open it up to show the audience the results, the newspaper look like a very large rendition of the eight of diamonds; one of the previously chosen cards! This continued as Buggler cut at the newspaper to create all of four of the previously chosen cards. Alas, Buggler "restored" the faith of the audience in him as a magician by simply cutting up a newspaper.
Glenn Gary gave his impression of David Blaine escaping from a strait jacket to the music of “Saber Dance”. Like David Blaine some of the action was not visible. During his comedy escape routine in which he lost many things including his toupee.
Tim Cannon entertain the kids, by first removing his thumb and then transferring one finger from the right hand to the left hand. Then using Pixie, the birthday girl who turned 29 (again) today, fooled his volunteer, using the skills of his hands, did a funny job of vanishing pieces of paper several times (over the volunteers head).
~~ Bob Patterson
President Receives Award
At the meeting on June 6th, Michael Taggert presented the outgoing president, Dwight Redman with an IBM Past President medal and a beautiful IBM plaque in appreciation for his leadership for 2006-2007. The plaque reads: Presented to Dwight Redman In appreciation for Services as Ring President International Brotherhood Of Magicians National Capital Ring 50, 2006-2007.
