Sunday, March 30, 2008

April 2nd is Auction Night

The Wednesday, April 2nd meeting will feature Auction Night. Now that you bought some new items at Magi-Whirl it’s time to clean out some of the items from your magic closet that you no longer have a need. Bring them to the auction! Our coven of conjurors will be gathered for the April “Spring Cleaning” Auction Night. This event always draws a crowd. It’s sure to provide us with lots of special bargains. You won’t want to miss it. Last year there were over 90 items auctioned to the highest bidder.
Nominations for Ring 50 Officers will be presented at the April Meeting. If you are interested in becoming an officer of IBM Ring 50, please let Louis Meyer know. His phone is: 703-765-1923, or email at: louis@childtimemagic.com.

Friday, March 07, 2008

Four Corner Teach-In at March Meeting

John Roberts opened with a St. Paddy's theme coin production from a rainbow & pot-o-gold silk and ended with a 3-D leprechaun figure. An audience member helped eliminate all but one of a group of semi-precious stones from a small treasure chest and the remaining stone matched one held in a small leather bag. John then located a chosen card from a memorized deck, explained a card-across effect and a poker deal that went awry until an audience member, accused of putting a curse on the trick, was made to remove it (the curse). Roberts did a chop-cup routine with a beer can and a miniature baseball, which turned into two jumbo balls and he finished with a simplified in-the-air card stab.

Turley the Magician (Hugh Turley) taught a torn and restored napkin routine that he had learned from Bob McAllister. He shared some tips on using a magic wand to switch items or load items in a spectator's hand and demonstrated these with sponge balls. Turley closed with a demonstration (pitch) of the six-way "Rising Wand" and showed how he added his own gimmicks to the wand.

Buddy Smith wowed us with his masterful handling of coins including variations on the Copper/Silver coins using a Chinese token and a 50-cent piece. He assured those in his teaching session that “coin magic can be very easy” if done properly.

Ken Norris showed the members his presentation of the Ring and Rope including a cut and restored rope. He taught us the handling of the “3 Card Monte” scams seen on the streets of New York. He lead the crowd thru a ‘you do as I do’ card trick, which lead to a version of ‘Out of This World’.
Ring 50 President Mike Taggert urged everyone at the meeting to take part in the group’s annual Magi-Whirl convention and stage show to be held March 28 & 29 at Bishop Ireton High School in Alexandria, Va. Mike reminded members that new officers for the coming year will be nominated at the April meeting when Ring 50’s Annual Auction is held. He said that the annual Dan Lacey Magician of the Year contest is set for May and the 2008 Winton Carroll Comedy Magic competition will be held in June.
~~ Bob Patterson & Jim Flanigan

Tuesday, March 04, 2008

Houdini Exhumation to Test for Poison

BY ANNMARIE COSTELLA
Authors of a book about legendary magician Harry Houdini dispute the long-believed cause of his death, and want to exhume his body to further investigate.Larry Sloman and William Kalush, authors of "The Secret Life of Houdini," theorize that the magician was fatally poisoned by a vengeful clairvoyant on Halloween of 1926, and not felled by a ruptured appendix as long believed. Click here for more information.