Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Officers 2008-9

President - Louis Meyer
Vice President - Eric Redman
Treasurer - Bob Patterson
Secretary - Sam Brothers
Sergeant At Arms - Reggie Rice

Director - Don Freedman
Director - Dwight Redman
Director - Michael Taggert

Magi-Gram Editor - Jim Flanigan
Webmaster - Eric Henning

Friday, May 09, 2008

May Meeting & The Dan Lacey Contest

President Mike Taggert opened the meeting with a few announcements. The many guests were introduced which included several members of the Dan Lacey family. Certificates of Appreciation were given to all those who volunteered their help for Magi-Whirl 2008. Then Mike introduced the nominees for the coming year for the offices and directors. This was followed by the unanimous vote by all Ring members present to accept those nominated. The officers for 2008-09 are:

Officers
President …………..…….. Louis Meyer
Vice President ………….. Eric Redman
Treasurer ……….……….. Bob Patterson
Secretary ………….…….. Sam Brothers
Sergeant-at-Arms …..….. Reggie Rice

Directors
Senior Director …………. Don Freedman
Former Ring President.... Dwight Redman
Retiring Ring President... Michael Taggert

Other
Magi-Gram Editor ……. Jim Flanigan
Webmaster …………… Eric Henning

Territorial Vice President, Jim Flanigan, will conduct the installation of officers ceremony at the June 4th meeting.

The business meeting was completed and the 6th annual Dan Lacey contest for the “Magician of the Year” was presented. Dan was a former president (1999-2000) of IBM Ring 50 who was noted for promoting goodwill and fellowship. The contest and trophy is presented in his memory. Judges based their selections on originality, presentation, performance, and entertainment skills.

Noland Does It Again!
Our emcee for the evening was Eric Henning. Judges were Bud Smith, Dick Christian, and Cecelia Lacey. The remarkable performers astounded the 70 members and guests attending the meeting. After a long deliberation the judges awarded the top honors to Noland Montgomery with Bob Carnathan following closely behind with honorable mention.

Leading off the superior line-up of magicians was Eric Redman. Eric amazed the audience with his dove production. Eric’s egg bag routine and egg production was culminated with the mystical appearance of another dove from the egg.

Geoff Weber began by describing an old family heirloom, an allegedly haunted silver ball. Upon covering it with a foulard, it seemed to vanish, and was later seen to move slowly under the foulard and eventually float up into full view and rest on the edge of a foulard. After some other tricky maneuvers it returned under the foulard and floated back to the pedestal. His next trick was "more fun than a barrel of monkeys". He brought out a barrel of monkeys game to illustrate a point. He threaded a borrowed a gold ring on a shoelace with the ends held by a volunteer. He then made the ring vanish, only to find it hanging from the end of a chain of monkeys inside the barrel. His final routine was a variation on the "ninja ring" linking ring routine.

Arnie Fuoco revealed a little known secret about magicians. That is, they use the methods in their magic tricks to solve their day-to-day personal problems. He demonstrated how the method in the cut and restored rope was used to help him get over a broken heart (a restoration of a torn tissue-paper heart). He also restored a torn newspaper, a playing card, and even the tie he was wearing when a spectator accidentally cut it.

Bob Carnathan told of the days in Paterson New Jersey when the queens performed at the Majestic Theater. He began with four large cards all queens. He did not show the face of the cards but when a spectator announced the queen of hearts, Bob showed the queen as one of the cards with the only blue back. Then he showed everyone the reverse and the remaining three cards were all blank with red backs. Bob then went on to do an egg bag routine with the assistance of two helpers from the audience. He made the egg appear and disappear while the helpers held his wrists and examined the bag each time.

Pulling coins out of thin air is one of the trademarks of a quality magician and Noland Montgomery did just that. He held the audience spellbound with his version of the Misers Dream. Each coin production was punctuated with a silly pun as he produced coins from different parts of his body, as when he proclaimed 'must be a cash-ear (cashier)' while apparently taking a coin out of his ear. He accumulated a bucket full of coins. Noland then performed his version of the linking rings using three very large rings.

Dwight Redman used large cards for the handling of Brother John Hamman's classic plot Gemini Twins, where the twin Kings that married twin Queens meet in a seemingly impossible way with four cards. At the first run through of the Gemini Count, nobody reacted to seeing twin sets of the cards. At the second, there is shock. During the third go around, there is quiet disbelief and nervous murmurs but at the last phase, he got silence that bursts into laughter and a big round of applause.

Our contest emcee was Past President (2003-04) Eric Henning, who kept things moving. After the performances, while the judges deliberated, he kept the crowd happy with his own magic routines. Henning opened with a nautical-themed Chop Cup routine, followed by a story of Cub Scout camping trips in which a camping coffee mug threaded onto a shoelace magically came free. He ended by having an audience volunteer call their friend on a cell phone and when they named a card, Henning showed it was the only card reversed in a jumbo deck.
Photos by Jim Flanigan & Larry Lipman

June to Feature “Most Humorous Magician” Contest
June 4th – Present your comedy magic material for the “Most Humorous Magician” contest and win a $100. This Winton Carroll Contest is open to all Ring 50 members. This contest and meeting will be conducted in the Dinning Room of the Hotel. Winner will be chosen by popular vote (please bring a pencil or pen to mark the ballot). Contact Louis Meyer (louis@childtimemagic.com or ph. 703-765-1923) if you want to compete in this contest. Let us know a week before the meeting so the ballots can be printed.

No Ring 50 meeting in July
There will be no meeting July. Meetings will resume on August 6th At the Holiday Inn. Members are encouraged to attend the combined IBM/SAM Convention in July at Louisville Kentucky, July 21-26.
~ ~ Bob Patterson