Sunday, May 30, 2010

Most Humorous Magician Contest Scheduled for June 2

For great laughs and comical magicians you want to miss Ring 50’s meeting in June. The fourth annual Winton Carroll Most Humorous Magician competition will be staged. This event is held in memory of Winton Carroll, a former Ring 50 president, who performed as “The Magical Major” incorporating humor into his act. Ring 50 members attending the show will vote on the winner who displays the most unique humor in their presentation. The winner will be awarded a cash prize as well as a magical staff. Hugh Turley is the current titleholder.

Alain Nu to Lecture
Tentatively we have Alain Nu scheduled for the August 4th meeting. He will present a workshop before the meeting if there are 5 or more people interested. The “Pro Mental Workshop” would start sharply at 5:30pm till 7:30pm. Cost: $60 per attendee. Here’s the special deal-- each participant gets a GIFT of their choice of any ONE of Alain’s $50 (discounted to $30) manuscripts for FREE! There must be a minimum of FIVE interested people to do this, however, so spread the word, and let’s see how many extra people we can get for this! Contact Arnie Fuococ if you are interested in this work shop at (afuoco2@Yahoo.Com) or 703-521-6286.

Noland Montgomery Wins Again!

REPEAT WINNER--Noland Montgomery, left, was presented with the Dan Lacey Memorial Trophy for his performance by Ring 50 President Louis Meyer after he was chosen Magician of the Year. Noland has won the cup five times (2004, 2005, 2007, 2008, & 2010).

The May 5th meeting featured the Dan Lacey Contest for “Magician of the Year”. Fifty-five members and guests attended the meeting. Noland Montgomery was the winner and he received a rotating trophy and a spot to perform at the 2011 Ring 50 Magi-Whirl Gala show. The late Dan Lacey was a president of Ring 50 (1999-2000) who inspired others--especially newcomers to magic—to hone their skills. The contest provides an opportunity to recognize the exceptional magic skills of our members. The memorial contest was started in 2003 to honor the deceased magician.

Starting off the contest was a new member George Bradley presenting Lee Asher's poker chip routine. Next he performed his version of Edwin Sachs Chinese marbles.

Danny Selnick - performed a silent routine (with music) as Charlie Chaplin and produced and handed out several flowers to women in the audience. Then he produced a cane from a silk handkerchief. After pouring liquid from a can of Sprite he produced a dry handkerchief and changed it to a white ball before changing it to a red ball.

Reggie Rice – began with dove production from a T-shirt. He went on to perform his version of Bob Miller’s "Relentless Ring and String” using a borrowed ring. The ring was lost. He then went on to do a card trick and that failed too. Some quarters were found. One was put into a gumball machine and out came an egg with a message to look in the box on the table. The box contained a large silk with the selected card on it. The next quarter was inserted and an egg appeared this time with the spectators ring!

Bob Carnathan – did a pseudo-scientific explanation of how satellites work using a sky blue handkerchief and a golf ball. The golf ball, became suspended halfway through the silk. It was then rolled off leaving the silk and ball intact. Next he did a cut & restored rope effect with a comedy theme.

Dwight Redman - did Martin Lewis' Sidewalk Shuffle routine. Next up he did Pat Page's version of the Roy Benson Bowl routine, a true classic of magic. Dwight ended his routine with Losander's Haunted Box.

Geoff Weber - did a comedy baking routine featuring original effects of his own creation. He started with a ball of dough breaking it apart to form three small balls of dough; from one of these he produced a real egg. These were placed in the baking tube, a little heat applied and “viola” there was a muffin.

Dick Christian - His rope routine was an amalgam of selected portions of George Sands' "Sandsational Rope." This was followed by Al Cohen's comedy wrist tie and escape (which Al gave him permission to use back in the late 1970s). All was Dick’s original scripting and personal bits of business.

Avi Littky – A member of our Counts of Conjuring performed a very good D-lite routine with red lights passing from side to side, thru his body, hand to hand, and all around. This was followed with a multiplying ball routine. Finally he put four balls into the assistant’s hand and when she opened them there were six.

Noland Montgomery - opened with Karrell Fox's vanishing cane-to-wand. He twirled a solid red cane between his fingers and while he held the cane on each end, it instantaneously changed into a matching red wand. Noland followed this with a great one-to-four multiplying billiard ball routine. He closed with a very nice rapid-fire three ring linking ring routine going to a six-ring finish that he uses in his street magic performances.