Winton Carroll Award

The June 6th meeting will have the Winton Carroll Award for the “Most Humorous Magician”. This is a $100 award given each year for the next 5 years to the magician showing a ‘bit of humor’ in his act. The contest will be held separate from any other contest. The winner is determined by "people's choice", in which each member of the audience has the opportunity to vote for the magician showing the best “bit of humor”. The one with the most votes wins. Ballots will be made up the day before the meeting once all the contestants have applied. Your registration for the contest must be submitted by Tuesday, 5 June to insure your name is on the ballot. Submit your intent to perform to Bob Patterson, Treasurer@ibmring50.org.

Magi-Whirl 2007 Benefits Bishop Ireton High School

Mike Taggert and Dwight Redman presented Kevin Curry and Jessica Seeley of Bishop Ireton High School a large check for $2,210, the school’s share of the Magi-Whirl Gala Show. The Gala show incorporated the best and most original top line performers performing for over 400 patrons. Karen James, IBM TVP Maryland said: " We had the best time, in a long, long time!" Jim Flanigan, IBM TVP Washington DC commented: "I think Magi-Whirl 2007 in general was perhaps the best in my memory--especially the stage show. "

~ ~ Bob Patterson

Noland Montgomery Wins Again!!

Accomplished IBM Ring 50 magicians competed for the 5th annual Dan Lacey Memorial Trophy and the title of Magician of the Year. A bequest from Dan Lacey’s family and his work place help obtain the trophy. Dan was a former Ring 50 president (1999-2000) who was noted for promoting goodwill and fellowship. Judges based their selections on originality, presentation, performance, and entertainment skills. The winner will be performing at Magi-Whirl 2008.

This was a top-notch contest and a very close competition by all contestants.Noland Montgomery was declared the winner and was presented with the Dan Lacey Trophy for his performance. This is the third time Noland has won the title “Magician of the Year” (2004, 2005, and 2007). Noland claimed he use to work in an orange juice factory, but got fired because he could not concentrate. After vanishing a silk, he presented a “street version” of the cups and balls. He wrapped up his routine producing two large balls from under the cups and a coconut from a seemingly empty hat.

The contest included last year’s winner Dwight Redman. He lightened the tone with whimsical and multiple egg productions from an empty egg bag. Finally Dwight placed the egg on the table and magically a dove appeared. Our audience love it.

Arnie Fuoco proceeded to keep the crowd chuckling with his acronyms. He gave CPR to a small rope and using BSEE he ended up with yards of rope. His showed us his CD (Card Diet) for the large King that was place between jumbo cards and was squeeze to normal size. After vanishing and eating several marshmallows he extracted them from his mouth as a long steamer. His lighthearted humor kept us in stitches.

Don Freedman displayed his own originality by demonstrating his “Masters of Fate”. Four members of the audience stood on a different unknown plaques and each of the four people randomly selected a foil wrapped packet from the six offered. As each person’s packet was opened it revealed a colored poker chip. There were three blue and one red. A fifth person had a stack of signs which when revealed matched the amount of blue and red chips selected and those remaining. Next the plaques were turn over by each member and found to match the colored chip they had randomly selected. Was it luck, fate, or pre-determined?

Geoff Weber straight in from the orchard brought us apples and oranges. He explained that you could mix apples and oranges and get a pair. He placed the pairs into boxes held by two spectators. Each getting a pair. One orange remained and was placed in Sam’s box. Invisibly Geoff made the orange fly thru the air into the box Jessica was holding. When the apple and orange pairs were removed it was discovered the orange really did travel from Sam’s box to the one Jessica was holding. Did you see the fruit fly? Next Geoff borrowed a $20 bill, had it marked, made it vanish while a volunteer was holding the silk with the bill in it. The volunteer selected one of the oranges and Geoff cut it open and there was the missing $20 bill.
Jason Goldberg caught the magical groups attention when he put on his cool x-ray glasses. A volunteer selected a card and Jason through a thought process attempted to name the volunteers card. He failed, but when he took off his x-ray glasses, on the inside of the glasses was the selected card. Next he led us through a story line on the metro using linking rings.

Our final act of the evening was Sam Brothers. Sam travels a lot and collects playing cards from around the world. He made a deck of the cards with the backs all different, no two were alike. A spectator was asked to deal the cards face down and stop anytime they wished. At that point a marker card (3S) from another deck was placed face up. The pack was squared up and the spectator again deal cards face down and stopped anytime they wished. Again a marker card (3C) was placed face up. When the cards were fan spread on the table the card facing the marker cards matched the card exactly. When the remaining deck was turned over, all the cards were Jacks. Next Sam had a volunteer shuffle a jumbo deck and the randomly reversed some of the cards. He then made several predictions about the face down cards. All the predictions were true, except one and it was corrected by a note that was found in the card box.

~ ~ Bob Patterson

Officers 2007-2008

President - Michael Taggert
Vice President - Louis Meyer
Treasurer - Bob Patterson
Secretary - Laurie Curry
Sergeant At Arms - Reggie Rice

Director - Don Freedman
Director - Dwight Redman
Director - Bill Wells

Magi-Gram Editor - Jim Flanigan
Webmaster - Eric Henning

IBM National Capital Ring 50’s Magi-Whirl 2007 is a GREAT Success!

To say, “Magi-Whirl 2007 was awesome” would be an understatement. Some say it was the best ever! The organizational skills of Mike Taggert, Bob Patterson, and Dwight Redman combined with IBM Ring 50 volunteers brought about the best one can hope for. The packed schedule included four lectures, two close-up performances, a dealer’s showcase, and a Gala evening magic show. The Gala show incorporated the best and most original top line performers. And if all that is not enough – there was plenty of time to socialize with friends, fellow magicians, and performers. Special guests including Al Cohen enjoyed good conversations with the organizers, many of the magic dealers, and performers that he has known.

Registration was accomplished in minutes without hassle or delay. Friday evening was a good time to socialize and watch the magic that takes place by individuals. Eric Henning on “Killing a Restaurant with Magic” gave the first lecture. Eric has performed his award-winning magic on three continents, from the streets of Paris to the Festivals of Avignon and Lausanne, from the tropical paradise of Barbados to events all over the Baltimore and Washington area. He has had the extraordinary privilege of performing at two Presidential Inaugural Candlelight Dinners, in 2001 & 2005. Magi-Whirl attendees went away with many great ideas and techniques on how to perform Restaurant magic.

This was followed by one of the best shows I have seen performed by the.
dealers The dealers were: Denny & Lee Magic Studio, DoveLite Magic, Fred’s Magic Books, Guaranteed Magic, Hughes Magic Inc, Magic by Michael Lair, Magic Goods, Silk King Studio, Sorcery with Class, Wayne’s Pre-owned Magic, and Wonder Imagery. Many new items were demonstrated and put all of us in a good mood for buying new magic tricks.

On Saturday the doors opened promptly at 9:00 AM and dealers began selling. The first lecture was by Michael Lair. Michael is a skilled lecturer and has lectured in every major city for the past several years. His lecture is full of variety with visual close-up magic using coins, cards, sponge balls, and animations of objects, to exciting stage magic using candles, fans, coils, swords, throw streamers, and Chinese fans. He had the attendees on the edge of their seats throughout his presentation.

Tim Sonefelt opened the afternoon session. Tim was named South Carolina Magician of the Year by his peers, the very first person to ever receive this honor! All the way from Anderson, SC, Tim has been professionally performing since 1988. His laid back style helps everyone to relax, ensuring they have a great time. When you combine a unique sense of humor with award winning magic, you have an unbeatable entertainment package. He combines music, magic, comedy, live animals, and audience participation. All that combined makes his lecture one of the best I've attended in a while.

The duo of Larsen Eisenberg and Scott Correll and close-up shows had something to please everyone. This was excellent close up magic! Larsen’s approach to magic is well oiled. He took us through some card feats that made my eyes go funny and my head spin. Sometimes you think to yourself “This is beyond me” and indeed it would be very difficult to replicate Larsen’s sleight of hand. Scott won the spectators over with some very strong and obviously well tested magical effects.

On Saturday before the evening dinner break we were treated to a Question and Answer period with Washington DC’s only Magi Shop owner, Barry Taylor. Barry’s Magic Shop is one of the largest magic emporiums in the Washington, DC, Maryland, and Virginia area. Barry delivered as only he can do, polished and professional with decades of magic performance. He started with his own performing background and went on to tell told us about his shows, TV appearances and forced relocation of his shop. Barry performs close-up and stage magic, having traveled across Europe and toured Japan four times. With his wife Susan, they performed in their own critically acclaimed "Psychic Ghost Theatre" production, which successfully entertained and mystified audiences for many years. There is so much to learn from this icon. What a treat this was.

At 6:30 PM before the evening Gala Show was to begin, walk around magic was provided by Ring 50’s Larry Lipman, Sam Brothers, Larson Eisenberg, Dwight Redman, Louis Hofheimer, Bert Udovin, and Matt Hiller. Everybody was seated at 7:30 PM. In a most professional manner, our emcee for the evening, Bob Carnathan, announced the opening act, The Magic of Michael Lair from Canton Ohio. Next was Bob Sanders, from Alabama with his charming Southern American cadence, he took us all into his light humorous type of magic using silks and doves with tremendous skill. Ruth Rice Crone from Silk King Studios assisted him. What a delight. Then came Tim Sonefelt with his non-stop visual gags and magic. The audience roared with laughter throughout his act, well done! IBM Ring 50’s own Dwight Redman, Washington DC’s Magician of the Year, winner of the Dan Lacey Trophy, presented magic that was entertaining and so slick the only way to describe Dwight’s act is “Pure Gold”. Closing the first half of the show was Michael Taggert by levitating himself above the stage. After an intermission Scott Correll from Pennsylvania entertained us with his comedy puppet and magic. Krendl & Company closed the Gala show with many large stage illusions. Paul, with the accom­paniment of his wife, Leslie, took full con­trol of the stage as they performed to put the audience in complete amazement. While Paul was performing, Leslie, a professional ballerina, would hand him his materi­als and dance around on stage. She participated in most of the tricks, which included getting cut in half and a Metamorphosis. Krendl and Company is currently the third largest magic group in Virginia.

~~ Bob Patterson