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.

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

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.

Magi-Whirl 2008 Just Around the Corner

“The best little convention in the National Capital Area”

Don’t miss International Brotherhood of Magicians, National Capital Ring 50, Magi-Whirl 2008, March 28 & 29, 2008. There will be four lectures, plus three close-up performances, and a Gala evening show. Magi-Whirl is being held at Bishop Ireton High School, 201 Cambridge Rd, Alexandria VA. Only $45 until March 16th. After March 16th it’s $60 for everyone. You can register and pay on our website: http://www.magi-whirl.org/ or download the registration form and mail it in.

Come to IBM Ring 50’s Magi-Whirl 2008, and hang out with other magicians and people devoted to magic. You may learn new tricks, ideas, presentations, and of course see some great performances. You won’t want to miss these great lecturers: Kenrick ‘ICE’ McDonald, Aldo Colombini & Rachel, and Eric Jones. A Question and Answer Session with Richard Kaufman, editor of Genii Magazine, and close-up magic with Wild Man Bob Little, Richard Kaufman, and Brian Morton.

We have twelve dealers scheduled for the dealer room. You can see and talk to professional magicians and look at new magic items for sale. On Friday night, March 28, there will be a dealer’s show with the dealers demonstrating the latest magical items, silks, accessories, and supplies. The dealers are: Wild Colombini Magic – Aldo Colombini, Sorcery with Class – Scott Correll, Guaranteed Magic – Bob Little, E-mmaculate Deceptions - Eric Jones, Magic Goods – Pravin Ponnuri, Hughes Magic – Richard Hughes, Fred’s Books – Fred Mitchell, Magic Enhancer – Robert Haas, Immagicnation – Bernardo Del Ray, KozmoMagic, Inc – Ted Brainard, and Magic, Balloons & Dave Cresey Products - John Reid, and SASCO - Sharon Wasserman.

The Saturday night Gala Evening Show includes: The Magic of Kenrick ‘ICE’ McDonald, Aldo Colombini, Swami Yomahmi, and DC Magician of the Year Noland Montgomery, with Magical Master of Ceremonies – Rich Bloch.

For details go to: http://www.magi-whirl.org./ Come and join the fun and meet new magical friends.

~~ Bob Patterson

Professor Hass Lectures at February Meeting

Prior the lecture, President Mike Taggert encouraged members to sell tickets to lay people for Ring 50’s annual Magi-Whirl Gala show March 29 in the 750-seat theater at Bishop Ireton High School in Alexandria, Virginia. The show will feature Rich Bloch as the master of ceremonies. The program will include illusionist Kenrick “Ice” McDonald and the magic of Aldo and Rachel Colombini, Swami Yomahmi, and DC Magician of the Year Noland Montgomery.

Larry Hass, founding director of “The Theory and Art of Magic” program at Muhlenberg College in Pennsylvania, urged Ring 50 members at their February meeting to “make performances more magical” in a new lecture he has developed.
Hass, a philosophy professor at the college who is a magician in his own right, has written a new book, “Transformations: Creating Magic Out of Tricks,” which serves as the foundation for his lecture. He pointed out that experiencing magic is not commonplace but rare. “It touches your heart,” he stressed. Hass noted he personally experienced a feeling of real magic that made him exclaim “Wow!, when he saw the late Tommy Wonder, a creative Dutch magician, perform in Chicago. He then invited others to complete the declaration: “I will never forget the night I saw…” Former Ring 50 president Eric Henning said he would never forget the first time he saw Harry Blackstone Jr. on stage. Rucj Uffelman topped that by recalling witnessing Harry Blackstone Sr. perform. Sam Brothers added he was inspired when he first watched the late Doug Henning.

All eyes were on Dr. Larry Hass

Hass encouraged magicians to develop individual presentational frames for their own acts. He told the Ring 50 audience that frames should “come from your own imagination” and he emphasized that even silent presentations have frames. He also told his lecture crowd of more than 65 that some standard card moves such as the finger break, which has been used by magicians for a half century, may be “on their way out” because lay audiences now are quick to recognize the method. He added that frustration count and double lift also may be on the endangered list. While some methods are close to extinction “we can try to repair them,” he said.

New Members Voted Onboard Ring 50

Two new members were inducted as new Ring 50 members at the meeting. They are Peter Zawadzki, who has been a Yogi Magic Mart student in Baltimore and was inspired by Jeff McBride, and Brandon Tucker, a junior member who started doing stage magic when he was 9 years old. He is now interested in close-up and street magic.

~~ Jim Flanigan