Noland Montgomery Featured in Washington Post

Ring 50 Magician of the Year Noland Montgomery was featured in a full-color article in the June 17 edition of the Washington Post. In an article in the KidsPost section titled "Here's the Real Trick: Practice Makes Presto," Montgomery, who has won the Dan Lacey Contest four times, is shown and interviewed to help children understand what it takes to be a professional magician.

The full-page spread includes actions photos and pictures of Noland's props, and he encourages kids to start at their local library. The online version even has a video in which Montgomery teaches a trick.

"'You have to read books; watch other magicians perform; and practice, practice, practice.' Montgomery says that anyone, at any age, can be a magician."

Louis Meyer sworn in as president IBM Ring 50

Louis Meyer was sworn in as the new president of The National Capital Ring at our June 4th meeting. He stepped up from the vice president’s position to assume the leadership role. The Washington DC, TVP, Jim Flanigan, conducted the candlelight Points of Light installation ceremony. Others taking their oaths of office were Eric Redman as vice president, Bob Patterson returning as treasurer, Sam Brothers as secretary and Reggie Rice as sergeant-at-arms. Outgoing Ring 50 President Michael Taggert, joined by former Ring 50 leaders Dwight Redman and Don Freedman will serve as directors.


Magi-Whirl 2008 Chairman Presents Check

Mike Taggert, Magi-Whirl Chairman, presented Raymond Curry of Bishop Ireton High School, Technical Theater Department a large check for $2,835, the school’s share of the highly successful Magi-Whirl Gala Show.

~ ~ Bob Patterson

Winton Carroll’s “Most Humorous Magician Contest”

Once up on a time in the land of IBM Ring 50 legerdemain, between thunderstorms that ran through the Washington DC area, there was a contest for the “Most Humorous Magician” held in the honor of Winton Carroll, former Ring president (1962-1963). A $100 grant from Winton’s widow, Emma, was awarded to the winner. The sixty-two audience members enjoyed the comedy and magic of the performers. Defending his title from last year was Reggie Rice, and by membership vote he was again this years winner!

Leading off the “Most Humorous Magician” contest was Larry Lipman (Lorenzo the Great), performing as "Grorenzo the Late" (Lorenzo the Great) did color-changing silks, a sponge ball routine and nesting wands while reciting patter in which he mixed up the beginning consonants of most of the words. His funny line of patter included such lines as he's not a “mategracian” (great magician) and “yank thoo mery vuch” (thank you very much).

Scott McDonald, performing as "The Redneck Magician" offered his version of "The Guessin' Card" whereby he fooled a young audience assistant into believing that he could predict any card that was pulled from the deck. In fact he did guess the right card, along with 51 others on a single jumbo card! He explain the deck was really his NASCAR Trading Card collection in disguise, and asked the young man to pull any four cards from the deck, and he would reveal their true identity. Using the magical powers of his ball cap - "The Redneck Magician" accurately revealed the cards as noted race car drivers including an unexpected one from his "Girls of Hooters" collection. The Redneck Magish then apologized for chewing gum while performing, and showed of his collection of ABC gum (Already Been Chewed). He then proceeded to recombobulate the old used gum back into ready again for chewin' gum and finished with a cascade of gum into the audience.

Professor Ludwig von Schnitzlemacher, (alias John Roberts), sporting a small square black mustache) made a funny entrance speaking in German. He had a five-letter word on a card selected from a pack of 25 and returned to a non-see-thru envelope that he set on fire. Then, using a colander as a helmet to amplify the "voices” in his head, he produced several magnetic letters on a metal tray that eventually spelled the chosen word.

Noland Montgomery opened with a comedy routine with a torn and restored newspaper. He followed this with some impromptu puppetry by fashioning a rabbit with a cloth napkin he identified as Hank the Hare. After asking a spectator mentally choose a number, Hank the Hare demonstrated his psychic power to scribble the number on a pad of paper matching the number the spectator choose. Hank also engaged in other pratfalls, including, to Noland's dismay, sneaking a dollar bill out of Noland's jacket pocket and devouring it like a piece of lettuce followed by a loud burp.

Tom Paxton dazzled us with an original routine using a Misers Dream type coin production going to a pocket with half dollars while talking about kids and how they spend money on stupid things. Ending with the production of a 3½" half-dollar that he “had to cough up for his wife”. Then Tom then transitioned into a version of “Heiny 500” he called "My Las Vegas Money" where his wife would only give me $5 to gamble. He changed the five $1 dollar bills to five $100 dollar bills, gambled and lost almost all of it and then changed the currency them back to $1 bills so he could tell his wife he broke even for the night.

Bob Carnathan, who placed second in the contest, opened with a prediction by having an audience member name an animal. First selection did not match the pig prediction in the envelope. The second selected farm animal did not match the pig prediction either. Finally with many, many hints and Bob hamming it up, the spectator went out on a limb and chose a pig, the correct animal in the envelope. Next Bob performed a very funny mental transference routine with two spectators connected by a Rich Bloch Collectors Workshop look-a-like mental transference device (actually two plungers and a spiral cord) on their heads. The woman was asked to pick a card. Through the device, with the male spectator having some difficulty reading the hints in a crystal ball, Bob correctly identified a card chosen by the other spectator.

The “Legendary” Rick Beatty with the assistance of two helpers comically astounded the audience with a poster routine using names of famous magicians including one with the word “ME” on it. In another bit, he had another spectator select a card (10 of spades) that he made vanish. He asked the spectator the name of the card and reached into his pocket and wrongly produced a 3 of spades. Then pulling the card all the way out showing it was really a foot long with 10 spades on it altogether.

For his winning performance, Reggie Rice – appearing under his signature stage name “SuperMagicMan”- started by opening his flat briefcase from which he pulled a regulation size bowling ball. He revealed us his biggest secret in magic was he learned everything from the "Magic for Dummies" book. Using the instructions in the book he turned a bottle of coke into a shot glass with liquid in it. He also did a card prediction opening the book to a double page illustration of a King of Clubs, which a young audience member had picked. This was followed by a “do as I do” paper tear with the help of a young woman from the crowd. Using a roll of toilet paper, he made a ball of it disappear only to reappear as a long streamer from his mouth. His conclusion was a “Dancing With the Stars” routine.

~ ~ Bob Patterson

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

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