February Teach-in Declared a Success

Before the meeting James Munton had his downsizing sale and all the early birds took home a box of magical goodies. Then President Dwight Redman opened the meeting and introduced the guests to the audience of 64. Three candidates were voted into the National Capital Ring 50. They were: Gary Goodwin, John Hornick and Carlton Silvestro. Dwight reminded everyone to register for Magi-Whirl before the price goes up after April 1st. The February program was “Teach a Slight/Move/False Shuffle/etc.” Several tables were set up to allow a hands-on instruction. The instructors changed tables every 20 minutes.


Bud Smith explained and demonstrated the multiple uses of various applications of the Thumb Palm, Finger Palm, and Bobo Switch in Coin Magic.

Sam Brothers taught two effects: The Poker Player's Picnic from the "Royal Road To Card Magic" by Jean Hugard and Frederick Braue. His second slight was 4 Aces Squared from Lennart Green Volume 7: Green Lite.

James Munton explained his version of the Ambitious Card ending with the signed card appearing in his wallet. He went on to teach the double-lift and top palm.

Larsen Eisenberg performed a version of the Cards Across Plot where he had a spectator choose a card and was not shown to the audience. A second spectator cuts off a group of cards and placed them in his pocket. The first spectator’s card is then revealed and that many cards are caused to join the second spectators cards.

Rick Beatty demonstrated the many ways to use the key card principle. He taught us his method of using the Alex Elmsley, Hammond, and Jordan counts. He talked about stage fright, and posed the question of what do you personally want out of this art; from just being a hobbyist, or a semi-pro, or a collector, etc. tried to get the audience to think about more then just sleights, or tricks.

Glenn Gary closed the meeting with a discussion on the art of stage blocking, and framing your act. He also suggested that you video your act and view your movements on stage and insure you draw the audience attention to magic at hand.

Magi-Whirl 2007

IBM Ring 50’s Magi-Whirl 2007, April 13 & 14. We have lots of dealers scheduled for the dealer room. You can see and talk to real magicians and look at new magic items for sale. On Friday night, April 13, there will be a dealer’s show with the dealers demonstrating the latest magical items, silks, accessories, and supplies. The dealers are: Silk King Studio - Ruth Rice Crone, Bob Little's Guaranteed Magic, Fred Mitchell's Magic Books, DoveLite - Bob Sanders, Hughes Magic, Inc – Richard Hughes, Magic Goods - Pravin Ponnuri, Wonder Imagery - Tim Sonefelt, Sorcery with Class - Scott Correll, Magic by M.P. Lair and Wayne Alan with some preowned Magic & Books. For details go to: http://www.magi-whirl.org./

~ ~ Bob Patterson

"Ring Night" at Ring 50

After the guests were introduced and two new members, Matt Hiller and Richard Kahane, were voted into the Ring, president Dwight Redman began the “Ring Night” performance with a ring and rope combination passing solid thru solid. We learned very early and repeated throughout the evening that a ring really does have a hole in it.

Noland Montgomery performed a rapid-fire, streamlined linking ring routine using 3 very large 13-inch rings and involving the participation of one member from the audience.


Bob Carnathan performed a multiple routine with knots on a rope that came off the rope several times. Then he amazed us with a ring and rope routine.

Rucj Uffelman used a borrowed finger ring and made it pass thru a rope. He ended his routine showing the ring was hypnotic and floated to a vertical position at his fingertips.

Kevin Sievers routine was a mix of parts of Aldo Colombini and Jeff McBride's Linking Ring routines set to music.

Scott McDonald performed two Rope & Ring tricks he learned from a seminar by Tom Craven. The first trick was called Quicksilver where a single ring is removed from the rope even though the spectator can see that the rope is firmly wrapped around the ring right up to the point where it seemingly melts right through the rope. The second part is called Double Quicksiler where two rings of different sizes are tied onto the rope with a very strong knot, and while the spectator holds the ends of the rope, the ring of their choosing is removed from rope even though it appears that to do so is quite impossible since they are holding the ends that need to be used to untie the knot!

Eric Henning, announcing "an experiment in alchemy," brought two men up on stage, borrowed a gold wedding band from one, which the other gentleman examined. The helpers then examined a wand and a length of ribbon, all of which were pronounced solid. The ring was threaded onto the ribbon, and while the audience helpers held both ends of the ribbon and the wand, the ring magically left the ribbon and was seen merrily spinning on the center of the wand!

Lorenzo the Great (Larry Lipman) closed the evening performances with a version of David Ginn's "Comedy Linking Rings" with the help of two volunteers from the audience.

Photos by Bob Patterson and Jim Flanigan

Magi-Whirl 2007 News
Don’t miss I.B.M. National Capital Ring 50, Magi-Whirl 2007 April 13 & 14, 2007. Four lectures, plus two close-up performances, and a Gala evening show. Magi-Whirl is being held at Bishop Ireton High School, 201 Cambridge Rd, Alexandria VA. $45 in advance, $50 at the door. Details: http://www.Magi-Whirl.org.

Lectures by Michael Lair, Tim Sonefelt, Eric Henning, and Barry Taylor, plus two close-up performances with Scott Correll and Larsen Eisenberg. Gala evening show includes: The Magic of Krandl & Co., Michael Lair, Tim Sonefelt, Magic by Sanders, Magician Extraordinaire Michael Taggert, DC Magician of the Year Dwight Redman, and a host of others “The best little convention in the National Capital Area”

Time to Pay Your Dues $$$
Ring 50 dues for calendar year 2007 are due at the February 7th meeting. Treasurer, Bob Patterson, will be collecting the $15 annual dues. Checks are preferred but cash will be accepted. However, please try to have the exact amount. Make checks payable to IBM Ring 50. You can also send a check to his home address at 3450 Wainscott Place, Lake Ridge, VA 22192.

~ ~ Bob Patterson

Henning Headlines at First Night Annapolis

On December 31, 2006, Ring 50 Past President Eric Henning will be the headline family entertainer at First Night Annapolis. Beginning at 6:30 p.m., he'll be performing a special 30-minute show five times throughout the evening in the 600-seat Key Auditorium at St. John's College. Even though Henning is in the event's largest venue, only 10% of the expected 30,000 visitors will be able to see his show. "It's a great honor, but also a great opportunity," said Henning. "It's going to be challenging to fill such a large space with magic!"

Purchasing a souvenir admission button to First Night Annapolis 2006 allows you access to all of the fantastic venues and are available through www.FirstNightAnnapolis.ORG and select local Giant Food and Ledo's Pizza locations in Anne Arundel County. Since 1990, Maryland's capital city has been transformed every year on December 31st into a swirling theatre-without-walls, a non-stop stage where the easygoing atmosphere erases barriers between performer and audience. This festival offers spirited indoor performances in buildings seldom used for anything the likes of what First Night Annapolis brings to them and surrounding streets as well.

Beginning with First Act’s performances where children big and small are entertained in highly interactive environments throughout the evening’s First Night Annapolis programming, family-centric performances run right up until our traditional “March to Midnight” for the waterfront fireworks finale!

"Holiday Magic" at Ring 50 Meeting

Ring 50 President, Dwight Redman, opened the December meeting. The 12 guests were introduced to the 65 members attending the meeting. Mike Taggert gave an update on the progress of “Magi-Whirl 2007”. So far we have received contracts from eight dealers with the possibility of two more. The Saturday night Gala show line-up will have some top performers led by our own magical master of ceremonies, Bob Carnathan. For more information on “Magi-Whirl 2007” go to http://www.magi-whirl.org/. Mike reminded members wishing to put an Ad in the Gala Program to be sure and submit it to Bob Patterson before March 23, 2007. Dwight then opened the “Holiday Magic Show” teaching us how to do the color changing silk.

Arnold Fuoco did a routine showing a picture of Rudolph but he had no red nose. After repeated attempts he proudly displayed his red nose, then his red nose vanished and appeared on Arny’s nose. The Christmas season always has candy canes and the Holiday Magic Show was no exception. The Amazing Fuoco brought out his candy canes with tassels (ala striped Chinese sticks) and entertained us with an amusing routine including a tassel in the pants.

Tim Cannon, our newest member, baffled the audience with a cut and restored rope routine in which he showed us how sharp the scissors were by accidentally cutting his finger. After applying a band-aid he went did a modified Martin Lewis "Snacks Alive" vanishing coke bottle in a bag and produce a can of Pringles and tennis balls. Then he pulled pieces of newspaper from his pockets and socks and performed Mark Mason's "No Tear-Torn & Restored Newspaper".

Don Freedman presented a Cost Analysis Simulator routine. Geoff Weber played the role of the contractor who submitted the cost proposal. Bob Patterson was the cost estimator who was holding the contractor cost proposal in a sealed envelope. Kevin Sievers acting as the contracting officer calculated the cost of the contractor’s proposal using a psychic calculator to create a random number that identified a page, a line, and an image out of a book of over 175,000 clip art images. When Bob opened the sealed envelope inside was a large version of Santa Claus that matched the selected one in the book of clip art.

Noland Montgomery performed Rich Marotta's routine called "Mugged," in which the performer recounts how he was robbed at gunpoint. The magician places the cash from his wallet, his wrist watch, and finger ring in a ski mask, as he re-enacts the robbery for the audience, but then demonstrates how he outwitted the thief making the three items disappear from inside the mask and reappear in their original locations, with the cash back in the wallet, the watch back on his wrist, and the ring on his finger. Noland followed this with a Joe Lefler's version of "mental epic" in which three members of the audience are asked to think, respectively, of a city, a means of travel, and a dollar number, and send their thoughts to the magician telepathically. Noland ultimately demonstrated that he has correctly read the spectators minds using a white board to record their telepathic waves.

"Mr. Magic", Bert Udovin, pulled four quarters from the air and dropped them into a bag. These changed into a dollar bill when the bag was emptied. Next he then found three rabbits in an "Empty Coin Purse". The rabbits changed from one in each hand to two in one hand. Then all three magically go from the magician’s hand to join the assistant's one. Bert ended with the "Dove Pan" where he tore some paper to make an animal and placed them in the “Dove Pan”. Suddenly a rabbit appeared in the pan.

Jim Flanigan (TVP) opened with a Santa clown presentation of the Professor's Nightmare in which he made three varying strands of blue rope turn into three equal lengths. The rope appeared to be tangled into a mess only to come out as one full length. Then Jim pulled a chicken and four eggs out of the Santa hat as a prelude to doing a holiday version of Grandma's Necklace. A young lady from the audience, Molly, held a wand as two pieces of rope were tied over it. Four colored scarves were wrapped around the ropes and two solid rings dangled from the strands. When the wand was taken away and waved over the ropes, all of the scarves and rings fell to the floor. Next he did a Spiderman coloring book presentation. Jim ended the set with a card prediction using Tom Onosaka's Frame-Up in which the chosen card appears in a framed drawing of a whole deck of cards.

The legendary Rick Beatty came on stage with a warning for everyone that power tools are not toys, showing a large nail thru his finger. There was a search for Rudolph’s nose that began with Rick finding them in the pockets of the kids present (d-lites) then progressing to solid noses that kept disappearing and reappearing then multiplying into four (sponge balls). And for his grand finale, a recitation of the classic poem entitled, “Twas The Night Before Christmas”, but was it tragically interrupted when the mouse he was holding was accidentally smooshed.

Geoff Weber announced his gig Friday nights 15 & 29 December at the "Haad Thai" Restaurant. He then demonstrated the powers of the mind by making a randomly selected bell from the five that were suspended by a cord from a wand to swing.

“James Wand” (aka James Munton) invited all the kids on stage to help him. After some fun bits of business, he asked one of the kids to select a card that was shown to the audience and returned to the pack. He asked the other kids to each pick a number which when added together came to 14. Using the skillful touch of a gambler, James cut exactly 14 cards The kids helped James count the cards and the 14th card just happened to be the original selected card! James then led the kids in a cheerful rendition of "We Wish You a Merry Christmas!" to close the meeting...

~ ~ Bob Patterson

Barry's Magic Shop Featured in Comic Strip

"Zippy the Pinhead" strip takes Barry's plight nationwide.

Barry Taylor, proprietor, writes:
"Barry’s Magic Shop is the focus on Zippy the Pinhead in today’s Washington Post Comic section. Zippy’s writer, Bill Griffith, is aware of our plight with Montgomery County Government and wrote about smoke and mirrors used by the County.


Things do not look good for us right now. I will be writing you another letter in December asking you to write a letter or resend your letter to Ike Leggett, the new County Executive as of Dec. 4. Mr. Leggett has the power to reverse the decision to tear down our building. We are given until Jan. 31, 2007 to stay. I will also ask that you carbon copy your letter to press which I will provide links.

Warmest wishes,

Barry & Susie

Barry’s Magic Shop