After President
Louis Meyer opened the May meeting, accomplished IBM Ring 50 magicians competed for the annual Dan Lacey Memorial Trophy and the title of ‘Magician of the Year’ before an audience of 57 people. Dan Lacey was a former Ring 50 president (1999-2000) who was noted
for promoting goodwill and fellowship. The four Judges based their selections on originality, presentation, performance, and entertainment skills. This was a top-notch contest and a very close competition by all contestants.
Dick Christian was declared the winner and was presented with the Dan Lacey Trophy for his performance by Louis Meyer, and Cecelia (Lacey) Richey. Dick did his adaptation of Terry Seabrook's classic "Burned Bill to Wallet." He borrowed a $100 bill, used three envelopes and put the bill into one of them, after mixing them up he then labeled the envelopes and two were selected by the volunteer to be burned. The remaining envelope which was thought to have the bill was shown empty. Dick gave his wallet to the volunteer and the bill was found inside a stapled cardboard holder in the wallet.
Dwight Redman did a prediction using 3 different colored envelopes. The woman chose yellow, a man chose blue, and magician left with red. The Woman’s prediction in the envelope said she would choose yellow, the man’s envelope said he would choose blue, the magician’s says the woman will choose yellow, the man will choose blue, and the magician will be left with red. Then he then did a version of Sidewalk Shuffle – a 3 card monte. Next he introduced a Star Trek plot with selected Star Trek card appearing in a nest of boxes and a bottle.
Theo Rushin Jr. performed as a laid off worker who suddenly find pleasure in doing magic for the people on the street. After pulling a mug full of water from an apparently empty paper bag he began with finding and pulling an unusually long piece of rope from his sleeve and pants legs. Then he performed a series of rope and ring-n-rope tricks. He concluded with taking out a wad of one dollar bills from a wallet that was once on fire. He changed the one dollar bills into a hand full of five dollar bills.
The contest included last year’s winner Nolan Montgomery. After magically producing a deck of playing cards, Noland performed a version of "multiple selection" involving the entire audience which he divided into 6 teams. He had each of the teams pick and remember a card. He ultimately revealed each chosen card in rapid-fire succession, including, in one case, using ‘sleight of nose,’ and in another, causing a selected card to shoot out of his hat.
Tom Paxton did an optical illusion routine with business card. Two volunteers assisted with a random number divination using a dice and a divination of a volunteer’s emotional connection or experience.
Reggie ‘Supermagicman’ Rice came on stage with his Michael Jackson style dress and dancing to MJ song Danger doing productions of silks, flowers, fans, cane, and some sleight of hand with a billiard ball. Ending with a production of the USA flag and a large fan.
Arnie Fuoco used a magic light at his finger tips to change a red rose to white rose, to make color changes to a Chinese coin, and a white rope to a red rope. The magic light was also use to change the colors of a CD and a scarf. He used the finger tip light in conjunction with a coloring book making the colors appear and then having all the pages turn blank. He ended the light show by filling a bag with lights and causing them to disappear. He then produced playing cards out of thin air, ending with a double fan of jumbo cards.
Eric Henning opened with a dollar bill that multiplied, into many bills. The last bill was a million-dollar bill which he then ripped it up, ate it, and it became a 50-foot money streamer. Next Eric did a strong elegant Linking Ring routine with Japanese music from the early 1900's. His finale was a story about bubbles ending with a bubble visibly becoming solid.
Rick Beatty ended the competition with an ugly, rainbow-scaled fish that he called Sebastian the Psychic Salmon to predict the name of a playing card chosen by a young audience member. The first attempt was wrong, but the regulation size card grew to about a foot in length with enough pips to be correct.
JUNE 3rd MEETING - Winton Carroll Contest
Get ready for the June 3rd meeting and 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.
Also at the June 3 Meeting - New Officers to be Installed
The newly elected Executive Committee shall be installed during the June 4th meeting. Officers are: President, Louis Meyer; Vice President, Arnie Fuoco; Treasurer, Bob Patterson; Secretary, Eric Henning; Sgt-at-Arms, Tom Paxton. The Board of Directors are: Don Freedman, Dwight Redman, and Michael Taggert. Jim Flanigan, IBM Territorial VP, will conduct the installation.
~ ~ Bob Patterson
The June meeting began with Magi-Whirl Chairman Michael Taggert (left) presenting a HUGE check to Kevin Curry of Bishop Ireton High School for their portion of the proceeds from the Magi-Whirl Gala Public Show. We are very grateful to BIHS for their gracious partnership with us.
Next up was Ring 50’s annual contest for the Winton Carroll Comedy Magician Award. Jim Flanigan and Laurie Curry appeared as a pair of clowns named "Flim" and "Flam." They pulled a small white rabbit and a six-foot-long rabbit from their comic hats. They also produced two long strands of silk from their head ware as well as a 10-foot-long straw. They concluded their segment with a funny jumbo card effect using a sliding card frame.
An old lady took the stage, was chased behind the backdrop and emerged – as Reggie Rice! Reggie (above, center) followed with a comedy card trick with volunteers, during which the selection and a borrowed ring vanished. Reggie produced some quarters, which were put into a gumball machine to find the ring and the card. The machine jammed, and Reggie got more laughs from the struggle with the machine.
Bob Carnathan (left) did two card tricks which got progressively more difficult, with some hilarious byplay with his audience helpers.
