AUGUST 2011
Jon Dorenbos
page 40
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HERMETIC PRESS, INC.
1500 S.W. Trenton St., Seattle, WA 98106-2468
AUGUST 2011
M-U-M • Volume 101 • Number 3
REGULAR FEATURES
31 Tech Tricks • by Bruce Kalver
32 Nielsen Gallery: Iasia • by Tom Ewing
34 Basic Training: Cards to Wherever • by Ian Kendall
38 I Left My Cards at Home • by Steve Marshall
46 Under/Over • by Joshua Jay
54 Pro Files • by James Munton
61 Informed Opinion • New Product Reviews
72 Theory & Art of Magic • by Larry Hass
73 The Tax Magician • by Steve Snyder
74 I’ve Been Thinkin’ • by Norman Beck
76 The Dean’s Diary • by George Schindler
76 Basil the Baffling • by Alan Wassilak
78 Confessions of a Paid Amateur • by Rod Danilewicz
THIS MONTH'S FEATURE ARTICLES
10 Newsworthy
26 A Magician Prepares • by Dennis Loomis
27 The Power of Bending Air • by Tom Vorjohan & Daniel Herron
40 COVER STORY • by Marc DeSouza
50 The Houdini Award • by Julie Sobanski
52 Lucille Pierce • by Tom Ewing
56 Quick Look Book Nook: Curtain Call
S.A.M. NEWS
6 From the Editor’s Desk
7 Chadwick’s Magical Wisdom
8 From the President’s Desk
11 M-U-M Assembly News
23 New Members and Reinstatements
24 Broken Wands
25 Good Cheer List
75 Our Advertisers
M-U-M (ISSN 00475300 USPS 323580) is published monthly for $40 per year by The Society of American Magicians,
11086 S. Dartmoor Place, Parker, CO 80138 . Periodical postage paid at Parker, CO and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to M-U-M, c/o Manon Rodriguez, P.O. Box 505, Parker, CO 80138.
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MAGIC - UNITY - MIGHT
Editor
Michael Close
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Copyright © 2011
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FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK
MICHAEL CLOSE
T
hiscolumn is the last thing that gets writ-ten each month; this is due not so much to pro-crastination (which I’m very good at), but rather to allow the inclusion of any late-breaking news. The first week of July had lots of news, and, unfortunately, it was all bad.As I’m sure most of you know by now, PNP Hank Moorehouse died July 2, 2011, while traveling in China with a touring close-up show he produced. At the national convention in Pittsburgh (which, at the time of this writing, is next week), Hank was to be the guest of honor. Hank’s memory will be honored with a celebration of his life. George Schindler offers some thoughts on his friend in the Dean’s Diary column on page 76. I’m sure that there will be some great Hank Moorehouse stories shared in Pittsburgh. Here’s one from Dennis Loomis:
“I’m still shocked at the news about my old pal Hank Moorehouse. Hank was a big influence as I started my pro-fessional career. For the brief period that he ran the small magic shop in Ann Arbor, I was his Saturday afternoon counter demonstrator. I also traveled with him to many con-ventions to help him run the booth.
“In his early years as a magician, Hank fell in love with the vanishing cigarette in the handkerchief (thumb tip version). He was a smoker, and seldom went out of the house without a thumb tip and a handkerchief. When Hank, Marcello Truzzi, and I founded Ring 210 in Ann Arbor, we had an annual banquet with dinner and a show. To aid the treasury, we sold tickets to lay people as well. At our first banquet, Hank was the emcee. To warm up the audience, he had decided to do the cigarette vanish. He lit a cigarette, took out his pocket handkerchief, formed a cavity in the handker-chief with his thumb, and pushed the lit cigarette inside, as he had done thousands of times before. As he withdrew his thumb, for some unknown reason, the thumb tip did not stay on, but flew up into the air and fell to the stage with a clatter. None of us who knew him could believe it, and neither could Hank. He looked down at that thumb tip smoldering away on the floor and said, ‘Oh, s#*t!’
“The next week, Marcello and I went to a trophy shop in town and bought a small trophy, glued a thumb tip on to it, and had the plaque engraved with the words ‘Oh, s#*t!” We presented it to him at our next meeting and we all had a good laugh about it. Hank laughed the loudest, as we knew he would.
“He was a gem, and one of a small group of people who really helped me to get my career going in the first few years. It’s hard to believe that he’s gone.”
Hank was the subject of the cover story by PNP Bradley Jacobs in the June 2011 M-U-M. So long, Hank; you will be missed.
To compound the sad news, the magic world lost several other prominent people during the last week of June and the first week of July. Tom Ewing writes, “Houdini buffs and magic history enthusiasts lost a real friend with the passing of Sid Radner on June 25. Sid was a leading authority on Houdini and frequently lectured at the annual Magic Col-lectors’ Association gatherings. At one time he owned Houdini’s original water torture cell, the oversized milk can that preceded the cell, scrapbooks, handcuffs, locks, picks, and other secret devices used by the escape king. He obtained many of these directly from Hardeen, and later broadened his collection significantly. Always interested in spreading Houdini’s name and fame, he was associated with the Houdini Museum in Niagara Falls, the Outagamie Museum/Houdini Historical Center in Appleton, Wisconsin, and other public venues. This kind and gentle man will be missed.”
My old friend Jimmy Yoshida died on July 3, 2011. Jimmy was a kind and charming man, who always seemed to have a twinkle in his eyes and a smile on his face. He was a great host and a great ambassador for magic. Aloha, Jimmy.
You may not know who B.J. Jennings was, but she was important in the lives of two of magic’s legendary greats, Dai Vernon and her husband, Larry Jennings. For a while, Vernon lived at the Jennings home. When Larry’s health declined, B.J.’s ministrations kept him alive longer than would have been expected. After Larry’s death, B.J. moved to Las Vegas, and Lisa and I got to know her there. She was fiesty and always fun to be around, and she had great stories of life with Larry and the Professor. B.J. died on July 4, 2011.
On an upbeat note, Warren J. Kaps, chairman of The Society of American Magicians Magic Endowment Fund, has announced that four young magicians have been awarded scholarships to two magic camps this summer. As part of the Endowment Fund program, one will attend the Sorcerer’s Safari Camp in Toronto, Canada, and three will go to Tannen’s Magic Camp in suburban Pennsylvania. Here are their names:
Sorcerer’s Safari Winner: Mario Seki (age 13)
Tannen’s Magic Camp Winners: Sean Burke (age 14), David Laid (age 13), and Yathundandh R.R. (age 13)
The Society of American Magicians Magic Endowment Fund is proud of its achievement and growth, as well as the expansion of its scholarship program, which enables deserving youngsters from all over the world to attend magic camps.
VINNY GROSSO
FROM THE PRESIDENT’S DESK
Promises - When I ran
for second vice president, I made a video campaign piece outlining several goals I was committed to accomplishing. Thanks to the national presi-dents who preceded me, we were able to get them all done before I even became president. The final one happened this past June with the help of past presidents Mike Miller and Mark Weidhaas, and RVP Jania Taylor.
The goal was to produce magic shows in theaters that featured young magicians and promoted the S.A.M. and S.Y.M. There are many people out there with a strong interest in magic, who have the potential to be great members of our society and local assem-blies. Unfortunately, they are not aware of our organization, but they are aware of magic shows at their local theater.
So, when I had the opportunity to produce a family magic show at Detroit’s Meadow Brook Music Festival, I capitalized on it. The show went over well; we featured two young and very talented magicians, TJ Ketchmark and Savannah Durocher. It’s too early to tell what impact this show will have on the Detroit assembly, but all indications are that it was successful. We will work to produce more of these shows and continue to fine tune the program.
membershiP Cards - When PNP Mike Miller met
Israeli deputy Yosi Notkovitz, our new style membership card was born. Yosi’s suggestion was a hard plastic card similar to a credit card or hotel key – a card that doesn’t wear out and one that you can be proud to show off to someone. We didn’t want to stop there; we also decided that the card should reflect our rich history and feature past members of historical significance to the S.A.M. Each year, another member from our past would be highlighted, making the membership card a collector’s item. We wanted to take it even further; we are magicians, so shouldn’t our member-ship card be magical? Each year we will incorporate a new magic effect into the card.
This year I decided to feature past national president and former M-U-M editor Milbourne Christopher. Mr. Christopher certainly did a lot for the S.A.M. and the art of magic, and his legacy lives on through the Milbourne Christopher Foundation. The MCF presents their prestigious awards at the banquet of our national convention. This year, Maurine Christopher, wife of the late Milbourne, was the guest of honor for the Life Member gathering. This is where the new membership cards were unveiled.
I hope you enjoy your new membership card; you’ll receive it when you renew your membership. I am very excited about the new magic effect within the card. M-U-M columnist Steve Marshall was the creative force behind it, and I think you’ll have fun with it.
We also added a new feature to the life member’s cards – gold! If you want the gold version of the membership card, contact our life member chairperson Clem Kinnicutt at lifemembers@aol. com. Also, if you’d like to learn more about Milbourne Christo-pher you can read the article John Moehring wrote about him in
M-U-M on either our Web site or via the magicSAM app for the
iPhone/iPad/iPod touch.
something for everyone - We recently released
the first Smartphone app for a magic organization, magicSAM. The response has been amazing. In just the first month it has been downloaded approximately seven hundred times in eight countries and installed on a thousand devices. It’s only going to get better, because we are diligently working on the next version!
We are also exploring porting the app over to other devices such as Android and Blackberry. Whenever we work on a project in the S.A.M., we always have to ask ourselves, “Is this a good thing for our members?” There is no single program or service that we provide our members that is a perfect fit for everyone. That’s why we try to offer as many unique benefits as we can, so there truly is something for everyone.
With magicSAM, we wanted to lead the way with the first Smartphone app for a magic organization; we knew we were going to have to focus on one platform. We chose Apple’s iOS platform because of its market reach. The number of downloads and installs we’ve had the first month validates that decision. Please send us your feedback on ways to improve the app, or let us know of other platforms you would be interested in. I can’t promise we’ll be able to do everything that’s requested, but we will continue to strive to offer something for everyone.
travel tiPs - I travel a lot, and I travel with people who
travel a lot. I have picked up many travel tips through the years, and I will periodically share them with you here. One of my favorites is from Brad Sherwood. Brad is an improv artist who was regularly featured on Whose Line is It Anyway; he is perpetu-ally on tour with his improv partner Colin Mochrie. Brad likes a dark hotel room at night and was frustrated with the gap between the curtains covering the window. His solution? Take a hanger out of the closet, the one with clips for pants. Use the clips to join together the two curtains. Presto! You can now sleep in darkness. If you want to see more of Brad’s genius, check out Two Man
Group on Amazon.com; it’s a DVD of Colin and Brad’s improv
show.
summer of Conventions friends - The summer
is in full swing and so are magic conventions. Magic conventions are not just great for the magic they provide, they’re also a great way to catch up with friends you haven’t seen in a while.
Is it just me, or do we all go through the following cycle as a magician? As a young magician we go to our first convention and we don’t miss a single event. We practice newly learned effects between lectures, buy all that we can from the dealer’s room, and leave with enough new things for two shows. It’s all about the magic. Then, as we get older and we go to conventions, we end up missing events because we’re too involved in a conversation with an old friend. The line-up of acts performing and lecturing becomes secondary to the friends who will be attending. It’s all about our friends in magic.
To use PNP Mark Weidhaas’s line: “You have a friend in the S.A.M.” I hope to see you at one of the conventions!
S.A.M. National Officers
Dean: George Schindler, 1735 East 26th St.,
Brooklyn, NY 11229, (718) 336-0605, Fax (718) 627-1397, [email protected]
President: Vinny Grosso, 270 Mansion St.,
Coxsackie, NY 12051 (518) 756-1891 [email protected]
President Elect: J. Christopher Bontjes, 2313
Atwood Ct., Danville, IL 61834 (217)431-4791 [email protected]
First Vice President: Dal Sanders, 3316
Northaven Rd, Dallas, TX 75229 (214) 902-9200, [email protected]
Secretary: Marlene Clark, 435 Main Street,
Durham, CT 06422, (860) 349-8149, Skype: marlene.clark, [email protected]
Treasurer: Mary Ann Blowers, 3 Christopher
Bluffs Court, St. Louis, MO 63129 (314) 846-8468 [email protected] Skype: maryan.blowers
Regional Vice Presidents
New England: CT MA RI NH ME VT
Tucker B. Goodman, 7 Evans Road, #2, Marblehead, MA 01945, (617) 901-5187, [email protected]
North Atlantic: NY NJ
Pat Colby, [email protected]
Mid Atlantic: PA DE MD VAWV DC
David W. Bowers, 169 Tobin Dr., Chambersburg, PA 17201(717) 414-7574,
South Atlantic: FL AL GA MS NC SC
Rick Hinze, (770)471-7558, [email protected]
Central Plains: KY TN OH IN MI
Jania Taylor, (231)242-8242, [email protected]
Midwest: IL MN WI MO ND NE KS SD IA
Jeff Sikora, 13023 Crown Point Ave., Omaha, NE 68164 (402)-339-6726, [email protected]
South Cental States: TX AR OK NM LA
Jeff Lanes, (713)850-1770, [email protected]
Southwest: CA AZ NV HI
Kenrick “Ice” McDonald, PO Box 341034, Los Angeles, CA 90034 (310)-559-8968, [email protected] Northwest: WA OR UT ID CO AK WY MT Michael Roth, (503)493-8316, [email protected] Canada Shawn Farquhar, (604)936-1234, [email protected]
Society of Young Magicians Director
Jann Wherry Goodsell, 329 West 1750 North, Orem, Utah 84057 (801) 376-0353. [email protected]
Living Past National Presidents Bradley M. Jacobs, Richard L. Gustafson, Roy A. Snyder, Bruce W. Fletcher, James E. Zachary, Frank W. Dailey, Cesareo Pelaez, David R. Goodsell, William E. Andrews, Robert A. Steiner, Fr. Cyprian Murray, Michael D. Douglass, George Schindler, Dan Rodriguez, Dan Garrett, Donald F. Oltz Jr., Craig Dickson, Loren C. Lind, Gary D. Hughes, Harry Monti, Jann Wherry Goodsell, Warren J. Kaps, Ed Thomas, Jay Gorham, John Apperson, Richard M. Dooley, Andy Dallas, Maria Ibáñez, Bruce Kalver, Mike Miller, Mark Weidhaas.
Newsworthy
An Open Letter to
All Magicians:
Save money while you’re saving the world! In continuing efforts to support United States Armed Forces, The Society of American Magicians has recently begun offering discounted membership fees to active military personnel. Active military personnel have the opportunity to join or renew their member-ship in the S.A.M. at the reduced rate of $35.00 at www.societyo-famericanmagicians.memberlodge.org/memberappSAM. This membership includes monthly issues of M-U-M online and other member benefits.
I was recently appointed by S.A.M. President Mark Weidhaas to the position of Military Member Liaison. To make the new program effective, I will need the help of every magician who is or has been in the military or who knows someone who is.
Additionally, we are making every effort to connect new military members with the nearest assembly. We encourage those assemblies to extend personal and financial courtesies to the military members. Please let us know about any incentives your assembly offers to encourage participation by military personnel.
Future issues of M-U-M will make special mention of these men and women who protect and serve Americans. Please help me with this endeavor by sending me contact information for any member of your assembly who is connected to any of the Armed Forces so that I can introduce myself to them personally.
I sincerely thank you for helping us promote this worthwhile endeavor. I believe this program offers a win-win-win situation. It benefits the new members, the assemblies, and magic!
scott hollingsworth,military member liaison [email protected]
Convention in
One Night 2011
Is it possible to have a magic convention in one night? Ab-solutely! May 3, 2011, marked the Rhode Island Societies of Magicians fifth Convention in One Night, and it was a great success. Bruce Kalver did a fantastic job of organizing the event, which included close-up and stage shows, as well as lectures and a dealer area. Many guests were
in attendance, including S.A.M. President Mark Weidhaas and Eric Jones, who was recently featured in an M-U-M cover story.
The night opened with some great close-up magic from Mark Weidhaas and Eric Jones. Mark, looking very dapper, performed an excellent set of magic. His performance was both baffling and entertaining. Eric performed some nice card
magic, and demonstrated his skill with coins, perform-ing much of the magic in the spectator’s hands.
A quick break gave the crowd some time to shop. Diamond’s Magic was the main attraction in the dealer area, with a large assortment of books, videos, effects, and props. Tony Karpinski was also on hand, displaying his
beautiful hand-crafted effects. As folks shopped, the professional performers mingled with the crowd. Eric Jones was kind enough to offer advice on a book purchase, giving his seal of approval.
There was plenty to learn from the evening’s three lecturers. Mark Weidhaas taught the history and secrets behind his highly successful character, Inspector Magic. Mark was completely
comfortable going in and out of character, switching between performing and teaching. He touched upon character development and the importance of family magic. Mark also offered tips on using a common thread throughout your per-formance.
With twenty-three years of experience, Bob Carroll presented a great lecture on performing school magic. He explained the business side of magic, as well as audience management and keeping the adults interested. The final lecturer, Eric Jones, taught some fantastic close-up magic, including the
Invisible Cigarette, a truly amazing effect, and a great three-coin routine using un-gimmicked coins.
During the course of the evening, Mark Weidhaas presented Presidential Citations to Bob Carroll and Bruce Kalver for their many years of dedication to the art of magic.
The night ended with a great stage show. Bob Carroll opened with a hilarious ventriloquism routine, even bringing Bruce Kalver into the act. Vinny Grosso took a more serious approach, performing magic with cards and silks. Getting back to the humorous side was Tony Gangi and his whacky sideshow.
Mark Weidhaas brought us back to more traditional magic, performing magic with money and changing the color of 45-rpm records. Alexanderia is one of the few female escape artists in the world, and she was kind enough to take the stage as well. Eric Jones closed the show with a polished set of magic.
Huge thanks to Bruce Kalver for organizing everything, and to all of the guests and performers who made this a most enjoyable convention. —Chris natale
Bob Carroll Eric Jones Tony Gangi Alexanderia
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ASSEMBLY NEWS
Society of American Magicians Monthly News
AUGUST 2011
Volume 101, Number 3
1
Paul HallasscHneider lecturer
New York, NY— A visitor to the Magic Table for many years, Albert Callus of Assembly 168 was in from New Jersey with Marco and Tim Fortune this month. Marco did a beautiful effect with a key. We had a great time with them. They joined the regulars, PP Jerry Oppenheimer and his wife Lee, myself, Secretary Pat Colby, and board members Jordan Linker, Rene Clement, and Richard Bossong. The Table meets Fridays from 12:30 on for lunch at the Edison Hotel Café on 47th Street between 7th and 8th Avenue in Times Square.
Our monthly meeting was held on June at Mount Sinai. President Ken Ferst was absent, so First VP Margaret Steele started meeting at 7:30. The first order of business was our annual election of the Board of Directors. This went very smoothly. Admission’s Chairman Bob Friedhoffer announced that we had two new members to swear in. They were Ed Checkett and Jared Molton. Sworn in they were, welcomed by the assembly. Then First VP Margaret Steele, producer of this year’s Salute, gave signed posters from our Salute staring Thomas Solomon to all those who worked so hard on this year’s show. Bill Gleason was singled out with an award and a special award was given to Thomas Solomon to a nice round of applause. George Silverman announced a special workshop. Other committee reports were given. The meeting was then ended with ritual.
The after-meeting event was The Willie Schneider Memorial Lecture produced by Meir Yedid. Meir Yedid was introduced by PA 1 Dean
Eric DeCamps. Because we have many new members, Meir gave a beautiful history of this lecture and the man it honors. At times it was quite touching, because it came from the heart. He then intro-duced the lecturer, Paul Hallas. One nice thing was that Paul’s lecture was filled with effects that were within the abilities of any of the fifty people who attended the lecture. It was a wonderful lecture and night at the PA 1. —Tom Klem
Parent Assembly One– Meets the first Friday 8 PM at Mt. Sinai Medical Center, 1425 Madison Avenue (96th Street), New York, New York.
2
cOlOMBinilecture
SAN FrANCISCo, CA— A second May meeting was scheduled in order to have Aldo and Rachel Colombini lecture as part of their Final Tour. It was well worth the ad-ditional meeting, because the Colombinis not only are great magicians, they also have a wonderful sense of humor. The repartee between Rachel and Aldo kept us laughing while they baffled us with their magic. Rachel was very open about her recent major surgery and thanked us for our thoughts, prayers, and contri-butions.
Our regular June meeting had an excellent teaching portion; the subject was false shuffles and false cuts. Corky LeVallee began with a number of false shuffles that to the uniniti-ated looked like the real thing. Similarly, the false cuts had the appearance of true deck cutting but did nothing to rearrange the cards. Rich Sequine added a few cuts to round out the teaching program.
The theme for the magic was twofold. Since we held an auction at the May meeting,
members could show tricks that they bought at the auction or tricks purchased from the Colombinis. Corky showed Dean’s Box, Rob Shapiro presented the Needle through Balloon, and Hippo Lau did a nice presentation of a giant Three Card Monte. The Colom-binis were represented by Jack Langdell doing Restless Cards, Stu Bacon showing Mind Reading Past and Present, and Walt Johnson doing a nice multiple cut and restored rope.
The others brought magic of their choosing: Rich and Bob Kuhn did great things with cards, Bill Langell did a mental effect with pennies, and Tamaka made a card disappear from a metal box and appear in a previously shown empty canister. The interesting aspect of Tamaka’s presentation was that the two pieces of apparatus were well over seventy-five years old and were recently restored to working condition.
The evening was further enhanced by cookies that Corky brought. They dis-appeared without any false shuffles, cuts, or other sleights. —Stu Bacon
Golden Gate Assembly 2 meets the first Wednesday at 7:30 PM in the Community Room of the Taravel Police Station, 2345 24th Ave. San Francisco. Contact: Tamaka. 415 531-9332,[email protected]
4
annualBanQuet
PHILADeLPHIA, PA—
In June, over one hundred members and their guests attended our annual banquet, which featured an amazing array of talent. Following the cocktail hour, during which we were treated to the keyboard magic of Ralph Armstrong, everyone enjoyed a sumptuous buffet dinner. After dinner, Assembly 4 Dean Professor
Rem handed out the trophies to those individuals who placed first, second, and third in the close-up and stage contests this year. He then presented the prestigious Charles H. Hopkins award to long-time Assembly 4 member Charles Murter – a gentleman in every sense of the word. A round of applause was then given to outgoing President Ed Hanisco for all of his hard work this year as he passed the gavel and wand on to incoming President Ralph Armstrong.
After the award ceremony, the stage show began, for which Stuart Rudnick ably served as the masters of ceremonies. The first act consisted of a dazzling number of effects performed in lightning fast succession by surprise guests Arlen Solomon, Eric Lampert, PNP Dick Gustafson, Ed Hanisco, Bob Little, Professor Rem, Reba Strong, Jeff Carson, Tom Ewing, Joe Mogar, and Al Lloyd. Following this array of talented performers, Sam Sandler took to the stage and performed a colorful, dazzling, fast paced act involving the production of silks, dyed dove,s and streamers before ending with a very funny mouth coil production with the assistance
senD your reports to:
[email protected]
Stuart Rudnick, our emcee for the evening
ASSEMBLY NEWS
of audience member Ed Cohen. The delightful Kimberly Matthews then performed a beautiful silk act set to music, which included the production of multiple doves and culmi-nated with their transformation into an adorable white rabbit. Next, George Hample wowed the crowd with his very own torn and restored M-U-M effect followed by an amazing milk vanish and reappearance inside a lighted table lamp. Finally, Jim Daly ended the show with his signature comedy bill in lemon effect, which had everyone in hysterics. Without question, the 2011banquet was one of the best we have ever had. —Peter Cuddihy
James Wobensmith Assembly 4 meets third Thursday at 7:00 p.m. at the Bustleton Memorial Post, 810 (American Legion) 9151 Old Newtown Road. In-formation: www.sam4.org/
7
tiMe tOsHine
omAHA, Ne— To open the meeting President Larry Brodahl started this year’s series of “Find a book in our library/ perform the trick/ explain it/tell us what book it’s in” with an illusion from The
Amazing Book of Magic and Card Tricks by Tremayne.
This month we had a contest with a $50 prize. The theme was “Shiny,” but this was left to interpretation and was most interesting to note how each of ten performers interpreted the guidelines.
The order was determined by random drawing; first up was Pete Petrashek with the shiniest mirror I’ve ever seen. With his help a scarf and ball de-materialized into and behind the mirror. Tom Neddo performed Waterfall, during which his shiny cups kept the water from falling on our Presi-dent’s head. Johnny Impossible did a Coins Across routine with shiny coins. Bob Buczkowski entertained with a string and (shiny) ring routine – one of his signature effects.
President Larry Brodahl presented a larger (shiny) ring and string routine. Denny Rourke did a shiny cup and water routine he called Aqua Binaca – and didn’t wet the rug. Roger Reese performed Jackrobats, in which cards turned into shiny mirrors. Joyce Chleboun produced tons
of shiny stuff from her bag of tricks. She was in the running for the prize just by wearing the right outfit! Each member of the audience received a Diamond Pin (a dime and pin).
Jeff Sikora brought Aaron Pierce out of the audience and was graced by a shiny hat and scarf that Jeff used to baffle us. Bruce Jacoby performed one of the most amazing feats I have
ever witnessed! After setting up his sound system, with the push of one button the lights went out in the entire building (and the tornado sirens started to wail). After the audience first found a safe place, we managed to reassemble and talked Bruce into completing his act. Is it no surprise that he won the contest? If you hire him for a performance, you should ask him to perform this effect. Better yet contact Bruce and ask if he will sell you the technique. He won $50. —Jerry Golmanavich
Omaha Magical Society meets on the third Monday of most months at the Southwest Church of Christ, 124th St. and W. Center Rd. - Across from Hooters.
11
suMMerPicnic
CINCINNAtI, oH— The June meeting of the Queen City Mystics Assembly 11 was a joint summer picnic with the I.B.M. Ronald Haines Ring 71. It was held at a lodge and picnic area at Lake Isabella in Loveland, Ohio, on a beautiful spring-like day. It was afternoon of games, fellowship, adults en-tertaining kids, kids entertain-ing adults, magic yard sale/flea market, and raffle. A picnic dinner was catered by Micki
Plyes and Betty Winzig. This was followed by the evening entertainment – the War of the Wizards – a showdown between S.A.M. and I.B.M. members.
First up was Chuck Arkin (I.B.M.) who performed a funny escape routine involving a spectator and his wife, who pleaded his case. He did suc-cessfully free himself from the locked stocks. Don Hinton (S.A.M.) performed a series of effects, beginning with appearing and disappearing coins and silks, a card effect with a prediction, and then a three prediction effect using random coins and a young spectator in orange athletic gear.
Frank Johnston (I.B.M.) performed his comically clever silk magic routine. It included cane to silk, rose to silk, disappearing black silk, silk to candle, and disappear-ing candle. This was followed by a change bag routine where several colored silks turn into a long, long and wide multi-colored silk ribbon. Denny Metz (S.A.M.) had two vol-unteers select a card and they then transmitted their selection to the other via a clothesline attached to two plungers on top of their heads – a very funny bit. He then has a spectator select a card and the deck of cards disappeared in the spec-tator’s hand, leaving him with his chosen card.
Paul Delholt (aka Presto Paul) performed an Ambitious Card routine with a blank deck of cards, completely mystifying a young spectator. He then had a spectator randomly (by thirds) cut a deck of cards and came up with nine cards representing a phone number of the specta-tor’s soul mate. The phone number was Paul’s!
Patrick Thermes (S.A.M.) produced a coke bottle and
then vanished it in a paper bag. He then performed a card effect with a poker hand changing from an Ace high to a royal flush. Last he mystified a young spectator with a magically written message on a chalkboard. The War was won by I.B.M. Ring 71. Assembly 11 is eagerly awaiting next year’s War! —John Martini
Queen City Mystics, SAM Assembly 11 generally meets on the 2nd Friday of the month at Haines House of Cards in Cincinnati, Ohio.
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david Hiralectures and eMcees
DALLAS, tX— David Hira presented a lecture on the art of being a master of ceremonies (emcee), then demonstrated these techniques by introduc-ing the performers for the night. The first performer of the evening was Geoff Grimes. Geoff performed his Chinese Sticks routine, followed by an anniversary-themed trick. Two spectators were handed a stack of large cards, with “values” such as “listen to each other.” Each spectator shuffled their stack and set one card aside. They then went through the shuffled cards one at a time to see how “compatible” their values were. Unfortunately for the newlyweds, only two of the five sets matched. Fortu-nately, the cards set aside at the beginning were “emergency cards,” one reading “Give her your first paycheck” and the other “and every one thereaf-ter…”
The second performer was Brad Ingle. Five card pairs were selected. The two sets of cards were shuffled, and Brad then proceeded to spell out the phrase “Will the faces match?” by transferring cards from the top to the bottom of the stack. A spectator was allowed at any time during the process to call out “SWITCH!” causing Brad to switch to the opposite stack and continue spelling. At the end of the phrase, the top cards of each stack were set aside as a pair. After all five pairs were dealt out, each was displayed to show that they were identical pairs.
The third performer was Ian Richards. The Ten of Diamonds was selected by a spectator and replaced in the deck. Multiple attempts to find
Bruce Jacoby
D. Metz, F. Johnston, D. Hinton, P. Delholt, C. Arkin,
ASSEMBLY NEWS
the card, including the assis-tance of a mouse, resulted in selection of the Two of Hearts. Ian eventually destroyed the offending card, and asked Nathan Himes to step up and select another card from the deck. Nathan, of course, found the Ten of Diamonds! Ian then asked Nathan to wave a wand over the deck, and suddenly all of the cards in the deck were the Ten of Diamonds.
The final performer was Daryl Sprout, the Magical Herpetological Humorist. Daryl performed a number of effects, all centered around his favorite creatures – snakes. Effects included wand to snake, balloon to snake, and even launching a giant snake into the audience. David Hira wrapped the show, and then held a question/answer session about the night and about emceeing in general.
Dallas Magic Club Assembly 13 meets the third Tuesday of each Month at 7 p.m. Crosspointe Church and Community Center www.dal-lasmagic.org for directions. Check out the Dallas Magic Club on Facebook!
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racHel & aldO cOluMBini’s Farewell tOurASHLAND, mA— Monday’s meeting was none other than spectacular. There were twenty-five members and guests present. We enjoyed a wonderful meal provided by Peter Lentros and then proceeded to enjoy our evening with Rachel and Aldo Columbini presenting their farewell tour. They will still be lecturing but not on a full-time basis. During their fantastic magic lecture, they also shared some details about Rachel’s heart surgery last year and how amazing her recovery has been.
The evening included, but was not limited to, ESP predictions, rope routines, a new twist on the ring and rope, the book test, card magic, and the spectacular disappearing thumb tip!
During intermission, we were treated with strawberry shortcake provided by Peter Lentros. The rest of the evening was magical, as Rachel and Aldo concluded their lecture by sharing more magic and stories about their travels and experiences.
All in all it was a great evening of fun, friends, and magic. Until we meet again… —John Bryant
Sam 16 meets every first Monday of the month at the magic barn in Ashland, MA. For more information contact Ken Maynard at Maddjic195@ msn.com
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card Magicnever gets Old
SPrINgFIeLD, mA—
Jeff Prozyca started off the night with a great card club sandwich and then did a Jim Pace version of Oil and Water. Rich Gilbert’s use of double-backed cards caused a King of Clubs to switch to a King of Hearts in the spectator’s hand. He then showed us the new Houdini vanish card escape. Ed Kazar amazed us using Jim Sisti’s Mixed Symbols ESP routine. PJ Pinsonnault did a nice Ace production, spelling out the Ace of Clubs, and then he showed us another card club sandwich, only in slow motion.
Rich Pinsonault had four Queens traveling with Larry Jennings’s Simple Stencil. Conrad McIntyre made it look easy with a lazy man, any card, any number, using just the Two through Nine. Dave Dimock performed the Third Choice by Corinda, and Tom Gentile finished up with Cody Fisher’s comedy card predic-tion, tearing up a card over and over again.
Later in the month, Aldo and Rachel Colombini came to visit for a spell, stopping by on their Farewell Tour. We learned so many new and easy tricks. Rachel impressed us all with her beautiful paper cup and ball routine and Aldo kept us laughing with every trick. This was their third visit to our assembly. We will miss them, because they always brought us great magic, lots of fun, and wonderful stories. Next month we’ll be heading out for our annual Summer Sizzler Picnic at Look Park. —Karen L. Gibson
Dr. I.R. Caulkins Assembly #17 meets the first Friday of every month at 7 pm at the Grand Meadows Tennis Club, Dwight Road, East Longmeadow, MA www.assembly17.org
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KnOwing YOur cHaracterHouStoN, tX— In June, Phil Kampf presented an overview of magical presenta-tion as the teach-in session. One of the top items Phil kept men-tioning was that you must know your character. One needs to know how he is going to act and what his response is going to be to situations and questions. Phil recommended that taking a class in theater at one of the working theaters in town would be very helpful. Phil’s many years of working as a pro-fessional magician along with his theater back-ground were very evident in his presentation. Bill Palmer shared some very valuable lessons learned as he developed his Merlin the Magician character over time. Bill of course perfected the Merlin character that was so widely known at the Texas Renaissance Festival. We had lots of audience interaction and this topic went over very well. Thanks Phil for sharing this in-formation.
The annual Memorial Day BBQ at Dr. Rex Crago’s home was another hit with over sixty peope in attendance. In addition to the fine food, there was some great magical en-tertainment presented by Alex Rangel and John Star, among others.
Eric Evans stopped into Houston on May 10 to present a fine lecture that was well attended. If you get the chance to see him perform, you will not want to pass it up. Please visit houstonmagic.com to keep up with all the latest magical hap-penings in the Houston area.
We wish to thank our magical performers for the June meeting. They were Bill Palmer, John Star, Gene Protas, David Hinken, Rick Hebert, Phil Kampf, David Rangel, Sigmund Potocki, and Alex Rangel. —Miles Root
SAM 19 meets the first Monday of every month at the IATSE Local 51 Meeting Hall, 3030 North Freeway, Houston, TX. A teaching lecture begins at 7:30 pm with the meeting beginning at 8:00 pm.
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tHe cOlOMBinis in cOnnecticutweSt HArtForD, Ct— The club decided to waive our regular business meeting
so we could get right into the evening’s highlight – the “Farewell” lecture by Aldo and Rachel Colombini! We were privileged to host their only
Connecticut appearance. They were quick to stress that they were not retiring from magic, just from touring.
This was a wonderful talk, starting with a champagne toast to Rachel. In between tricks we were told stories of their being on the road, the details behind Rachel’s successful surgery, and a few gag tricks (for example, vanishing a thumb tip), and some giveaways. The highlights of the lecture were: Zodiac Code, in which a color linked to a specta-tor’s birthday is predicted; An Empty Envelope, a gag pre-diction effect; a cute cut-and-restored rope routine that goes by the prosaic name of Cutting The Rope In Three; Five-Card Mystery, wherein a blank card vanishes among red cards; Ring On Rope, using, believe it or not, a scrunchy, to remove a ring but leave the knot; A Mental Trick, in which one card chosen from a pile matches the prediction; Cidentaquin, which uses ESP cards to find the four matches to a spectator’s chosen card; Stranger In Paradise, wherein a choice is revealed as the only red in a blue deck; Houdini Card, in which a card escapes from two rubber-bands and a square of tinfoil; Three-Way Miracle Prediction, in which the final composition of three card piles is predicted; Jumbo Prediction, a stunner in which a selected card matches a jumbo card, but the deck proves to consists of duplicates of an entirely different card; Restless Colors, in which a pack of duplicates change their back colors, then become Aces; Tri-Color Cups and Balls, as performed by Rachel – it uses
Jason Abate counts cards into Aldo’s palm. (Steve Wronker photo)
ASSEMBLY NEWS
no balls, just rolled-up colored tissue, with a surprise ending. —Dana Ring
Bill Greenough Assembly #21 meets 2nd Monday (except December) at Angelo’s on Main in West Hartford, CT. www.sam21.org
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asseMBlY 22 – 80 Years OldLoS ANgeLeS. CA— The Southern California Assembly 22 celebrated its 80th anniver-sary at its annual banquet on June 12, 2011. It was again held at Steven’s Steak & Seafood in the City of Commerce, a few miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles. A fine meal was enjoyed by everyone after an early cocktail hour. After the meal, toastmaster and show emcee, John Engman, began the program with the installa-tion of the 2011-2012 assembly officers and directors.
PNP Ed Thomas conducted the ceremony to install our new officers. Immediate Past President Bill Yamane gave a short valedictory address and incoming President Jim Callen presented a very amusing ac-ceptance speech as he begins what typically is a two-year term in office. Our assembly has always been fortunate to have competent and dedicated leadership.
The 80th anniversary gala show opened with the colorful and fast-moving act of Stoil & Ekatrina. Set to music, Stoil & Ekatrina present a very unique act. Ted “Suds” Sudbrack was our next performer and, as always, it was full of humor and fun. Suds is a long-time Los Angeles area performer and magic manufacturer/dealer. Suds’s paper tearing tricks have become classics. His repeat Anderson Newspaper Tear was not only funny, it was a baffler. The third performer, David Benitez, aka “Marsan,” attired in a tuxedo and por-traying the image of a classic magician, opened with a card manipulation routine and card fan productions. Picking coins from the air, he then presented a nice Miser’s Dream coin pro-duction. Marsan finished his act with a very smooth linking ring routine and the now seldom seen Zombie floating ball. A class act in every respect.
Closing the show was David Zerbel, another Los Angeles magician who has performed
internationally. David also performs magic in the classic style. His top hat and cane quickly became a table as he did a short silk knotting routine. Zerbel then performed a ball manipulation and mul-tiplying ball effect. His act concluded with his own three-ring routine.
Southern California Assembly 22 meets the 3rd Monday each month at 8:00 P.M., St. Thomas Moore Parish Hall, 2510 So. Fremont Ave., Alhambra, CA Information: 213/382-8504
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talent andtricKerY
ProvIDeNCe, rI— The warm weather has finally arrived, and so has the annual RISM’s Got Talent contest. Before the contest, Jeff Smith taught several Aldo Colombini packet tricks. Jeff is always fun to watch, and a great instruc-tor to boot. And, he was nice enough to donate the tricks to the club’s monthly raffle.
With a quick break, it was time to start the talent show. Round one of the contest pitted Dan Cipolla against Jeff Smith, Andrew Cipolla against Ed Hill, and Cameron Ramsay against Sean Dale. Dan’s card and coin to orange were two really nice effects. Jeff performed a great card routine using magic paint. The routine is well thought out, and flows nicely through each phase. Andrew inserted his cell phone into a balloon, and then made an amazing cell phone call. Ed’s entry was the most ambitious, performing magic with the Statue of Liberty. Cameron did some great rose/ napkin magic, while Sean en-tertained the crowd with a great rendition of Coins Across.
The judges voted, and only three contestants remained. Round two pitted Dan, Ed, and Cameron in a three-way battle. Dan performed a rising card poster, Ed selected magic with an Egyptian theme, and Cameron performed some ESP. The judges were left with the difficult task of eliminating one contestant.
Round three gave us Dan against Cameron, in a battle to the finish. Dan’s Not Knot Silks was a real crowd pleaser, but ultimately Cameron would take the prize with a fantastic monster card production.
Thanks to Jeff Smith, the judges, and all of the
contes-tants for making this a great evening. —Chris Natale
C. Foster Fenner, Assembly 26 meets first Tuesday each month from September to June at 7 pm at the American Legion Auburn Post 20, 7 Legion Way, Cranston, RI.
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Building arOutine
AtLANtA, gA— Our program director, Debbie Leifer, hosted the post-dinner performance. Dan Garrett was our first performer. He mystified the audience with linking rubber bands and torn and restored rubber bands. We are looking forward to his pro-fessional development session on rubber bands next month.
Preston Turner, son of Joe Turner, showed us his magical rock that magnifies objects, which he got at a science museum. It was an interesting piece and we were glad to have Preston visiting with us.
Joe Turner could not afford a Dean Dill box, so he used his hands instead and made a red and white rope link together. He also had his deck of cards do a trick for him by allowing the spectator to perform all the magic. Joe had a card chosen for him and the spectator also had a card chosen. Both cards were found at the end.
Joe Morrison brought a light board with various colored lights and switches. The corre-sponding light would light with the same color switch even when the bulbs or switches were mixed.
Jim Mangham had his wife set up a trick with a red deck and a blue deck. He had the red deck cut several times until only one card remained. When the blue deck was opened, the matching card had an X inscribed on it. Daryl Berman presented a ring and string effect by pulling the ring from the string when it was attached by a knot. He also borrowed a flip phone; when the string was inside the phone, music would play.
Our Professional Develop-ment series continued with John Miller presenting how to routine your effects. He presented one of his favorite effects, Roy Walton’s Cascade, just as a trick, then presented it again with a routine he developed that suited his style of presentation. John also handed out suggestions for
building a routine, as well as several references for those who wished to pursue this interest.
On Saturday, June 18, we held an initiation for four of our members, Jim Driscoll, Mal Simpson, Martin Baratz, and Rory Gullion. It was a very meaningful ceremony, with re-freshments afterward. Now, if we can just get the goat back in the cage. —Carol Garrett
Atlanta Society of Magicians, Julian V. Boehme/Walter S. Bell Assembly #30 Meets the second Thursday at Picadilly Cafeteria, I-85 & North Druid Hills Rd. For more info: Web site: http://www.sam30atlanta.org
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a FOndFarewell
PougHkeePSIe, NY – We were one of the lucky as-semblies who were a stop on Aldo and Rachel Colombini’s Farewell Tour. Thirty-five attendees helped make this one of our best-attended meetings in quite some time. After a brief summary of happenings in Aldo and Rachel’s lives, we were treated to several hours of magic and fun. Rachel’s performance of Zodiac Code was wonderful. An Empty Envelope was a great predic-tion effect by Aldo. The entire
night was filled with a lot of wonderful back-and-forth between the duo. We enjoyed card effects, rope tricks, amazing feats of mentalism, and so much more. Between effects were treated to the jokes you would expect when Aldo and Rachel are perform-ing. They have a wonderful
Rachel and Aldo Colombini entertain Assembly 35
ASSEMBLY NEWS
rapport and kept us laughing all night long. If you have the opportunity to see them on their last lecture tour, put it on your calendar – you won’t be disappointed. Thank you Aldo and Rachel for a terrific night of magic. Assembly members, be sure to check out the Web site for more information on our revised summer schedule. —Craig Kunaschk
Al Baker Assembly No. 35 (usually) meets at 7:30 p.m. on the second Tuesday of the month at the Milanese Italian Restaurant, 115 Main Street, Poughkeepsie, NY. Check out our website at compumagic. com/sam35 to confirm time and meeting location.
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Kid-daB-ra!DeNver, Co— A number of children attended our June meeting Kid-Dab-Ra, as special guests of the Mile High Magicians.
Emcee and club president Connie Elstun got things off to a perfect start by introducing us to members of the cast of her Bunny and Birdie Magic Show. We were particularly pleased with participation by some new members of our club, including Lewis Peacock. Lewis thrilled the audience by pouring different colored liquids from the same teapot. There was an explanation, however, because dry handkerchiefs the same color as the liquid were pulled from the teapot. Next up was club member Inspector Magic, aka PNP Mark Weidhaas. Mark featured highlights from his show, including something that only the grandparents in the audience knew about – records that changed colors. Mark also featured a cool trick with colored pom-poms changing places and a card trick that used a large number of assistants.
New member Michele Lutz also used a number of assis-tants to psychically find some colored stones hidden in their hands and to make a rod change colors. The Amazing Dave Elstun introduced members of the audience to a stoplight that creates mass confusion by flashing the same color in all directions. He finished with a see-through egg storage bag from which eggs appeared and disappeared. Bringing it all to
a hilarious finish was the team of Jeff and Karen Wake. Jeff took on the role of a princess looking for an elusive dragon. The dragon turned up on the back of a child assistant playing the part of a knight.
As if this wasn’t enough, Karen Wake then treated everyone to her delicious cupcakes. Kid paradise! Connie hung several baby pictures of Mile High members on a board and everyone had to guess who they were. Add on face-painting and balloons and it was a great evening. We also raffled a ticket to the Magic in the Rockies conven-tion coming up in Fort Collins, Colorado, the second weekend of September. —Dave Elstun
SAM Assembly 37 is The Mile High Magician’s Society and meets on the 2nd Thursday at 7:00 P.M. in the River-Pointe Senior Community, 5225 South Prince St. Denver, CO 80123. Our Website is w w w.milehigh magicians. com. Connie Elstun is the President her E-mail address is [email protected]
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clOcKs,watcHes, Or cards Ft. LAuDerDALe,FL— The themes for our June meeting were Clocks/Watches/Cards, or Ventriloquism/Puppetry, or Blocks, or Mentalism, or Science Magic.
President Billy Byron emceed the proceedings. First up was Mark Horowitz, who brought some gaffed cards and wallets from his collection. Anyone who knows Mark knows of his extensive magic
collec-tion. Peter Fox ate part of a card and then spat it back on. He then blew a hole in a card and moved it around the card. It was weird to see.
Gene Fein did a card control in which a selected card became the only one in the deck facing the opposite direction; it then changed into a different color back. Mel Panzer did a four card mental selection with the cards also being the only ones facing in the opposite direction in the deck at the end. Sid Marcus performed a mental clock-setting stunt in which the spectator set the dial on a clock and it matched the predicted clock setting previously set by Sid on another clock.
Al Hernandez, a street magician visitor, performed several outstanding card flour-ishes with the four Aces, even though they were mixed into the deck by several specta-tors. Michael Easler brought his friend “Woody” to do some ventriloquism. Woody was hilarious. Emcee Billy Byron also brought a friend, “Antonio The Great,” a puppet squirrel who performed several tricks for the crowd. All in all, it was a fun night. —Billy Byron
Assembly 49 meets second Wednesday - 7:30 Margate City community Center.
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“Magic daY”NASHvILLe, tN— Gene Anderson and David Sandy were the stars of our Magic Day. It all started with a kick-off lecture by Joe Turner from Atlanta. Saturday began with a lecture from Stephen Bargatze, with lectures from David Sandy, and Gene Anderson to follow later in the day. There was also a time during which attendees were allowed to get up and do a trick that they had been working on and receive tips from a panel made up of the acts that were booked for Magic Day as well as some of the other attendees. Two who participated were Tim Grant of Memphis and Ed Riply of Knoxville; both had really put a lot of work into their acts and in doing so got lots out of the session. Thanks to them and the others who took part.
Just over two hundred people enjoyed a great Saturday night show, performed by Gene Anderson and friends. Let’s be honest, you just can’t go wrong
when you have Gene Anderson on the bill. Everyone loves Gene – that face, that look, that talent, and he is still single, go figure. He did his paper act, of course; it is still great to watch and has been updated with a lot of new and good jokes that all fit Gene perfectly. He also
performed the preacher act, and since we were meeting in a church, it just seemed right. David Sandy, after having two performers do acts similar to what he had planned, put together a great set. He went to the dealer’s table, good for them, bought a couple of classics and wowed the audience, both the laymen and the magicians who were there. Joe Turner started the show, Wayne Clemons did a great job of emceeing the show and also doing the award winning act of “Out Source” with his life partner Shank Kothare. Thanks to Mike Pyle, Trix, Tim, Shank , and Dick for all the hard work they put in. Kevin King offered prizes for anyone who could be the first to yell out what animal he was making with his unique balloons arts; there were no winners. —Stephen Bargatze
Music City Mystics meets third Tuesday at 7:00PM at the It’s Magic! Theater, Hermitage. www.nashvillesam.com
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installatiOn OF OFFicers BanQuetSAN ANtoNIo,tX— June 2, 2011, Brother John Hamman Assembly 52 held its annual In-stallation of Officers Banquet at the Spaghetti Warehouse. Outgoing president Don Moravits planned a great evening of fun, food, and en-tertainment. Don welcomed members and their guests as they dined on Italian Cuisine. A big thank you goes out to Geoffrey and Tabitha Sadowski for providing their
Mark Weidhaas performing a segment of his Inspector
Magic show
ASSEMBLY NEWS
famous strawberry cheesecake for dessert, and to Doug and Fran Gorman for setting up the stage, sound, and lights. Don Moravits conducted the Instal-lation of Officers Ceremony. Congratulations to our new officers: Joe Libby – President, Geoffrey Sadowski – Vice President, Doug Gorman – Secretary/Treasurer, and George Castillo – Sergeant-at-Arms. Don then recognized several members for their con-tribution to the assembly for this year with certificates of appre-ciation: to David Hira, for en-tertaining Assembly 52 at this banquet; to Dwayne Stanton and Geoffrey Sadowski for rejuvenating and leading the S.Y.M.; to Doug Gorman and Michael Tallon for assisting Assembly 52 beyond the call of duty; to Dahnene Moravits for providing continuing support to her husband; and to Fran Gorman for publishing the monthly newsletter. President Joe Libby then presented Don Moravits with a plaque of ap-preciation for his “unselfish service to Assembly 52.”
Our entertainer for the evening was David Hira from Dallas. David is a world-class, full-time professional, having performed in such prestigious locations as Caesar’s Palace, The White House, and on cruise ships on the Mediter-ranean Sea. He has also made thirty-six television appearanc-es. David provided an awesome show for our assembly, filled with magic and comedy. Thanks, David, for a wonderful performance.
Brother John Hamman Assembly 52 meets at 7:30 p.m. on the first Thursday of
the month at La Madeleine Res-taurant, located at 722 N.W. Loop 410. The restau-rant is inside Loop 410 on the access road between Blanco Rd. and San Pedro. For more informa-tion, contact douggorman@att. net
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BusY MaY DAYtoN, oH—It was a very busy May for Assembly 56. First, the assembly took a “road trip” up to Canton, Ohio, for The International Battle of Magicians! Twenty compeers and two guests made the trip. What a great turnout for the assembly. Plus, it was a fantastic convention! It was my first time at The Battle and I’m planning on going back.
Then, two weeks later, we had our regularly scheduled meeting. The theme this month was Card Magic Using Apparatus. What a fun theme by Oran Dent! All kinds of great magic and history was presented by Oran, Thurman Smith, Marvin Griswold, Fred Witwer, Barb Pfeifer, Paul Burnham, Stan Goode, Scott Miller, Matt Stanley, Dave Davis, and guest John Love. Stan also provided fantastic refreshments. Fun was had by all! —Paul D. Burnham
Dayton, Ohio, Assembly 56 meets third Friday at 7:30 p.m. Location varies, so call Barb Pfeifer for information: (937) 433-8604.
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JaY sanKeYlecture ANN Arbor/YPSILANtI, mI— Friendly, warm, and down to earth, Jay Sankey started by talking about the importance of interacting with people, to have fun with people. His lecture consisted of three forms of close-up magic: traditional magic, mentalism, and “bending.”
He started with a very funny card trick, in which three selected cards were mysterious-ly “eaten” by the four Queens. Then came a mentalism trick in which a card was picked;
the prediction was a “red card,” and then the chosen card ended up with the volunteer’s name written on it. For an example of “bending,” Jay showed a plastic spoon, turned it around a couple of times, and showed that the spoon had a twist in it.
Jay also had plenty of other examples of his creative magic – a lot of it was his older stuff, but updated, with a few things I had never seen before. Overall, it was a great lecture and a great night for the AAMC! —Randy A. Smith
Hank Moorehouse Assembly 88 meets the second Wednesday 7pm Faith Lutheran Church, 1255 E Forest Ave, Ypsilanti, MI. Randy A. Smith, Phone:313-562-3875 Email [email protected] or visit www.aamagic.org for more details.
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carnivalMagic BBQ
vANCouver, CANADA–
The June meeting was held at the home of Ray Roch in Tsawwassen, who fired up his BBQ for a spouses welcome patio cookout. While Ray was in charge of the BBQ, his wife Pat was pretty well in charge of everything else, and together
they organized a fabulous last-meeting-before-summer sumptuous club meal.
The magic theme for the evening was Carnival Magic, which reflects Ray’s involve-ment in the carnival in the past with his classic “Flim Flam Foolery” act. Up first, Lon Mandrake portrayed himself as a fortune teller in his presenta-tion of Destiny Magic, in which Linda Henriksen happened to pick the only two red cards out of an entire deck of blue cards. Rod Chow presented a midway game of chance with Linda Mandrake; although she had several opportunities to win the big bucks, each time Linda ended up with only ten cents.
Jens Henriksen had a word selected from a number of torn out pages of a book, and that word matched a word chosen in a dictionary by another volunteer. Neale Bacon confirmed that his favorite part of a carnival is the food, and showed various food items commonly found at carnivals. After Neale had Jens eliminate the items one by one, it turned out that Jens ended up with the bill for all the food. Dennis Hewson took everyone to the carnival sideshow and performed a Sword through Neck routine. Dave Watters demonstrated the effectiveness of a squeaker device, and then took an instant mini picture of Lon Mandrake’s thought-of card.
Michael Glenister showed some attractive and fun color changing light-sabers. Henry Tom portrayed the carnival conman with a Three Card Monte routine. Rick Mearns performed a lie detector test and ended up matching Linda Mandrake’s card to his predic-tion. Lon closed the evening by returning with a mini sideshow illusion of the Finger Chopper, with Trevor Watters risking his finger. —Rod Chow
The Carl Hemeon Assembly No. 95 meets the first Tuesday of each month at members’ homes.
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anYtHing
gOes
CoNCorD CA— After yours truly won the attendance award at our May meeting, we immediately jumped into the performance portion of the meeting with Doug Kovacich
From Left: Joe Libby-President, Geoffrey Sad-owski-Vice President, Don Moravits-Outgoing President, Doug Gorman-Secretary/Treasurer,
George Castillo-Sergeant-At-Arms.
Ray Roch hosts pre-summer BBQ Jay Sankey with Marvin Mathena (Treasurer)
ASSEMBLY NEWS
ASSEMBLY NEWS
starting us off with a spiral disk that seemed to make Rick Allen’s get larger and then smaller for those who gazed at the disk. Immediately after, Zappo (that’s me) performed a cut-and-restored rope routine that included a sweet method of constructing a set of ropes to perform The Professor’s Nightmare right in front of the audience. Then Bob Holdridge performed two prediction routines with, as usual, his well-crafted props
And Roy Porfido managed to capture a wild white balloon behind bars in a shoebox-sized cage. With the help a five-year-old guest spectator, Roy burst the balloon and turned it visibly into a cute little version of Pepé Le Pew.
At that point, Jerry Bar-rilleaux penetrated a pencil through both a dollar bill and a lottery selection ticket in an effort to find the lucky winning numbers. It turned out the dollar bill was completely unharmed from the penetration of the pencil.
The person from whom Jerry had obtained the miracle just performed was Mike Della Penna, the President of the Oakland Magic Circle, who followed with a dazzling act that included an Okito coin-box routine, a four-Ace routine, a matrix routine, a giant-sized coin production, and (with the help of his blindfolded card duck) the finding of a selected card.
Following that performance, Jerry Barrilleaux demon-strated the Trick of the Month (which he explained later in the evening after the guests had left). Chris Roe rounded out the performance portion of the night with a bold mind-reading effect.
Following a brief pizza break, Jerry Barrilleaux explained the Trick of the Month, during which he provided us with an exceptionally well made set of sticks, made from timbers from his grandfather’s diamond mine. Although both sides of first one stick and later another were shown blank, by saying the magic word Jerry was able to make diamonds appear at will, jump back and forth between the sticks, and disappear just as fast as he had initially produced them. And, as usual with this feature, members present received these props for free.
During the mini-lecture that ended the meeting, Zappo (that’s still me) had a discussion about several aspects of per-forming the cut-and-restored rope and a direct follow-up of The Professor’s Nightmare. —Larry Wright
Diablo Assembly No. 112 meets third Wednesdays at the Round Table Pizza in Concord.
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FlOwerMagic
CHAmPAIgN, IL— The first item last month was the possibility of Skyping a meeting together with the Kansas City, Missouri, group. It was decided that this could be a lot of fun and we should give it a go.
Next up, we voted to keep the business meetings to twenty minutes with magic to follow. The twenty minutes will not include book/DVD reports that are limited to two minutes.
Bruce Kalver has an iPad app that includes contracts and paper work for magicians to use. It called Magic Gig Slips, it sells for $4.99 and can be found at the iTunes app store.
In Tales from the Trenches, Justin Dudely told us of having a multiplying wand hide from him; it was then later thrown at him during a show. He also told of having his table fall over with an egg inside it that later cracked prematurely. Paul Mercer described having the person who hired him walk up to him in the middle of his show to pay him. Prof Higgins described a number of outdoor mishaps, which prompted ideas on dealing with adverse situa-tions from Andy Dallas.
Chris Bontjes gave our book report on Aaron Fisher’s The
Paper Engine: Tension, Focus and Design in Card Magic. The
Gary Kurtz book Leading with
Your Head was also discussed.
Prof Higgins shared his thought on the DVD Silverado:
Advanced Coin Magic.
The program for the evening was flower magic. Prof Higgins opened by producing a large wine glass, four bouquets, and a double color-changing silk.
Jeff Harpring did a nice version of Name that Card followed by Pedro Hernandez’s rendition of a card sandwiched between two Jokers.
Mark Clegg finished with a nice presentation of Sequential Travelers.
The next meeting will be Wednesday, June 15, and the topic will be “Patriotic Magic or Outside Magic.” See ya at the meeting, —Ken Barham
Assembly 120, Champaign, IL – Andy Dallas Assembly, 3rd Wed. 7pm, (except Nov. and Dec.) For location call Chris at 217-431-4791 or Ken Barham Sec, 2318 Winchester Dr, Champaign, IL 61821 phone: 217-841-5616 email: [email protected]
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tHe Meeting tHat alMOst wasn’t greeNSboro, NC— The April meeting almost wasn’t… only one person showed up on time, and, just as we were about to give up and watch some magic DVDS, a few trickled in. Finally, we could see some magic!Eric Dobell led off with a thought-reading effect using a copy of Alice in Wonderland. A page number was chosen and James Alcon turned to that page. Upon reading one of the paragraphs, James was to imagine the animal named in that paragraph. Eric began to read James’s thoughts and proceeded to draw the animal. When finished, he had correctly named and drawn a cat.
Noah Gray followed with a card trick. The backs of his cards all had smiley faces on them. Noah discussed several pictures that he had of different assassins from the past. A card was chosen from the deck and shuffled back. Taking out a gun (careful!), Noah shot at the deck. When the chosen card was found, the back of it had a smiley face with a bullet hole
right between the eyes! (I’m guessing he doesn’t use this for his school shows.)
James Alcon performed a penetration effect using a large Lucite plate and a silk. James then picked up a box of Kleenex tissues and removed four tissues. Commenting that he had begun to try Origami, he folded the tissues and produced a live dove, while in short sleeves! The dove was then also pushed through the center of the Lucite plate. He ended his routine with a new version of Out of This World.
Afterwards, we all discussed how the effects were ac-complished. Several had to know how James managed to produce the dove while not wearing a jacket! Hope to see everyone at the next meeting! —James Alcon
Alcon’s Gate City Wizards, Assembly # 128 Greensboro, NC Meets the last Tuesday of the month. Location: 1207 Westminster Drive Greens-boro, NC 7:30 PM Phone 852-4596
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MOneY Magic cOntest
PeNSACoLA, FL— The June meeting started off with Beau Broomall conducting a teach-in of what he calls The Calendar Card Trick; it is quite amazing what you can do with a deck of cards and a calendar.
President Nathan Nickerson called the meeting to order and touched base on events that included: the Pensacola Kids arthritis camp show, where Beau Broomall, Nathan Nickerson, and Ronnan Carrero performed and had a great time; Al Grimm’s surgery, which went well; a secret project that Nathan is working on; the upcoming Sanders Beach show for the Pensacola Parks; and the club’s picnic. Info will be in the club’s newsletter.
Members Perry Vath, Jeremy, Billy Countryman and Charles Moody played a round of the alphabet game – backwards. It was hysterical.
We held our raffle with over thirty items; thanks to Andy Dallas and Dave Kloman for their donations. Thanks to Betty Broomall and Joan Moody for setting up the re-freshment table and to all who brought the goodies. Thank
Roy Porfido has young helper pop balloon
