I.B.M. Ring 9

Ring Reports

January 2009

No. 9, Atlanta, Georgia - Georgia Magic Club
3rd Monday, 7:00 PM, StarTime Entertainment, Alpharetta Hwy, Roswell, GA
DEBBIE LEIFER, President ( Debbie@MagicDebbie.com)
PAUL SPONAUGLE, Vice President (psmagic@comcast.net)
BILL PACKARD, Secretary (packardw@earthlink.net)
Ring 9 Web Site: www.GaMagicClub.com

Our 2009 got off to a fabulous start with a hugely successful annual banquet, where several of our members performed Tableside Close-Up, Ken Scott was named 2008 Greater Atlanta Magician of the Year, and we enjoyed the hilarious, original comedy magic of our guest star, Levent.

Next came our January meeting, with promises for lots more fun this year, and it seems all attendees agreed that was the case thanks to a new streamlined meeting structure. Our evening kicked off with a fine Mini Lecture by Joe Morrison who demonstrated several amazing routines that employ the Si Stebbins stack. Joe explained the useful method and taught a couple of very entertaining routines. This lecture seemed to spark a renewed interest in that method amongst members who have used the stack before, and of course it delighted those who had not been previously exposed to the useful tool.

Following an exceptionally short business meeting, we enjoyed a “getting to know you” exercise in which pairs of members were randomly established, and each team was asked to learn 3 interesting things about each other, and then share those discoveries with us all. Turned out to be a fun and surprisingly successful experiment.

We were thrilled to have the producer of a local television show doing a story about our club join us for the evening to shoot some member performances. Luckily, the entertaining theme - Movie, TV or Cartoon Magic - seemed to really encourage creativity in many of our members. Merritt Ambrose had a clever (or shall I say cleaver) premise of a late-night cooking infomercial, during which his sushi floated in the air.

Joe M. Turner assumed the role of movie director casting stars for his next film. Using Danny Archer’s very interesting matching routine in which a random choice from a stack of publicity photos of major celebrities is paired with a free choice of an autograph from the many that grace the back of more than one dozen photos. The interesting ending revealed that Joe made an accurate prediction.

Routines with ESP cards aren’t typically thought of as cute, but Vice President Paul Sponaugle proved that doesn’t have to be the case. He displayed four cards with squares, symbolizing performers on television shows. Next, four cards with circles represented all global celebrities. Although mixed together, they magically returned to their original groups. There was a surprise ending when the cards suddenly contained stars, as Paul suggested that the audience members are always the stars of his performance.

Victoria Skye went all out with a Sherlock Holmes premise for her routine, engaging the participation of Keith Rainey as the detective. They dusted for fingerprints, and discovered four chosen cards by following the trail of clues. Very clever premise.

Mark Hatfield presented a beautiful routine he obviously invested a tremendous amount of time and effort designing. Describing the storyline of Lord of the Rings, he performed a coin assembly style routine with four gold rings. One of those golden finger rings ultimately vanished in a flash of fire, only to reappear in paper that had previously contained a magical message. Beautiful.

Debbie Leifer unwrapped a recent ebay purchase that just arrived, a tray advertised to contain the image of Mickey Mouse. Much to her dismay, she received a plain white tray. Luckily, she had a silk scarf with the image of the world famous cartoon and movie star in the center! When placed into a velvet bag, the picture vanished from the scarf. Using “movie special effects” thanks to a strangely magical wand purchased at Disney World, when Debbie displayed the tray, Mickey now appeared in the center.

Aragorn displayed a drawing board on which he drew an old fashioned TV set with complete with antenna. Crusader Rabbit magically came alive on the television. Greg Lax asked audience members to tell lies, as he displayed a small picture of Pinocchio. As each fib was told, the small cartoon character’s nose grew; all were surprised when the picture was removed from the frame displaying a printed picture, making the animation impossible (or magical). Greg then delighted us all when Winnie The Pooh appeared inside a top hat and performed his own trick.

For General Magic, new member Tony Cortest left the room for his performance. While that’s certainly an unusual way to entertain, his instructions for his “assistant” Joe Turner were to ask a series of Pop Culture questions to a few folks, which led to visitor Dodd Vickers, and members Earl South and Victoria Skye each choosing a playing card. Once Tony returned to the room, he mysteriously divined the identity of each card chosen. Interesting.

Gene Hendrix displayed a blue silk from which a long rainbow streamer was produced, he explained that for laypeople his presentation would be the production of a silk, for magicians it was the vanish of a thumb tip. Paul Sponaugle graced the stage again with a stack of cards upon which a single smiley face sticker magically multiplied over and over again.

Winner of the Coveted Royal Blue Pen Award for January was Joe M. Turner.

Anyone lucky enough find themselves in Atlanta on the third Monday of any month, please join us for our Ring 9 meeting! We have a dynamic group of talented members, who contribute to the success of our club with a monthly Mini Lecture and our fun monthly theme performances.

Debbie Leifer