No. 9, Atlanta, Georgia – Georgia Magic Club
June 2005
The air conditioning was out so it was a warm night for our meeting.
We started with a stage contest honoring
J.C. Doty. Doty is a legend in our club; he helped build the Tom Foolery with Tom Mullica, had a hilarious drunk act that was featured on the cover of the Linking Ring in 1989, and has been an invaluable friend to everyone in the club.
Judges were
Mark Irish,
Mark Robinson, and non-magician
Elizabeth Glazer and the MC was
Tommy Johns.
Gene Hendrix performed first. He cleaned his eyeglasses with a cloth, and then produced from it a refreshing glass of orange juice which he drank. Good trick in a hot theatre! A silk was pulled through the bottom of the glass, coins jumped into it, then he filled the glass with water and turned it upside down - and the water stayed in the glass! A few impossible seconds later the water abruptly flowed into a handy bucket and he left to great applause.
Howie Marmer was next. He presented a mind reading toy dog which guessed the age of a child to much laughter. They spread six coins among six volunteers and put them in a bag - and
Jordan McCartney successfully found the only dime.
Rick Hinze came on to a darkened stage as a fog machine kicked in. Phantom of the Opera music started and Rick prowled around the stage as the Phantom. He received a lot of applause for a well-executed floating cane act.
Ken Scott entered next - scarves joined and knots formed and fell off the scarves in his hands. He fought with a dancing handkerchief for a while, and finally got a sweet kiss from it for his efforts. He was ably assisted by Jordan McCartney. Ken produced a silk rabbit which disappeared and then reappeared in the child's shirt. They put the silk in a box, wiggled their fingers at it, and a rabbit appeared.
Tommy Johns came on and presented the trophy for our last contest, the Doyne Michie award, to Joe M. Turner.
Joe M. Turner also announced that a local theatre company is doing a play based on the life of Bill Robinson, aka Chung Lee Soo. Joe was their advisor on magical effects.
It should be noted that
Gordon Astley suffered mightily in the overly hot lighting booth and we greatly appreciated his quiet behind-the-scenes efforts which were truly Herculean in nature. He says it wasn't easy; there were at LEAST two on-off switches.
Two people then performed for membership.
A hankerchief vanished from
Ben Whiting's hand and appeared inside a rolled up playing card. A magic wand disappeared from his hand next and appeared inside a purse frame. Coins jumped from hand to hand and increased in size. He handed out three cups and did a very polished cups and balls routine.
Robert Speer came on with six jumbo cards which changed from a full house to all jokers.
Winners of the J.C. Doty Award for Excellence in Stage Magic were then announced:
3rd place: Gene Hendrix
2nd place: Rick Hinze
1st place: Ken Scott
Congratulations, guys! And thank you, Doty!
Then as everyone left, the air conditioning kicked in.