I.B.M. Ring 9

Ring Reports

March 2008

See photos from this meeting

No. 9, Atlanta, Georgia - Georgia Magic Club
3rd Monday, 7:00 PM, Funny Farm Comedy Club, Alpharetta Hwy, Roswell, GA

DEBBIE LEIFER, President (Debbie@MagicDebbie.com)
LYNN FOX, Vice President (lynnfox@bellsouth.net)
GUY PHILLIPS, Secretary (guyphilips@bellsouth.net)
Ring 9 Web Site: www.GaMagicClub.com

Our March 2008 meeting will be fondly remembered as a very funny, entertaining evening. Beginning with a Mini-Lecture by EARL SOUTH, a serious student of sleight-of-hand, Earl shared with us the work of his friend Roger Klause, focused on his thoughtful lesson titled "A Study in Half Moves". This was an effective workshop on how to break a sleight into individual actions strung together, resulting in a complex, yet clearly superior method of removing all flaws from a particular sleight or movement. Earl demonstrated "Miser's Cornucopia", causing ten dimes to pour out of a previously empty dollar bill. His transformation of a dollar bill into a $100 bill proved the concept that any effective handling can be vastly improved with careful deliberation of each portion of the handling. Earl's workshop proved to be an effective lesson for everyone from the seasoned pro to the less experienced sleight-of-hand dabbler.

This month's theme resulted in a very funny series of clever performances. Titled "CIGAM SDRAWKCAB", the backwards spelling of Backwards Magic, the theme seemed to inspire an extraordinary number of original concepts. Our first performer was MERRITT AMBROSE. After displaying four blank pieces of paper, he transformed them into four dollar bills, and back again to their original unprinted state.

ARTHUR ATSMA treated us to a great version of "Tossed Out Deck", performed backwards. He began by jumping out of his seat up exclaiming "Thank you! Thank you!", followed by his direction for three non-standing audience members to "please sit down". Arthur proceeded to navigate his way backwards through every step of a "typical" performance of a tossed deck. After revealing the names of three playing cards, a deck of cards landed at his feet after being tossed to him by spectator #3, then the same actions followed by spectators # 2 and #1, in that order. Of course this concluded with Arthur explaining that he will throw the deck to random audience members to allow them to peak at their choice of any playing card in the rubber-banded pack. Very clever, extremely funny reverse presentation of this popular routine.

LYNN FOX followed with a vanishing silk that began with a display of his empty hands, followed by the "unstuffing" of the silk from his closed fist. Lynn then performed his backwards version of cut and restored rope, a cute demonstration that began with severed pieces of rope being fused back into a single piece of rope. This was followed by a backwards version of a torn and restored bill that began with the display of a corner of the bill, concluding with a folded bill being unfolded while exclaiming that it is whole and about to be torn.

After showing us several words written on cards, RON GLADSTONE displayed a mirror and explained that when looking at the reflection of each word in the mirror the words appear backwards. A member of the audience viewed all the words in a mirror until he was able to isolate the single word that "read differently" than all the others. Ron correctly predicted the word that would be perceived to be different from the rest. That word was actually written backwards on the cards viewed by the spectator, therefore it was the only word that would actually read in its normal form when viewed in the mirror.

WES PETTY performed his own version of "Play It Straight Triumph". After spreading a deck of cards face down on the table Wes requested the assistance of two spectators, suggesting they should prepare to go back in time. The two spectators each chose a single card, these two selections remained face down on the table, their identities remaining a mystery. The remainder of the deck was separated into four piles, and Wes shuffled those sections face-up into face-down, resulting in a mixed up deck. The deck was spread to reveal that all the cards had magically straightened out to face the same direction, except for a handful... the only cards that were now face-up were actually letter cards that spelled out "C-I-G-A-M S-D-?-A-W-?-C-A-B". The two originally selected cards were now displayed for the first time, revealing the missing letters that completed the backwards spelling of our evening's clever theme.

The always funny and inventive KIRK PUMPHREY delighted us all with his hysterical performance of a staple of children's magic, the Magic Circus Coloring Book. Normally considered a phenomenally simple self-working trick, Kirk's fantastic performance was the hit of the evening! He performed the trick backwards... and I mean BACKWARDS! Kirk actually recited the entire routine with the structure of every single sentence formed in reverse order. "Much very you thank!" Kirk exclaimed. "Colored now are pictures the all and!..." and so on. This was a hilarious and amazing demonstration of creativity and dedication on Kirk's part to memorize the challenging content of his reversed patter. Of course, when he got to the end/beginning of the routine, because it was actually the real beginning of the standard routine, it was met with total silence... which then erupted into his much-deserved applause. A powerful demonstration of creativity and dedication.

KEN SCOTT had us all laughing with his backwards performance of "Blow Tie". This began with three silks being displayed securely tied together, then Ken removed rubber bands from the end of a clear plastic tube while exclaiming "I don't know what THESE are for!?!". Then the string of three silks was stuffed into the tube. Ken blew them out the other end of the tube, and they were UN-tied! He followed this funny performance by displaying alphabet cards placed into slots in a horizontal stand in a random order chosen by audience members. When the stand was turned around to reveal the order of the letters, they magically spelled out the word "backwards", in it's backwards form.

DOYNE MICHIE, famous for his Texas Penny that we've all seem him perform dozens of times got a big laugh when he stood up, faced away from the audience, and said to the wall "have you ever seen a Texas Penny?" It got a quick laugh and he sat down.

DAVID OGLESBY displayed a bag of raisins, took out one, squeezed it in his closed fist, and upon opening his hand, David displayed a grape! Short and sweet.

The lone performer for General Magic was JOE M. TURNER. He performed an intriguing routine with two dice held side-by-side between his thumb and index finger. Joe repeatedly rotated his hand to display the number of spots on opposite sides of the pair of dice, traditionally known to add up to 14. The number of spots on opposite sides amazingly transformed over and over again. A unique twist on an old favorite, Joe had even veteran performers scratching their heads on how he executed the mind-boggling slow motion display of the dots seemingly materializing and dematerializing.

To no one's surprise, the winner of the Coveted Royal Blue Pen award for March was KIRK PUMPHREY. A much deserved win! As you can tell, we have LOTS of fun at our meetings. When in Atlanta on the third Monday of the month, be sure to plan a visit to the Georgia Magic Club to see for yourself that all the laughter and fun is a consistent element of every meeting!

Debbie Leifer, Ring Scribe