I.B.M. Ring 9
Ring Reports
March 2010
No. 9, Atlanta, Georgia - Georgia Magic Club
3rd Monday, 7:00 PM, Mt. Vernon Presbyterian Church
EVAN REYNOLDS, President (evan@evan.org)
ARAGORN, Vice President (aragorntm@comcast.net)
BILL PACKARD, Secretary (packardw@earthlink.net)
Ring 9 Web Site: www.GaMagicClub.com
Our March meeting began with "Making Mathematical Magic Meaningful", a Mini Lecture by member Matt Baker. He taught us several fascinating routines combining math and playing cards. A math professor at Georgia Tech, and a very clever magician in his own right, Matt is certainly the man to learn from regarding creative routining, and making mathematical principles combined with magic entertaining.
Next, young Ben Goldfein performed for membership. Using an invisible palm he caused four kings placed on different piles to assemble together in one pile, followed by the four aces toping the remaining piles. Ben followed this with a lie detector test that helped him determine that the Ace of Clubs was chosen even though his audience assistant was able to lie or tell the truth about the color, suit, and value of his chosen card.
This month's magic theme was Movie Magic. Dan Garrett kicked off the performances with his performance of Brian Curry's Business Cardiographic. Dan's drawing of an empty wine goblet on a business card visually filled with red wine, and was then given to a visiting journalist as a souvenir.
Mike Quinn asked one of our new young members to choose an actor's name from a printed list. After displaying a deck of cards with movie star names printed on the backs of the cards, our president chose the King of Clubs, and of course the actor's name printed on the back of that card matched the original actor selected.
The always amusing Kirk Pumphrey produced a kazoo from a red silk. Then in his typical clever interpretation of the magic theme, he used a change bag to produce a series of visual puns that relate to movies. Pantyhose represented a supporting role, he also produced a small gold Oscar statue, and many other funny items that related to film production (based on the accompanying silly puns).
A selection of green cards featuring the names of movies was displayed by Darryl Berman. After one movie was chosen by an audience member, Darryl managed to read the mind of his helper to determine the chosen film was Grease.
Evan Reynolds produced a giant magic wand from his jacket pocket, then brought a young man up to help magically transform colorful scarves into a Star Wars lightsaber using a Crystal Silk Cylinder.
Using a jumbo deck of cards, Matt Baker offered his tribute to the film Minority Report. He asked two audience members to cut their half of a deck to establish two freely chosen cards. Matt displayed the two Jokers, explaining that these would represent the psychic detectives in the film, and indeed they did their job locating the chosen cards.
Ron Gladstone showed cards with images of movie villains. An audience member chose one character by placing a poker chip on that card. In the surprising conclusion, when the poker chip was turned over, the name of the chosen villain was printed on it.
As we've come to expect, Merritt Ambrose came prepared with an elaborate display of props. After magically producing a pool cue from a small purse, Merritt announced that the plot of his presentation was the pool-themed film "The Hustler". He performed an interactive chop cup routine with a small yellow billiard ball, followed by the appearance of a standard size yellow billiard ball and an 8 ball, and the surprise climax of many small billiard balls appearing the cup.
The final theme performance was by Martin Baritz, who produced a Coke can as he attempted to replicate the humor in the movie Zoolander.
For General Magic, Rick Silver used colorful flash cards for some fun mentalism. Audience members chose three cards at random, Rick proceeded to correctly name the zebra, apple, and magician.
Gary Vaughn asked president Evan Reynolds to memorize the serial number on his bill. Gary somehow determined which of many bills was the borrowed currency.
The crowd celebrated St. Patrick's Day with Kevin McDaid as he displayed a handful of cards with a leprechaun on each one with matching green backs. They magically turned face up and then face down, concluding with a colorful rainbow as each card now had a different color back, and three faces now displayed pots of gold.
Paul Sponaugle explained how a card cheat can keep track of a card by using his nail to nick the corner. His demonstration of the "advanced version" got a huge laugh when Paul tore off the entire corner of a freely chosen card, giving it to his audience assistant as a receipt. After tearing up the rest of the card and placing it into a special matter/anti-matter device, and juggling 3 grapefruits, the torn card vanished. Amazingly, it reappeared restored inside the chosen grapefruit, with of course the corner receipt matching perfectly.
Winner of the Coveted Royal Blue Pen Award for March was Kirk Pumphrey.
Debbie Leifer
Ring Scribe