SAM National Convention

A Report on the SAM National Convention

I have been member of the IBM for over 24 years and have been to many regional and four national IBM conventions but I have never been to a SAM national convention, so I had no idea what to expect. To sum up my experience, the convention was more about the magic than the tricks. There were only four lectures and none were card or coin close up workers. Instead, the convention was more of a big picture look at magic.

Lee Grabel spoke about his years on the stage and television and showed old black and white footage of his famous act featuring a piano that floats upside down while a pianist is still playing up side down. When asked why he never gave anyone permission to do the trick today, he said that he designed the effect and the steel used with a significant margin of error. With today’s litigious society he is concerned that someone doing the effect will have a failure and someone will get hurt and sue (everyone in sight). He also talked about receiving the mantle from Dante and then passing the mantle on to Lance Burton forty years after he received it.

Another legend in magic, Harry Riser, performed his linking rings and egg bag for his part in the Close up Gala. Both effects are featured in his new book, Secrets of an Escamoteur. He talked about learning the Malini egg bag from Charlie Miller and how his wife made the first one from Charlie’s recollection of seeing Malini’s bag.

Youth make up a big part of SAM and six young magicians put on a show at the convention. One young magician in the show came from Shrewsbury, England, accompanied by two other magicians, his father and grandfather. One of the young ladies in the show, Kayla Drescher, even helped emcee the first night’s stage show which was a stage contest. The contest had contestants from Macau, China, Japan, Korea, as well as the US. It was the best contest that I have ever seen.

A big part of the convention was the Special Sessions. R. G. Smith talked about entertaining our troops in Turkey, Yugoslavia, and Mogadishu. He was not paid but got $60 a day to cover expenses ($120 today); which he said is not always enough. He traveled with a country and western band and they went where most other entertainers would not. They had sand bags piled higher than their cots to stop incoming rifle fire. They were the last entertainers in Mogadishu and left just before “Black Hawk Down” occurred. It was a very sobering look at the world today and how magic can bring a smile to our troops and the villagers who support us.

The first big stage show was an all guy evening billed as Bargatze’s Boys, with Steve Bargatze doing his usual crazy antics. Ardan James is the consummate performer and closed the show with a terrific performance.

The second night was an All Gal Gala. Young Farrah Siegel is multi talented and enthusiastic with a very entertaining act. Luna Shimada was much better than I expected and Arian Black was not as good. Lynn Trefzger is a ventriloquist. I did not particularly like her characters but she stole the show with three “volunteers” who “spoke” when she touched them. One of the “volunteers” was Mac King and what she had coming out of his mouth had the place in stitches.

Juliana Chen closed the show with an absolute flawless act. Later she gave a lecture and said that she has never lost a competition that she has entered. She spoke of being chosen at an early age by the Chinese Communists to train as an entertainer. In her case it was as a juggler until she blew out her knee, and then she learned magic. She is a very strong and determined woman.

The convention was billed as Mac King’s Homecoming. I lived in Louisville in the 70’s and bought magic from Mac when he worked at the local magic shop while he was in high school. Mac did all of his bits and thanked Terry Seabrooke, who emceed the show, because without adapting Terry’s act Mac said that he would not have a show. Some local group ran a contest to select one of Mac’s “volunteers”. Unfortunately the “volunteer” did not have any money or a watch, so Mac got a volunteer to help the volunteer, who had both the $20 bill and a watch. This made the whole bit funnier, especially to the magicians who knew what was going on.

The theater is a great venue and Louisville has made their downtown a real convention town. The combined SAM and IBM convention will be there in two years and it should be a good one.

Gary Adams