FAMULUS - September 2006

Newsletter of IBM Ring #170 The Bev Bergeron Ring

Next general meeting Wednesday, 09/20/2006 at 7:30 PM SHARP

Meeting theme: Card-less Magic

Marks Street Center, 99 Mark Street, downtown Orlando
If you visit with us and do not know the room we meet in , please be aware that
some of the people in the office at the Senior Center may not be aware we are
meeting there! At the last meeting one visitor asked where the "IBM" was meeting
and the management apparently thought they were asking for the International
Business Machines group! They said that there was no "IBM" on the schedule. So,
if you have never been to our ring meeting , please say "magicians" or "FAME" and
if that doesn't get the room location , just walk around looking for us. The Senior
Center is a public building.


Lunch meetings every Tuesday at noon at Goodings (next to the food court)

Website: www.ring170.com
F. A. M. E. is the Florida Association of Magical Entertainers

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Directory

Harvey Brownlow, President - harvini@yahoo.com
James Songster, Vice President - JjTjMagic@aol.com
Dennis Phillips, Secretary - Dennis@alliedcostumes.com
Art Thomas, Treasurer- Art.Thomas@disney.com
Charlie Cox, Sgt. At Arms - charles_c2000@yahoo.com
Joe Vecciarelli, Director at Large - talkingmute@tampabay.rr.com

Stefan Bartelski, Editor Famulus - Famulus@illusioneer.com

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From the Editor

Once again thanks to all who submitted articles for this month's newsletter. I think that I managed to get everybody in this time. I can second the comments in the ring report about the movie "the Illusionist". This is a very well done movie, incorporating magic, but not giving anything away. Also, purists will no doubt balk at the fact that many of the tricks are "film" tricks and not true magic. But they still provid ea very entertaining evening. Coincidentally, one of the previews before the film was for another magical movie, "the Prestige". So it looks as if magic is making a come-back to the big time. I wonder if Criss Angel's success has anything to do with that?

Stefan

Ring Report IBM Ring #170 "The Bev Bergeron Ring"

August is the hottest month in Orlando and also the peak of the Summer tourist and convention season and a busy time for all the local working professionals.
Twenty one members showed up for the meeting that was conducted by Vice-President James Songster sitting in for President Harvey Brownlow.
Lecture chair and video librarian Craig Fennessey gave a report on future lectures in the ring. Bev Bergeron is doing well after his therapeutic adventures with the medical system. Comments were positive on the new theatrical film, "The Illusionist". We hope this revives interest in classic magic and illusions. Comments were also positive on Chuck Smith's new "Enigma the DVD" magic magazine. Chuck was with us for the meeting. He is a man of many talents in the video production area as well as magic. Several club members can be seen and heard on the DVD. Chuck's concept is the wave of the future in the magic publishing business.

Jim and Terry Waples gave a preview of their clown convention. The convention will feature all allied arts as well as Christian ministry presentations.
Dollie's Comedy Shop has opened in the International Drive area and comedy magician John Ferrentino will be appearing as part of the entertainment.

With the business portion of the meeting concluded the monthly ring show began with James Songster as Master of Ceremonies.

First up was Terry Waples. Terry presented a cute effect with business cards called "Perfect match" and she again invited everyone to the clown convention she is presenting.
Charlie Pfrogner, Mr.Originality, presented another of his creations. A bag with ribbons a a clear marble vanished. The bag then changed colors a few times. A wand and silks were then produced from the bag. Finally the marble reappeared with a silk that said, "The End". How Charlie comes up with such clever routines is as much a mystery as his unique tricks.

Dan Stapleton presented a mentalism effect he developed during his years as a top-notch cruise ship entertainer. Six slips of a paper were passed to people that Dan did not know. They wrote their names on the paper. A spectator selected one of the papers that were cleverly strung on a strip of masking tape. Dan burned the paper and rubbed the ashes on his arm and the name of the spectator appeared on his arm. Roger Reid invited a spectator to help him and he did a slick Jarden Ellis ring routine with a handkerchief using the spectator's thumb as the ring holder.

Finally closing out the show, VP James Songster and Director at Large, Joe Vecchiarelli , showed their version of "making it snow". They had created a clever routine and developed the device to help them with the paper snow storm. They gave credit to several ring members who helped them create the routine and the prop.

Even though many of the ring members are old hands at magic we always learn something new from the monthly ring show.

With the show concluded, we all went back out into the warm August night. If you are in Orlando on vacation please join us because good things are always happening in Ring 170.

Dennis Phillips

Request for help

from Tom of Backstage Magic
Mark Duva is one of our Best suppliers (Murphys magic) and has been keeping us updated to the all new effects AND THIS TYPE OF INJUSTICE!!!!.
Please: Take a look at this, and please send them your comments . I also would like this to be Posted on the RING WEB SITE, SO ALL OF US THAT WANT TO, CAN LET THEM KNOW WHAT WE THINK AND TO GIVE THEM A PIECE OF OUR MINDS!!!! We need to help try to stop this from happening, I am hoping the ring feels the same way!!.


Ok so here is a REALLY BAD IDEA, Please take a look at this bad site. These guys could really impact our industry in the most negative way. What they are setting out to do is to expose all secrets of magic to any one willing to join their “club” and single handedly do away with all of the secret and mystery in magic. This will also do away with all interest and need for Magicians, performers, store owners, magic instructors. Who will need to buy magic to learn how a trick works, when you can pay a nominal fee, and learn everything? At the bottom of the page is a link to email comments to them.

Please take the time to tell them what YOU really think. Please ask some of your customers to tell them what they think as well.

Thanks,
Marc Duva

In the News

James and Joe - Bunnies in Peril - were the subject of an article in some Ohio newspapers.
-click here to view-

Magicians for Habitat for Humanity's "Hometown Heroes"

Habitat for Humanity of Greater Orlando is holding it's premiere event "Hometown Heroes" at the T.D. Waterhouse Center on Wednesday evening, October 25, 2006 beginning at 6:00 PM. The theme of the event is "The Magic of Habitat". This is a volunteer "Thank You" and fund raising event that will include music, entertainment and live and silent auctions.
Habitat needs magicians to donate their time to perform "walk around" magic table to table and "stand up" performers to work a small stage at various times during the evening.
You will work no more than 1 hour of the 3 1/2 hour event. You will receive 2 tickets for family and friends (valued at $150), dinner provided by Outback Steakhouse, wine and beer, an event T-shirt and a chance to hand out business cards to many of the 1700 people who will attend. Your name will be included in the program along with your fellow members of IBM Ring 170 who volunteer.
You may volunteer for the event by sending your name, telephone number and e-mail to bonzo1114a@aol.com. Please let us know if you prefer to do "close-up" or "stand-up" so that we may make hourly assignments. You may volunteer by filling out the form at the next Ring 170 meeting on Sept 20.

One Day Convention Planned

I'm planning a one day convention January 20, 2007. Four lectures, closeup show and evening show. Cost 65.00 a head. Will be in Sarasota. Headliner will be Whit Haydn. He's not been in Florida since the 80's. Oscar Munoz, Dan Tong. and TBA.

Show is in a fantastic theater. I would guess some of you might be interested. Please ask at the next meeting and let me know PLEASE.

Jim Hall (email)

Mind Games coming

Marc Salem's "Mind Games" metalism show will be coming to The King Center in Melbourne in January. With the high cost of fuel...is there anyone who would like to get a car/van full of magicians to go?
Also coming to the same theatre is a show called "Snowflakes". An old boss of mine, Gale LaJoye is the performer and the show looks wonderful. Not magic as we know it but the show is truly "magical". A one-man show of mime and true theatre. Gale was clown boss at Circus World and was my boss when I had the Theatre of Illusion Show there. He presented a one-man show at Rollins college in his early development show and that was great. But to take a show like Snowflakes to the King Center...it HAS to be good. Don't miss it. It will really make you feel good. Snowflakes will be in Jan. also...I think. Will let you now more about both shows later.
Dan Stapleton

SUBJECT: LECTURE (for Ring 258)

WHO: Dan Tong

DATE: September 28, 2006

TIME: 7:15PM

LOCATION: Lil Anthony's Pizza / Meeting room.
1690 Citrus Blvd. (HIWAYS 27/441) In Leesburg.

You do not want to miss this lecture. He will be presenting close-up and stand-up routines for all to perform.

FEE: FREE TO RING 258 MEMBERS IN GOOD STANDING.
NON MEMBERS: $15.00 (MUST BE A PAID UP MEMBER
OF A MAGIC ORGANIZATION).

JIM MOODY

Lee Langer

Today I had lunch with Lee Langer. Lee is a former President of IBM Ring 170, who was out of commission for a few years winning his battle with cancer. ee is well again and living in Clermont. Lee will be joining us again, most likely at the September meeting. He has already joined Ring 258 in Leesburg.

Magically,
Roger L. Reid

For Sale By Richard Hewitt

A medium size white rabbit with a large cage with two props to use with the rabbit.
They are a large mirror box for a rabbit production and a large flip over box for a rabbit vanish.
The price is $100 for everything and I will bring it to the next ring meeting! Call Richard Hewitt 386 740 9777

Dennis' Deliberations

Life always provides surprises and challenges and this Summer was no different. It is always a challenge to keep an income coming in during the Summer months because a major income source for me is teaching in colleges and public school. Early this Summer the choices that appeared to open for me ( with a Masters Degree) seemed to be bagging groceries at Publix or slinging fried bean paste at Taco Bell. Fortunately, I did find some work playing camera man for some industrial training videos.

But the big project for the Summer was helping illusionist Mark O'Brien stage his novel magic-drama stage show, "Walking Through Fires" at the Atlantic Theater
in Jacksonville. Photos from the stage show can be seen on line at http://www.fmptajax.org/EventPhotos/WalkingThroughFire.htm

To refresh your memory a bit about Mark O'Brien: He appeared as the closing illusion act at our Ring Banquet a couple of years. Mark is in his mid 40s and has been around the show-business block a few times. He was a frequent performer during the late 80s and early 90s on Nickelodeon Network productions taped here in town when they were doing production, he has done cruise ships, did a season at Busch Gardens in Tampa in the Stanleyville Theater and was two seasons at Fort Fun in Germany.

An extensive listing of his career can be seen at http://markobrienproductions.com/
Mark was on the fast track to establishing a solid and stable career as a mid-tier illusionist.

Then in the Summer of 1999 as he was negotiating for his business plan for a magic theater on International Drive to come to flower, two large storage buildings on the back of his 3 acre property in North Orlando , filled with almost a half-million dollars of uninsured illusion props, caught fire. They were heavily damaged. The fire marshal could not find any obvious unintentional ignition source and declared the fire "suspicious". It appeared that the sheds were intentionally torched. Unbelievably just one week later, both sheds again caught fire and were totally destroyed.
In spite of evidence that suggested that the fires were intentionally set, the case was not exhaustively investigated by fire officials. At this point the story gets downright spooky! O'Brien hired 2 private investigators and they uncovered a lot oof seeming linkages between O'Brien's Orlando business rivals and the only individuals that knew that O'Brien had his props stored at his home compound. As the investigation was coming to a high point, O'Brien's private investigators were arrested for impersonating police officers and the FBI. Events around the arrest were not clear.

The whole of the events surrounding the fires and the private investigator's arrest ended without O'Brien ever clear on who, why and how he was burned out.
O'Brien was convinced he was burned out by show business enemies and competitors. Other remote possibilities included neighbors angry that he had his leopard housed on his property and young neighborhood vandals.

As a result of the fires, O'Brien's career was stalled just at the time the country was headed for the early 2000 Hi-Tech economic downturn and the trauma of the 9-11 terrorism. He recovered some of his momentum and continued to perform but began devoting more time to profitable business efforts outside of performing illusions. He did a stint as a successful Trade Show coordinator. He also became a successful licensed professional private eye doing arson and insurance fraud cases.

The Jacksonville production was a part of the fulfillment of Mark O'Brien's goal to get his bizarre story and the resulting injustice into a film. The feature film will include several sequences from his "Walking through Fires" stage show. So, to get those sequences, O'Brien created the theatrical play with illusions and magic built into it.
"Walking Through Fires" is set as a trial in a courtroom. The judge sits elevated behind her bench on the right side of the stage. Large gear cogs suggest the "wheels of justice". O'Brien is the plaintiff and is suing the system for failing him in its investigation and handling of the fires. The system is defended by Samuel Stone, a defender of the system who is annoyed at O'Brien for pointing out the failures of the system. O'Brien's personal attorney is "Justine Justice" a bubbly prosecutor standing up for O'Brien.

The show opens with O'Brien being produced from a wooden crate that explodes after being wheeled around and shown empty. You may recall this illusion from the Ring banquet show two years ago. There is a transition and we find that O'Brien is actually performing for the court. Extended courtroom dialogue then explains the charges that O'Brien is bringing to the court against the "system". Mark also included some interesting video clips to explain the story line. Small magic that is woven into the storyline includes the Cups and balls, Cardographic, Anderson's Newspaper Tear and Perfect Time. Act one ends with O'Brien laying on a psychiatrist's couch and being covered and levitated and vanished in classic Asrah fashion.

The second act opens with a video montage of Mark O'Brien performing on Nickelodeon TV and other important trade show and cruise ship venues. He then performs live the Metamorphosis in a fast 1970s Doug Henning style. The courtroom drama continues and is broken by video montages and a novel sequence that features a very artistic version of The Artist's Dream and O'Brien's original creation, "The Split Image". Jim Steinmeyer gave honor to Mark's "Split Image" in the manuscript to "Modern Art". When O'Brien is remembered in the magic world, he will be forever linked with his clever "Split Image". The effect is similar to "Modern Art" but much more complex and baffling. The doors are opened on the front and back of each cabinet section and it is obvious that the assistant is not in a Zig-Zag or Modern Art type twisting position.

The finale to the show is a scene where Mark's attorney, Justine Justice, is tied into a DeKolta Chair and O'Brien is chained in a coffin-like box by the defense attorney, Samuel Stone and two giant twin buzz saw blades cut into the box. Mark does a double exchange with Stone and Justine Justice disappears from the DeKolta Chair.

The show did a fairly good box office considering the remote beach location of the theater and the limited advertising budget. This show has been in the works since last Summer and I worked all of the weekends during May,June and most of the last half of July on the show. There were a total of 3 big truck trips taking and bringing back equipment from Orlando to Jacksonville.

I built the Asrah, the DeKolta Chair and helped cut two traps in the stage for the DeKolta and Buzz Saw. I was O'Brien's illusion technician.

In the end it was a lot of work, frustration and effort but I feel that considering the budget, the circumstances and situation the effort was worth it. For me it was a positive learning experience. From the audience viewpoint, I could tell that not everyone who saw the show understood what they were seeing! It was a unique stage drama with magic built into the storyline. This type of hybrid art form would have probably been better appreciated in a cultural area like the Northeast United States rather than Jacksonville.

This story is not finished...Mark O'Brien continues to refine his ideas and work on his film. In spite of all his setbacks, Mark O'Brien is still in the game.
I will keep you posted!

Dennis Phillips