2009-10 Famulus newsletter

Newsletter of IBM Ring #170
The Bev Bergeron Ring

Next general meeting Wednesday, 10/21/2009 at 7:30 PM SHARP

Meeting theme: Halloween Magic

I-HOP Kirkman Road
5203 Kirkman Road, Orlando, Florida 32819

Please join us for dinner beforehand

Lunch meetings in the McDonald’s at 7344 Sand Lake Road, Orlando. It’s two blocks WEST of the intersection of Interstate 4 and Sand Lake Road. We meet every Tuesday at noon upstairs.

Website: http://www.ring170.com/

F. A. M. E. is the Florida Association of Magical Entertainers
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Directory
Craig J. Fennessy – President – CraigFennessy@gmail.com
Chris Dunn- Vice President – Youngdunns@yahoo.com
Art Thomas – Treasurer – srjart@earthlink.net
Sheldon Brook- Acting Secretary – mrbrook33@yahoo.com
James Songster- Director at Large, - JjTjMagic@aol.com
Joe Vecciarelli- Sgt at Arms - talkingmute@tampabay.rr.com
Stefan Bartelski – Editor of “Famulus”- Famulus@illusioneer.com
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2009-10 From the Editor

Halloween is almost upon us, so hopefully our professional and semi-pro members are finding their calendars filling up with gigs. As I write this posting, the weather has turned a little cooler, although it still seems pretty warm for the time of year.

Doc Eason in town, with a show/lecture last week at the Mgaical Arts & Design studio. Wizardz has been going well with varied shows every week, of course Doc this week, but well worth driving to Kissimmee for any of their performers. Congratulations to Eric and Kim for putting this on every Monday.

Your editor

Stefan

2009-10 Ring Report Ring #170 The Bev Bergeron Ring

President Craig Fennessey called the meeting to order on September 16^th , 2009, and introduced the Ring officers to the 29 members in attendance. He went on to inform the Ring that our past Ring President MJ Emigh recently undergone a surgical procedure but after a brief recovery period he was back on the performing stage. Some Ring members have been attending the noon get-together on Tuesdays at the McDonalds' Bistro on Sand Lake Road. The general membership is invited if they are available during that time.

Dan Stapleton,, James Songster and Joe Vecciarelli will be performing at the Winter Garden Theater over the Halloween weekend – tickets are available now for purchase. Bev Bergeron returned from an appearance in Houston and now is looking forward to lecturing at the Daytona Beach Magic Convection in November. In addition, Bev will also be busy promoting his recently published novel, “The Magic Connection”. Jacki Manna has a performance coming up at the Interlaken Country Club in the area and Dave Koenig also has a mentalism gig scheduled in the near future.

Phil Schwartz was up next with Magic History Chapter #16 and his subject was 'The Card Picker' and he started out demonstrating his 19^th Century Card Star and continuing with varying examples of devices utilized to present selected card choices. The group was shown probably the most popular example of playing card pickers, “Joanne Duck manufactured by Warren Hamilton in Tampa , Florida. He went on to show us Gwendolyn by Chicago's Ireland Company. He also had a 1942 version of Abbott's “Hand of Caliph”. Also from Abbott (1948) was Percy Penguin and Red Man ata Boy by Jack Hughes. From the 1970's he shared other card pickers from his collection, Fifi, Yogi Bear, and Bob Klein's Grave Yard Ghost Picker. He closed his presentation with several other pickers including Oscar Rabbit and Homer Hudson's Golden Magic Wand.

Bev Bergeron continued his impromptu magic teach-in with every day items and routines that he has performed throughout his many years as a performer.

After the break, Chris Dunn emceed the performances of seven of our members. Mark Fitzgerald started out with Tom Craven's “Inside, Outside”. Bev Bergeron performed his “3 Frog Monte” with a volunteer from his audience. Dan Stapleton followed with his rendition of Ron Frost's “Book Test”. James Songster demonstrated an entertaining “Stocastisity” for the membership's pleasure. Marty Bristow entertained with “Cards of Nineteen”. J. C. Hiatt and Tim (Lyndell) Scarborough closed out the evening with two comedy routines: J. C. by means of a Cup and Ball and Lyndell with an unforgettable monologue.

A fine time was had by all.

2009-10 Magician rides his bike around the world

If you think riding the stationary bike at the gym is exhausting, imagine riding your bike 28,000 miles through 37 countries in eight years. Tired yet?

Keiichi "Kei" Iwasaki , 36, of Japan began such an adventure when he grew tired of working at his father's air-conditioning company. ''I thought to myself that 'My life will soon be over before I do what I want to do!' so I decided to start this trip," Iwasaki told the London Telegraph.

Iwasaki left his home in Maebashi, Japan in April 2001 with just 160 yen, around $2, in his pocket with the intention of biking through Japan. He enjoyed the trip so much that he caught a ferry to South Korea. He has since been robbed by pirates and arrested in India, nearly died after being attacked by a rabid dog in Tibet, and narrowly escaped marriage in Nepal.

Iwasaki's bikes (he's on his fifth now; two were stolen and two were broken) have been his main form of transportation throughout the journey. He says he does not want to fly because "I wanted to see and feel everything with my own skin. With bicycle, I can always feel the air and atmosphere of the place.''

According to his blog, other than the occasional ferry, the only time he did not ride his bike or walk was when he used a hand rowboat. He first used a rowboat to travel from the source of the Ganges River in India to the sea, a distance of over 800 miles that took him 35 days. Iwasaki decided to also row the Caspian Sea when he was passing by and "I just wondered 'how big Caspian sea is?' so I tried to [cross] using hand rowing boat again, it takes 25 days," he wrote.

He counts his biggest achievement as climbing Mount Everest from sea level without using any transportation, the first Japanese man to do so. Iwasaki is currently in Switzerland waiting to climb Europe's highest peak, Mont Blanc.

Iwasaki funds his travels by performing magic tricks on the street. He plans to travel to Africa, through the Americas and finally, back to Japan. He believes the rest of the trip will take him five years, after which he wants to write a book about his adventures.

Photo: Above, via SMNS, Map, via The London Telegraph

2009-10 Winter Garden Theatre spectacular

Don't forget to get your tickets for Dan Stapleton's shows at the Winter Garden theatre. The highlight with be on All Hallows Eve (Halloween) when Dan drives down the street in Winter Garden blindfolded. This will take place at 7 p.m., followed by one of his shows at 8 p.m. There is then a mystery show at 10 p.m. - separate tickets required - which should make a fun evening.

2009-10 Dennis' Deliberations

Here is a fall update from Harrisonburg, Virginia, where I am getting settled into the grove. Wow! The leaves here are turning colors and the hills are ablaze with hues of red, orange and gold. We had to turn on the heat. My house has hydronic heat which is an oil fired boiler and room radiators. I have had an education figuring out how all that works. The heating system is very efficient and low cost compared to forced air heat as you have in Florida.

I spent a couple of warm weekends visiting Civil War Battlefields. The Shenandoah Valley was the breadbasket of the Confederacy and fiercely protected by Stonewall Jackson and his Cavalry commander Turner Ashby. Ashby was shot through the heart in 1862 in battle at Harrisonburg and the historic marker is less than one hundred yards from my house. They have a high school named for him close by. The 1862 campaign was a success for the rebels but Union General Phil Sheridan finally captured the Valley in 1864 and burned much of the infrastructure. The result is that many people here still have their old Gray Uniforms in the closet ready to come out again. There are no Left turns allowed in the county and it is against the law to sell anything but Right Wings at local chicken joints. The other day I casually mentioned to one of the locals about Stonewall Jackson being shot at Chancellorsville. They responded with, “Oh my God! He’s dead???”

So, speaking of history and legacy lets move to magic!

How does ANY lifetime list of effects and routines in magic compare to what I found in the new book about Doug Henning?

From the website about the new book on Doug Henning (http://www.doughenningbook.com) I haven’t done anything in comparison to Henning.

I remember Doug well! I remember hanging out with Doug, Dick Oslund and Dennis Loomis at the 1969 Abbott’s Get Together.

The big act on the Saturday Night Show was Ralph Adams. Doug was preppy looking with short hair, buck teeth and always a turtleneck sweater. His was enamored by the work of Guy Jarrett and Andre Kole. He talked about his friend in Chicago, “Jim” who was a genius. (Jim Steinmeyer)

Doug died believing that he could actually levitate telling close friends that he could float. I think his belief had much to do with his religion of Transcendental Meditation.

Larry Thornton and I agree that the one (and only!) thing that bugged us about Doug Henning was his tendency to overstate the importance of a child-like sense of wonder; how the unbounded imagination's ability to enhance and preserve our sense of the magical was somehow superior, even to science. "Never fully grow up! "Henning seemed to be saying, "Keep and nourish that wonderful child within you at all costs!"

In Unweaving the Rainbow, Richard Dawkins addresses the perception that science and art are often taken to be at odds. He wrote this book in response to critics who felt that his two previous books, The Selfish Gene and the Blind Watchmaker, relied far too much on a naturalistic world view. Dawkins felt the need to explain that, as a scientist, he too saw the world as full of wonders and a source of great pleasure; and that his own sense of wonder and enjoyment sprang not from any inexplicable actions of a deity (or any other kind of magic), but rather, the understandable laws of nature. In standard Christian theology, at least since St. Thomas Aquinas, there is an understanding that God is behind the laws of nature.

Perhaps it might have been beneficial to Henning to have met Dawkins or maybe Christian theologian and former scientist, John Pokingham and sat down with him for a conversation on the differences between the wonders of magical deception, and the magic inherent in the true wonders of scientific discovery. The poet John Keat's well-known accusation that Isaac Newton destroyed the beauty of the rainbow by explaining it (a starting point for Unweaving the Rainbow) may have pleased Henning immensely.

Far from being a magician of the skeptical school, Doug's apparent love for fantasy (over reality) may have been the principal driving force that sent him spinning slack-jawed and air-headed down the seductive 'rabbit-hole' of transcendental meditation, with its associated gurus of Eastern mysticism and bliss and finally into the end of his career.

Larry Thornton and I got an idea: Someone should create a (convention) stage act called "The Recession Magic Act" -- and then do about ten minutes of stuff (music only) dressed in obviously tattered tails, while putting on the attitude of a magician of great dignity. You know, a Thomsoni-like persona. Effects could include the Recession Duck Bucket made from a trash pail; an immaculately over acted high-brow Zombie routine with a toilet tank float; card productions with filthy rumpled cards that look as though they'd been through a war; and ... well, it's limited only by a twisted imagination. There must be dozens of gag possibilities. You could have The Miser’s Dream done with pennies. Finally, The Great Government Bailout Bubble where the grand finale is an explosion of phony money. As the act progresses (regresses) the guy's tattered tailcoat begins to slowly disintegrate as he desperately tries to hold it together. The soles on his shoes fall off.

At the end the whole act is held together with duck tape.

Okay, it needs work. But you get the idea. If you got a few of your magician pals together to brainstorm this, I think they could come up with a COMEDY WINNER.

Now you know why I'm not a comedy magician...Those of you that have been in the ring for at least 10 years remember “The Amazing Prozac and Bubbles”, my assistant was –Carl Fowler, former Ring President -dressed in drag. I was a bearded, old, over-the-hill magician who seemed oblivious to the audience and to anything that was happening on stage. Everything went wrong but I held out my arms for applause. Think Carl Ballantine stoned. I retired “The Amazing Prozac” after that one show and the quality of all comedy magic went up a level. Maybe I am a better writer-creator than performer? Bev said it all stunk. I think that was the idea, Bev! The problem is that when you do comedy, if it stinks, it has to stink funny. I will leave that to Kohl and Company.

I will keep you posted from here in the Shenandoah Valley. Halloween is around the corner. You should be booking shows.

Dennis

I keep forgetting that this is the Bible Belt.

Some guy up here saw this photo

and thought that I was a Pentecostal Faith Healer!

You will not believe your eyes!

One of America’s foremost Magical Entertainers will delight

and amaze you with dazzling skill and delightful comedy.

Come prepared to have fun!