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Sunday, December 16, 2012
2012-12 Famulus newsletter
Newsletter of IBM Ring #170
The Bev Bergeron Ring
Next general meeting Wednesday, 12/19/2012 at 7:30 PM SHARP Christmas gift exchange!
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
*************************************************************
Directory
Craig J. Fennessy – President – CraigFennessy@gmail.com
Chris Dunn- Vice President – Youngdunns@yahoo.com
Sheldon Brook- Secretary – mrbrook33@yahoo.com
Treasurer - Bev Bergeron & Joe Zimmer - Bev@bevbergeron.com zimsalabim@aol.com
Mark Fitzgerald- Director at Large - markaf1949@hotmail.com
Dan Knapp- Sgt at Arms - danknapp@centurylink.net
Stefan Bartelski – Editor of “Famulus”- Famulus@illusioneer.com
*************************************************************
GET PUBLISHED!
Got an idea for an article to add to the next FAMULUS? Put it in the body of an email or in a Word document attached to an email. Send it to Famulus@illusioneer.com, and we will get you in print.
Please, please, please, use the Famulus@illusioneer.com e-mail address, your messages are in danger of getting lost if you do not do so.
2012-12 From the Editor
So another year is about to close its doors, how time flies. Firstly, let me wish all members a very merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah or any other appropriate greetings of the season. Also, as they say in Europe, have a happy change of year.
This time of year sees one of the Ring's most loved traditions, the gift exchange. So remember to bring a magic gift of value $15-25 to the December meeting to participate.
Your editor
This time of year sees one of the Ring's most loved traditions, the gift exchange. So remember to bring a magic gift of value $15-25 to the December meeting to participate.
Your editor
2012-12 Ring Report
President Craig Fennessey opened the meeting by introducing those guests in attendance; local performer Doug Otto, Chris Waller and Wayne Hughes who drove over from Ocala to attend. Craig alerted the membership that openings were coming up on the Board for new officers in 2013. There is also another free lecture scheduled for the Ring in January.
Dan Stapleton announced the passing, earlier in the month, of Gene Shirley . Gene was the past president of our Ring at its inception in the '70's.
At our next meeting, in December, we will have a gift exchange similar to the events we have had in the past.
Mark Fitzgerald and Doug Otto continue to perform at the Hard Rock Cafe here in Orlando. Dan Stapleton will lecture at the home of Chris Dunn early in December. Jacki Manna is very busy this holiday season doing many private parties and performing in the Florida Mall in South Orlando. Bev Bergeron is scheduled for several gigs emceeing private parties. Wallace Murphy and Craig Fennessey are doing walk-around at Gator's Dockside in Ocoee.
After a brief intermission, Orlando's own Ryan Schultz lectured and entertained for the remaining portion of the meeting. His performance, technique and card handling were well received by the membership.
2012-12 Dennis' Deliberations
I have never been a fan of Penn and Teller. I respect their ability to create a
niche in show business as “The Bad Boys of Magic” but they are a caricature of magicians and their persona is more satire and
ridicule than it is any actual magic. They are a cruel joke on magic and
in my opinion just a notch above The Masked
Magician. But, again, if some people enjoy that type of entertainment then so be it.
At several places Penn acknowledges that show business is nothing compared to
"real" jobs. He would much rather spend hours working on a movie
set or perfect a routine for his live show, than sit at a desk, answering to a
boss he can't stand. He tells the story of meeting Jonas
Salk, developer
of the polio vaccine. "I just kept looking him in the eyes and trying to
imagine what it felt like to help save that many lives. Doing card tricks for a living is stupid no matter who you're talking to, but
look Jonas Salk in the eyes, and it seems everyone else is doing stupid card tricks for a
living."
Why do so many in the general public say that they hate
magic? It’s probably because they've seen poor magic or an
arrogant, boorish magician, or both at the same time. Wayne Kawamoto lists five
commonly made mistakes made by magicians and notes that it is not always just
beginners who make them.
1. Arrogance and Acting Smarter Than the
Audience
No one likes a performer, or even a person, who thinks he or
she is smarter than everybody else and tries to demonstrate it. Magic is not an
opportunity for a magician to show off or demonstrate how clever or intelligent
he or she is.
When magic is performed in a manner that says “ha ha,
I know the secret and you don’t,” it’s been turned into a
puzzle and the audience is only encouraged to try and discover the secret.
Also, many magicians don’t understand that what works for Amazing
Jonathan is not necessarily what they should be copying and doing in their
shows.
The Amazing Jonathan is an acerbic performer who humiliates
his audience and assistants for comic effect. You can see some of his work
here. I don’t know of any science performers who deliberately set out to
offend their audiences but there are plenty who inadvertently come across
poorly by showing off how clever they are.
The most important trait for anyone on stage to have is likability and no-one likes a smarty. The best way to get audiences to like
you on stage is to act as you normally would in real life. Be nice. Be
generous. Be polite.
2. Humiliating or Embarrassing Volunteers
When audience members come up to assist, they are going out
of their way to help the magician. It’s imperative to treat volunteers
with respect and not go for the easy jokes that get laughs and belittles and
embarrasses volunteers. Sure, there are lots of bald, fat, ethnic, gender and
more jokes that one can utter, but for entertainment of a higher level, these
can be left behind.
I think the secret to using volunteers is to know exactly
why they are being used and then to send them back a hero. There is no more
effective way to lose the sympathy of an audience than to treat a member of
that audience poorly.
3. Inadequate Preparation
Magic is not simply a matter of visiting a magic shop, purchasing
a trick or two, taking them out of the package, reading the instructions and
then performing them. Entertaining and baffling magic takes time to develop and
practice, and routines need to be engaging, dramatic or funny, whatever works
best for a magician’s personality or character.
An old saying in magic goes like this: an amateur practices
until they get it right, a professional practices until they get it right every
time.
You have to give yourself enough time to 1. write the show,
2. get the props together, 3. rehearse the demos, 4. and then work out how to
perform them.
Just because, as a beginner, doesn’t mean that you can
get away with preparing poorly. In fact because it isn’t what you do on a
regular basis you will need to prepare for it that much more.
I would suggest, as an absolute minimum, you’ll need
to set aside between ten and twenty times the length of the performance for the
preparation. A ten minute presentation needs between and hour and a half and
three hours to prepare. An presentation that lasts for an hour would require
the best part of a working week.
4. Not Properly Structuring a Show
Tricks in sequence should be varied. One card trick where a
spectator selects a card and the magician finds it may be entertaining, but five
such tricks in a row are probably too much. Mix up the effects.
Wayne gives
excellent advice here that I’d like to take further. Structure goes
beyond mixing up your demos. Structure is essential in any performance and
structure comes from knowing exactly what you are trying to do. Every show
should have an ultimate ambition; you should be able to say in a single
sentence what the whole point of the show is. Once you've identified this
end point you can then decide where to start and how to get from the start to
the end.
If you have identified a clear reason why you are performing
your show you won’t end up performing the equivalent of five card tricks
in a row because you won’t just be performing card tricks you will be
taking your audience on a journey that will require a good selection of
exciting demos.
5. Wearing a Character Costume
Many beginning magicians may feel or know that their magic
is inadequate and will consider wearing a costume – a clown suit, wizard
outfit or more – to seemingly make up for this. After all, the logic
seems to go, if one doesn't feel that they are optimal at magic, at least
they’re dressed up as a character.
However, this is faulty thinking. And unfortunately, some
entertainers in costume are a sign of awful magic. Some professionals such as
Ed Alonzo, Sylvester the Jester, Rudy Coby and Bev Bergeron do make great use
of a costume and use it to enhance their character.
A costume should only be worn to reinforce the character
that an entertainer is portraying, which, in turn, supports the theme of the
magic effects. If an entertainer is dressed as a wizard, for example,
what’s he doing with a deck of cards? Should he not be casting
spells or causing things to float and such?
This is great advice. Do you really need that lab coat?
Perhaps if you are going to do something messy you should wear it but do you
need to wear it at the start of the show or after the messy section has
finished? And what about that clown suit? If you have been to clown school and
perform a science show that includes real clowning then you might need it but
otherwise why are you wearing it? And as for that comedy mad-scientist wig,
those thick-rimmed glasses and the tie-died lab coat… I’ll let Wayne have the last word
on that:
Bottom line, the path to good magic is to build solid magic
and presentation skills and perform in an entertaining manner. Save the money
and forget the cheap costume. Work on the magic instead and in the long run,
become a far better entertainer.
Dennis Phillips
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
2012-11 Famulus Newsletter
Newsletter of IBM Ring #170
The Bev Bergeron Ring
Next general meeting Wednesday, 11/21/2012 at 7:30 PM SHARP with free lecture (for members)
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
*************************************************************
Directory
Craig J. Fennessy – President – CraigFennessy@gmail.com
Chris Dunn- Vice President – Youngdunns@yahoo.com
Sheldon Brook- Secretary – mrbrook33@yahoo.com
Treasurer - Bev Bergeron & Joe Zimmer - Bev@bevbergeron.com zimsalabim@aol.com
Mark Fitzgerald- Director at Large - markaf1949@hotmail.com
Dan Knapp- Sgt at Arms - danknapp@centurylink.net
Stefan Bartelski – Editor of “Famulus”- Famulus@illusioneer.com
*************************************************************
GET PUBLISHED!
Got an idea for an article to add to the next FAMULUS? Put it in the body of an email or in a Word document attached to an email. Send it to Famulus@illusioneer.com, and we will get you in print.
Please, please, please, use the Famulus@illusioneer.com e-mail address, your messages are in danger of getting lost if you do not do so.
2012-11 From the Editor
As this reached just before the first of our year-end holidays, let me wish a very happy Thanksgiving for all Ring members and their families. The holiday season is upon us, so I hope that this will be a time of good cheer for everyone too. Don't forget this month's meeting is a free (for members) lecture, so mosey on down to the IHOP on Kirkman. Remember, please, please, please, if you have any holiday stories, send me an email at famulus@illusioneer.com in the next few days for inclusion in our Christmas edition.
Your editor
Stefan
Your editor
Stefan
2012-11 Ring Report
President Craig Fennessey opened the meeting by announcing that a lecture by Ryan Shultz would take place on our next meeting date, November 21st. There would be no charge for members to attend. Craig reminded the membership of the Magic Convention in Daytona the first weekend in November as well as a week of magic performances in Orlando during the Halloween Week. Craig had also attended the Genii Convention earlier in the month and shared with the group the generous contents of the handout briefcase bag each participant received for attending.
The Ring was happy to see Janet and Tim Scarborough, as well as Billy Scadlock attending the meeting. Bev Bergeron reported that he had an appearance at an event in the Dayton, Ohio area earlier in the month.
Phil Schwartz presented Magic History Moment #45 by sharing part of his collection of 19th Century books on magic. The earliest he presented was circa 1839 and others, not so much sought after, from 1872. He had in his collection, Will Goldston's Locked Book and Modern Magic Book by Angelo Lewis.
A raffle was held for a framed Houdini Poster and won by lucky Gary Adams. After a brief intermission five (5) members volunteered to entertain. Mark Fitzgerald performed Red and Black as well as the Ultimate Oil and Water. Charlie Pfrogner chipped in with his rendition of Zenner's Prediction. J. C. Hiatt followed with a very entertaining variation of the Professor's Nightmare. William Zaballero came on next with an exhibition of handling three different colored pens and caps with a predicted outcome. Bev Bergeron ended the evening with a clever routine of predicting wrist-watch time on a detached timepiece.
Sheldon Brook, Secretary, E-mail: mrbrook33@yahoo.com
2012-11 Dennis' Deliberations
My recent “Deliberations” about the difficulty of making a
full time living with magic and the associated variety arts generated a few
suggestions. There were several that offered some good tips on salesmanship and
booking shows on a part time basis.
These suggestions can also be applied to full
time work. Thank you, if you wrote to me. Brian Bence (Ring
#320) offered some great advice. He is a very successful salesman of office
document systems. He stays as busy as he wants doing magic in his local
area on a part time basis:
Bryan writes:
Since I have been in outside sales for
over 12 years now and in a front line roll with customers for over 25 years… I
have learned a few things…
■You must have a great product.
■You must believe in your product.
■You must always be personable and
enthusiastic.
■You must differentiate you from the
competition.
■You must have superior follow up and
support after the sale.
■You must be ready to correct any issue
immediately.
■You must be involved in the community.
■You must always be ready to ask for a
referral!
*Notice how the word YOU is key…the
customer doesn’t HAVE to do anything. Remember the customer doesn’t buy a
product or in this case a ”show”…they buy YOU!
Ask yourself these simple questions…
■Did everyone seem to have a good time?
■Did I receive any sincere compliments
after the show?
■Did anyone ask for my card after the
show?
■Do I feel good about my performance?
■Did I take time to talk with the
organizer and others after the show?
■Did I thank my audience and those who
hired me?
How many of us follow up with a “Thank
You” card after the show? I try to consistently do this and it is a vital
part of the entire process. Again, making the customer feel special is
the key. I guarantee most or your competition is NOT doing this…just my
two cents.
I suspect that being out everyday in the office environment
gives him an opportunity to distribute his magic business cards and that helps
generate knowledge of his services.
One other professional I know works several “Kiddy’s Nights”
at restaurants as a way to get his business cards out and give previews of his
show. Nothing like getting paid to advertise!
Another letter was encouraging on the hobbyist part-time angle but very discouraging
about the full-time prospects:
Dennis,
Lot's of good advice in your last column.... but it won't make you a dime
as a full time magician..
You're very right about one thing: If a
magician is willing to work 20-50 times harder marketing than doing the show,
he may be a success --- as a professional marketer!
Let's look at music: Does Justin Bieber
spend 99 percent of his time and effort hustling up his gigs?
NO. Performing artists (singers,
bands, dancers, actors) hire agents, managers and a hundred-and-one flunkies to
do all that work for them.
So why are magicians so bent on doing
everything themselves? I'll tell you why: THEY CARE... BUT THE PUBLIC
DOESN’T GIVE A RAT’S POSTERIOR ABOUT MAGIC!
Not these days. It is a dead and dying
art. Its over! What with the Internet, theater movies, television, and
thousands of live entertainers (mostly in music) coming in annually, the TRUTH
of the matter is that everyone today is SATURATED with entertainment! The
last thing they want to do, in 2012, is go out looking for "vaudeville
novelty acts" of a bygone era, which is what magic essentially is.
I may be wrong here and there with the
details, but I think I'm in the ballpark.
Just look at the Linking Ring Magazine
every month: It looks like a "museum piece", always talking about,
and celebrating the PAST! Where are the exciting NEW ideas for 21st century,
and beyond? Is the relentless onslaught of technological marvels and
distractions making magic of the past OBSOLETE? I think it is -- in the
minds of today's audiences. Genii, Magic Magazine are all living in the past,
in a world that no longer exists or all their success stories are in other
countries.
Even musicians are having a heck of a time
making a good living these days. Just look at the people who come on
American Idol and the X-Factor: Ultimately they ALL fall by the wayside, to be
carved down to ONE winner -- who goes on to do well … for about a year or two…
and then they disappear. Never to be heard from again.
Just give it up! Sure keep a
suitcase for an occasional kiddies show if that is what you like to do. Have an
attaché case with some mentalism and walk around, but give up the idea of
making money with a stage show... It is a waste of your time and talents.
In fact, it is for most decent magicians. Apply all your marking skills to
something that will generate a cash return. Johnny Carson went on to make a
fortune on talk TV. He could still be doing Hippity-Hop Rabbits and the Die Box
in Nebraska.
You are too talented to waste your time beating the dead horse of magic!
Signed ------
Wow! I read that with mixed emotions. What is the
classic definition of “mixed emotions’? Watching your mother-in-law drive
your new Mercedes off a cliff!
Next a retired professional, who I have known for many
years, wrote:
Dennis,
When I
was pushing telephone promoted shows (before they became a thing of the past in
the 90s) , I realized I was making 10-15k for myself producing the show and
another 3k for actually doing the show and doing the show was taking up all my
time. I decided that if I were to stay in the business it would make more sense
to just pay a local decent magician a couple hundred dollars to do most of the
show. I did enough to keep it professional looking.
Magic,
as we knew it is gone. All the stuff is made in India and China and bought on-line so the
brick and mortar shops are gone. Almost all the performing venues have closed.
The general magician-illusionist is gone. If you narrowly specialize in
one area you can work. There are cruise ships and theme parks or having
your own resort theater. There is work out of the country, especially in Asia. There is a little corporate convention work still
left. You have to find a niche market.
I like
to say that we are back to the 50s. The Internet is this generation’s
“television”, the new and emerging technology. The difference is that in the
50s the economy was growing. The emerging reality is that there is little
growth in the near future for America.
That means less discretionary income for most people and fewer opportunities
for a generalized magician to find enough work.
Signed
-----
The new Internet marketing is done with meta-tags and
targeted ways to get a “Search Engine” to bring your name forward. Find any
book you can on optimizing the hits your website gets from search engines.
When someone types your city or regional area and the term
“magician” you want Google to put you on the first page. It is almost a full
time job managing it all…When you learn that skill, you can make a whole lot of
money selling your Internet services as well as magic show!
But also you need twitter, and every social media plus a
Facebook Fan Page.
Like many pro-magicians tell me: “Why do magic? You can make
far more money just selling something that most people want. One Canadian
Magician who I have known for a long time moved into being a stage
hypnotist. THAT was very big in Canada, if you know the Peter
Reveen story. Now my friend is no longer doing stage work but selling
Hypnotism as a “Stop Smoking” technique. He is doing very well! He is
doing it mostly over the Internet! The thought of watching your computer
screen and being hypnotized is eerie. He has a web-site with embedded
videos accessed through a password that you buy. Most of his techniques are
canned and managed by his server.
Most of the best magicians who love to entertain disdain
tossing around baloney. They can't compete with the hustlers who know the
marketing angles. Many got sick of designing and printing and sending out large
mailings (weeks of labor) always having to think of different ways every
Christmas season to tell people how great they are, when all they wanted to do
was SHOW them. They got sick of knowing that 99 percent of the brochures were
just put directly into the garbage.
Think about it! Musicians never have the job of
bragging about how well they can play an instrument, or sing, just to get the
work. That doesn't make a lick of sense.
That's why so many burnt-out magicians near the end of their
careers start doing the mail-order Internet magic thing, or lecturing and
writing.
The big challenge is not to end up late in life bitter,
cynical, and angry with the world -- and
yourself!
I have known far too many magician-illusionists who had
nothing else as a line of work and ended up crawling inside of a bottle and
drowning themselves in liquid destruction. Some hustled all the way to an old age
in bitter poverty.
I wonder how David Ginn, the respected super-hustler, got
through living in his area of the country without everyone there getting
sick-and-tired of his constant mailings, year after year after year. But
even he had to supplement his income by regurgitating everything he created,
and knew, to the magic world throughout his entire adult life. Ginn does
offer value in all that he does and that is one key to survival. It is obvious
that he loves what he does.
I am reminded on the long slow demise of one of the greatest
illusionists, Servais Le Roy. He first performed his now classic Asrah
levitation in London
in 1914. It is the perfect illusion and the best levitation in the history of
magic. I can be seen performing it on You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?
The female assistant lies on a couch and Servais covers her
with a sheet. She then rises into the air, and finally the sheet is pulled away
to reveal that she has vanished. Le Roy is also credited with developing the
Modern Cabinet, the Palanquin and the Costume Trunk illusions. These are all
classic illusions that I have built and performed.
In William Rauscher’s book about Servais Leroy, “Monarch of
Mystery”, on October 19, 1930, Le Roy was hit by a car walking across the
street in Matawan, New Jersey. He was in the hospital with
multiple injuries for nine days. He partially recovered and continued to
invent, create and occasionally perform. By 1930, vaudeville and the large
traveling illusion show was fading into history. A few niche performers
(Blackstone, Willard, Calvert, Virgil) lasted beyond Thurston and Carter’s
deaths in the mid 30s.
On June 6, 1940, at the age of 75, Leroy performed his full
evening show at the Heckscher Theatre in New
York City. LeRoy was performing for the first time in
years. His show and performing style was horribly outdated. His physical
ability was greatly diminished. Having only a single rehearsal with a new
and inexperienced crew, the show was a disaster.
Le Roy’s show and props ended up quietly rotting away in his
small garage and back yard in Keansburg,
New Jersey. In 1949 the worthless
remains of his once great show was hauled away as trash. Life ended for Servais
Leroy in 1953, not with a bang but as the end of long slow downward
less-than-magical demise.
He never realized any profit, in his lifetime, from his
creativity but his creations live on and continue to be performed.
Dennis Phillips
Monday, October 15, 2012
2012-10 Famulus Newsletter
Newsletter of IBM Ring #170
The Bev Bergeron Ring
Next general meeting Wednesday, 10/17/2012 at 7:30 PM SHARP
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
*************************************************************
Directory
Craig J. Fennessy – President – CraigFennessy@gmail.com
Chris Dunn- Vice President – Youngdunns@yahoo.com
Sheldon Brook- Secretary – mrbrook33@yahoo.com
Treasurer - Bev Bergeron & Joe Zimmer - Bev@bevbergeron.com zimsalabim@aol.com
Mark Fitzgerald- Director at Large - markaf1949@hotmail.com
Dan Knapp- Sgt at Arms - danknapp@centurylink.net
Stefan Bartelski – Editor of “Famulus”- Famulus@illusioneer.com
*************************************************************
GET PUBLISHED!
Got an idea for an article to add to the next FAMULUS? Put it in the body of an email or in a Word document attached to an email. Send it to Famulus@illusioneer.com, and we will get you in print.
Please, please, please, use the Famulus@illusioneer.com e-mail address, your messages are in danger of getting lost if you do not do so.
2012-10 From The Editor
As the days grow shorter, the magical season fast approaches. How will this season be for our professionals? The renaissance in magic seems to fading, and our art returns to obscurity. Can we bring it back into the limelight?
Recently Orlando was host to the Genie special bash, if any of the ring members attended, please do share your experiences by sending them to famulus@illusioneer.com
Happy Halloween to all
Your editor
Recently Orlando was host to the Genie special bash, if any of the ring members attended, please do share your experiences by sending them to famulus@illusioneer.com
Happy Halloween to all
Your editor
2012-10 Dennis' Deliberations
Dan Stapleton just wrote a Linking Ring review for David Seebach's book, "So You Want To Be An Illusionist".
I have had Seebach’s book for a while now... It is great information... David is a long-time friend and successful professional. I would rank his book as one of the top 3 books that anyone interested in doing illusions should have. It is chocked full of practical advice from a full-time illusionist with a long and successful performing track record. David’s book mostly addresses the props and routines, which is fine and useful.
The agonizing realization that all performers aspiring to be a full-time pro is that the most important part of being a performing illusionist-magician is the business side! The late Roy Huston said that being and illusionist was mostly being a furniture mover and truck driver. Roy never mentioning that before you move anything you have to find clients and get them to sign contracts. THAT is the struggle. The old joke is: What is the difference between a full-time magician and a 12 inch pizza? The answer is that a 12 inch pizza can feed a family of four. Show Business is 99% Business and 1% Show, so why there is so little decent material on how to prospect, book and sell shows? There are lots of books on routines and props and presentation but that is only 1% of the whole story when you want to be an illusionist!
Perhaps the business part is the most complicated and almost impossible to explain. Much of it is psychological and based on business and consumer economics. Keynes was correct on this point: “Economics is the dismal science”. All the stuff out there on “selling a show” is vague or designed to sell you some additional tack-on scheme or plan which is more carrot-on-a-stick so the “success” seller can make more off the desperate magician. Many are merely pyramid programs where you sell to others the “secrets” of making it in magic! No actual shows are booked but you make your money “selling” the “hidden secrets” for booking shows.
The plans are written so that when you inevitably FAIL at booking a show, you feel like a worthless failure and blame yourself for your personal defeat but then you turn to selling the “hidden secrets” to others and lying about your own success! The crude realization is that you can probably make more money just selling shows and finding someone else to perform. One retired pro told me that a decade or so ago, he used to promote himself and have 10 to 15 thousand dollars in his pocket before the curtain opened. He then realized that he was making all the money as the promoter and doing the show was wasting his time and costing him money so he hired local magicians at $300 to do the show!
John Kaplan’s ideas on “add-ons” to enhance show revenue are excellent but he is doing Canadian Fund-raisers in very small isolated towns and already has an established route. He says he does all his prospecting by post cards. I have never had success with any form of postcard campaign. His materials are worthwhile just to see how you can make all kinds of extra money when you do a show by using concessions. His club-run ticket-sales information is great. His basic show-type probably works in Canada but no longer works in most of the United States! The business end of his style of show (group-club fund-raisers) was almost gone here in the 70s. Most community groups are dying in the United States as we cocoon with the Internet and TV.
Stan Kramian’s stuff is the best of how to do illusions in the 60s and 70s but it is out of date. . He played one type of show-market: fund raisers using telephone sales boiler rooms. Those have been gone since the late 80s. I know. I played many shows like he did. He has lots of good performing ideas and his VHS tape of his own illusion show is excellent but he still does not discuss how to efficiently find prospects and book shows. He has a few good tips such as don’t waste money on printing hundreds of postcards but use cheap photo prints with personalized information stickers on the stamped side. His book on doing shows without phone rooms suggests that you offer the show to a school and then involved the students and faculty in doing all the illusions. The last few years I have spent considerable time in public high schools and even suggested a student-faculty show to a few and the idea went nowhere. Can you imagine the Football Coach putting the English teacher, Mrs. Grimsley, on your Impaled? Again, that may have been a possibility 30 years ago. Schools lack the time for that today.
Almost all promotion materials usually have a short vague list on how to find prospective clients such as:
1) Do mailings
2) Make phone calls
3) Encourage word-of-mouth
4) Try for repeat bookings
5) Pass out business cards everywhere
6) Use all social media and set up an Internet presence
But they contain no specifics such as WHO to mail to, what to Mail, who to call and WHAT TO SAY. I get my contacts, phone numbers and leads from listings on the Internet. (Country Clubs, Schools, Corporation HR Departments, Resorts, Festivals, Clubs, Community centers, Sr. Citizen etc) What would most magicians say on a cold call? “Hello, I am Dennis Phillips, I am a magician and I want you to hire me to......” CLICK....buzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
I personally use a lot slicker and better phone pitch. I believe that I know how to create great sales pitches either on the phone or in print. Little seems to easily work in delivering paid shows without a lot of labor, time, disappointment and aggravation. Most of the time I feel that if I spent all that time selling something else, I could make a whole lot more money for all my effort.
Recently the focus of most marketing is away from costly direct mail and time-consuming cold-call phone lists and worthless fax blitzes and on using Internet tags and search engines and targeted E-Mails. Can you say “Spam”? Of course the people who tell you this are selling their services to manage your on-line presence. The Internet is mostly a tub of warm vomit and not a “Gig-Salad” or “Gig-Master. The Internet seems to drown people. I hate to go swimming in it with no hope of making the defilement worth it. The same frustration outside can be found on the inside of Internet marketing. It is very tough to brand yourself as unique when the Internet basically sells your product as a commodity based on the lowest price.
I have worked in broadcasting for many years and I often used walk through the sales office at my radio station and they have a wealth of training materials, check lists and weekly “ideas” and prospects available to them. There are presentation templates, marketing data, prospect lists and time management checklists. RAB (Radio Advertising Bureau) even provides local calling lists, updated new-business listings and new permits and licenses, listener ratings, promotion ideas etc. The method, technique and plan for sales operations is fairly standard, the main requirement in broadcasting sales is perseverance, motivation and personality. “You must make 10 calls a day”. “You must make 4 presentations a week”. “Be at work at 7:30 AM and on the road by 8PM”. “Your life should be radio!” Moreover, the sales lists and prospects are divided internally among the sales-people so you can look to other salespeople in the station for emotional support when you hit the daily brick wall and when you celebrate your “victories”.
The sales staff in broadcasting is a tight team. No one is a lone wolf who is paddling in a small skiff against a hurricane. In contrast, magic sales are that small skiff. Local magicians and all other entertainment are your competition. They will cut your throat and even if they don’t do your style of act they will try to duplicate it and bad mouth you and undercut your price. I have had local magicians contact the same prospects that I did for shows and then try to “rent” my props to undercut my price and get furious with me when I would not do that!
The problem is that in a local marketing area, prospective buyers for entertainment are considerably less in numbers than for radio advertising. If marketing is a “number’s game”, you need to have a lot of numbers as prospects. If you expand your magic marketing into another Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area your expenses skyrocket and you face the additional competition in that that area. Thus radio sales do not parallel magic show sales. In marketing terms, selling a magic show is not proportionally scalable. Adding other markets explodes your marketing costs. I guess that I should adapt radio advertising time techniques on paper to the task of selling magic shows and the just sell the paper like all the other gurus do.
To heck with doing magic; just sell paper. (Isn’t paper shuffling what actually sunk the American economy?) So, to cut to the chase here: I believe that I and most other magicians, who are working, are spending 99% of their effort and money on booking! I am not given to strong drink, but at the end of a long business day with people laughing at you, slamming down phones, telling you to disappear and asking you if you are serious, you need your nerves and emotions medicated. There are long unavoidable gut-wrenching dry-spells. It is always feast or famine. Maybe I am getting older but it seems that it was a whole lot easier to book shows 20 and 30 years ago. Back then a mailing would get a 2 to 3 % response. Today, you get the same buying response as if you threw the mailings in a trash can.
I do get an enormous amount of calls for free shows... They are from the half of the two states where I have done the $5,000 worth of post card and brochure mailings. Apparently they believe that I should make some time to do a free show for them. There is a problem with a “free show” at this time. I have to make something before I have anything to give away. One local non-magician friend says that my materials are “too big time” and “much too professional for the market you are trying to appeal to”He says that “they convey the idea that you are too expensive” for them. I don't think so, but then, what do I know?
I am old school.
The struggle continues.
Dennis Phillips
I have had Seebach’s book for a while now... It is great information... David is a long-time friend and successful professional. I would rank his book as one of the top 3 books that anyone interested in doing illusions should have. It is chocked full of practical advice from a full-time illusionist with a long and successful performing track record. David’s book mostly addresses the props and routines, which is fine and useful.
The agonizing realization that all performers aspiring to be a full-time pro is that the most important part of being a performing illusionist-magician is the business side! The late Roy Huston said that being and illusionist was mostly being a furniture mover and truck driver. Roy never mentioning that before you move anything you have to find clients and get them to sign contracts. THAT is the struggle. The old joke is: What is the difference between a full-time magician and a 12 inch pizza? The answer is that a 12 inch pizza can feed a family of four. Show Business is 99% Business and 1% Show, so why there is so little decent material on how to prospect, book and sell shows? There are lots of books on routines and props and presentation but that is only 1% of the whole story when you want to be an illusionist!
Perhaps the business part is the most complicated and almost impossible to explain. Much of it is psychological and based on business and consumer economics. Keynes was correct on this point: “Economics is the dismal science”. All the stuff out there on “selling a show” is vague or designed to sell you some additional tack-on scheme or plan which is more carrot-on-a-stick so the “success” seller can make more off the desperate magician. Many are merely pyramid programs where you sell to others the “secrets” of making it in magic! No actual shows are booked but you make your money “selling” the “hidden secrets” for booking shows.
The plans are written so that when you inevitably FAIL at booking a show, you feel like a worthless failure and blame yourself for your personal defeat but then you turn to selling the “hidden secrets” to others and lying about your own success! The crude realization is that you can probably make more money just selling shows and finding someone else to perform. One retired pro told me that a decade or so ago, he used to promote himself and have 10 to 15 thousand dollars in his pocket before the curtain opened. He then realized that he was making all the money as the promoter and doing the show was wasting his time and costing him money so he hired local magicians at $300 to do the show!
John Kaplan’s ideas on “add-ons” to enhance show revenue are excellent but he is doing Canadian Fund-raisers in very small isolated towns and already has an established route. He says he does all his prospecting by post cards. I have never had success with any form of postcard campaign. His materials are worthwhile just to see how you can make all kinds of extra money when you do a show by using concessions. His club-run ticket-sales information is great. His basic show-type probably works in Canada but no longer works in most of the United States! The business end of his style of show (group-club fund-raisers) was almost gone here in the 70s. Most community groups are dying in the United States as we cocoon with the Internet and TV.
Stan Kramian’s stuff is the best of how to do illusions in the 60s and 70s but it is out of date. . He played one type of show-market: fund raisers using telephone sales boiler rooms. Those have been gone since the late 80s. I know. I played many shows like he did. He has lots of good performing ideas and his VHS tape of his own illusion show is excellent but he still does not discuss how to efficiently find prospects and book shows. He has a few good tips such as don’t waste money on printing hundreds of postcards but use cheap photo prints with personalized information stickers on the stamped side. His book on doing shows without phone rooms suggests that you offer the show to a school and then involved the students and faculty in doing all the illusions. The last few years I have spent considerable time in public high schools and even suggested a student-faculty show to a few and the idea went nowhere. Can you imagine the Football Coach putting the English teacher, Mrs. Grimsley, on your Impaled? Again, that may have been a possibility 30 years ago. Schools lack the time for that today.
Almost all promotion materials usually have a short vague list on how to find prospective clients such as:
1) Do mailings
2) Make phone calls
3) Encourage word-of-mouth
4) Try for repeat bookings
5) Pass out business cards everywhere
6) Use all social media and set up an Internet presence
But they contain no specifics such as WHO to mail to, what to Mail, who to call and WHAT TO SAY. I get my contacts, phone numbers and leads from listings on the Internet. (Country Clubs, Schools, Corporation HR Departments, Resorts, Festivals, Clubs, Community centers, Sr. Citizen etc) What would most magicians say on a cold call? “Hello, I am Dennis Phillips, I am a magician and I want you to hire me to......” CLICK....buzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
I personally use a lot slicker and better phone pitch. I believe that I know how to create great sales pitches either on the phone or in print. Little seems to easily work in delivering paid shows without a lot of labor, time, disappointment and aggravation. Most of the time I feel that if I spent all that time selling something else, I could make a whole lot more money for all my effort.
Recently the focus of most marketing is away from costly direct mail and time-consuming cold-call phone lists and worthless fax blitzes and on using Internet tags and search engines and targeted E-Mails. Can you say “Spam”? Of course the people who tell you this are selling their services to manage your on-line presence. The Internet is mostly a tub of warm vomit and not a “Gig-Salad” or “Gig-Master. The Internet seems to drown people. I hate to go swimming in it with no hope of making the defilement worth it. The same frustration outside can be found on the inside of Internet marketing. It is very tough to brand yourself as unique when the Internet basically sells your product as a commodity based on the lowest price.
I have worked in broadcasting for many years and I often used walk through the sales office at my radio station and they have a wealth of training materials, check lists and weekly “ideas” and prospects available to them. There are presentation templates, marketing data, prospect lists and time management checklists. RAB (Radio Advertising Bureau) even provides local calling lists, updated new-business listings and new permits and licenses, listener ratings, promotion ideas etc. The method, technique and plan for sales operations is fairly standard, the main requirement in broadcasting sales is perseverance, motivation and personality. “You must make 10 calls a day”. “You must make 4 presentations a week”. “Be at work at 7:30 AM and on the road by 8PM”. “Your life should be radio!” Moreover, the sales lists and prospects are divided internally among the sales-people so you can look to other salespeople in the station for emotional support when you hit the daily brick wall and when you celebrate your “victories”.
The sales staff in broadcasting is a tight team. No one is a lone wolf who is paddling in a small skiff against a hurricane. In contrast, magic sales are that small skiff. Local magicians and all other entertainment are your competition. They will cut your throat and even if they don’t do your style of act they will try to duplicate it and bad mouth you and undercut your price. I have had local magicians contact the same prospects that I did for shows and then try to “rent” my props to undercut my price and get furious with me when I would not do that!
The problem is that in a local marketing area, prospective buyers for entertainment are considerably less in numbers than for radio advertising. If marketing is a “number’s game”, you need to have a lot of numbers as prospects. If you expand your magic marketing into another Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area your expenses skyrocket and you face the additional competition in that that area. Thus radio sales do not parallel magic show sales. In marketing terms, selling a magic show is not proportionally scalable. Adding other markets explodes your marketing costs. I guess that I should adapt radio advertising time techniques on paper to the task of selling magic shows and the just sell the paper like all the other gurus do.
To heck with doing magic; just sell paper. (Isn’t paper shuffling what actually sunk the American economy?) So, to cut to the chase here: I believe that I and most other magicians, who are working, are spending 99% of their effort and money on booking! I am not given to strong drink, but at the end of a long business day with people laughing at you, slamming down phones, telling you to disappear and asking you if you are serious, you need your nerves and emotions medicated. There are long unavoidable gut-wrenching dry-spells. It is always feast or famine. Maybe I am getting older but it seems that it was a whole lot easier to book shows 20 and 30 years ago. Back then a mailing would get a 2 to 3 % response. Today, you get the same buying response as if you threw the mailings in a trash can.
I do get an enormous amount of calls for free shows... They are from the half of the two states where I have done the $5,000 worth of post card and brochure mailings. Apparently they believe that I should make some time to do a free show for them. There is a problem with a “free show” at this time. I have to make something before I have anything to give away. One local non-magician friend says that my materials are “too big time” and “much too professional for the market you are trying to appeal to”He says that “they convey the idea that you are too expensive” for them. I don't think so, but then, what do I know?
I am old school.
The struggle continues.
Dennis Phillips
Monday, September 10, 2012
2012-09 Famulus Newsletter
Newsletter of IBM Ring #170
The Bev Bergeron Ring
Next general meeting Wednesday, 9/19/2012 at 7:30 PM SHARP
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
*************************************************************
Directory
Craig J. Fennessy – President – CraigFennessy@gmail.com
Chris Dunn- Vice President – Youngdunns@yahoo.com
Sheldon Brook- Secretary – mrbrook33@yahoo.com
Treasurer - Bev Bergeron & Joe Zimmer - Bev@bevbergeron.com zimsalabim@aol.com
Mark Fitzgerald- Director at Large - markaf1949@hotmail.com
Dan Knapp- Sgt at Arms - danknapp@centurylink.net
Stefan Bartelski – Editor of “Famulus”- Famulus@illusioneer.com
*************************************************************
GET PUBLISHED!
Got an idea for an article to add to the next FAMULUS? Put it in the body of an email or in a Word document attached to an email. Send it to Famulus@illusioneer.com, and we will get you in print.
Please, please, please, use the Famulus@illusioneer.com e-mail address, your messages are in danger of getting lost if you do not do so.
2012-09 From The Editor
We are now into Fall and the storms have been threatening, but at least for Central Florida, no serious damage to date. As the weather turns our members will be thinking about the upcoming holiday season, dust off those routines and get ready folks.
Thanks to Dennis and Sheldon for their contributions. Could no one among the members not drop a short review of the Dan Garrett lecture, or let us know about the success of the Wizardz flea market?
Thanks to Dennis and Sheldon for their contributions. Could no one among the members not drop a short review of the Dan Garrett lecture, or let us know about the success of the Wizardz flea market?
2012-09 Ring Report
President Craig Fennessey opened the meeting by introducing the Ring officers to those in attendance. He reminded them of a lecture by Dan Garrett in September. Craig Schwarz has the Ring's website up and running at www.Ring 170.com - the Ring will be raffling off a framed Houdini poster in the near future. Craig (Fennessey) reminded the Ring of the Daytona Magic Convention, November 2,3, and 4th.
There will be a Flea Market at The Wizards Magic venue in Kissimmee on Aug 25th and Bob Swadling is booked to perform there a week later. Terry Ward and Jeff Allen were both presented with Jack Kodell Achievement Awards in a recent ceremony at the Wizards Theater.
Three magicians were noted to have recently appeared on the TV Show, America Has Talent, including Puck, who performs here in Orlando and was selected to compete for a final spot in October.
Bob Kimmel gave an in-depth report on his recent trip to Blackpool, England to attend the FISM competition which took place there July 9 thru 15th. Bob attended many performances in Stage and Close-up magic. He was especially impressed by the performance of Topaz at the Convention which drew thousands of magic enthusiasts.
Magic History Moment No. 43 was a nostalgic trip back in time for Phil Schwartz, who shared his initiation into the world of magic by exhibiting his personal memorabilia and magical experiences as a young man. He produced a Sneaky Pete Magic Set he purchased from The Top Hat Magic Co. of Evanston, Illinois and other items he purchased on frequent trips from his home in Miami to Paul Diamond's Magic Shop in Ft. Lauderdale: some of these purchases introduced him to the work of Thayer. Phil also showed his 1903 copy of Modern Conjuror, an excellent resource for the student of magic.
Because of the late hour no member performances were initiated.
2012-09 Dennis' Deliberations
"The magic business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway
where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side."
-Hunter S. Thompson, The Gonzo Journalist-
Rudy Coby is an interesting character. After a couple of interesting (Dick Clark Produced) TV Specials and a real new and fresh set of magic ideas he vanished. I have heard all kinds of reasons why. Some said that he was just a “flash in the pan” and arrogant. Others said that his shtick was shallow and thin. He is noted in magic circles for his argument and fight with Robert Gallup. A video exists of the confrontation. The video may have been a put-on. If it was, both he and Gallup are great actors.
The feeling, at the time of his specials, was that he was unique as a personality, sort of like Sylvester the Jester, a living cartoon. But durability and longevity and super-star status in show business demands a deep emotional connection. Coby seemed to lack that and after his early TV specials he vanished off the face of magic.
And then.....Coby was back on August 14th on “America’s Got Talent”. It appears that the performance was another shovel on the grave of his magic career.
I saw this recent show. If you missed it, you can see it on You-Tube.... His “Puppet-Boy” routine was identical to what he did on his first special, years ago. It was probably not a good choice for a 90 second first spot. It is a personality and contextual effect. Obviously he should have done his famous and award-winning chopping legs routine BUT then he has nowhere to go from there in future weeks. Kevin James did his best act on the first show... That got him to the second show and he bombed. AGT is not a show for magic acts. David and Dania won because their quick change can be seen over and over and the “skill” is marveled at and not the actual mystery.
I would never be on that show. Dan Stapleton was...he gave us the inside information, in print in “Magic Magazine”, on just what “America’s Got Talent” is all about.
It was sad to see Rudy Coby get totally destroyed by the very cruel remarks of the judges, especially the viscous, uncalled-for comments of Shock-jock Howard Stern: "That's why you got kicked out of Vegas" and “Why the hell would you be the roommate of Marilyn Manson, a millionaire rock star." And Sharon Osborne telling him he had no timing skills at all was like a kick to the lower extremities. They dumped on Coby so bad that it was deeply embarrassing, not just for him, but for magic in general. The cringe factor among magicians everywhere must have been very high. Then we had insult added to injury when some other magician comes on after Coby and does a serviceable but somewhat *underwhelming* version of the Dancing Handkerchief, and he gets some pathetic commentary from the judges to the effect that he kind of just squeaked through, and only because (Stern talking) the acts all evening were rather lame, and this guy was JUST good enough that they'd like to see what else he can do. --And we in magic know that he'd better do something quick and very SPECTACULAR next time, or he's dead meat.
Does this all make the magic world look like a piece of garbage in the eyes of the public? IT SURE DOES! Fifteen or twenty years ago, Rudy Coby looked great with his freaky hair, box-shouldered costume, and surrealistically wild persona. In conjunction with the jaw-dropping magic that he did, straight out of The Twilight Zone, he was a complete package. But today, if you spoke to any magic critic (aren't we all!) -- considering that America's Got Talent gives the acts only a tight 90 seconds to dazzle the audience and judges -- they would likely agree with Stern, Osborne and Mandel that the "middle part" of his act languished, and the over-all performance just didn't have the "pizzazz" they were looking for.
I try to tell the bitter honest truth, however crassly. And as you know, the truth isn't always pretty. Magicians, by and large, live in a rather insular world, in particular the ninety percent or so who are hobbyists. With a day job supporting them, they can afford to be mediocre. Little Johnny's birthday party doesn't demand much more than that. Nor do their friends and relatives who are amused by their card tricks.
Magic is a beautiful art (think of the BEST!) and it pains us all to see second-rate magicians (not necessarily Coby) come on a prime time television show before millions of viewers with the mindless gall to believe they are a million-dollar act. And those that ARE great acts, sometimes blow it by showing their best stuff on their first run-through -- and have no way to "top it" after that.
The wonder to me is how so many people can go on that show and genuinely believe they have a million-dollar talent. And then when they're insulted gravely but (often) justifiably, the lack of shock on their mugs shows the judge’s commentary blew right past them. A case in point was that dough-brained female comedian on the same show edition with Coby. I was stunned that she would go on with such lame material, and not know it stunk.
Not only are there at least a million psychopaths walking the streets of North America, there are at least as many people who are convinced they have great talent, who are in dire need of therapy. The show hit rock-bottom with that horribly masked moron playing the bells. …I had to force myself to bother to watch anything past Coby.
In 1960 FCC Commissioner Newton Minow called television “a vast wasteland”. That was the time when most of us had only had only 3 to 4 channels and all networks had enough revenue so they could program many quality programs! There was much local programming giving all TV a “local flavor” with a local cooking, talking, Saturday Night live horror show, interview and kid’s show! Today we have 900 channels of wall to wall reruns and Jerry Springer. Minow’s term is now a cliché that hardy cuts it anymore. Today, it is so bad that we need a phrase that cuts way under that.
On the matter of Rudy Coby on “America's Got Talent”: He's a novelty act, and so he can impress once, maybe twice, and then the judges become bored. The problem is that an act has to keep topping itself each time it comes on. The judges keep saying that very thing. In fact one of them is always complaining at some act that "performed at the same level as the week before." It doesn't matter if "the week before" the act had set itself on fire and performed a snappy three-minute River Dance while doing handstands on top of rolling barrel. ...So the trick for Coby, is to set his bar just high enough to win so he can has enough latitude to keep raising the bar each time. And that's one heck of a hard thing to figure out. That may have been where out local Drew Thomas fell down on the show. He used my (home-constructed but great looking) “Costume Truck” Illusion for his final appearance, all arranged by Rex Todd Alexander.
I have put together a satirical piece with a fictional Houdini on “America’s Got talent” in another world...
It is an example a progressive act -- in a parallel universe: (With much thanks to Joseph Campbell’s well-known academic work about Religious Jungian themes in all of artistic expression)
The first show:
Houdini comes on and amazes with the straight jacket. He suffers a dislocated shoulder.
Second show, he escapes from handcuffs and leg-irons while in the Water Torture Cell. Medics have to revive him.
Third show, he's wrapped in 500 feet of linen cloth, dowsed with gasoline, and set ablaze. He barely escapes to a madly-rapid Foggy Mountain Breakdown bluegrass tune with third-degree burns.
Round four, he's gagged and chained from head to foot, locked in a coffin, and buried in a large tank of quicksand. They give him up for dead, but he comes hobbling down the aisle at the end of the show, shouting that immortal Doug Henning refrain, "One Two Three -- It's ME!!"
"Wow," shouts Howie Mandel jumping to his feet and clapping wildly, "Can you top THAT next week?"
"Yes, I can," he gasps.
Round five, he's brutally nailed to a cross in a simulated Passion Play scene, staged as it was in the most vicious era of the Dark Ages. After being savagely beaten in a scene worse than Mel Gibson’s movie, Houdini screams, "Lord! Lord! Why hath thou forsaken me!?" -- At which point a booming voice (vocal tract by James Earl Jones) thunders, "I have not forsaken you, be gone!" -- And the crucified Houdini vanishes in a puff of smoke. Just as one red "X" is set-off by the compulsively trigger-fingered Howard Stern, the audience lets out an audible roar as they see a dramatic reappearance of the exhausted and blood-soaked escape artist, pushing a large heavy rock away from a mock cave at the back of the stage, while whistling cheerily, "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life!" (From Monty Python, Holy Grail) The audience goes berserk with cheering, Stern and Mandel fall off their chairs in stunned disbelief, and Sharon Osborne passes out.
Still, the next week, in round six, Houdini gets out-voted by an amateur dog act with Chihuahuas being used as hockey pucks by Great Danes, a lame Polish mentalist with a wand fragment sticking out of his liver that waves “yes” or “no” to answer audience questions, and two dwarves in cowboy outfits who sang, "I'll Never Smoke Weed with Willie Again."
…And that my friends, is what “America's Got Talent” is all about.
Dennis Phillips
Dennis on location in Harrisonburg (August 4, 2012) doing a live radio remote for:
“Stuff the Bus” (raising school supplies for needy students)
Dennis Phillips
Weekend News Anchor
Thursday, August 16, 2012
2012-08 Famulus Newsletter
Newsletter of IBM Ring #170
The Bev Bergeron Ring
Next general meeting Wednesday, 8/15/2012 at 7:30 PM SHARP
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
*************************************************************
Directory
Craig J. Fennessy – President – CraigFennessy@gmail.com
Chris Dunn- Vice President – Youngdunns@yahoo.com
Sheldon Brook- Secretary – mrbrook33@yahoo.com
Treasurer - Bev Bergeron & Joe Zimmer - Bev@bevbergeron.com zimsalabim@aol.com
Mark Fitzgerald- Director at Large - markaf1949@hotmail.com
Dan Knapp- Sgt at Arms - danknapp@centurylink.net
Stefan Bartelski – Editor of “Famulus”- Famulus@illusioneer.com
*************************************************************
GET PUBLISHED!
Got an idea for an article to add to the next FAMULUS? Put it in the body of an email or in a Word document attached to an email. Send it to Famulus@illusioneer.com, and we will get you in print.
Please, please, please, use the Famulus@illusioneer.com e-mail address, your messages are in danger of getting lost if you do not do so.
The Bev Bergeron Ring
Next general meeting Wednesday, 8/15/2012 at 7:30 PM SHARP
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
*************************************************************
Directory
Craig J. Fennessy – President – CraigFennessy@gmail.com
Chris Dunn- Vice President – Youngdunns@yahoo.com
Sheldon Brook- Secretary – mrbrook33@yahoo.com
Treasurer - Bev Bergeron & Joe Zimmer - Bev@bevbergeron.com zimsalabim@aol.com
Mark Fitzgerald- Director at Large - markaf1949@hotmail.com
Dan Knapp- Sgt at Arms - danknapp@centurylink.net
Stefan Bartelski – Editor of “Famulus”- Famulus@illusioneer.com
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GET PUBLISHED!
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2012-08 From the Editor
Summer is coming to an end so thoughts will be truning to the upcoming holiday season, which, notwithstanding Dennis' gloomy outlook for magic, will be busy for our professional and semi-pro members.
Once again the broken record, thanks to Dennis and Sheldon for their contributions.
Don't forget that a great lecture is coming up on September 5th, Dan Garrett, who has some great material. Don't miss him.
Your editor
Once again the broken record, thanks to Dennis and Sheldon for their contributions.
Don't forget that a great lecture is coming up on September 5th, Dan Garrett, who has some great material. Don't miss him.
Your editor
2012-08 Ring Report
President Craig Fennessey opened the meeting with introductions of guests David Freeman and Ivan Dandini both from Clermont, Florida. Craig reminded the membership that they were entitled to a discount on tickets to the upcoming Genii Convention to be held here in Orlando. Veep Chris Dunn reported on the opportunity he experienced in attending, for a day, the National IBM Convention. Our Ring's Jeff Pierce is releasing his book Cardwarp Tour at the Genie convention.
At the end of this month, Mark Fitzgerald will have completed 6 years of performing at Orlando's Hard Rock Cafe. Mark also performs close-up at the Portofino Hotel and at Goodwill Industries new store openings. Mike Martin is entertaining at Give Kids the World and invited the Ring membership to participate if they were available.
Bev Bergeron presented an interesting Teach-In showing his method of handling and passing, simultaneously, five (5) half-dollar sized coins through a table. Practice!, Practice!, Practice!.
Phil Schwartz followed with Magic History Moment No.42, a treatise on Multiplying Billiard Balls.
After a brief intermission Chris Dunn emceed the performance portion of the meeting. William Zaballero started it all with a multicolor thimble routine. Cody Morgan followed with an entertaining example of Poker Chip and Card Magic. Mark Fitzgerald shared three (3) effects with the membership. A magic color changing wheel, changing a dollar bill to a hundred dollar bill and back. He finished strong with a four (4) ace transpo routine. Brandon Zaballero followed with a juggling routine that brought out a very popular response from the audience. Dan Stapleton ended the evening by predicting the outcome of a magician name matrix by having a volunteer move through the names and ending on the predicted outcome. The outcome mysteriously appeared on a blank tissue paper when ignited. Truly. a great way to end the evening.
Sheldon Brook
At the end of this month, Mark Fitzgerald will have completed 6 years of performing at Orlando's Hard Rock Cafe. Mark also performs close-up at the Portofino Hotel and at Goodwill Industries new store openings. Mike Martin is entertaining at Give Kids the World and invited the Ring membership to participate if they were available.
Bev Bergeron presented an interesting Teach-In showing his method of handling and passing, simultaneously, five (5) half-dollar sized coins through a table. Practice!, Practice!, Practice!.
Phil Schwartz followed with Magic History Moment No.42, a treatise on Multiplying Billiard Balls.
After a brief intermission Chris Dunn emceed the performance portion of the meeting. William Zaballero started it all with a multicolor thimble routine. Cody Morgan followed with an entertaining example of Poker Chip and Card Magic. Mark Fitzgerald shared three (3) effects with the membership. A magic color changing wheel, changing a dollar bill to a hundred dollar bill and back. He finished strong with a four (4) ace transpo routine. Brandon Zaballero followed with a juggling routine that brought out a very popular response from the audience. Dan Stapleton ended the evening by predicting the outcome of a magician name matrix by having a volunteer move through the names and ending on the predicted outcome. The outcome mysteriously appeared on a blank tissue paper when ignited. Truly. a great way to end the evening.
Sheldon Brook
2012-08 Ring 170 Web-site
If you did not already know it, the new Ring 170 website is now up and running. Thanks to Craig Schwarz for his work on this. And thanks to Mark Fitzgerald who ran the previous version of the site.
Be aware, maintaining a website is not a simple job so thank these gentlemen when you see them, please
Be aware, maintaining a website is not a simple job so thank these gentlemen when you see them, please
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