2013-03 Famulus Newsletter

Next general meeting Wednesday, 03/20/2013 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
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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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2013-03 From The Editor

Here we go, March already and it feels as if it was just Christmas and New Year. Of course, this time of year means the annual Flea Market + event, this year at a new location. So be sure to join us on the 23rd at Sleuths Mystery Theater on International Drive in Orlando. Craig has lined up some more good lectures for in April so put those in your agenda too.

Thanks to Paula for her contribution this month, as well as thanks to our regulars Sheldon and Dennis.

Your editor

2013-03 Ring Report

President Craig Fennessey introduced the Ring officers and guests, Linking Ring Executive Editor, Sammy Smith and International IBM Past President Michael Stratman. George Bernard and Past-Ring President Carl Fowler were also recognized. The Ring's upcoming Flea Market and Auction will be held on March 23d at a new location, Sleuth's Theater, located on International Drive in Orlando. Tom Craven will be the featured Lecturer and workshop facilitator. One-half of the 30 flea market tables, available, have already been reserved for the event.

Mathew Wright will be the featured lecturer here at the IHOP on April 17th. Our own Steve Hart has put together a brief video on past flea markets and hopes to share it with us in the near future. Next years' IBM Convention will be held in Phoenix, Arizona and in 2015 the host city will be in neighboring Jacksonville, Florida.

Our Ring unanimously voted to put together a scholarship or subsidy program to encourage aspiring young magicians to participate in our Ring's activities and encourage their magical aspirations. Bev Bergeron will report later.

Sammy Smith presented Linking Ring's Howard Bamman Trophy to Bev Bergeron for his tireless and continuing contribution of monthly articles in Linking Ring for the 10-year period of 2001 to 2011. Bev graciously accepted and proceeded to present to the membership an impromptu Magic Moment. He demonstrated a torn napkin routine that can be performed in almost any location with readily available paper napkins but practice, practice......

Phil Schwartz followed with Magic History Moment Number 47, The Ultimate Okito by the late Robert Alba, MD. This was the follow-up treatise to the author's first publication on Okito's contribution to magic. Phil also displayed his collection of various die boxes produced by Thayer and others. Included in his collection was a box fabricated of Honduran mahogany, a prayer vase, an Owen prediction box, a card box and several sizes of die boxes. The membership was delighted with his presentation.

After a brief intermission 6 members volunteered to perform. Bob Swadling flawlessly produced a playing card from silk followed by a card and ace production and finishing with coins penetrating a packaged deck of cards. George Bernard followed with a coin through a plastic envelope illusion. Dan Stapleton was up next with a card prediction routine and closed with an imaginary stroked cue ball leaving a chalk mark on the
cupped hands of an audience participant. Mike Stratman next demonstrated his handling and manipulation of corks in an entertaining routine. Up next was Doug Kalcik who performed a parody of a Houdini escape, employing a wine glass, a small chain, and a closed box to house the goblet. Carl Fowler closed out the evening with a very entertaining variation on the Professor's Nightmare.

Sheldon Brook

2013-03 Some Musings From Paula Large

The other day I was watching television. I happened upon "Wild Wild West". For their guest star they had Don Rinkles. He played the villain magician. Lots of camera tricks no real magic. No card tricks, mostly Don popping in and out dressed in his tux and cape plus, evil laugh and mustache. Why is it the Magician always evil ? (except Mandrake and Bill Bixby )  

Also there is a commercial set in a magic shop. Cute, as the magician keeps making things disappear, the partners desk, laptop again. Must buy new laptop, desk, etc. Next time partner turns magician into llama before he has a chance to prestidigitate. 

There is another commercial where the magician slides his hand over the card and it changes, then a bite out of a pear is healed ...HP Computers. 

Krystals the franchise has a commercial: "don't hire a magician buy their product". This sort of suggests that you do not need entertainment for your event. Let us hope that does not catch on. We contacted the home office and let them know our opinions. Result: one free meal gift card and the commercial seemed to go away. Like a scene out of the movie "Summer School". 

Write to the right people and let your opinion be known. Try to change things with a suggestion how they can be fixed.

By Paula Large

2013-03 Dennis' Deliberations

O tempora, o mores!

                                               -Cicero, Catilina I, 2-

We live in the Post-Modern Age.  Post-modern audiences seem to lack of any form of social manners.

I attribute it to the stress of quickly emerging cultural, economic and social changes. One psycho-social motivation for the lack of social graces may be: Individuals screaming for notice in a world where the things that used to bind us together are disintegrating. “Us” seems to be a verboten word. It is all about “Me”.

Characteristics of Post-Modernism in all the arts are : frustration, rage, arrogance, audacity, rudeness, individualism, the bizarre, loads of scorn, ridicule and sadistic playfulness. These not only hold in magic but in music ( Maroon 5), film (Tarantino) ,TV (AGT), politics (Limbaugh, Beck), cartoons (Simpsons, Southpark), personal body decoration (tattoos, scarification, piercings), architecture ,modern literature and graphics (Wired Magazine).

We now experience much of our lives in imposed cyber-isolation. Clapping and an audience response comes from a physically assembled group. Electronic connections are not interpersonal connections. Even a two-way talk radio show is heard while the listener is alone in an air-conditioned automobile and they hear a carefully crafted presentation that forbids any contradiction with the viewpoints of the host.  The old-time “front-porch” was where people gathered and looked into and  watched other’s faces and learned that listening and reacting was a skill.  Our minds are being conditioned to programmed cyber-stimulation and we lose the personal connection. Look at the magical arts. A David Blaine and Street Magic is designed for one-on-one and a personal response. It is highly edited and demands no reaction. You don’t “clap”. You say, “Do that again, for ME!” or “How did YOU fool ME?” or “How did you do that?” 

I heard from Bev Bergeron and Dan Stapleton about Penn and Teller’s recent show at the Hard Rock Café in Orlando. They both loved it. As you probably know, I have always been hypercritical of Penn and Teller. I just never warmed up to their style. After hearing from Orlando, I think that I have a handle on my problem.

I think I knew the answer all along but just don’t want to admit it. I just have problems with Post Modernism.

I believe that it is their appeal is reflective of Post-Modern Magic.

Like 'em or hate 'em, the thoroughly Post-Modern , Penn Gillette does has turned both him and his partner into multi-millionaires.   In his books ( okay, I copped a look at Barnes and Noble without buying)-- he constantly berates himself with self-deprecating comments and humor, such that you realize he is very much aware that he is, indeed, a freak, both mentally and physically; he thinks he has a goofy name, and that he detests the fact that he is a 280-pound, 6 ft. 7 inch bizzaro who walks around like a dumb boxer, and dresses like a total slob (when not working), and has all kinds of degenerate friends (not his regret), and is a walking, talking, loud-mouthed "grab-bag" of opinions and feelings, most of which he admits freely to not being formally "schooled" for.  He constantly says how incredibly fortunate he is to be earning an insanely lucrative living, in a world where most everybody else is stuck in insufferably dead-end jobs and with bosses they detest but have to answer to.

So… is he ACTUALLY the obnoxious blowhard that he appears to be? Well, YES, and NO: As much as Penn's distasteful persona seems to be an intrinsic part of the man (and it is), he also admits to an apparently self-calculated schizophrenic nature: He is actually rather "normal" (should I remove the quotes?) in his private life, at home with the wife and kids, around Teller when they are planning new effects and strategies, and with his many friends and associates.  

And I'm sure he and Teller are acutely aware that there are hundreds of magicians not understanding how they've become so successful, not understanding what Penn's "obnoxious" behavior is doing for them [$$$], and not understanding some of the most basic psychology of the post-modern entertainment business. They are people like me who either reject or detest Post-Modernism.

Penn & Teller have always been deeply appreciative of their fans. After every show, says Penn, they go out into the lobby and spend at least an hour meeting the audience, chatting to them, signing autographs, posing for photos, and… well, just being darn nice guys. Penn adds, "What the hell else do we have to do with our time?"   (As he tells it: One of those female fans came up to him after a show and waxed ecstatically about how she was an atheist and skeptic, and 'name-dropped' atheists like Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens and others; and then, hung around until everyone else had left, and offered to take him out for coffee.  Penn joked, "You know,stalkers don't bother me in the least. Hell, I married one!". 

Meanwhile, the so-called "bad boys of magic" are down in Vegas loving every minute of their existence, and rolling in cash.

They know the formula. I just don’t like it.