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Next general meeting Wednesday, 04/17/2013 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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Sunday, April 14, 2013
2013-04 From The Editor
Already April and summer is fast approaching. It is for many of the ring members a traditionally quiet time, unless you work the Renaissance Faire circuit. So it is a good time to tweak your act, learn some new effects, or different approaches to existing props. Dennis Phillips give us a good idea, using a card duck in a Duck Dynasty theme. Be creative and think up new ways to use those existing effects.
Your editor
Your editor
2013-04 Magic Has Changed
In 1977 BC (before computers), it was virtually impossible to see a live demo of a magic effect. New effects came to us in books and some videos, but the demonstration was relegated to the select few talented brick and mortar magic shops.Today, we can see both amateur and professional demos on Internet shop sites and you tube. Some use sophisticated editing to smooth over rough spots in performances so you only see a final product.
There is (was) nothing like the live performance in the shop.
Magic lectures have also changed. You watch performers now who cryptically cover the explanation of a lecture item with the disclaimer that it is fully explained in his notes or DVD for sale later. This format was not always the case. Lectures featured detailed explanations and left nothing uncovered and then if you wanted an effect, you made it, practiced it or bought it.I have not been satisfied with the new lecture formats and prefer the simpler times.
As a dealer and inventor of magic, it was possible to create and manufacture an effect and there were six or more distributors who carried magic and were willing to send it out for you. They put up their money and bought great quantities (200-300 pieces per purchase). Today, the volume of a "distributor" is that he will speculate on a few dozen of an item when trying something new out. Except for about two major firms who still buy in "bulk". On the other hand, a small magic firm is able to find their customers through International magic sites and can bypass the distributors.You as a consumer, can see the latest and greatest effects direct from their creators.
The one amazing thing about magic selling is that you can conceive of an item, send samples to distributors and have it in a shop within a week. There is no other business like this in the world.
Here's a quick ad: This item went from discussion on themagiccafe.com to distribution in a few weeks.
The Steel Ball and Tube Wand
-Magic Ian
2013-04 Duck Dynasty with your Card Duck!
I want to share with you a routine that I have been doing for the past few months. My Card Duck has mostly sat of the shelf for years, only to be used at an occasional birthday party or event where I want to make a person’s name magically appear. Harry Blackstone Sr. was said to have loved the trick . I first saw it on an old Magic Land of Allakazam show performed by Mark Wilson.
The currently popular TV show Duck Dynasty has breathed new life into this old and enchanted prop! I want to share my routine with you and if you have a duck, I hope you can use my routine and improve on it.
Just stick a little black fake fur on the side of the bill of the duck with some double sided tape. Make it look like a wide beard. Use the toe-end of an old black sock for the toboggan hat. I guess that you could also wear a beard and a toboggan hat!
Use a Kazoo instead of a Duck call and build the skit around training the duck by using your “duck call”.
Force a 3 of Hearts and have them whisper it into your ear and show the audience. Hold your hand over the ducks ears.
“No Peeking Duck!” (To the audience) “I am telling him that so he does not think that he is headed for a Chinese restaurant.”
Hum the Kazoo to the beat of the sound of “3 of hearts”.
Duck pulls out a blank card… (To audience) “What do you expect, he’s a duck!”
“Listen better, Willie! Don’t be in such a ,huh, fowl mood.” Duck pulls out a Tree of Hearts Card.
“Come on, this should be duck soup! Oh sorry! Try again.”
Hum the Kazoo to the beat of “3 of hearts”.
“Come on ,duck…. ‘duck’! Ha, he just quacks me up!”
“Let’s see. Do I have my ducks in a row?”
“This one is a sitting duck”
The duck comes up with a three of hearts!
I have drawn a Z-Z-Top type beard on each of the hearts with a Sharpie. I manipulate this card with the “Tree” and the black card to the bottom of the deck before it is put in the holder. Give it to the volunteer as a souvenir.
I am sure you can come up with funnier and better lines… The premise is absurd and audiences love it.
Dennis
Here I am with the “Clementine” country duck
version of Joanne the Card Duck. I was told that this
was made by Warren Hamilton in the early 1960s.
2013-04 Dennis' Deliberations
SPLAT!
No further comment
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Lord Melchett: “Farewell, Blackadder [hands him a parchment]. The foremost cartographers of the land have prepared this for you; it's a map of the area that you'll be traversing. [Blackadder opens it up and sees it is blank] They'll be very grateful if you could just fill it in as you go along. Bye-bye.”
– From the English comedy series Blackadder (Part 2, Episode 3)
Yep…As Magicians we often are forced to “Wing It”. I was hired to do a banquet show. Clearly, I explained on the contract that the show was not to be an illusion show. When I get there, it became obvious that the person who booked me did not inform the committee. They were expecting a “Floating person” and a “Cutting a person in Two”.
So what do you do when you need to do these effects and do not have the props?
There are ways to satisfy the requirement and make the audience happy. Here is what I did.
The Floating Person and Cutting a Person in Half.
1)You can truthfully saw that you are doing the “Floating Person” Illusion this way.
My “Floating” is an idea that I got from Rachael Columbini’s former partner, magician Tom Jones. It is marketed as “The Wild Levitation” Tom Jones used to freely show the method at his lectures and convention booth.
You can make it yourself but if you want good documentation and not have the hassle of finding the gimmicks buy it from Penguin Magic. Take a look at the video.
Go to a place that salvages computers and get them to give you two rare earth magnets out of a junk hard drive.
Duck tape them into the inside insteps of a pair of slip-on dress loafers that are about a size too big. This way you can easily get them on and off.
You can wear these as dress shoes throughout the show.
To do the trick, take off your jacket or have a yard square opaque cloth.
Hold it out in front of you and lowered so that it is touching the floor.
Slip off one shoe as you hold it against the other. The magnets WILL hold them together.
Step back with your socked foot and do all the moves you see in the video.
Lower the cloth again and slip back on the shoe!
2)You can truthfully say that you are “Cutting a person in Half”
I use Bob Sheets, “Hang ‘em High” (Rope through the Body)
This “plays big, packs small”. Watch the performance. It is strong stuff.
Here is an impromptu version showing the short rope tick but without the long gimmicked rope.
Magic Magazine published the secret of the original Sheets version a few years back. The effect is accomplish by a “Delbin-Tarbell Screw Gimmick” in the center of the long rope. You have a short 3 foot piece already tucked in your pants, with knots on the end for ease of handling. It is a matter of reaching around the back, untwisting the center of the long rope and grasping the knots with each hand and pulling it through you!
There you have it…TWO illusions. For $150 crummy bucks, that is what they get.
I would NEVER work for the conditions where you were forced to do illusions for $150… The main reason is that agents like this often bill the client a high price and then give you $150 or less. My pay is not the issue. What is the issue is the client level of expectation for a $500 to $700 “illusion” show they paid for , and you are limited to $150?
A commission schedule should be reasonably in line with client and talent pay portion.
Personal Management can justify 50% ( Colonel Tom Parker got that out of Elvis) but just an “agent” who is looking for the lowest bid and giving you no personal exclusiveness, deserves far less.
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