Dec 06 - Ring Report

Our Turkey Month Ring meeting was called to order by President Harvey Brownlow and attended by 29 regular members , three guests and one returning former president . Guests Jim Zachary came up from Lakeland to pay us a visit, Rob Stewart also from Lakeland was with us as was Paul Araujo from Orlando.
Former Ring President Carl Fowler and his wife Barbara dropped in to say hello from the road. Carl is spending lots of time in Tennessee and points in between. A few years back, Carl was winning all kinds of magic contests and inventing illusions. He also was awarded the John Calvert Award for excellence for the music Carl used in his act. Carl is still active in magic and building his own performance hall in his mountain resort town.

There are always lots of thanks for the Ring's help in community projects. The latest being performing at the Habitat for Humanity fundraiser. This was headed up by Roger "Cigam" Reid. Steve Hart is busy with his seminar workshops on using magic for success in sales. If he has one close to you, be sure to attend. Dan Stapleton gave us a recap on the Daytona Festival of Magic held the first week of November. Everyone had a great time. The December meeting will again feature our annual Holiday Party and the fun, anxiety and mayhem of the "White Elephant" Gift exchange. Package up your unused magic trick worth at least $15 and bring it for a wild and crazy group exchange. Jacki Manna, our hospitality chair-person, does a great job in coordinating this annual event.

Ben Mason informed us that Madge Elaine's World of Entertainment, an Orlando source for magic and clown supplies has moved and changed names. They have moved only a few blocks away on Humphreys. "Pizzazz Theatrical" will be the new name. They have retained the old telephone number to call and get directions. If my memory serves me well ,this business dates back to the late 60s when founded by the late Clarence Godwin as Funway Store. During the Hollywood East craze of the mid to late 80s, everyone was told by the theme park developers that Orlando would become the new Hollywood for film making, Clarence changed the name to Paramount Theatrical. It was sold by his widow to the late Madge Elaine Simpson. The business survived a bankruptcy reorganization in the early 90s . When Madge died her family sold it to Kay Gonzales. At various times in their 5 previous locations, they have carried magic props, illusions and books, wigs and extensive theatrical makeup. A couple of years ago Kay acquired some of the costume rental stock from the defunct Costumes Unlimited. Through the years most theatrically related businesses in Orlando have struggled to survive. We can hope the move and name change is successful.

With the business meeting adjourned, President Brownlow turned the activities over to Bev Bergeron to MC the evening's Ring show. First up was Charlie Pfrogner with an original trick he created after a trip to Walgreens. The plot centers around a spectator that selects a card that is spread with other cards on a table. A yellow plastic plucked chicken , about six inches tall, is introduced and blindfolded . It managed to land on the selected card and lift it up in its orange claws! Think of this trick as the poor man's version of Dick Kornwinder's Car. Charlie showed us that Walgreens also is a place to find magic.

J.C. Hiatt did a clever and skillful Chop Cup routine with an ungimmicked paper cup and red yarn balls. He ended with the surprise double production of yellow tennis balls from the cup. Carl Fowler was back up front and in fine form with his version of the Professor's Nightmare. He had some new twists on the classic Bob Carver effect.
Bev did a quick portion out of his classic Bottle Act. He rolled an imaginary cigarette and then struck a match and suddenly the cigarette was lit and in his mouth!
Wallace Murphy produced 4 coins from a skeleton purse under a spectator's nose. After some classic Murphy moves he had the spectator select a playing card and it reversed itself from face up to face down in the deck.

Bev Bergeron took a moment to show us a great routine with a die box originally made for Del O'Dell. He also gave some great hints on performing sucker tricks for children. Bev pretended to misunderstand the yelling from the kids, so as not to embarrass them. He also timed the revelation so the feeling for them was fun rather than feeling foolish. Bev painted his die to look like an ABC block because many adults do not want their children associating with dice used to gamble.

Dan Stapleton pulled out a mysterious and fun effect from the Jan. '06 Linking Ring Parade by Harry Reeve called Triple Roulette. It is a kind of the Bank Night
trick. Three spectators put one dollar in a pay envelope and the fourth spectator puts in a twenty dollar bill from Dan. The cups are numbered one through four and the idea is for each spectator to take turns and draw cards and whoever deals a card with the number of the cup on it will get the contents of the cup. As it turned out, Dan got to keep his twenty dollar bill.

Dennis Phillips distributed several dozen souvenir match boxes to anyone present from the Magic Castle in Hollywood, California. Charlie Justice, gave us a preview of his new and dynamite effect on the market called "Prohibition". A bent metal soda cap penetrates into a glass Coke bottle even while held by the spectator. This one had everyone scratching their heads. With the meeting adjourned, we look forward to the December booking season. Good things are always happening in Ring #170.

Dennis Phillips