2007-05 Dennis' Deliberations

Annual Banquet Returns!

After a two year absence,the Annual Ring 170 Banquet returned in triumph! Most people never realize the planning and hard work that goes into being the event chairman on one of these things.

The biggest issue the Ring has had for the last two years has been finding an affordable place to host the banquet and show. Local hotels and their food and beverage departments have , for the most part, priced themselves out of the range of what local folks like us can afford to spend. Much of this is because of the return of the convention business and tourism to the Orlando area after the events of 9-11 and the triple hurricane season. The challenge for Event Chairmen, Craig Fennessy and Art Thomas was to find an affordable and appropriate place. The solution was our gracious friends at Christ the King Lutheran Church and connections that Chris Dunn has with The Shelly Garza catering service.

Almost one hundred people attended. The Parish Hall at the church was transformed into a classy banquet room and our club's extensive staging was used to create a stage . Many other helping hands were in the event. Linn Fitzgerald created the table decorations and welcome gift bags. Mark Fitzgerald coordinated the Close-up performers and handled the Ring Web site. Mark also worked with Craig on the printed program for the banquet. Stefan Bartelski does our web publishing and blog hosting. Joe Vecciarelli created the Advertising Flyer.

The Production Stage Manager for the show was Sue Jacoberger. Art handled the lighting set-up and Craig did audio. Randy Chappuis was the technician.
Four of our top Close-up Performers volunteered for some pre-banquet walk-around entertainment. these were Wallace Murphy, J.C. Hiatt, Al Coury and Mark Fitzgerald.

Following dinner, President Craig Fennessey conducted the Award's Ceremony . Bev Bergeron was honored by the FAME Board with "The Founder's Award" for service to FAME from the early 1970s to today. When Bev made the move from Hollywood to Orlando to take a staring role in The Diamond Horseshoe Review at Disney's Magic Kingdom, he continued his service to the magic fraternity and helped revive Ring 170 and establish FAME. Our Ring is what it is today because of the long years of hard work and service by magic legend Bev Bergeron. He deserves our gratitude.

Harvey Brownlow and M.J.Emigh were given Past President Awards for their labors and service in their two-year tenures as President of FAME Ring 170. Serving as President is a task with a lot of responsibility and leadership demands. They served us well.

Art Thomas then took the podium for the next award. I want to express my gratefulness for being honored by the FAME board with a Lifetime Membership Award. I am a rookie in great company with FAME legends like Bev Bergeron, Bill Rosenthal and the late Dick Randall.

The Big Evening Show began and featured magic legend Aldo Columbini as Master of Ceremonies. Aldo is a leading magic funny man using his Italian accent and mannerisms to great comedic advantage. The show opened with Wallace Murphy presenting his rarely seen dove act. He included some golf ball manipulations showing
the skills most of us know him for. Doves appeared from a cascade of ribbons and disappeared in a breakaway box as Wallace finished to a nice hand.

Life Member Bill Rosenthal took the stage with some gems of classic stage magic. He did the Vanishing Birdcage assisted by his rubber canary, Birdini. He used a spectator for the Malini Egg Bag and finally a comedy bit with cards and blocks and a spectator wearing a helmet with flashing lights. Bill was in good form and enjoyed by the audience.

Aldo and his new wife, Rachel Wild ,next performed a rib-busting funny bit. She was blinded-folded and played a Psychic as Aldo circulated through the audience having her attempt to identify objects and names. This is a classic vaudeville routine but they had many jokes I had not heard before. At one point Aldo said, "Madam Zola needs to consult the Spirits for more answers and Rachel "Zola" pulled out a small flask of whiskey and took a swig!

Bill Terry, "PJ" was the best I have seen him. He did an extended Sponge Ball manipulation routine, a clever Linking Ring routine with 4 rings and finally comedy routine where a jumbo card is selected by a spectator and revealed in many ways.

Closing out the show was Aldo with his comedy magic.He effectively used lots of audience participation. A spectator assisted in counting the cards in his Six Card Repeat. Another spectator helped him with a Ling Ropes routine using colored ropes. His final comedy magic sketch was with a dock of cards with a hole and a yellow ribbon running through the hole and a spectator's selected card escapes.



Annual Flea Market and Auction

This year's Flea-market and Auction was probably the best we have had in recent memory. Old timers with Ring 170 will recall the years we held a combination Friday Banquet and Show and Saturday market at the old ( long since gone) Elks Lodge on Oak Ridge Road. We moved for a few years in a Lodge in Longwood where we just held the Saturday market. Christ the King Lutheran seems to be the ideal location and facility for what our events.

The Flea market tables were loaded and we had a good mix of vendors. I always enjoy Stan and Sandy Lobernstern's bins of fun and other great deals from Rabbit in the Hat Ranch. Phil Schwartz and Dick and Phyllis Berry had some great collectables. It was great to see Tom and Donna Salvador from their magic shop and they were a big help with the clean-up. A big thanks for making the event a success also go to Bob Kimmel, Sue Jacoberger, James Songster, Joe Vecciarelli, Amanda Vecciarelli, Richard Hewitt, Chris Dunn, Jeff Pierce, Bill Rosenthal, Corinne Fennessy, Peggy Dever, Joe Zimmer, Anesa Vecciarelli, and the volunteers from Christ the King Lutheran Church.

The lecture was Alain Nu. Alain is a talented thinker in magic and I appreciate that. He opened his lecture with a strong example of how we don't know what is real and what isn't real. Some standouts in his presentation included his version of The Invisible deck with a shocking appearance of a wristwatch on his arm. His version of a Bob Hummer mentalism bit with a watch, ring and key was very good. Nu's signature act is his "spoon bending" demonstration. He had most people believing he actually could bend metal with his mind. He did not reveal his secrets on this portion of the act. This disappointed some of the crowd who misunderstood the flyer that indicated he would only demonstrate that part of his act. Regardless of this, everyone enjoyed Alain Nu.

The Close-up portion opened with a cabaret comedy sketch by Kostya Kimlat and Darren Rockwell . Phil Keiser provided some classy manipulation.

If you missed the Flea market you missed getting a lot of magic for pennies on the dollar. Erik Olsen's table was selling a brand new "Tying Shoelace" made famous by David Blaine. Erik loves the trick but he felt that his style of walk-around magic would not have him with untied shoelaces. I saw some great buys on magnetic rings at Tom and Donna Salvador's table. Bev had some classic Impression clipboards. Phil Schwartz had some great old photos of Harry Blackstone Sr.and so did Dick Berry.
Some amazing bargains for $1.00 were at Sandy and Stan's table. Richard Hewitt had some great classic books. Jim Moody and the gang from Lake County had good stuff... Everyone had great items for you to take home.

You made the Flea Market and Auction a great event this year.

Dennis Phillips