2007-06 Ring Report Ring #170 The Bev Bergeron Ring

The month of May is often special in our ring because we begin to get an influx of tourist magicians who pay us a visit. We always enjoy visitors. President Craig Fennessey gaveled the meeting to order and we had three guests. From the Ireland and England area, we had Quinton Reynolds who later treated us to his great signature routine. Rebecca and Mary Lynn Dillon also were with us and plan on joining the ring. Treasurer , Art Thomas, said we had the best attended Flea Market in years and he was happy with the balance sheet. Craig announced the upcoming lectures and Dan Stapleton filled us in on the recent show at The Villages in which some of our members performed. Dan also attended the Chicago auction for Jay Marshall's estate and the concurrent Magic Collector's convention.

Following the business meeting, Secretary Dennis Phillips presented a mini-lecture on spoon-bending. He did many of the classic moves and then demonstrated plastic spoon bending that can be done impromptu at a picnic or school cafeteria.

Kerry Pierce, "KP" acted as this month's Emcee for the monthly show. The theme was Rope magic. He opened up with a knot that fell off the rope and moved into some clever vanishing knots and ended with his version of Bob Sheet's Hang 'em High Rope through the Body. Charlie Pfrogner brought his classic Block off the Rope and applied some clever patter about stopping the block from sliding down the rope. Dan Stapleton re-presented the same, but improved, "Bank-Night" effect he did at last month's ring show. It is a Bruce Bernstein and Barry Richardson effect. The response was great.

Director at Large, James Songster presented a version of Nick Trost trick where every card in the deck has a name. In this case the spectator chose a card named "Yensid". James explained that Yensid is a character from Disney movie and is, in fact, "Disney" spelled backwards. "Ms. Tanna", guest Rebecca Dillon, presented a card trick that featured a clever adaptation of a technique usually used in mentalism. She was able to know a card the spectator chose by them naming a number at random and counting in a circle of cards. Ms. Tanna is a young lady with a wonderful smile and bubbling personality.

Finally, our guest from the British Isles, Quenton Reynolds treated us to two of his classic routines. The first was the classic "Rope with Four Ends" woven into a great story about how Marmaduke got four stars in school. He then went into a handkerchief act that was a comic masterpiece. Think Dave Williamson's "Rocky" along with Chapeauography. Quenton got a solid 5 minutes out of a simple handkerchief and twisting, folding and puppeting. He has a DVD available.
The show concluded with Bev Bergeron prsenting his classic Sympathetic Match Boxes.

What a treat from all of this month's performers! Good things are always happening in Ring 170.

Dennis Phillips