2008-12 Ring Report Ring #170 The Bev Bergeron Ring

Thanksgiving was just a week away as we conducted our November business meeting. This holiday season will be a bit thinner for many of our working professionals, so every show is appreciated. We had one guest, Alex Rivera from Orlando, and 33 people in attendance. President Craig Fennessey gaveled the meeting to order and several items were on the agenda.
Next month is the new election for our ring officers and the floor was opened up for nominations. In contrast to last month’s national political races, it appears at this point that the current administration will return for a 3rd term.
The announcement was made that ring dues are due at the end of December. There is a discount for seniors and for those who pay before the end of the year. President Fennessy provided a list of all the benefits of membership: access to the free video library, discounts and free lectures, ring teach-ins and fellowship with other magicians. All this is for a cost of less than 2 dollars a month! Our new meeting place is charging us rent now so dues are important.
After announcements of upcoming events (see the ring website for the latest details), Jacki Manna took the floor to explain the upcoming annual December Christmas and holiday party and gift exchange. Bring a magic gift (trick or book) valued at between fifteen to twenty dollars and come have fun at the December Ring meeting.

In our show-and-tell portion, Richard Hewitt explained how he improved on the standard silk fountain by producing the initial silk bundle from a paper sack. By ripping a slit in the bottom of the bag, his hand goes through making the sack appear empty. He then showed his improvement on the classic Steve Kissell routine with humorous signs.
Carl Fowler, our former ring president, invited the club to join him in the future for a special benefit magic show in Tennessee at a Motorcycle Resort he owns. Kerry Pierce thanked all those who helped him during his recent charity Halloween Haunted House event.
James Songster presented a teach-in on the principle of The Square Circle and showed many examples of the prop and how to make it. He was assisted by Dennis Phillips who did a short history lesson on the inventor of the effect, Louis Histed. Phil Schwartz, our resident magic collector and historian, followed up with his Magic Moment #9. He filled us in on his recent trip to the magic collector’s Yankee Gathering in Boston. The event is held in odd years with the Magic Collector’s Convention.

Kerry Pierce, “KP”, volunteered to Emcee the evening’s ring show. First on was “Magic Mike” Martin doing his version of Tom Burgoon’s Dyslectic Card trick. Donning thick glasses, Mike did a simple card trick and in his directions to a volunteer he had some on the most hilarious and suggestive jumbled words that you could imagine. Charlie Pfrogner followed with another of his unique routines. This time it was his Ouija Board on a small table that revealed what only the spectator could know and then it floated up off the table only to lose its spell and fall with a crash. The effect was eerie.
Dan Stapleton took the stage to present a card trick from his video on card tricks. A selected card was hopelessly lost in the deck with some cards facing up and some facing down. The card ended up being revealed. JC Hiatt, was back in fine health and had a card effect that became a series of reveals. The selected card was lost in the deck and then JC flipped out a card but it has a message to look in his pocket where another card was found that had a message to look on the table. Suddenly a card was noticed on the table and it was the selected card.
Finally Jim McNiff presented a card effect that was an adaptation of Simon Aronson’s “Four Stop Intersection”. This was the first time Jim had publicly presented it using his own method. Four spectators each cut a packet from a deck and then selected a card from their packet. Methodically, Jim named each card. At each step in the effect he eliminated to possibility of a marked deck or a stacked deck. It was an impressive display.
The show concluded and we are preparing for the Holiday Season ahead.

Good things are always happening in Ring 170.

Dennis Phillips