2009-04 Ring Banquet report

March 1st was a special night for two Ring members. Phil Schwartz was awarded a Presidential citation by the board and ring president Craig Fennessey for his scholarly work and excellent monthly presentations on magic history. Phil has consistently presented his “Magic Moments” in which he does a 15 minute lecture and demonstration on magic history. Our ring is honored to have Phil as a member and thankful for his sharing. Wallace Murphy was awarded the “Magician of the Year” by the board and President Fennessey. Murphy has just been honored by being on the cover of “The Linking Ring” magazine. He is a long time member of the ring and has lectured with his astonishing sleight of hand at ring meetings and performed at almost all ring events.

These awards and much more fun was a part of a fun-filled night for the ring and their families and friends in the fellowship hall of the Lutheran Church location. Before the dinner and show, Mike Bondi, Mark Fitzgerald, J.C. Hiatt, Wallace Murphy and Doug Otto circulated through the crowd with close-up magic. Chris and Judy Dunn assisted caterer Shelly Garza in the buffet line as a chicken and vegetable dinner was served.

Treasurer, Art Thomas opened up the events with the table calls to dinner and introduced President and event chairman, Craig Fennessey who introduced the evening’s master of ceremonies, magic super star Dave Williamson.

Dave is known as one of magic’s funniest guys and he proved it to us. He almost single handedly developed the classic Rocky the Racoon routine that most magicians use today. He opened with a few comic lines using fake teeth and went into his classic “Needles from Mouth” trick, seen recently on the TV show, “Master’s of Illusion”. Dave introduced magic legend, Michael Ammar. Mike demonstrated why he is so respected in magic circles. He did card changes and began a running gag with a borrowed one hundred dollar bill. It was to have appeared in a cluster of balloons but the best part was to come. Ammar did a unique version of Carver’s “Professor’s Nightmare” and his fabulous cups and balls routine. The climax was the appearance of the hundred dollar bill in a lemon followed by its reappearance in the same restored lemon. Michael said, “I just wanted you to have something to tell your friends about!”

Todd Charles, a magic funny man took the stage. His act was field with sight gags and references to native Brooklyn. Charles, an excellent banjo player, uses the banjo
in the same way that Jack Benny and Henny Youngman used their violins. In addition to banjo humor he also did a unique and quite funny shadowgraph routine. His closing routine was a helmet with rotating arms (like a helicopter). Stuffed animals were attached to the end and Charles played his heart out with the banjo theme from the movie “Deliverance”.

Kostya Kimlat presented a different side of his magic. Kimlat is known for his excellent and inventive card work but this night he delved into mentalism. A card selection was revealed by an inevitable and unexplained choice of a spectator. He did a clever book test where a page is selected from a book that never left the spectator’s hands and when the spectator again tried to again find the page, it was torn out of the book and in Kimlat’s procession. Kostya ended with a newspaper test where a predicted word is revealed by a spectator from a freely chosen newspaper scrap.

Dave Williams concluded the show with a two person routine that involved bringing up a noisy waiter, who just happened to be his “old friend”. Naturally this was a set up but the routine was priceless. They presented a game show called “The Food Game” and a female and male were brought up to answer questions. The female spectator was given easy questions and the male spectator was given questions that were impossible to answer. The loser had to knock 4 eggs off into 4 glasses by quickly knocking out a tray. Williams and his partner ended the show on a comedy high note.

Quick thanks to all the people who made the banquet a success: Sue Jacoberger for stage managing. Amanda Vecciarelli ran the spotlight. Art Thomas for Registration. Joe Vecciarelli and Craig Fennessey for sound. Craig also did photography along with Gary Adams. The lovely table decorations were by Lynn Fitzgerald.

Dennis Phillips
Secretary