2009-06 Ring Report

Summer will soon be upon us and the May meeting was a preview of good things to come. President Craig Fennessy gaveled the meeting to order. We had 28 people in attendance and 3 guests: George Anomoganis, his father and Wayne Wortman. Craig reminded us of the Gator’s Sunday afternoon get-together and the Tuesday luncheon in I-Drive. Art Thomas made the announcement from Marty Bristow that his wife Carolyn, our secretary during the 1990s, needs our moral and financial support due to her final illness. Contact this ring for details. The Recession seems to have stimulated many house parties and they are keeping our magicians busy with work. Many of our ring members have been working.

Phil Schwartz, our resident and renowned magic historian, presented his Magic Moment #13. This month it was “Thayer at War”. The wars were World War One and Two. Thayer continued making magic props during the war and many were themed. Phil showed the classic Mummy Crypt trick where a mummy refuses to stay in the crypt. Thayer had themed it with the dictators of the war. He then showed an old Thayer catalog and a collection of “Bonus Genius” doll vanishes. A six inch tall wooden cut out doll vanished under a cone of cloth. Thayer had themed these many ways. During the war, the doll was themed as a doughboy and the cloth a pup tent. Other themes in the Schwartz collection included a clown, a sailor, a Scotsman, an Indian, and an Easter Bunny! Finally, Phil filled us in on the Jay Marshall auction and a rare Houdini Poster and showed us a scrap book from Marshall’s estate that contained addressed-letter envelopes from almost every well know magician on the early to mid 20th century.

Dan Stapleton was up next with a final word in his Grandma’s Necklace lecture that he began last month. He demonstrated a “Rope through the Body” effect using the principle but with an un-gimmicked set of ropes.

This is my final Ring Report for Ring 170. In June my wife and I are moving to Harrisonburg, VA and I will become a part of Ring 320. At the meeting break, the ring presented a good-bye cake for all of us to share and a going away card for me. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Thank you for many years of friendship and you will be in good hands with Sheldon Brook taking over as recording secretary.

Kerry Pierce volunteered to be our emcee for the monthly ring show that followed the business meeting. Charlie Pfrogner led off the line up with a Ball and Vase routine unlike any I have seen before. The ball vanished and appeared and changed into a human eye and then changed into a silk handkerchief, that when opened was an eye-chart! The wand was Abbott’s “Confusing wand” where the tip keeps falling off and changing ends and finally the whole wand is crazy. Dan Knapp came up and a spectator helper managed to select a blue backed joker in a deck that had been shown to be all red. Bev Bergeron presented a unique Die Box that he had themed to look like an ABC block. Bev said that it had been made by Del O’Dell’s husband many years ago and Bev had painted it. It opened with doors on the front and the back.

Mark Fitzgerald did his Flexagon. It is a flat paper octagon with 6 sides of each solid color. Not only is it a puzzling effect for the layman, it will fascinate any mathematician who specializes in topology. Mark then took two small dice and made the dots change. He ended with an unusual Triumph card routine. Dan Stapleton has produced several excellent DVDs on card magic and he demonstrated one. He made a written prediction about a spectator’s personality. The spectator flipped 8 playing cards randomly under the table with either backs or faces showing. When brought to the table the number of upside down and right side up cards matched the numbers on Dan’s personality prediction! Wallace Murphy had a spectator choose a card. He then wrapped the whole deck with a rubber band. A flick of the band and only the spectator’s card had the rubber band around it. Kerry then concluded the show with a hilarious version of “Who is smarter than a 5th Grade Magician?” Bev Bergeron could not answer a single question while a young spectator got them all correct.

With an enjoyable meeting concluded we left to meet again next month. From my new home in Virginia, I can always say “Good things are always happening in Ring 170”.

Goodbye and good luck.

Dennis Phillips