2012-06 Ring Report

President Craig Fennessey opened the meeting and introduced the officers to the membership and guests in attendance. Gerard Jendrzejak, a guest, told of his interest in magic and a desire to join up with our Ring. Craig pointed out that June would be a busy month in our area with appearances Raphael Benatar, Kreskin and the Tampa Magic Fest all scheduled.  We have Dan Garrett scheduled for a lecture in September and the Genii International Bash scheduled here in October. Next month the IBM National Convention will be held in Washington. 

Our Ring will be holding a raffle over the next 5 months to award a framed Houdini poster generously donated by Richard Hewitt. 

Mark Fitzgerald attended the Fechter Conference and is back performing at the Portofino Hotel as well as The Hard Rock Cafe.  Craig Fennessey and Wallace Murphy continue their table hopping gigs at Gator's Dockside and Wallace and Mark are performing at the opening of a Goodwill facility in Kissimmee.  Dan Stapleton is booked to do a big show at the Maitland Jewish Community Center on June 21. 

Bev Bergeron came on with a well received impromptu trick of making sugar (or salt) from a small packet disappear into a napkin held by a spectator. 

Phil Schwartz presented his fortieth Magic History Moment, something he does at each meeting.  This month he spoke about book collecting and reading -- in particular: Scott's Discoverie of Witchcraft and Hoffman's Modern Magic.  He described how these books contributed to the record of magic history and recommended that members read Modern Magic and the Hoffman books that followed it.  Phil showed examples of several rare volumes and talked about Raymond Toole Stott's reference numbers.   

Following a brief intermission 8 members signed up to perform:  Mark Fitzgerald hosted and started it all by bringing up a spectator and having the spectator do the effect  with Mark's directions. Bob Swadling did a quickie Steel Ring passing through a rope; clean as a whistle.  J. C. Hiatt was up next and demonstrated his complete mastery of the "Ring and a Rope Routine".  Sammy, "The Magician" followed with a mentalism  routine utilizing a chalkboard and three volunteers from the audience.  Charlie Pfrogner performed with a salt and cup effect and Dan Stapleton did another of his magical predictions,  setting aside the dominoes and working with ESP chips made for a very clean and entertaining performance.  Chuck Smith, not to be outdone by our evening's mentalists, predicted the serial number on a one dollar bill, randomly, selected from numerous bills.  We will all look forward to our next meeting in July.