2013-10 Ring Report

President Craig Fennessey opened the meeting by introducing the Ring officers and guests in attendance.  Craig had recently returned from vacation, which included some days spent in London.  He related his experiences related to Magic and especially the very warm treatment he received when visiting the Magic Circle and Soho Theater District.

A first time guest to our meeting, was Typhoon Lou (Marin) who is relocating back to the Orlando area. Lou was a member of JB Ring 117 in Palm Beach.  Dan Stapleton reported briefly on the excellent progress of our Florida Convention which will take place, here in Orlando, next May. Some of our members performing in and around the area are Keith Kong at the Why Not Lounge in Altamonte Springs,  Mark Fitzgerald at the Hard Rock Cafe,  Wallace Murphy and Craig Fennessey at Gatorside in Ocoee.  Jacki Manna is on the road doing her act in several different venues.  Bob Swadling will be doing a lecture for the Leesburg Ring this Sunday at the Best Western Hotel in that Central Florida City.

Bev Bergeron departed from his impromptu teach-in to a  lesson in mentalism.  Phil Schwartz was up next with Magic History Moment # 52, a treatise on The History of Playing Cards.  What is a fundamental component of many magic performances, playing cards, had their origin in China during the Tang Dynasty (7th Century AD).  Phil displayed pictures of the cards from that period and discussed, at length, how they progressed in size and configuration through the years.

Following a brief intermission, Mark Fitzgerald started off the evening's performances with a transformation effect by changing playing card denominations before his audiences' eyes.  Richard Hewitt followed with slick mentalism routine matching playing card Kings.  Keith Kong gave us a sample of his mentalism act by having 3 audience participants draw simple descriptive pictures on a cardboard and then determined which participant drew two of the three pictures and then successfully reproduced a reasonably good facsimile of the third participant's drawing.  Charlie Pfrogner entertained with string and a silk as well as a 'child in the room' parody, using a box, key and card.  Dan Stapleton closed the performances with "Plates": four participants from the audience are each asked to 'Lose' a card in decks before them and write the card designation on the paper plates.  Dan successfully identified the four cards selected.

Sheldon Brook