2012-09 Famulus Newsletter

Newsletter of IBM Ring #170
The Bev Bergeron Ring

Next general meeting Wednesday, 9/19/2012 at 7:30 PM SHARP

I-HOP Kirkman Road
5203 Kirkman Road, Orlando, Florida 32819

Please join us for dinner beforehand

Lunch meetings in the McDonald’s at 7344 Sand Lake Road, Orlando. It’s two blocks WEST of the intersection of Interstate 4 and Sand Lake Road. We meet every Tuesday at noon upstairs.

Website: http://www.ring170.com/

F. A. M. E. is the Florida Association of Magical Entertainers
*************************************************************
Directory
Craig J. Fennessy – President – CraigFennessy@gmail.com
Chris Dunn- Vice President – Youngdunns@yahoo.com
Sheldon Brook- Secretary – mrbrook33@yahoo.com
Treasurer - Bev Bergeron & Joe Zimmer - Bev@bevbergeron.com zimsalabim@aol.com
Mark Fitzgerald- Director at Large - markaf1949@hotmail.com
Dan Knapp- Sgt at Arms - danknapp@centurylink.net
Stefan Bartelski – Editor of “Famulus”- Famulus@illusioneer.com
*************************************************************

GET PUBLISHED!
Got an idea for an article to add to the next FAMULUS? Put it in the body of an email or in a Word document attached to an email. Send it to Famulus@illusioneer.com, and we will get you in print.

Please, please, please, use the Famulus@illusioneer.com e-mail address, your messages are in danger of getting lost if you do not do so.

2012-09 From The Editor

We are now into Fall and the storms have been threatening, but at least for Central Florida, no serious damage to date. As the weather turns our members will be thinking about the upcoming holiday season, dust off those routines and get ready folks.

Thanks to Dennis and Sheldon for their contributions. Could no one among the members not drop a short review of the Dan Garrett lecture, or let us know about the success of the Wizardz flea market?

2012-09 Ring Report

President Craig Fennessey opened the meeting by introducing the Ring officers to those in attendance. He reminded them of a lecture by Dan Garrett in September. Craig Schwarz has the Ring's website up and running at www.Ring 170.com - the Ring will be raffling off a framed Houdini poster in the near future. Craig (Fennessey) reminded the Ring of the Daytona Magic Convention, November 2,3, and 4th.

There will be a Flea Market at The Wizards Magic venue in Kissimmee on Aug 25th and Bob Swadling is booked to perform there a week later. Terry Ward and Jeff Allen were both presented with Jack Kodell Achievement Awards in a recent ceremony at the Wizards Theater.

Three magicians were noted to have recently appeared on the TV Show, America Has Talent, including Puck, who performs here in Orlando and was selected to compete for a final spot in October.

Bob Kimmel gave an in-depth report on his recent trip to Blackpool, England to attend the FISM competition which took place there July 9 thru 15th. Bob attended many performances in Stage and Close-up magic. He was especially impressed by the performance of Topaz at the Convention which drew thousands of magic enthusiasts.

Magic History Moment No. 43 was a nostalgic trip back in time for Phil Schwartz, who shared his initiation into the world of magic by exhibiting his personal memorabilia and magical experiences as a young man. He produced a Sneaky Pete Magic Set he purchased from The Top Hat Magic Co. of Evanston, Illinois and other items he purchased on frequent trips from his home in Miami to Paul Diamond's Magic Shop in Ft. Lauderdale: some of these purchases introduced him to the work of Thayer. Phil also showed his 1903 copy of Modern Conjuror, an excellent resource for the student of magic.

Because of the late hour no member performances were initiated.

2012-09 Dennis' Deliberations

"The magic business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway

where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side."

-Hunter S. Thompson, The Gonzo Journalist-

Rudy Coby is an interesting character.  After a couple of interesting (Dick Clark Produced) TV Specials and a real new and fresh set of magic ideas he vanished.   I have heard all kinds of reasons why.  Some said that he was just a “flash in the pan” and arrogant. Others said that his shtick was shallow and thin.    He is noted in magic circles for his argument and fight with Robert Gallup. A video exists of the confrontation. The video may have been a put-on. If it was, both he and Gallup are great actors.

The feeling, at the time of his specials, was that he was unique as a personality, sort of like Sylvester the Jester, a living cartoon.  But durability and longevity and super-star status in show business demands a deep emotional connection. Coby seemed to lack that and after his early TV specials he vanished off the face of magic.

And then.....Coby was back on August 14^th on “America’s Got Talent”.  It appears that the performance was another shovel on the grave of his magic career.

I saw this recent show. If you missed it, you can see it on You-Tube.... His “Puppet-Boy” routine was identical to what he did on his first special, years ago. It was probably not a good choice for a 90 second first spot. It is a personality and contextual effect.  Obviously he should have done his famous and award-winning chopping legs routine BUT then he has nowhere to go from there in future weeks.  Kevin James did his best act on the first show... That got him to the second show and he bombed. AGT is not a show for magic acts.  David and Dania won because their quick change can be seen over and over and the “skill” is marveled at and not the actual mystery.

I would never be on that show. Dan Stapleton was...he gave us the inside information, in print in “Magic Magazine”, on just what “America’s Got Talent” is all about.

It was sad to see Rudy Coby get totally destroyed by the very cruel remarks of the judges, especially the viscous, uncalled-for comments of Shock-jock Howard Stern: "That's why you got kicked out of Vegas" and “Why the hell would you be the roommate of Marilyn Manson, a millionaire rock star."  And Sharon Osborne telling him he had no timing skills at all was like a kick to the lower extremities.  They dumped on Coby so bad that it was deeply embarrassing, not just for him, but for magic in general. The cringe factor among magicians everywhere must have been very high.  Then we had insult added to injury when some other magician comes on after Coby and does a serviceable but somewhat *underwhelming* version of the Dancing Handkerchief, and he gets some pathetic commentary from the judges to the effect that he kind of just squeaked through, and only because (Stern talking) the acts all evening were rather lame, and this guy was JUST good enough that they'd like to see what else he can do. --And we in magic know that he'd better do something quick and very SPECTACULAR next time, or he's dead meat.

Does this all make the magic world look like a piece of garbage in the eyes of the public? IT SURE DOES! Fifteen or twenty years ago, Rudy Coby looked great with his freaky hair, box-shouldered costume, and surrealistically wild persona. In conjunction with the jaw-dropping magic that he did, straight out of The Twilight Zone, he was a complete package.  But today, if you spoke to any magic critic (aren't we all!) -- considering that America's Got Talent gives the acts only a tight 90 seconds to dazzle the audience and judges -- they would likely agree with Stern, Osborne and Mandel that the "middle part" of his act languished, and the over-all performance just didn't have the "pizzazz" they were looking for.

I try to tell the bitter honest truth, however crassly. And as you know, the truth isn't always pretty. Magicians, by and large, live in a rather insular world, in particular the ninety percent or so who are hobbyists. With a day job supporting them, they can afford to be mediocre. Little Johnny's birthday party doesn't demand much more than that. Nor do their friends and relatives who are amused by their card tricks.

Magic is a beautiful art (think of the BEST!) and it pains us all to see second-rate magicians (not necessarily Coby) come on a prime time television show before millions of viewers with the mindless gall to believe they are a million-dollar act.  And those that ARE great acts, sometimes blow it by showing their best stuff on their first run-through -- and have no way to "top it" after that.  

The wonder to me is how so many people can go on that show and genuinely believe they have a million-dollar talent.  And then when they're insulted gravely but (often) justifiably, the lack of shock on their mugs shows the judge’s commentary blew right past them.  A case in point was that dough-brained female comedian on the same show edition with Coby. I was stunned that she would go on with such lame material, and not know it stunk.

Not only are there at least a million psychopaths walking the streets of North America, there are at least as many people who are convinced they have great talent, who are in dire need of therapy.  The show hit rock-bottom with that horribly masked moron playing the bells.  …I had to force myself to bother to watch anything past Coby. 

In 1960 FCC Commissioner Newton Minow called television “a vast wasteland”. That was the time when most of us had only had only 3 to 4 channels and all networks had enough revenue so they could program many quality programs!  There was much local programming giving all TV a “local flavor” with a local cooking, talking, Saturday Night live horror show, interview and kid’s show! Today we have 900 channels of wall to wall reruns and Jerry Springer. Minow’s term is now a cliché that hardy cuts it anymore. Today, it is so bad that we need a phrase that cuts way under that.

On the matter of Rudy Coby on “America's Got Talent”: He's a novelty act, and so he can impress once, maybe twice, and then the judges become bored. The problem is that an act has to keep topping itself each time it comes on. The judges keep saying that very thing. In fact one of them is always complaining at some act that "performed at the same level as the week before." It doesn't matter if "the week before" the act had set itself on fire and performed a snappy three-minute River Dance while doing handstands on top of rolling barrel.   ...So the trick for Coby, is to set his bar just high enough to win so he can has enough latitude to keep raising the bar each time.  And that's one heck of a hard thing to figure out. That may have been where out local Drew Thomas fell down on the show.  He used my (home-constructed but great looking) “Costume Truck” Illusion for his final appearance, all arranged by Rex Todd Alexander.

I have put together a satirical piece with a fictional Houdini on “America’s Got talent” in another world...

It is an example a progressive act -- in a parallel universe:   (With much thanks to Joseph Campbell’s well-known academic work about Religious Jungian themes in all of artistic expression)

The first show:

Houdini comes on and amazes with the straight jacket. He suffers a dislocated shoulder.

Second show, he escapes from handcuffs and leg-irons while in the Water Torture Cell. Medics have to revive him.

Third show, he's wrapped in 500 feet of linen cloth, dowsed with gasoline, and set ablaze.  He barely escapes to a madly-rapid Foggy Mountain Breakdown bluegrass tune with third-degree burns.

Round four, he's gagged and chained from head to foot, locked in a coffin, and buried in a large tank of quicksand. They give him up for dead, but he comes hobbling down the aisle at the end of the show, shouting that immortal Doug Henning refrain, "One Two Three -- It's ME!!"

"Wow," shouts Howie Mandel jumping to his feet and clapping wildly, "Can you top THAT next week?" 

"Yes, I can," he gasps. 

Round five, he's brutally nailed to a cross in a simulated Passion Play scene, staged as it was in the most vicious era of the Dark Ages. After being savagely beaten in a scene worse than Mel Gibson’s movie, Houdini screams, "Lord! Lord! Why hath thou forsaken me!?" -- At which point a booming voice (vocal tract by James Earl Jones) thunders, "I have not forsaken you, be gone!" -- And the crucified Houdini vanishes in a puff of smoke.  Just as one red "X" is set-off by the compulsively trigger-fingered Howard Stern, the audience lets out an audible roar as they see a dramatic reappearance of the exhausted and blood-soaked escape artist, pushing a large heavy rock away from a mock cave at the back of the stage, while whistling cheerily, "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life!" (From Monty Python, Holy Grail)  The audience goes berserk with cheering, Stern and Mandel fall off their chairs in stunned disbelief, and Sharon Osborne passes out.

Still, the next week, in round six, Houdini gets out-voted by an amateur dog act with Chihuahuas being used as hockey pucks by Great Danes, a lame Polish mentalist with a wand fragment sticking out of his liver that waves “yes” or “no” to answer audience questions, and two dwarves in cowboy outfits who sang, "I'll Never Smoke Weed with Willie Again."  

…And that my friends, is what “America's Got Talent” is all about.

Dennis Phillips

Dennis on location in Harrisonburg (August 4, 2012) doing a live radio remote for:

“Stuff the Bus” (raising school supplies for needy students)

 Live at the Rockingham County, Virginia Fair (August 18, 2012)

 Dennis Phillips

            Weekend News Anchor

2012-08 Famulus Newsletter

Newsletter of IBM Ring #170
The Bev Bergeron Ring

Next general meeting Wednesday, 8/15/2012 at 7:30 PM SHARP

I-HOP Kirkman Road
5203 Kirkman Road, Orlando, Florida 32819

Please join us for dinner beforehand

Lunch meetings in the McDonald’s at 7344 Sand Lake Road, Orlando. It’s two blocks WEST of the intersection of Interstate 4 and Sand Lake Road. We meet every Tuesday at noon upstairs.

Website: http://www.ring170.com/

F. A. M. E. is the Florida Association of Magical Entertainers
*************************************************************
Directory
Craig J. Fennessy – President – CraigFennessy@gmail.com
Chris Dunn- Vice President – Youngdunns@yahoo.com
Sheldon Brook- Secretary – mrbrook33@yahoo.com
Treasurer - Bev Bergeron & Joe Zimmer - Bev@bevbergeron.com zimsalabim@aol.com
Mark Fitzgerald- Director at Large - markaf1949@hotmail.com
Dan Knapp- Sgt at Arms - danknapp@centurylink.net
Stefan Bartelski – Editor of “Famulus”- Famulus@illusioneer.com 
*************************************************************

GET PUBLISHED!
Got an idea for an article to add to the next FAMULUS? Put it in the body of an email or in a Word document attached to an email. Send it to Famulus@illusioneer.com, and we will get you in print.

Please, please, please, use the Famulus@illusioneer.com e-mail address, your messages are in danger of getting lost if you do not do so.

2012-08 From the Editor

Summer is coming to an end so thoughts will be truning to the upcoming holiday season, which, notwithstanding Dennis' gloomy outlook for magic, will be busy for our professional and semi-pro members.

Once again the broken record, thanks to Dennis and Sheldon for their contributions.

Don't forget that a great lecture is coming up on September 5th, Dan Garrett, who has some great material. Don't miss him.

Your editor

2012-08 Ring Report

President Craig Fennessey opened the meeting with introductions of guests David Freeman and Ivan Dandini both from Clermont, Florida. Craig reminded the membership that they were entitled to a discount on tickets to the upcoming Genii Convention to be held here in Orlando. Veep Chris Dunn reported on the opportunity he experienced in attending, for a day, the National IBM Convention. Our Ring's Jeff Pierce is releasing his book Cardwarp Tour at the Genie convention.

At the end of this month, Mark Fitzgerald will have completed 6 years of performing at Orlando's Hard Rock Cafe. Mark also performs close-up at the Portofino Hotel and at Goodwill Industries new store openings. Mike Martin is entertaining at Give Kids the World and invited the Ring membership to participate if they were available.

Bev Bergeron presented an interesting Teach-In showing his method of handling and passing, simultaneously, five (5) half-dollar sized coins through a table. Practice!, Practice!, Practice!.

Phil Schwartz followed with Magic History Moment No.42, a treatise on Multiplying Billiard Balls.

After a brief intermission Chris Dunn emceed the performance portion of the meeting. William Zaballero started it all with a multicolor thimble routine. Cody Morgan followed with an entertaining example of Poker Chip and Card Magic. Mark Fitzgerald shared three (3) effects with the membership. A magic color changing wheel, changing a dollar bill to a hundred dollar bill and back. He finished strong with a four (4) ace transpo routine. Brandon Zaballero followed with a juggling routine that brought out a very popular response from the audience. Dan Stapleton ended the evening by predicting the outcome of a magician name matrix by having a volunteer move through the names and ending on the predicted outcome. The outcome mysteriously appeared on a blank tissue paper when ignited. Truly. a great way to end the evening.

Sheldon Brook

2012-08 Ring 170 Web-site

If you did not already know it, the new Ring 170 website is now up and running. Thanks to Craig Schwarz for his work on this. And thanks to Mark Fitzgerald who ran the previous version of the site.

Be aware, maintaining a website is not a simple job so thank these gentlemen when you see them, please

2012-08 Dennis Deliberations.... Editorial and Comment

The poet Paul Valery observed after World War One: " Nous autres civilisations savons que nous sommes mortelles" (We, civilizations now know we are mortal)

I would not say that we are looking at the end of “Magic” as we knew it, but certainly the potential mortality of the hobby and business is apparent. Barry’s Magic Shop in Suburban D.C. just closed and it made the AP wire. I saw it on the “State News” part of the regional Associated Press feed while I was preparing the Sunday Morning News for my radio broadcast.

Let’s talk about why the Norfolk International Brotherhood of Magicians National Convention reflects the contraction of magic. My understanding is that attendance was down and certainly there were a lot less dealers. Show quality was considered still good as were the lectures. Those who attended had a good time. The IBM has always been the hobbyist group and mostly middle class. First, Norfolk is not a resort town. The old joke was that you won a vacation: Second prize was two weeks in Norfolk. First prize was one week in Norfolk. Conventions today are too expensive for the shrinking Middle Class. There is nothing new in magic other than the latest packet trick. Grunge Magic is all the rage now and that genre does not lend itself to convention attendance. I heard the attendance was 400 people and 10 dealers! I recall the days were the Florida State Convention was better! All the same lectures are easily available on the lecture circuit and You Tube.

All the acts have been around for years. One night was all Asian and I was told that all they did was productions. Very few people are now making a living from magic and thus you have almost no pros to talk to, just a bunch of move monkeys and finger flickers. “Try the Hamman frustration count just before the Elmsley Move, but Faro shuffle......” Zzzzzzzzzzzz......( by the way, I just Googled “Hamman Frustration Count” and three You Tube videos popped up!)

I have heard dismal reports from FISM. It will be interesting to see how the Genii and Daytona Convention will fare both being in Central Florida and being only four weeks from each other in the October-November time frame. They may appeal to 2 totally different crowds. You have to mortgage your house, which probably has an underwater mortgage, to go to the Genii Convention. It is being held at an Orlando Hotel next to the Florida Mall and near the Orlando Airport. It promises to have a celebrity line-up on the bill.

SAM always was a classy group but we in SAM often seemed like a magic clique. “We’re number two and we don’t try harder!” Apparently with a Vegas venue and David Copperfield, the SAM Convention was well received. But I look at the names. Lots of old guys! Let’s face it in Magic, the old guard is dying off and the new people are a different form of businessman. (Josh Jay, Andrew Mayne, Jay Sankey, Wayne Houchin, Nathan Kranzo, Daniel Garcia.) Denny Haney fancies himself, according to his cover story (August 2012) in MUM, as the last brick and mortar magic shop hold out. No pun intended with the term “hold out”; an old method for doing magic effects. The local corner store just can’t make it when faced with the Wal*Marts of magic. The biggest problem is not so much with other shops which can provide props cheaper. The problem is You Tube when all the secrets are open. Honestly now, a large percentage of people who buy magic buy it for the secret. If it is free on You Tube, they will not buy it. I have a friend going to the MAES Convention in Cherry Hill, New Jersey in September. Reports from Abbotts are coming soon also. We will see how they go.

Dennis

2012-07 Famulus newsletter

Newsletter of IBM Ring #170
The Bev Bergeron Ring

Next general meeting Wednesday, 7/18/2012 at 7:30 PM SHARP

I-HOP Kirkman Road
5203 Kirkman Road, Orlando, Florida 32819

Please join us for dinner beforehand

Lunch meetings in the McDonald’s at 7344 Sand Lake Road, Orlando. It’s two blocks WEST of the intersection of Interstate 4 and Sand Lake Road. We meet every Tuesday at noon upstairs.

Website: http://www.ring170.com/

F. A. M. E. is the Florida Association of Magical Entertainers
*************************************************************
Directory
Craig J. Fennessy – President – CraigFennessy@gmail.com
Chris Dunn- Vice President – Youngdunns@yahoo.com
Sheldon Brook- Secretary – mrbrook33@yahoo.com
Treasurer - Bev Bergeron & Joe Zimmer - Bev@bevbergeron.com zimsalabim@aol.com
Mark Fitzgerald- Director at Large - markaf1949@hotmail.com
Dan Knapp- Sgt at Arms - danknapp@centurylink.net
Stefan Bartelski – Editor of “Famulus”- Famulus@illusioneer.com 
*************************************************************

GET PUBLISHED!
Got an idea for an article to add to the next FAMULUS? Put it in the body of an email or in a Word document attached to an email. Send it to Famulus@illusioneer.com, and we will get you in print.

Please, please, please, use the Famulus@illusioneer.com e-mail address, your messages are in danger of getting lost if you do not do so.

2012-07 From the Editor

We are in the middle of summer and thoughts will start turning to the upcomimg holiday season, especially for our pro and semi-pro performers. Time to dust off that old trick or to buy some new ones to spruce up the act.

Thanks to Sheldon and Deniis for their contributions, and to Jeff for his "commercial"

Your editor

2012-07 Ring Report

President Craig Fennessey opened the meeting with 20 members present and one (1) guest, Richard Myer of San Jose , California who is the Territorial Vice President of IBM for Northern California .  Craig mentioned that a raffle will be held through October for a framed Houdini Poster that had been donated to the Ring by Richard Hewitt. The Tickets will sell for $5.00 each or 3for $10.

 

The previous weekend a memorial service was conducted by many of the late Jack Kodel's friends, Terry Ward led a Broken Wand Ceremony.  A representative portion of our Ring attended a performance in Mt Dora by Kreskin. An interesting discussion of his act took place.  Chuck Smith reported on the recent Tampa Bay Magic Fest which he attended.  Mark Fitzgerald told of a trip he took with Tim Clancy to Eberhard's Bar in Key West .  Mike Martin has resumed his work entertaining at Give Kids the World in Kissimmee .  Ravelli is performing at several resort sites in the area.  Mark Fitzgerald and Wallace Murphy have been performing at the openings of several Good Will Industries in our area.  Jacki Manna is presently doing her act in Ft. Myers , Florida.

 

Our first lecture of the Fall season will be Dan Garrett on September 5th.  Several other events are coming; The Genii Bash as well as the Daytona Magic event to follow.

 

Bev Bergeron followed the discussions demonstrating an impromptu magic effect using either toothpicks or matchsticks.  Phil Schwartz presented Magic History Moment No. 41. His talk was on British magic dealer and publisher, Will Goldston.

 

After a brief intermission, Chris Dunn introduced the performing members of the Ring; led off by Charlie Pfrogner who entertained with a color changing egg bag, a rope and a silk.  William Zaballero and guest Richard Myer performed with several card effects. as did Dan Stapleton.  Mark Fitzgerald opened up his bag of tricks and demonstrated a $1.00 bill transpo to $5,00 as well as a coin production that was very entertaining.  J. C. Hiatt and Ravelli were the final two performers.  Ravelli performed to a musical accompaniment using cards, DVD's and a torn and restored a newspaper with a smash oral recovery of the paper.  J C demonstrated his skills with a production routine that included cups, balls and a film cannister.  The Ring responded with a thunderous ovation.

 

Sheldon Brook

2012-07 New hardback book from Jeff Pierce Magic

"The Cardwarp Tour" Routines and scripts inspired by Roy Walton's Cardwarp effect.

Visit http://www.thecardwarptour.com to read more about it, view some sample pages or pre-order the book and save!

Thank you

Jeff Pierce

2012-07 Dennis' Deliberations

I think that an academic essay about the popularity of magic would include that observation that magic has ridden on two wild horses:

1) The delivery system

2) Technology

Prior to the 1860s, it was all “Street Magic” or “Court Jester”. The last half of the 19^th century saw the rise of industrial cities and the socialist movements which increased worker’s incomes.  This led to cities and towns packed with people who had a few meager coins and a need for paid entertainment. The music hall in Europe and vaudeville here in America became the “delivery system” for magic. 

The technology for modern magic was machine steel and rubber (used in mechanisms by Robert Houdin and Servais LeRoy) and electric lighting http://www.danalee.ca/ttt/lighting.htm  and the proscenium theater stage. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg_II,_Duke_of_Saxe-Meiningen . I consider Houdini to be a Doug Henning type of anomaly.  In an age of immigrants in America, he was the little ethnic immigrant who was breaking chains and escaping the poverty of a mundane ordinary life. He was a performance metaphor for triumph over the system.

Sociologists of business look at eras and tell us that business goes in 20 to 30 year cycles with parts of the cycle defined as:  Novelty, Growth, Maturity, Decline, Replacement.    Any technology business is constantly fighting to stay ahead of the technology and how quickly it becomes ubiquitous and washes over them. A business must be able to define what their core product and evolve. i.e.  Buggy Whip manufactures actually being in the “Acceleration and Control” business... Gas Lamp manufacturers being in the “illumination business”...Kodak being in the “Imaging business”...Newspapers being in the “Information” business... Magicians being in the “Entertainment business”...  

As technology changes, if a business is based on strictly operating due to a specific technology and its limited access, they will fail. You can look at the examples above and see how the successful ones transitioned and the ones that failed to change are gone. One shining example of successful evolution is a company I used to work for and have had a long relationship with is , The Harris Corporation. (HRS Stock symbol)    Harris began as a printing press and type-making company!  Understanding that they were in the “Information handling” business they moved into electronic communications hardware.  Just this past month, the radio station I work for bought a new Harris Transmitter. We have other Harris equipment in the station.

Looking at the Magic Arts, you can see some definite trends. The 20-30 year cycle we nostalgically call, “The Second Golden Age of Magic” ran from 1960-2000. the 30 years can be found depending on where you start and end.    Mark Wilson’s TV work along with Paul Osborne’s Theme Park work in the 60s and early 70s put stage magic back in the visibility of the public.  Both freshened up the dated stereotype of the stuffy, bumbling 1920s bumbling magician who most people had never seen but was the typical image in their minds. Actually the few magicians of that era were still doing the routines of the 1920s and the lines! Doug Henning’s image and style was an anomaly which few could or did copy (other than the Gene Anderson Newspaper Tear) but what he did do was prove that a modern audience could enjoy theater magic. He also translated that into his wildly successful blockbuster TV specials which gave Fred Silverman the idea to use David Copperfield on a special to new 1978 ABC Television fall season.

So if we say, “1970 to 2000” we are looking at 30 years and the academic classic business cycle.  If the cycle began technologically as a marriage of magic and TV, then it was brought to a close by new technology of multi-channel cable and satellite TV and the Internet. The major TV Networks had lost so much viewership, with so many channels, that they can not afford the cost or niche nature of magic TV specials.  Mindfreak was designed as a TV series more in the genre of reality TV.   The high point and decline of magic on TV was the Masked Magician series and the Gary Oullett specials.  His “World’s Greatest Magic Specials” were a tossed salad. No one believes that any tossed salad can be defined as “World Greatest”.  They were inconsistent, formulamatic and lacking the strength of personality. It was just a matter of time before people became bored with the magic.

The danger in any blend of magic with technology is that the technology smothers over the entertainment value.  We never want an audience to say, “Its just technology” and today, that is a possibility.  The worst put down by an audience is for them to individually say, “If I had all that technology, I could do that also!”    I am certain that anyone could put together the technology for Carl Ballentine’s Classic Act.  No one else could do it.   We want them to marvel at the magic and not the technology and that is a real challenge today!  I am not sure that the currently hot Marco Tempest can do it.

Looking to be a magic star?  First of all be an incredibly talented, unique personality and then think :Delivery System and Technology.

Dennis Phillips  

2012-06 Famulus Newsletter

Newsletter of IBM Ring #170
The Bev Bergeron Ring

Next general meeting Wednesday, 6/21/2012 at 7:30 PM SHARP

I-HOP Kirkman Road
5203 Kirkman Road, Orlando, Florida 32819

Please join us for dinner beforehand

Lunch meetings in the McDonald’s at 7344 Sand Lake Road, Orlando. It’s two blocks WEST of the intersection of Interstate 4 and Sand Lake Road. We meet every Tuesday at noon upstairs.

Website: http://www.ring170.com/

F. A. M. E. is the Florida Association of Magical Entertainers
*************************************************************
Directory
Craig J. Fennessy – President – CraigFennessy@gmail.com
Chris Dunn- Vice President – Youngdunns@yahoo.com
Sheldon Brook- Secretary – mrbrook33@yahoo.com
Treasurer - Bev Bergeron & Joe Zimmer - Bev@bevbergeron.com zimsalabim@aol.com
Mark Fitzgerald- Director at Large - markaf1949@hotmail.com
Dan Knapp- Sgt at Arms - danknapp@centurylink.net
Stefan Bartelski – Editor of “Famulus”- Famulus@illusioneer.com 
*************************************************************

GET PUBLISHED!
Got an idea for an article to add to the next FAMULUS? Put it in the body of an email or in a Word document attached to an email. Send it to Famulus@illusioneer.com, and we will get you in print.

Please, please, please, use the Famulus@illusioneer.com e-mail address, your messages are in danger of getting lost if you do not do so.

2012-06 From the Editor

This month's edition was compiled for you from across the pond. Your editor is on a family visit to the UK and the netherlands for the occasion of the wedding of his edldest daughter. Unfortunately, while I do pass through London, I as there for too short a time to visit any of the many magical places, e.g. Magic Circle, magic shops or Harry Potter studio tour.

Thanks to Dennis and Sheldon for their contributions, yet again, I am still waiting for items from other members. Of course, Craig's reminder of the Jack Kodel memorial is included, which I am sorry to be misssng as I will be somewhere over the Atlantic as it takes place.

Your editor

2012-06 Jack Kodell Memorial

"Jack Kodell”

"A Celebration of Life"

Please join us as we remember the life of our dear Jack Kodell, a true original.

Sunday, June 17th at 11:00 a.m.

Family Funeral Care
13001 S. John Young Pkwy.
(407) 812-4200

John Ekin and Terry Ward will perform a special Broken Wand ceremony.  

Mary requested, "No flowers, please". 

Craig Fennessy

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.

2012-06 Dennis' Deliberations

The Descent of Magic 

By Larry Thornton and Dennis Phillips 

            It seems that rapidly changing times have now caused magic and its relatively insular world to wind down. Its yearly conventions, after many decades of stability and success, are now struggling to survive. One long-time annual conference, a virtual institution among the magicians in its area, has recently had to call it a day.  Young blood is no longer infusing the magic community at a rate that is able to "stabilize" its population, let alone keep it expanding, as older magicians and magic enthusiasts retire from the scene. Are there other reasons for magic's malaise? An attempt to answer this question leads us to some disturbing conclusions. 

Revolutionary advances in science and technology, especially during the last dozen or so years, has been instrumental in altering the cultural landscape and attracting the rapt attention of the masses.  Computers, video gaming, and mobile communications devices are now ubiquitous, and as a consequence, magic as we know and love it has been shunted off to the side, and so very far away from public awareness that for all intents and purposes it has become pretty-much invisible to the world.  Today, millions of people are immersed in video games, texting, and online socializing through Twitter and Facebook. The video game industry alone has blossomed into a multi-billion-dollar enterprise, exceeding the combined revenues of the entire movie industry. And this is all in addition to the traditional offline activities that flourished well before the Internet and dozens of electronic distractions burst on the scene: sports, rock music, television, and movies exploding on the silver screen with ever-escalating special effects and in glorious 3D.    Magicians everywhere are sinking into a mental funk with the realization that their talents are no longer at the forefront of the public's consciousness -- if indeed, they ever were.  

            But many magicians beg to differ.  Some of the elder stalwarts of magic like to tell us magic has always been cyclical. That is to say, the art of magic always keeps renewing itself every twenty, thirty, or even fifty years. To back-up such assertions, they cite the big touring shows of the first half of the 20th century by the likes of Blackstone, Thurston, and Dante; and the rise of television magic stars Doug Henning and David Copperfield in a post-hippy era; and the decades-long popularity of eclectic magic shows in Las Vegas. Even the ragamuffin 'bastard child' called Street Magic is cited as still another "wonderful" indication that magic is constantly re-inventing itself anew.  ... So what's the worry?  We're only in a temporary down cycle right now! 

            But dare we ask: Will we ever see discussions of this situation in magic's club journals, or in it's major magazines?   It is doubtful.   When a particular kind of entertainment begins to falter, whether by imploding from within or simply dwindling away for lack of adequate public support, it rarely becomes a serious topic of internal dialogue among its practitioners. Magic today, as exemplified by its monthly magazines and its organization's journals, seem to be blissfully living in a fuzzy-warm state of perpetual denial. 

            Perhaps we could suggest that one arguable reason for the alleged "silence" on this matter, stems from the very nature of the magic journals themselves: funding comes from dealer advertisements aimed at selling magic apparatus, books, and DVDs.  What magic publications need, are a few more voices of positive self-criticism and balance.  One thoughtful voice from the past was “Senator” Clarke Crandall (1906-1975).  Crandall was an Abbotts’ and Magic Castle legend with his long curled moustache and cowboy hat and boots. He had a way of cutting to the chase in his observations of magic and magicians.  It was best not to abuse the art of magic, because he was open with his rebukes.  (Often Mark Kornhauser’s column in Magic Magazine is reflectively "Crandall-like" in its honesty. But he is among a minority these days.)  Many young magicians used to think that the curmudgeonly "Senator" was just an angry old man, but as those same magicians grew older and wiser themselves, they realized it was honesty shaped by experiential insight and wisdom. Crandall risked offending some for the sake of truth and in support of the magical art in general. 

            Much of the credit for the revival of magic, which was on life-support in the early 60s, was The Magic Castle. (Mark Wilson and Bev’s weekly Network TV show also helped bring in young blood)  The Castle was a venue that was far more than a private night club. It became the focal point for magic celebrities and the best of the art.  If the Castle's concept could extend to other major cities, it could keep the art alive.  We recall the Comedy Clubs that formed to keep the art of comedy alive and they were successful.   Magic certainly isn't likely to die completely, but it can and should remain a vital and continuing niche in the performing arts. 

            There is also one other controversial monkey wrench in the gears that we consider axiomatic, and you've heard it before: Magic dealers on the Internet. An explosion of online commerce by virtually every business on the planet has resulted in this formerly "niche" business jumping online as well. Magic is a great performing art, but the business of selling its props is a peculiar one. The typical magic shop used to exist (and "exist" is the proper term) almost exclusively as a low-profile business not given to advertising to the general public. In an effort to make our point, just try to imagine the following bizarre scenario: A citizen opens up his morning newspaper and sees the following advertisement: "SLICKO'S TRICK-AND-JOKE SHOP is having the SALE OF THE CENTURY! Come on down today! Slicko's is featuring ZIG ZAGS, SUB TRUNKS and LEVITATIONS at ROCK BOTTOM PRICES! ”The traditional paradigm of the commercial magic dealer, once relegated to quaint little street magic shops and discrete "backroom" emporiums that only the serious magic aficionado was aware of -- is now dead. Sure, many dealers eventually developed a thriving business through mail-order too, but that was still well under the radar compared to the gigantic visibility potential of the World Wide Web.  When the dealers took the economic 'high road' online, they inadvertently threw the ethical 'low road' to the wolves when they started advertising magic's wares indiscriminately to all the world.  It represented nothing less than that newspaper metaphor, writ large.  The result is that in going online, the magic shops underwent an almost Frankensteinian transformation as they exploded into the public's consciousness. Irrespective of the fact it may have been good for the economic health of many of the magic companies, was this, in the long run, really good for magic? 

Before the personal computer and the worldwide web became ubiquitous, there were people who would be so amazed by a magic effect that some of them would feel compelled to ask in astonishment, "Where did you ever learn to do that?" Such an odd question may seem naive, but it told the tale: that people half-believed (or wanted to believe) that magicians were "privy to an exclusive art", and that such an art seemed all the more exotic and mysterious for its apparent lack of origins.  What the viewer didn't know, he didn't need to know: that magic books are available in every public library; that there are monthly magic clubs for amateur magicians who talk shop and perform for each other; and that there are a some exclusive magic fraternities (like London's Magic Circle) that are almost pathologically secretive, while other, much larger international magic organizations are so "open" that they will seemingly admit just about anyone with the mildest interest in magic. As an existential matter, almost all magic secrets can be found on You Tube and discussion boards.  

            In spite of the many symptoms that we've outlined here that suggests magic may be on the ropes for good, our diagnosis may not be all that convincing. Perhaps the old guard are right after all: that magic will still recycle itself once again. Through the creative efforts of progressive thinkers like Marco Tempest, we might see a "new renaissance" in magic that could conceivably blow-off the barnacles of a bygone era and steer a refurbished conjuring "ship" majestically into a world of ever-advancing technological wonders.  In his day, the great 19th century French conjuror Robert Houdin did much the same thing by updating his attire and streamlining his tables and props. He employed clockwork automation in his performances, and disguised the then-novel discoveries of electromagnetism, anesthetics, and chemistry to look like pure magic. And a century or so later, a progressive David Copperfield revitalized magic in the latter half of the 20th century by jettisoning the arcane boxes and outdated theatrics and costuming, and in so doing, totally retrofitted the art of magic for modern times. The pre-internet times, that is.  

But now, after some 20 to 30 years of creative paralysis, we find ourselves immersed in a hyper-technological new century, and so we see the need for a major magic transformation once again. The world is changing at a seemingly breakneck pace, and along with it, the ways and means with which we entertain ourselves. 

        If the first part of this essay seems overly pessimistic, it was not meant to be anything other than constructive.  We all know that "something" is seriously amiss in the world of magic, but rather than fall into a state of denial, we felt it would be more productive to look the patient squarely in the eye and try to determine some of the principle causes for magic's "cyclic malaise". It is only then that we all will be able to examine the possible future directions magic should take in order to keep it not only alive, but vibrantly healthy.  The magic world sorely needs more forward-thinking geniuses the likes which we mentioned above. We need the creative dreamers who will stay ahead of the curve by exercising the foresight and courage to redefine one of the greatest of the performing arts.  It will be through their efforts, and your efforts, that magic will again be able to dazzle the world, and thereby propel it deeply into the 21st century -- and beyond. 

        Larry Thornton is a long-time family magician in Calgary, Alberta, Canada

        Dennis Phillips, who performed and built magic for many years and lived in Orlando, Florida, is now based in Virginia.