November 2023 Ring Report
It was just a week before Thanksgiving and thankfully twenty of us gathered to do some magic. There was quite a bit of discussion about the upcoming Winter Carnival. Sixteen members performed and we had over two hours of magic; our president, Victor Agreda, shared about making his sci-fi short film where he is the writer, director, producer, as well as actor. He’s been learning a lot as things like special effects using some great electronic magic.
Our vice-president, Michael Priestap, always had fun with magic while working at Children’s Hospital in Knoxville, and tonight he shared a fun three-phase ring & string routine using a shoelace and large metal ring. Ed Ripley controlled the heat of a candle as he was able to hold his hand over the flame for 30 painful seconds. With the recent purchase of Kronzek’s Grandpa Magic, Jack Wilson made Abraham Lincoln smile on the five-dollar bill.
It was good to have Cayden Goodman and his grandfather, Steve Jerden, back after a few months of travel and illness; Cayden performed a quick vanishing knot from a rope, and with an absolute calm, cool confidence, Steve showed how easy it was to drop a ring onto a loop of chain and make it knot itself on tight. Bill Osburn broke out into prose as he performed the Ring and Ribbon Mystery as the ring released itself from the ribbon…poetically. Tom Raidy also did the ring and shoelace penetration (…did I mention that the theme for the evening was “Ring and String/Rope?) and he also placed a large ring in a top hat along with the center of a rope, and when he grabbed the ends of the rope, the ring was now handing from the rope.
Jim Stott did three effects including the ring off shoelace and an instantaneous knot tying a ring onto a rope. Kyle Copeland didn’t perform, but gave two rave reviews for books that have been out for a while: Seriously Silly by Silly Billy and Strong Magic by Darwin Ortiz – his comments had several of us ready to re-read these books. Having flown up from Florida for the meeting (and a doctor’s appointment), Tom Vorjohan did his three-phase Ring & String routine that is based on Dan Fleschman’s that he learned from Dan 30 years ago, and he also taught three card effects from Kronzek’s more recent book, Artful Deceptions, from Vanishing Inc.
Unlocking the magic and power in a person’s name, Roy Schubert did another seemingly impossible card effect as a completely randomly named card was found by spelling his volunteer’s name. Having expedited the Knoxville Christmas decorations so he could be at the meeting, Bill Sturgis performed the Patriotic Ropes and then used the multicolored rope to do a ring penetration effect. Andrew Hyder did several excellent moves with both a ring and string and others with a ring and rope. Sherman Wires showed “one of the dumbest tricks I’ve learned” as he correctly predicted both the card and the number of cards dealt by his volunteer – not dumb at all! To conclude the performances, we were excited to have our guest, Massachusetts’ own Andrew Neiner, who is in Knoxville to attend Crown College, who performed a series of effects using the card box (which seems logical since he is the creator of Boom Box released by Penguin a year and a half ago). We look forward to more from this talented young magician!
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