Ring 198 Officers

President . . . . . . . . . . .Manoj Shanker (mshanker@yahoo.com)

Vice Presidents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Roger Despard and Ray Corns rogerdespard@bellsouth.net • raycorns@gmail.com)

Secretary . . . . . . . . .Mike Woodward (mike.woodward@aol.com)

Treasurer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jim Holsinger (jwh@uky.edu)

Ring Reporter . . . . . . . . . . .George Hunter (geogh33@aol.com)

Sergeant at Arms . . Steve Thomas (eccentricwhat@yahoo .com)

Social Media Manager . . . .Doug Doolin (magicdoolin@aol.com)

Newsletter Editor . . . Bob Orndorff (wizardmagic@bellsouth.net)

LEX INGTON , KENTUCKY D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 6

THOROUGHBRED MAGIC GUILD l ex i ng tonmag i cc lub .o rg

ABOUT IBM RING 198The Thoroughbred Magic Guild — Ring 198 of the International Brotherhood of Magicians — meets at 2:30 p .m . on the second Sunday of each month at Gethsemane Lutheran Church, 2185 Garden Springs Drive in Lexington, Kentucky — unless the date conflicts with Easter and Mother’s Day .

TMG’s e-mail address is mail@ring198.com. TMG information on the Web is at lexingtonmagicclub.org.

© Wednesday, Dec. 28: Mike Woodward’s Annual Holiday Party, 7 p.m.,-??? ALL area magicians are invited. Light refreshments. At Mike’s home: 1090 The Lane, Lexington 40508. For info and/or directions: mike.woodward@aol.com or 859-608-2558.

© Thursday-Saturday, Jan. 26-28, 2017: Magi-Fest, Crowne Plaza Worthington Hotel, 6500 Doubletree Ave., Columbus, OH. Registration $200 (single-day tickets available). Info: www.magifest.org. Hotel reservations: 877-227-6963 (mention MGF code for convention rate).

© Thursday-Saturday, March 9-11, 2017: Winter Carnival of Magic, Country Tonite Theater, Pigeon Forge, TN. Registration $135; companion or youth 10-16, $70; under 10, $25. One-day registration available. Info: www.wintercarnivalofmagic.com.

© Wednesday-Saturday, July 12-15, 2017: IBM-SAM Combined Convention, Galt House, Louisville. Booked so far: 24 international performers, 10 lectures, 19 dealers. Good seats for evening shows still available if you register before Dec. 31: $395 adults and youth. Info: IBMSAM2017.com, ibmsam2017@gmail.com, or 540-463-5406. If you can arrange the time and scrape together the cash, this promises to be an unforgettable experience.

© Wednesday-Sunday, Oct. 4-8, 2017: Genii Conven-tion 2017, Orlando, FL. To date, 24 performers booked. Registration $325 until Jan. 1, 2017; $375 after that. Info: www.geniiconvention.com.

Weekend ‘unconventional’, as usualGood shows, lectures, fellowship fill DuPont Lodge

See WEEKEND, Page Two

The headline is a little misleading. The theme of Mike Woodward’s lecture for the Dec. 11 meeting is how to keep a trick from going wrong.

“I’ll lecture on how to minimize the chance of a mistake during a performance,” Mike said, “and also discuss some information I found useful from the last MAGIC magazine.”

We all have had something unplanned occur in the middle of a trick. This sometimes is beyond our control, but in most cases it could have been avoided if our planning had been more thorough.

Mike is an experienced performer, and anything he says on this topic has to be valuable for performing magicians.

The meeting — Ring 198’s regular monthly gathering — will begin at 2:30 p.m. in Gethsemane Lutheran Church, 2185 Garden Springs Drive in Lexington. Get there at 2 to visit informally with

other members.The theme for the performance

portion of the meeting will be Holiday Magic. Bring a trick to perform that would be suitable for a Christmas, New Year, or other seasonal show.

If you prefer to perform something that is not seasonal, — a trick you just bought or one you learned from a DVD — feel free to do so. The main thing is to bring something to perform. f

Trick gone wrong? Mike can help!Dec. 11 meeting theme is holiday magic

The 42nd Unconventional Convention, one of many regional magic conventions across the country each year, met Nov. 3 and 4 at DuPont Lodge in Kentucky’s Cumberland Falls State Park.

Favorable weather encouraged 68

magicians to attend, and attendance at the shows, including magicians’ families and other DuPont Lodge guests, swelled to more than 200.

The convention, sponsored by IBM Ring 198, is, frankly, “unconventional” because improvisation reigns. The dates are set (first full weekend in November each year), and the annual headliner is publicized. Most everything else is invented when the leaders see who shows up! There is no printed schedule. Each sessions ends with the announcement of when the next session begins. When the convention is over, there is no certain record of everything that happened!

This year, the Friday evening show, with Mark Comley as emcee, featured stories by Judge Ray Corns

Time to pay your dues!Annual dues for members of the Thorough-bred Magic Guild are due NOW. Bring $20 in cash or a check made out to “Thorough-bred Magic Guild” to the Dec. 11 meeting, or mail your payment to Ring Secretary Jim Holsinger, 4705 Waterside Court, Lexington, KY 40513 . g123

My holiday party is December 28th and everyone is invited, so please add this to the club events and give a little info in the newsletter. My address is 1090 The Lane, 40504 and my phone is 859-608-2558.

Holiday party time!Mike Woodward has hosted a holiday party for magicians — ALL magicians — between Christmas and New Year’s for many, many years. This year is no exception. The party on Wednesday, Dec. 28, is from about 7 to who knows — at Mike’s home, 1090 The Lane, Lexington, 40504. There will be light refreshments. If you need info on how to get there contact Mike at 859-608-2558 or mike.woodward@aol.com. e123

PAGE 2 DECEMBER 2016

HOCUS IN FOCUS THOROUGHBRED MAGIC GUILD

Continued from Page One

Jim Harris has the audience’s attention during the opening night show at DuPont Lodge in Cumberland Falls State Park.

and performances by Roger Reeves, Jim Harris, and Berk Bryant before this year’s headliner, Richard Osterlind, performed effects from his recent “Eerie” DVD project. His Crystal Ball routine reminded everyone that Halloween was still hanging around.

Sir Pat-Trick emceed the Saturday morning show, in which six magicians competed for a $100 prize. Aris and Jayden, John Harper, Grace Lowell, Ray Adams, and Jim Harris engaged and mystified the audience, but in the end no one could compete with Aaron and Samantha Harp’s amusing effect featuring a “Lie Detecting Chicken.”

Ray Adams finished the morning with a lecture demonstrating what could be done with a dozen or more sponge balls if you moistened them — for greater elasticity.

Mike Woodward emceed a brief early afternoon close-up show.

Chuck Arkin, Paul Lowe, and Sir Pat-Trick performed.

People then visited the convention’s eight dealers.

Richard Osterlind held forth from 2 to 5 Saturday afternoon. In the first session, he performed five effects- — Bank Night, Card Calling, the Watch Routine, Q and A, and Magazine Test — from his traditional corporate show. In the second session, he

deconstructed some effects and, for an enthused audience, taught his approach to spoon bending, nail writing, and a center tear. He demonstrated, but did NOT teach, his famous penny bend.

Osterlind’s lecture also stressed the importance of giving a written introduction to the local leader who will be introducing you to the audience. He featured two major themes from his performing philosophy:

1) Verbalize NO claims of “powers” that account for what you do; then no disclaimer will ever be necessary.

2) Like the great actors, inhabit your role and believe in the magic you are performing as you perform it — audiences will find your belief

contagious.He also

discouraged the convoluted style epidemic in much of magic and mentalism today. People appreciate direct effects they can tell describe to friends in a sentence or two.

The concluding Saturday evening show, with Tom Vorjohan as emcee, attracted a large, boisterous crowd. The Harps reintroduced the “Lie Detecting Chicken.” Ray Adams, after surviving a collapsing stool, performed a story-telling card effect, finishing with the weekend’s most forgettable line, “You can’t have your Kate and Edith, too!”

John Shore performed with vertically stacked number blocks that kept

changing their order, and finished with three cups and a walnut. Sir Pat-Trick and Mike Woodward attributed a shattering glass to a visitation from Houdini’s ghost. Roger Reeves, in formal attire, performed a cut and restored rope effect and the transformation of a red silk into a yellow one. Sir Pat-Trick returned with some burlesque music and moves that featured a rope doing something.

After the last raffle prize was awarded, Matthew David Stanley’s comedy magic concluded the show. After amusing effects involving a dancing silk in a jar and a “tear-a-gami” transformation of tissue paper into an underpants-shaped cap, He finished by producing a ludicrously long silk from his mouth. His volunteer was reluctant to touch that much saliva, and the audience was aware that an Unconvention had never concluded with such a classy effect! h

Weekend of magic at DuPont Lodge is ‘unconventional’ — as usualphotos by Mike Woodward

A spoon seemingly bends on its own in Osterlind’s hands.

This chicken won $100 for Aaron Harp.

As he has done often before, Mark Comley emceed Friday night.

Judge Ray Corns kept the audience smiling with his tall stories.

COMING UP