I.B.M RING #250 FT. COLLINS, CO Vol. 20, Number 5 May 1999MENTAL MAGIC
This May's meeting turns to the subject of Mental Magic. As per our usual approach to meeting themes, the subject is broad and open. Anything you can think of that can be presented as mental magic; book tests, tricks with ESP cards, simple prediction tricks, anything with a mental hook will be welcomed at this meeting. "The Great Loudini" will lead a teach in discussion of the "One Ahead" principle. So, come on down to the regular meeting place (3842 S. Mason St.) at this month's regular meeting time (Thursday, May 20 at 7:30 pm) and climb into somebody's head.NEWS CLIPS
Event Seeks Performers. A Taste of Ft. Collins needs a variety of street performers for its annual outdoor festival June 12 at Colorado State University. Jugglers, musicians, artists, novelty acts, magicians and more are all encouraged to participate. Interested parties should contact Team Player
Productions, 1310 S. Sherman St., Denver, 80210. Deadline for entry is May 15. (Sorry for the short notice).The Casper Magic Company has opened at 1502 E. 2nd St., Casper, WY (well, you might be driving through Wyoming someday, you never know!). This new magic shop offers amateur and professional magic props as well as a variety of classic and unique novelty items. For more information, call Lisa Anthony at (307) 234-1998.
At the last planning meeting a drawing was held from the names of those who were kind enough to return their survey forms to Bob Blea. The name of Jack Shirey was drawn and Jack was immediately called with the good news that his club dues for the year 2000 would be free. See, there are perks for being involved with club functions. By the way, Bob got back some interesting information on the surveys. Feel free to contact him if you're curious.
Upcoming EventsWednesday, June 2nd, is the date for the next planning mtg. We now meet at the Colorado Sate Office Bldg., 3842 S. Mason St. at 6:00 pm. As always, any and all members are welcome to join us for discussion of upcoming club events. We often end up (at CooperSmith's ?) actually discussing magic after the planning of the next meeting or two (Go figure! Put a bunch of magicians together in a room and what do you suppose they'll talk about?). So think about stopping in sometime and save us from ourselves. The June meeting date is on Thursday, June 17th (7:30 pm). For this meeting Danny Archer will be presenting his lecture to the club. Danny does some good stuff and presents a nice lecture! You'll definitely want to mark your calendar for this one.
On June 18th & 19th a Cancer Benefit will be held at the Rocky Mt. High School Track. Some of the members of the Ft. Collins PrestoDigitators will be performing magic for this benefit. Call Tim Pendergast or Lew Wymisner for details.
The annual "President's Picnic" is scheduled for Saturday, July 10th at 1:00 pm at the Pendergast Presidential Residence. Details to follow. Thursday, August 19th, 7:30 pm will be the regular meeting. Subject will be a Creativity Workshop. Details will be forthcoming. Immediately preceding this meeting, at 6:30 pm, we will have the next "Quarterly State of the Club meeting" (we thought this sounded neater than "semi-annual open business meeting". What d'ya think?). Food will be provided for those attending the early meeting, but I'm not sure what kind just yet. There was some bickering over pizza or subs or something...
MITR '99By now you should have received your Magic in the Rockies '99 registration info packet in the mail. If you have not, and would like one, please contact Tim Pendergast at 1032 Boltz Dr., Ft. Collins, CO., 80525 ( phone & email info listed at the end of this newsletter) and he'll be happy to send you and your friends an info packet. Convention information is also regularly updated on the PrestoDigitators web page (see end of newsletter ). As you can see in the convention packet we have an outstanding line up of headliners this year. You are bound to have a lot of fun at this year's MITR. But there's something else I'd like to talk to you about.
The Presto-Digitators, Magic in the Rockies present a public magic show at the Ft. Collins Lincoln Center on Saturday evening of the convention (September 11, this year) which features top-notch magicians from around the world (most of our talented line up of headliners). This show has become a centerpiece of MITR and has been consistently well attended. Tickets to this show are included with each registration and we hope you will enjoy this show along with the general public. Although tickets to the public show are reasonably priced, not everyone can afford to attend.
During the past three years, with local sponsorship, we set aside a block of seats before tickets go on sale to the general public which we distribute to an agency called CRISP (Creative Recreation in Special Populations). CRISP works with agencies such as; the Boys and Girls Club of Larimer County, Partners, Foothills Gateway, Crossroads Safehouse, Turning Point, among others, to give tickets to people in the special populations who are helped through these agencies.
Obtaining sponsors for the MITR Public show has, in the past, been largely due to the strenuous efforts of 2 or 3 of our members. This year, with your help, we'd like to spread that burden around a bit. If you, your business or a business you know, would be interested in sponsoring this public show
please contact any of the PrestoDigitators officers (see IBM Ring 250 information at the end of this newsletter) or Lew Wymisner, (970)484-7014, for more information.
While any amount of contribution is accepted (and appreciated), twenty dollars or more brings one to the sponsorship level. As a sponsor of the Magic in the Rockies public show, the sponsor's name and a thank you will appear in the printed program which gets distributed to everyone who
attends the show. Contributions are also tax deductible since the Presto-Digitators is a non profit organization 501 (c) (3). The Presto-Digitators, a local magic club with membership from Colorado, Wyoming and points beyond, has been in Ft. Collins since 1979. Our club solicits sponsorships, in-person, from local merchants who we know and do business with. We do no telemarketing. Thanks for your help. (BTW - Tickets go on sale to the general public at the Lincoln Center Box Office, (970)221-6730, on August 12.)April 1999 Ring Report
The April meeting of the Ft. Collins Presto-Digitators took place on April 15- tax day. Having written checks to our friendly government, the attendees chomped at the bit to see a bit of magic with money. April is our annual Money Magic Contest. Unfortunately, most of the tricks would come
too late to change any withholdings, but they were fun all the same.The meeting opened with business discussion which rapidly turned to the upcoming 1999 Magic in the Rockies convention. Performers confirmed to attend the convention are: Tommy Wonder, Max Maven, Vito Lupo, Simon Aronson, Howard Hale, Eric Mead, Doc Eason, and Roei Zaltsman.
This year's convention, the sixth annual "Magic in the Rockies," will be held September 10, 11, and 12 in Ft. Collins, CO. More information about the convention can be viewed at the Presto-Digitator's web site: http://www.byrini.com/presto. Members are encouraged to contact Tim
Pendergast to volunteer for various assignments that we could really use help with.Business concluded, contestants began searching their pockets for extra money with which to bribe the judges. Judges Cody Landstrom and Tim McCulhey graciously volunteered for the always-difficult judging decisions. As always, past winners were ineligible to compete.
Entering the competition were Vincent Knight, Byron Ferguson, Jerome Mason, and a surprise contestant- TONI Ferguson. Toni, Byron's wife, is a non-magician who originally attended the evening's competition out of support for Byron. After a minor conspiracy with a few past winners,
however, she decided to try her sleight-of-hand in a competitive environment.Byron Ferguson led off the Money Magic contest. Donning a deerstalker cap, pipe, and trench coat, Byron launched into his tale of "The Six Napoleons." Byron's 1st person rendition of Martin Lewis' Six Napoleons used cards to show how Sherlock Holmes had made money at one of his
most famous cases.Next, a recent and welcome addition to the club, Vincent Knight, showed the several ways a magician might vanish money. Weaving a tale of the I.R.S., Vincent marked a series of coins and bills. Then, progressing through showier and showier vanishes, each disappeared- some in a puff of fire.
Next up, Jerome Mason wowed with an invisible coin routine. Jerome began with completely empty hands. Flipping the invisible coin it suddenly became real. Jerome's routine, while short, made use of
some great slight of hand.After Jerome, Toni Ferguson made her competitive magic debut. Toni began by handing out freshly baked chocolate chip cookies to the judges and spectators. Originally intended as a bribe for
Byron's act, Toni callously retrieved her cookies from Byron when she decided to compete. Toni told of getting money at the bank to go shopping. (Byron hates it when she does this.) Counting the money out, the amount of bills changed from 20 to 15, then 19 and back again. Great job Toni! Even
Toni's husband had to concede she did super. Here's hoping Toni "Cookie" Ferguson tries her hand at some more magic soon.Following the competition, the judges retired to deliberate. After returning, the judges announced the results. Fourth place was awarded to Toni, Third to Jerome, Second to Vince, and First to Byron. Byron received a Susan B. Anthony dollar for his efforts. Thanking the judges, Byron named
persistence as the attribute that had contributed to his victory. Thanks to all the competitors- each was a victor for performing.Next, members shared in thoughts about a recent article in MUM on "Focus of attention", and the recent David Blaine TV special. After the meeting, some members traveled to a local pub to trade bucks for brews and continue the conversation about conjuring.
Byron Ferguson
Presidential RemarksOn April 15th the first, of hopefully many, open business meetings was held preceding the regular monthly meeting. For those who could not attend, we thought you might like to read our president's opening remarks at that meeting.
"This is a 'State of the Ring' meeting. We hope to inform you about the Ring's status now, as well as in the future. This open business meeting is a direct result of feedback from one of the members. We want you to know; we are listening to you. This is your Ring; we want all of you to feel free to come to any or all of us with any input that you feel would be beneficial to the Ring.That being said, the Ring does not function by the work of the elected officers alone. Many people donate time to make the Ring function smoothly. Later in the meeting we will be asking for your commitment to help. Please consider taking on even a small task.
One of the most often heard criticisms last year was that not enough members were performing at the Ring meetings. To that end, we have been listing the monthly theme for several months ahead in the newsletter, to give members more time to prepare. As a result, this year we have, if
anything, had to stretch to have enough time for everyone to perform.We have emphasized teach-ins at the monthly meetings, and will continue to do so based on your feedback. Geoff Thompson continues to do a stellar job booking lecturers. Although this year we have had several possible lecturers planned, some of the lecturers changed plans or canceled tours. We have one lecture in the works for June, and more on the horizon. The Dan Fleshman lecture on
March 5th was well attended.Last year's Magic in the Rockies was a success, with 207 registrants. This year promises to be the best ever. My compliments to Ed Hurtubis, Lew Wymisner, and Eric Mead for their tireless efforts in arranging dealers, headliners, grants, hotel accommodations, and a host of other things.
Lew Wymisner continues to supply us performance junkies with opportunities to show our stuff. The Presto-Digitators will again be performing at First Night Fort Collins, as well as other venues which will be covered later. If you have not performed for the ring, I strongly encourage
you to consider it.In summary, thanks to your feedback and your help, IBM Ring 250, the Fort Collins Presto-Digitators, is very healthy. I look forward to working with all of you for the remainder of the year."
TVP THOUGHTSLast month we purchased a Gateway computer. I did not realize what was available on the web until I began searching MAGIC. Here are several web pages that I have found; I hope that this information may be useful to you. If you do not have access to the Internet, you really should try to find someone or someplace (library/school) to check it out!
International Brotherhood of Magicians
Ring 2100 (electronic IBM Ring)
Society of American Magicians
Ring 250, the Presto-Digitators
Jeff McBride
All Magic Guide
GeMiNi (subscription $20/year)
Ed Hurtubis
IBM TVP Colorado/Wyoming
I.B.M. RING 250
Information
I.B.M. Ring
250 is the Presto-Digitators of Fort Collins, CO. Meetings are on the third Thursday of each month, at 7:30 p.m. in the Colorado State Office Building, at 3842 South Mason St., Ft Collins, CO. 80525President: Tim Pendergast (970) 225-0708
Presto-Digitators website: http://www.byrini.com/presto/