July 2010

Breaking News – World class magician, James Munton from Dallas has been booked to lecture for us on 6th September – actually I say from Dallas – I think he was originally born in the UK, and only moved to the States in 1997 – so he can’t be all bad…

There’s a lot to get through in this newsletter so I don’t want get carried away – only to say that I am always looking for articles from IMS members, so why not tell us all about your currently favourite effect and why? It would be great if there were more (some) member articles…

All the best

Simon

Tel: 01359 270876, Email: magic@bananafish.org.uk

3 Kingshall Street, Rougham, Bury St Edmunds IP30 9LH

President’s Prattle By Bill Burch

I thought it might be a good idea to write a piece each month for the newsletter, but never quite got round to it. If you are reading this then I made the deadline.

I don't want to start with a moan, but....

Your Society Needs You!

Over the last few meetings numbers attending each meeting have been low.

I know there are lots of reasons for this, holidays, ill health, football, the other half moaning that you spend more time with “magic” than you do with her, (or is that last one just me?).

The committee spends a lot of time working on a varied and fun program for you. Over the last few meetings we’ve had a performance night,

(Mentalism), two competitions, (Children’s and Stage) and a great lecture. I would have thought something for everybody.

It was noted that attendance has dropped since the AGM and now I’m getting paranoid.

If we are doing something you don’t like let one of the committee know, if you don’t tell us we won’t know. Phone us, email us, corner one of us at a meeting, or if you’re a mentalist use your favourite method.

The next meeting on the 2nd August is the three way workshop.

This year we have master classes on card forces, rope routines, and balloon modelling from three of our own experts, so grab a pack of cards, come along, have fun and maybe even learn something.

Now comes the embarrassing bit, unfortunately I will be back on the boats and will miss the next couple of meetings.

Whilst sailing, between shows, I spend time catching up on old Abras. So I will end with a couple of interesting bits, the first is from volume 3, dated 28th June 1947 Goodliffe (the editor and founder of “The Worlds Only Magical Weekly”) writes

“We hear that yet another Magical Society is proposed, this time in the Ipswich district. S.P.Bowman….would be interested to hear from practitioners in the area.”

The next mention is two years later in a Society Report sent in by Yelnats dated 30th July 1949

“The Gippeswyk Magical Brotherhood. In the exceptionally successful meetings since our inception we have had talks and demonstrations from the following :-Norman Cooper, Bernard Weller, Thutello, Samek, S.P.Bowman, Leo Samson, Ronaldo and C.Woods. Ronald Bishop (a showman of whom more will be heard) has kept us going with little original touches of impromptu magic. Concert Party Magic was dealt with by Secretary F.Stewart, who has unfortunately had a spell in hospital but is now back amongst us.”

See you soon

Bill

New Member – Rob Butcher

Welcome to our newest member Rob Butcher, primarily a children’s entertainer who auditioned for us last month. Congratulations Rob.

Michael J. Fitch

As well as his show in Sudbury last month, Michael has been on TV all last week featuring in “Good Morning’s” £52,000 giveaway promotion.

Dr. Todd Landman

Dr. Todd and his team have now announced the line up for the Tabula Mentis VIII session that will take place on Saturday Nov. 20th 2010.

It looks like being another very special event, and TM remains the only dedicated Mentalism convention in the UK.

This year it will feature lectures by Lenart Green and James Brown, a workshop on Commercial Readings by Roni Shachnaey & Paul Voodini, A discussion on Making Mentalism Meaningful by our very own Dr Todd Landman, and “Taking Mentalism to the Stage” a session with Steve Drury & Doug Segal.

Please contact Dr. Todd for more details.

Monday June 21st. COMPETITION (Stage). The Hickson Cup

Reviewed by John Rolls

Ray Crosbie

Ray had a nice Chinese theme throughout and the set up reminded me of the classic Paul Daniels/Ali Bongo routines of the 70’s & early 80’s (where’s the Chinese outfit Ray? You’d look great with a long droopy moustache!!!) His Chinese Sticks routine is made even better with the poem he reads out in time to the magic. Ray must have a tremendous memory. Ray gives us some great ad-libs and if a trick doesn’t go to plan, he uses his comedy genius to still entertain us. Ray had us in fits, what a star, he tore through his set at great gusto and I think if he wasn’t being timed he could have easily done another half hour for us.

David J Marks

Nice suit sir! David gave us a great show as always. Nice sponge and silk moves to start and then the balloon’ swallow’ was executed brilliantly. What was great was the look of terror on the helper from the audience – Margaret, I don’t think she knew what to expect, maybe David’s voice creeped her out? David went on to do one of the best torn & restore routines I’ve seen in ages, I particularly liked the use of the black insulation tape, it made the ‘restore’ effect even better. His salt routine finale was expertly timed. I still think however, the best line of the night was when David shouted:- “wot yoo doin, Mum?!”

Richard Whymark

I will never listen to the village people again without thinking of dancing ducks! Richard gave us a hilarious routine, a lovely card swap to start and moved nicely into the levitating & dancing ducks. He had us in stitches and he timed the gaffs to the music superbly. It was simplicity done to perfection.

Bill Burch

What a master at work! He came out with all his cards and wands and props falling out of his sleeves and his pockets to really make us smile, although I do worry that you’ll slip on a wand one day! Check that insurance policy Bill! It was wonderful comedy magic which takes an enormous amount of confidence and professionalism to perform. There was an element of Tommy Cooper in the work although to compare him to the said Mr Cooper would be unfair as Bill has his own original (almost fed-up) style. It works a treat and it is very entertaining and he proved to be a worthy winner on the night. Excellent stuff Bill.

And the Winner was…

Before I announce that I would like to thank Matt Darkins for stepping in at the last minute and compering the show for us. Well done Matt you did a great job.

So the winner of the Hickson Cup 2010 is Bill Burch and the winner of the Vera Smith Trophy 2010 (Runner up) is Richard Whymark. Well done to both of you.

Friday July 1st Michael J. Fitch at the Quay, Sudbury

Reviewed by Simon Shaw

My wife Frankie and I were privileged to be present at Michael’s latest one man show. The Quay Theatre, Sudbury is a beautiful venue that has a very close and intimate atmosphere.

The show was split in two halves. In the first half the focus was Magic, and in the second Mentalism.

In short it was a truly tremendous night and very entertaining. I doubt Michael will ever cease to amaze me with the amount of effort he puts in to everything he does. He is an inspiration for us all and I probably learn more from watching him perform, than at any lecture.

One of the things that impresses me most with him is his true professionalism. This is something that many of us at the Ipswich Magical Society could benefit from. The show wasn’t without its potential hiccoughs, but it is Michael’s ability to turn these moments from being what could be a disaster in to plus points that sets him out from the crowd.

I don’t usually like to highlight problems in a performance but feel that because it was all such a master class in handling an audience, it wouldn’t hurt to be mentioned.

To start with when the show first opened, there were some sound and DVD issues that were obviously not going according to plan. Michael was quick to make an announcement, come on stage and apologise, take full responsibility for the mistake (not blaming his mum) and eventually to start the show again. When it all worked the second time he came on to rapturous applause. My wife, Frankie insists that this was all part of the act, but it wasn’t. With his quick thinking and natural charisma what could have been a major set back, actually became a plus point.

The second thing that may have been an issue was when he had a young couple up on stage to be the eyes of the audience for some close up magic. Now as it happened the whole audience could see perfectly well due to the overhead camera and back screen, but it is always good to have an audience on stage when Michael performs, if not just for those incredible “What the…” reactions.

As you could expect the reactions were great. Unfortunately however, Michael soon became aware that the young man on stage wasn’t feeling so good and looked as if he was about to throw up. Without

making the guy feel at all embarrassed, Michael pointed out the quickest route to a bathroom (which was backstage) and when he was gone, simply carried on entertaining the girl. When the guy came back on stage (to a big round of applause), Michael ensured he was ok and continued where he had left off.

I wonder how many of us would have reacted as well as Michael did? I am not even sure what I would have done in that situation and probably would have ended up with the guy puking on me, but Michael never seemed phased at all. When he is on stage and he has spectators helping he sees himself as a host, and acts accordingly.

The third potential disaster was in the second half and involved one of those spectators we all dread. The effect called for Michael to be blindfolded (always a risky thing), and for the spectator to follow simple instructions, such as put the envelope in your left outside jacket pocket, put the next one in your right inside jacket pocket etc. Michael was very clear before the start of the effect to ensure the spectator knew his left from right and even during the effect he made sure he was indicating which was left and which was right, and yet the spectator still messed up. Worse than this though it became apparent that the spectator was doing it deliberately as he was indicating with his finger to his lips for the audience to be quiet as he placed each envelope in the wrong pocket.

Once again though Michael quickly turned this uncomfortable situation into a plus, simply by asking the audience which pocket had actually been used. By this time the audience were loving everything he did, and so were more than happy to help him succeed in what they knew had worked regardless of what the spectator tried to do.

Many would have got upset with the spectator, but even talking to Michael afterwards he treated him with respect, and gave him the benefit of the doubt in that it could have been a genuine mistake. In fact Michael’s only focus was to discuss different things he can do to ensure it doesn’t happen again.

Well those were the potential disasters, everything else went smoothly, and from the point of view of the audience, every effect was powerful. I even overheard one woman walking out saying how that was the best £16 she had ever spent.

I am not going to single out any one effect as it wouldn’t do the evening justice. This was after all a show and not merely a series of tricks. If you get the opportunity to see Michael perform at an event like this I would thoroughly recommend it. I am speaking not just as a magician, but as a spectator too.

A master class of showmanship and a truly magical evening.

Monday July 5th Mentalism Night

Reviewed by Mick Underwood

The beginning of the summer holiday season resulted in a relatively small number of members attending the mentalislm evening. The 4 performers were introduced by Matt Darkin who seemed to be slightly influenced by Jack Dee by telling jokes off his i-phone, but as we realised, probably all came out of his Christmas crackers.

Simon Shaw was first on and used a facial expression technique to establish truth and lies, and demonstrated this by a 100% correct display of identifying a coin in the hand . Simon was obviously feeling flush this night as he offered a £50 reward if he failed to guess 5 correct blanks in a game of Russian Roulette. He flashed the cash during the performance but somehow later at the pub it had mysteriously disappeared!

Giles Saunders showed how to do a four queen card trick after saying that he didn't do mentalism. A slight distraction of a wood working lesson on how he constructed his rabbit table combined with more card and number predictions had us all in fits of laughter. Well done Giles.

Ollie brought to us slick, quick card manipulation and combined dice and symbol card predictions giving a very professional presentation, a goal for us all to work towards.

Michael J. Fitch was last on, and he always gives us a good show using his quick wit, and this time introduced his polygraph machine which indicated lying by buzzing. Michael preceded to make us all laugh by trying to disguise his lies as he went through his performance causing the machine to work overtime

Michael brought the evening to a close by predicting the owners of 5 sketches drawn by members of the audience.

Although mentalism is not my first choice it was a very entertaining evening and a pity that more members were not able to attend.

Thursday July 8th Children’s Entertainer of the Year Competition

Reviewed by Simon Shaw

This year’s competition took place at the Birchwood Primary School in Martlesham Heath. Thank you to Mick Underwood for the organisation on behalf of the society and to Paul Firman for helping out from the schools perspective, but most of all thank you to Keith Norman who yet again played the part of being MC. I still think his 5 minutes with an umbrella is one of the best kid’s routines I have ever seen.

I have been attending this competition since 2003, and have to say the standard seemed even higher than we have seen before. We have some incredibly talented performers who seem to go from strength to strength every year.

Giles (Giles Saunders)

Giles concentrated this time on his own Horse Race routine which in my mind is great children’s entertainment. Wearing a rather amusing horse and jockey costume added to the entertainment value of the whole act.

Although there is magic in the routine, it mostly concentrated on being fun for the kids and fun is exactly what it was. The kids love to help, so with four up on stage, three being riders and jockey and one score keeper that worked very well and with the remaining children all cheering for one team or the other it was a very noisy (but exciting) act.

Steff and Nonsense (Steff Jackson)

This year Steff was one of the dark horses of the evening. I thought she was absolutely amazing. Although a little nervous at the start (and who wouldn’t be), she quickly developed a rapport with the kids and had them eating out of her hand. Nonsense it turns out was a very cheeky little monkey who much to the amusement of the kids (and embarrassingly enough, very amusing to me too) was constantly trying to steal a banana. Watching the kids react to this and everything else she did was quite simply a joy.

Steff hasn’t been performing children’s magic as long as some of the others, but she is a natural at it. She not only has a very easy going way but also has the ability to calm them down when needed. I certainly would not have been surprised if Steff had won a prize on the night.

David J. Marks (David Johnson)

Immaculately dressed in a black suit, but still able to “get down” and talk “Gangsta” with the kids, David put on yet another exceptional act. Plucking a bubble from the air was one of the highlights of the whole evening and got an audible gasp from the children and parents alike, but when the goldfish appeared at the end you knew that David was going to be a serious contender.

The whole act was very professional with his spider backdrop, and bubble machine and David was a worthy winner.

Richard Whymark (Richard Whymark)

Richard’s act is always a joy, whether he performs to kids or adults and this evening was no exception – even having seen much of the act recently in the Hickson Cup it was great to see again and the tremendous reactions he always seems to get.

You just have to love the ducks routine, even with one kid sitting slightly too far too one side who kept edging over so he could get a better view of what was happening behind the cloth so he could report on it to the rest of the room. Don’t you just love kids! Of course watching the way Richard handled that was very impressive. I may well have used a hammer, but that is probably why I don’t do kids shows…

For me though – a good kid’s show is all about the amount of laughter – and judging by the image below, Richard got it spot on.

Pedro the Pirate (John Rolls)

As always a themed set always goes down very well with the kids. They love their pirates even more so since the Pirates of the Caribbean but I think it’s time for Captain Jack Sparrow to move over and make way for Pedro the Pirate.

The Results

The winner of the David and Doreen Children’s Entertainer of the Year competition was David J. Marks, and the winner of the Ally Masques was Pedro the Pirate. I have to say though that there really were only a few points in it and any of them could have won.

So a big congratulations to everyone that took part and everyone that came along to help and support.

Tuesday July 13th Quiz Night

The committee were joined by Ally and Roy Riley to represent the Ipswich Magical Society at this year’s competition held at Cambridge. It is a big shame we don’t attract more members along to these nights as they are always a good laugh and as always Alan Maskell from the Pentacle Club put in an awful lot of work creating it.

It was a close one this year, but I am sad to divulge that once again Cambridge keep the coveted trophy as they managed to beat us yet again.

Congratulations to the Pentacle Club and a big thank you from all that went for making us feel so welcome.

Monday July 19th John Kimmons

Although we have had this meeting now (my original intention was to get the newsletter out before last weekend) I will review it in the next issue. However I will say that John Kimmons was a very fitting person to have at The Dennis Tubb memorial lecture.

I think everyone who went will agree it was a great night. Especially Daren Morgan and Matt Darkins.

If you get a chance have a look at this youtube link…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45mSTrTpl9Y

Monday August 2nd 3 Way Workshop.

Featuring Matt Darkins with a Rope Routine, Bradley Pearse on Balloon models, and Daren Morgan on Card Forces. So bring along a deck of a cards, a piece of rope and a lot of puff, and you will be able to join in.

Monday Aug 16th Dealer Dem. Magicians Library.

Magician’s Library, one of the few East Anglian Dealers will be entertaining us with demonstrations of their wares.

http://www.magicianslibrary.com/

Looking at there website they seem to have a nice variety of effects covering many genres so this should be an excellent night.

Monday Sep 6th LECTURE: James Munton

James Munton is visiting from America and by all accounts will be a must see lecture. He is getting some incredible feedback so this will be one not to miss. We were extremely lucky to be included in this whirlwind tour of his.

Monday Sep 20th Your President Requests…

Will you be honoured to be asked to do something by our new President, Bill Burch? Who ever he asks, this is bound to be a fun night. It always is.

Monday Oct 4th COMPETITION: The Magini Shield

Why not be pro-active on this one and contact the organiser Bill Burch. It will make such a nice change for us not to have to chase people up to enter. There is a good chance that the competition this year will be held in the Salutation.

This competition is open to all members, no matter what your experience and remember we need an audience too, so please feel free to invite friends and family along.

Bill Burch, magicbill@hotmail.co.uk, 01206 298048

Monday Oct 18th Chicken Magic

It would be really nice if everyone who comes along had a good think about this and performed some chicken related magic. I appreciate that not everyone likes to perform, and certainly no one will be forced to, but if we all did just one effect, or even stood up to tell one Chicken joke it would make the evening go with a real swing. It’s not as if you haven’t enough time to think about it. Remember the more you put into the club, the more you will get out of it.

So what is chicken magic? Well it’s anything you want it to be as long as there is some reference to chickens. Magic should be about innovation, creativity and coming up with new ideas, so whether you have a think about some of the effects you already do or come up with a completely new idea it would be great if you could do something that night.

There may even be a prize to the person who comes up with the most chicken themed effect. I would love to have a theme night like this once a year – but it will all depend on the success of this one.

Events at our neighbouring Societies

Southend Sorcerers Events (2009) o 1st Aug Club Night o 5th Sep Lecture - John Archer o 3rd Oct Close-Up Magic Competition o 22nd Oct Annual Presentation Dinner o 7th Nov Annual Props Auction o 5th Dec Christmas Fun Night Frinton Triangle Events o TBA

Pentacle Club (Cambridge) Events o July 27th Mind, Magic & Mirth with James Ward o ------------ Summer break ------------ o Sept 7th TBA o Sept 21st Jake’s Progress o Oct. 5th Work in Progress o Oct 19th My magic life, hosted by Chris Wardle. o Nov. 2nd The wonderful world of children’s magic! Hosted by JezO o Nov 16th It’s all in the mind hosted by Bruce Wright o Nov 30th Tarbell night. o Dec 7th Christmas Social The Anglian Magic Society Events (Tuesday) o 20th July Albion Magic Dealer Dem o 17th August TBA o 21st September Magic Workshop – Club Night o 19th October AGM o 16th November Harry Robson lecture o 7th December Christmas Event

The Hickson Cup. Stage Competition.

2010 Winner: Bill Burch, Runner up: Duncaine Trophy: Richard Whymark

Contact: Daren Morgan for 2011, daren.morgan@gmail.com, 01842 827431

The David and Doreen Knott Children’s Entertainer of the Year Trophy

2010 Winner: David J. Marks, Runner Up: Ally Masques: John Rolls aka Pedro the Pirate.

Contact Mick Underwood, Michael@underwood1.plus.com, 01284 787396 if you have a suggestion for a school for 2011 or wish to tae part next year.

The Magini Shield. Close up Competition.

2009 Winner: David J. Marks. Runner up: Dr. Todd Landman.

Contact: Bill Burch, magicbill@hotmail.co.uk, 01206 298048

Library As mentioned in previous newsletters, the committee is considering removing videos from the Library, to make room for new DVD’s, but want feedback from the members to see if they had any comments on this suggestion before continuing. The committee feels that most people have DVD players (or PC’s) nowadays, and in fact very few actually still even have a video recorder.

Let us know your feelings one way or another. If not – the videos will go…

East Anglian Children’s Hospice This year the society is going to raise funds for the East Anglian Children’s Hospice (EACH) Tree house appeal. We are planning an evening of magic to be held at the Salutation Pub on Thursday September 30th .

There will be no entrance fee, and quite probably free food, plus of course an evening of free entertainment. The goal will be to raise money for the Tree House appeal – and of course if we can also raise awareness of the Magic Show at the Spa as well we will do that.

There are two great prizes promised for the raffle – a trip in a hot air balloon, and a flat screen TV, so really it sounds like it is going to be an absolutely awesome night.

If you want to volunteer to help, either as a performer, or just someone to help out on the night, please contact Richard Whymark.

Richard Whymark, ichard@54kiplingway.fsnet.co.uk, 01449 770553

Next Magini Shield The committee is also thinking of holding this year’s close-up competition in the Salutation pub, in an effort to try and open it up to a wider lay audience. Possibly we will also be raising some money for EACH here again, but the main goal would be to have a great magic competition for our members and their friends and family. If anyone has any thoughts about us doing this, good or bad, please let a committee member know.

The fact that no one has mentioned anything so far – implies to me that everyone is happy for this to go ahead?

Blackpool 2011

Remember I am booking tickets for next year’s Blackpool at the end of July. It is always better when the IMS members get to sit together in the Gala shows, so makes a lot of sense to block book the tickets and to co-ordinate the journeys up there so as many people as possible get to travel together.

If you think you may be interested in a ticket, please contact me (Simon Shaw) before the end of July. I have no idea who the line up will be yet – but know that it will be another great event.

Convention 2010

The day will be opened with the award winning close-up magic of Nick Einhorn. Nick has always been one of my favourite performers and I am thrilled to bits that he will be there for the whole day.

The lectures will be by Nick Einhorn, Richard McDougal and Danny Archer from the USA. I am sure those names all speak for themselves, but believe me they all promise to be very special indeed. More details will be included with the next Newsletter.

There is one another exciting event scheduled for the day, and this will be a lecture cum talk panel called “The Serious Business of Comedy”, where Michael J. Fitch will host a session with John Archer and Graham P. Jolley, quite possibly the two biggest names in comedy mentalism in the UK (if not the world), and for my mind the only two people who have successfully been able to perform comedy mentalism and still make it believable. This will be another event premiered at the Ipswich Magical Society Convention and one I am particularly looking forward to. Knowing the amount of work Michael put into the Audience with Wayne Dobson last year, I am confident that this will be yet another landmark event at one of our conventions and I am sure there will be more than a few surprises on the day.

John Archer will be compering the show again. A show which will mainly feature the guests already mentioned, but will hopefully include the Dancers from last year who may be doing one of their Street Dancing acts this year which is of course very topical at the moment.

Finally, and I don’t know how Michael managed this, we have booked Shahid Malik to close the show. Shahid is an international performer of such immense quality that I would like to think magicians from all over will come just to see him in the show.

More details of the convention, and the different acts and events will be included in future Newsletters, but at least this will give you a taste of things to come.

So what can you do o help with the convention this year? Apart from booking early (Registration form is now on the internet, but you know where I am), we are looking for ideas of how best to promote the evening show. The flyers are being printed as we speak, so we will be also looking for volunteers for giving these out nearer the time in Ipswich and Felixstowe (and indeed neighbouring towns) – but really the committee is looking for your ideas on how best to help. Please get in touch with anyone on the committee.

If you have an article to submit, or want a “booking” page on the website or if you are a dealer and have a shop that can be visited, please contact me (Simon Shaw) on 01359 270876.

Please frequently check the website, http://www.ipswichmagicalsociety.co.uk for updates.

All the best

Simon.

Contact Details Email Phone No. Bill Burch President/Chairman/Magini Shield magicbill@hotmail.co.uk 01206 298048 Simon Shaw. Secretary magic@bananafish.org.uk 01359 270876 Daren Morgan Treasurer/Hickson Cup daren.morgan@gmail.com 01842 827431 Richard Whymark Committee Member richard@54kiplingway.fsnet.co.uk 01449 770553 Matt Darkins Committee Member mattdarkins@googlemail.com 07590 195206 Mick Underwood Committee/Children’s Competition Michael@underwood1.plus.com 01284 787396

Events 2010 Truth with Variations

Date Event Jan 4th Video Night hosted by Daren Morgan Jan 18th Your Committee Entertains

Feb 1st Lecture: Jasper Blakely Feb 15th Sale Night

Mar 1st Presidents Night with Graham Shoesmith-Dean Mar 15th An Audience with Colin Hopper Apr 5th Bank Holiday - No Meeting Apr 19th AGM May 3rd Bank Holiday. No Meeting May 17th Lecture: Andrew Normansell June 7th Mid Year Free and Easy. June 21st COMPETITION (Stage). The Hickson Cup July 5th Mentalism Night July 8th Thursday: COMPETITION. Children’s Entertainer of the year. July 13th TUESDAY. A question of Magic at the Pentacle Club July 19th LECTURE: The Denis Tubb Memorial Lecture. John Kimmons Aug 2nd 3 Way Workshop. Aug 16th Dealer Dem. Magician’s Library Sep 6th LECTURE: James Munton Sep 20th Your President Requests… Oct 4th COMPETITION: The Magini Shield Oct 18th Chicken Magic Oct 24th Sunday. Annual Convention. Nov 1st Post Convention Free and Easy Nov 15th LECTURE: Lee Smith Dec 6th All Winners Night Party! Dec 20th No Meeting due to Xmas This programme is subject to change without notice. On lecture nights visitors will be welcome, but must pay an entrance fee. If you have any ideas for future lectures or IMS events in general, then please contact Simon Shaw 01359 270876, or any other member of the committee.

The Ipswich Magical Society

www.ipswichmagicalsociety.co.uk