Equinox for June 2005

Welcome to the Equinox for June 2005! This is the newsletter for Ring 9 of the International Brotherhood of Magicians, and we are re-launching it with a goal of having one out per month. It'll only be worth reading if we get submissions from Ring 9 members, though, so if you have anything worth writing about please send it to evan@evan.org!

I am a list maker. I was born into a family of list makers. When I leave the house to go get gas, groceries, and a Frozen Coke^®, I make a list, so that I don’t forget what I left the house to do. For me there is a certain sense of accomplishment when I can mark off the items from a list of things to do. I also learn using lists. I earned my high school, college and graduate degrees largely by making, memorizing, and reproducing lists of stuff I learned.

I also use lists to explain things to others, which is why whenever I do a lecture, a speech or a sermon, I have bullet points for my notes. For instance, since they were old enough to ask about doing things with their friends, my kids have known that they need not ask unless they could answer the five questions on my “list of things Dad must know before I can do something with my friends.” (If you are a parent and you want to know, I’ll list the five things – otherwise, I’ll assume most don’t want to know and I’ll save a few keystrokes.)

2) I make lists so I know what I have done (and know that I have done something worthwhile).

Yes, this is going somewhere. I have said, for the five years that I have been a part of this club, that this is a great magic club. There are a lot of reasons I believe this. Let me list a few of them here.

1) You are a helpful bunch. The e-mails I have received from you (on the Yahoo forum and privately) concerning my need for camp T-shirt ideas is a prime example. You guys (and gals) are great. I have seen you help people with travel advice, routining ideas, marketing hints, and more. Keep up the good work!

2) You are a kind group. Paul Sponaugle, David Smith, Victoria Skye and others have felt your concern and care when they have faced family health crises. Your compassion goes beyond what would be expected of a club membership.

3) You want this club and our common cause to succeed. Your support of the club, the officers, and our events are so encouraging. It is always great to see so many people at our meetings! And to see others come who want to join is a guarantee that we will continue to be a strong club.

4) The quality of magic I see at the meetings (and before and after the meetings!) is absolutely outstanding and it is getting better! The April meeting’s theme of Grab Bag Magic was a prime example of the creativity and skill of our members.

5) Our love for magic brings magicians who lecture all over the world, perform at famous venues, and get honored beyond Atlanta in the worldwide magic community together with magicians who are beginners, full time pros, part time pros and very skilled hobbyists. There really does not seem to be a lot of the elitism that I see in other clubs or organizations. Let’s keep it that way!

Well, that’s enough for now. I can mark “~~Write a column for the Equinox”~~ off my list and get back to some of the other things I have to do. If I could only remember where I put the list….

I have no job! Isn’t that the curse of being Vice-President? <grin> Tommy is doing a wonderful job as president and Evan continues to wrangle the best out of our club membership and treasury... what can I do but support both of them where they need and wish it.

This has been an exciting year as I believe the club is getting more and more active. There have been several new ideas implemented in the club this year! It’s a great time to be a member of the Georgia Magic Club!

We have an incredible resource in the Georgia Magic Club. You should know how our club is viewed across the nation! I recently received this e-mail from a member who has moved on to another location. The message said, “...I have to say that in all my travels no-one has compared to my start with Ring 9. I am asked about magic in Atlanta and what it was like to be in the ring and I have to admit that the talent that I have seen there has not been met anywhere else. ... One day I hope to be back in Atlanta again to visit with everyone that helped in getting my career started in Magic and the other avenues that led from it. I wish I still had the mentors that I had in Atlanta because I would be much better in the end.”

That’s quite an honor! Take advantage of the club. Become more active! You will only be made better for the effort.

On another note, this marks the NEW beginning of the E-Equinox! It’s been a few months coming, but I am so excited that Evan has agreed to take over the mantle of the Georgia Magic Club Newsletter. Go Evan!

Much like David Oglesby and Dan Garrett before him, though, the Equinox exists as a voice for YOU, the member, to let us know what’s on your mind. Guest editorials and articles are always welcome!

I'm not too good at writing columns, but I had the pleasure of seeing Ricky Jay perform in Washington, DC last week doing his show "Ricky Jay and his 52 assistants". Ricky Jay has done this show for years now, on and off. It was written by David Mamet. It was very interesting to me as it had a totally different format than most magic shows - possibly to be expected as it was written by a professional writer who wasn't a magician. The first half of the show consists mostly of Ricky Jay sitting at a table with two people on either side as he did a series of card tricks that I found quite amazing - and I've seen a lot of card tricks. It was interspersed with small stories and anecdotes about individuals from the past - ranging from the 1700's up to Dai Vernon. If you ever have an opportunity to see this man I cannot recommend it highly enough.

I also wanted to thank everyone who gave me columns or advice on this issue. I really do appreciate it. To everyone who's seeing it - I'd still appreciate any advice or columns you care to contribute!

We've had two lecturer's lately - Tim Sonefelt and Fred Becker. Both lectures were pretty good. I have started using a close-up routine of Tim Sonefelt's regularly now, and last Saturday tried another of his routines in my show that went pretty well. He also gave a tip that has altered one of my routines for the better. All that combined makes his lecture one of the best I've attended in a while. Fred Becker was also quite good, he had some great stories and routines and I may try a few of them in my restaurant act - I have to finish studying his lecture notes first I think.

Joe M. Turner and Ken Scott are back from a successful tour of the Magic Castle. They performed (very successfully!) and seem to have been meeting a lot of people.

Just returned from performing at the Castle for my third time. Joe Turner was booked for his first time in the close-up room and I was in the Parlor room.

Performing there is indeed a thrill for me. The Castle has so much history in there. As I was getting ready for my shows in the Parlor room, which was Dai Vernon's favorite room, I sat there just thinking about all the memories that come through the Magic Castle.

You might be surprised to know that most of the people who come there are not magicians and most are coming for the first time. The Castle has a lot of private parties held there. Now, you will still see the magicians performing in the corners of the Castle, but all in all it is non magicians who are there on any given night.

The entertainers have dressing rooms and a green room where we can get sodas and food during the night. We can also get a dinner from the restaurant each night we perform.

The Magic Castle is a great place to perform. During the week a performer might perform up to 28 times in a week. If you have never experienced the Magic Castle you must make it a point to go there. Truly a thrill for me last week was to look up in my show and see Carl Ballantine watching my show. You never know who is going to show up.

Find out more about the Magic Castle at www.magiccastle.com.

Castle Virgin
Joe M. Turner

Working at the Magic Castle was something that I had set as a career goal for myself over a year ago – by the end of 2005, I wanted to have a contract (even if the performance week was in 2006). I had been talking with Jim Patton, Earl Nelson, and others in an attempt to get connected to Ron Wilson, the entertainment director. I eventually got introduced to him and had been working with him off and on for months trying to get booked, but our conversations always seemed to fizzle out as his attention was drawn elsewhere.

Enter Ken Scott. Ken had worked a brunch and a full week at the Castle and the opportunity presented itself for him to suggest me as a close-up performer, which he did. Late last year, we worked out a week where we were both available and boom – I was in the door at the Magic Castle!

Having visited the Castle several times before, I was already familiar with the various bars, rooms, and performing venues. However, I had not been backstage in any of them. Stepping into the dressing area for the close-up gallery is a bit like walking into a broom closet. There’s just enough room to sit down and wait to go on. There is a small window that the host can open in order to confirm that you are ready to be introduced.

In the course of my week, I performed 26 shows. That includes 2 shows at the Friday lunch. My first show was mediocre at best. I heard my name, kicked off my music, and opened the curtain. I was already somewhat haunted by the place where I was performing – knowing who had performed at the Castle, seeing the portraits of Vernon, Miller and Ose looking down at me… Okay, I was nervous. I looked into the crowd and saw that my very first audience at the Castle was comprised of fifteen magicians (1 female, if I recall correctly) sitting stonefaced, arms crossed, gold lapel pins shining in the light. It was a tough crowd and I puttered through my little magic act the best I could. However, every show after that was great. I got the first-time jitters out of the way and everything was really enjoyable from then on.

As Ken says, there are more laypeople in the audience than you might expect. However, I did see several magicians in my audiences. Both Troy Hooser and Ken Scott saw my show, as did Hillel (one of the stage performers – he does magic after climbing inside a weather balloon!). David Regal showed up one night and gave me a great compliment as well as a couple of helpful tips. He said, “Joe, you have a winning personality which is your strength. The people will love anything you do. Take that as a cue to relax and enjoy what you’re doing.” He also pointed out that the structure of my act included a set-up for a “free” effect that I wasn’t taking advantage of, but which I added to later shows. Paul Green saw my show at lunch on Friday and was a big help and encouragement to me, too.

In addition to hanging out with Ken and Troy, another real highlight of the week was lunch with Carl Ballantine and Robert Baxt on Tuesday. Mr. Ballantine came to see the act on Sunday night and was in my first audience of the evening. I was flattered that he made the effort to come out. Ron Wilson came to my second show that night and offered some pointers to improve the act… I doubt he would have done that if he didn’t expect to have me back. Finally, Max Maven came to my last show of the week. Afterwards he said, “Joe, that was strong, commercial material. I enjoy reading your writing in Genii but it’s great to see you back it up with live performance.”

I’ve reread this piece and it sounds pretty doggone self-serving. What I’m really trying to communicate is that the Castle is an amazing crucible of magic where you can learn and test and change and adjust what you are doing as you go, based on the advice of competent peers and on the reaction of real audiences. For me, it was an intense week-long course in learning how to take my ability to entertain with magic up a notch. The performer I was on Sunday night was not the same guy who had walked in on Monday. There were plenty of helpful people that I could go to for critiques and to bounce ideas off of.

Sadly, the staff is in turmoil right now – the new management of the food & beverage side of things is making a lot of changes and have let a lot of long-time Castle folks go. This is disappointing, but I will say that all the new people I met seemed earnest in their desire to learn about the Castle and do a good job. I disagree with some of the decisions the new managers are making, but it’s not the fault of the new folks.

This is far too long already – I’ll wrap it up here by saying that I hope some of ya’ll will come out next year and see me in my 2^nd week at the Magic Castle!

Dan Garrett has returned from a successful lecture tour. I asked him for some words on his tour:

There are two new magic books coming out soon that look very interesting. The Magician and the Cardsharp (click the book title to get the amazon page to buy the book) is about Dai Vernon searching for a person that has been rumored to be able to deal from the center of the deck. This is a true story and promises to be a good book.

The Glorious Deception by Jim Steinmeyer (who also wrote Hiding the Elephant, which was a great overview of the last hundred years of magic history) is a biography of Chung Ling Soo and should be out very soon.

The first contest for the J.C. Doty Award for Excellence in Stage Magic will take place during our June Meeting. See http://www.gamagicclub.com for details. In brief, notify Tommy Johns if you want to compete at least five days before the contest, keep it clean, and keep it under eight minutes.

Our next meeting is June 20th at StarTime. Table magic starts at 6:30. There will be a mini-lecture at 7:00, and the meeting starts at 7:30. The theme this month will be "Sticky Business". See http://www.gamagicclub.com/ for directions and more details.