MAY 2013
Ring #320 The Blue Ridge Magicians
President Wes Iseli
Vice President Eddie Tobey “Tobini”
Treasurer David Clauss
Sgt. at Arms Jim Champion
Secretary Dennis Phillips
Breaking News
November 19th is the Peter Pitchford Lecture.
Here are the themes for the rest of the year.
Remember these are only suggested themes
June – Magic with a story
July – Gimmicks & Gaffs
August – Comedy magic
September – Holiday themed magic
October – Swap Meet
November – First trick / favorite trick….. or both
December – Christmas Dinner & Show
Ring Report
The theme for the April Ring meeting was Money Magic, Wallets, & more We had 11 members in attendance and 5 signed up to perform. We also had 1 guest ,David Feng, a UVA student who is taking a break from school and diving head first into magic. We welcome back, Pastor Vic Bright as an active member.
Immediate past Ring President, Eddie Toby, “Tobini”, did an excellent pre-meeting teach-in on Dan Harlan’s paper tearing trick, Starcle . It is a clever napkin paper-tear where a circle is torn in the middle of a napkin but the torn part becomes a star. Tobini also went above and beyond and taught how to make bead dogs and how to fold paper roses.
The brief business meeting featured giving Eddy Tobey an award for his three years of service as President of the Ring. We are looking for a Youth Coordinator for the Ring to schedule our young magician’s lessons and activities.
The show was on and President Wes Iseli emceed. First up was Richard Gimbert with a clever patter to the classic $1.35 coin trick. Two coins mysteriously disappear. Brian Bence did a copier wallet and an effect called “Meltdown” when a card image is transferred from one card to another. He then followed up with effects using the BKM wallet and the Bendix Bombshell wallet.
Wes, as part of his emcee duties did a Fire wallet, a two coin trick and a one dollar to two dollar exchange. He also did a routine with the Tom Mullica Wallet and an effect with a Himber wallet where he apparently made a mistake with a card trick and it ended up being correct.
Last up was Dennis Phillips who had some classic coin props. He showed the Abbotts Coin wand and Crystal Coin Ladder, an Abbotts Coin Pail and an effect by Tony Griffiths that predicts which coin would be left after a series of moves. He ended with the 6 Bill repeat.
Dennis Phillips
Dennis Deliberations…. Editorial and Comment
By Dennis Phillips
May 2013
“The psychic business is a multi-billion-dollar industry today, in what can only be called, The Golden Age of the Con“. — Mentalist and Psychic Investigator Mark Edward.
So the billion dollar psychic industry is fraudulent? Sounds pretty close to every industry gone big: could be military, tech, diamonds, government, academia, religion, education, insurance, finance… Greed, fraud, and deceit are rampant and infectious.
Maybe I am just on an ethics kick when it come to magicians, but I am in the company of Houdini, Randi, Himber and others.
Since I do a fair amount of psychic and mental magic-no need to lug the big stuff for that- I still get people who refuse to accept it as entertainment. They insist in believing is special mystical powers. That just bothers me.
I have mentioned several times here about knowing “Dr.” David Hoy. He had been a Baptist Fundamentalist Evangelist and gave it all up to become a stage psychic. I knew David during his ministry years because he used to do Gospel magic in his sermons. Following his rejection of the pulpit, he was a smash hit on the Night Club Circuit and the Playboy Clubs. His book, The Bold and Subtle Miracles of Dr. Faust, gave us mentalism classics and techniques such as “The Tossed out deck” and “Hurling the headlines”.
There seems something eerie and accurate about his stage name! Recall in classic literature the Faust legend: Faust ,in the classic German legend, is a highly successful scholar but one who was dissatisfied with his life who therefore makes a pact with the Devil, exchanging his soul for unlimited knowledge and worldly pleasures. The Faust legend has been the basis for many artistic works. Faust and the term “Faustian” imply a situation in which an ambitious person surrenders moral integrity in order to achieve power and success.
That was Hoy! He gave up his Christian faith and Baptist morals for fame. Hoy, in his later years did an enormously successful call in radio segment. When I was on WBT Radio in Charlotte, we carried his show as a feature during our mid-day program. When I was filling in on the radio, I did the two-way bits with him. He would take callers and do cold readings and then give his address if anyone wanted advice on special personal issues. I once asked him off the air what led to him giving up his Christian ministry and becoming a Psychic. He said, “Someday. I will tell you the whole story” That day never came. Hoy, who was massively obese, died of a heart attack , in 1981, long before his time. His story would make a great movie.
Still within me is an anger over the evil that gripped him and took him to an early death.
I know that any mentalist can enhance his revenue with stock market and love advice. It just galls me to know anyone would do that.
I am all for baffling and mind-numbing magic. I just never want anyone to think that it is “real”. My students in high classes often ask me, “Is that David Blaine guy, for real?”
As P.T, Barnum is reported to have said, “There is a sucker born every minute”.
ETECTING FRAUDULENT PSYCHICS
1) SHOW ME a psychic who isn’t using his or her alleged paranormal talents to improve the financial health of others, and I’ll show you a fraud.
2) SHOW ME a psychic who isn’t on the payroll of some police force or detective agency and being paid BIG BUCKS for their services, and I’ll show you a fraud.
3) SHOW ME a psychic who isn’t making incredible breakthroughs in cures for all the world’s major diseases (by divining all such future cures) and I’ll show you a fraud.
4) SHOW ME a psychic who isn’t foreseeing all the major natural and man-made disasters of the world, and thereby saving countless millions of lives, and I’ll show you a fraud.
5) SHOW ME a psychic who doesn’t have a stock portfolio that would put Warren Buffett’s to shame, and I’ll show you a fraud.
6) SHOW ME a psychic who makes his or her living almost exclusively from doing readings, preying on the bereaved, selling books, hawking their nonsense on websites, and appearing regularly on Coast to Coast AM and other such squalid media outlets, and I’ll show you a fraud.
7) SHOW ME a psychic who has not been snapped up by the CIA or some other country’s information agency, and I’ll show you a fraud.
8) SHOW ME a psychic who bluffs his or her way through life in order to avoid plain honest work, and I’ll show you a fraud.
9) SHOW ME a psychic who studiously avoids the many large cash-awards that are available to anyone who can scientifically validate their paranormal abilities, and I’ll show you a fraud.
10) SHOW ME a psychic who resorts to cold reading, lame parlor tricks, psychological game-playing, sleazy showmanship, and a heartless praying on the gullibly religious and superstitious, and I’ll show you a fraud
Dennis
