Next meeting: Ring 216 Walk-Around Competition

Join us on Wednesday, August 13, 2013, for the IBM Ring 216 Annual Walk-Around Magic Competition.

If you are interested in competing, please send an email to Cal Tong (calvin.tong@ring216.org). In addition to the standard division, we will also have our Masters Division if there are enough competitors. So if you have won first place in one of the competition events in previous years, then you qualify for the master's division and can sign up for this event!

Bring your friends or family with you to enjoy an evening of great magic. The more people we have, the better the magic.

Read the competition rules.

The time and place are the same as usual: Yu-Ai Kai Community Center at 7:30 p.m. sharp. See you then!

CORRECTION: Free Lecture for Members, Open Performance Night

IBM Ring 216 has a treat for our fellow magicians this upcoming meeting night.

First, a lecture from magician Bill Ragsdale about a legend in our art.

"John Scarne, More Than Magic"

There is more to legendary John Scarne’s career than the first three tricks in Stars Of Magic and six references in Greater Magic. His efforts spanned platform magic; book and magazine authorship; game design; casino operations in Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Panama; and television performances as well as creating a newsletter and specialty advertising.

Bill Ragsdale, the foremost authority on John Scarne, will cover the little known aspects of those activities. Today we will see John Scarne in action in film from 1933, 1950, 1970, and 1979.  Bill will answer the questions: “Was Scarne that good?”  “Why was his son named Teeko?”  “Why did Houdini tell him ‘The farther you get ahead, the more your magician friends will turn against you’?” and “What was it like to entertain three US Presidents and Fidel Castro?”

The presentation is supported by extensive video, previously unreleased photographs, a statistical computer analysis and Bill’s  seventy-two page research report.

The lecture is free for paid Ring 216 members, $10 for non-members.

Following Bill's lecture, we will spend the rest of the evening with open performances by members and attendees. Come show the group something you're working on, something you're polishing, something fun, whatever. And if you have an announcement to make about upcoming shows, bring that too.

See you at the regular time and place: 7:30 p.m. at Yu Ai Kai Community Center.