NOTE: June Meeting is the AUCTION.

For our April Ring meeting, we held our 2009 IBM Walk Around Magic Competition. We are excited to announce that Theron Schaub was the First Place Winner in the Walk Around Competition and John Bodine was the First Place People's Choice Award Winner. Other competitors included Richard Myer, Jim Mullen, Doug Eakin, Alan Leeds, and Cal Tong.

Theron performed a Wild coin routine, a visual dice routine, and high impact knuckle busting card effects. John Bodine vanished salt which was later found inside a previously inspected empty cup, metal spoons yielded to the power of my mind, bending and twisting in ways unimaginable, and shared a moment when a borrowed dollar bill vanished, only to reappear inside of an orange. i also shared a piece of art, sculpted from a single orange.

Richard performed Bill to Balloon, Card to Lemon, Torn-Burnt & Restored $20, Chicago Opener and a relationship test for a couple where he merely thinks of a time and she sets an arbitrary time on a watch and they are the same. Jim performed Mike Skinner’s version of Mental Photography Deck from his book, Classic Sampler. Cards appear in an otherwise blank deck; then all the cards have faces and backs; then none does. Then he did Francis Carlyle’s version of Cards-to-Wallet from The Magic of Francis Carlyle. Two cards signed by spectators end up in a wallet, inside a zippered compartment and inside a sealed envelope. Doug opened with Chris Power's "Coin Opener," whereby a dollar coin is produced at the fingertips and then vanished, reproduced and then vanished for good. He then followed with Jarle Leirpoll's "Norwegian Travellers." This had a four of a kind marked and returned from the deck. One-by-one, they are found in different pockets with the last one inside the performer's shoe. The finale was Mike Close's "Pothole Trick." This is where a hole is punched in a business card and then made to travel over to a business card with an audience member's house drawn on the back of it. Alan Leeds told a tale of being fleeced in New York, illustrated with a version of Sidewalk Shuffle using blank cards and the Ace of Money. Then he performed Troy Hoosier's Charming Chinese Challenge. Cal Tong opened with a Silver Dollar 3 Coin Flurry routine, then moved into a rubber-band and ring penetration, and closed with an Okito Box Routine using 4 Dollar sized Chinese Coins. While the votes were being counted, Don Bloomer told a love story while performing a Hopping Half type routine. He followed that with Picto-Transpo. Bruce Jordan has achieved the International Brotherhood of Magicians' designation "The Order of Merlin - Excalibur." This distinction is in recognition of his long-standing and loyal contributions and service to the art of magic, as evidenced by his fifty continuous years of I.B.M. membership The award will be officially presented at this year's I.B.M. Convention in Nashville, TN.