magi-whirl 2011 special ring 50 magi-gram

8/6/2019 Magi-Whirl 2011 Special Ring 50 Magi-Gram

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MAGI-GRAMOfficial Newsletter of IBM Ring 50 -- The National Capital Ring Special Edition May 2011

LLLooosssaaannndddeeerrr LLLuuunnnaaa FFFiiieeellldddsss --- MMMaaasssooonnn

Magi-Whirl 2011, Washington, D.C.The best little convention in the National

Capital Area

Everyone is still recovering from theInternational Brotherhood of Magicians,

National Capital Ring 50, Magi-Whirl 2011that was held on April 29 & 30, 2011. There

were four lectures, three close-up performances, and a Gala evening show.

Magi-Whirl was held at Bishop Ireton HighSchool, 201 Cambridge Rd, Alexandria VA.

Magicians from around the Mid-Atlanticregion came to Magi-Whirl 2011, and had a

great time hanging out with other magiciansand people devoted to magic. They learned a

ton of new tricks, ideas, presentations, andof course seen some great performances andlecturers.

TTThhheee LLLeeeccctttuuurrreeesssWe were extremely happy with our

lecturers and performers, who all deliveredthe goods! The lectures presented by: KeithFields, Luna Shimada, Dirk Losander, andMark Mason were outstanding. On Friday

night Keith Fields presented a knock outlecture. His lecture was filled with easy todo, yet baffling magic. Keith recently moved

Keith Fields

to the USA from the UK where, he wasInternational street entertainer of the year,Magic Circle close -up champion, andSouthern England club entertainer of theyear. He has mainly worked corporateevents, cruise ships, trade shows and

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comedy clubs and in his early years Kids

shows. Many of the things he has learnedwere shared in his lecture. Attendees left the

lecture with some new ideas, some newtricks and a new love of the art. Arnie Levin

says I was quite impressed with K eithField's Friday night lecture. Not only was it

enjoyable, but I also learned several goodroutines and some funny comedy lines that I

plan on using in the future. In particular, Ithought that Keith's billiard rack "trick" wasvery funny and I plan to use the routine thenext time I entertain a bunch of kids. Keithwas an excellent and very funny performer.

If you missed this lecture you missed a goodone!

Luna Shimada Losander

Luna Shimada began Saturdays line upof lectures. She lectured for over two hours,

talking about being a pro in magic. Lunas

lecture "The Art of Refinement - The 3-D'sof Magic" focused around construction and

process of creating a master

act/routine/show. She moved from characterdefinement to directing, constructing, andcover body language, scripting, pre show

preparation from the physical to the mental.She performed some routines to illustrateexamples and played some short clips ofother acts to show as well. Luna is a

philosopher and a teacher of magic and her

many talents encompass music, writing,

dance, performance art and poetry. Luna isthe recipient of the prestigious WorldMagic Award as Best Female Magicianof 2007. Her magic speaks from the heart

and goes beyond ordinary magic shows.

Everyone enjoyed her lecture.Dirk Losander presented his lecturebefore the lunch break. Losander, the Master

of Levitation, is known across threecontinents. He has performed his magic in

exclusive venues from some of the finestTheaters in Europe to the famed Magic

Castle in Hollywood, California. He had lotsof ideas for adding fun and variety to your

shows.

Dirk Losander

Losander is the creator of such effects astheLosander Floating Table and his original

Bubble Levitation. He is world famous forhis floating tables. These very sturdylooking wooden tables don't just appear tofloat, they actually fly. It was really quitespectacular when we saw it close up. Heshowed how levitation should really lookand the theory behind it. Most of hismaterial could be performed under anycondition, surrounded close -up or on stage,

especially the tricks which he created forclose-up situations.

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TTThhheee LLLeeeccctttuuurrreeesss(continued from page 2)

Losander showed several new thread

techniques using elastic thread such as thefloating bill based on a new thread system

and perfect balance taught how to animate abusiness card in your palm.

This year the convention chairmanadded a new feature for the lunch and dinner

break. From a menu from the Steak Houseyou could order sandwiches for Saturday

lunch and for Saturday dinner items from amenu from Noodles & Company. Based onthe surveys, this turned out to be a good ideaand many attendees participated in themeals. Next year we may change some of

the food vendors.

Mark Mason

After the lunch break the very talentedMark Mason presented his lecture. One

person said "I thought it would just be some boring guy talking. I didn't expect all thefunny jokes and great magic stuff!" All the

info floating around about Mark being agreat guy was absolutely true. He is a

business man and he sells what he shows .He is a seasoned, experienced performer and

shares a lot of "real world" wisdom. Markwas an amazing magic demonstrator who

has a vast knowledge of magic. In hislecture he shared a lot of valuable

information that is certain to benefit anyonewho listened. The attendees were enthralled

by his wit and energy and really enjoyedMark's different handling on some ofmagic's classic routines.

SSSaaatttuuurrrdddaaayyy CCClllooossseee---UUUppp SSShhhooowwwsss Next on the Saturday schedule were the

Close-Up shows. Attendees were dividedinto even groups by color coded badges to

see the close-up shows. Yellow badges wentto the Dai Vernon Room, Blue to the Slydini

Room, and the Green to the Tommy WonderRoom. The performers switched rooms and

repeated the magic. The three close-up performers each presented a 15-20 minute

close-up performance that amazed theaudience. The fast moving close-up show

performers were: Dirk Losander, MarkMason, and Keith Fields.

Dirk Losander Doing Close-up

Mark Mason Close-up Performance

Keith Fields Performing Close-up

Danny Selnick found the lectures to have

been incredibly interesting, fun, andenjoyable -- and the effects being sold this

year were very high quality and pure genius.(continued page 3)


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FFFrrriiidddaaayyy NNNiiiggghhhttt DDDeeeaaallleeerrrsss SSShhhooowww(continued from page 4)

Dove Lite Silks

Guests at Paper Crane Magic

SSSaaatttuuurrrdddaaayyy NNNiiiggghhhttt GGGaaalllaaaSSShhhooowwwThe 90 minute Gala Show on Saturday

Night was held at the Whaley Theater inBishop Ireton High School and had one ofthe strongest lineups you'll s ee at ANY

convention, and was capped off with astanding ovation for the performers! The

show included: Master of the Art ofLevitation Losander, Worlds Premier

Female Magician Luna Shimada, Intl Acclaimed Comedian & Magician Keith

Fields,DC Magician of the Year NolandMontgomery, and Magical Master of

Ceremonies Dick Christian.

Noland Montgomery opened the showby magically producing a wand from insidehis empty hat . He vanished the wand with a

toss in the air, and then reproducing it onceagain from inside the hat.

Noland next invited a girl on stage and performed hisversion of GeneAnderson's Picto

Transpo, effect

in which themagician and aspectator each

draw a sketch ofthe other and

Noland Montgomery the pictures aremade to transpose.

Finally, Noland closedwith his comedy wrist

tie, an effect in whichNoland, assisted by two

members of theaudience, freed his tiedhands while these were covered by a towel.Along the way, Noland removed a ringing

phone from under the towel to take a call,and "accidentally" severed his left hand inhis attempts at wrenching himself free. Butin the end, Noland escaped from hisshackles unscathed.

Keith Fields, a comedy magician fromEngland kept the audience in stitches with

his clever sense of humor . It was alltraditional magic, trickery, balloons, andcard-tricks, but the key to Field's popularitywas that he didn't overdo the magic,

balancing slight of tongue with sleight ofhand, absolutely hilarious from his first gagto his last trick employing a whole arsenal of

stage devices to amaze the audience alongon a wave of well-meaning fun.

Keith Fields and the Magic Knot

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He tied a knot in a silk and then slid the

knot off the silk. Later in his act he did thesame thing, then

showed the silk withholes where the knots

were. He continuedwith a lot of comedy

bits using classic magicitems. He started

Professors Nightmare but never finishedsaying it was too difficult. More hilarity was

employed with his straight jacket escape.Keith Fields and the Straight Jacket

Luna Shimada, the shows co-headliner ,

appeared in a mask with fire in her hands.The fire vanished and parasol after parasol

appeared. A cane appeared from a silk andthen the mask

was removed.Another fire

ball in herhands wascovered with afoulard and thefire ball floatedaround thestage. She did

Luna Shimada linking ringslike you never seen

before. One ring floatedand magically linked toanother. Luna produceda bird from a silk. Thenshowing a grapefruit,

lemon, and an egg, she vanished the bird,the egg and lemon. When the grapefruit wascut open there was the lemon. When thelemon was cut open there was the egg.

When the egg was broken open there was

the bird.

Luna Shimada & Grapefruit

Luna finished by producing a dog fromsome silks that she made appear from out ofnowhere.

The shows other headliner, Losander,made things fly. It doesn't really matterwhat. But things floated and flew under

some mysterious power in his presence. Hehad such a commandof his floating objectsthat they have a life oftheir own. He madethem float perfectlystill while he move d

around them. He hadthem move with such

a slow tempo that itwas unearthly and this

is what levitation issupposed to look like.

Losander Truly impressive washis floating cane routine , considered the bestin the world! Perhaps one of the most

magical parts of theevenin g was what he didwith bubbles. Bubblesare extremely fragile, sowhen Losander starts

juggling with them

Losander & Bubble or making them rise(continued page 6)


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SSSaaatttuuurrrdddaaayyy NNNiiiggghhhttt GGGaaalllaaaSSShhhooowww(continued from page 6)

Losander & Floating Bubble

and fall on command, even calling themtowards himself then sending them away , itstarts to look really amazing. The highlightwas when he threw a cloth over one bubbleand proceeded with a zombie style act. Thatwas simply incredible looking.

For his finale he showed us a Losandertable in action. This was yet another

highlight of the evening. The very sturdylooking wooden tables didn't just appear to

float, it actually flew. It really was quitespectacular when you see it performed as

Losander does it.

Losander & Floating Table

Many thanks to Losander, Luna

Shimada, Keith Fields, Noland

Montgomery and Dick Christian for a

fantastic Gala show!

The Bishop Ireton

High School

Technical Theater Dept

A BIG THANKS to Kevin Curry andthe technical theater crew of Bishop Ireton

for all their hard work in making this showrun so smoothly! A percentage of the

proceeds go to Bishop Ireton High SchoolTechnical Theater Department.

Watch for future news about

Magi-Whirl 2012

T entatively scheduled for

April 13 & 14, 2012

magi-whirl 2011 special ring 50 magi-gram

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