I.B.M. Ring 210 S.A.M. Assembly 88

A Candle in the Dark By President Dr. Joaquin Ayala

Happy Month! I trust you are all doing well – as we speak the country finds itself in some very trying times at the moment. We hear a lot about people imploring you to check up on your friends and family and help others where and when you can. That is all good and well, but I want to pose another question to you: When was the last time during this entire pandemic that you took some time out for yourself? I mean really time just for you and yourself? If we are to help others and be there, we must take care of ourselves because we cannot give what we do not have!

Take a drive with no particular destination in mind. Go for a nice extended bicycle ride, or a walk in the park. Go buy some art supplies and doodle for a few hours per week – try something new and different. Keep the television and the phones turned off (or on silent) during this time. This will help bring you some focus to your own well-being, allow you to re-center and be refreshed for when you do go and help others. Try it – you will feel better after!

To Be or Not to Be… As many of you know, last month we tried hosting an in-person meeting after much interest, but the turnout was very low. We have decided to go back to virtual-only for the foreseeable future because it is not fair for us to ask the Senate to hold such a large space for us when we cannot guarantee a bigger number of customers (at least 10) every month. This is not great news, but it is just a sign of the times and we have to go with the flow!

Last month we also held our annual picnic at the Jones house which was a rousing success! A HUGE THANK YOU TO DAN AND DANA JONES for opening their home to us again and hosting the picnic – be sure to check out the short report and some photos from the picnic below!

Sad News For many of us, 2020 has been full of ups and downs – for some, more so than others. A friend of our club and long-time member of the Toledo I.B.M. Ring 68, Ted Davis, his wife Maureen lost their son Jason (40 years young) to cancer on October 1st. Those of you that know Ted can send him messages of condolences or, as Jason would have it, messages celebrating Jason’s life.

Other News Lastly, I want to let everyone know that we are currently in discussions with the talent for the Michigan Close-Up Magic Convention 2021 – more details to follow!

ZOOM MEETING: Keep your eyes open for the Zoom meeting on Wednesday October 14th at 6:30 PM, EST. We will have a few NEW ideas to try this month – hope to see you there!

Until then, stay magical my friends!

Dr. J.

The golf tournament this week has been postponed – the grass is covered in weeds and shrubs and we have decided to let nature take its course.

AAMC Picnic 2020

From members Ming & Barbara Louie:

Hello Compeers,

Well, you really missed a swell time! Dan and Dana Jones floated in the air a la David Copperfield and Joannie Spina with a silver hoop, plus other magic. A.A.M.C. Vice President Don Oesterwind walked across the swimming pool a la ! Rare friends like George and Betty Honer were there performing card tricks! This year we had lots of good food including BBQ hot dogs, hamburgers, salad, potato salad, Vietnamese glass noodles, an open bar, desserts, and laughs! Ming & Barbara did a box and rope trick invented by Davenports of London.

From Dan Jones:

The Ann Arbor Magic Club held its annual picnic on September 12th at the home of Dan & Dana Jones. We had 16 members and guests in attendance and stayed socially distanced, all while having a great time! We enjoyed the great dishes brought by the members to share and we enjoyed a magic show by Ming the Magnificent (Ming Louie), George Honer performed several card effects, and then we were graced with an appearance by the Great Covidini (a.k.a. Dan Jones), who shared a card prediction, followed by a mentalism effect where an item from among many was freely chosen, which was successfully predicted!

We held an auction for the benefit of one of your members who died last year – a great time was had by all!

BELOW (L to R): Rob Krozal, Dan Jones, Jim Molnar, Sally & George Honer and Bob Goodwin.

RIGHT: The Great Covidini.

ABOVE (L to R): Mary Oesterwind, Vice President Don Oesterwind and Pam Smith.

LEFT: (L to R): Teresa Jackson, Bob Ferguson, and Ken Magee.

Ex Libris by Joaquin Ayala, Ph.D.

Hello folks and welcome to the Ex Libris article for October 2020! I had previously alluded to a special guest columnist who has written an article before, so without further ado I turn this over to A.A.M.C. member Kevin Peshick, who will be discussing Scripting Magic Volumes 1 & 2 by Pete McCabe.

Being a devotee of scripting, I decided to review these two books. While I realize that many magicians are not as excited about scripting as I am, I think there is a lot to be learned from these books even for the non-scripters in the crowd. My original plan was to just review the first one and save the second one for another review, except I do not think they stand apart very well and are better reviewed as one work. The author, Peter McCabe, has worked as a screenwriter, editor, and script consultant on such well-known shows as Miami Vice and The West Wing. He is also an accomplished magician, the combination of which makes these compelling books for improving a magician’s performances. That said, my thoughts on the books are a bit conflicted, but I will save that until the end. First, I wanted to give a rundown of what are in the books.

Scripting Magic (2017 Vanishing Magic Inc. $50 at your favorite magic dealer) is a 462-page hardbound book. The book has 43 scripts, 13 essays, 7 interviews, 191 illustrations, and one flowchart thrown in for good measure. The contributors to both books are comprised of the best and the brightest in the field of magic. Some of the contributors in this first volume are Michael Ammar, Eugene Burger, Michael Close, Bob Farmer, Guy Hollingworth, Max Maven, David Regal, and Jim Steinmeyer. Even the always silent Teller of Penn & Teller has something to say about scripting in this book.

One of the gems of both these books is the number of classic effects included. A sample of the effects in this first volume include: Coins Across, Torn and Restored Card, Invisible Deck, Gypsy Thread, Add-a-Number Prediction, Triumph, Gemini Twins, Hot Rod, Chop Cup, $100 Bill Switch, Out of this World, and Wild Card. There is even a routine in here for the Self-Cutting Banana! You can see that these are all classic effects that you have heard of, and maybe even performed before.

The beauty of these effects is that after the handling by the creator is explained, such as The Cassandra Quandary by Guy Hollingworth, McCabe then gives his handling designed for mere mortals like me. In Hollingworth’s handling he palms half the deck in and out of play twice, does a barehanded switch and two Tenkai Palms! While I do not advocate simplifying technique if it weakens an effect, I find McCabe’s adaptations of the effects in the book to be very practical in most cases. McCabe spreads out his instructions on scriptwriting throughout both books. In this first volume he tackles such topics as: Scriptwriting 101, Developing Your Character, No-Script Scripting, the Backstory, and Adaptation.

Scripting Magic Volume Two (2017 Vanishing Magic Inc. $50 at your favorite magic dealer) is a 445-page hardbound book that contains 33 scripts, 9 exercises, 3 interviews, 93 illustrations, and one flowchart. The contributors to this volume include Michael Weber, , Chris Philpott, Robert Neale, Harry Houdini (no séance required), Joshua Jay, Roberto Giobbi, Paul Gertner, and Christian Cagigal. Among the scripted effects are The Magic Coloring Book, The Dancing Cane, The Water Torture Cell, the PATEO Force, the Cut Deeper Force, The Einstein Card Trick, and The Book Test. As in Volume One, not only do you get a script as created by a seasoned professional, but you also get a practical handling for most of the effects.

This volume has a lot more time devoted to scripting techniques: Plotting, Effect, and Scripting Magic for non-actors, First Lines, and Dramatic Structure. This volume also gives you access to PDF downloads with worksheets and exercises to work on developing your scripting writing abilities.

How to use these books I am a bit conflicted on these books. The two volumes cover a lot of territory in scripting; however, in my opinion, they do not do it in a neat orderly fashion that allows the reader to build upon the basics first and then develop from there. If the lessons in scripting and the given routines were in a step-by-step order, I think it would be a more effective course in scripting.

Conclusion: While I think that some of the material in Volume 2 should have been included in Volume 1, if you are just going to buy one volume, get Volume 1. If you want to work deeper into scripting, then definitely get Volume 2. I have been trying to find other good sources on scripting, but what I know of tends to be scattered around here and there. One book I do not have but I have heard provides a lot of great information on the topic is Maximum Entertainment by Ken Webber. If you think of scripting as the entire presentation, then the best book in my opinion is Strong Magic by Darwin Ortiz.

One thing to consider is whether you should use the scripts as they are or not. McCabe gives permission to use his presentations; however, McCabe is not a professional magician. I believe some of the scripts from professionals give permission, but it is probably better to be inspired by the scripts instead of directly using a professional’s material. While these scripts are published in a book that you are paying for, which to me may imply permission, there is also the issue of whether the script will play for you and your performing style.

As a supplement to this article, I decided to highlight sections of the books that I think are most useful to the average non-professional magician like myself that wants help with scripting. This was made into a separate document to help keep the length of the article shorter while also providing you further insights to my interpretations of the material in these books. That being said, my choices of what is important are influenced by my own taste in magic, so you may find other effects or essays more relevant to you. With that I leave you with a quote which sums it up nicely:

“Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of someone else.” - Judy Garland

Yours in Magic,

Kevin Peshick

I always start my days with a good Danish and end it with a good nightish…

I just got a new job at the toilet paper company. Yes, I was hired two ply my trade…

Two comedians got into a fight…everybody stood around waiting for the punch line…

Support our local brick & mortar magic shops!

ABC Magic Shop 21525 24 Mile Road, Macomb, MI 48042 / (586) 790-3700

Wunderground Magic, Inc. 16 S. Main St., Clawson, MI 48017 (248) 280-5925 / Web: http://www.wundergroundmagicshop.com/

AAMC Board Contacts President: Dr. Joaquin M. Ayala / [email protected] Vice President: Don Oesterwind, Jr. / [email protected] Secretary: Frank Machniak / [email protected] Treasurer: Rob Krozal / [email protected] Sergeant-at-Arms: Sean Naes / [email protected] Librarian: Dr. Joaquin M. Ayala / [email protected] Historian: Dan Jones / [email protected] Webmaster: Karl Rabe / [email protected] Website: http://www.aamagic.org/

Check out our Facebook Page: “Ann Arbor Magic Club” Have a question / suggestion / comment / contribution? We would love to hear from you! Get in touch with us! Bring a guest to a meeting! Perform! Join a Committee!

The Ann Arbor Magic Club meets the 2nd Wednesday of each month at Senate Coney Island Restaurant - 34359 Plymouth Rd, Livonia, MI 48150-1500. Meeting starts at 7 p.m. Come at 6 p.m. if you want to eat. ***During the COVID-19 lockdown our in-person meetings are suspended. During this time, we will be using the ZOOM platform to host our monthly meetings.***