Sacramento Area Magicians February 2011 Newsletter of the Society of American Magicians Assembly 72 Assembly 72 of the Society of Wright Writes ... American Magicians meets on the fourth Wednesday of every month at 7:00 P.M. for business and 7:30 P.M. Cut and Restore ... for magic. We meet at the Ronald McDonald House, 2555 49th Street Something! behind the UCD Med Center in Sacramento. By David Wright, President Assembly 72 Dues Are Due! Our February club performance theme is Cut-and-Restore If you have not paid your local dues a very broad subject area in magic. One could cut and for 2011 yet, please pay them as soon Something, as possible. You can pay at the meet- restore a woman, a rope, a silk handkerchief, a newspaper, or a play- ing or mail a check for $20.00 to ing card. The list goes on and on. It’s your choice. This is a good Treasurer Allen Greenberg, 5500 opportunity to try something new. Come to our next meeting and Oak Hill Court, Carmichael, CA 95608-6644. show off your skills or join in on the fun. We are also updating our Roster. Please email your current email and In addition to the performance theme, we are hosting a work- mail address with your phone num- shop on the Chop Cup, a classic effect that has many variations. I ber to Viktor Berry, viktor@viktor. com or leave a message at 916-362- personally have three different types of chop cups in my collection 8355. Thanks! of tricks. Everyone is invited to participate in this workshop. If you have a routine you are particularly enamored with, come and teach 2011 Assembly Officers it to your compeers. If you have always wanted to know more about this particular close-up effect, come prepared to ask questions. President David Wright 916-944-8454 [email protected] We have a lot of fun activities planned for our club in 2011. Vice-President Please keep track and plan to participate in the following special Bill Devon 916-392-6530 [email protected] events: Secretary Viktor Berry 916-362-8355 [email protected] • Aldo Colombini Magic Farewell Tour Lecture - May 18th Treasurer • Annual Close-up Competition - May 25th Allen Greenberg 916-483-4345 • Annual Magic Auction - July 13th [email protected] • Annual SAM/IBM Barbeque - July TBD Board Member at Large • Annual Stand-up Competition - August 10th Please volunteer! We need two! • Annual Community Show - October 1st Please visit our web site at • Annual RMH Toy Run Strolling Magic - December 3rd www.magic1.org/sam72 Magic Flash Page Two February 2011 2011 Magic Calendar Society of American Magicians • Assembly 72 Date Performance Theme Workshop Subject February 23 Cut and Restore Something Chop Cup Magic Clinic March 23 Silky Sorcery Matrix Magic Clinic April 27 Transpositions or Transformations Teach-a-Trick May 25 Annual SAM/IBM Close-up Competition May 18 Colombini Farewell Tour Elk Grove June 22 Dai Vernon Night Packet Trick Card Clinic July TBA Annual SAM/IBM Barbecue Location TBA July 13 (2nd Wednesday) Annual SAM/IBM Magic Auction IBM Meeting July 27 Rings and Things Ring and String Clinic August 10 Annual SAM/IBM Stand-Up Competition August 24 Coins in a Glass Teach-a-Trick September 28 Rope, Paper, Flower Paper Money Magic Clinic October 26 Spooky Magic Social Mixer November No meeting Happy Thanksgiving! December 3 (1st Saturday) Annual Ronald McDonald House Toy Run Strolling Magic 1 to 4 P.M. December 7 (1st Wednesday) Tell Us A Story Teach-a-Trick This calendar is subject to change and additional activities will be added as necessary. For up to the minute information, please phone an assembly officer or check our web site at http://www.magic1.org/sam72 Magic Flash Page Three February 2011 What you missed on January 26th Meeting Notes President David Wright opened our first meeting of the Steve Dacri – Broken Wand year by presenting a planned calendar of events and annual budget for 2011. After a brief discussion, the club approved the calendar and budget. Further discussion focused on pos- sible upcoming lectures and other planned events. Sixteen people attended this meeting. The performance theme for this meeting wasMystery, Suspense and Surprise. To kick off the night’s entertainment, David Wright performed Full Circle, a rope trick that com- bines the Professor’s Nightmare, using three different lengths of rope, with a Ring-and-Rope routine. Up next was Lloyd Shaffer who performed a mental effect that was a real Math Miracle. Miles Tresser, our youngest member, followed up with a performance of the Haunted Matchbox where a matchbox mysteriously opens and closes of its own accord in the palm of his hand. Steve Dacri, a veteran magician whose “close-up” illusions Our next performer was Leland Eiben who performed could make foam balls appear in your clenched fist, died Friday a coin trick called Lethal Tender where a silver coin and Chi- after a long bout with colon cancer. Steve had lectured in Sacra- nese coin magically change places, even while enclosed in the mento a few years ago. palm of a spectator’s hand! The Boston native moved to Las Vegas in 2003, after years of John Iacono got up next and performed a card trick commuting from Los Angeles to work at Caesars Magical Empire, a bygone attraction that offered a rare stage for close-up magic on where the selected card was found by spelling of the specta- the Las Vegas Strip. tor’s name! Dacri and his wife, Jan, worked for most of the decade to Joe Chez followed with a few jokes, no magic. find a workable vehicle for a niche of magic that gave him 38 years Our newest club member, Cheng Luo, got up last and in the trade. His close-up genre took root at Hollywood’s Magic performed a trick that used an iPhone to reveal a selected Castle nightclub and played best with audiences of 50 or less. card. He followed this up with a variation of Aronson’s His was a sleight of hand utilizing small objects -- playing Shuffle-bored, where a spectator shuffles half a deck of cards cards, handkerchiefs and the signature foam balls he called “Mar- face-up into face-down, but the iPhone predicts how many tians.” cards are each way, how many are red and black, and how “When magic can happen in the audience member’s hand ... many are of any one suit, with one noted exception! that’s the magic they remember,” he noted in February of last year. For our Teach-A-Trick workshop this evening, Joe Chez Dacri’s post-Empire work in Las Vegas included shows at The Orleans, O’Shea’s, the Imperial Palace and the Four Seasons was kind enough to volunteer to teach a card trick that he at Mandalay Bay, where he offered a dinner show so exclusive it called The Seven Card Lie Detector. was $300 per ticket. A spectator picks any card out of a random set of seven His last Las Vegas run was at the Las Vegas Hilton last year. cards and proceeds to either lie or tell the truth about its suit, The February opening was postponed by the discovery of a tumor color and number. But the magician still divines the card! and removal of a section of his colon. “I was sitting in the hospi- This was a great effect and one that we all can use in our act. tal going, ‘Boy I’m so glad I have a show to look forward to,’ “ he Thanks, Joe. recalled. Ever the trouper, Dacri last summer submitted to a promo- Magic Books for Sale tional stunt that involved a dunking in the Hilton’s swimming pool Local magician Duff Johnson is selling some great magic to retrieve two playing cards. books. If you would like a list of the books he has for sale, Dacri also maintained the website and digital magazine at email him at [email protected] . http://www.VegasInsideTips.com . Magic Flash Page Four February 2011 Book Review: Scripting Magic by Pete McCabe By Wayne Kawamoto The book features informative interviews with Eugene Scripting works well in theater, television and movie pro- Burger, John Lovick, Jonathan Levit, Jon Armstrong, Max Maven, duction, so why not in magic? Pete McCabe drives this home in Teller, Rafael Benetar and Michael Close, and essays by McCabe his excellent “Scripting Magic,” a thorough and thoughtful 450- and Jamy Ian Swiss. Indeed, McCabe has compiled scripts and page book that offers scripts for well known effects by skilled advice from some of our era’s most talented magicians. magicians and insightful interviews and essays. Stronger Magic With “Scripting Magic,” McCabe has created a must-read I found the scripts to be thought provoking and inspiring book that will inspire you and help script and burnish your and the interviews informative and compelling. In this book, Mc- magic routines. Cabe succeeds at demonstrating how scripts will improve one’s It’s in the Script magic and offers a foundation that will allow magicians to apply McCabe says it best on the book’s second page. “The goal of this powerful tool to their effects. this book is to help you script your magic better, so what you say In all, “Scripting Magic” is a milestone book that will make during your tricks makes the trick more effective.” In presenting your magic stronger and more entertaining. It’s required reading scripts, McCabe follows traditional screenplay scripting format and study for anyone serious about entertaining with magic.