Our annual Holiday Magic Show and dinner came about as the result of many dedicated members who made it happen. First, Richie B assembled the performers, insuring a nice variety of types of magic. Reba Strong organized the food – everything from who would bring what, to the set-up and clean-up. We had a wide selection of light foods, and a great dessert selection. I was even called into service as the “curtain man” for the show.
President Hunter Gaul acted as Master of Ceremonies, keeping the show moving along, and providing magical interludes when some performers needed more time to set up their performances. Everyone was asked to keep their segments to about 8 minutes.
Opening for the night, Forrest Chapman, performing as “Peter Pitchford,” dazzled everyone with a superior act that involved great manipulation, acting, and comedy. His act is a tribute to the style of the Great Cardini, and Forrest finished up by producing own assistant version of Swan, portrayed by his lovely wife.
Others producing magic for us were John Michael, who did a comedy card revelation that almost looked like a fatal dagger stab. Richie B produced a bottle of champagne from a balloon! Wow! He then had a young helper whose shoe was destroyed in a magical machine. Early in his routine, it looked like he messed up on trying to retrieve a selected card. Much later in his turn, the card appeared inside of a lemon that had been given to a spectator much later in evening! Oh, and the young boy’s shoe was later produced unharmed!
Fred Siegel and Eric had us rolling on the floor with their “World’s Greatest Magician” routine. Fred read from an old Tannen catalog, while Eric acted out each randomly selected effect. Fred also did a classic Travelling Knots routine with two lovely assistants from the audience. They also did their mock mind reading effect, where Eric takes clues from Fred to describe a wonderful illusion that he has supposedly done on an imaginary world tour.
Tadd-O had a variety of great magic, but his best effect involved escaping from a straight jacket. Tadd-O had lots of fun with this, and while he was escaping, he produced a bottle of German beer for his audience to enjoy while he was escaping. Tadd-O then produced a bottle of the brew for himself, and then actually escaped from the jacket.
I apologize to performers I may have missed, but as I had been drafted to run the curtain, it was impossible to make good notes of the show. All in all, we had a great show of about an hour and a half, just the thing to get everyone into the holiday spirit.
DAVE KELLY, Recording Secretary