June 2020 Ring Report
- Ring Report submitted by Dennis Chan -
The June 25th meeting was once again hosted by President Rod Boss online via Zoom. Rod Boss had a few beautiful custom made magic wands to give away to lucky members of the club. In order to win this magic wand, members had to submit a video using a magic wand or some similar device which resembles a magic wand in their routine. There were so many entries that Rod decided to give away three wands. The videos were done online for all members to see. The winners were determined by the amount of votes sent in by the members. The voting was for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place.
There were 16 competitors. After the votes were tallied, the winners were, first place, Shawn Farquhar, Henry Tom came in second place and Steve Boscka came third place. Congratulations to the winners and to the rest of the competitors. Rod also held a secondary contest for a magic wand. All those who had sent in their votes had their names recorded and by using an electronic carnival style roulette wheel the winner was determined by where the marker on the wheel stopped. The winner was Simon Cassegrain. Congratulations. Thank you very much Rod for holding the two contests. All those who took part in the contests enjoyed the fun.
The June meeting started off with some card workshops. Gabriella Lester did an effect called Love Test. She took four cards and tore them in half widthwise and then she ” mixed ” up the cards and with some manipulation she eliminated the cards one by one and the final two halves matched each other. Rod Boss did a similar effect and by using audience participation and some clever manipulation all the halves matched each other. Roy Hopwood did a card prediction by using a small toy bear as the ” predictor.” Well done everyone. Rod Boss did a card in envelope inside another envelope which was inside another envelope. Rod said that this effect can be found in the January 2020 issue of the Linking Ring magazine page 89. This effect is called Nest of Envelopes by Roy Field. Rod mentioned that there will be a Master Class coming up. Check your e-mails. Rod encouraged members to read their Linking Ring magazines as there are plenty of good magic in them. Lam Chan was our special guest for the evening. He is from Spokane, Washington. Rod had a chat with Lam and asked how long he has been doing magic. Lam does magic as a hobby and he performed two “three card monte” effects. Well done Lam. Thank you very much.
The competition for June was for the Ray Gamble trophy. This trophy is awarded in recognition of impromptu card magic. Competitors are handed a deck of cards with the cellophane still intact. The timing starts after the competitor has removed the wrapper and opens the seal. The cards must be used as they are from the box, and nothing else may be added during the routine. The Jokers and the box may also be used. The cellophane wrapper may also be used. Any additional items will result in disqualification. Scott Jansen and Jordan Vo are in charge of the competition. Seeing as this contest was done online, the competitors supplied their own cards. They had to prove to the judges in front of the camera that the deck was a brand new deck with the seal still intact. Last year’s winner, John Stenning was the host and MC for the competition and he also read the rules. The competitors were Rod Chow, Gary Robins, Rod Boss, Henry Tom, and Steve Boscka. This was Gary’s and Steve’s first competition. The judges were Graham Kita, Wiley Allen, Roy Hopwood, Glen LaBarre and Robert Teszka. The timekeeper was Graham Kita. In between the acts, John did some magic, told jokes and he also had some prizes to give away while the judges sent the scores by e-mail to Yoosik Oum who tallied the scores.
The winner of the Ray Gamble trophy for 2020 was Rod Boss, Steve Boscka came in second place. One competitor was disqualified for going over the ten minute time limit. Congratulations to Rod and to the rest of the competitors. The club welcomes our newest member Genpei Cai. Genpei is a student at the University of British Columbia. He is a close-up specialist. Welcome to the club Genpei. The club also welcomed the return of long time member of the Vancouver Magic Circle Joe Finkler. Joe is an emergency doctor at St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver. Rod thanked John Stenning for his excellent work as an MC and presented John with a custom made magic wand. Because of COVID-19, the Wilf Rutherford trophy for the Children’s Magician of the Year competition for 2020 was cancelled. This is normally a ticketed family event. There were 40 participants in attendance.
