March 2020 Ring Report
- Ring Report submitted by Dennis Chan -
March 26, 2020 marked a very special time in the history of the Vancouver Magic Circle (VMC ) Due to the world wide COVID-19 pandemic and a desire to keep our members safe, we chose to hold our monthly meeting online through Zoom. Our first ever online meeting turned out to be a great success with about 47 in attendance including two visitors, one of which signed up as a member.
We started off our meeting by recognizing the loss of a long-time member and pillar in the magic community, Steve Dickson, who passed away suddenly due to a massive heart attack. Steve was a good friend and a masterful magician and a teacher of the art. Steve was also a long time member and contributing executive member of the VMC.
Our meeting then continued with a workshop by our newly elected president, Rod Boss. Rod first taught a routine called The Sucker Card Trick. This was a simple Three Card Monte routine designed to give some of our newer members an easier routine to work on. Rod then went on to teach a mentalism routine he calls “Three Questions, Three Answers.” This is a routine he learned from an older Linking Ring magazine and has been used in his stand up shows and some of his close-up shows for more than eight years.
Next up was Alex Zander, President of the International Brotherhood of Magicians (I.B.M.) and a member of the VMC. He brought us official greetings from the I.B.M. Alex talked about the hugely successful (and free to the members) Magic JAM Live series. There will be 22 free awesome lectures provided by the I.B.M. Also the club is making a bulk buy on the I.B.M. “Keep Calm and Do Magic” shirts.
After we had a special guest Bill Cook. Bill is an extremely popular and well read magician and friend. He was a star on Penn and Teller’s Fool Us, Wizard Wars, and Master of Illusions. He proudly displayed his newest project, a 3D printed terminator arm. He shared a bit coin transposition magic trick he created. Bill also did a Jurassic Park sandwich card trick. He mentioned he was doing a Magic JAM lecture which he highlights a talk about audio equipment and software.
We finished off our meeting with a time of questions and answers. Sadly, we are not able to hold our scheduled Comedy Magician of the Year competition. It was suggested that we could hold this competition in August during our club picnic. It was also decided that we would to continue to meet online through zoom until the pandemic is over.
Thank you Rod Boss for hosting this awesome zoom meeting. We shared a lot of great magic and had a chance to meet on-line with friends during this unprecedented time of isolation as magicians. Our very existence is predicated upon connecting with our audiences. It is difficult for all of us not to be able to connect and do magic the way we would like, especially for those who do it on a daily basis. During this time, reach out using technology and social distancing, talk to each other, stay strong and stay safe.
