Season’s Greetings from Ring 49! Like most clubs, we generally have a special event for our mid-winter meeting to celebrate the season, and this year was no exception. Some of my favorite people showed up and the night was truly magical.
This year we met at one of the nearby restaurants and took turns around the table showing off some of our favorite effects. One of the advantages of having an event in a public space is there is an opportunity to involve non-members/non-magicians in the fun so the performers can show real-life responses from the public to their effects. So often, in closed meetings, simpler effects that are obvious to our trained eyes get dismissed when for a lay audience they often are real miracles – events like this allows for everyone to see how regular people respond.
Case in point, later in the evening when the whole restaurant became aware that there were magicians in the house, one of the server staff brought out the cook to see one of my effects. It was a simple Elmsley Count effect, not very impressive to other magicians, but this guy was so blown away he literally hugged me – never had that happen before. One of the members was able to make a show booking with another organization that happened to also be in the restaurant.
Once things got going, people approached OUR table requesting magic. It certainly makes that initial approach for table hopping a lot easier when the audience is approaching YOUR table.
But more often we were able to interact among the members to share effects and benefit from group input. For example, one member demonstrated a Santa Clause/Christmas Tree effect which led to a robust discussion about performance tips, prop mechanics and related techniques. The club president (Doug ‘The Great’ Hunt) offered some tips on approaching people for ‘strolling magic’ to break the ice on that initial contact. In fact, everyone contributed and I think all in attendance benefited greatly.
The weather was a bit dicey (this is wintertime in Canada after all), but we are a hardy group and the warmth inside more than made up for chill outside. Best of the season to everyone.
Rene Chouinard