Society of American Magicians #94
Magicians from all over the San Francisco Bay Area meet
in Palo Alto, California. We're a local assembly of the international Society
of American Magicians. Our club offers a monthly meeting for magicians -- those
who are trained (or who are training) in the performing art of prestidigitation.
This is an "unofficial" web site for SAM94, but you will find things here about SAM94 and Bay Area Magic that you won't find anywhere else...
A weekly lunch for magicians in or visiting the Bay Area... still going strong!
SAM94 officers are: President, Kim Silverman; Vice President, Guy Philips; Secretary, Joe Caffall; and Treasurer, Blaine Garst.
Our regular club meeting is the Second Monday of each month...
Monday, 8 February 2010
Lecture by Sabretooth
Meetings start at 7:30 p.m. at the First Lutheran Church, Palo Alto, CA
Regular meetings are preceeded
by a Learners' Workshop
at 6:30 p.m.
not just for beginners
This month we are featuring a free lecture by Sabretooth that will interest anyone interested in making your magic more magical. Special emphasis will be on illusion design and improbement. Sabretooth has 28 years' experience in high-end home-building. Eric Van Duzer is the author of "7 Basic Secrets of Illusion Design." Together they wage war on those pesky gremlins who live to sabotage your show. Their ideas will help you to be fully present with your audience, without worrying over technical issues. In this lecture, you will see:
A very special set of ABC Blocks
Flash String to Silk that does not have to be an opener
A Square Circle that you can see under
A Living Head illusion that can be wheeled through a crowd
A serious upgrade to "Cardiographic"
And even more
See the attached flyer
Sabretooth has been granted permission to release a limited quantity of "The 7 Basic Secrets of Illusion Design" on CD. This book sells for as much as $144 at the Magic Castle. There will be a lecture only price that you won't believe. If you have been on the fence about this one, here's the opportunity you're waiting for. You won't find it for this price, anywhere!
NOTE: If you have something that you feel needs improvement or is genuinely broken, bring it to the lecture! Sabretooth may give you tips on how to improve the design if you wish to do it yourself, or an estimate for doing the actual repair. (If there's not enough time to go over it at the meeting, perhaps at a restaurant after the meeting. He'll come to you for larger pieces.)
The Learners' Workshop will continue to work on the Cull-to-the-Bottom
in the context of a Slop Shuffle routine.
This month, our Learners' Workshop will continue with Paul Cummins' "Personal Slop," focusing on the cull to the bottom, and moving on to the overall presentation of the routine. All are welcome, but all who attend must participate. No passive observers. Bring your own cards, please.
The Learners' Workshop continues to be successful, and so we want to remind people about it and invite beginners. All skill levels are invited, but people are reminded that this is a participatory workshop: everybody who comes actually tries out and performs the material. There are no passive observers. Each Learners' Workshop is a hands-on, practical training session that offers participants the chance to learn a complete effect, including all the "moves" as well as tips on presentation.
Recent Meetings
At our December meeting, Assembly President Kim Silverman formally rolled out two related programs. The first is a series of visits to El Camino Hospital in Mountain View. Dr. Josh Sickel from El Camino Hospital presented information, including a professionally-made video, on a program he started at the hospital to bring in various types of performers and presenters. His program includes music, therapy dogs, artists, and now S.A.M. 94 magicians Members including Kim Silverman, Guy Philips, Lyn Bronner, and Joe Caffall have performed for nurses, lab employees, and patients on two different occasions. We plan on providing performers one Saturday afternoon a month, and possibly some evenings as well. The second program will be visits to the VA clinic in San Jose. Guy Philips, Alvin Lui, and Joe Caffall performed there in November for the Adult Day Health Care Program. We are planning future performance visits. At our meeting, Guy, Alvin, and Joe
were presented certificates and pins from S.A.M. in recognition for this event.
In September, Assembly 94 hosted a series of workshops and a lecture by Shoot Ogawa. Over three days, he led two intensive three-hour
small-group workshops and a lecture. He also performed a lunch-time stage show at Apple, and during the rest of the time he conducted
private one-on-one sessions with Bay Area magicians.
How can we describe this visit? Amazing. Incredible. Stupendous. Fantastic. Unbelievable. Assembly President Kim Silverman said, "I learnt more in my private session with him than I had learned in the prior 18 months of practicing and learning by myself. His Master Classes were like trying to drink from a fire hydrant that dispenses the elixir of life." Many magicians who attended some or all of his sessions have said how grateful they were
for the chance to learn from such a master. Shoot was very generous with his time, very clear and helpful in his teaching, and very
demanding that we learn correctly. He teaches not only moves and effects, but also how to present in ways to make audiences experience a range of emotions, and how to avoid alienating audiences by "showing off." .
We could not stop Shoot from talking about magic. He is passionate about improving the quality of all magicians and raising the standard
of magical performance. Whether sitting in the car, drinking a beer with workshop students at 10:00 PM, or eating breakfast in Denny's at
1:30 AM, he was constantly talking about magic, answering questions, finding out more about how we perform and offering advice on how to
improve, and sharing stories.
Shoot may be returning to our area early next year, and we are eagerly anticipating that possibility.
Our July meeting featured a presentation by S.A.M. 94 member Arthur Hasting, a professor of psychology with research and publications in parapsychology. Arthur discussed some of the key terms in the scientific study of ESP, which is usually called psi. Telepathy is mind to mind communication, the paranormal acquisition of information such as thoughts or feelings of another person. Clairvoyance is information about an object or physical event obtained paranormally, that is, without the use of the senses or inference. Precognition is information obtained paranormally about events that occur later in time. He suggested that mentalists should not refer to "mental telepathy" since by definition telepathy is mental, and using the correct terminology highlights the conditions of the effects. He also discussed some of the research methods used, and the extensive role of imagery in remote viewing experiments, which is like the use of drawings and pictures in mental effects. The talk stimulated a lively discussion with both pro and con questions about parapsychology research.
In June, David Hirata led a very interesting and informative discussion on Scripting and Creating Magical Presentations. Besides giving some good advice and some insights into his own process of choosing effects and developing routines, he presented and discussed his Rope Factory and he Linking Rings routines as strong examples. As further examples, Kim Silverman showed and discussed his Cord on String and Ninja Rings routines.
2007's Annual "Pizza and a Show"
In November, we held our Annual Pizza and a Show Night, with
perhaps the biggest turnout ever. Before and during dinner, Jeff Chiou and
Joe Caffall performed strolling table magic, while Nancy Ward made enchanting
balloon sculptures. After salad, pizza, and dessert, the show began.
To start the show, our MC, Jeff Haas, introduced David Hirata. David performed
his "Rope Factory" routine, a series of effects with a length of
rope: two ends - no maybe three or four ends, or maybe no ends - and a middle
or two, as well. He also performed an elegant silent Linking Ring
routine he calls "The Ambiguity of Light." John Bodine began by
spinning a cigarette paper on his finger tip, like a propeller. He swallowed
a length of thread, apparently just for the fun of it, then took us through an
interesting series of definitions stemming from the word “magic.” From
a deck of cards, he had each of three spectators remove and remember a card,
then return it to the deck. John took the four Threes, had one of the spectators
throw the deck, and caught all of the selected cards among the Threes. And
then he pulled the string he had swallowed out of his belly, right through
the skin just above his waist. Jeff Haas performed a cute and funny Sponge
Ball routine with Scott Emo's young daughter Lauren. "Professional
Showoff" Trey Cromwell warmed up with some impossible stretching
and contortions with a broom, then exhibited his Knife Juggling skills. Bill
Goldman closed the show with an act ranging from a balloon that would not
stop squeeking even when it was completely out of air to having a card
thought of by one spectator match one previously selected by another. He
found cards picked by two other members of the audience. Along the way, he
swallowed a huge pill. He had a chosen card appear in a picture that had
been assembled and held by spectator.
Huge thanks to Julie Silverman for organizing the food; to Rosel and
Irv Barowsky, Paul Hastings, Blaine Garst, and John Signa for setting up
the room; to our performers; and to everyone else who helped make this a
great, fun event!
Directions to our regular meeting place the First Lutheran Church, Palo Alto, CA
What happened at some recent meetings:
October's meeting was “Entertainment for Your Next Party Is in the Bag.” Everyone joined in our Brown Bag Magic competition. Participants were randomly divided into teams and given a shopping bag of common, everyday items. Teams were given time to create effects using just the bags' contents, then they performed their creations. If you missed it and you're curious, each bag contained: 4 Styrofoam cups; 6 pompoms, four of one color plus two yellow; four red and two blue rubber bands; 1 needle; 10 feet (approximately) of clear thread; 1 pair of scissors; 1 roll of clear tape; 1 Glue Stick; 12 blank index cards; 6 envelopes; 3 large brass safety pins; 1 mini permanent marker; 3 matchbooks; 1 box of wooden matches; construction paper (two sheets of each of four colors); 2 matching copies of "Metro" or "Wave" tabloid-size papers; 4 plastic doves, 1 inch; 4 plastic wedding rings; 4 matching Hallowe'en rings (skulls, bats, or spiders); 1 deck of playing cards with one duplicate card; 10 feet (approximately) of white twine; 1 yellow foam star; 2 white feathers; 2 lunch bags; 2 zipper-type sandwich bags.
September's meeting was an entertaining lecture by... Fielding West!
Our April meeting featured a terrific lecture by Shoot Ogawa. A highlight throughout the lecture was that he provided alternative methods that could be used for accomplishing mandy of his routines, depending on the skill and experience of the performer. The night after the lecture, Shoot gave an in-depth, hands-on workshop on his famous Ninja Rings. Although we normally don't do a Beginner's Workshop on lecture nights, several people turned up so we did an impromptu one, led ably by Bill Goldman. He taught some coin vanishes from your clothes (or a spectator's clothes, which leads to some interesting possibilities).
Between our February and March meetings we had a special lecture on a special day: Alain Choquette! Last year, at September's meeting, veteran tradeshow performer Bill Goldman delivered an entertaining lecture filled with hilarious bits of business and a number of strong and direct effects, mainly with cards. Goldman also regaled the audience with tales of his tradeshow days, in which he traveled all over the world and worked for presidents, captains of industry, celebrities, and kings. Goldman's lecture was very well received. Thank you to all who attended. The following evening, Bill Goldman met with six very interested and motivated attendees from 7:00 PM until nearly midnight for an intensive hands-on workshop. Bill taught the details and subtleties of several routines, including a coin matrix, several card routines, a fire-assisted torn-and-restored, and a ring-on-rope. This included details of the handling of the props, advice about timing and pacing, and performance scripts. Some of the routines had been briefly shown during the lecture, but the rest was additional material. Thereafter four of the attendees performed their own pieces, and got feedback and discussion from Bill himself and from other participants. Overall the whole workshop was very valuable to all attendees. Everybody left a better magician than when he/she arrived.
See who we've had lecture in the past!
Click here to see what happened some other previous club meetings
Look at some pictures from 2001's banquet
Check out some pictures from our 1998 banquet! (Wow, that's an oldie!)
SAM 94 meets on the second Monday of each month at 7:30 p.m. at the First Lutheran Church, Palo Alto, CA (at the corner of Homer and Webster). Click here for directions and a map.
Who can attend?
Our meetings are usually open to all magicians (or serious students of magic) -- visiting magicians are encouraged to attend. Except for special events (e.g. lectures) there is no charge to attend our meetings while you decided if you want to join our club -- or if you are a magician visiting the area. When we have guest lectures (we've had Lee Earle, Dan Garrett, Docc Hilford, Guy Hollingworth, Loren Christopher Michaels, and David Roth to name a few) non-members are required to pay to attend.
What are the meetings like?
Some of our past meetings from years ago have been: November was our annual banquet with a few performances by some members; September's theme was Halloween and Haunted Houses; July was a special lecture by Mitch Williams; April's theme was RINGS; the February meeting was a special lecture by Jerry Andrus; and the January 1997 meeting was our annual flea market and auction.
Click here to see some pictures from our meetings.
Or click here to find out about some of our past lectures.
How about a lunch for magicians... every Saturday?
There is also a lunch every Saturday for magicians to just get-together, talk, show, and share -- not affiliated with any club, no membership needed... just be a magician, show up, and pay for your own lunch (not affiliated with SAM 94). We've been doing this weekly lunch for over twelve years!
Yes, it really is still going on every saturday after all these years... Sometimes 2 people show up, sometimes 6 or 8 show up. Here it is... May 2007 and these weekly lunches are still going!
In the PAST there was Glenn's Calendar of Magic! Let's see if he'll get the calendar up and running again...???? Will he? or won't he? I think he won't...