Monday, November 26, 2007

Egg Bag, November

THE EGG-BAG-NOVEMBER 2007 ISSUE

Monthly Newsletter of the Larry West Assembly No. 23

Society of American Magicians

The Larry West Assembly meets the 3rd Wednesday every month at the National Press Club, at 14th and F Streets, N.W. in Washington, D.C.

Join us for magic, fun & fellowship. Cocktails start at 6 p.m., dinner at 6:30 and the Meeting at 8 p.m. Dress code: please remember that the Assembly is a guest of the National Press Club. Gentlemen should dress business casual or better–no Tee-shirts, shorts, jeans or flip-flops to the dinner meetings. Ladies should dress correspondingly appropriately.

OUR NEXT MEETING – NOVEMBER 21, 2007

Theme for this meeting:

The suggested theme for this meeting is “Holiday Magic” so that members can brush up on their Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and any other holiday-related tricks they may wish to present during the upcoming holiday season. As always, the theme is not mandatory and members are also more than welcome to present any trick of their choosing (not holiday themed), whether it be a work in progress, that they are seeking constructive feed-back on, or simply a favorite trick.

MINI-LECTURE:

This month’s topic: “Color changes, transformations and switches with a deck of playing cards”

Presenter: The Legendary Rick Beatty

If there is a topic you would like to see covered, or a topic you would like to volunteer to teach, please e-mail your suggestion to Larry Lipman at: lorenzomagic@cox.net. Remember, the idea behind our mini-lectures is that one member will spend 5 to 10 minutes at each meeting demonstrating a move, a technique or a trick and teach the rest of us.

LAST MONTH:

George Schindler was our featured lecturer at the October meeting and drew a packed house with his “Entertainment is First” lecture. George performed and explained his stand-up comedy routine, done entirely from his pocket and drawing heavily on playing cards. George’s professional routine is extremely practical, plays big and very, very funny. For those who missed the lecture, a portion of his presentation is available on DVD from your favorite dealer. George’s lecture was a real education in how to structure and present a highly entertaining, commercial magic routine.

FUTURE THEMES:

December-“Show us what you want to show us”

January-Love Story (Valentine day magic)

February-“Show us what you want to show us”

March-“Show us what you want to show us”

April-“Annual Close-up Show”

May-“Show us what you want to show us”

OFFICERS:

President - Larry Lipman

Vice President - Matt Hiller

Treasurer - Noland Montgomery

Secretary - Ray Eyler

Egg-Bag Reporter - Sam Brothers

Webmaster – Lars Klores

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE FROM LARRY LIPMAN:

The National Press Club and S.A.M. Assembly 23, the Larry West Assembly, have a long history together. And we have an unwritten tradition: the Club provides us with hundreds of dollars worth of free meeting space each year and allows us to dine and drink in what is normally an NPC members only area.

In exchange, the Assembly provides free magical entertainment at Press Club functions. One of the most rewarding of these functions, from a performer’s standpoint, is the annual Children’s Holiday Party. This event is usually attended by hundreds of Club members and their families. There is food, drink, games, and Santa Claus. Over the years, a handful of our members have performed children’s strolling magic at the party. This year the party will be held Saturday, Dec. 15 beginning at 11 a.m.

I’m looking for a few magicians who would be willing to perform that afternoon. For those of you who want a little more performing “flight time,” this is the perfect venue: you will not be performing alone so you don’t have to worry about being the sole magical entertainer; and you’re not doing it for payment, so you don’t have to worry that you’re not giving the clients their “money’s worth.” At the same time, you will gain invaluable experience and have a great and rewarding time bringing smiles to the faces of young and old alike.

Normally, the performance is about two hours. But you are not expected to perform for the entire solid two hours. If you would like to do it, please contact me at: lorenzomagic@cox.net.

There will be several other opportunities to perform at the Club. At the end of January, there will be the NPC presidential inauguration. We usually provide two or three very good close-up strolling magicians for this adult, black-tie event. If you think you can handle it and would like to be considered for performance, send me a note to the above address.

This year there will be two opportunities for Assembly magi to perform in April. The Club will be celebrating its 100th Anniversary with a gala event on Saturday, April, 5. We’ll again be looking for top-notch strolling magicians to entertain adults. Let me know if you would like to be considered for performance.

And our annual Close Up show, for a family-style audience of children and adults, will be the third Thursday of April, in place of our regular meeting. Again, this is a wonderful opportunity to get performing experience, or just help us keep our share of the bargain with the Press Club. This is more of a parlor magic style show in front of about 25 to 40 people in a couple of rooms. We’ll let you know more about it as we get closer to the date. But if you want to be considered for performance, particularly if you have not done so in the past, please let us know.

I am also discussing the possibility of some of our members providing brief magical stand-up entertainment at the Press Club’s monthly “Pub Quiz” nights. I’ll let you know more about that if we can work it out.

Assembly 23 is different from some other magic clubs. We emphasize the performance of magic. That’s why everyone performs at every regular meeting. These events with the Press Club allow us to stretch our performance wings even farther.