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 and fellowship. Cocktails normally start at 6 p.m., dinner at 6:30 p.m. and the meeting at 8 p.m. However, please plan to come early for the April 2008 meeting as the evening show will start promptly at 7:00 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.
ANNUAL DUES:
Dues are now due! Our dues are only $10 per year, a real bargain. If you have not yet paid dues for the new fiscal year (April 1, 2008 to March 31, 2009), you may pay the Treasurer, Noland Montgomery, at the meeting or mail your check payable to “Larry West Assembly 23” to Noland Montgomery, P.O. Box 581, Beltsville, Maryland 20704-0581.
OUR NEXT MEETING:
In lieu of the regularly scheduled meeting, the Assembly will hold its annual close-up/parlor show for the National Press Club members and other guests on Wednesday, April 16, 2008. The show is free to the public and starts at 7:00 p.m. instead of at the regular 8:00 p.m. meeting time. Please arrive early and if you will be dining at the Press Club, arrive extra early. Press Club members, Assembly members, non-member magicians and their guests are all invited. The performances are family-oriented, so children of all ages are welcome. Performers will include Turley the Magician, Lee Eyler, Buddy Smith, Sam Brothers, Lars Klores and Dwight Redman. Rick Beatty and Steve Javes will be the evening emcees.
SPECIAL MARCH EVENT:
At the March 19 Assembly meeting, Barry Taylor was the recipient of the Assembly's first annual "Sammy Award". The dinner was well attended without a single empty seat at the table.
Larry Lipman began the evening with a very short business meeting. The following topics were discussed: the Annual Close-Up show at the National Press Club to be held on April 16th starting at 7:00 p.m. as well as the upcoming IBM Ring 50 Magi-Whirl 2008 to be held March 28th and 29th. The motion was made and seconded to have Sam Brothers carry a proxy vote for the chapter at the National IBM/SAM Meeting in June 2008. The meeting was adjourned at 7:42 p.m.
All the dinner attendees moved to a larger room in the club and were treated to a standing room only roast in honor of Barry Taylor.
The roast began with a video from Dallas-based James Munton featuring special "guest appearances" (actually, James wearing various disguises) from some of the top names in the magic field such as: a very muscular Greg Wilson, a thoughtful Jeff McBride, Chef Aldo Combini, a hacking Martin Nash, a strangely powerful Max Maven, Dan Harlan, and finally some kind words from James himself.
Then a beautiful and touching video montage was played that was created by Barry's wife Suzie. It was a myriad of photos of Barry showing his history from his beginnings in magic to recent photos with various top names in the industry.
Larry Davidson gave several hilarious stories about Barry struggling to get his start with his magic store. George Woo spoke about several other very funny situations as well. Barry Wood spoke about his relationship with Barry and expressed his frustration as always getting called "the other Barry”. Joe Zable performed a very funny and creative mentalist routine with several cards and spoke about Barry the man, the punster, the lecturer, the shop keeper, his wife, the psychic ghost theatre and his relationship with Al Cohen and Al’s magic shop in Washington, DC.
Al Cohen spoke at great length about his relationship with Barry. Al then performed a card revelation in which the spectator sat on a freely chosen card, and Al seemingly discovered the name of the card by shining a light into the spectator's mouth and down his throat. His second routine was a CD that played by itself without a player.
Next, Larry Lipman presented Barry with a beautiful SAM Assembly 23 Sammy Award plaque. Barry then gave a warm and at times, emotional, speech, and presented a wonderful poem about the rewards of being a magic dealer. He closed the evening with a fantastic stage version of the 3 card monte in which all three card ended up being the same!
FUTURE THEMES:
May-“Show us what you want to show us” and nomination of new officers
June-“Show us what you want to show us” and election of new officers
OTHER NON-ASSEMBLY EVENTS OF INTEREST:
June 6 and 7, 2008 will be the annual Parlour Magic Foray of Famous Unknown Magicians and Clowns. This year’s featured performer and lecturer will be Bev Bergeron. Please refer to the attached message from Charlies Zuis, an out-of-town Assembly 23 member, for information concerning this annual event, which will be held at the Hall of Fame of Famous Unknown Magicians and Clowns near Cooperstown, New York.
