After a summer hiatus, IBM Ring 54, The Doug Dean Ring, The Magicians Guild of Lansing, resumed its meetings for the 2011-2012 season. The meeting began with a discussion of the progress of the Michigan Magic Day 2012 committee, setting up for the Michigan Magic Day 2012 conference on April 20-21, 2012 in Lansing, MI. This event rotates among the various Rings and Assemblies of Michigan, and 2012 is once again Ring 54′s turn.

The venue is getting arranged, and promises to be a very nice setting for a VERY good conference. Several performers are already committed to the event and more are on the way. For 2012, in honor of Doug Dean, for whom the Ring is named and who died recently of Parkinson’s Disease, we are coordinating our efforts with the local Parkinson’s group and using the event as a fundraiser for their organization. Ring members are donating time working with other places to reduce our costs for the event and make best use of the money we raise. Michigan magic clubs have been innovating for many years, sometimes to greater or lesser benefit, and we continue trying to make use of the best ideas for the coming year.

The meeting started, as tradition has it, with a 50/50 raffle (one ticket always given free to the server at the restaurant). We then launched into the night with a “Book Learning” theme. Sam Durocher brought a sampling of his library, including a volume of Tarbell and Expert Card Magic, and each member was to go to the table and pick a book. They were then to pick a trick from the book that they had not done before, learn it, and present it in performance to the rest of the group.

It made for an interesting evening. Highly experienced members, like Krag Ryal, presented one piece, then added some subtlety, then demonstrated another, related routine. Even the newest and least experienced of the group, though, were able to find and display some skill. In the process, additionally, we were reminded both of the wealth of information residing in the written literature and of the value of returning to those books, from time to time, to remember some of the finer points of our craft.

Dr Ken Salzman, Secretary, IBM Ring 54, The Doug Dean Ring, The Magicians
Guild of Lansing, MI