The Show Must Go On!

Posted by admin on Thursday, May 19, 2011 in Ring Member Activities, Upcoming Events | 0 comments

Charlie Zuis’ last wish was that the scheduled June 4th Magic Convention at his Museum of Famous Unknown Magicians and Clowns take place. And it will! All magicians are welcome!

The guest lecturer for the convention is the Society of American Magician’s George Schindler, the S.A.M. Dean of American Magicians. He will also perform a Broken Wand Ceremony for Charlie.

Please see the link above for additional details about the convention.

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In Memory of Charlie Zuis

Posted by admin on Thursday, May 19, 2011 in Magic News | 0 comments

Ring 101 Life Member Charlie Zuis passed away on Monday, May 16, 2011. Charlie had spent the winter in Florida with his daughters and their families recovering from some health issues. He returned to upstate NY in April, and was doing very well. He attended the Ring 101 – hosted Will Houstoun lecture on April 20, and he looked healthy, his spirits were high, and his interest and enthusiasm for magic hadn’t faded one bit. He also attended the FFFF Convention at the end of April.

Charlie’s obituary is contained in this PDF file (293K).

His funeral will be at the St. Anthony & Joseph’s Church in Herkimer at 9:30am on Thursday, May 26th.

Charlie’s friend (and annual performer at the Museum) Carroll Chapman has informed me that Charlie’s last wish was that the June 4th Convention at his Museum go on. And it will – see the next blog post for more info.

Charlie’s friend Alan Drew has informed me that Phil Messina will do the Broken Wand Ceremony at the church service, and George Schindler, S.A.M. Dean of American Magicians will be doing the Broken Wand Ceremony at the Museum.

I’ve also heard from Charlie’s daughters Pam and Marge, who shared that “We are so happy that his magical life will be remembered each time someone says “pick a card, any card” or makes a bouquet of flowers pop out of a hat!”

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The Art and History of Magic

Posted by admin on Wednesday, May 4, 2011 in Ring Member Activities | 0 comments

Ring member Ryan Wallace wrote an excellent 11 page paper on The Art and History of Magic, and he would like to share it with everyone via our Ring web site. What follows is his introductory paragraph. Below that is a link where you can download a PDF version of his paper. Enjoy!

Magic is an art that truly mystifies people, and allows them to feel like a young child for just a moment. It allows people to leave the confines of reality, and actually wonder about the forces of the universe that are around us. What people see when it comes to magic is the practice of the person who does it, combined with theatrical use of the environment. There have been many ways in which this ancient art has been used, some good, some bad. But all in all, magic is a true wonder.

Download the entire paper (small 80K file in Adobe Acrobat PDF format) here.

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Funeral Magic

Posted by admin on Wednesday, May 4, 2011 in Ring Member Activities | 0 comments

Ring 101 members (and former Ring presidents) Leon Etienne and Matt Episcopo created, produced, starred in, and presented this video at the FFFF convention last week in Batavia, NY. Enjoy!

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