Mordecai's Journal

Dave Edwards attended the Gathering this year and sends in this report:

The Thirteenth Annual Gathering of The Inner Circle of Bizarre Magick was held at The Radisson Hotel in Cromwell, CT, on November 11, 12 and 13.  The Gathering opened with the beheading of Dave Mousch by Joe Cabral and included excellent lectures by Charles Pecor, Docc Hilford and Craig Dickson, the traditional Works in Progress, a Close-Up Show and an evening show.  There was also a surprise lecture on Ghost Hunting by Vlad and Adrian Deery.  Highlights of the close-up show included Vlad’s card routine, a mentalist routine by Tony Razzano, Ed Solomon’s story-telling and a special vent act with God and the Devil performed by Circe (who’s known to many of us as Marlene).

The Saturday Full Evening Show opened with the traditional Circle Casting led by Joe Cabral, who then dedicated the performance to Richard Wilson, a recently deceased member, and then presented the Lionheart Award to gathering honoree Todd Robbins.  Todd then took over as M. C. for the evening.

The show opened with Brittany Malatesta, who has opened almost every Gathering evening show with her reptile act, for a change of pace performed a sophisticated rope routine.  She was followed by David London, Bosco, Dr. Skevorkian and Dave Mousch’s mind-reading head, Charles Pecor’s entertaining Mentalist Act, Kardor’s Comedy Mentalist Act and Walt Anthony’s charming story magic.

The second half of the show was Docc Hilford traveling through time and Todd Robbins performing his incomparable Side Show routine.  The show closed with a well-deserved standing ovation for Todd Robbins. The yearly gathering is a unique convention in which the members perform and all participate.  Hopefully this unique convention will continue for years to come.

T he festivities started off at 9:43AM with a lecture by Torkova. He demonstrated and taught effects such as:

• Karate Coin -- the illusion of a finger through a half dollar;
• Card Warp -- with a variation that allows the "flipped" card to be shown completely turned over;
• A variation on the Down’s Palm;
• Edible Coin -- from David Acer;
• The "Story" of the Coloring Book -- taking the time to "explain" the pictures makes the trick more engaging to the audience (and makes the trick last longer);
• Torn and Restored Card -- uses a pre-torn, pre-initialed card, a double-back, and an "envelope" card.

A very informative lecture, indeed.

A quick break and then at 11:00 AM, George Schindler gave his very fine lecture.  Of course, we Hartfordites got to see it first!

After lunch, at 1:30 PM was the Sylvester The Jester lecture.  It was a rather disjointed lecture, as Sylvester had only had about 3 hours sleep.  Essentially he emphasized drawing on creativity, illustrating with some of his props that he had in a box with him.  He also spent a lot of time on pitching coins.

During the supper break, the doors of the meeting room were sealed to prevent light-leaks, as Part One of the Evening Show required absolute darkness.  Dan Sclare and I went to the restaurant next door to have dinner with George and Nina Schindler.

8:00 PM Evening Show, Part 1, The Final Houdini Séance.  Damien "presided" over six members of the audience placed around a table on stage, along with "Jeeves" (Dave Jaye).  The rest of the room in complete darkness--only a candle on the table.  This was presented as a theater piece rather than a magic act (although there were some mentalism effects).  On that level in worked well enough, but the pacing was very slow and the ending was unsatisfactory.

A raffle was held during the intermission, including most of the balloon sculptures that decorated the meeting room and hotel lobby.

The Main Event featured: Torkova doing his classic Miser’s Dream/Coin Ladder; Dana Ferranti, a 13- year-old very fine juggler; George Schindler and Nina, with his regular nightclub act.  George also served as emcee.  The closing show was Sylvester The Jester, the living cartoon.  Very funny act  Nobody else does what he does.

Almodarr and Angelique (from Maine) had a "hospitality suite" in their room both in the afternoon and after the evening show.  It was very popular.