JAM Session: April 8, 2025 Topic: Anything Goes See B'Day Pix at Gallery
2025 IBM Ring 398 Monthly Meeting Topics
2025 Ring Meeting Topics
Let’s make 2025 the ‘Year of Creativity’ for Ring 398. While one of the reasons to form a Ring is to provide fun and comradeship for our members, it should also be an opportunity for the members to learn and expand their magical talents.
While our JAM (Just About Magic) will continue its “Anything Goes” tradition for the second Tuesday of the month, we have a new set of themes for our Showcase Session, the fourth Tuesday of the Month
1. Plan your next month’s contribution well in advance of the monthly Showcase Magic Night meeting so we have ample time to prepare our presentations properly. Last-minute preparations often don’t end well and tend to leave us disappointed in our performance.
2. If you don’t have a magic piece that fits the month’s theme, you can go to YouTube and review an endless array of opportunities. There are so many ideas for those of us who wish to take magic more seriously. But it does require a little effort. This is an opportunity to make our Ring meetings a true magical learning experience.
3. The following list includes a wide array of magic. When you come upon a unique routine, save it for the appropriate night. These meetings can include good learning experiences as well as good comradeship. Ring 398 is a very talented group of magicians and should be the standard for other Rings to follow. Why shouldn’t we be the best?
4. It might benefit us, at times, to request constructive feedback from the group. We may not always like what we hear, but it can help us improve our presentations.
January 14 (JAM Session) and 28 (Showcase Session)
Stage Magic – The prop for your routine should be large enough to reach at least 25 people. The presentation should include an interesting script – clever, humorous, insightful, poetic, etc.
February 11 (JAM Session) and 25 (Showcase Session)
Kids Magic – It’s kids night!! Many of you do library magic, birthday parties, family reunions, festivals, etc. Let’s give each other some new ideas as to what works for our younger audiences. These are often the more challenging groups to entertain. Let’s share some new ideas that work for us.
March 11(JAM Session) and 25 (Showcase Session)
Something New – We all like to show off something we’ve been comfortable doing in the past. Not tonight. Tonight, we will present the most recent addition to our magic arsenal. The magic shown should be new to the audience – something refreshing we might want to add to our repertoire.
April 8 (JAM Session) and 22 (Showcase Session)
Teach a Trick – We all look forward to telling the group how a trick is done. Tonight is not ‘Show and Tell’. Tonight, we get to be the person in the classroom with the big desk. We’ll present the magic piece and then proceed to teach the group our step-by-step approach. Presentations might require the magicians to bring some special items, so let Kevin know what we need to bring so he can add it to the group email.
May 13 (JAM Session) and 27 (Showcase Session)
Mentalism –There are many kinds of mental magic. What flavor do you prefer? Telepathy, Clairvoyance, Thought Transference, Precognition, or Extra Sensory Perception? Whether you want to reach into the mind, see beyond what is visible, or open the door to realms beyond the five senses, this is your chance to light some sparks in the dark
June 10 (JAM Session) and 24 (Showcase Session)
Penn and Teller Night–Tonight is your chance to fool us. Marv will create a Ring 398 FOOL US award. The group will pick a panel of three to decide who will take the trophy home. There will be no restrictions on the type of magic you choose. The panel can ask one ‘open’ question to confirm their suspicions – but just one. Come up with something that will impress the panel. You should be planning for this event well before it happens. Let’s give Daryl some competition!!!!
July 8 (JAM Session) and 22 (Showcase Session)
Visual Illusion Magic– Does it float, appear out of thin air, vanish on demand, change color, move about on its own, multiply itself, solid through solid, or anything so visually confusing that it will leave us shaking our heads? Create an atmosphere that says, “I can see it, but I don’t believe it.”
August 12 (JAM Session) and 26 (Showcase Session)
Back to Basics – Tonight, we will go back to the golden oldies. Let’s present our best versions of the tricks that have been with us forever – Cups and Balls, Linking Rings, Die Box, Egg Bag, Coin Manipulation, Thimbles, Silks, etc. However, we are looking for new approaches to these old routines. YouTube is always an excellent source of new ideas. Let’s do a little research to add new life to these old standbys.
September 9 (JAM Session) and 23 (Showcase Session)
Torn (cut) and Restored– We’ve all done some form of torn and restored magic – Newspapers, playing cards, magazines, paper money, ropes and strings. While new methods are welcomed, let’s see how successfully we can revive our old archived magic. Bring your favorites, breathe fresh life into them, and share the stories behind these classic illusions.
October 14 (JAM Session) and 28 (Showcase Session)
Eerily Mystifying – It’s Halloween season again. Come up with the freakiest magic in your repertoire. Only use wrist choppers and guillotines if you think they might fail. There are no limitations on what you come up with so long as it leaves us with that EERIE feeling.
November 11 (JAM Session) and 25 (Showcase Session)
Box Night – Tonight, we will limit ourselves to box-type routines –Dean’s Box, playing card boxes, staked boxes, clear boxes, fall-apart boxes, and anything else so long as the box is at the heart of the presentation. To come up with something clever, think outside of the box.
December Date To Be Determined.
Election of Officers and Pizza Night. This is holiday party night. Be prepared to perform anything you think will impress our guests.
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