Society of American Magicians
Al Baker Assembly #35
December, 2006
Message From the
President
Dear Compeers,
We enter the holiday season looking forward to our
big Cavalcade of Magic on January 5
th
, 6
th
and 7
th
,
2007. The performance line up has been solidified we
have a stage crew and a stage manager, Frank
Monaco. Derrin Berger has been working hard to
keep us on point with preparations, details and
meetings. I would like to thank you all for supporting
this event and ask those of you not directly involved
with the show to support this fund raiser by doing
what you can to promote it and put bodies in the
seats. We have less than a month before this show
becomes a memory and we hope that it will be as big
a success as last year’s show.
I look forward to seeing everyone at our next meeting
featuring Harley Newman’s lecture, please come out
and support this lecture.
Happy Holidays!
Magically Yours,
Carlo DeBlasio
Last Month
Business first:
The business meeting was kept very
short in lieu of a fully packed lecture. Carlo and
Derrin added a few more of the details of the
Cavalcade show before bringing on our guest.
Our December meeting featured guest lecturer John
Born. John had recently moved to NYC and S.A.M.
#35 was number 29 of a 31 lecture tour for the last
month and a half. The first hour (yes, hour) was
dedicated to the explanation of just one effect. The
classic plot of Any Card, Any Number was discussed
in great detail, including many of the theatrical and
psychological subtleties John has used while
developing his version of this effect. The next phase
of the lecture was spent discussing how gimmicks are
used to create some of the most visually stunning
coin magic around. Finally, John shared some of his
innovations in the field of sleight of hand with coins,
showing us why he is in the top of his field.
President:
Carlo Deblasio
(518) 678-2173
magic@magicbycarlo.com
Vice President:
Marc Berger
(845) 565-6218
magicmawk@hotmail.com
Secretary:
Derrin Berger
(845) 452-3385
magicder@hotmail.com
Treasurer:
Roger Lewin
(845) 473-2320
lewin@us.ibm.com
Scribe:
Craig Kunaschek
(845) 298-2760
kunaschk@gmail.com
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1
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Society of American Magicians
Al Baker Assembly #35
December, 2006
Next Meeting
December 12, 2006
Lecture by
Harley Newman
Time: 7:30 PM
Location: Central Hudson – 245 South Road
Host: John Shaw
www.bladewalker.com
Upcoming Events
December 9 2006
New Fairfield Fire Dept.
Children's Magic Show for Green Chimneys
Time: 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM
Guest Magician:
Magic Marty - SAM 141/SAM 35
Derrin Berger - SAM 35
Guest Magicans from the SYM
contact: Marty Steinberg
magicmarty@aol.com
Jan 5-7
Center for Performing Arts
S.A.M. #35 presents:
Cavalcade of Magic II
Fri and Sat: 8PM, Sun: 3PM
www.centerforperformingarts.org
President:
Carlo Deblasio
(518) 678-2173
magic@magicbycarlo.com
Vice President:
Marc Berger
(845) 565-6218
magicmawk@hotmail.com
Secretary:
Derrin Berger
(845) 452-3385
magicder@hotmail.com
Treasurer:
Roger Lewin
(845) 473-2320
lewin@us.ibm.com
Scribe:
Craig Kunaschek
(845) 298-2760
kunaschk@gmail.com
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2
John Born demonstrating one of his many
stunning versions of a coin matrix.
pg_0003
Society of American Magicians
Al Baker Assembly #35
December, 2006
Club Calendar
December
December 12, 2006
Lecture by
Harley Newman
Location: Central Hudson – 245 South Road
Host: John Shaw
January
January 5-7, 2006
S.A.M. #35 Presents:
Cavalcade of Magic at the Center for Performing
Arts in Rhinebeck, NY
Frankly
Speaking...
by Frank Monaco
Sounds Good to Me
This month I would like to
talk about convenient ways to
put music into your show without having someone
run sound for you.
As many of you probably already know, there are
several devices on the market today to help you do
just that, put music into your show without having to
pay someone to run it for you. These devices range
from a simple handheld remote control for your
iPOD, to complex systems such as the ShowTech.
Let’s start simple and work our way up, shall we.
The first thing we can talk about is the source of your
music. Well, today we are lucky, we have several
options at our disposal. The most popular is of
course the iPOD. The iPOD from Apple has taken
the world by storm. What exactly is an iPOD though,
some people still don’t know. The iPOD comes in
many different varieties today, from a hard drive
device to a solid state device. The hard drive version
is just that, a music player that has a tiny computer
like hard drive as it’s storage device. The Solid State
version is known as the iPOD Shuffle and has a solid
state Card, not a Hard Drive, as it’s storage device.
Below is a chart of the various types of iPODs that
are available today.
President:
Carlo Deblasio
(518) 678-2173
magic@magicbycarlo.com
Vice President:
Marc Berger
(845) 565-6218
magicmawk@hotmail.com
Secretary:
Derrin Berger
(845) 452-3385
magicder@hotmail.com
Treasurer:
Roger Lewin
(845) 473-2320
lewin@us.ibm.com
Scribe:
Craig Kunaschek
(845) 298-2760
kunaschk@gmail.com
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3
pg_0004
Society of American Magicians
Al Baker Assembly #35
December, 2006
I would recommend the iPod nano for your show
mainly for two reasons. One is price, the Nano’s are
cheaper then the full blown Video iPod. The other is
size, Nano’s are smaller and sleeker then the Full size
video iPod. If you decide to go for the iPod Shuffle,
remember this does not have a display screen built
into the unit, so it is impossible to know what song
you are on and for that matter, what songs you have
on the unit all together. The smallest Nano is 2GB,
which translates to approximately 500 songs, which
is plenty for just about anyone. Now remember,
these songs are assumed to be in MP3 Format, so if
they are not in MP3 format, the songs will take up
more room and obviously, you would not be able to
carry as many songs on the device.
OK enough about iPods, if you would like to learn
more about them, go the following website :
http://www.apple.com
President:
Carlo Deblasio
(518) 678-2173
magic@magicbycarlo.com
Vice President:
Marc Berger
(845) 565-6218
magicmawk@hotmail.com
Secretary:
Derrin Berger
(845) 452-3385
magicder@hotmail.com
Treasurer:
Roger Lewin
(845) 473-2320
lewin@us.ibm.com
Scribe:
Craig Kunaschek
(845) 298-2760
kunaschk@gmail.com
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4
Illustration
1
: iPOD Shuffle (Solid State)
Illustration
2
: iPOD
Nano’s (Hard Drive )
Illustration
3
: Video
iPODs (Hard Drive)
pg_0005
Society of American Magicians
Al Baker Assembly #35
December, 2006
I could talk about music sources for the next 30
pages, but I won’t. Instead I would like to tell you
about what is available to run these various music
sources. First we have a device known as the VSM
or Virtual Sound Man. This clever little device
invented by Kelly Duro is capable of running an
iPod, Mini-Disk or Certain CD Players.
The current VSM known as the iCUE Duo is capable
of running an iPod and either a Mini-Disk or CD
Player at the same time. That’s right it can run 2
devices at once. So, you could have sound effects on
your Mini-Disk and your music on your iPod. You
can then control both from the same remote control.
Then the remote can be worn on your belt, hand held
or attached via an ankle switch. This device is really
amazing as you have total control over your music
and sound effects at all times. You can raise and
lower your volume, go track forward or track back,
fade the music, etc. This device has so many
features, I don’t have room to list them all. So
instead, go to the following website to learn more
about this little unit.
http://www.virtualsoundman.com
.
The next unit I would like to talk about is the
ShowTech. Now the ShowTech is another amazing
device. It was invented by Kerry Pollock and has the
ability to control not only sound sources, but also
light sources as well. The sound devices it can
control are the same as the VSM. It can control an
iPod, certain CD Players and Mini Disk. The
ShowTech can also do everything the VSM can do
and more. It has a full array of add ons and extras
that are quite useful. If your show requires
complicated sound and lighting cues this may the unit
for you. You can learn more about the ShowTech at
the following website.
http://www.wirelesswizardry.com
.
Another interesting product, that is fairly new on the
market and is also manufactured by Wireless
Wizardry is the MP3 Tech. Basically, it is a Wireless
Solid State card player. It takes what appears to be
Compact Flash cards that have music stored on them,
and plays that music through whatever sound system
it is hooked up to, via standard audio connections.
There is not much info about it on the website, but I
assume you would load the music you have for your
show, on to the various Compact Flash cards using
your computer and the supplied software and play
those cards through the MP3 Tech unit. This appears
to be a very simple, and straight forward way to get
the music you want into your show. No need for a
separate player unit like a mini disk or iPod. It also
comes with a remote and if you mention the ad on the
website, you receive an extra remote for free. This
unit also has the ability to display what track you are
on and various other info by using the wireless
display that can be mounted just about anywhere you
like. I have spoken to a few people that have this
new unit and they love it. It is definitely worth a
look.
Of course, you can always go less expensive and less
complicated by getting one of the tons of remote
control units produced for the iPod exclusively. As a
matter of fact, I just picked up a new one myself,
President:
Carlo Deblasio
(518) 678-2173
magic@magicbycarlo.com
Vice President:
Marc Berger
(845) 565-6218
magicmawk@hotmail.com
Secretary:
Derrin Berger
(845) 452-3385
magicder@hotmail.com
Treasurer:
Roger Lewin
(845) 473-2320
lewin@us.ibm.com
Scribe:
Craig Kunaschek
(845) 298-2760
kunaschk@gmail.com
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