I.B.M. Ring 362
Dr. James William Elliott Ring
Bangor, Maine

Ring Report
April 23, 2006

The April meeting of I.B.M. Ring 362 was held at the Sebasticook Valley Community Center in Newport, Maine, on April 23 at 3:00 pm. This was the Ring's first meeting at the SVCC, which is to be our meeting place for the foreseeable future. The theme of the meeting was Gambling Effects. In addition, the Ring's first contest, the Dr. James William Elliott Card Challenge, was held at this meeting.

The performances began with Dr. Wilson's performance of a Prize Candy pitch. He introduced an exciting new product - Prize Candy, from the All-American Prize Candy Company of Cincinnati, Ohio - describing the wonderful assortment of fresh, delicious candies in each and every bag. Dr. Wilson showed the envelopes in each bag with tickets for valuable prizes. As a special inducement to buy the bags, he tossed aside the normal prize tickets and carefully folded a twenty-dollar bill into an envelope, tucking it into a candy bag. He put dollar bills in three more envelopes, tucking them into bags as well. Then he mixed the bags while asking for bids. Four good sports offered five dollars each for a bag. Once the bags were purchased, their new owners tore into them to see their prizes. Three found the dollar bills that they had seen placed there, while Ring President Alan Drew found only an empty envelope. Dr. Wilson then rubbed it in with a quick round of Fast & Loose, played for stage money.

Wes Booth played a quick round of Three Card Monte in which the money card actually vanished. Bob Nixon performed a beautiful exhibition of dice stacking, ending with a production of a giant die from under the dice cup. Brother Don performed Dai Vernon's poker deal, controlling the aces to the dealer's hand in the first round, then dealing a second round in which each of the four players got a great hand, worth playing to the hilt! After the fourth player was shown to have an "unbeatable" four of a kind, Brother Don revealed the dealer's hand, a Royal Flush. Following the Gambling Effects, Professor Miller performed his routine with a Dean's Box. Ropes linked and unlinked within the mysterious box while volunteers held the ends. Finally, a ring held outside the box was tossed into the box, where it instantly threaded itself onto a rope.

We moved on to the Dr. James William Elliott Card Challenge, named after one of Maine's most skillful card manipulators. Each contestant was given a new deck of cards of unusual design, whose exact nature had been kept secret until the beginning of the contest. Contestants had up to ten minutes to perform card effects of their choice, with the winner to be decided by a vote of the members.

Wes Booth won the competition with a classic card manipulation act, spreading the deck into beautiful fans. He changed the faces of the cards by passing his hand over them, made the cards appear to shrink, and made them appear to have blank faces. He caused cards to vanish by tossing them into the air, then pulled fans of cards from the empty air. After the manipulation segment, Wes had a volunteer select a card, then opened a prediction envelope that had been in plain view throughout his act, revealing his correct prediction. Wes Booth won the contest by a vote of his peers, who admired his skill at performing magic of this kind with new cards; normally, the act requires slightly worn cards that have been powdered. Brother Don, Conjuring Carroll, and Territorial Vice President Bob Nixon also competed, displaying great command of the pasteboards under difficult conditions.

The business meeting was held following the performances. Wes Booth announced plans for a public show in September at the SVCC to compensate them for our use of the facility. Ring members discussed planning for the Ring's first public fund-raising show, the All-Star Magical Revue, to be held at the historic Criterion Theatre in Bar Harbor on the Fourth of July. Further details of the business meeting and upcoming events are available at the Ring's website (www.ibmring362.org).

Bob Nixon stacks the dice.	Brother Don stuns us with a poker demonstration while Alan Drew reflects on his purchase of Prize Candy.

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Professor Miller expounds on modern String Theory with a Dean's Box; Beverly Richards-Smith gets an education.

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2006 Elliott Card Challenge Contestants (left to right): Conjuring Carroll, Wes Booth with trophy, Bob Nixon, Brother Don.