On the Cover

By Karl Rabe

Magic Messenger December 2022

In this issue we fondly remember founding Ann Arbor Magic Club member John Osborne. On the cover, John Osborne as "Doc" Robin Steel. In the Broken Wand column see photos from John's memorial. A special edition of Spotlight was written by Ming Louie about John's life. And finally, in Funny Business, we share John's favorite Why are Fire Engines Red routine as well as some other gems.

In This Issue

The President’s Corner

The Broken Wand

Spotlight

John Osborne

The Secretary’s Report

Funny Business

Around the Town

President's Corner

By Dan Jones

Our last meeting of the year is coming up on Wednesday, December 14th from 7-9 pm at the Plymouth Community Arts Council located at 774 N. Sheldon Rd. in Plymouth, MI 48170.

It will be our Christmas Party/meeting with a fun gift exchange. The theme is Christmas Magic.

If you choose to participate in the gift exchange here are the rules.

Bring a magic trick, prop or book from your own collection.
The "value" of the item should be no more than $20 based on what you told your spouse it cost.
Wrap it or put it in a gift bag and bring it to the meeting.
We will have a "White Elephant" gift exchange.

We will explain the exchange rules at the meeting.

Everyone must have something in their collection they'd be willing to part with. Let's have a fun time with this.

We are already in the planning stages for our next public magic show which will be held on Saturday, May 20th, 2023. We are planning on 2 shows that day. A matinee and an evening performance. How will you be involved in these shows? There are plenty of opportunities to help out YOUR club.

At our March 2023 meeting Mike Bogdas has lined up a lecture for us.vErik Tait from Columbus, Ohio will come and present his lecture to our club so mark your calendars and spread the word.

We hope to see you all on Dec. 14th.

The Broken Wand

By Karl Rabe

Friends, Family and many from the Magic community attended a memorial service held for John Osborne at the Bone Yard Restaurant in Livonia, MI. (Photos courtesy of Jackie Clark). Tad Dickerson bought a seven foot canvas sideshow banner of John as Doc Robin Steel. John's family was well represented and appreciative of the gathering. Many shared thoughts and remembrances of John. Jeff Hobson sent a video message that was played. The AAMC Board conducted a broken wand ceremony. And finally Michael Mode led everyone in a final standing ovation for John.

AAMC Board Conducts the Broken Wand Ceremony (L-R) Rob Krozal (Treasurer),
Don Oesterwind (Sgt at Arms), Karl Rabe (Secretary), Dan Jones (President), Sean Howell (Vice-Press).

Ming Louie

Tad Dickerson

Michael Mode

Photos provided by Kevin Peshick

Spotlight

By Karl Rabe

This month we have a special edition of Spotlight. We are featuring John Osborne, one of our founding members that passed away recently.

Club member Ming Louie has compiled this about John.

John Osborne

John Edward Osborne was born June 13, 1939, in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, and died peacefully after a long illness at the age of 83 on Monday, October 24, 2022. He is survived by his older brother Raymond, Raymond's wife Judith, their two boys and one daughter, and a cousin Mary Lou.

A founding member of IBM Ring 210, John spent his entire life performing as a ventriloquist with his self-made dummy Clancy, as medicine show pitchman Doc Robin Steel, as a Punch & Judy puppeteer, and as a Magician. He had his own school assembly booking agency in the 1960s and performed for fairs and trade shows throughout Canada, and the United States, including the Canadian National Exhibition, Detroit Auto Show, and Petrochemical shows in Texas, and over 30 states throughout the United States. John received his Bachelors of Science degree from Wayne State University and he completed graduate science studies at the University of Detroit.

Clancy & John

John wrote books on comedy, double-talking, building puppets, and vent dummies. Much of his creative output was published and sold by Abbotts Magic in Colon, Michigan and some of it is still available today for purchase.

John was a friend and acquaintance to the greats and near greats. A young Jeff Hobson worked as a roady for John during his medicine show days, along with Jason Magic and others. John often made a foray into the world of working a day job such as teaching public school or the skilled trades, but none of it seems to have had much appeal; he was always drawn back to the romance of the road and the sirens' song of entertainment and performance.

Hippity, John and Clancy

My wife Barbara and I first met John Osborne on Memorial Day weekend in May of 1988 in the sleepy little town of Manistee, Michigan. We were in the middle of a boiler room tour for a Florida booking agent name Victor Lewis, and John was brought in as the new Master of Ceremonies replacing Paul Lennon from Texas. Our intrepid ensemble of performers consisted of comedy juggler Jim Oakley, silent manipulation magicienne Lucy Smalley (also of Ring 210), a live band, illusionists Scorpio & Fantasy, ourselves performing "Chinese" magic along with our dancer Krystan Lim and of course, John. Victor paid us in cash each day from a briefcase of $100 bills; those were halcyon days indeed!

John had the least amount of props among us and worked out of a small suitcase with Clancy, his vent dummy, corny jokes, passe' passe' bottles, a die box, and all the tricks you would expect in a child's magic set. But what he had in abundance was a compelling personality, one-liners, jokes from the dawn of civilization, and an infectious smile; as an audience, you liked him right away.

I was in awe of the reaction he received from the crowd with such small, simple tricks. We often played very large venues with huge audiences, such as the Masonic Temple in Dayton, Ohio, where we drove our full-size van into an elevator and onto the stage to then be unloaded by unionized theater people. A theater that saw the likes of Jim Nabors, Beverly Sills, Kathleen Battle, and others, and now John was before an audience of over a thousand people enjoying themselves and laughing uproariously as he performed.

He was a master of the trade!

Dayton Masonic Temple

Secretary's Report

By Karl Rabe

November's meeting kicked off with introductions and the question, "If you were a color, what color would you be?" A guest, Bou-yu Chen also introduced himself. There was a lot of red, white and blue throughout the group with a few slimming blacks and some yellow.

Our treasurer reported that the Parlor Show grossed $815 and netted $562.
Sean informed the group that for the next show, we plan to have two shows (Matinee and Eventing) and will also have a program and sell advertising, to generate further revenue.
The board informed the club that plans for the Banquet were scrapped.

Next was a Mini-Lecture by Ming Louie. The topic was how to control attention of your audience by eliminating distractions. Specifically how to avoid distractions by the way you are dressed. Ming discussed the importance of not creating a distraction by wearing ill-fitting cloths, appearing unkempt, unflattering wrinkles in your pants, etc. Ming shared a variety of ways to keep your shirt tucked in, including shirt stays, special sticky belts you can wear inside your waistband. He also shared a variety of commercial sources for clothing and accessories.

A number of club members chimed in with suggestions. Here is a partial consolidated list.

Next it was on to Magic.

Dan Jones presented a Scarf Box
Johnny New York did a Heart Production routine
Bou-yu wowed the audience with a traditional card manipulation act
Dan did something with a hot dog.

Funny Business

By Karl Rabe

In this month's Funny Business we share some of John Osborne's favorite gags courtesy of Ming

Why are Fire Engines Red

Why are fire engines red?

A hook and ladder is a fire engine,

a ladder has rungs which is the past tense of ring,

and when that bell rings you can hear it for miles,

miles are measured in feet,

one foot is a ruler,

Queen Mary was a ruler,

Queen Mary is a ship,

ships sail on the ocean,

oceans have fish,

fish have fins,

fins live in Finland which is next to Russia,

Russians are red,

fire engines are always rushin'

so that's why fire engines are red!

Another rare funny bit from John:

A petunia is a flower like a begonia,

a begonia is a ring of sausage,

sausage and berries is a crime,

monkeys crime, monkeys crime trees,

trees a crowd,

and when the crow crowds it makes a horrible noise,

a noise is on your face between your eyes,

eye is the opposite of nay,

horses nay,

and if you go to bed with a colt,

you might wake up with double petunia!

Here's one John and I would often do at parties during a lull:

John: Say whatever happened to Bolliver Shagnasty?

Ming: What was his name?

John: What was who's name?

Ming: Bolliver Shagnasty.

John: Never heard of him!

Needless to say we rarely got invited back. I can tell you many more bits such as egyptus restuna, or the man with the power, but it will have to wait for another time. By the way the bits are funnier if you say it fast.

Please spread the above and bring smiles thanks to John😂!

Ming

Funny Business

By Karl Rabe

In this month's Funny Business we share some of John Osborne's favorite gags courtesy of Ming

Why are Fire Engines Red

Why are fire engines red?

A hook and ladder is a fire engine,

a ladder has rungs which is the past tense of ring,

and when that bell rings you can hear it for miles,

miles are measured in feet,

one foot is a ruler,

Queen Mary was a ruler,

Queen Mary is a ship,

ships sail on the ocean,

oceans have fish,

fish have fins,

fins live in Finland which is next to Russia,

Russians are red,

fire engines are always rushin'

so that's why fire engines are red!

Another rare funny bit from John:

A petunia is a flower like a begonia,

a begonia is a ring of sausage,

sausage and berries is a crime,

monkeys crime, monkeys crime trees,

trees a crowd,

and when the crow crowds it makes a horrible noise,

a noise is on your face between your eyes,

eye is the opposite of nay,

horses nay,

and if you go to bed with a colt,

you might wake up with double petunia!

Here's one John and I would often do at parties during a lull:

John: Say whatever happened to Bolliver Shagnasty?

Ming: What was his name?

John: What was who's name?

Ming: Bolliver Shagnasty.

John: Never heard of him!

Please spread the above and bring smiles thanks to John😂!

Ming

Around the Town