Annual Calendar
June Meeting
AAMC Magic Summer Camp
July Meeting
August Meeting
AAMC Picnic
September Meeting
Flea Market
Parlor Show – Afternoon
Parlor Show – Evening
October Meeting – Parlor Competition
November Meeting
December Meeting – Holiday Party
AAMC Board Elections
Other Events
Ring 22 Michael Breggar Lecture
Ring 22 Monthly Meeting
Abbott’s 88TH Get-together
Coming Up
AAMC Magic Summer CampOngoing
- AAMC
Monthly Board MeetingRepeating Event
- AAMC
July Meeting
- AAMC
August Meeting
- AAMC
AAMC Picnic
- AAMC
September Meeting
- AAMC
The Magic Messenger
The Magic Messenger is published monthly by the Ann Arbor Magic Club (AAMC). The AAMC the Hank Moorehouse Assembly 88 of the Society of American Magicians and Duke Stern Ring 210 of the International Brotherhood of Magicians.
The AAMC (est. 1971) is a Michigan Domestic Non-Profit whose focus is to advance the magical arts by making available equipment, education, mentors and opportunities for magical enthusiasts of all ages to expand their craft.
Ann Arbor Magic Club
Board of Directors
- President: Sean Howell
- Vice-President: Wendy Stone
- Treasurer: Rob Krozal
- Secretary: Karl Rabe
- Sgt at Arms: April Barrett
The Ann Arbor Magic Club meets the 2nd Wed of each month at 7p at the Plymouth Community Arts Council.
Plymouth Community Arts Council
774 N. Sheldon Road at Junction Street
Plymouth, MI 48170
Published by Karl Rabe using Generate Press Theme and Generate Blocks Plugin on WordPress.
©Copyright 2026. All rights reserved, Ann Arbor Magic Club.
In This Issue
- The President's Corner
- The Ring Report
- Hocus Focus
- Around the Town
- Ex Libris
- The Vanishing Archives
- Funny Business
Website:
Email:
US Mail:
https://aamagic.org
annarbormagicclub@gmail.com
P.O. Box 532244 Livonia, MI. 48152
The President's Corner
By Sean Howell
Fellow Magicians, last month’s meeting was a fantastic showcase of talent as we held our annual close-up competition—and what a night it was! With a full slate of six performers, the room was packed with strong magic, bold presentations, and just enough mystery to keep even the saltiest old sea dogs guessing.
A hearty thank you to all who stepped up and shared their magic:
- Eric Bedard
- Ryan Hoffman
- Chuck Kibrough
- Ming Louie
- Michael Thornton
- Robert Langefeld
And a well-earned congratulations to our winner, Eric Bedard, whose performance rose above the rest and claimed the treasure. Nicely done!
Events like this are the lifeblood of the Ann Arbor Magic Club. It’s not just about fooling your fellow magicians (though that’s always a worthy quest), but about sharpening your craft, testing new material, and supporting your crew along the way. Whether you were performing or watching from the crowd, you helped make the evening a success.
Now then—set your sights on the horizon, because this month we’ve got a real prize coming aboard.
We’re excited to welcome Nathan Kranzo, presenting his latest magic lecture. Nathan has spent over two decades performing and lecturing across the United States, Europe, and Asia, earning his reputation as a creative powerhouse and a practical thinker in the art of magic.
He’s the author of seven magic books and the creator of hundreds of original effects, with work published in MAGIC, GENII, MUM, The Linking Ring, PENUMBRA, and beyond. He’s also served as a columnist for MUM magazine.
Nathan has consulted for Penn and Teller, appeared on Wizard Wars and Houdini and Doyle, and was most recently featured on The Amazing Magicians, which held the #1 spot in China for ten straight weeks.
In short—this is no ordinary deckhand. This is a master of the craft, and a lecture you won’t want to miss.
So hoist the sails, gather your gear, and make your way to the next meeting. Opportunities like this are part of what makes our club such a treasure.
Until then, keep practicing, keep performing, and as always—
Keep the magic alive,
Sean “Cap’n Sean” Howell
President
Ann Arbor Magic Club
Ring Report
By Karl Rabe
We had a great turnout for our annual Close-Up Competition. Six members performed at six different tables while spectators watched. After a 5 minute performance, the Captain Sean rang the bell and the performers rotated to the next table while the audience stayed put. In this way each audience member was able to see each performer's act.
- Ryan Hoffman performed a card routine from Card College. Two cards selected from a shuffled deck were returned to the deck and completely mixed. Ryan was then able to find the selected cards.
- Chuck Kibrough kicked off turning the back of a freely selected card green in the spectator's hands. The rest of the deck had red backs. Chuck finished by causing two quarters to appear, one at a time, under a glass sitting on top of a deck of cards in his hands.
- Ming Louie performed a classic of magic Coins Through Table, taught to Ming by Slydini himself. Four silver dollars magically pass through the table one-by-one.
- Eric Bedard - Started with a fantastic multi-phase card warp routine with a bill and a card that ended with a flash card restoration. Next was an ambitious card routine with an Omni Deck (Clear block of plastic) finale.
- Mike Thornton kicked off with a multi-phase sponge bunny routine intermixed with lots of little bits-of-business including squeakers, fake viagra and other jokes and gags. Mike then closed a with an entertaining Chop Cup routine using a lemon and lime for the final loads.
- Robert Langefeld, one of our newer members, kicked off with a three coin routine. The coins vanished from his hands one-by-one and then reappeared. For a finale, the last coin transformed into a packet of one dollar bills. After passing several out for examination, Robert changed the ones to twenties and then back again. And finally, using one of the bills, Robert seamlessly transitioned into a multi-phase bill penetration using a pencil.
After the performances were complete, members voted on their top three favorites. After all the ballots were counted, our president Sean Howell awarded the coveted Close-Up Trophy to Eric Bedard. Mike Thornton and Robert Langefeld were a close second and third respectively.
Congratulations to all our contestants. It was great to see some newer performers bravely get out there and show their stuff. That is what our club is all about!
Hocus Focus
By Various Contributors
We got some great pictures of our close up performers and audience members at our meeting.
Around the Town
By Karl Rabe
Next Meeting
July Meeting
Volunteer's Needed
Other Events
June 2026
AAMC Magic Summer Camp
Monthly Board MeetingRepeating Event
July 2026
Ring 22 Monthly MeetingRepeating Event
August 2026
Abbott’s 88TH Get-together
AAMC Picnic
Ex Libris
By Dr. Joaquin M. Ayala, PhD
Hello folks and welcome to the Ex Libris article for May 2026 (YIKES!) I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the revival of life in the northern hemisphere!
This month I was feeling a tad nostalgic. When I was still performing magic full-time, one of my staples and my biggest upsell for my corporate clientele was doing private parlor shows for their employees, after hours, at the trade shows. It is one of my favorite performance formats because it allows for a wide variety of effects while keeping the groups a little more intimate.
Since our club also performs parlour shows for the public on occasion, it reminded me of a most wonderful book that was released back in 2020, Parlour Tricks by Rhys “Morgan” Jones and Robert “West” Tay (Morgan & West). It is a 356-page hardcover book and published by Vanishing, Inc. Magic. It is another luxurious book with a green leather cover, gilded titling and even comes with a handy sewn-in bookmark.
In this tome you will find quite the variety of material, all of which, in this case, comes from the show the duet performs in the real world. The material within is not something you will learn and then go out and perform in a show, especially not by yourself, without some work in making it fit the style and personality of your own duet. If you plan to perform these effects on a solo level, be prepared to do some work. I say this not to scare you away from this book, but just as something to be aware of.
First off, their style is that of a Victorian-era vaudeville-esque setting, and the effects are written so that the characters play off each other. There is plenty of by-play, and the philosophies and theories that the authors share is quite profound, based on their solo work and their working together as a duet.
That all being said, everything in this book can absolutely be updated and changed to fit any modern style and situation. There is some work on a costume quick change, a wonderful use of an Impossible Bottle (unfamiliar with this one? Look up Harry Eng Impossible Bottles), one of the best Cards Across solutions I have ever used, and some very clever two-person code work. I really appreciate their approach to creating theatricality, writing the audience into the show and some of their other thoughts on developing an act for a modern show, and all of this can be applied to you, whether you are a solo act, a close-up performer, a parlour performer or even part of a duet.
Many of you will be familiar with our own wonderful duet from the AAMC, Bill and Karl Rabe and one of their signature pieces is the Multiplying Bottles, which gets the Morgan & West treatment in this book as an opener called The Restarting Bottle, and the way they perform it reminds me of the playful nature that the Rabe duo exudes in their interpretation.
In TOCA (Thought of Cards Across), you see ten black cards and ten red cards; one person merely thinks of a card, and it travels across to the other pile. In this case, it requires a gaffed set of cards (the official set made by Card Shark, and only $35.99/USD at the time of this writing) and it is super, super clean! There is a wonderful effect using a ribbon, a bag and a borrowed finger ring and a bunch of random rings with a startling finish. The 40 Digit Hyperbrain Act would especially be enjoyed by our mathematical magic wizard, Bob Goodwin. There is even a very intriguing transposition between two people involving a waistcoat, a shoe…and a carrot!
As a bonus, this book includes a link to a live performance of Morgan & West showcasing the material in the book. Including this was a great idea because of the nature of the act and the effects it contains. It gives you a chance to see the magic come alive off the page, to see their interpretation of it, and to also give you a chance to see how you would have to change it to suit your own needs. In my own head, I can see performers like duos of Karl & Bill, Don Oesterwind/Dan Jones and for all the wonderful work he does, even solo performers like Lincoln Stone taking the material in here to all new heights and styles.
That is all for this month, so please join me again in June as we get ready for summer and get ready for another study assignment…the fun kind!
J.M.A.
The Vanishing Archives
By Mike Bogdas
Some traditions in magic never truly vanish—they just get better with age, like a well-worn deck that still forces the ace of spades every time. Back in 1995, the Ypsilanti crew showed how a close group of magicians can turn a simple backyard corn roast into something truly special. Why did the magician bring corn to the club picnic? Because he heard it was a-maize-ing for close-up work! Today, that same spirit lives on in our club, complete with endless card tricks and the occasional silk that refuses to stay vanished.
From M-U-M Assembly Report
We held our annual Corn Roast at the home of Harry and Mary Colestock. This has become a favorite event of our club. It is a chance for us to bring together our families for an afternoon of eating, magic, and fun. It is also a time to see old friends who have not been around for a while. The turnout was good and we could not ask for a more beautiful day. Everyone brought a dish to pass and the Colestocks provided the delicious sweet corn from their garden.
After stuffing ourselves on the large quantity of food, we began doing our favorite magic tricks. People broke into groups to exchange stories and catch up on what’s been happening. Randy Shaw demonstrated his skill with many different card tricks. Chris Moss demonstrated some of his new equipment, and many of the youngsters were trying their hand at juggling (outside, of course).
There were old friends we hadn’t seen in a while and new faces (including many children and future magicians). We had scheduled a lecture, but it was canceled at the last minute because the lecturer could not make it. Of course, there was talk about the many club events coming up, such as the Flea Market, Faith In Action, and Michigan Magic Day 1996. All in all, it was a wonderful time.
And just like that, another slice of magic history refuses to stay vanished. The Ann Arbor gang showed us that a backyard corn roast—complete with sweet corn, card tricks, and impromptu juggling—can still deliver the real goods. It’s the same spirit our Ann Arbor Magic Club tries to capture every summer with their own picnics: good food, great company, and just enough magic to keep the grown-ups smiling (since the kids rarely show up anyway). And hey, we’re still running those flea markets and hosting Michigan Magic Day all these years later—proof that some traditions refuse to vanish, even if the scheduled lecturer occasionally does.
Funny Business
By Karl Rabe and various contributors
