This month we held our highly anticipated Annual Close Up Competition with 6 amazing performances. As Masters of Ceremony, Cal Tong lead the competitors through 3 Close Up Stations strategically placed in different locations in the room. Each competitor repeated their close up act three times throughout the evening. The 3 stations each contained 5 to 7 audience members per station. This year’s highly skilled and entertaining competitors included new Ring 216 Member David Martinez, Professor Aldrian Estepa, Past President Doug Eakin, Vice President Raahul Srinivasan, the Amazing Alan Leeds, and Sergeant at Arms John Jones. Memorable moments included David’s Triumph, Aldrian’s Card Transformations, Doug Eakin’s Dramatic Card Routine, Raahul’s Paste Board Miracles, Alan’s original Coin and Glass Act, and John Jones's visual coin magic. The ballots were calculated at the end of the evening and the winners were announced to the audience. Doug Eakin won first place, Alan Leeds won 2nd place, and Raahul Srinivasan and Adrian Estepa tied for 3rd place. Great job by all the competitors!
The month of October also revealed a great lecture by Michael Feldman. Michael is recognized as one of the country's top performers of close-up magic. He's a regular and performing annually at "Fechter's," an exclusive, invitation-only convention of the world's top magicians, as well as the close-up room at the Magic Castle, and Monday Night Magic, New York's longest-running off-Broadway Magic show. You may be familiar with some of his material from The Blue Crown, DanandDave.com, MAGIC Magazine, and elsewhere. Michael’s magic has garnered him numerous awards including Entertainer of the Year, Close-Up Magician of the Year, and one of the Top 10 New Effects of 2009. Michael has lived and worked in San Diego, Boston, New York, and for many years was a member of San Jose's Ring 216. He is known for performing difficult sleight of hand, but in his lecture he taught material accessible to beginners and made difficult material accessible to everyone. Needless to say, Michael’s lecture was both entertaining and educational.
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| Close-up Competition Magicians |
The month of October also revealed a great lecture by Michael Feldman. Michael is recognized as one of the country's top performers of close-up magic. He's a regular and performing annually at "Fechter's," an exclusive, invitation-only convention of the world's top magicians, as well as the close-up room at the Magic Castle, and Monday Night Magic, New York's longest-running off-Broadway Magic show. You may be familiar with some of his material from The Blue Crown, DanandDave.com, MAGIC Magazine, and elsewhere. Michael’s magic has garnered him numerous awards including Entertainer of the Year, Close-Up Magician of the Year, and one of the Top 10 New Effects of 2009. Michael has lived and worked in San Diego, Boston, New York, and for many years was a member of San Jose's Ring 216. He is known for performing difficult sleight of hand, but in his lecture he taught material accessible to beginners and made difficult material accessible to everyone. Needless to say, Michael’s lecture was both entertaining and educational.
