Oakland Magic Circle Photo Gallery

Our Annual Spaghetti Diner and Show was awesome! Thanks to all the performers and to those who attended!

2010-09-22T13:00:00.000-07:00

Our Annual Spaghetti Feed was on Sept. 7th and it was great! As usual there were over 100 people in attendance, as this has become one of the most popular magic events in the bay area. We had six great performers who were all top notch and this was one our best shows in my memory. The performers were:

Doug Hofkins, representing the Coastal Magicians in Capitola
Doulglass Kocavich and his assistant Ashley, with SAM 112 in Pleasant Hill
Kim Silverman, representing IBM 216 in San Jose
Alan Leeds, representing SAM 94 in Palo Alto
Phil Ackerly, representing The Mystic 13 in San Jose
And Steve Nelson, who represented the OMC, and who won first prize!

Wow! What A Great Show! And A Special Surprise Too.

2010-02-18T22:30:00.000-08:00

Our 2010 Installation Banquet was a great success, and in fact it was one of the greatest shows we've put together in my memory! And something happened that made this show even more special: In attendance was Catherine Battle, whose great, great uncle was none other than Professor El-Tab, who founded the Oakland Magic Circle in 1925. She did some research about the OMC and found our website. So she contacted us to ask about him, and to see if we have any old stories or memorabilia that we can share. We did, and we also gave her and her husband a free ticket. They came all the way from the East Coast and they had a great time. To quote from her email, "I am not a Magician but Magic has always been a part of who I am. Thank you for keeping the Art of Magic, and the works of my Uncle Professor El-Tab alive and well!"

The show was spectacular. I love it when I can see that everyone is having such a great time. Dan Chan and his wife/assistant Kat entertained us all with some spooky magic and some escapism. Dan has performed for us several times and his shows are always great. Next was Dennis Forel. He is one of the world foremost balloon artists and his performace brought out the kid in all of us. Then Farrell Dillon had us all laughing in the aisles with his zany comedy and juggling act. And then our Headliner, Tom Ogden. Mr. Ogden is one of the smoothest and most entertaining magicians I've seen. And he proved, using some simple math, that Barney is Satan!

Thanks for coming, or if you weren't there, see you at the next one!

Get The 13 Steps On DVD!

2010-02-16T13:40:00.001-08:00

Davd Fry Gives A Sound Presentation And Our Close-Up Contest!

2009-07-15T09:46:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been quite a while since I updated this little blog of mine, and I do apologize. Kodak stopped developing film (yes, you read that right), so I had to find another lab that puts your pictures online and doesn't charge you an arm and a leg. I did find one but it took a lot of research and asking around. And I started working two jobs, so I have precious little time to devote to creative things now. But Anyway, enough excuses, here are some pictures from the June '09 meeting. David Fry loaned me his camera for these pictures so thank you! In the first few, he's giving a very thorough presentation on how to use our sound system. The rest of the pictures are of our close-up contest, and it was one of the best we've had in my memory. It was
very strong magic and everyone did great!

John Calvert At The OMC! I Waited Ten Years For This.

2009-01-19T14:33:00.000-08:00

The OMC was extremely proud to present John and Tammy Calvert as our January lecture. I saw them lecture at the OMC ten years ago, and it was at that event that I filled out an application to join the OMC.

The Calverts have been touring the world for decades. As a matter of fact, for longer than any other magic act in history, according to John. It was a pleasure to see them perform and an honor to chat with them before and after their performance.

The Calverts perform with grace and style. They are the definition of class.

In the first picture he poses with a piece of machinery that he's been using for over fifty years. It was used for his final effect, where he decapitated a member of the audience (unfortunately I don't have any pictures of this because I was helping him with it). Right after I took this picture I told him that he looks like Vincent Price. I think it's something about his smile.

He started out with his famous cigarette manipulation routine, where he reaches up into the air and cigarettes appear at his fingertips. He explained that he used to do this with lit cigarettes, but he doesn't anymore for moral reasons, since he is strongly against smoking. Next was his rendition of the spirit cabinet, which caused a sensation when it was first performed by the Davenport brothers over 100 years ago. An audience member (in this case, OMC member Michael Della Pena) was tied up and a giant box was assembled to hide him from the audience. Then pieces of rope and misc. items were seen flying out of the top of the box with no apparent explanation. When the box was disassembled he is seen to be still tied up, and with his shirt off. For his next effect, he tied up OMC member Fred Casto and without telling Fred what to do, he managed to escape! Next was Seeing With The Fingertips. His eyes were taped shut by a few audience volunteers, and he walked among the audience asking people to hold up misc. items. He identified them all. And his Dancing Hankerchief was beautiful and mysterious, with a touch of humor. He asked for a hankerchief from an audience member, placed it on a table and it started moving and levitating with a personality all it's own.

By the way, his performance was covered by the Oakland Tribune. They wrote an article and shot a video of them performing (which I am in). Assuming the the story is still on their site, you can see it by clicking here.

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