The International Brotherhood of Magicians is a worldwide group of magic enthusiasts.  We are the largest magic group in the world.  We'll use this site to get the word out to friends of our organization and create a better sense of community among our members.  We'll also include pictures of our work and members.

 Our Mission

We are dedicated to the enhancement of magic as an art form.  To accomplish this, we hold regular meetings on the 4th Tuesday of every month.  We commence at 7:00 pm at the S. W. Pitts Hose Company, 226 Old Loudon Road, in Latham, NY.  There are also several other magician meetings throughout the month.  See the news below for more.



 THE CAPITAL MAGIC CONNECTION

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    MORNING MAGIC GROUP

     
    The next meeting of the morning group will be on Tuesday morning, June 2, at 8:30 am at the Ugly Rooster off Exit 12 of the Northway.  Everyone interested in magic is welcome to join us.  In recent months, more wives have been joining our morning group and this has helped to improve the quality of the audience for our magic.  Wives, girl-friends, mothers, aunts, and sisters are always welcome.
     
    If you need more information or directions, call Cliff Bruce, Dave McClements, or Ken Marcinowski.

     
    JUNE MEETING OF THE SAM ASSEMBLY 24

     
    SAM Assembly 24 will meet on Tuesday, June 9, at 7:00 at S. W. Pitts Hose Company, 226 Old Loudon Road, in Latham, NY.  Dave Lieberman has suggested self-working tricks as a possible topic for this meeting, but off-topic tricks are always welcomed
     

    Ken Marcinowski has volunteered to bring the refreshments for this meeting.  So far, only three meetings are not covered for refreshments for this year.  They are August 11th, November 10th, and December 8th.  If you haven’t brought refreshments in a while and would like to sign-up for one of these dates, it would be appreciated.

     

    As some of you already know, Allan Alexander is going to be stepping down as secretary and we need to find someone to fill this important office.  The secretary is the person who writes and sends the Assembly Reports to MUM each month.  These reports document the history of the Assembly and are important from a historical perspective. 

     

    Serving as secretary is a great way to sharpen your writing skills and improve your understanding of the magic presented at our meetings.  If you are willing to accept this challenging position, let us know.


    JUNE MEETING OF IBM RING 186

     
    IBM Ring 186 will meet on Tuesday, June 23  at 7:00 at S. W. Pitts Hose Company, 226 Old Loudon Road, in Latham, NY. Everyone is encouraged to have something magical to share with your fellow magicians.

     
    Karl Johnson will be bringing some of what remains of the magic donated to us by Andrew Garland to this meeting. The sale has been on-going for several months now, and at this point, I believe Karl is interested in seeing this sale ended, so if you see something that interests you -  make an offer.

     

    MOVIE REVIEW FROM BRUCE BARNETT


    I was watching TV, and up came an old movie on TCM - "Miracles for Sale (1939)." 

     

    The name seemed familiar, so I watched it.

     

    It's a movie vaguely based on a Houdini-like character. He's a magician who builds illusions and exposes fake psychics. It's filled with magical references and hints of a lot of inside knowledge for the knowledgeable magician. It's a classic Locked Room mystery. I thought others might be interested.

     

    It features several magicians and psychics, and was directed by Tod Browning, who also directed the cult classic Freaks. It's based on a Clayton Rawson novel - "Death from a Top Hat."  featuring magician-turned-detective The Great Merlini.  Rawson wrote several novels in this series. This is the first one. 

     

    I searched my issues of Jinx magazine, and I found this reference to the movie in Jinx #62 by Annemann:

     

        Miracles For Sale, an awfully weak adaptation – but a fast and not so
        hard to take rewrite of Rawson’s book Death From A Top Hat lauded the aims
        of a magician and played down any direct exposes. The dressing room episode
        with radio gimmick was almost too fast for us to catch. It could have been left
        out but the director obviously was pointing his scenes with a bit of “inside” stuff
        and among a great many he slipped a little this time. It might have been worse.
        (Aside thanks to someone for the magic mag display rack featuring Genii – but
        with our “big hand” picture too snooty for words. Or should Bill Larsen do
        the bowing ?) 


    And he's right. The radio gimmick for the 2-person act was exposed so subtly and quickly that you might miss it. I missed the scene where a Genii magazine was displayed. Anyhow, I found a free streaming version, although with French subtitles, available on YouTube, if anyone is interested in watching it. 

     

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kx3NyYgpqrs

     

    Bruce Barnett


    MARK YOUR CALENDARS FOR THESE UPCOMING SHOWS AND EVENTS

     

     Every day starting June 20: Jimmy Brown will be performing three shows daily at 11:00 am, 1:00 pm, and 3:00 pm at the Lake George Expedition Park (formerly the Magic Forest) on Route 9 just south of Lake George Village.  Jimmy reports that the best show is his one o’clock show. This will be Jimmy’s 43 year of performing at this park 

     

    Sunday August 9:  Our annual picnic at Ken and Sara Beckley’s place on Lake George.  More details later.


    Wednesday,Thursday, & Friday September 9, 10, &11:  Magicians’ Alliance of Eastern States (MAES) Convention at Cherry Hill, PA.  Please note: This year, this is not a weekend convention, but it starts on a Wednesday and ends on a Friday.  The link to this convention is has not yet been updated with a schedule of 2026 events:  https://maesconvention.com/


    ANNOUNCEMENTS AND CONTRIBUTIONS

     

     I was very pleased to receive a movie review from Bruce Barnett this month.  I would like to have more items of this nature to include in this newsletter.

     

    If you know of a magic related event or show which might be of interest to capital area magicians, send that information to me in time for it to be announced in our next newsletter.

     
    Also if you would like to contribute an original article, trick or review of a book, dvd, trick or internet site, send it to me for inclusion in this newsletter. PLEASE DON’T COPY WHAT SOMEONE ELSE HAS WRITTEN UNLESS YOU DOCUMENT THE SOURCE AND HAVE PERMISSION TO SHARE IT.

     

    Send contributions and announcements to: cliffordbruce@earthlink.net




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