Next Meeting
The next meeting of Assembly 136 will be on Monday, April 1st, 1996, at Hotel Park Tucson, 5151 E. Grant Road, at 7:30 PM. There will be a board meeting from 6:30 PM till 7:30 PM, and all members are welcome to attend any and all board functions. After the meeting, everyone is welcome to walk over to the IHOP for late-night discussions.

Close-Up Magician of the Year Contest
Immediately following the April monthly meeting, the Close-Up Magician of the Year contest will be held. You are invited to perform close-up or table magic, following the same rules established last year, which will be summarized later in this newsletter. Please take advantage of this contest and put a magic routine together which defines your style and interests in magic!

At Our Last Meeting
Our last meeting was held on March 4th. Katherine McCabe stepped in as acting Secretary and continued to provided excellent notes. Her filling in while Alvon is out of town is greatly appreciated. We had three guests: Jered Schaugaard, Charles Myles, and Mike Nielson.

If you entered last year's Magician of the Year contest and would like to know your judging scores, please contact Frank.

Stars of Magic 1996
Auditions for the 1996 Stars of Magic will be held at the June meeting. Since the Stage Magician of the Year contest will be held in May (the date will be announced as soon as it is available), this will give many people an opportunity to get a video tape to submit for Stars of Magic.

Magic on the Internet
The February issue of MUM was dedicated to "Magic Online". The information superhighway is rapidly growing, and magic is NOT being left behind. SAM #136 has already established an E-Mail communications network for local members. As hot-breaking local magic news becomes available, it can easily be broadcasted to other SAM #136 members. For example, this newsletter will reach members via E-Mail before their "snail mail" copy arrives in the mailbox.

Our national MUM magazine is now receiving our monthly newsletter instantaneously via E-Mail, instead of through the regular mail. This is an annual postage savings for our club of $3.84 (YEAH!).

Living up to his family name, Mark Newhouse is currently building our club a new home page on the Internet. Mark has generously offered his services to establish and maintain a Web Page for our club. In addition to the Prestidigipaper being online, we can put lots of club-related information on this page. This includes scanned photos of performers, promotion for Stars of Magic, etc. Mark is currently working to establish links to/from other magic-related Web pages, including The Society of American Magicians' page. Our club's Web page can be accessed at: http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~newhouse/SAM/. Check it out!

New Members
The newest member of SAM #136 is Brett Shaw. Brett received his SAM national membership packet at the March meeting. Welcome to our club Brett!

National SAM Convention
Approximately twelve club members are currently planning to attend the National SAM convention in Las Vegas in July. As this event gets closer, we will be coordinating car pools for those interested in the camaraderie of driving together.

Summary of the Magician of the Year Contests
Last year we had a lot of participation in our annual Magician of the Year contests. The judge's scores were close last year, but Joe DuPerry won Close-Up, Tom Potter won Parlour, and Eric Buss won the Stage Magician of the Year.

Below is a brief summary of the Magician of the Year contest rules. The official rules are available upon request by Frank.

Any member in good standing can participate. Each act must be greater than five minutes and less than fifteen minutes in duration. A member can only enter one act per category. The categories are: Close-Up (performance of close-up or table magic), Parlour (performances suitable for nightclub, platform or parlour), and Stage (performances suitable for theater or stage).

The performance order is chosen randomly. Seven scoring judges and a few "feedback" judges will also be selected randomly. Performers will be judged in the following four areas: Showmanship (How entertaining was it? How smooth was their patter?); Appearance (How was their appearance? The appearance of their props?); Originality (How original was it? Did they make it their own?); Technical Proficiency (Did they handle the effects well? Did their mechanics go well?). Scoring for each of these areas is between 1 and 10, where 10 is the best score. To determine the winner of the contest, the lowest and highest score are thrown out. The remaining five scores are added together to form the total score. The person with the highest total score is the winner.

The winner for each category will be announced at the January 1997 annual banquet. The scores will remain a secret until preparations for the banquet. By accepting the Magician of the Year award, the winners agree not to enter an act in the category that they won the award for in the following year.

Good of the Order
Tim Ayers is performing table magic at Box Seats on weekends. Also on weekends you can find Adrian Van Vactor at the Olive Garden (Oracle road location). Rod Robison is currently in Israel on business and will have an opportunity to perform some magic in the Holy Land. John Shryock and Mari Worman just got back from performing on the Vista Fjord cruise ship during the first week in March. John has also been asked to lecture at this year's Day of Magic in Hollywood, CA.

In the beginning of February, our favorite stripper, Eric Buss, performed his competition-winning stage routine at the Magi-Fest convention in Columbus, Ohio. The March 1996 issue of MAGIC had this to say about our under-dressed friend: "Highlighting the evening was Eric Buss as a magician who finds livestock still in his clothes after a show while he undresses past his underwear!". Eric will be performing this routine again during Hank Lee's Cape Cod Conclave April 12th through the 14th.

Several young local magicians (including our own Annika Larson) performed recently at the Valley of the Moon for an astounding attendance of over 900 people. The Valley of the Moon is a historic building with many magical passage ways, underground tunnels, hidden rooms, and trap doors. Close-up magic was performed throughout the building as guests toured the premises. Bruce Martyn reported that another round of tours is scheduled for the Summer.

Calendar of Events:
Wednesday, March 20, at 5:00 PM
SAM-sponsored magic lecture at Williams' Magic shop

Monday, April 1, at 6:30 PM
Board Meeting; 7:30 PM - General Assembly Meeting. The theme for the evening is "Close-Up Magician of the Year Contest" (set your VCRs for Copperfield's special).

May (date to be determined)
"Stage Magician of the Year Contest"

Future Monthly Meeting Themes:
May - "Rope Magic"
June - Stars of Magic Auditions
July - "Each One, Teach One"
August - Parlour Magician of the Year Contest
September - Auction
October - Halloween Magic
November - Turkey Magic
December - White Elephant

Last updated March 18, 1996 by Mark Newhouse