February 9 sees joint meeting of Rings 177 and 261 in Ernakulam

BANGALORE, JANUARY 24: Thursday, the 9th of February is turning out to be a special day in many ways. This is when the 29th Annual Vazhakunnam Memorial Magic Convention is being hosted at Ernakulam. It is also the day that IBM Ring 177 and IBM Ring 261 will hold a combined meeting of its members to plan the road ahead.

As mentioned last week, the Ring Officers of Ring 177 and Ring 261 had agreed that the Vazhakunnam Convention presented the perfect opportunity for the IBM members of the region to catch up.

These two active local rings of the International Brotherhood of Magicians (USA) located in southern India are coming together for a combined meeting on the sidelines of the Vazhakunnam Magic Convention. One of the items on the agenda is the IBM Annual Meet, to be held in the month of March under the leadership of PM Mithra.

Needless to add, IBM Ring 177 is very excited at this opportunity of meeting co-members from IBM Ring 261, and welcomes this opportunity to cement our combined efforts with IBM Ring 261 to work towards a powerful local organisation of the International Brotherhood of Magicians in India.

Basic details of the Vazhakunnam Magic Convention have been posted at:
http://www.themagicspace.net/?ai1ec_event=vazhakunnam-magic-convention&instance_id=370

Ring Charter Presented to Ring by Prof Shankar

BANGALORE, JANUARY 15: January 13th was quite a special day for the members of the IBM Ring 177. In what was a hurriedly convened but well-organised, fun and magical meeting, Prof Shankar the President of the IBM Ring 261, presented the Ring Charter as received from the International Brotherhood of Magicians (USA) to our senior member and Ring President-designate Uday Jadugar.

Among the trick sessions and the anecdotes shared, it also emerged that Prof Shankar had originally joined the International Brotherhood of Magicians through IBM Ring 177 in 1974 with the support of the ring founder Prof Vasanth Kumar. What a wonderful moment that one of the original members of Ring 177 Prof Shankar, present the Ring Charter to Uday Jadugar, who was also a student of Prof Vasanth Kumar.

Incidentally, the IBM Ring 177 was originally set up in 1965 by Prof Vasanth Kumar and a group of enthusiastic local magicians, and is today in its 47th year!

To view the photos of this event, see IBM Ring 177 Installation photoset.

Charles Gauci visits our Ring HQ

BANGALORE, JANUARY 13: Last night saw a surprise visitor at our Ring HQ -- International magical entertainer Charles Gauci from Australia. Mr Gauci was given a tour of the Ring HQ - The Magic Space and briefed about the various activities we are running at The Magic Space and in other parts of the country to develop and sustain membership to the IBM and Ring 177. We are pleased to say that Charles Gauci was all praises for our Ring HQ, The Magic Space.

Mr Gauci is currently on a multi-city lecture tour of India and Bangalore was the second city in this tour, and he went to Trivandrum for here. For details of his lecture tour that will be held in Kolkata, Delhi, Pune and Mumbai, visit Best Magic website.

Engaging with Magicians at Talk Magic Dealer's Mela

BANGALORE, JANUARY 13: January 11th saw a unique Dealer's Mela -- a conclave of magic apparatus organised by Talk Magic in Bangalore. The IBM Ring 177 decided to make the best of this opportunity to reach out to nearly 200 magicians who had come from across the country for this event.

With the close cooperation of our senior member Uday Jadugar (who is also one of the founders of Talk Magic forum) and our Ring HQ - The Magic Space, we ran a mini-contest for all the attendees. The research questionnaire intended to reach out to all the magicians attending the conference, to understand from them their needs of a local magic society and appraising them of the activities of the INternational Brotherhood of Magicians and the IBM Ring 177.

This research will be continued in a couple of more conventions in the next few months, and the data collected will be used to create and design activities that would interest the magicians to participate in the IBM Ring 177 and The Magic Space.

Monthly Ring Meetings Take-off on a High Note

BANGALORE, JANUARY 10: The first Ring meeting of Ring 177 was held at The Magic Space on January 8, which was attended by the current members and also three prospective members. The session was kickstarted with a open discussion on the benefits of having a local ring, and the expectations from the same. Many interesting and viable options came to the fore and were taken on record to implement and increase the involvement of local magicians and members.

The highlight of the session was a lecture by Nakul Shenoy, who shared some of his favourite effects with a mental twist. Most of these effects were in the genre of impromptu effects, and could be performed at a moment's notice.

Sanjay Subramanyam shared his perspective on card magic with a difference. We also had the acclaimed artist Umesh Shebe present a guest session on the essentials of business card design at the inaugural meet-up -- a session that will soon be repeated as a workshop for the IBM members at a future meeting.

The efforts of Nakul, Sanjay and the other members had a quick payoff, with all the three invited prospects deciding to join the IBM. 

It has also been decided that the Ring 177 will regularly meet on the second Sunday of the month. An idea of an additional get-together on a week-day evening is also under consideration, per the request of some members.

Our next monthly meeting will fall on February 9, and conflicts with the Vazakunnam annual magic convention and competition in Ernakulam, Kerala. We are currently working with IBM Ring 261 to hold a combined meeting of our members at this event, as most of the members from both our rings will be attending the convention.

A separate date will be announced for the local meeting at Bangalore for February by the board of directors.