The Blackstoneian 
The official newsletter of I.B.M. Ring 200
Volume 4, No. 10, October, 2008 Editor, Eugene Raymond Soucek
FIFTH ANNUAL JIM ANGELO COMPETITION;
FOURTH ANNUAL HAUNTED HOUSE;
FRANKLIN MAGIC SHOW
BUSY, BUSY, BUSY! OUR FIFTH ANNUAL
Jim Angelo Card and Mental Magic Competition will be held as usual on our normal meeting night even though we will be in the middle of preparing the Minnie B. Veal Community Center for our annual Haunted House.
The Jim Angelo Competition just keeps getting better and better every year. Dust off your deck of cards, dig out your favorite mental effect, and show us what you can do.
HAUNTED HOUSE
We need everyone’s help this year for our fourth Haunted House. We are increasing the size of the HH this year from 12 rooms to 18 rooms. An ambitious project to be sure, and one that requires all of our members to pitch in and help out. So PLEASE, do your part to help our Ring build up its’ treasury, and have a lot of fun in the process. Block out some time on your calendar from
October 20 to October 25 to help set up and/or participate in the Halloween program.
RING 200 MAGIC SHOW
Finally, we will be presenting another fund raiser Magic Show for the Franklin Middle School PTO. We have had great shows in the past and we are sure this years show will be even better than in the past. If you would like to participate, please contact our President, Ray Nieves. More about this at our meeting.
METRO MAGIC #4 CLOSE-UP CONVENTION
This convention is a must for your magic calendar. It will be held on Sunday, November 2, 2008.
For further information ask Eric Appel or Ray Nieves how to register. The attendance is very limited so you want to sign up a.s.a.p.
WORDS OF WISDOM:
"Every man is a damn fool for at least five minutes every day; wisdom consists in not exceeding the limit."
Elbert Hubbard
"Things are going to get a lot worse before they get worse."
Lily Tomlin
If at first you don't succeed, see if the loser gets anything.
SCHEDULE FOR THE YEAR 2008
October 21st - Jim Angelo Card and Mentalism Competition - Show us your best card or mentalist effect or routine
November 18th - Lecture TBA / Nomination of Officers
December 16th - Holiday Party / Initiation Performances
We meet at: The Stelton CommunitWe Community Center, 328 Plainfield Avenue, Edison, NJ; on the third Tuesday of every month; doors open at 6:30 p.m. – Meeting starts at 7:00 p.m. You are invited to join us for coffee at the Duchess Diner in Metuchen after the meeting.
NEW FEATURE !!
Starting this month we will have a series of articles written by Kyle Peron. Mr. Peron is a Magician from Pennsy. This month’s article is appropriately about Halloween.
Putting the trick back in trick-or-treat!
Kyle Peron
Magic44u02@aol.com
www.kyleandkellymagic.com
Well fall will be arriving soon and Halloween will be right around the corner. It is a time of transformation as the leaves change colors and the weather starts getting colder again. It should also be a time for transformation of your promotions and how you will promote yourself during this seasonal change.
Advertising and promoting yourself should be an ongoing process. But how do you take advantage of the Halloween season and what ways can you capitalize on this for your own promotional gain? Let me try and go over just a few ideas that may work for you or at least get your own creative juices flowing. While talking with other magicians on this very subject, many great and interesting ideas came about. I will try and share some of them here with you and give you my own take on them.
I call the process...putting the trick back into trick-or-treat. By this, I mean that we have a golden opportunity at Halloween to promote ourselves, have fun and get our names out to a great target group. If your a children’s performer or perform for family oriented shows, then this is a great time for you to capitalize on getting your name out in your area.
How about giving out magic tricks with your contact information on them? The parents alone would be pleased that at least one thing in their child’s bag will not cause a huge mess or give their kids a sugar-rush. There are many sources for very inexpensive magic tricks that will not break your bank. These could be as simple as a Fortune Telling Fish or even a simple coin tray.
You will just want to make sure that whatever trick you are giving out to the kids, that it is both easy to perform as well as safe for the young children that you may be giving it out to. I say “easy to perform”, as the best PR you can get is from a child being able to do magic from a trick you gave them. If they feel they can do the trick easily, they will be encouraged to perform it for others. The more they perform it, the more your name gets out in your marketplace. A mom or dad who sees a happy child would more likely want to find out more information and may hire you for a show in the future.
Just keep in mind that marketing is only successful if your name and contact information is getting out there and it generates more work for you. This means that if you give out a trick, make sure you have your name or logo and contact information on it. Keep it simple and effective.
In fact, why not take this up a level and perform a simple Halloween mini-magic show for the children that come to your door. Keep it simple, but have fun with it and give them something to remember you by.
A fellow magician friend had a great idea about sending out a press release to the papers in your local area. Let them know that you are going the extra mile this year to make Halloween safe and fun for the children in your neighborhood. It may generate more interest in your services and may get you a free article in your local paper.
There are many ideas out there that I have not touched base on. I just hope this helps you to open your eyes a bit and see the potential that is out there to promote yourself in various manners. So I simply say go out this year and put the trick back into trick-or-treat.
As always, I look forward to hearing back from you my fellow performers. If you have other ideas or suggestions for this subject or ideas for future articles, please send me an e-mail at magic4u02@aol.com. I look forward to hearing from you.
Kyle Peron
Magician and Illusionist
www.kyleandkellymagic.com
