Rachel's Story
By Bobby Warren

Rachel Colombini's attitude is positively infectious despite battling what can be a deadly infection. The magic performer, creator, manufacturer and retailer has an array of talents, but she has not yet figured how to make $200,000 appear out of thin air.

Rachel and husband Aldo Colombini are reaching out to the magic community and beyond, hoping their hearts are moved to help the couple raise money for Rachel's medical procedure.

The Colombinis have established two ways for people to help. One is the website www.magic4miracles.com – it is set up to accept donations, and the other is their online store www.wildcolombini.com, where the couple are offering customers an incredible special when they purchase any of their effects, books, DVDs or ebooks.

Rachel was born with a congenital heart defect.

(Read More)

What were the odds:
Sonenshein's encounter
with Martin Gardner
By Bobby Warren

On 5-22-2010 the world lost one of kind with the passing of Martin Gardner in Norman, Okla. He was 95. Gardner touched lives in an array of worlds, including magic, math, puzzles, logic, skepticism, and pseudoscience.

Chuck Sonenshein, a member of the Haines/Durbin Ring 71 in Cincinnati, Ohio, recalled a chance meeting with the mathematical maven in the early 1990s, a meeting he will always treasure. Sonenshein, aka Chuck Sunshine, recalled how Stewart Judah first introduced him to Gardner's writings in the area of math magic.

“He was my idol,” Sonenshein said. “I was a big fan.”

Sonenshein went on to study mathematics at the University of Cincinnati. While there, a professor recommended he read the columns in “Scientific American” magazine by a fellow named Martin Gardner. While it should have occurred to the math major the author of those magic books and the columns were one in the same, it did not register with him at first.
(Read More)

I.B.M. opens benevolent
program to all Rings

"Operation Tricks Are Treats" is the name of the I.B.M.'s new benevolent show program. It is intended to bring magic performances to hospital-bound patients, gain positive public image exposure for the I.B.M. at both the international and local levels, and introduce prospective members to the art and the organization. It is supervised at the International level, and operated by the local Ring.

The program was tested in a few selected cities the first year — three cities in the U.S.A., and one city in Canada. It proved to be highly successful and rewarding, and it is now being continued and expanded to include the entire international organization. While initially targeted at hospital-bound children during the Halloween season, this program is now available and recommended for use by local Rings to conduct benevolent shows for many types of audiences and facilities throughout the year.

Read more about the program here.

Check out Ring resources here.

INSIDE THE LINKING RING
May, 2010
By Devon Elliott

Cover Story:
MOVING FORWARD WITH JOSHUA JAY
By Bobby Warren

Joshua Jay has wrapped up his second book of magic with Workman Publishing Company, but it seems hard to imagine what the next chapter will be in the life of this young magician who has already accomplished so much.

It is difficult to come to terms that Jay is not yet thirty years old. After all, he has been featured on television shows, written books, starred in instructional magic DVDs, traveled the world performing shows, exploring the art, and lecturing to magicians – and earned a degree in English and studied in France for a year and in Ecuador for six months. And he is also an entrepreneur who launched Vanishing Magic Inc. with friend and fellow magician Andi Gladwin.

“Magic is deeply rooted in the fabric of who I am,” said Jay, now twenty-eight. When he first developed a passion for the art as a child, it was at a time when Jay said he was “too young to impress girls, too young to impress friends. It was very fascinating for me; I really loved it.” (Read More)

(Boris) Wild reveals
twist in his Kiss Act
By Bobby Warren

Boris Wild's Kiss Act has garnered him prestigious awards, lofty accollades, and it has taken him around the world.

He won a World Card Magic Prize at FISM in 1997, and he was booked in Sydney, Australia, just to perform the Kiss Act, a routine that blends emotion, passion, love, mystery, music, and magic. It donned on him just how special the act was when people paid him to fly twenty-seven hours there and another twenty-seven hours back to perform his famous seven-minute routine.

Despite the fact that the Kiss Act won a FISM award more than a decade ago, Boris recently shared a fascinating fact about the routine that until now was uknown in the magic community.

(Read More, See Photos and Video)