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JoeMTurner.com Corporate Magic Update |  |
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Greetings! For my next trick -- a "reappearance" in your inbox! This newsletter went on hiatus late last year due to an amazing, densely booked winter. So many things have happened and there is so much to catch up on! In this issue we'll hit the highlights of the past couple of months, and give an overview of what's coming in 2007! Thanks for your continuing support!  Joe M. Turner
Shenanigans was booked into the Actors Playhouse theatre near Jackson, Mississippi earlier this year. This was the first "out of town" engagement for the show, which was used as a fundraiser by the hosting theatre. Even before I arrived in town, there had been two excellent newspaper stories, including a full-page color spread on the front of a lifestyle section in the Clarion-Ledger's Rankin County publication. I also did a spot on the noon news at WLBT-TV3. Shenanigans played two nights there; after each performance, some of the theatre's musical theatre students came on for some song and dance numbers. We had full, enthusiastic audiences and it was a win-win for the theatre and for the show. If you have contacts at a community theatre that would like to discuss hosting Shenanigans as a fundraiser, would you please let me know?
More Shenanigans in Atlanta
Here in Atlanta, dates for April and May have been set. The April performance will be on Friday night, April 20, at 8:00 PM at the Grand Hyatt Atlanta in Buckhead. The Grand Hyatt Atlanta has been our home since the show began in 2005. Please tell someone you know in the Atlanta area that this is a "don't miss" attraction - and was so named by former Atlanta mayor Sam Massell! Click on the logo to go to the Zerve site for tickets, or click here to read some of the reviews!
On Thursday, May 24, Shenanigans will premiere in Alpharetta, Georgia at Smokejack BBQ on Main Street. There is an upstairs area that the owner booked blues bands in, but one of the investors had seen my show and approached me about taking the show to the North Fulton area. We will do a special performance there in May which will not be booked on Zerve. If you're interested in that performance, call me directly at 404.644.6791 and I'll reserve your seats. Tickets for that performance will be $20. Shenanigans is an event suitable for a wide range of attendees -- company or team outings, social clubs, small groups, or just folks out looking for unusual yet sophisticated entertainment. Consider giving a pair of tickets to a client as a gift! Your support is so appreciated!
I'll be making my third appearance at the world-famous Magic Castle in Hollywood, California this month. I'm booked in the Parlour of Prestidigitation from March 26 through April 1. The Magic Castle is the private clubhouse for the Academy of Magical Arts, Inc, a very special organization devoted to the advancement of the ancient art of magic. It is an exclusive venue and not an easy ticket to get! If you or any of your friends or colleagues will be in the Los Angeles area during the last week of March, it would be my pleasure to provide you with a guest pass to visit the Castle. Make a dinner reservation, see the shows, and enjoy a truly unique performance venue unlike anything else in the world!
This summer will be another fantastically busy one. I'll be returning to Ocean City, New Jersey in June, and flying from there to Gulfport, Mississippi -- then back to Philadelphia, driving back to Atlanta, and hopping a plane to Reno! I'll also be making a return to Atlantic City. I've performed there for the last two summers, but this year the theatre is under new management. "The Dickens Parlor" is a small theatre run by Magic Masters and located in the Tropicana Hotel and Casino on the Boardwalk in Atlantic City. I'll be appearing there in July. And in the midst of all that -- the Turner family is moving! We are staying in the Atlanta area, but are building a new home which we'll be moving into this summer. Please pray for the various performance and moving schedules to mesh!
Back in January, Spelman University mathematics professor Dr. Colm Mulcahy (who I have previously mentioned in this column) invited me to travel with him to visit Martin Gardner (b. 1914) at his retirement apartment in Oklahoma. Martin Gardner is a popular science and mathematics writer and one of the most brilliant minds America has ever produced. In addition to authoring over 60 books, he wrote the "Mathematical Games" column in Scientific American from 1956 to 1981. He is also an avid magician, and this 92-year-old and I spent part of the afternoon down on our knees on the floor of his apartment doing card tricks and moves for each other. It is in his honor that I'd like to present my variation and corporate presentation for a trick that appeared in his book Smart Science Tricks in 2004. Draw a large circle on a regular sheet of printer or copier paper, and put it on the floor as a target. (If desired, you might even write the name of your team's project or a specific goal in the circle.) Stand beside the target holding a stack of business cards. Hold a single business card over the target with your finger and thumb, positioned with one of the short edges pointing straight down toward the target. You should be holding the card at about waist height. Tell your friend that you'd like her to drop a card over the target and try to hit it as quickly as possible. Do not specify that the card must be dropped from that position -- you are simply trying to suggest that to her. She can try many times, but when she drops the card from that position, it will almost always flutter away and land nowhere near the target. It will often land without even touching the piece of paper on which the target is drawn! You, on the other hand, can take a card and are able to hit the target on the very first try! You hold the card parallel to the ground, so that the card drops toward the target flat side first. In this position, it will fall more or less straight downward. This is an unintuitive result. It would seem that in the edge-first position, the card would move more swiftly and slice through the air toward the target with little or no resistance. However, in that position it is most vulnerable to being knocked off course and it eventually flutters out of control. When dropped in the face-first position, the steady air resistance actually allows the trajectory to be more accurately controlled. Apply this demonstration during your next team meeting or presentation by considering the following: Resistance to change in an organization is normal. It's human nature. But are there certain types of resistance which are actually beneficial to reaching the ultimate goal? Without some resistance, a trajectory can be influenced by chaotic factors and spin out of control. With too much resistance, the target is never reached. How can you evaluate the kinds of resistance your team is facing and harness it to allow you to progress more effectively and accurately toward your goal? Enjoy this! See you next time!
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