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Date: 7/25/2022
LUDLOW – On Aug. 13, the Society of American Magicians Assembly 17 will be hosting their 100th anniversary celebration at the Gremio Lusitano Club in Ludlow.
The event will include a daytime convention for majicians, as well as a dinner and show featuring professional magic acts, which will be open to the public.
Assembly 17 Secretary Mark Bail spoke with Reminder Publishing about the assembly and the plan for the celebration.
“We are about 30 members, and we get together monthly, share magic news and we perform tricks for each other. We periodically try to do charity events and perform publicly,” he said. “It’s kind of like belonging to the Elks Club but it’s just magicians, we’re united by a common interest in magic. The goal is to socialize and have fun with magic.”
With other organizations in Hartford, CT and New York, Bail said he did not realize that there was a national magical community until he joined Assembly 17.
“I’ve been involved in a lot of organizations – mostly in politics – but when I joined, I didn’t really know what I was doing except that I was interested in magic,” he said. “It’s not something I’ve experienced before.”
Assembly 17 is always looking for more people interested in magic of any ability level.
“I had no ability when I started, I wouldn’t say I’m a great magician by any stretch of the imagination, but some of our people are really good. There’s a guy named Ed Popielarczyk and that’s his day job – as a magician,” Bail said.
Some of the members have even performed comedy shows at Mohegan Sun.
Currently Assembly 17 meets at RP Magic in Ludlow on the first Friday of every month and Bail said it is one of the few magic stores left in New England.
“They used to be big, that was kind of how people learned magic and got interested, you went to a magic store and people would show you things and you would by tricks. We’re very lucky to have a brick-and-mortar magic store, I think there might be one other in New England, it’s in some guy’s garage in Connecticut,” he said.
Bail also detailed the history of the assembly’s founder, Dr. I. R. Calkins, a Springfield resident.
“He graduated from medical school before he was old enough to practice, he was on the 1908 Olympic team, he served on the National Rifle Association Board, he was on the Olympic Committee in 1948, he was a successful surgeon for all his time in Springfield and he was the president of the Society of American Magicians,” he said.
Originally known as the Goofus Club, Bail said the assembly was run out of the theater built into Calkins’s Central Street home where he also ran his doctor’s office.
Bail said attendees of the dinner can look forward to performances from magicians who have performed around the world.
“That is not members of our organization, these are people who are actual professional magicians, and they are topflight. These guys have performed everywhere from Broadway to Australia,” he said.
In terms of the performers, attendees can expect appearances from magicians including Jimmy C, George Saterial, Lyn Dillies, Meadow Perry and Bob Hale.
Bail detailed how magic shows have evolved over the years and what attendees can expect from the upcoming performance.
“In the old days it used to be a guy in a tuxedo and a top hat pulling rabbits out of it, then in the 1980s they kind of wore rock and roll jump suits and there was all kinds of crazy movement, nowadays you are more apt to get magicians who interact with the audience – they’re usually funny – they’re not just there to impress and fool people,” he said. “With a really good magician sometimes you almost forget their doing magic.”
The cost to attend the show is $30 for adults and $10 for children under 12. The performance begins at 7:30 p.m. For people also interested in the buffet, tickets for adults cost $50 for dinner and the show, while tickets for children under 12 cost $20. Tickets can be purchased by sending a check to Tom Gentile at 4 Bass Cove Rd. in Southampton, by PayPal to tdgmagic@gmail.com or by paying in person at RP Magic, which is located at 69 East St. in Ludlow. Payments for dinner tickets must be sent in by Aug. 7.
During the day, Bail said magicians can also attend a convention at the Lusitano Club before the dinner and celebration.
Bail added that he is looking forward to the event.
“I’m always excited for the magic, I really enjoy the lectures because that’s when a magician will combine performance and explaining how they do things,” he said. “They teach you about performing, doing magic tricks, handling audiences, it’s pretty fascinating. I also really enjoy watching the magicians perform but it’s different when you know things.”