Newsletter: 164 for March 2010 ACES March 2010 Mike welcomed everyone along whilst we were waiting for Dave to materialise having given a lonely hitch-hiker a lift to Brighton and gave apologies for Reg Moores and David Croucher. Reg has been a bit poorly recently so members are encouraged to give him a ring for a chat. We had a couple of guests with us this evening in the form of Becca and Stef who are friends of Martin and I. Stef occasionally does stand-up comedy and we met them after gatecrashing the opening of her toy shop in Worthing. It was also lovely to see Peter Bennett who dropped down to see us and should be renewing his membership after July which would be great. We have yet to hear about the Tri-Wizard competition and will be discussing this as well as other items at a soon to be held Committee meeting. If any members have anything they want raised at this meeting prior to the AGM, let one of the committee know. Martin and I had joined a few of the members from the Southdowns for their spring supper last week at The Ardingly Inn which was very pleasant. Lots of magic going on throughout the evening and at the bar afterwards. Martin gave everyone a brief round-up of the Blackpool convention but omitted to say that we unfortunately were unable to meet up with John Taylor who Geoff tells us has been recently diagnosed with Parkinsons disease. Again members are invited to give him a call as he misses his magic dreadfully. Blackpool had been a huge success with 3,600 magicians joining in the fun. After a very long journey followed many late nights, some great networking and meeting up with David and Dania (US quick change artists), The Twins and also he had managed to meet Franz Harary. The only downside was to Martin’s bank balance and too much spending. Martin also let everyone know that we think we have found our cabaret for the Annual Dinner plus has spoken to one of the dealers there who would be prepared to give us a free dealer-dem. Nicky would be in touch with them soon as the programme for 2010-11 is starting to fill up. The challenge this month was between Stan and David C. As David was unable to be with us, Stan still had to perform and started out reminiscing about birthdays. Stan used four colour coded disks with matching coloured parcels three of which contained very little with the final package containing a £5 note which Stan gave himself as a birthday present – appropriate really seeing as it is actually his birthday on 17 March!!! Dave announced the decision would be close and urged members to think of a new challenge for April’s meeting. So it was Puppets Aplenty tonight and as soon as Colin arrived at ACES HQ it was obviously something was afoot judging on the size of the bag he had with him. He introduced his routine as a “drunken mistake” after three bottles of wine and we all soon learnt why when a pony the size of a great dane appeared from the said bag. The routine (which coinciding with the Cheltenham Festival very well so extremely topical!) started with some bad horse jokes and cantered along to a gambling trick with “Dobbin” finding the card in a shuffled deck. Very, very funny. Enjoyed this. Stan then introduced us to a couple of ancient rabbit friends “Snowy” and apparently “Snowy’s friend”. Stan told us all how he had had to adapt routines to use only one hand – a constant problem if you are using a puppet. After some persuasion, Peter “Tricks on Sticks” took the floor to discuss puppet and vent routines of his youth including Daisy May from the 1950s. Unfortunately some of the younger members had not heard of her but will make a point of “googling” her to find out more. There was Archie Andrews on the radio, Muffin, Larrie, Lamkin, Scorch (my personal favourite) and Martin shared his thoughts on new boy “The Dead Terrorist” which is very up to date and extremely funny! There were many more that weren’t written down but it certainly seems everyone at ACES had a story to tell about a favourite puppet which promoted a great discussion participated in by everyone. After coffee, Mike and Brenda handed Chairman Dave his new routine in the form of some really dreadful jokes from Germany which I know will be shared during stints at Spa Valley with Thomas the Tank Engine in May and October. Corny, but again really funny. Mike Elvin needed no introduction to members and it was obvious that we were going to get one of his famous Punch & Judy shows. Unfortunately Mike had forgotten to bring Joey the clown with him but made do and gave everybody loads of laughs with his act. It was really great to see an appearance by the infamous Mr Punch and we really enjoyed this. Martin appeared to take over the stage with his menagerie of puppets and introduced everyone to Ben in a basket (his name may change, we’re not sure yet). Martin performed Ben’s routine which was brand new from Blackpool and although it doesn’t involve a helper, is still very good. Next up was Rory the Lion, the dragon with no name, Cheeky Monkey, Spike the mind-reading dog, a waistcoated white rabbit, a tiny shy monkey and finally to Ringo the bear who was also a purchase from Blackpool. Time was running out for the evening so unfortunately everyone would have to see his routine another time. So finished our Puppets Aplenty and it just left Chairman Dave to congratulate Stan as winner of the Challenge for this month. He was challenged quite quickly to ice-cream for the next meeting by Martin, so who knows what will happen then. Don’t forget in April the theme of the meeting is a members teach-in “Your favourite effect from your favourite performer” so that will be interesting. Might be useful for members to have a pack of cards in their pocket just in case. A packed evening tonight with plenty of giggles and we finished at 10.10pm Written by: Nicky Lewis |
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