The Yankee Gathering 2022 is in the planning stages, and we have some great things planned! The dates are November 3rd – 5th, 2022, in Westborough, MA. Registration and Hotel information will be posted when available. Please check back soon.
Eileen McFalls is the author of No Ordinary Magic, a memoir about her adventures street performing with Jim Cellini. After meeting this charismatic street performer, Eileen stepped into his world of magic without hesitation. But she was still in search of herself when she fell under his spell and into this outsider culture that was foreign to her.
Eileen McFalls has lived and traveled extensively as a busker, club owner, medical technologist, and graphic designer. Currently, she is working on writing projects and as a guest speaker for podcasts, magic groups, and book clubs. She resides in Greensboro, North Carolina.
For more information visit: https://www.noordinarymagic.com.
Jim Cellini (Richard Sullivan from Nashua, NH) developed and performed his unique brand of street busking throughout North America and Europe during the 1970s and 1980s. Cellini’s signature routines featured the Cups and Balls, Linking Rings and Rope Magic – all performed in renaissance attire and gibecière. He died in 2009 while living in Switzerland.
The Conjuring Arts Research Center has been recognized for many reasons but in particular for its outstanding contribution to the preservation of magic history and for generously providing the opportunity for historians and researchers to have access to the Center’s huge data base of publications and manuscripts associated with magic and the related arts through the ConjuringArts.com website or by searching at the AskAlexander.org page. Furthermore, we honor CARC’s publication, Gibeciere, the quarterly journal that disseminates original scholarly information of interest to magic historians and collectors. The members of NEMCA want to thank the Center for all it has done and hope it continues as a source of information and quality publications for many years to come.
The NEMCA Summer Picnic will be held Sunday July 14 2019 at Doc Rogers’ and Rosemie Leyre’s house in Lynn MA (86 Lafayette Park, 01902; phone 978 482 5204) starting at 11:30.
We will begin with a flea market of magic collectibles and a short auction.
For those who would like there is a nice walk along the Atlantic on Lynn’s King beach and Nahant beach.
Lunch will be at 1 PM. The Steves’: Lerner and Rogers will be Chefs.
We will serve baby back ribs, hamburgers, hotdogs, salads (potato, green and coleslaw) and other picnic fare.
Drinks include water, iced tea and some soda.
Beer at a nominal cost.
And dessert! ice cream, watermelon and cookies.
Your Part:
We need 3 to 4 volunteers for a show. 10 minutes of material that can be done outside and doesn’t wilt.
Please bring lawn/ folding chairs and I also need 4 folding tables for the flea market.
Old time prices. $ 25 per person
We need an accurate count so no one goes hungry or dry.
So send the number and names of attendees with your check made out to NEMCA to the NEMCA Picnic Steve Lerner, 28 Gaslight Ln., N. Easton, MA 02356
Or by PayPal to Orders@NEMCA.com Please indicate the order is for the picnic, the number and names of attendees.
On Tuesday, April 16, 2019, master magician Joshua Jay will offer two separate engagements, both of which are free and open to the public.
At 3 p.m. in the Patrick Ma Digital Scholarship Lab at the Rockefeller Library, Jay will answer questions, offer inspiration, and provide attendees with the inside scoop on the world of magic. Ask Joshua all the juicy questions about the craft of magic. You’ll even have a chance to experience close-up magic right before your eyes. Children are welcome.
At 6 p.m. in List Art 120, Jay will present, Tragic Magic, a riveting lecture on all the magicians, spectators, and assistants who were killed in the act of magic. You’ll hear true stories of murder, botched escapes, and–with new scholarship–the real cause of Houdini’s untimely death. Told with passion and theatrics by master magician Joshua Jay, this presentation will even include a touch of the impossible. A Q&A will follow the presentation, and all questions on the craft of magic are welcome.
Joshua Jay is a former world-champion of close-up magic and the bestselling author of MAGIC: The Complete Course and several other titles. Joshua has performed and lectured in over 100 countries and helped design illusions for Game of Thrones. He has headlined at the Magic Castle in Hollywood and recently appeared on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. Joshua fooled Penn & Teller on their hit show, Fool Us. Last year Joshua consulted with the US Postal Service on the magic postage stamps series released in the summer of 2018.
The H. Adrian Smith Collection of Conjuring and Magicana at the Brown University Library, long considered one of the finest private libraries on conjuring and magic, includes 16th century titles on natural magic, alchemy, astrology, religious rites, and witchcraft. Later holdings include sections on conjuring, card tricks and games, magicians as performers, magic periodicals and other works intended for practicing magicians, such as posters, ephemera, and realia. The Collection is the gift and bequest of the collector, H. Adrian Smith, class of 1930, who as an undergraduate put himself through Brown by giving magic performances.
Date: Tuesday, April 16, 2019
Times: 3 p.m. and 6 p.m.
Locations: Patrick Ma Digital Scholarship Lab, Rockefeller Library, 10 Prospect St, Providence & List Art, 64 College Street, Providence
This is the story of a great performer, producer, showman and entrepreneur. If you are not lucky enough to be part of the generation who saw Ron Urban in his prime, this book will intrigue you. Prepare to make friends with a remarkable man and his family.
The 2018 Milbourne Christopher Awards Presentation at the Garde Arts Center, New London, Connecticut. Additional information and ticket sales available in July.