Tickets to this special event will be available in August, and I’ll post information here when I know more. Distinguished guests and presenters will be in attendance to present my award, and I plan to give a special performance!

This charming private club, housed in a 19th century townhouse, was my first “campus” for Chamber Magic in 2000 and 2001. I love this place. Tiffany glass ceilings, rich mahogany paneled walls, and oriental carpets transport you back in time to the grand days of old New York.

It was founded in 1898 to “stimulate, foster, and promote public interest in the arts and to educate the American people in the fine arts.”

Here’s the room where I began Chamber Magic:

Beyond the fact that I’m honored to have been selected to receive this award, I’m even more impressed that this institution, through issuing such an award, has recognized magic as legitimate performance art. There has been a long-running dialog among magicians as to whether magic is an art or a craft… I hope that this award is a step towards increasing the awareness of magic as one of the arts, and raising magic’s visibility in the eyes of the public.

Side note: Next door to the National Arts Club is the well-known Players Club, where the John Mulholland library was housed. The Mulholland collection contained over 4000 pieces of magic apparatus, literature and memorabilia. His superb collection remained at the Players Club until 1984 when it was purchased by David Copperfield.

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Having presented this show over 2000 times by that point, I felt confident throughout the performance. Until the rings routine.

For years I’ve featured the Linking Finger Rings in my shows. It’s one of my favorites – three borrowed wedding rings are linked together into a chain.

This time, though, one of the borrowed rings snapped in half.

Fortunately it was during the “unlinking” stage of the routine. I had already linked the three wedding rings, and displayed them to the audience. As I was disengaging them, I felt something crack – like a pretzel. I looked into my cupped hands and saw that one of the rings – which contained dozens of antique rubies – had broken in two. Several of the tiny rubies had slipped free.

Thinking fast, I returned the first solid wedding ring to its owner, followed by the second solid ring. Now the tricky part. I had to return the third, broken, ring but didn’t want to ruin the rest of my performance. After all, I still had another 25 minutes to go. And 200 people watching.

So I hid half of the ring in my right fist, and gripped the other half at my right fingertips. Keeping the ring half-concealed, I advanced forward to show it to the last spectator. Recognizing the visible rubies along the edge, she confirmed to the rest of the audience that it was indeed her ring.

As soon as she verified that the ring was hers, I dramatically placed it (with the other broken piece) into my jacket pocket. This got a big laugh – the audience thought I was joking – that I had intentions to steal the ring. I said simply, “Don’t worry miss, you’ll get your ring right back before you leave tonight.”

I left it at that, since it was a somewhat satisfactory comedic conclusion for the audience, and continued on with the next 25 minutes of the show. Nobody knew that anything went wrong.

After the show was over, the ring’s owner approached the platform. I took her off into an adjoining room, and asked her if she had enjoyed the show. She said “Yes, it was wonderful.”

I said, “I’m glad that you enjoyed the show…because there’s a slight problem. I broke your ring.”

“That was my mother’s wedding ring,” she stated.

I showed her the two pieces of the ring, and she was visibily upset. Fortunately, though, she was not the type of person who makes a public display of her disappointment. I promised to her that I would have the ring repaired. Fortunately, too, I have a strong working relationship with Daniel Koren, one of Manhattan’s top jewelers.

Over the next two weeks, we melted down her gold ring, and rebuilt her ring with the original rubies (which had all been cleaned and remounted). There were several missing rubies that had fallen during my show, but my jeweler located matching rubies that filled in for the ones that got lost in the floor cracks.

The ring was now Tiffany-quality. It was better – much better – than when she had first lent it to me. And, it was made using the same gold and stones that were originally contained in her ring.

Needless to say, she was thrilled.
I learned a lesson – no more family heirlooms!

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