The Penn State Performing Magicians: History

[1996] [1997] [1998] [1999]

How we came about...
It's a funny thing, really. Each of us wondered individually whether or not there were other students that did magic. When figuring that there are 40,000 students on campus, chances were that at least some small percentage had some experience in the art.

This is a fairly detailed history of the club, though at times may be somewhat abridged...

This is page #1 of 4, beginning with 1995/6. This is the beginning.
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We began meeting early in 1996, not yet as an "official" Penn State club. We decided that it would be greatly beneficial to become "official," and hence took it upon ourselves to do so.
It was in December of 1995 that there was a magic show at State College's local library. It was Ben Salinas, with his sidekick Rocky... but that's another story. Francis decided to leave his business card with Ben's girlfriend, Jen. Within a few days, the two met up and chatted and performed... then pondered the existence of other magicians on a 40,000 student campus. A few posted flyers got us each a few phone calls, and within a week we began frequent meetings. The seed was planted...

Now, we all had heard rumors about how University President Graham Spanier was a performing magician, and decided that it might not be a bad idea to ask the "big guy" to be our faculty advisor (understanding that we really needed very little advisory assistance. To our great delight, he said yes, and has actually taken part in performing with us on a few occasions.

When we first began, Brian Foshee (an earlier member, graduated '97) owned a magic shop down in Johnstown area. Our first "club trip" was to see Copperfield in Pittsburg, and on the way we stopped off at Brian's shop to take a look around. That was May of '96.

October, 1996
We became an official Penn State club, making our first (authorized) honorary member David Copperfield. (We became official right at the time when Copperfield came to Penn State, so naturally we talked to him after the show and gave him honorary membership.)

Later that month, we began our "community service" by performing a gig for the Park Forest Middle School--a medieval feast. Dr. Spanier performed with us on that occasion.

November/December, 1996
We continued to meet and perform here and there, but organized a promotional show for ourselves at the Nittany Mall. We performed and sold magic kits and effects as fund-raising Holiday gifts. It was our short-term goal to save up money so we could attend Magi-Fest, an annual magic convention out in Columbus, Ohio. But that wasn't until February...

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[1996] [1997] [1998] [1999]


*Bringing Magic To Penn State Since 1996*
	[1996] [1997] [1998] [1999] How we came about... It's a funny thing, really. Each of us wondered individually whether or not there were other students that did magic. When figuring that there are 40,000 students on campus, chances were that at least some small percentage had some experience in the art. This is a fairly detailed history of the club, though at times may be somewhat abridged... This is page #1 of 4, beginning with 1995/6. This is the beginning. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We began meeting early in 1996, not yet as an "official" Penn State club. We decided that it would be greatly beneficial to become "official," and hence took it upon ourselves to do so. It was in December of 1995 that there was a magic show at State College's local library. It was Ben Salinas, with his sidekick Rocky... but that's another story. Francis decided to leave his business card with Ben's girlfriend, Jen. Within a few days, the two met up and chatted and performed... then pondered the existence of other magicians on a 40,000 student campus. A few posted flyers got us each a few phone calls, and within a week we began frequent meetings. The seed was planted... Now, we all had heard rumors about how University President Graham Spanier was a performing magician, and decided that it might not be a bad idea to ask the "big guy" to be our faculty advisor (understanding that we really needed very little advisory assistance. To our great delight, he said yes, and has actually taken part in performing with us on a few occasions. When we first began, Brian Foshee (an earlier member, graduated '97) owned a magic shop down in Johnstown area. Our first "club trip" was to see Copperfield in Pittsburg, and on the way we stopped off at Brian's shop to take a look around. That was May of '96. October, 1996 We became an official Penn State club, making our first (authorized) honorary member David Copperfield. (We became official right at the time when Copperfield came to Penn State, so naturally we talked to him after the show and gave him honorary membership.) Later that month, we began our "community service" by performing a gig for the Park Forest Middle School--a medieval feast. Dr. Spanier performed with us on that occasion. November/December, 1996 We continued to meet and perform here and there, but organized a promotional show for ourselves at the Nittany Mall. We performed and sold magic kits and effects as fund-raising Holiday gifts. It was our short-term goal to save up money so we could attend Magi-Fest, an annual magic convention out in Columbus, Ohio. But that wasn't until February... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [1996] [1997] [1998] [1999]