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Introducing Eric Appel (long)

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14 years 4 months ago #514 by Appelsmagic
Eric was born in New Brunswick, NJ back in 1953, and came to touch magic in many ways and at many times, but it wasn’t till many years later that he would realize just how much. As a youngster, his father Carl belonged to the Shriners and also was a 32nd degree Mason. As such, Eric went each year to the Shrine Circus where he met and became friends with Professor Charlie Cheer inventor of Professor Cheer’s rope routine. He also rubbed elbows with Dick Dubois between some of his television appearances. At the time, they were just “Nice men” who could do magic. Like most youngsters in the 60’s Eric was glued to the TV on Saturday mornings watching “The Wonderful Land of Alakazam”. The “BUG” was just nibbling. Then in 1967, Eric moved to North Brunswick and became a member of the Christian Fellowship Church where he met Rev.William Baker. It was Rev.Baker that helped the BUG get it’s teeth into Eric. By 1969, Eric had become Baker’s head assistant for the “Baker’s Magic World” illusion show. It was during this time that Eric got to meet and work with such names as Dai Vernon, Tony Slydini and the Amazing Randi. It was also this time that Eric was one of five teens that regularly attended IBM Ring 200 meetings in the basement of that same church. One of the other teens was David Kotkin AKA David Copperfield. While David went on to develop his magic, Eric joined the Middlesex County Sheriff’s Dept. He continued doing his own shows until he was promoted to Sergeant and was placed in charge of the underwater search and rescue unit. With a growing family and responsibilities at work, it was at this time Eric that had to put magic aside for a while. After retiring as a lieutenant in 1999, Eric dug out his magic and started to work on regaining his timing and tried to catch up on much he had missed while away from his love of the art. Joining the JMMRT and getting back to Ring 200 was the start of that journey back. One year after returning, Eric became the President of Ring 200 and held that office for 2 terms. During this time, he also became the committee Chairman of the JMMRT. As such, he stepped down from President to Vice- President to give more time to the JMMRT\'s administrative duties. He was reelected to the Presidents position and will finish up the latest term Dec\'09. As far as his magic is concerned, he is doing between 100 and 175 shows a year doing what he loves most, that is entertaining. He does adult shows as well as corporate, but the majority of his work is with kids. Having five of his own, he knows what makes them tick and what makes them laugh. At Jeff\'s request, he has had the opportunity to work the showroom at the Claredge Casino in Atlantic City alongside Jeff McBride and Eugene Burger. He has been able to rub elbows with some of magic’s Mega famous and at 55 he hopes to continue spreading the joy of Magic for many years to come.

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14 years 4 months ago #515 by mattr
Welcome Eric. Thanks for all the interesting details and hope to \"see\" you around the Gizmo often...

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14 years 4 months ago #516 by Pier
Welcome aboard Eric, hope you\'ll have a lot of fun as we all are already having!
\"See\" You soon around!

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14 years 1 month ago #597 by Dale
Great story! We are in experienced and esteemed company!

Dale

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10 years 3 months ago #1368 by mattr
Hey Eric, what have you been up to? Long time no hear....keep us posted

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