Happy New Year!

I’ve been dreaming! My dream is to perform a magic show grander than anything I’ve ever done yet, a show that will travel the world performing for millions. Well, you know the skies are the limit when it comes to dreaming.

I was reading Cyril Takayama’s and Criss Angel’s bios and it was really interesting to find out how they came up with their unique ideas that has taken the world by storm, giving birth to concepts that have transformed the way people look at magic today.

I realized that they too started with a dream. They were spurred by a vision that they felt, at the beginning, was too daunting for them to achieve.

A common attribute of these great magicians is their willingness to persevere despite everything going against them. This never-say-die attitude is one that I’d like to adopt, not only in my magic, but also in life in general.

I guess, right now, I have to keep working on my magic so that I can hopefully achieve my dream, just like these great magicians!

Tick, Tock

The calendar is ticking off the days till the end of the year. As I look back to the beginning of 2007, I remember Dad telling me, “Pris, this is going to be a lull year for us.”

So much for a lull year… I sure have been busy! In fact, this is one of the busiest years for me. Hah! Lull year indeed.

This year has been very unusual in that I’ve been able to conduct many Project SMILE classes; and I was able to spend time with old and new friends in the Magic Circle. I’m very thankful for that. Through conducting many Project SMILE classes, I have been able to make "serving the community, AND learning new magic" an integral part of my life.

Like most of you who are amateur magicians, I do have regular work to do as well. Yes, it’s magic-related but it doesn’t actually create more time for me to learn magic. I do stuff like managing website content, planning forecasts for Project SMILE, organizing Magic Circle meetings, teaching classes, and working on conceptualizing our new show.

All these magic-related duties can rob me of time that I should spend to learn new magic. I thus end up being more of a manager than a magician.

So how can we approach the challenge of learning new magic?

Step1: Decide That You Want To Learn New Magic

Step 2: Have A Goal
For me, the need to perform new magic tricks at Magic Circle meetings gives me the impetus to learn new magic. If you are attending Magic Circle meetings regularly, hey, you have a ready goal! Every participant must of course bring a new trick to the meetings!

Step 3: Have A Game Plan
I decided to learn ONE new trick every alternate week, which gives me a week in between to practise what I have learnt. Ideally, I would then have four new tricks to perform in front of a live audience at every meeting.

Step 4: Set Aside Time
Like everyone else, I have to make time to learn new magic. This process of setting aside time is tedious. But like cultivating any other habit, once we get the hang of doing it regularly, subconsciously it will become a habit.

I hope that this will encourage more of you to proactively learn magic on your own; and to join us in the Magic Circle.

Is Magic All About Tricks?

I've been thinking, what makes a performer "magical". What gives him or her that certain 'X' factor that allows him or her to shine?

I've had the opportunity to do alot of big illusions with my dad. When I first started out, I was just his assistant aka "dumb blonde". In recent years, I've had the opportunity to be the key illusions in more routines. Yet, I was always feeling inadequate, as though I am not in control of the magic. It could have happened with or without me.

I try to cover it up with slick moves and all my performances look good. But the fact of the matter remains... Deep down I didn't buy it. But as the professionals say, 'THE SHOW MUST GO ON!'

And so it did.

A week ago, Joanie Spina - our new magic director / choreographer was in Singapore working with us on our magic routine. It was intense. We were rehearsing each illusion about 20 times. I was aching like mad. My body really felt bruised and battered. But despite the aches and pain, those rehearsals left a deep impression on me.

I remember how we always emphasize in our magic classes... "The Real Magic Is You!"

Well, Joanie's rehearsals really ingrained that in me. The aura of magic really emanates from us. What do I mean by that?

This begins with us actually seeing the magic we perform. And more importantly, let us ENJOY our own performance and appreciate the wonder that it brings forth. It has taken me 6 years as a performer to learn that truth. The truth is that, indeed, we all have something to give; the truth is that the real magic lies within us.

Magician 24/7

‘Magician 24/7’ was a topic that master magician Jeff Mcbride covered in his magic lecture in the first International Festival of Magic held here in Singapore.

Believe it or not, the highlight of his lecture was not the mind blowing tricks he taught us, but his compelling speech on how he became the magician he is today by first of all being a Magician 24/7.

So what is a magician 24/7? Well, many magicians are only magicians when they are performing their gigs but, once they’re out of their tux or off the stage, they’re off the job. Jeff spoke about doing magic every chance you get, whether you’re performing to the taxi-driver sending you to work in the morning, or to your colleagues during lunchtime. Performing to different kinds of spectators allow us to understand what works for us and what would get the best reactions. We strive continually to achieve greater effortlessness in our acts. It sounds paradoxical, but magicians understand what I mean.

A 24/7 magician is always ready with a trick in hand because he never knows when he would be called upon to entertain somebody. A good example would be at a dinner party. If someone there knows that you are a magician and asks you to do a trick for his friends and you do not have anything on you, what are you going to say? “I left my invisible thread and tapered cards at home?”

His lecture made such a deep impression on me that I went home and packed a B’wave (a lightweight portable card trick) into my wallet. It’s been in there since and has never failed me.

That day, Jeff hammered home the message that magic should become second nature to the magician.

So, friends, let’s be 24/7 Magicians, ready any time or day of the week whenever called upon to show our stuff.

The 10 Commandments of Magic (Cont'd)

Commandment No. 7: Look Into the Spectators’ Eyes
To be a great magician or a great entertainer, we need to be able to engage the audience. It doesn’t matter if you have the world’s best sleight of hand, but you have failed if you can’t get your audience to look at it. Engaging the audience is the key. One good way would be to look into the spectators’ eyes whenever you get the chance to. When you have to talk during your show, talk to the audience and don’t just recite a prepared script. If you can’t engage the audience, the audience won’t bother being engaged to your performance. Remember, talk to them. Whenever you get the chance, look into their eyes. Do remember to lock eyes with different members of the audience to ensure that you engage as many of them as possible.

Commandment No. 8: Respect Your Audience
No one likes to talk or interact with a rude person. Similarly, during a magic performance, we as magicians need to respect our audience. No one likes to watch a performance where the magician is rude and uses all available opportunities to humiliate the audience. Remember how we have always taught you the need to make the audience feel good whenever we use them as volunteers? Hence, we always honour volunteers by making it appear that they were instrumental in making the magic happen, even though they didn’t. Even if it is a comical routine, such as the Paper-Ball Over the Head, we never make fun of the audience member even though he is the only one who doesn’t get it. Of course, in this case there is no opportunity to honour them for making the magic happen, but neither do we humiliate the person. If we often put down our volunteers, then people would not want to volunteer for us or even watch our performances even though we may be great magicians. So remember, always engage your audience by looking into their eyes and also always, always, respect your audience. A great magician is not just one who has smooth skills, but one who is “likeable” to the audience.

Commandment No. 9: Never Distract From Another Magician’s Performance
As a magician, do you dream of a perfect audience? Well, start by being a good audience yourself. You can occasionally spot the smart alecs in a crowd. They’d be nudging their friends and whispering in their ears, most likely clueing them where and when to watch for the magician’s secret move. This can be so annoying, right? Partly because they are distracting the other spectators from your act (if you are the performing magician) and partly because, if they guess your secret correctly, they would steal your thunder. Since we are magicians, we would have learned many a trade secret and we probably can guess how the magician on stage is doing his trick. We should respect him by keeping the knowledge to ourselves, and besides, we shouldn’t rob our fellow spectators of the thrill of suspense and the surprise at the end of the act. In such a situation, learn to sit back and enjoy another magician’s performance.

Commandment No 10 – Have FUN!
Loaded with nine commandments by now, you may start thinking magic is pretty grim business. But remember how you entered into this lifestyle? Wasn't it because you were mystified, fascinated and mesmerised by the craft? Master magicians who have been practising magic for ten or even 20 years have one thing in common. Ask them why they do magic and they’ll answer that it’s because they’re still having fun. Yup, having fun while doing what you do is the only surefire way to improve and excel in magic, and I suspect, in any career or enterprise. So, relax and enjoy your craft. And until we meet again, stay magical.

Yours Magically,
Daniel Khong

The 10 Commandments of Magic (Cont'd)

Commandment No 4: Act Normal

In all our classes, the trainers say, “Think natural” and “Act normal”.

We know there’s always a secret move in every trick. The definition of ‘secret’ means that others shouldn’t know it is being done at all. How is that possible, you ask.

Simple, we must look natural while carrying it out.

One good example is palming. We’ve learned how to do a basic finger palm. If your hand is clenched tight into a fist or open with your fingers extended, doesn’t it look abnormal, and therefore suspicious? Our hand’s natural position is a semi-closed fist and people know that. Do anything else and it’d look ‘fake’. People will find it fishy.

Another problem many budding magicians face is the ‘blink’. It’s a natural physiological reaction to blink our eyes when we tense up to make a move. We can’t see ourselves blinking, so we think others won’t as well. Even if the audience doesn’t spot anything, we need to control this habit. Why? It doesn’t look natural.

Magicians aim to convince people that the impossible can happen. To be truly convincing, we need to perform the trick naturally to give the impression.

Commandment No. 5: A Bigger Action Covers a Smaller One

This commandment essentially refers to misdirection. Misdirection can be defined as a form of deception in which the attention of the audience is focused on one thing in order to distract its attention from another.

It is human tendency to focus more attention on a larger action than a small one. Think of it this way: we’ve all seen cheesy action movies where the hero points past the villain’s shoulder and the villain obediently turns around to look, allowing the hero to sneak in a punch or to make his escape.

Magic largely revolves around the manipulation of this human tendency, but of course with a greater level of subtlety. You don’t often see a magician pointing behind the audience and shouting “Look!” so that he can surreptitiously roll an elephant on stage. As said, in magic it’s done subtly.

If you recap what you’ve learnt in all the magic lessons so far, you’d realize how, in many tricks, we use a larger action to cover a smaller action. The smaller action is usually the “secret move”. Being a “secret” move, it should obviously remain a secret to the audience.

For example, in the trick where we use a magic wand to call up a coin from two empty hands, we use the larger action of turning our entire body to cover the secret move of transferring the coin together with the wand to the other hand.

Another example would be the Professor’s Nightmare (also known as Rope Trio), during the part where the magician lets the audience inspect the ropes and, under cover of collecting back the medium length rope, the magician proceeds to execute his secret move of forming the cross on the long and short rope.

Equal care should be put into practising the misdirection as well as your secret move. The key to mystify the audience is to make your cover-up action look natural and spontaneous. This takes practice! The more nonchalant you are, the more natural the move would appear and the more the audience would be unable to catch the smaller, secret move.

Commandment No. 6: People Will Look Where You Look

When I was in primary school, a teacher told us to try a simple experiment to prove his theory that people around us are “kaypo” (busybodies). In the experiment, we stood in a cluster in the middle of the school quadrangle and kept our heads turned to the sky for several minutes. The result was that fellow students started moving towards us with their heads tilted to the sky. Some asked what we were looking at but most just scanned the sky curiously, trying to figure out what had drawn our attention.

That experiment indeed proved that people are quite “kaypo”, but it also proved that people will look where you look. Even in daily life, like holding a conversation with someone, if you stare at something other than the person you’re conversing with, the person will gradually start to wonder what you are looking at and turn to look in the direction you are staring at.

I can’t explain it, I didn’t study the human brain or psychology or whatever, but here’s my take on it. Generally, when we focus our eyes on something, it’s in preparation to make an action on the object.

Understand this human behaviour and you are on your way to incorporate it into your magic show.

This is what the audience thinks. When the magician is looking at an object, like his rope or his wand, the audience thinks that he is going to make his magic with that object, so they focus all their attention on the item as well. A miracle can happen in the blink of an eye, so they don’t want to miss it.

Once again, it’s a perfect opportunity for magicians to exploit a human tendency. Pretend to focus on an unimportant object so that we draw their attention to the object, thereby distracting them from the crucial part of the trick. However, this means that we, too, must not look or even risk a glance towards the direction of our secret move. This is harder to pull off than it sounds!

Are you executing the secret move? Look somewhere else! This will throw off the audience as they wouldn’t be looking at the spot where the secret move is happening.

I’ll use the Professor’s Nightmare again as an illustration. During the counting portion of the trick, imagine if you stared at your hands while you were switching ropes. Immediately, the audience will be clued that something important is happening there. Look somewhere else! Be subtle and nonchalant.

As you can see, we magicians recognise and exploit human tendencies so that we can make something that is logical appear magical.

By the way, pointing past a person’s shoulder and shouting “Look!” only works in B-grade movies.

The 10 Commandments of Magic

I have such good feedback about Daniel’s Ten Commandments of Magic that I thought I’ll reproduce it here for those who haven’t read it yet. Daniel has captured the ten fundamental rules which we, the cast and crew in Magic of Lawrence and Priscilla, all adhere to. Of course, these commandments are not sacred and you won’t be condemned if you violate them! But trust me when I say that they are worth following.

Commandment No. 1: Never tell how the trick is done

Why is this a crucial factor in magic? You see, the reason magic entertains is because of its ability to intrigue and to mystify its audience. Once the audience has knowledge of how a certain magic trick is done, their perception towards the trick is forever altered.

I speak the truth when I say that after all these years of being exposed to many aspects of magic, I seem to become numb to magic acts. When I view a magic show, I find myself looking out for secret moves, trapdoors and hidden items, rather than just sitting back and enjoying the show. It becomes more of an analysis of the techniques rather than an enjoyable entertaining hour.

So, to keep your audience intrigued and mystified by magic, don’t tell them how an illusion is done! Keep them in suspense and this in turn will fan the passion they have towards magic. You never know, one of these people may some day be the next Copperfield.

Moreover, letting people into our trade secrets would ruin the market for magic and cost us our jobs. So, please do us a favour and keep mum!

Commandment No. 2: Practise, practise practise!

Since your first magic lesson, your trainers would’ve persistently reiterated the importance of practice. Practice is essential to improvement; as the saying goes, “practice makes perfect’.

Ever been caught in a fix when you’re performing a trick and you forget what to do next? Or how about struggling to recall what you’re supposed to say halfway through your magic routine? Perhaps you pulled off an illusion brilliantly in one performance and flopped the very next time you did it. Just because we know a trick well doesn’t mean that we will remember it for the rest of our lives.

These are all the result of lack of practice.

Magic should be practised to a level of proficiency where one does not need to look at one’s hands to perform a trick. The magician should be able to perform a trick without looking at it or even thinking about it. Every single detail has already been thought through and performed exactly how it should be done.

So how then do we practise? Use a mirror. Constantly practise and polish your moves in front of a mirror so that you are able to spot any mistakes that you make. Of course, we may very possibly miss our own mistakes, so another alternative is to find a buddy who would be comfortable to help you spot and give you constructive feedback on how to improve on your magic.

Once you’ve got all the moves down and you’re comfortable with the routine, you’ll need to move on to practising in front of a live audience. Nothing beats performing to a live audience as that is when you have a chance to test people’s reactions to the way you have interpreted and performed the trick.

So please remember, Commandment No. 2 also includes practising before a live audience.

Commandment No. 3: Never Repeat A Trick During A Show

Some magicians describe a repeat trick as a suicide move.

What makes a trick so special the first time a spectator watches it? The element of surprise.

That’s why we tell our students never to reveal the effect before performing it, for example “My next trick involves this red silk which I’ll place in my left hand and then vanish.” Do that and the surprise is gone.

Similarly, performing the same trick again alerts the audience. Your misdirections and big covering actions won’t be as convincing the second time around and people might spot how the trick is done or notice things they didn’t see the first time. With their guard up, they’d be searching for suspicious moves. They may not catch your “secret” move, but why take the chance?

Take my advice -- quit while you’re ahead. Mystify them and stop there. Sure, they’d plead with you “Do it again, pleez!”, but think: if they expose your secret, we’d not be helping ourselves as magicians.

Commandment No 4: Act Normal

In all our classes, the trainers say, “Think natural” and “Act normal”.

We know there’s always a secret move in every trick. The definition of ‘secret’ means that others shouldn’t know it is being done at all. How is that possible, you ask.

The answer is simple -- we must look natural while carrying it out.

One good example is palming. We’ve learned how to do a basic finger palm. If your hand is clenched tight into a fist or open with your fingers extended, doesn’t it look abnormal, and therefore suspicious? Our hand’s natural position is a semi-closed fist and people know that. Do anything else and it’d look ‘fake’. People will find it fishy.

Another problem many budding magicians face is the ‘blink’. It’s a natural physiological reaction to blink our eyes when we tense up to make a move. We can’t see ourselves blinking, so we think others won’t as well. Even if the audience doesn’t spot anything, we need to control this habit. Why? It doesn’t look natural.

Magicians aim to convince people that the impossible can happen. To be truly convincing, we need to perform the trick naturally to give the right impression.