Project SMILE 2 - A Healing Touch - in Singapore General Hospital

It's been quite a while since we've done Project SMILE 2. I still remember when we launched it in 2003. Let me give you some background info on Project SMILE 2. Well, Project SMILE 2 is a program that uses magic as a form of rehabilitation therapy for hospital patients. It has gotten widespread support from therapists in the United States as an alternative form of therapy that exceeds traditional therapeutic methods. Today, I was invited to do a presentation at Singapore General Hospital, introducing them to the concept of magic as a form of rehabilitation.

I realize that Project SMILE 2 - A Healing Touch - is a great way to tie in magic with rehabilitation because the use of magic tricks adds fun and motivation to the difficult rehabilitation process for patients.

At SGH, I demonstrated some tricks that could aid the rehabilitation process to about 25 doctors and therapists at their staff meeting. They took the opportunity to learn the tricks for themselves which they found very entertaining and seemed enthusiastic to incorporate this form of rehabilitation into their therapy for their patients.

It has always been my passion to develop Project SMILE 2 - A Healing Touch. I long to see this program succeed, not for us magicians, but for the patients. I sincerely believe it will help them on their road to recovery, plus it'll bring them lotsa fun!

Project Smile 2 is indeed a great tool to synergise our love for magic and our contribution to our community. For all of you, magicians, therapists or caregivers of the sick, interested to get involved in Project SMILE 2, do email us at magiccircle@magicoflawrence.com

VJC Arts Appreciation Day

VJC had their annual arts appreciation day and I was invited to do a 2-hour magic appreciation workshop. I conducted a semi-lecture-style workshop, starting off with a 20 min show. There was great response from the students. They were all very eager to start learning magic. (Man! I wish that my school had magic classes when I was a student! Seems like there are so many more choices nowadays)

While planning this lecture, I wasn't sure what to teach - how much magic would be sufficient. So I decided to cover a wide range of magic - cards, coins, street magic and miscellaneous objects. My guys thought that I was giving them too much to manage. However, as I dialogued with them, I found that many said that they've been learning magic on their own and most have watched many close-up effects on YouTube and Metacafe.

Welcome to the 21st century - Where anything can be found on the web!

Check out the class... Glad that they are so into learning the magic.

Fiddling with the pack of cards that was given to them free, most of my students gave a resounding “Chey!” upon the revelation of the trick. It's a standard response! It's hard for many people, even magicians themselves, to understand that magic need not be complicated to create a magical effect. It's all about the presentation. Like Eugene Burger says "The greatest magic is usually very simple"
To all the VJ students who attended my Magic Appreciation course, let me know how your magic is coming along. Hope that you'll continue to pursue magic as a hobby! You never know where it may lead you.

In love and magic,

Priscilla

Community Service at TOUCH Senior Activity Centre

Today, the Ngee Ann Polytechnic Project SMILE students performed their community service and I believed it was a great experience for all of them.

First of all, it was a chance for them to perform magic in front of a live audience and, at the same time, be a blessing to the community. It was also great to see Nigel put up a 30-minute show for the elderly. Kudos to Nigel who commanded the stage and did the show in Mandarin! Wow. That made the show so much more appealing to the elderly who are much more familiar with the Chinese language.

It is great for trainers and volunteers like myself to be able to use Project SMILE as a platform to practise our routines. We’re no longer standing in front of a passive mirror or a group of indulgent magic peers. It’s time to put our money where our mouths are and get some genuine oohs and aahs from the audience.

Many of us have gained a lot of invaluable experience during these community services which has helped us to become better performers. Nigel highlighted this today at the TOUCH Senior Activity Centre.

I encourage all current students and alumni members to step forward and perform for Project SMILE community services; it’s a great platform to use our passion for magic to serve the community.

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.