Our Second Magic Circle Meeting 8 JUNE

Our second Magic Circle meeting was rather hectic for many of our GE staff. We had rehearsals the whole week and only finished an hour before the Magic Circle was supposed to start. My dad and I quickly went to prepare for the routines that we were performing that evening. I was nervous yet excited about debuting my Linking Rings routine, and also watching my Magic II students perform their routines.

Tick tock tick tock… It’s 7:30pm. People started to stream in and chill out and talk magic.

Tat's my dad performing a magic trick for Jorim and he in turn performs for Christina

Kengsan shows off his new card sleights:) while I attempt a new card trick.

(right) Peng Yew demos a new trick learnt from the Royal Road to Card MAgic,
while Amelia demonstrates more magic to Chris. (left)

(right) Addy performing tricks he learnt from a magic shop in Shenyang, while in the

next table, Eugene teaches his trick from last month's magic circle meeting (left)

(right) Dad peacticing a new card routine and Ronald trying a trick he just learnt. (left)

Hey! Cards seem to be the universal language of magicians. From the pics I'm sure you can gather that no matter what the theme of the night is... Magicians will always have card tricks up their sleeves!

Well, this is the fun and relaxing part of our magic circle meetings. Hanging out with friends, winding down after work and watch people perform magic. After much warming up, everyone adjourned to the studio for the real show.

There were 10 performers that evening, of which some were from my graduating Magic II class. In order to graduate from Magic II, each group had to put up their own 20min stage show the next day at IMH – our community service venue. This was their chance to run their individual segments in front of a live audience. (And also for me and my dad. *grinz*)

The first to take the stage were Lam Peng Yew and Jorim Sim. They performed a routine with ropes, combining the Cut & Restore with the Rope Trio. The transition between the 2 performers was flawless and their routine was well executed. I could tell they had been practicing.

The next to take to the stage was my son Isaac Khong. I told him that in order to come, he had to perform a trick and he came well prepared with his mini Color Changing Rabbit trick. The prop he used was a miniature version of the kids trick called “Find The Rabbit”. The prop actually comes in a pair, but to simplify it for him, I taught it to him as a color changing rabbit trick. At 4 years old, he really is the youngest performer at the Magic Circle. I was so proud of him!

Armed with Cups & Balls, Collin Tan was up next. He performed Michael Ammar’s Cups & Balls routine which outright astounded the audience with the production of 4 real life fruits – lemon, prune, apple & tomato from the 3 cups. Because of his clear presentation and deliberate actions, no one even saw it coming.
Too bad I don't have a pic of the final production :(

The next performer was Eugene Lim who did Eugene Burger’s Gypsy Thread, whereby he breaks off a long piece of thread from a spool, shows it to everyone before proceeding to break it into many small pieces. He continues to roll all these pieces together and slowly uncoil it to show that it is completely restored. This trick is truly a pack small play big trick with an amazing effect.

(Can u see e thread in e pic??

Psst... Eugene, next time wear a darker shirt when u do tis trick!)

Amelia Goh, our up and coming Project SMILE trainer was up next. She defty performed the Magic II trick - Burnt & Restored Tissue Paper. After which, she decided to try out a new silk routine, using a production canister. Although her nerves were shaking... she still pulled it off beautifully.

All

in

good

fun,

Addy Ang delivered a hilarious Floating Bill routine, although it wasn't his original intention. Oh course, with any routine using money, Addy seized the opportunity to borrow a bill from the audience and requested that he keep the bill if he performed it well. Looks quite good from the pics huh? The dollar bill slowly starts to rise. However, it turned into a farce when his bill started to fly away and Addy desperately tries to catch it! His routine became the talk of the night. :)

Our veteran Project SMILE trainer Daniel Gan performed an amazing torn and restored card trick, of which he does not know what it is called. First he asked someone to choose a card and 3 indifferent others from an SIA deck. Likewise, he took 4 indifferent cards as well. Both Daniel and his audience started to tear up the each card into 4 pieces, place all the pieces into a bag and mixed it up. Form the bag, Daniel randomly pulls out 4, assembles it face down in between 2 clear acrylic boards, and reveals it to be the card that the audience selected. Fantastic!

It was my turn and like everyone else, I was about to perform my new routines. I was really nervous at debuting my 3 ring, Linking Ring routine. I’ve always done a 2 ring, Linking Ring routine in the Magic Of Love. So what made performing a 3 ring routine any different? Well for starters, there was an additional ring. Duh! But that was not really the reason. This was one of the rare pieces of magic, that I really put a lot of heart and soul into the routine.

I wanted to use my magic to inspire people to look within themselves and find the childlike wonder that they once had. Combining it with dance and mime, I performed my 3 ring routine to the song “Remember When” by LeAnn Rimes. I managed to captivate my audience. Phew! I was relieved when that was over. (hey, good idea for another article… A Magician’s First…) My next trick was a routine called Mixed Emotions by Rick Maue. Great effect! But not very easy to pull off… if you don’t know how to manage all the audience members involved in the trick. *hint*

My dad, Lawrence Khong was the final performer. First performed Johnny Thompson’s signature Egg Bag routine. I’ve seen this routine performed by Johnny many times. It’s a really great routine. My dad really did justice to the routine. Johnny would be proud! Since the theme of the night was Parlor magic, he decided to perform and teach everyone how to do the 20th Century Silk. Silk magic is very visual. Everyone loved the instantaneous effect of the vanished silk appearing in between 2 silks tied together and was eager to learn. The show wasn’t over yet. My dad took full opportunity to show 2 more great routines which he was working on - A mental trick using the 5 prediction symbols and Whit Hayden’s audience participation version of the Linking Rings. It was a humorous routine that not only drew much laughs from the audience, but also made his volunteer looked good.

As the show came to an end, my dad encouraged everyone to invest in some magic props. But, he also advised that before buying any trick, to drop us an email to check with us whether the trick was well worth its price. We’ve bought magic tricks that sounds promising, but upon receiving it, realize that it is really lame. Don’t think you want to be spending money on crap! ;)

Overall, it was a fun gathering of friends at the Magic Circle. But as always, my dad reminded all of us what Project Smile is all about - serving the community using magic, and how we as a Magic Circle must continue to promote this value. I think that this element is very important. Ooh! It just occurred to me… Technically, all magicians should be very community minded people. Why? Magic in itself, is something to be shared. Perhaps doing a community project together as alumni, would help to continually promote and retain this value.

Hmmm… My dad and I will definitely be putting more thought to this.
Ciao for now!

(Oh...one more thing...Sorry for not posting tis up earlier)

.

so little time ... so much magic...

Dropping a quick note in between rehearsals.

Time passes way too fast for my liking. Ever since I cam back from Shenyang, its been one thing after the other. Last week, I had a2 day intensive train the trainers session. I was really pleased with everyone. My protegee in training - Amelia, has come a long way. This class not only benefited Amelia, but all my volunteer facilitators felt that they now have a better grasp on the tricks that they weren't so good at.

This week, we are having full on magic rehearsals. Our new director Joanie Spina is here in Singapore to work with us on our illusions. It's a painfully good experience. The pain kicked in after the second day. I was literally black and blue from rehearsing over and over again. We did one brand new illusion 20 times that day. Talk about monotonous! But it was worth it. Our routine looks...

Fine tuning and polishing our magic is a very tedious process. But that is what seperates from the good from the great. I wanna be great at everything I do. (Sigh... that just means I gotta lot to do)

Gotta run! I can hear them calling me.

"The devil is in the details"

DAY 3 - Rope, Ropes & more Ropes!

Today started out as a rather relaxing day. Or so it seemed. It was our day for R&R. The Youth Communist Party was taking our team of volunteers out to visit their Botanical Garden. As for myself, I was planning to run some errands. I wanted to hunt for 8 – 10 mm cotton rope for my Magic II class. Sheesh… You would think that I’d be able to purchase it in Singapore right? Well, you can’t. I can only find nylon rope in Singapore and it wasn’t cheap either. Nowadays, it seems as though everything is made in China. So might as well try to find it since I’m here.

We went to many places but to no avail. I was sure that in such a big place like Shenyang, they were bound to have what I was looking for. We just had to find the right place. Finally! After searching the whole morning, some one pointed us to the right direction. Where we went, I do not have a clue. It looked like a small street behind a wholesale district, with many little shophouses. Oh well!

Yea!! They do have the rope which I was looking for. But oh my goodness! It was such a mess. They chucked a huge messy bundle of rope on the ground and told me - This is 150meters. For people who sell rope, they sure don’t know how to handle rope. It took them 30 minutes to try to recoil the rope, just to end up more tangled than when they started. Look at the mess they were making. I had no choice but to step in and lend a hand.

Initially, I was quite amused at the situation. It got old pretty quickly and the smile on my face soon dissapeared. By the time we were done, it was already close to 4pm. We spent the whole day searching for ropes. All I wanted to do was to enjoy what was left of one and only R&R day.

DAY 2 - REFLECTION

Today wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. (phew!) When I was introduced, I came out and performed a short rope routine before starting that days session. I kinda froze for awhile after I performed. But I really need to thank God that I was able to overcome my fear. Strangely, after I did my welcome speech and asked for their kind understanding as I hardly speak Chinese back home… somehow everything went much better, as though a great burden was lifted from my shoulders. Words seemed to roll off the tip of my tongue.

That's me performing the mind reading act in chinese!! I'm still in shock. ;)

Actually, teaching the Liaoning university students was a lot of fun. I realize that magic transcends all languages. They really seemed to dig learning magic. But most importantly, teaching them magic was easy cos’ I had a great team behind me helping me all the way. Daniel Gan, our other Project SMILE trainer and magic enthusiast, was standing on stage with me the entire time just in case I got stuck and needed some assistance. Also, our volunteers were spread out, 2 to a group to help facilitate the university students learning. Check out how serious they all look during their debrief session. They really made my job a breeze!

After a 3 hour class, I was seriously tired and had a splitting headache. I had NEVER spoken as much Chinese as I did in that one session. It was a major overload of Chinese for me. Though tiring, I also had an immense sense of satisfaction. One of my goals this year was to proficient in Chinese, so as to help my dad teach magic in China. And even though this does not make me an expert in Chinese, it has helped me start this process of reaching my goal.

“A goal is a dream with a deadline.”

DAY 2 - TOTALLY FREAKING OUT!

What on earth am I doing?? I can’t imagine that in less than 3 hours I’m going to have to stand in front of 100 University students and teach them magic in CHINESE!! Was was I thinking when I agreed to do this? I only speak Chinese while performing the Magic Of Love. I had never held a conversation in Chinese before, let alone teach and interact in Chinese. I know I’ve been preparing for this, and this was also one of my goals for this year. BUT…

[pacing up and down] 欢迎大家来参于触爱社会服务的欢乐魔术…
Arrggghhh! Can’t seem to ease my nerves.

Aiyah… whatever will be will be.

SHENYANG - DAY 1

Arrived in Shenyang today. 30 volunteers, including myself flew on China Southern airlines, with a quick transit at Guangzhou. Check out the gate number on our ticket versus what was on the signboard. Hmm… wasn’t sure whether we’d arrive at the right destination. :)

I was surprised at the welcome we received at the airport. The Shenyang delegates had a big banner prepared to welcome us, and they also gave me a huge bouquet of flowers. (Seriously, taking pictures upon arrival is not the best idea. Felt so grubby... oh well!)

We were immediately ushered to a dinner prepared in our honor.

Good food... Good friends… It was really was a good start to the trip. Starting classes tmr. I’d better get some shut eye.

PROJECT SMILE IS GOING TO SHENYANG FOR A SECOND TIME!

Let me give you all some background information –

Last year, my dad and I went to Shenyang with 10 volunteers from Singapore to engage with the youth via Project SMILE. My dad taught magic classes for 3 days and on the 4th day, we brought the entire team to serve in an elderly home in the city. Five major TV stations were there to cover the event.

My dad, Lawrence was extended an invitation to come back this year to conduct more magic classes and to speak to the youths on leadership and other youth related issues. What an opportunity!

Back to real time. We have been invited back to conduct Project SMILE aka for 100 university students all over Liaoning. These students come from more than 20 different universities, coming together to take part in a Singapore and Liaoning exchange program, which Project SMILE is a part of. Not only will we be conducting Project SMILE classes, but my dad will be using magic to give a speech about life, to the university students in Dongbei University and Shenyang Technological University. This will really be a first of its kind!

Normally, I wouldn’t get excited about conducting Project SMILE classes overseas, as my dad usually does most of the work. I’m just his ‘blonde’ assistant. However this time, I’m supposed to be the MAIN TRAINER. Hoo boy! This could end up being a very painful experience for both me and my students. I plan to blog this whole experience, so stay tuned. Will unravel how everything goes…