The evening’s meeting attracted 39 people.  It opened with a series of event announcements. The emcee for the evening, Bernard Sim, reminded all present that the 9th AMA Conference would be held from 15 to 17 September 2012 at Davao, Philippines.  Those interested in should register early. They could also check with Francis Bosco for cheap air tickets.  The next IBM Annual Dinner would be a lunch and would be held on 18 November 2012 at Roland’s Restaurant.  Next, JK Tan announced that 15 volunteers have signed up for walkabout magic for ‘Food from the Heart’ to be held on 9 September 2012.  For the Yellow Ribbon Run to be held on 16 September 12, 10 have volunteered their service this year.  JK Tan urged more to volunteer for both events.
 
Next, Enrico Varella’s guests were invited to introduce themselves. They were Samuel Boey, a volunteer magician for the disabled; and Lenny Lee, a 3-year magic hobbyist.

Then, it was “My Favourite Trick” time.  Chew Liang Huat produced an innocuous, metallic card holder, and then made cards disappear in it.

Jimmy Wong, who recently returned from China, managed a smooth execution of the three rings routine.  

Bernard Sim magically ‘teleported’ 4 coins in his closed fist to a guest’s closed fist.

Jeremy Pei demonstrated his awesome mind reading power with Larry Becker’s Ultimate Flashback.  Next, he performed a Collectors Workshop’s effect in which he vanished a blue napkin from a red bag and made it re-appear through a “pipe” of connected napkin holders. He then did his favourite trick of the month – Midas Cup.  With 2 silver goblets, he kept the audience guessing at the whereabouts of 3 coins.  He concluded with dice-stacking and correctly predicted the top dice of a stack under the cover.

Pambudi drew audience laughter, when he attempted to predict a guest’s hidden ‘9 of Diamonds’ card, as the guest replied ‘No’ to each of his questions.  He also got “his favourite tricks”, daughter, Nadia, and son, Adrian, to demonstrate their mind-reading abilities.  Nadia could read cards while little Adrian could draw the shape on a card held by a guest.   

After the break for refreshment, Jeremy Tan announced that a lecture would be given by the Buck Turns.  He spoke about his recent experience at FISM and the extreme cold weather (10 to 14° Celcius) at Blackpool.  Although he was not placed, he was happy that he had achieved a personal dream of competing at FISM.  He shared that Koreans did well among the Asians, winning eight awards.  The 2015 FISM would be held in Italy.

A serious and silent Ashish Lodhavia performed a version of the Professor’s Nightmare, pulled colourful scarves out of a seemingly empty box, changed a scarf’s colour from white to red as it passed between his thumb and forefinger.  Finally, he pulled out a red and white scarf from nowhere between his thumb and forefinger.      
   
Satish Kumar explained how cups and balls, which started out as a gambler’s con game, became the magician’s oldest trick as he baffled audience by changing little red balls under the cups into his “Angry Black Bird” furry toys.   

Hayashi pulled a guest’s card from a deck in double-quick time.

Baharudin made a coin spin in space, as well as fall off a standing card-box all without touching it.  He then continued to impress the audience with his modified version of Garrett Thomas’ “Stand-up Monte”.

President John Teo demonstrated how a guest’s picture card of a ‘coat’ was successfully predicted as 4 randomly selected picture cards mysteriously formed the word ‘COAT’ when placed side by side.  He continued by finding a chosen card lost in the middle of the deck as a sandwich between 2 magic magnet cards.

Wee Kien Meng surprised the audience when his guest pulled out a picture of Van Gogh  from an entire pile of Mona Lisa pictures given to him.  Then, his own prediction (earlier shown to be a Mona Lisa), mysteriously morphed into a Van Gogh too!  He later performed a sword through guest’s neck, to much laughter from the audience.

Jeremy Pei who had a booth, rounded off the evening with an auction of magic books, with all proceeds going to the IBM fund..

It had been yet another magically entertaining night !

Reported by:

(Ms) Low Hwee Lang