SINGAPORE RING 115 – August 2026 Magic Meeting Report

IBM Singapore Ring 115’s May meeting was held on Saturday 15th August 2026, in Function Room 2, Level 3, of the National Library building. Luke Tan and Axl Ching were the hosts. The total attendance was 26 members and 1 guest. The theme for the evening was Street Magic.

All members
The evening started with an open forum inviting members to share their experiences of street magic. This attracted sharing by Alan Kwan, Kai Emmanuel Kuah, Rob Newberry, Kogi Oberoi, Betsy Teo, James Cowan and Desmond Peh. The most common method of approaching people was to look for those who are relaxed and having casual chats. Avoid people in deep discussions or in a hurry. Confidence is quickly built with a quick snappy trick. The ways to deal with hecklers ranged from showing a strong trick that was more difficult to fathom to walking away politely and never be rude. The latter often results in the group silencing the heckler and inviting you back.

There was a short break of 5 minutes before going into performances by the members.

Desmond Peh was the first performer with a cup and coins routine. Copper silver coins appeared and disappeared. Magically his index finger penetrated the silver coin – Kung FU Coin. In the end the coins disappeared and first a small dice and last a giant dice dropped out of the cup.

Chew Liang Huat showed his oil over water using cards made by laser cutting stiff cardboard. He had two sizes, a normal size for close up and the jumbo size for stage presentations. Four cards were riveted together in one corner and cannot come apart. He showed two 2 brown (oil -O) cards and 2 blue (water – W) cards. They were in order O O W W. In a flash they were mixed O W O W. However since oil only floats on water they amazingly they reverted back to oil over water i.e. O O W W.

Alan Kwan had a card selected and replaced in a normal deck. He asked a volunteer to select a number between 10 and 30. Number 13 was chosen and on dealing cards on the table the 13th card was the chosen card. He also explained how he used the features like narrow and wide borders on the back of the card and small and large radii cut corners.

John Teo demonstrated how he could influence the decisions made by his volunteer. Two packets of seven cards each were presented to the volunteer. The volunteer made a third packet of seven cards by freely choosing cards from either of the first 2 packets. The third packet matched the performer’s prediction regarding the number of red and black cards. This was repeated two more times. In his second effect, he caused the top sheet of a Post-It note where he wrote “Your Card” to magically travel up the deck and attach to the volunteer’s chosen card.

Lim Teck Guan did two very old Chinese tricks. Two separate equal length strings became one long string. A ribbon tightly clasped in his fist was released. Finally a chosen card, 6H, from a normal deck was buried in it Firstly it appeared at the top of the deck and then at a random position in the deck chosen whilst riffling. The finale was that the whole deck had transformed to 6H.James Cowan, brought two unusual books named “Strangely Singaporean Book” and “Celebrity Presage Alligator Vegas”. He humoured the members by reading quotes out of the Singapore book. In the end a card chosen, KD, from a packet wrapped in a dollar bill ended on the chosen page in the book. He also predicted the chosen musical character from the second book.There was another short break.Kai Emmanuel Kuah went on to celebrate the 100th death anniversary year of Harry Houdini by magically escaping from wrists tied with a rope only to be in shackles within a time chosen by a volunteer between 1 & 10 seconds. He remained shackled for only a short time since amazingly the keys to unlock them were found in the top pocket of the volunteer.

Guest LI KaiZheng from NTU, was introduced.

Teo Yu Xiang is a young member of the club and keen to learn and show his magic. He did a number of effects in quick successions: One cup and balls, climaxing in the production of 2 tennis balls too large to be inside the cup, an invisible deck routine, ten cards across, escape from shackles, and professor’s nightmare. He aspires to perform in other countries like Malaysia.

Desmond Peh came back and demonstrated his refined version of showing three same length ropes of Professor’s Nightmare. He shared his personal self as an avid reader, author, a teacher and a magic tutor.
He has used his talents to work with youngsters from a magical platform through the MOE. He learnt most of his magic from books and demonstrated his slick paper to money effect.

Luke Tan and Axl Chine did the 5x lucky draws.

Ng Kah King closed the session by underpinning how magic can transform one’s life: for example, develop tendencies of becoming an extrovert, raise self confidence and can be a source of sharing happiness. He went on to aptly describe the club as inclusive giving equal opportunity to all its members. He made a point of mutual respect for performers and members attending so good use is made of the time committed by both parties.

Formal meeting ended at 10:30 PM. Informal jam session continued.

Report by
Kogi Oberoi