The theme for the first meeting of the New Year 2026 was “Magic Show Business – Your Best Tricks for 2025”. 43 members and 1 guest attended this meeting on the 15th January 2026. The venue was the Drama Centre at our National Library building at Victoria Street. The hosts were Mr Bottle, aka Wee Kien Meng, and Joseph Then.
The meeting was called to order by Ng Kah King. He introduced guest magician Rob Ellinger from IBM Ring 148, Australia, and welcomed the following members who were absent for a long time: Aw Kum Seng, Alfred Lim and Dr Lim Thou Tin.
Announcements were made regarding our Anniversary Celebration, our video library and our trip to the upcoming Magic Convention in Taiwan.
The first performer was Charles Choo. He transformed 4 Kings to 4 Aces, and performed Martin Lewis’ “Technicolour Prediction” using 3 flip wallets.
John Teo was the next performer. A spectator freely divided 10 cards into 2 equal piles. Magically, all the cards in the performer’s pile were “MINE” cards while those in the spectator’s pile were “YOURS” cards. His next effect was “Joker Orchestra”. 10 Jokers, each playing a different musical instrument were eliminated stage by stage until only one is left, the pianist. He was the winning musician, as confirmed by the award printed behind the card. The other 9 cards were turned over and their black and white backs form the black and while keys of a piano.
There had been many requests for Harapan Ong to show and teach the deck flip. Harapan credited Daren Yeow and T.G.Murphy for this beautiful move. He showed many applications for the deck flip, such as triumph, card production and card and colour changes.
Using a version of Dean’s Box, which he called “The 4-D Black & Worm Hole Box”, James Pang showed how to link ropes and put a rope through a ring. He also caused a note to be sandwiched between playing cards and a selected card to be transported back to a sealed case, all through this box.
Chew Liang Huat is a DIY magician. He demonstrated 2 of his home-made props. The first one was an empty gift box which could magically produce an egg. The second prop was a “Run Rabbit Run” effect using a disc and a prop with 2 doors.
Guest magician Rob Ellinger had a spectator put his 2 index fingers on both his 2 eye lids, so that he could not open his eyes. Despite this constraint, he could find a selected card from a shuffled deck of cards.
After a short break, the 2 hosts for the evening, Joseph Then and Mr Bottle, who are professional magicians, shared valuable tips on how to use a sound system for performing a magic show. They also discussed what to do for charity shows and the use of AI. Their sharing, especially on the sound system, was much appreciated by everyone.
Members were challenged to use their creativity to come up with tricks using pieces of Lego blocks that were provided. 5 members took the challenge.
Ng Kah King made a magic wand out of the Lego blocks and then magically changed its colour.
Joseph Then caused a Lego block to change colour and then multiplied them in a spectator’s hand.
Linus Ng did a cups-and-balls routine using 2 paper cups and the Lego blocks. He also used the blocks to spell out “IBM” and then magically rearranged them to “115”. Finally, he transformed a Lego block into a candy.
Dave Karyadi performed a series of mental effects using the Lego blocks. He predicted which of 3 Lego blocks would be chosen, did a “which hand” as well as a “free will” effect, and a prediction of an animal from a list of animals in his mobile phone.
Chunny Teoh manipulated Lego blocks like playing cards, finishing with a dramatic “Lego catch” as a block flew from the deck.
The winners were Linus Ng, Dave Karyadi and Chunny Teoh. They each received a award in the form of a magic book or prop.
The meeting ended with an auction of magic paraphernalia from the late Ashish Lodhavia.
Reported by
Ng Kah King
