IBM Ring 115’s July meeting was themed “My Favourite Magic Tricks”. It took place on the evening of 15th July 2023 and was attended by 31 members and 12 guests. The venue was the usual Drama Centre at the National Library building. The hosts for the evening were Carson Goh and Luke Tan.

Luke Tan kicked off with the fireside-chat (interview) with patron and veteran IBM Ring 115 member, Fernando Ng. He had joined the Club since 1948, through the past president Great Wong and has dabbled in magic for over 40 years. He shared that he enjoyed coin tricks and his all-time favourite was thumb tips. For beginners in magic, he suggested they could learn sleight of hand as that could offer them flexibility to perform their tricks anywhere.

Three members took their induction tests. Luke Tan performed tricks involving deft switching of Ace cards and rope manoeuvring as he illustrated the important traits of ‘Practice’, ‘Confidence’ and creating a ‘Story’ in a magic performance. Siew Seng Ming caused two separate ropes to intertwine mysteriously within a box. He also made a ring climb up and down the length of a scarf, and magically freed the trapped ring from the scarf as his finale. Benwinner Kam incorporated comedy in his routine which comprised colour changing sponge ball, ESP prediction board, knife through spoon, and cash bill to credit card.

Wang Ke Jia magically pulled out 4 Aces from a shuffled deck.
Goh Yin Xian conducted his dealer show highlighting restoring an eaten Pocky stick,

new style haunted deck, vanishing hanky, magic wand pen, and WOW case.

Tommy Kian easily found two cards randomly inserted in a deck by volunteers, and then magically switched them around. He closed with a white board paddle trick where crosses drawn on the paddle with a marker magically jumped around and vanished, and illegible ink marks made incredibly transformed into the name ‘Betsy’, our Club’s First Lady.

John Teo performed a trio of “fish” effects comprising Arnold Furst’s torn and restored “FRESH FISH SOLD HERE TODAY” paper, Giovanni’s “Pocket Fisherman” pom-pom stick using a hook, reel, weight and bobber, and Kovari’s “Acrobatic Fish- Plus” monkey-bar trick with 3 fishes magically appearing on the rod at the finale.

Sng Ming Da found the three selected cards lost in the deck with one in the deck, the second one under a card box and the third card inside a lime placed in a box. He also located a 7 of Clubs selected by a volunteer by “guessing” from a bunch of Red and Black cards held by him. He got the 2nd volunteer who selected a “17” card to count off a deck to the 17th position and it uncannily was the 7 of Clubs. He also used an Ace to switch three Queens to Aces and got a volunteer to cut the deck randomly, and he ‘co-incidentally’ cut to the 7 of Clubs!

Jeremy Pei introduced his favourite tricks ranging from gaff cards to Rubik’s Cube. With a volunteer’s chosen “15” card, he demonstrated how his Rubik’s Cube with numbers could add up to the sum of “15” horizontally, vertically and diagonally, like a magic-square. Using 2D square cards with different colours of a Rubik’s Cube, he had a volunteer stack them randomly in domino-style. He predicted exactly which 2 colours were be at both ends of the domino cards. He placed a mixed cube and a solved cube into a paper bag and despite removing any one of them, it would be reproduced inside the bag in the next instant. He eventually vanished both cubes, solved a mixed cube in an instant as he passed it behind a paper bag and finally, he solved a very complex 7 by 7 cube.

Following a night of enthralling magic performances, the audience was treated to a lucky draw where three winners won magic prizes.

While the formal meeting had come to an end, the night was young for the magic jammers and shoppers at the magic booths.