This evening of Comedy Magic was hosted by Joseph Then with 3 guests and 28 members present.

Our IBM Ring 115 family welcomed a new member, Teo Yu Xiang, who had passed his induction test and received a magic wand from President John Teo in an induction ceremony.

President John Teo invited 2 volunteers to use their co-operation and imagination in a game ‘What the Butler Saw’. The first said he saw a pretty lady while the second said it was a chicken. John then asked them to look through a giant, black peephole with their imagination. The first one said he saw a pretty lady. The second, however, said he saw darkness, to which John quipped that the lights were switched off, tickling the audience. The 2 volunteers then selected a card each – red 4 Diamond and black 3 Spade – respectively. John then presented his predictions of their cards – red 5 Diamond and black 2 Spade. Each card was off by 1 so, he made the red card lose a Diamond by having a Diamond physically fly over to the black card, and transforming into a Spade simultaneously. The final outcome — an exact match with both volunteers’ chosen cards!

Uncle Jimbo poked his magic wand into a bunch of cards and it strangely found his volunteer’s card. He then clumsily tied an invisible thread to a few random points and said he could make the same card float and he did, to the audience’s amusement!

Wee Kien Ming presented a Wild Card routine using 8 emoji cards with the same image – a sad emoji. Turning 4 cards face down and 4 face up, he transformed a face down card into a happy emoji card. Claiming it can be infectious, he proceeded to use this card to transform the remaining 3 face down cards into happy emoji cards too. He continued his magical infection of the face up cards so eventually, all 8 cards were now happy emoji cards. With that, he urged all to share the infectious joy of magic.

Vicente Tiu solved a complex Rubik’s cube physically which took a few minutes, and then, in an instant, magically!

Eisen Lee made 3 coins vanish one by one from the table top and then reappear amazingly inside a closed purse.

Dave Karyadi got a volunteer to choose one of two envelopes he presented, but somehow mentally influenced him to choose the one without $50. He then made a sponge ball jump from one close fist into another, and multiplied sponge balls within a closed fist. He sprung another surprise as he produced a volunteer’s selected card randomly inserted into a deck, within a sealed bag.

Joel Lim claimed his ring was magical and would find its way back to his finger. He made his ring permeate through a velvet cord and outside of it, and then returned to hanging on the cord. With the ends of the long cord held by 2 volunteers, he then made the ring vanish from the cord, to reappear back on his finger.

Joseph Then presented 3 sets of 4 cards, each comprising 3 blank cards and an Ace card. He then transformed each of the Aces, into a blank card. Flipping over 4 face down cards set aside earlier, he revealed that the 4 Aces have gathered in one place. He then transformed the 4 Aces into blank cards and unexpectedly reproduced the 4 Aces as colourful collages on a single card.

After the break, Joseph Then introduced his AI puppet named Android and had a “conversation” with it. He then shared several techniques and tips taken from the book “Seriously Silly” on how to add comedy to magic in a show, meeting or conversation. He also shared tips on how he created or adapted existing jokes for use in his own shows.

Aman Alhamid shared his personal experiences in stand-up comedy clubs and tips in applying comedy during Corporate Magic shows. He performed several magic effects to show how he injected comedy into the magic. He highly recommended the following 2 books: “Finding the Funny” by Ryan Pilling, and “Be More Funny” by Christopher Barnes for those who wish to know more about this topic.

Following an evening of insightful and humorous sharings and comical performances, which had the audience amused and laughing from time to time, the meeting drew to a close with a monthly lucky draw and sales of magic items.

Reported by

Low Hwee Lang (Ms)