Next Meeting: 15 March 2025 | Theme: Annual General Meeting | Location: NLB Drama Center

SINGAPORE RING 115 – June 2018 Magic Meeting Report

Our usual monthly meeting for June was shifted from 15th to the 26th June 2018, to coincide with the visit of our old friend and member, Dario Moda, from Italy.  Dario was in Singapore with his lovely wife Catherine and son Alexander.  Dario had decided to give us a show-and-teach session for our June meeting.  40 people gathered on that evening at the usual venue of Chinese Success Media at Bras Basah Complex.
Dario commenced by sharing how he got acquainted with magic and IBM Ring 115 some 20 years ago when he was stationed by his company in Singapore for 4 years.  He then performed 9 effects involving a variety of items including newspapers, cards, ropes, books, money, and eggs.
The first effect was a smooth execution of a torn-and-restored newspapers.
 
He then performed a multi-phased rope trick where one piece of rope multiplied into two and three ropes, and restored them back to one; created knots along the rope, vanished them and caused another knot to reappear. 
 
Next, he had a volunteer signed on his own ten-dollar note and wrote out its serial number.  He then placed the note in one of three small envelopes.  The volunteer randomly decided and burnt two of the envelopes.  But, the third envelope was shown to be empty.  To the relief of the volunteer, the note had safely teleported to a metal container placed inside a paper bag which had been left on the table all this time.  When retrieved, its serial number matched what he had written earlier!
 
In his next performance, a volunteer picked a card and inserted it back into the middle of the deck which was then returned to a card box.  The volunteer placed the closed box into Dario’s coat pocket.  She had hardly counted to “6” when Dario put his hand into his coat pocket and instantly came out with the volunteer’s chosen card!
With just 3 jumbo Joker playing cards – two coloured and one in black and white – he caused the coloured card to rise to the top of the deck after each shuffle, and eventually transformed them all to three coloured cards at the end
 
In his own variation of cards across, Dario made four cards ‘leap’ mysteriously from inside the closed palms of one volunteer to the closed palms of another volunteer standing some distance away from hiim!
 
He then invited three volunteers to each hold onto a large book with over a hundred pages.  One book held a different city name on each page, the second one had different numbers and the last book showed different Christian names of women.  When instructed to turn to a page randomly, the three volunteers displayed ‘Tokyo’, ‘8564’ and ‘Catherine’ respectively.  These were exactly Dario’s prediction contained in an envelope he had put aside!
 
Next, he presented a sucker silk to egg effect.  He invited a volunteer to mimic him as he vanished a scarf and produced a plastic egg in its place.  He ended his performance by breaking this egg into a glass.  It had become a real egg!
 
For his final act, he invited a volunteer to tell him where to snip off as he moved his scissors along a strip of paper with 30 items listed on it.  The snip was made at the word ‘dice’.  When a paper bag placed aside on the table before the performance was opened, it contained a real dice as the prediction!
 
Just before the break, the three dealers of the evening, Kenneth Yeo, Jeremy Pei, and Cassidy Lee, each demonstrated some of the items that were available for sale at their respective booths.
After the break, member Tan Teck Guan performed Great Wong’s version of egg bag where six eggs, one at a time, was produced from an empty, red velvet bag, much to amusement of the audience.
 
It was explanation time, and Dario shared how he performed each of his effects before the interval.  He then distributed his lecture booklet, which was printed in full colour, as well as a paper stand and a “magic” pen free for everyone who attended that evening.  What a nice gesture of generosity! 
 
The meeting ended with a group photograph taken with Dario, his wife and his son.  Many members were observed staying back and patronising the various dealer booths.