Our theme for March was “My Favourite Magic Tricks”. This was preceded by our Annual General Meeting, which was for a non-election year. With a quorum of 20 members, President John Teo and Ring Secretary J K Tan facilitated the meeting smoothly and efficiently.
Immediately after this, Carson Goh conducted a “Fireside Chat” with Ng Kah King, who recently put together an orientation programme for new members. He hopes to guide them through their qualifying test and be grounded in the fundamentals of magic.
Magic-collector Tommy Kian shared his knowledge about chick-pans and dove-pans, crackered edges, and brought samples from his collection. He demonstrated how to use two dove-pans for a translocation effect, and their accompanying loads/steals. Members in attendance were surprised with a new plastic chick-pan, which was easy to operate. Some members bought an additional pan to emulate Tommy’s demonstration.
Vice-President, Enrico Varella performed a medley of effects that were snapshots of his qualifying test taken about 32 years ago. He opened with Michael Power’s “3 Second Wonder”, followed by “Sanverted” (based on Dr. Daley’s Last Trick”), and Alex Elmsley’s “Hoftwister” (based on the Hofzinser’s Plot). He openly vanished the deck at the very end.
Treasurer Victor Heng performed a medley of three tricks including colour prediction of Charlie Chaplin, and the use of foldable origami to shrink a picture of a house.
Ng Kah King, with silks in a box, presented gospel magic based on the cleansing of human sins.
John Teo, resuming his role as emcee showed an effect with the mystic smile of the Mona Lisa. Patron Robert Kee assisted him and successfully matched cards bearing celebrities as babies.
Long-time member Lim Teck Guan penetrated a needle through a deck of cards in a cardcase; of course, the deck was unharmed. He followed up with his innovative use of pom-pom sticks which he redesigned, fooling quite a few of us familiar with its normal use.
Dealer Jeremy Pei magically performed Daryl’s rope effect “Acrobatic Knots”. He also promoted effects from the estate of the late-Lawrence Tham. He then presented “Dynamic Coins” with local currency, a gentle touch, and no slamming on the tabletop. He completed with a prediction effect where Rubik’s cubes within a box arranged themselves into the chosen emoji/emoticon.
Second dealer of the evening, Goh Yin Xiang, demonstrated “My Poker Collection” and “Ad-Sense”. He shared that Anson Chen would be delivering his lecture and masterclass in Singapore just before the Easter weekend.
“The Man with A 1,000 Faces” Kenneth Chia produced eggs from an Egg Bag, which led to and tallied with the vanish of eggs in a painting previously shown. He then performed a medley of visual card vanishes, reappearances, and translocations in an acrylic case, Ziploc bag, and wallet. Several magical moments drew gasps of astonishment from us.
James Pang made a signed coin vanish with his bare hand manipulation, ending in a sealed bottle.
Charles Choo found Patron Fernando Ng’s card after a series of counting procedures.
Joseph Then, a renowned ventriloquist of 15 years performed “Card Warp” with a patter of social media (one side of the story). He capped this with a card location that had applied a cleverly deceptive method we are familiar with.
The meeting ended at 10.00 pm with some members staying on to make last-minute purchases from the dealers. I managed to get a first edition copy of Stephen Minch’s “By Forces Unseen” on the card sleights and magic of Ernest Earick