This evening, 36 members and 1 guest attended the meeting themed ‘Happy Birthday Magic’ hosted by Ian Tan. Ian announced that the first SAM Magic Convention would be held from 6 to 8 June 2024 at SAFRA Tampines and encouraged all members to participate. Ticket price for the 3-day convention is $129.
Kicking off the meeting, President John Teo presented 4 large cards, each displaying a random letter of the alphabet. The cards were scrambled. Re-arranging the cards with the letters, he invited the audience to suggest possible words that could be formed. A popular one suggested was ‘POST’. As he spelled out ‘POST’ card by card, he magically produced an envelope (a mail), from the empty space between two of the cards! The addressee on the envelope was to the birthday person. Inside was a birthday for the birthday person.
Next, four magicians shared their unique experiences and tips performing at birthday events. Tommy Kian drew laughter when he highlighted some amusing moments during his first birthday party for kids. He shared about his learning journey since then, including adjusting his tricks, voice pitch, facial expressions and body gestures according to his audience profiles, his preference for a structured act with a strong opening and a proper closing. He also entertained several questions and advised performing away from windows with bright sunlight or near entrances/exits.
Ian Tan shared tips on how to make the birthday child the ‘star’ of the show, demonstrating with coin production in a metal pail. The birthday child would feel special if he/she could perform a magic trick by himself/herself, or when the participants wished him/her ‘Happy Birthday’ by name. He added the child’s parents would be happy and event videos were likely to be shared more widely with the performing magician having more opportunities for ‘never-ending referrals’
Sng Ming Da who prefers performing for smaller groups in more intimate settings, demonstrated by inviting a volunteer to randomly insert a selected picture card in a deck. Hinting that the cards had a unique way of relating to the volunteer, he picked 4 picture cards from the deck and asked the volunteer 4 questions to which he could choose to reply truthfully or otherwise. After confirming with the volunteer that his card was among the 4 he had picked, he removed a card and asked the volunteer to hold up the invisible (removed) card. He then fanned out the remaining 3 cards and strangely, a 4th card – the volunteer’s selection – had materialised. Arranging the 4 picture cards side by side, the audience could now see the letters ‘JOHN’, formed by the pictures and it was the name of the volunteer!
Aman Alhamid spoke about using the magic trick as a vehicle to convey his intended message to the audience. Demonstrating how he conveyed a message that an illusion could become a reality if one believed strongly enough, he coloured a black hole on a large coin, and then pushed a pen through the ‘hole’. Likewise, Professor’s Nightmare could be used to convey concepts of teamwork, equality etc. He added that he had previously used a magic trick to demonstrate a mother’s love and it had touched his targeted audience. He ended by stressing that magic is an art form which need not be restricted by the props and that the magician who could make the audience feel tended to leave a deeper impression.
Harapan Ong shared some hilarious moments at his first kid’s birthday and then showed a trick he used at a baby gender reveal party. He placed 16 face-down cards in a 4 by 4 grid display and invited a volunteer to decide how to fold the cards as if they were a baby’s blanket. The result was a mixed-up packet of face-up and face-down cards. Placing the face-up cards together, they formed the word ‘Congrats!’ and the face-down cards together displayed ‘It’s a boy’.
Following the humorous and insightful sharing by the 5 magicians, James Pang began his performance by fanning out a deck of face-down cards (one of which was a birthday picture card). He then invited a volunteer to point to any card in the deck. After shuffling the deck, he counted off to the 8th card as the volunteer had shared that his birthday was on the 8th of August. This card was revealed to be the birthday picture card!
He then invited the volunteer to sign on the birthday picture card while he wrote 8 August on another card. Placing both cards together, he tore them along the middle so each card was now in 2 halves. He then restored them magically such that each card now comprised half its original and half of the other card!
Thomas Yeo presented a red string and a large white plastic ring. He then proceeded to show how the string could penetrate the ring, tie itself on the ring, and also ‘freed’ itself from the ring with its knot still intact!
Gician Tan performed a prediction whereby a guest randomly selected a card from a fanned out normal deck and it was an exact match with the prediction card in his pocket.
Jeremy Pei and Ng Ying Xian shared some of the highlights including limited magic products and bundle sales items at their dealers’ booths.
After an evening of magical entertainment and sharing sessions, each member also walked away with a free set of specially designed playing cards, courtesy of Gician Tan; and the mingling and shopping continued way after the meeting ended.
