SINGAPORE RING 115 - Aug 2021 Magic Meeting Report
IBM Singapore Ring 115’s August meeting was co-hosted by John Teo and Kenneth Chia. 36 members and a special guest, Pairuch Trarasansombat from Thailand, attended the Zoom meeting themed ‘Magic Props’. John Teo introduced Pairuch as IBM Ring 115’s closest and best foreign friend with an interest in DIY props, having made his own and sold them too. In 2016, 12 of our members visited Bangkok, Thailand for magic fellowship with the Thai magicians. The trip was hosted by Pairuch and his lovely wife Pom. John shared a few memorable group photos from this visit including one of a buffet dinner at his Rayong villa, his unique ‘House of Magic’ and a gathering with a group of Thai magicians.
Massimo Sacco was the first to perform for the evening. He demonstrated with gusto, an old Tenyo cut and restored cigarette effect. After performing it with a cigarette, Massimo replaced it with a stick of rolled up paper purported to carry the trick’s secret. It was similarly sliced into 3 pieces and then fully restored, and the secret was intact.
Chew Liang Huat performed a trick he created. He presented a nicely decorated cardboard gift box which could be unfolded to reveal that it was empty all around. The box was closed up and he placed a chosen set of gift ribbons on top of the box. The ribbons lighted up, and from the empty box, he produced an egg.
Kenneth Chia, man of different personas, dressed up as a carefree guy on a lazy Sunday afternoon. To the Superman themed music, he went into a cardboard telephone booth and immediately re-emerged in a costume with ‘rippling muscles’. The music changed to a rousing Hawaii 5-0 music while he chewed and restored a chewing gum, and then transformed the ‘bolster’ he was carrying, into a full-sized surfboard.
Jeremy Pei presented an interactive trick using 5 icons of Thailand – an elephant, a Buddha statue, a Tuk-Tuk car, Thai desserts and a Thai pagoda. Each of us chose an icon of our choice, and then moved around to select another icon while he eliminated some of them. After several moves, all of us magically ended with the Tuk-Tuk car. He then showed that the medallion that he worn around his neck from the beginning of the performance also contained a picture of the Tuk-Tuk car. His last effect was with a mixed-up Rubik’s cube. With a couple of twists, he caused only one side of the cube to form a colour selected by a spectator. This was repeated with a different colour selected by a second spectator.
Tommy Kian, a magic props’ collector, enthusiastically shared a few of his rare and priceless collectors’ items from well-known makers such as Milson Worth, Mikame Craft, Michael Baker and Magic Wagon, which he collected from over the years. He also demonstrated the workings of a couple of them so that we could appreciate the clever designs and constructions of the props.
Goh Yin Xian presented a dealer’s show featuring ‘Magic Quick Change’ where he showed a ‘Kit Kat’ and split it into 2 separate ‘Kit Kats’. He then demonstrated 3 of Do Ki Moon’s card magic effects: Double Assembly, Lazy Leader and Pictorial.
After the break, Charles Choo performed 2 of The Great Wong’s effects. The first trick involved the vanish of a finger ring in a glass of milk to re-appear inside a nest of wooden boxes. The second trick was the production of a glass of liquid from an empty metal cylinder and container, and then the liquid in the glass changed colour.
Kenneth Chia returned to share how to construct magic props such as the tic-tac- toe trick using magnets buttons and magnetic sheets readily available from Daiso and other stationery stores.
Siew Kim Siang took his membership induction test. Using a packet of cards of a suit eliminated by a spectator, he told an interesting story using the order of the cards, much like a miniature version of Bill Malone’s “Sam The Bellhop”. He continued with more motivational stories as he performed bare-hand silk production and vanish, ball and vase, coin vanish, and ring on and off rope. He also transformed 4 picture cards of rabbits into parrots and then back to rabbits. Finally, with the cards that he used in the first effect, he spelt them out to be in perfect order from Ace to King.
Carson Goh presented silk through mirror and showed that there was no hole in the solid mirror.
John Teo presented an effect from Tenyo entitled “See Through Card”. This was a comedy card revelation where the identity of the selected became printed onto a transparent acrylic sheet. His second effect was Mark Setteducatti’s pocket sized moving block effect where one of the 5 faces depicted on the 3 blocks magically vanished. This was made more mysterious because the faces were printed on transparent blocks.
Jeremy Pei shared photographs of his visit to Japan’s Disneyland and some other places where Tenyo products were sold. He showcased his own collection of Tenyo products, which included zig-saw puzzles, paddles and effects involving Disney’s characters. He then demonstrated some Tenyo tricks such as Ultra Tube, Crash Dice, Flash Dice, Dice Hopper, Mr Rabbit, Side Track, Whole New Hole, and the Mystery China Box.
The long but interesting meeting ended with a lucky draw conducted by Baharudin with 2 prizes contributed by our guest Pairuch. His “Closed-Up Jacket” was won by Goh Yin Xian who performed, and “Dracula” went to Aaron Ang.