IBM Singapore Ring 115’s meeting was held on Sunday 15th October 2023 in Function Room 1, Level 3, of the National Library building. It attracted an attendance of 27 members and 4 guests. JK Tan and Kenneth Chea were the coordinators, and the theme was DIY magic. Doors opened at 7 pm and the programme started at around 7.30pm. JK Tan welcomed all and announced the presence of Pambudi and his wife as our special guests.
John Teo kicked off the fireside chat. Pamudi said he learnt his magic after he joined the Ring 115 in 2002. The story of him and his 5 year old daughter learning magic to a standard of winning competitions by 2005 was inspiring. The blend of magic to work and family was novel based on competence, confidence and communication skills.
Pamudi as the guest performer skilfully demonstrated several effects. Producing the chosen QH picture card from an envelope in a card box. Colorlogy – Predicting the coloured dot on a card from a set of 6 different colours. Svengali book – to predict the city as the holiday destination. Matching the chosen 2D card with its image on the back of his T-shirt which had the logo ‘I’m a Magician’ in the front. Card of Chance – where the volunteer put an object, a torch, on the only card with a message out of the 5 face down cards. The bright book test in which the first or last word on a chosen page was predicted. Coincidence Psy cards and ended with a flaming wallet.
Kenneth Chia demonstrated his giant mobile phone apps prop that he has been developing for the last 4/5 years. He matched the facebook app the volunteer had chosen and successfully added more photos in the gallery within the existing frame (Freer Tiles Principle). He shared on how to work with round and strip magnets. He aptly showed one use of magnets to change one type of currency notes to another. He uses fake notes that can be purchased around Hari Raya.
Thomas Yeo had a board with images on 2 faces of hands with the first finger pointing outwards. Magically he was able to get the fingers pointing to the left, right, up, down and both left, right, up or down.
Tedric Peh, 8 year old son of Desmond Peh, did his Induction Test. He performed the professor’s nightmare with 2 ropes and freed himself from a rope tied around his waist. He got the volunteer to magically find the missing piece of the Mona Lisa photo jigsaw. Finally he predicted that spiderman was the chosen hero out of his set of hero cards.
Goh Yin Xian’s dealer’s demo started with the Mini Book Pro, 4-Way Colouring Book that came with magic wand and vanishing crayons, Threaded, Fuze-It, Flower Power, Australian Aces, Visual AF Magic Book, Chop Egg, and Birthday Candles Repeat (ala 6-Card Repeat).
JK Tan’s first DIY item was a hook, made of yarn and coat hanger wire, to hold an ordinary mike when a hands-free mike is not available. Next he impressed us with 4 large coloured lights with their corresponding colour switches DIY kit. No matter how one mixed the lights and the switches the right light came on to match the switch. The giant bolt and nut that unthreaded itself was awesome. There was a 10 minutes break when the members flocked around the dealers desks to make their purchases.
Kai Emmanuel Kuah took his Induction Test after the break. The traditional act of multiplying bottles was skillfully executed. He then had a giant card selected from a packet, put it in a bag, shackled and chained his arms, Houdini-style, and immersed them in the bag also. His hands came out free of the chains but threaded through holes in the giant chosen card. His last trick was Fate & Freewill. He had set of jumbo red and blue backed cards in separate wine glasses. At the end of random switch or deal moves the indices of both sets of cards matched exactly.
Sng Ming Da introduced his new venture Magic Attic defining the various shows that are planned. He invited the members to contact him if they wanted to perform. This is parlour style magic with different themes throughout the week.
Desmond Peh performed a routine of appearing and vanishing coin interspersed with appearing and vanishing sharpie pens of various sizes.
Charles Choo set alight a S$50 note that did not burn. A selected card 4D miraculously appeared folded in a tin. It was removed and signed and again appeared from the tin. He changed paper to money and the volunteer confirmed all bank notes were real. He found the chosen 5C card, laid in a circle using a small hand that revolved to point at it.
Ng Kah King performed Hindu Sands with an interesting story about the cleansing of a poor boy, with the 3 coloured sands representing violence, greed and gambling.
John Teo had 2 cards chosen from a deck. He brought out a prediction claiming it will match the indices of the chosen cards. To everyone’s surprise the prediction did not match till John used his magic power to make a digit jump from one card to the other, and changing into another suit. His second effect involved popular Christian names of men and women based on a card trick by Peter Duffy. Luck prize draw was of the 4 normal prizes and 2 bonus prizes donated by Pambudi. Thank you Pambudi. The coordinators thanked everyone and the meeting closed at 10:45 pm.
