On the evening of 15th September 2023, 44 members and guests of IBM Ring 115 gathered for their September meeting themed ‘Everyday Carry Magic’. The meeting was held at the Drama Centre and hosted by Victor Heng and JK Tan.
President John Teo handed over a wooden wand and Ring 115 constitutions in an Induction Ceremony to Benwinner Kam. John then mentioned the various levels of Order Of Merlin awards given to members who keep at least 25 years of continuous membership with IBM. He urged our members to sign up as members of IBM and listed the various benefits that come with the international membership.
John Shutler took his induction test. Apart from producing 4 Kings using bottom dealing, he changed the 4 Kings to 4 Aces, had the 4 Aces signed and vanished them from the deck to reappear in unexpected places such as in his wallet, his shoe and on top of as well as inside a glass container.
In a twist of the usual “Fireside Chat” session, Carson Goh, the usual interviewer, was now being interviewed by the host Victor Heng. We all got to know that the multi-talented Carson is also a tennis coach, a journalist cum videographer and a magician.
Guest Yu Hui Hang delivered a wonderful lecture on coins matrix that included its history and the various variations.
Harapan Ong announced his upcoming Mega Jam event and gave a performance where 2 red Aces sandwiched a chosen card in the deck, and just as quickly, the 2 red Aces exchanged places with the 2 black Aces that were outside the deck and on the table all the time.
It was wonderful to watch 7 years old Aleyna, one of Wee Kien Meng’s students, performed the cups and balls routine with such confidence. She concluded with a coins transposition using 2 containers.
Not to be outdone, Mark Wee, Kien Meng’s 5 years old son, awed the audience with a flower stalk from an empty pot, flowers from wallet, streamers production from an empty box, and 3 flower boxes from an empty paper bag.
Wang Er Jia captivated the audience with her cardistry techniques, as she demonstrated her dexterity in shuffling and fanning cards in interesting ways.
Ian Tan performed a very direct ACAAN effect. A volunteer wrote on his mobile a number and a playing card. A deck of cards that was on the table untouched, was picked up and dealt to the chosen number. The named playing card was at this number.
Tommy Kian demonstrated Penrose Pendant, a professional version of Cubio where a metal pendant defied gravity as it slide on a metal chain. Tommy had an interesting patter about life.
As Thomas Yeo poured tea from a tea pot into 3 glasses, the liquid in each glass turned into a different colour – yellow, green and red respectively. He produced a yellow lemon and green apple from the tea pot to match the corresponding colours in the glasses. He then detached the bottom of the tea pot to show that the tea pot was now empty. Finally, he vanished the lemon and apple with a wave of a scarf over them.
James Pang successfully divined which one of 5 ESP cards was put inside an envelope. He repeated this with 2 more ESP cards. He had a volunteer announced a random playing card, and he was able to cut a deck to locate the named card.
John Teo demonstrated what was known as sublime influence. A Pepsi logo was displayed, and a volunteer mixed his packet of numbers cards and arrived at the number 12939. This turned out to be the reflection of the word PEPSI. His next effect was Michael Murray’s “Show Reel”. A volunteer mentally selected an actor from a list of some 30 actors from a torn out page featuring various posters of movie blockbusters. John “proved” that the volunteer’s selection was in fact influenced by the wordings in plain sight on the torn out sheet of paper.
Jeremy Pei introduced the magic items available at special discounted prices at his booth, including an instant transformation of 4 Kings to 4 Aces, coins and expanded shells, and Tenyo coins set. He also performed one of his favourite everyday magic items, the Rubik’s Cube, which could be solved instantly behind his back.
The evening of performances ended officially, with magic jamming, member fellowshipping and shopping taking over.
