To me, Magic has always been about bringing joy to other people, to make the impossible, possible.
My journey through the realm of magic had its roots in humility and it all started as a hobby. Mesmerised by the Magic TV specials aired during the festive season, I would bring my Mum to the library and borrow as many Magic books as I could find in order to figure out how to perform those same tricks I’d seen.
I spent countless hours poring over the books and even more time practising. Once I was confident enough, I started performing for family and friends. My performances expanded rapidly to include classmates and I even had the honour of performing during school events such as Teacher’s Day & Speech Day.
To further hone my craft, I started working for a local Magic shop and performed magic for customers. It was a win-win situation as I had the chance to practise my skills and took the opportunity to close sales at the same time. The friendships forged with these customers became the basis of my fledgling magician network as more and more people knew about me and my unique talents.
These friendships led to invitations to perform at wedding receptions & birthday celebrations. I would walk around the party, introduce myself as the Magician that was hired to entertain the guests and perform some Magic for them before moving on to the next group. For a 15-year-old kid, $200-$300 a gig was pretty good money back then. And I even managed to improve my showmanship!
A Career in Magic
A few years later, I transitioned to Stage Magic. Starting off as a “Roadie” for other more senior local Magicians, I’d learn the ropes of how to set up their show, how to choose the appropriate Magic effects to perform, which music to play, interaction with the audience and most importantly, how to weave all these elements into an unforgettable show.
Armed with my newfound skills, I performed at Community Centres (CCs) and Recreation Centres (RCs) as well as Children’s Birthday parties. It was only a matter of time before I started performing in corporate shows, at dinner events for Fortune 500 companies and private parties. That was a good 10-15 years of my career.
During that time, I would attend Magic conventions, both locally and internationally, to learn more about the Art alongside like minded people who share the same passion. I also started competing in Magic Competitions and in 2011, I won first runner-up in the FISM Asia Championships of Magic. This was a pretty big deal to me as I represented Singapore in this competition and later represented Asia to compete in the FISM World Championships of Magic which is (to my knowledge) the largest and most prestigious competition in the world (also known as the Olympics of Magic).
For my contributions in gaining worldwide recognition for Singapore, I’ve also been awarded the Merlin Award as Magician of the year. This award was given to me by the President of the International Magicians Society (IMS) – who flew down from the USA to present this award to me. Past recipients of this award include:
- David Copperfield
- David Blaine
- Criss Angel
- Penn & Teller
- Lu Chen (刘谦)
The Big Break
In the last 5-6 years (starting in 2015) I was given an opportunity to perform internationally on Luxury Cruise Lines. My wife (Angel) and I would travel together and we would perform in all sorts of shows requested by the cruise lines, from Close Up Magic, Stage Magic, Mind Reading Shows, Gambling Demonstrations to Large Scale Illusion Shows. (And Yes, Angel is my onstage assistant who is the one getting cut in half)
Virtual Platforms
Then, in 2020, the pandemic hit. I was onboard the Holland America Line, Westerdam. The ship had no cases but was rejected by 5 countries because no one dared to take the risk of letting us come to port. The ship was just aimlessly floating at sea, until Cambodia took us in. That was my last ship gig.
After returning to Singapore and taking stock of the situation, I realized that the pandemic wasn’t going away so quickly and I had to pivot in order to survive. I started watching YouTube videos to learn about gear, lighting, audio and how to set up a Virtual Studio, in preparation to digitalise my magic shows.
Together with Magicians from Malaysia (Andrew Lee) and the Philippines (Jeffrey Tam), we spent many sleepless nights brainstorming how we could still keep our audiences enraptured and entertained through the myriad of Virtual Platforms available. (Honestly, I’d never even heard of Zoom, Microsoft Teams, or Google Meet before all these and I could not have done it without their help! A big thank you to you guys!)
Luckily for us, our strategy to pivot in the early days of the pandemic paid off as we enjoyed a first movers advantage with event companies who also had to adapt. As a result, our virtual magic shows were popular with them. Each show is specifically customized to the client’s needs – Whether it’s a celebration or a message put across to their employees, we weave our Magic into the effects we perform to create a unique blend of entertainment and commemoration.
More recently, I’ve teamed up with Airbnb as an Online Experience Host to tell my story, share my Magic and perform my own shows. I currently have 2 experiences – one is my show called BELIEVE and another one is called The Everyday Magic Workshop, where I teach participants how to perform Magic using only everyday items that can be found at home or in the office. I also have a third experience coming up soon so stay tuned. 😉
In May 2020, I sponsored FREE shows on the Airbnb platform as a salute to our healthcare and frontline workers and to raise awareness about Mental Health.
Over the course of 2020-2021,, I’ve also built up my YouTube Channel to share my Magic and small snippets of my life in Vlogs. Once Cruise Lines are operational again, I’ll expand my Vlogs to include cruise ship tours, things to do onboard, the different culture and food at various ports, and maybe even a behind-the-scenes sneak peek in ship areas where no passengers are allowed. I would share more about how we manage our time, both emotionally and physically when we have to leave our families for 6-9 months each time we board a ship to sail across the world.
Final Thoughts
Thank you for reading. I hope this gives you a little insight into the struggles and triumphs we, as entertainers go through. This pandemic has not been easy for live performers like us, as our events were the first to be cut off and likely will be the last to return. So please, support our local event companies and talents. We need this. On behalf of all event companies and live performers, we are very grateful for your support if you shine some light on us. #SaveSGEvents #SaveSGSpecialEvents
Social: Website | YouTube | Tiktok
Airbnb Shows: BELIEVE | The Everyday Magic Workshop
This article was brought to you by Jeremy Tan. “The noblest Art is that of making others Happy.” – PT Barnum
