Magic Day @ The Arena – The Experience

On the 28th of Feb 2009, Thor and Vogue were strolling into Clarke Quay. Armed with his BRAND NEW 10 MEGAPIXEL CAMERA, Thor was prepared to take some awesome photos! We were ready to rock the place.

Upon reaching the place, it was swamped with people!!

(Okay, this is really interesting. The photos may take some time to load because they range from 2-4MB per photo. I didn’t realize that it would take so much memory. I’ll take the pictures with a lower resolution next time! PS!)

Unfortunately, we already missed the first ticketed segment of the day, which was the session with J C Sum and Ning. Hence, when we entered the place, there were several people holding tons of dvds checking out the counter. When we came, all the good stuff was pretty much sold. There were discounts ranging from 30-50%!! Some dvds were even being sold at 20 bucks. It was a frenzy inside. Everyone was gunning for the best deals they could find.

After which, the crowd was in for a treat. As part of magic day, what’s lined up next was a series of parlour magic performances! Up first was Matthew Lee, who dazzled us with this spoon bending routine. John Teo, the President of IBM Singapore, was next and he delivered a few light-hearted and interactive mentalism routines. The last magician doing is parlour magic routine was none other than J C Sum. Although he is well known for his mega-illusions, J C showed us his knowledge in close-up magic, executing his sleights smoothly and with ease. He performed tricks such as mental photography, a sucker egg to silk routine, and many more and it was definitely interesting to see how versatile JC Sum is.

After which, it was a short break. We started chatting up with magicians. Magicians from the IBM circle were glad to perform their magic routines to us. I have to say they are amazing. We’re going to join IBM one day! It was a “get-together-sit-down-chit-chat” session for magicians, as we shared our tricks with one another.

Then, we went back for the street magic for beginners session where Matthew did a really good job showing some simple yet amazing tricks. Although I was hoping that there were more non-card tricks. But nevertheless, it was a apt teaser to those interested in magic and hopefully some flames of passion were ignited that day.

By the next stage magic section, The Arena was PACKED. There were at least 200-350 people inside and the crowd was huge!

Up next was 2 stage performances, by Kinetic Gal and Larry the Escape Guy.

Overall, both stage acts satisfied my visual cravings and entertained everyone. Personally, I felt that Larry was extremely funny. He’s a escape artist/comedian! Larry is best described as the “Jackie Chan of Escapes” as he combines physical comedy, daredevil acts, escape challenges and amazing magic all in one single performance.

The last event of the day was Ultimate Magic Season 2. The full review of Ultimate Magic Season 2 is here!

Magic Day was an enriching and eye opening event that opened the magic scene to not only magicians but also to the general public as well. We’re sure many took home something from this event; more passion for the art, and knowledge to help sharpen their skills! Much thanks go to JC Sum, Ning and the countless team members behind them.

We hope that there would be more of such events in the near future!