A Magical Wedding at Rochester Park

I had the honour to perform at the very beautiful Da Paolo at Rochester park, even more beautiful is the wedding couple that engaged me for my interactive roving magic as well as a customized magic act (more on that later) and a magical appearance of the champagne bottle before the toast. Lovely.

Picture credits: Lawrence Ng from Under The Stars Photography (Superb photographer and extremely nice guy! Thanks for the pictures Lawrence!)

Lovely couple Derrick and Francene

As you can see, Da Paolo is a very alluring al fresco dining establishment. You would be charmed by the lovely greeneries and the rustic atmosphere.

Performing for the couple’s family

There were two sections of the restaurant, the indoors and the outdoors. I performed for the couple’s family inside. A common challenge to a performer in weddings is the wide range of audience demographics. As you can see above, I performed for both children and adults. It is also very important that the performer has the ability to perform both in Mandarin and English, as I did when I approached the family.
Performing for both adults and children

As always, I strive to have my magic as strong as possible. And by having that ideal, I am able to appeal to children and yet not alienating the adults in the magic. While I do get a little more animated when I perform for younger children, I do not compromise my performance by featuring magic or jokes that is slapstick nor do I code switch and talk to the children in a kiddish way. This is the strength of a well designed performance.

Children enthralled by the magic =)

After performing inside, I went outside to the different tables to mingle and entertain the other guests. It may be a misconception that having a magician in a wedding dinner is redundant as it does not add to the evening. While that may be true for less experienced magicians, I always made a point to convey to my clients that the magician is there to entertain the guests while there is little activity going on. For example, during the cocktail reception when the guests are streaming in, during the photo taking session and occasionally during dessert. Having me to go around and performing my close up miracles serve to eliminate dead time for your guests and this makes the wedding more “full”.

Performing for the couple’s guests

After performing at the dinner tables, we proceeded on with a performance that involves everyone. This was a specially requested performance in which the concept was to add a more romantic atmosphere to the evening prior to the champagne pouring. I carefully selected the type of magic (as well as music) to make sure it projects the right emotions.

Lovely couple Derrick and Francene

At the end of the performance, I proceeded with a more “functional” act in which I specially made the bottle of champagne appear by magic. I took my bows and faded into the background thereafter as I understood and recognized that the limelight should be on the couple and not the magician.

Making the Champagne appear!

In conclusion, it was a beautiful evening and a celebration of union between the couple. I am really glad that I was able to add that extra “magic” to their unique wedding.

Signing Off,

Alexander Yuen ; )

NUS Arts Festival 2013 Closing Show: The Swing Thing

And there it is, The Swing Thing!

The show debut on the 23rd March as the closing show for NUS Arts Festival 2013. I truly enjoyed the whole process and involvement in this play. I learnt a lot from the director, Jeremiah Choy and from the other cast and crew. This was an amazing journey of discovery, learning and unlearning.

I was really enthusiastic in this collaboration when I first heard of it late 2012. When I was a freshman in NUS, I thought to myself, “It would be really awesome to present my magic in NUS Arts Festival!”. When I saw the call for audition, I knew this was it! I went down to the audition and presented a snippet of my stage work. And I got through to being a part of the main cast!

Despite the hectic work schedule that I already have at Meta Illusions, this project would take up a substantiate amount of my time. In the end, it was all worth it and I have no regrets at all because I wanted to be involve not only because I could share my magic, but also show the public that magic can be an art form, layered with meaning, symbols and emotions.

Before the auditions I felt that the public would not consider magic to be an art form. And unfortunately, most of the time, they are right. This is simply due to the fact that most magicians present their magic in a way that is meaningless, silly and obscene. Magicians that make one object after another appear and disappear without any rhythm or reason, magic happening so quickly that it leaves no room for the audiences to think and ponder on its implication. Because of the lack of intellectual stimulation from watching magic, adults immediately assume that magic is just for kids!

As always, I do my best to present my magic in a meaningful and artistic way. With the help of the director and the team, I presented 3 carefully crafted magic pieces in The Swing Thing. While the routines are considered classics in magic, each piece had a story to tell in relation to the whole show. I am really proud of my re-creation!

In my other piece, I presented one of my favourite effects in magic and explained how psychology is used to manipulate my audiences’ perception. It was different from magicians/charlatans who claim to use “psychology” in their magic as the content on psychology that I used to present the bits of magic is theoretically grounded and it was something I learnt and synthesized from reading research papers in my classes in NUS.

After the show, the professors in NUS who attended the show were really intrigued by my approach to magic and psychology. I too enjoyed sharing with them my research in NUS and hearing their insights. Also, I had a couple of people telling me that they really enjoyed the intellectual and insightful slant in my magic.

The show was a great success, and all the cast members did an amazing job in the show. All of us had a distinct role and contributed to the different layers of the show. I am honoured to have worked with these great individuals.

The day after, I received several emails expressing their enjoyment of the show, and also a few email request for me to present my magic in art festivals that they are organizing. You have no idea how elated I was when I read those emails! I am really glad that my performance resonated with the audiences and that they too feel that magic has the potential to be an art form. A small step of success for me towards making magic an art.

 

Signing off,

Alexander Yuen

This is not about politics

While I believe that the fundamental basis for politics should be a heart to serve (and I have no doubts about the candidates’ good intentions), running for an election would require a lot more than that. Some would argue it is closer to a performance than anything else. However, this article is not about politics, it is about persuasion, how and why you should script your speech.

It is very important to script and arrange your key arguments and messages in such a way that captures your key audiences. Is there a one-size fits all way to script your message? Unfortunately, there is not. However, if you understand who your target audience is, it will make the scripting a lot simpler.

Let’s take the Introduction video for SDA’s online rally as a case study.

Target Audience:

Obviously, their main audiences are residents of Punggol East since they are the voters for this particular by-election. While I do not know the demographics of Punggol East, this website tells us slightly more than half of the residents fall in the age group of 20 to 54 (source: http://sg.shownearby.com/place/170A-Punggol-East/526073/demographics/age-group) and they should be more inclined to technology. Hence it is a good move for SDA to reach out to the people who are more technologically savvy.

However, there is a disadvantage of using youtube to broadcast the message. It is likely that the video would has to compete for the user’s attention. In this case, how should SDA frame their message to capture their audiences’ attention and relate their message?

Peripheral Factors:

According to the Elaboration Likelihood Model (Petty and Cacioppo), these audiences are low in motivation (in terms of paying attention and processing the message). Hence it would be more effective for Mr Desmond Lim to appeal to these people through the peripheral route. Peripheral factors are factors that do not relate to their core messages but can help in improve persuasiveness. Such factors include expertise, eloquence and even attractiveness.
Therefore Mr Lim should begin by talking about his 14 years of service to Potong Pasir Town Council and to the SPP (source: http://andrewlohhp.wordpress.com/2013/01/21/a-little-tribute-to-the-small-guy/). This would immediately establish Mr Lim’s intention to serve the people as well as his expertise in understand the residents concern. However, it is more difficult to improve eloquence and attractiveness; professional training in public speaking can help in improving Mr Lim’s persuasiveness. His lack of eloquence might be the reason for the nasty comments from the unmotivated audiences.

Message Arguments:

While the introduction had very little key arguments, there were several attempts on persuasion as to why you should vote for Mr Lim (or in this case, why you should not vote for the other parties).
I manage to sieve out three of his key arguments in this short introduction video; I do apologize if I have not captured them all.

1. Mr Lim is a dedicated local and determined leader
2. Currently, there are no checks and balances with only 2 parties in the parliament (by implication, it will be better to have another party voted into the parliament).
3. The by-election is the result of mistakes made by the previous MP (by implication and disassociation with the former MP’s party, Mr Lim will not commit the same mistake)

I do acknowledge that because this is an introduction video, SDA might have decided to elaborate on their key policies and arguments in upcoming videos.

Again, it is important to identify the target audience in crafting a speech. Given that the audiences might be more inclined to be unmotivated to attend to central arguments on how certain policies are to be implemented, argument strength might not be an important factor for the persuasiveness of the speaker. SDA made a good move by presenting peripheral and brief arguments.

Arguments that are weak in nature do not favour any politicians in general. However, what Mr Lim could have done was to capitalize on peripheral factors like number of arguments. By making more arguments as to why he should be voted (regardless of strength), the sheer quantity of arguments would lead the audiences to believe that Mr Lim is a strong candidate (no implications is made to suggest that he is not) and there are a lot of reasons as to why he should be voted for.

Also, almost all his arguments are made by implication. This technique can potentially be a very persuasive tool when presented to the right audience. This technique is akin to the usage of rhetorical questions which requires the audience to be motivated to think about the message presented and come to his or her own conclusion. The danger of using such techniques is that the unmotivated audience member might not be aware of the implication or might come it an unintended conclusion. For instance, a listener might not draw the link that Mr Lim is suggesting that SDA should be voted into parliament despite the fact that Mr Lim stated that having just two parties are not enough, hence does not consider that to be an argument presented. In another scenario, the audience member might come to an unintended conclusion that Mr Lim is implying that a one party parliament is better than a two party parliament, hence does not vote for Mr Lim. This shows the danger of using such techniques on an unmotivated audience.

For persuasion to be successful, it is very important to understand who your target audience is. Once you understand how your audiences would behave (motivated versus unmotivated), you are then able to make sound judgements on how to script your message to get the most impact. The techniques used for motivated audiences and unmotivated audiences are very different, if applied wrongly, they might back fire.
Final thoughts, are using these techniques of persuasion unethical as they give speakers an advantage? That is for you to decide.

Accept me for who I am?

I have finally come to the conclusion that in order to find the soul mate that we have all been longing for, you cannot compromise. You have to look for what you want.

This also means that “Why can’t you accept my flaws!” becomes a flawed statement.

Let me give you an example, no offence to smokers too:

If person A is a smoker, and person B would like her to quit. And person A then says; “Why can’t you accept me for who I am?”, immediately the logic of retaining an individual’s true self is broken. Because person B could be a person who does not like smoking, and it is not who he is to like smoking. Hence by accepting who person A is, person B is compromising his true self so that person A can be her true self.

Therefore, things becomes really tricky when one party says “why can’t you accept me for who I am?”, because when the other party does, the whole philosophy of being able to be your true self and live your ideals becomes compromise, for one party.

Food for thought.

Esquire Magazine Men’s Night Out

In the beginning of December, the team at Meta Illusions was approached by Esquire Magazine to be a part of their inaugural Men’s Night Out. Despite our heavy schedule in December, mainly engagements for private parties and dinners, we expressed our interest to be a part of the Men’s Night Out.

After several emails and phone calls, we were booked for this event at the very sleek Avalon at Marina Bay Sands (MBS). Closer to the event itself, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the reason why the marketing team at Esquire was so bent at getting the magicians at Meta Illusions to perform was that they felt that we suited their branding of the charming and suave gentleman in contrast to other magicians that were too clownish or cheesy. They got us so that their overall theme of celebrating “Men at His Best” would be enhanced.

Two-Thirds of Meta Illusions; Samuel and Alexander

Samuel and myself went down to the event in our usual attire, a classy suit, and made sure we looked our best as always. We warmed up the crowd with our brand of close up magic, performing our feats of amazement in the spectator’s hand.

Intimate miracles happening in the spectator’s hand

Of course, what differentiates ourselves from other magicians is our natural ability to engage and interact with our audiences. What this means is that our performance is never a passive one in which the audience members simply take a back seat and watch. They would actively and voluntarily take part in it as we worked hard to script and routine our performance so that it is only natural that the audiences will feel compelled to be involved.

Interacting with our audiences

Awesome feeling of amazement!

It was a great performance, Samuel and myself had a ball of a time! The audiences were there to have fun and we made their night even more enjoyable by adding that extra touch of magic. This enhanced the atmosphere of the whole event and when the main programme began on stage, everyone was loosen up and ready to have more fun!

Men at Their Best, indeed!

And we are very pleased to share with you that because the organizers felt that we added that magical touch to their event, we will be featured in the next issue of Esquire Singapore! Do look out for that!

Liam Neeson telling you not to miss Meta Illusions on the next issue of Esquire Singapore!

With that, Meta Illusions would like to wish all our readers, friends and love ones a Happy New 2013 ahead!

Signing off,

Alexander

 

Rainy Days and a Halloween Show

Must have felt like a long time since I wrote anything here. It is raining quite heavily now, and I am heading off to a Halloween show later.

Here is one of my favourite classical pieces from Erik Satie, Gymnopedia No. 2.

Happy Halloween

 

Signing off,

Alexander

Magic Shows for Shopping Malls

In the month of August, I was engaged to perform for Central at Clarke Quay. Initially, the organizers wanted me to perform Interactive Close Up Magic in which I would walk along the stretch of Singapore River, on the side of Central to perform my magic.

However, after further discussions and understanding why they chose magic instead of other entertainment, I proposed Street Theatre. Their objective was to add buzz and color to Central. In addition to the stalls and music, they wanted a magician to entertain, bring laughter and amazement to the crowd. Understanding this, I pushed for Street Theatre as it would fulfill their objectives more precisely making it a right match of entertainment with setting.

The organizers were initially slightly reluctant as they were new to the concept of a Street Theatre show, but they decided to give it a try on day 1. It was a success!

Day 1: Street Theatre at Central

The organizers were extremely pleased and surprised that I could draw such a large crowd for them! Without a doubt, they were very impressed by the insights I shared and the unconventional proposition to their original proposal.

Finale for Day 1

After the first day, the organizers were sure that this was what they wanted. And we carried on for the rest of the month.

Despite the strong positive feedback, I thought about the organizer’s initial objectives and thereafter, I made adjustments to the setting so that I could:

1) Capture a larger crowd.

2) Do a a bigger show.

3) Add more buzz to the event.

I realized that all I needed to do was to perform facing Central, and let the audience members sit on the steps. This allowed more people to be able to watch the performance and it allowed for more interaction between the performer and the audiences as I am now able to see all their faces and make eye contact with them.

Street Theatre

With a larger crowd, it also becomes harder for a performer to retain and engage every member of the audience. This is especially true in the street setting as the audience members have no obligation to stay and watch the performer (in contrast to a Dinner and Dance function or a paid ticketed performance), it takes a lot of confidence and charisma to draw and retain such a large crowd. In fact, I had fellow magicians coming up to me asking in disbelief,  “How is it possible for you to retain such crowd without the use of music, staging, lighting and big fancy props?!”

The answer is simple, the show is designed to flow and maximize engagement, the interaction and by-play that are embedded in the show so that it makes each member of the audience feel like they are a part of a unique performance. That is why they do not leave as they are having so much fun in this “play” that I started and they too want to be a part of its ending. This is not an easy task, it took me years to get to this point and till today, I am still constantly improving the act.

The view from the top!

At the end of each performance, I have made many friends who came up to me, shook my hand and took a picture with me, telling me that this is a totally different show from what they have ever seen.

Performing at Central was definitely not an easy task, however, it is very fulfilling to perform for a dispersed crowd and turning them into an audience who would respond to you in unison, creating that buzz and colour to the shopping mall. I personally think that you can add so much more vibrancy and value to a place and event by making sure that the right entertainment fits the right setting, and not relying on the “easy” or “conventional” approach.
That’s all from me! Maybe I will see you as an audience of Street Theatre soon!

Signing off,

Alexander

Close Up Magic for NUS FASS Family Host Dinner

If you have been following my blog, you would realize that I am have been quite a fair share of my Street Theatre shows. I enjoy them very much, I enjoy the energy I can rouse from the crowd, I enjoy the fact that I can gather people from different walks of life and towards the end of show, they feel the cohesion and cheer and clap and one unified group. That feeling is amazing.

However, I also enjoy close up magic very much. It is simply different, it brings a different dimension of entertainment.

(Picture Credits to: Lionel Lin, www.lionellin.com. Thanks for capturing the moments!)

Close up magic allows the magician to interact with the audiences at an extremely close proximity. This means that the audiences may actually examine the magician’s props, ask him questions and even request for specific effects. I enjoy this very much.

Last week, I was very honored to be invited to National University of Singapore FASS Family Host Dinner. The audiences consist of international students as well as Singaporeans. It is always nice and enjoyable performing in “home ground” (that is because I am an NUS Alumni).

I thoroughly enjoyed interacting and talking to the international students and performing magic at the same time. Got to discover more about their diverse backgrounds and why they chose NUS as their choice for exchange programme. One thing is certain, despite their backgrounds, the expression of amazement seems to be very consistent across cultures. Now that is something to research about!

Not only did I entertain the students, I too performed to the friendly staff from FASS Dean’s Office. They are the unsung heroes, or rather heroines of the event. The whole event would not have been a success if it weren’t for their hard work.

I also had the privilege to perform for FASS Dean, Professor Brenda Yeoh and Vice Dean Professor TC Chang. It was really really awesome and enjoyable.

Then I ended the night with my Street Theatre finale!

The crowd had lots of fun when I got Assistant Dean, Professor Vincent Ooi to help me on stage. The by-play was hilarious and made the performance unique and special.

And of course, the big finish: Professor Vincent Ooi finds his $50 note inside a lemon!

It was truly an enjoyable evening for me and the audiences. It feels really good to be back for a performance and meeting some many wonderful people in the process. =)

Check out the other forms of magic here if you are interested!

Signing Off,

Alexander!

F1 Parties in Singapore

September is a really exciting month. First up, we have the really charming Kite Festival  2012 in which Samuel and myself will be performing this weekend! Do catch us there!

Then there is the F1 Grand Prix. We have awesome celebrity line-ups like Maroon 5, Katy Perry and Jay Chou. It is going to be a really fun filled month.

A couple of years back, Samuel and myself were privileged to be engaged in the first ever F1 race in Singapore (2008) and then in 2008, I was engaged again by F1. Of course, performing there allowed me to witness the action up close. And the thrill of the races were at the bends, that was where the exciting accidents tend to happen.

Here is a blast from the past:

In 2008:

Roving Magician

Drawing in the Ferrari Fans!

Samuel Performing for the Suite Staff

Samuel posing!

In 2009:

Official Entertainers!

Suite Entertainment at the Paddock Club

Performing at the Bar in Paddock Club

Pre-Race Entertainment!

F1 Magician!

Magic at the F1 Singapore, Paddock Club

Wow, nostalgia! From the pictures you can see that Samuel and I were slightly younger. But good news is that, we are more mature and more powerful in our magic in terms of delivery and command!

Well, for those who did not manage to get tickets to Singapore F1 Grand Prix, let me share with you a way you can watch the event. There are many events that are going on in suites  and restaurants surrounding the race track. Last year, I performed in a corporate pre-race event at Maybank Tower, where there is a viewing of the race. Similarly, restaurants in Swissotel and Marina Bay Sands offers spectacular view of the race. The great thing about such places is that they usually have great pre-race and post-race entertainment. Do check them out!

Check us out if you would like us to rally your guests with our style of magic if you are organizing an F1 event/party where we can fill the atmosphere with fun, buzz and magic just before the race! We customize our magic to fit the F1 theme too! Email us at info@metaillusions.com to find out more!

 

Signing off,

Alexander

In the past couple of months, many event producers and magicians have been constantly asking me what exactly is Street Theatre. I see this as is a testament to the uniqueness of Street Theatre. Meta Illusions is the first to introduce such a concept in Singapore.

Street Theatre in NUS Alumni Day

In essence, Street Theatre is a form of performance that breaks the “fourth wall”. The audiences become part of the entertainment, they contribute to the show. And that being said, each show is different as different audience members might contribute differently to a show, hence it is very important for the performer to be experienced and well versed in audience management.

Despite its novelty, we had the privilege to present Street Theatre at many different venues in the past 2 months. In July, Jonathan and I brought our Street Theatre show down to NUS Alumni Day at UTown. There were booths and other activities going on, and Street Theatre fit well in this carnival/festival setting.

Getting the audience in action! (Picture from NUS Office of Alumni Facebook)

In other typical magic shows, the audience members are regarded as passive viewers who would simply watch the magic without adding to the show. In our Street Theatre Shows, Jonathan and I capitalize on the audience members to create a new dimension of entertainment. However, that does not mean we demean the audiences, nor do we embarrass them. For instance, Jonathan has a segment in his show in which an audience member would challenge him to a duel of speed, in which the fastest hands win. You can imagine why each show is different as every unique member of each show reacts differently in these situations.

Alexander and a young member of the crowd

In one of the segments of my own show, I would request the assistance of a young member of the audience to help me. This is the segment of the show that I enjoy the most as it can be unpredictable what the child might do, and more often than not, it brings a big laugh to the crowd.

Street Theatre Finale

So there you have it! As much as I would like to share more about Street Theatre, the amount of study in terms of understanding human interactions and psychology is too much to pen down. And to perform such a show is definitely not easy as the script is extremely malleable and you always need to be on your toes to address the unique situations.

 

Signing off,

Alexander