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

 

Le Grand Cabaret in Singapore

That is correct, you read the title right, Le Grand Cabaret in Singapore!

An invitation to Le Grand Cabaret in Singapore

Last night, Jonathan, Samuel and myself were invited to perform for Association Française de Singapour’s (French Association Singapore) anniversary dinner at Amara Sanctuary Resort in Sentosa.

It was an exclusive event with French Ambassador as the Guest of Honour. We had much fun performing our brand of Interactive Roving Magic in a cabaret setting and style.

Samuel entertaining the Cabaret performers with his magic!

During our breaks, some of the performers requested us to perform magic for them. The performance was different from other venues and events as the guests were mostly french. We had to customize our magic slightly to accommodate to their culture. We did our magic in burst of 3 to 5 minutes, so that they can enjoy the food as well. The reason why it was arranged in such a way is because of the French culture of putting down their utensils when there is a programme going on. Hence they gave us their utmost attention whenever we approached and performed for their table.

Overall, I think the Meta Illusions team did an extremely good job. The President, Christine, thanked us personally after the last set. We do look forward to pictures and their publication which would feature some of our magic highlights. =)

Signing off,

Alexander

Thankful for 2011

Wow, 2011 has been an AMAZING journey for me!

And I cannot wait for the new year in which me and my team and taking more creative ventures in our magic.

New Year’s Eve had been a blast. Samuel, Jonathan and I were all doing our interactive roving magic shows in the evening. After that, we were invited to a countdown events organized by our client at the Promontory.

Amazing skyline created by MBS, where I used to perform

The night lights was amazing, I reached there before the rest of the team and we all brought our partners along for the count down. Wanna know the best part? We had free beer! Our client offered us beer for the countdown. =) Special thanks to Jonathan.

Meta Illusions 😉

Behind (beside in this case) every successful man....

Fireworks!

At midnight, we were treated to about 8 full minutes of beautiful fireworks, they are amazing, and I love them. Fantastic way to begin the new year.

So to all my family, friends, love ones! Happy 2012! May it be more awesome than 2011!

Signing off,

Alexander 😉

A radio interview: 93.3FM “我有我的Young”

Woohoo!

We had another amazing interview with Kunhua. This time we spoke about magicians in general, the M for Magic Live show and how does one train to be a magician.

I have to say, my chinese is not that good, but thanks to my friends and Kunhua, I managed to scrape by. If you were there, you probably would have been amused by the expression of my face when I struggle to find the appropriate chinese word. Funny!

We did take some pictures, so do check them out!

Left: KunHua, Samuel, Godwin, Alexander and Adeline

Till the next time,

Alexander ; )

An interview with SAFRA’s online portal: www.in2it.sg

The day before M for Magic Live, Samuel, Adeline and I together with JC Sum had an interview with Sarah who is writing for SAFRA’s online portal in2it.sg.

It was a fun and casual conversation. You can read it here!

M for Magic Live: The day is here!

Wow! It has came and passed so quickly. I thoroughly enjoyed ever moment of the show and the energy from my audience. To all who came and supported us, to all who congratulated us, and to all that enjoyed the magic, THANK YOU!

I was at the Friday show as an audience, despite being a magician myself, I enjoyed the performance of my peers. It was entertaining. JC Sum’s performance at the end was truly a show closer. I enjoyed that segment the most.

The Saturday line up (Credits to RDM)

 

On Saturday, it was my turn, and boy was it fun. The ad-libs were good, the spectators were spontaneous. Really fun. My good friend, Samuel, did an amazing job. He did his rendition of coins to glass as well as sponge bunnies. What impressed me was his professionalism. In all honesty, the spectator tried to be cheeky by trying to outsmart him, and when that happened, I did see a flinch in Samuel’s expression. But he recovered well, some audience does not even know there was a moment of uncertainty in his act. Well done!

I did a couple of my signature effects, Scotty York’s Razored Deck and David Williamson’s Cups and Balls. It was such a blast!

Credits to RDM

After the show ended, I shook some hands, gave out some namecards when it was requested, I felt a sense of achievement that these people do like my magic. That was a nice feeling. Then I had to rush off to Bar84 for my regular magic performance. Which was awesome too!

Yup, I like how hair taste =s (Credits to Weiliang, thank you!)

 Lastly, there are a few people I would like to personally thank for this project. Special thanks to JC Sum for guiding me in this project and injecting some thoughts on magic that I have never been exposed to. Samuel Sim, for the times were discussed on how to improve our magic. Friends who turned up for the event. And lastly, mentors of mine, past and present. Thank you!

Signing off,

Alexander. The hair didn’t taste as nice as I thought =x

The Live Show!

Couple of updates! First of all, let me proudly present to you the poster for M for Magic: Live!

 

Ta-Da! Yup, now you can put a face to the names of the featured performers for this event. And of cos, you see that picture of me with that goofy smile, it was taken in Japan Cup 2009. I was flown to Japan to compete as a finalist in an international magic competition.

So like I said, M for Magic has an awesome line up, so get your tickets quick. Last I heard the shows are already 3/4 full.

Another exciting thing that I had was a radio interview on Yes933fm. It was a segment called, “我有我的Young!” with DJ Kunhua .

Check him out in his facebook page, young looking and very talented man. Adeline, Godwin, Samuel and I had so much fun chatting with him. Next week, we will have another interview with him, so do check it out!

Signing off,

Alexander, see you on stage! ; )

Its my turn, its my turn!

Long awaited, but here we go!

Did you like it? If you did, please leave comments!

Anyway, this episode was a lot of fun! I did one of my signature effects where a card appears in my pocket and Samuel did a wonderful routine with a ring and a string.

Now, be honest, did you watch that video twice just to see how its done? ; )

Thats okay with me, because I think my job is done when you are amazed the first time. In an effect like this, I made use of one of cognitive psychology’s principle of Change Blindness. You can wikipedia that if you want. But essentially, it is a very bold technique where something is done right under your nose but you did not notice it because your mental resources are diverted to something else. You might rememeber seeing a video floating in the Internet where you have to count the number of basketball tosses. ( I won’t spoil the surprise but do check it out). That is the change blindness, or attentional blink.

While some performers tell the audience that they use psychology in their magic, I somehow feel that is mostly gibberish. It is probably because I am a psychology major, hence I subscribe to the strict definition of psychology. So trust me when I say I use techniques and principles of psychology in my magic, I do mean it.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this video, and have a good weekend!

Signing off,

Alexander ; )

A Live Show: M for Magic

AWESOME NEWS!

I have been selected to perform for the M for Magic Live show! Now, there is a charm in watching magic live and on video. On video, you might not be able to experience the full personality of the performer compared to in real time. Also, there is that added dimension of interaction when you watch a live show, and that is something that I always enjoy.

I remember when I was performing for this older couple in Hilton a couple of months back, the lady said to me “You have done well, my husband never enjoys magic as much as he did today”. A very warm moment for me. And it is true, the husband was quite skeptical initially, but I think it was the way I frame my magic that soften his ‘hard’ side and allowed him to fully enjoy it. Talk about magicians who “knows-it-all”, not a good way to break the ice.

Anyway, I digress. Here are some details for the show!

Date: 13 May 11 & 14 May 11

Time: 7.30pm and 9.30pm daily

Host: JC Sum

Featured Magicians: Adeline Ng, Alexander Yuen, Alvin Terrence, Kyle Ravin, Matthew Lee, Ming Da & Samuel Sim

I will be performing on the 14th May 2011.

Signing off,

Alexander 😉

M for Magic: a SinemaTV production

M for Magic

What can I say, it was an absolutely amazing experience! I had such great fun working with the SinemaTV crew as well as JC Sum and his team.

My segment was filmed together with a good friend of mine, Samuel. I did an effect for Crispian Chan who is a Fly Artist. I felt the rapport between us was good, everything was very smooth flowing and I cannot wait for the end result.

A picture with the magic star, JC Sum

Very exciting.

 

Signing off,

Alexander 😉