Video performances of Legerdemain 2007!

Last Update: 10 Oct 2009

Please note that the clips have been edited. Each clip is a short extract of the actual performancer's act.

1) Farid
Farid tries to win the audience with his personality and coinwork at Legerdemain 2007.
Watch Farid

2) Chan Zian
Zian was really nervous during the competition and it shows... but he pulled himself through it admirably. :-)
Note: Zian was not yet a MOD when he participated in the last Legerdemain.
Watch Zian

3) Matt Lee
Matthew is currently working at Concept:Magic. This was his rendition of the 3 card monte.
Watch Matt

4) Shufi
Shufi was a blaze of energy with his production act. :) you'll love this one.
Watch Shufi

Enjoy!

I admire him for the effort and guts to join the competition.

I saw the whole performance before and still have. (DVD version) Well done to the editing.

:D I think its a great job under pressure!

Hahaha I can't bear to watch it myself. But it's good to let people know this kind of standard also dare to take part in Legerdemain. So I strongly anyone out there who sees this to take the first step and commit yourself to legerdemain 2010.

ZiAn

Responds for Legerdemain 2010 has been somewhat good. I thank, and applaud all those that took a step forward to commit themselves to this competition. I hope all of you do well, prove to yourself and other what you can do and achieve something in this competition.

Just thought i would share my experience with all those interested of what happened back in 2007.

I started magic in 2004 - 2005 thereabouts. So by 2007, i was still very new to magic. I still am a newbie in magic, by no means a old bird. So as green as i was back then, the idea of joining a competition like legerdemain never did cross my mind. No doubt, it was the first year that legerdemain happened, and no one has heard of it before. Just a few brave ones from the SMC moderating team decided to put a competition together and out came legerdemain. (disclaimer: I was not a mod yet when i took part in the 2007 competition.)

So i thought that well, if i did take part in this competition, and IF i win, i would get some pretty neat prizes, a couple hundred worth of goodies and some form of recognition at least within SMC. Haha. But still i did not want to take part. I did not think i was up to it. Nevertheless, after some persuasion from a few 'good' friends, i thought "what the hell, what could be the worse, the most make a fool of myself on stage only what (which i did, but that's another story). Hiya take part take part la! who scared who!" Some gangster mentality that has been long repressed within my 'id' (psychoanalytic term for the subconscious coined by Mr. Freud).

Signed up, paid 20bucks (had to go on sandwich for a week to save up that kind of money), and turned up on audition day at Ulu Pandan CC. It was pretty crazy.

Looking back, I still cannot believe that i actually took part. Young and reckless, but i am also glad that i did. My magic was not the same ever since, and i have learnt many things that would not have learnt otherwise!

Firstly, because i was so new to magic back then, i really did not think very highly of myself. Didn't think that i would even make it to the finals. I didn't know many routines and couldn't perform many sleights. Because of LGDM 2007, i had to learn the perfect faro, some nice cuts and nice shuffles, and also correct some bad habits that i have. And because i knew my hands would shake during the performance, i had to get used to faro-ing in the most unstable situations. I began practing my faro everytime i was on the bus, when i am drunk, and many other scenarios which i am unable to share because there are young people around. Haha.

And prior to LGDM 2007, i had never really performed on the table before, so i had to change many sleights to suit the table setting as well. It was really a long arduous journey and i only had 4 months from sign up to finals to prepare for it. This time, LGDM 2010, contestants will have much more time which is really a luxury! Anyway, back to the story, if not for LGDM2007, i would not have made those changes and improvements in my magic. Sometimes, we (read: I) just need that extra push in life to get our butts off the chair and get moving.

Despite all the preparation, I made a fatal mistake that day on stage, and i screwed up my kicker of the entire routine. That was really the biggest screw up in all of my performances through the year. Those who were there would know that it was really VERY embarassing. So althought i didn't win the competition even though i had bribed the judges (haha), i still feel that i had at least walked away with something, lessons of sorts.

Firstly, it was the opportunity to show off myself infront of 300 magicians and laymen combined. To show them what magic is like in the local scene, and to show everyone, including myself, what i could (or could not) do. The rush of being on stage in front of so many and knowing in your mind that you are goin to fool their pants off (or not) in a moment is really something indescribable. Imagine the feeling of performing in front of friends, or in front of your webcam for some of you, and multiply that by a hundred or two. The adrenaline rush that I got, i wish all of you here could experience it too.

More importantly, is what a competition like LDGM 2007 did to my magic. I was an idiot before the competition, and i am still an idiot now, but i am a BETTER idiot then before. I know more about magic routine constuction, building up effects, misdirection, and presentation. I dare say that i perform differently from before the competition. I am at least more confident in my speech, my body language, and my sleights. I believe this is something that rarely occurs to any individual throughout his lifetime, but it only takes one magic competition like this one to make a difference.

So i strongly encourage anyone out there who has the stamina to read through this entire passage of wisdom/rubbish up to this point to take up this opportunity to challange yourself, and drive your magic forward. If i could i would love to take part in LGDM 2010, but because i cannot, i hope that you would!

Zi An

Oooh. I didn't know my video is up here for sooooo long. Anyway, I must say that my act was designed more for the stage and was very much in an experimental stage. Alot alot alot alot of flaws when I look back the video! I am thinking if I should develop the act and bring it on for legerdemain 2010. Should I? Can I?

=)

Of course you can. We will be happy to have you participate.

If you are really keen, do sign up soon as auditions are at the end of this month.

ZiAn

Cool. It's abit last minute and I have not made any sort of preparation. Let me think about it first. Thanks for the thumbs up. Hope to make it for audition provided that I can come up with something.

Go for it shufi, it'll be good to have you with us again! :)

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