Hello magic friends...

It's been awhile since I did another one of these fun magic essay writing 'competitions' on SMC, so I'd like to get everyone's magic juices flowing again with this one! :P

The topic is simply: How has Singapore Magic Circle helped YOU with your magic? :lol: The prize is a mystery DVD from The Little Magic Shop *grin* Ok, ok, a hint of a clue... this prize is a new DVD is from L&L Publishing, which features many wonderful magic professionals & is one of their "World's Greatest Magic" series bests!!!

Okay! Here's how to participate:

It's easy! :) Simply make a well-written post in this thread (you know the usual rules- be nice, be true, mind your English!) to tell us how SMC has benefited you in any way(s).

Besides mentioning the help/ advice you got on our online forums, you could talk about your most pleasant/ beneficial experience at an SMC meet, especially since we've had so many... from regular gatherings, to jam sessions, to chalet BBQs, and so much more!! ^_^

You're only limited to ONE story per person, so make sure it's a good one! If you feel like you'd like to give credit to a special somebody (or somebodies), this would be a good time to do so too! Remember, this has to be real - no fictional bits please! :rolleyes:

Seen by all with the selection of the deserving winner by yours truly, the most sincere/ well-written/ entertaining entry wins. Anyone can join, so don't miss out... this friendly 'competition' ends at the end of the month (that's midnight of 30th April '07) so don't wait... get your fingers typing!!! :g:

Magically yours,

Ning ;)
Magic Shop Mistress of The Little Magic Shop

I joined SMC around the same time i joined IBM. Hence it was around this period (perhaps slightly before) that i took magic more seriously. I joined SMC as an amateur beginner (i still am one) and the amount of advise and help I've gotten from the threads, regardless of whether they were started by me or others is tremendous.

I have not been to many meetings (sadly) but the first meet that i went to was one of my turning point in magic. I remember the exact date of the meet - 23rd of July 2006, CCF Hair for Hope '06 event. It wasn't exactly an SMC gathering per se, more of an event that SMC was helping out with.

There I managed to match some faces to the names of the people and of course made a few new 'magical' friends. I met and saw Ning jie for the first time there too. My non-magical friends have known me to be very quiet amongst people I'm not familiar with, yet, somehow, I felt quite at ease with the SMC people weirdly enough.

During the event, I saw so much comaderie between the SMC people. Saw cards flying. Saw wallets on fire. Saw spongeballs appearing.. Saw many having fun. Mostly, I saw SMC people using what we all love so much to help the little we could for the cancer children. That touched me... a lot. It was at that instant that it struck me that magic could be so much more.

Also, had it not been for SMC, i might have never gotten to meet Ning jie, who has given me a lot of encouragements, inspirations and chances. If not for her, I might have never gotten the courage to take that major step forward in August.

And I might as well take the chance of this friendly competition to thank Aloy for setting up this forum and changing so many of our roads in magic. I can only wonder how my magic would have turned out without SMC. Perhaps still fine, but with much less joy, much less friends, and much less enjoyment....

Ade. ^_^

Wow... thanks for starting the ball rolling, Ade :lol: Yes, major kudos to Aloy for starting up SMC almost 3 years ago... Without his spark of genius, this forum wouldn't have happened. I myself met so many wonderful mentors who have been teachers to me in one way or other!

Anyways... Great post Ade, yes, I still hold very fond memories of the 2 days we were down @ Suntec in supporting CCF's Hair For Hope event last year! Well, here's looking forward to reading more shared thoughts from others in this forum *grin*

Cheers!
ning ^_^

Woah! Ning! Is that new avatar you? Just changed it? :off:

Hmm, after much consideration, I decided to write something out ba. :)

I know magic before I ever joined SMC, so I get to know about this forum by chance. Quite random, its like surfing on the net and you just pop into a forum, click here and there, and you realise that its a great forum with meet ups of singapore magicians.

When I just started magic then, the only magician that I know will be Brad Christan, David Copperfield, and maybe David Blaine. So most of my intial effects are based on them and I can only talk about the effects in SMC then. Joining in SMC, also introduce me to Ning's virtual shop, which make me realise that I can get magic effect much cheaper than other places. Also when I just started talking in this forum, people are so friendly, and thats the first time I know, I not just a unique person that want to learn a unique skill, but alot of people is like me.

From then, I get to know more magicians that taught me in my magic life, Michael Ammar, Lee Asher, etc. Its all start from joining in this forum, that I realise how small my world is in the past, and how big it can be outside. Though the forum that time is not big, but its very nice that we can get along and discuss on different techniques or help each other with the effects.

I still remember we going from places to places, just to find a good place so that magicians from around singapore can get together and jam hard. Though it was hard, locations are so far, but alot of us still came down from our tight schedule, or distant home to come together, and enjoy magic different, not affect that there will be exposure.

There was a time when the cafe was so packed with people that, we will have to find a new place after that, and each time, there will be more people coming in and join us with sharing.

LOL.. I still remember the first person to talk to me is Pam, he invited me up for an effect and I really enjoyed it. I always thought that magic is very simple, but he brought the simplicity over and make me stunned. He even came up, ask me to show him an effect, but I decline, because I scared that it will be a joke to him. Then he told me that if I don't perform, I will never improve. Go forward, try, learn from mistakes. Thats when I started to pick up some guts, and perform whenever I can when SMC has a gathering.

You see, this list can go on and on, about what happen on my journey with SMC, because its simply too much, It brought me up to another level, know more friends, and changed me totally. SMC taught me the way to handle people, talk to people, be different to audience, and of course, showmanship that cannot be taught, but can only be learnt till exposuring yourself to more shows.

Indeed, SMC will be a good start for a magician life, and a new breed of friends. Cheers..

Larry

How has Singapore Magic Circle helped ME with my magic (and other miscellaneous ramblings)

It was not very long ago (December 2006) when I was still a lurker, happily browsing through the SMC forums, contented with being able to read and scour through all the different threads for information on magic as well as non-magic-related discussions. I thought it was fine this way, since I didn't know much (okay, it was more like didn't know ANYTHING) to post anything remotely constructive anyway. This contented lurker carried on lurking, until he came across the SMC Magic Chalet thread...

Argh why did I click on Add Reply instead of Preview Post! <_< Alright back to the story:

To cut the long story short (after all this is not an essay on Why I decided to go for the SMC Magic Chalet), despite being a total newbie in magic, I decided to brave it all and attend the chalet gathering. That was my first major step into the world of magic, and where my journey in magic really started off on a proper footing. It was an inspiring event for me back then, seeing and feeling so much magic all around at the chalet. Indeed, I still have *cough*faro*cough* I mean fond memories of the chalet. Plus it was my first ever time BBQ-ing with umbrellas under the rain, which of course was an added bonus.

Subsequently, I continued to attend the following SMC sessions/gatherings organised by T.H.E.M. (Totally Helpful Enthusiastic Moderators / Totally Hidden Extreme Moderators), where I not only picked up lots of valuable information/knowledge, got to see and experience lots of magic, and also got to meet lots of like-minded fellow practitioners of magic. Most importantly, through these sessions/gatherings, I had the chance to perform to other people, garner feedback, discuss and improve on my technique/handling/presentation.

Of course, how could I leave out The Little Magic Shop, my trusty source for magic supplies. The ever so helpful and friendly Magic Shop Mistress Ning was actually the 1st person I met from SMC. I remember that I was collecting my purchases from her for the 1st time back then and she encouraged me to go for the chalet.

Now that I'm done with the miscellaneous ramblings, let me summarise how SMC has helped ME with my magic. (dry_gin this is for you so that you won't have to struggle through my long-winded ramblings above)

- The forum is a trove of information, and fellow members are friendly and quick to help out in answering queries. (e.g. I started a thread on Recommendation on Linking Rings and the feedback and response was extremely timely and useful)

- My first ever SMC gathering (the magic chalet back in Dec 06) opened up a whole new realm to me, and was my first major step in magic. It effectively created my magic social circle (I can't say expanded my magic social circle because prior to that I had no magic social circle to speak of.)

- All the different sessions/gatherings, be it the thematic mini focus sessions on various topics, the newbie meetup, or the non-official jam sessions, greatly expanded my magic social circle. They also provided the opportunity for me to perform for others and gain experience in the process, garnering feedback so that I can continue to strive to improve. The sessions are also a great form of encouragement, inspiration and confidence-builder, because there is simply no substitute for performing to live spectators. The sharing/discussions/feedback/brainstorming during these sessions have also allowed me to gain valuable knowledge/insights on both the theoretical and practical sides of magic.

- Most most importantly, thanks to SMC, I have gotten to know a bunch of "Super Duper Beyond Buay Pai Leh" (means $ cannot buy) magical friends who are a constant source of magical inspiration and joy in my life and my journey in magic.


AdrianLee

*COUGH**B*s*A*d**COUGH*

Well Written Adrian! Very well Written! BUT I SAW THAT!!!!!

*COUGH**B*s*A*d**COUGH*

Cheers!

dry_gin

P.S. Wondering what all these nonsense is about, kindly join the next SMC gathering!! B) B) B)

LOL... nice one Adrian & Larry ^_^ Yes, those were fun memories! The first time i REALLY got to know Adrian wwas when he was being such a dearie, holding a brolly over me as i BBQed food in the rain during the last SMC chalet event! Larry has certainly evolved since he first started... *grin*

3 entries thus far! Is there no one else up for the challenge? ;)

ning

This ends midnight TODAY ;) Cheers...

ning

I just finish my english paper today i wrote about magic!Try to post my eassy here soon :lol:

:) I'd like to congratulate AdrianLee for his essay... you've won yourself a DVD from The Little Magic Shop *grin* Thanks for that essay, everyone else who posted did a good job too. It was a hard choice!

ning

Yay! Thanks Ning! :D

I'd like to take the opportunity to specially thank the following people who in some way or another have made a difference and helped me with my magic:

- Ning for always coming up with new ideas to liven up the place (and out of her own pocket too!)
- the usual gang Jerome, Axl, Gordon for all the jamming and inspirations (and tahan-ing my lameness all the time)
- Uncle Bob and Enrico for all their sharing and insights
- Aloy for setting up SMC and all

And special mention goes out to Shade, because he deserves it. (Need I say more?) B)

Cheers!

AdrianLee

Hi Adrian

Congratulations to you on winning the essay. Your essay did bring back lots of fond memories on the chalet we had last year. Thinking back of what had happened during the chalet gives a strong sense of nostalgia. It was really a blast despite the endless rain that we experienced throughout the chalet we all still had a good time. Cough cough...minus the Giant Fans..Cough cough :P

Thanks for the cool name you've come up with. T.H.E.M. (Totally Helpful Enthusiastic Moderators / Totally Hidden Extreme Moderators). It sounds really cool....

Catch up with you soon. ^_^

Cheers
Jerome

ARGGGGGHHHH! I still get nightmares of Giant Fans.

Anyway, congrats are in order to Adrian - hope you put that DVD to good use!

I think Totally Hidden Extreme Moderator only refers to MagicDow. He's always around the corner - you can't see him; but you'll feel his wrath! MUAHAHA.

Umm, don't give me a warning Bernard... I'm just kidding ok?

This is not to say that MagicDow's not helpful and enthu! Ok - he's both.

The rest of us just fall in the Totally Helpful and Enthusiastic Mods.

Maybe except me... I'm just a Totally Hidden and Enigmatic Moron.

Before my ramblings get me banned...

Cheers,

Shade
PS: Jerome you'd better get more than a baby pint next time!

LOL... Can I be SMC's Totally.Hot.Enigmatic.Moderator? :P
Cute spin on T.H.E.M, Adrian *grin* love your wit... LOL :lol:

Zzzz.. Ning is getting much more crazy nowadays, anyone realised that? Zzz..

anyway, Congrats Congrats!! You got a nice DVD on the way liao. Nice nice..

But whhhhhy? :unsure: Because I'm nice & like to give away free stuff? ...LOL! :g: