There is something i want to share with everyone. I was discussing with my layman friends about David Copperfield coming to SIngpore and asking them whether do they want to go and watch. The first reaction i get from them is really disappointing.

" Go for what? Go there and ganna bluff by him?!? I rather spend the money on something else"

After the first guy said that, the second guy start to agree and so on. Despite after my explanation that magic is for entertaining and not to purposely bluff them, they still don't agree with me.

I think most Singaporean still dun appreciate magic, they treat it as con game.

Of course no one like to be bluffed, since it is not necessarily a good experience in the first place.

Anyway, there will always people who wouldn't like magic. Just like some people don't like music (Can you believe that?).

In general, does Singaporean appreciate magic? Well, I think most do. If not there wouldn't be demand to produce shows like Maya, or other local productions that are just a few threads nearby (unless I am under the illusion that these shows are produced with magic hobbyist and magician wanna-bes as the main audience in mind).

So, no, I don't think so. ^_^

You can't make everybody stand on the same side. Singaporeans, unfortunately are a bunch of "engineered minds". There is no such thing as magic to them, no such thing as, "I can read your mind". When you show them an EFFECT, they will say its a TRICK. Instead of clapping and screaming in astonishment, they will try to "evaluate" you and break down how you did it. THEY DON'T BELIEVE IN MAGIC.

BUT, if you tell them that somewhere out there, there is a tree's bark that resembled a monkey deity, a drain that flows spring water, these "engineered minds" will rush all out to get themselves a pail of this water to wipe their license plate, drink it or even bathe with it. Not forgetting those who will go all out to pray to a tree, just so that these can help them strike the next lottery. BUT THEY DON'T BELIEVE IN MAGIC.

Like I say you cannot change them to like magic (it will be magic if you could), its like asking "Is there a way to make the Sun rise in the West and set in the East?" To each of his own, they can watch the tree while I watch Copperfield fly.

P.S. Oh ya I forgot, that there is also another exotic group of locals who will sit down in front of their aquariums and look for "lucky numbers" on their luo han fishes. But if you disappear a silk hanky in front of them, they will say its under your sleeve. You can get a Nobel for solving this paradox.

Huh? I just saw on the papers that the front seats for majority of the Copperfield show are sold out.

Yes, the $168 ones. Sold out.

Well, be it big names, or just appreciation of the art, I feel that there are people who appreciates such things after all...

I think those people believe in magic and the supernatural. However they don't think that normal human beings like us are able to manipulate the supernatural forces. In their minds, magicians can only peform tricks and illusions, not real miracles.

Wow, even David Copperfield cannot please him. Did he gave you a hard time when you performed magic for him?

There will always be a group of people that don't appreciate magic.

We cannot make everyone like magic, but we can put in our best effort when performing to people who truly enjoy and appreciate our art.

I had people ask me to go for confession after magic trick,
reason behind = lying is a sin..
haha. Well she din't really mean it but...some people just sees magic as a con despite how hard we convince them that it is just an entertainment

Since when magic became lying? I never got that part.

Now you see it, now you don't! What part of it is a lie?

I play 3 card monte and swindle your money? Is that lying?

People never like to attribute their own assumptions, stupidity to themselves. They always like to blame other people.

But then again magic is only a lie when it is all exposed. It becomes a total con when the methods to the effect are revealed. So..

Every time we expose an effect (accidental or deliberate), we are lying to our spectators. "You think I did that? I didn't! HAHAHAHA"

Is that not a lie?

But what's wrong with lying in the first place? You are not doing people harm. You are not cheating their money (Ignore me if you are), and I doubt society can function if no one tell lies.

Well, I suppose most people should noe wat I am getting at. If you don't then, never mind.

So a lie is only a lie when people realize its a lie? In other words, it's a truth if people don't know its a lie? Weird logic.

Forget about them. Period.

You can't try to teach a pig to sing. You will frustrate yourself and piss off the pigs.

That will only be true from the audience's perspective. It'll be the "truth" to them if they don't know it's a lie.

Yeah, you've got me on there.

We have to bring ourselves to the fact that we are not lying. If we are, I wouldn't want to get involved in this art in the first place.

When I first got owned by my friend who did Downs Palm so well, I never felt that it was a lie to start with. It was mysterious, mind boggling and amazing. I never thought of it as a lie.

So why would people do that? Its because of the context of how we present our magic.

Audience perspective is not only the issue here. It's also the way we carry a magic trick to people. As much as we can't blame people for thinking we're liars, we have to remember our goal as magicians.

Amaze, entertain. Letting people experience the seemingly impossible.

Magic is a unique form of entertainment. And since it's unique, we must know how it really must be presented. If not, that would then truly be, lying.

Well, would you consider the world in the movie as true? Of course not. The actors are acting, which to say more crudely - lying convincingly. (Btw, it can also be the other way round. Lying is really about acting.)

When you watch a movie, you don't think its fake, you allow yourself to be taken in, and you don't say - it's fake, unless, its a crappy movie. But ultimately, after you watch the movie, you will leave this world, and, yes, deep down you know its fake, but hey, its one hack of an experience.

hey.

I think an analogy here might suffice. Take a movie for example, LOTR. when you watch it, intellectually you know it isnt real. its fiction. In fact gollum doesnt exist apart from in your mind and the bunch of pixels on the screen, in reality he's just a bunch of maths equations processed by the computer. To put it barely, thats what it is.

But now take it to a mental level. In your mind that is the reality, you feel the sorrow of arwen, the greed of gollum and the doubts of frodo. You want to and there is a certain joy in that delusion.

So should peter jackson being going on a confessional because he "lied" to his audience and made millions upon millions?

CSJ