conventions

Singapore has seen two highly successful Magic Conventions - International Festival of Magic (IF Magic) 2003 and 2005. It was an arena for amateur and professional magicians to congregate, interact and engage themselves in a prolific exchange of skills and craftsmanship. The festivals have brought the performance of magic in Singapore to a global level, and heightened and redefined Magic as entertainment in Singapore.

international festival of magic 2005

Bigger and better, the International Festival of Magic 2005 was yet another triumph for the Magic of Lawrence and Priscilla.

Held over four days at the Singapore Kallang Theatre and York Hotel, the exhilarating convention attracted professional and amateur magicians alike with competitions offering attractive prizes, world-class performances, seminars showcasing exclusive trade secrets and tricks, and a Dealers’ Room featuring a wide selection of limited edition, never-before--seen merchandise to tempt and whet every magician’s appetite.

Besides the participation of many local magicians from Singapore, there were also foreign magicians who came from as far as Japan, Korea and the USA to compete with the Best of the World.

competitions

Calling all budding magicians!

Start practising your act for the next International Festival of Magic, and you may be on your way to the big leagues.

Who qualifies to compete in the Convention?

All you masters and mistresses of magic - If you have an original act to showcase, you are who we are looking for! An international panel of judges will award points for your showmanship, technical skill, originality, costumes, props and entertainment value.

IF Magic 2005 brought to stage its first Close-Up Magic Competition with no less than 30 entries from the region, out of which 7 magicians from Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong were shortlisted to compete in the finals.

Not missing a beat, the Asian Pro Magic Challenge 2005 conjured a battle of the magic stars with extremely versatile and competent finalists performing various skills of magic from manipulations to sleights of hand, mental magic, and more.

Check out the winners in the Close Up and Asian Pro Magic Challenge’s photo galleries today!

If you want to bring your act to the world, bring it to IF Magic!

winners from close-up magic

winners from asian pro magic challenge

seminars

How to perform better as a magician?

You could learn from magic books and practise with magic DVDs, but the best place to learn is to attend and participate in magic seminars. IF Magic Seminars are conducted by world-class magicians which will bring you to a higher level of magic craftsmanship with greater presentation skills and performing abilities!

IF Magic 2005 participants benefited greatly from the late Tommy Wonder’s sleight-by-sleight demonstration on how to palm a card and Magic Fukai’s droll presentation of misdirection. The Pendragons were as breathtaking off stage as they are onstage. No doubt, somewhere in Singapore right now, a young magician is dreaming of how he can upstage the Pendragons using the very same secrets the Pendragons divulged to him during their seminar. This would be a near-impossible feat, but magicians will dream.

dealers’ room – a collector’s haven

The Rose Room of York Hotel was transformed for three days into a bustling ‘magicians’ mall. There were products ranging from toys to tools, some suitable for performing magicians while others are beginners' stuff for students and novices. There were sponge balls, novelty cards, interlocking rings, silks, umbrellas, puppets and even a man-sized chamber and a collapsible steel frame that forms a small wall!

Many of them are personal inventions by magicians, only available through mail-order. You will never find them in a shop! It was more entertaining watching the magicians market their wares than to actually buy the stuff; the 'merchants' seem to take more joy in entertaining the browsers gathered around their stalls than in ringing in the sales!

all-star magic show

Three nights of exclusive and sensational performances were staged at the Singapore Kallang Theatre during IF Magic 2005. The audience was entertained and ‘wowed’ by a repertoire of acts which stemmed from the best of the best from all over the world with astounding and excellent performances by Magicians and Illusionists like The Great Tomsoni and Co, The Pendragons, Lawrence and Priscilla, Lee Eun Gyeol, Champion of FISM 2006 in General Magic, the late Tommy Wonder, Duane Laflin and Magic Fukai . These were truly magical moments for all to remember and cherish.

world class acts from the all-star magic show

international festival of magic 2003

It has always been Lawrence and Priscilla’s dream to promote Magic as an art form in Singapore. They desired to contribute to the development of local magic skills and to create opportunities for magicians to hone their craft.

With that came the birth of the first-ever International Festival of Magic Convention (IF Magic Convention) in Singapore in 2003. This festival was a platform for magicians from Singapore and countries in the region to interact and exchange magic skills, showmanship and secrets. Renowned magicians, Jeff McBride, Eugene Burger and Max Maven, conducted six lectures with workshop presentations. There were participants from Thailand, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Hong Kong, the Netherlands and the United States.

Nearly a thousand people thronged the TOUCH Community Theatre where all IF Magic events were staged. More than 150 professional and amateur magicians registered for the Asian Pro Magic Challenge. For this challenge, eight magicians were shortlisted for the finals - Singapore’s very own Jeremy Pei and Joe Yu, Kim Jung Kuk (Korea), Dai Peng Heng (China), Maebaya Kyoto (Japan), Panjarat Chairattine (Thailand), PJ Wen (Taiwan) and Danny Cole (United States of America). The first prize, the ‘Magic of Lawrence’ Trophy and a cash prize of US$1000 was awarded to Danny Cole (USA), who then went on to compete in FISM 2003 and was awarded a FISM Prize in General Magic in Netherlands. First runner-up of Asian Pro Magic Challenge 2003 was Maebaya Kyoto (Japan) followed by PJ Wen (Taiwan) as second runner-up, who also competed in the General Magic Category in FISM 2009 in Beijing.

Indeed, IF Magic 2003 has also inspired a phenomenal rise of many young and aspiring magicians such as Dai Ping Heng (China), a familiar face at FISM and one of the IF Magic’s Asian Pro Magic competitors in 2003. Not forgetting Singapore’s Jeremy Pei, who also competed in the Close-Up Competition in FISM 2009 in Beijing. Jeremy Pei was only 19 years old when he first competed in IF Magic 2003.

Last but not least, closing the Gala was 'The Secret Art', an acclaimed illusion show featuring Jeff McBride, Eugene Burger and Abbi Spinner, which attracted a sold-out crowd of about 1000 people.

Winners from Asian Pro Magic challenge