Monthly Archives: September 2021

Reza has taken the art of illusion to a new level, bringing his rock concert-style magic show to audiences around the world.

Don’t expect rabbits to come out of hats! Reza’s current tour carries concert-level lighting and production fused with the most incredible cutting edge magic that exists today. Reza has created a worldwide buzz and a loyal fan base with his passion for creating large-scale illusions such as the materialization of motorcycles and helicopters from scratch! Reza’s unique illusion brand has seen him appear on popular reality shows in 31 countries, including recent appearances on American television in A&E’s “Duck Dynasty” and “Penn & Teller: Fool Us” by The CW.

The audience witnessed mega illusions such as passing through the rotating blades of an industrial fan, a record-breaking recreation of Houdini’s most famous stunt and the appearance of a real helicopter, live on stage. More than a magic show, Reza infuses elements of artistic production on stage, masterful comedic timing, and plenty of interactive and inspiring moments, allowing audiences to experience the magic firsthand. Perhaps Reza’s biggest secret is her incredible ability to communicate her performance art on such a personal level.

Young and fresh, Reza’s new show “Edge of Illusion” has won several awards, including “Magician of the Year”. Reza is intriguing, engaging and captivating. He’s not just a magician. He is a world class artist.

More information is available at https://wsustudentunion.universitytickets.com.

What myths have you come across about being an illusionist / magician in Singapore?

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Darren: One of the biggest misconceptions I’d like to correct is that magic is only for kids and entertainment. In Singapore, whenever we mention magic, the immediate association is that of children’s entertainment. Parents would go out of their way to get their children’s attention and watch us “clown”. And some adults would politely refuse.

But I refuse to reduce magic to simple children’s entertainment. I think there is so much more to the magic and so much more facades.

Magic can be theatrical; magic can be a fascinating art; magic can incorporate storytelling and leave more impactful messages behind. There are certainly artists in magic, and these artists create moments and works of art.

Also, just to add, I think another misconception is to treat magicians as mere “deceitful apes”. I believe, like any other artist, that there are many more stories behind a magician to unwrap; and it’s sad to see people only asking for tricks after tricks when interacting with a wizard.

Since it’s such an unconventional career, what are some of your funniest or most interesting memories from your career as an illusionist duo?

Darren: Looking back, there are tons of really interesting and funny moments. I remember when we were, as friends, doing street magic together along Orchard Road.

We would challenge each other with outrageous challenges, including testing stereotypes to see if magic can really impress and “nab” the opposite sex. It ended up being a bunch of awkward and hilarious encounters, with a few successful attempts I should add.

Jerryl: One of my favorites would be one of our experiences with a restaurant manager. We walked in and spoke to a man at the bar to ask if we could speak to the manager. He asked us what it was and when we said “entertainment” he said okay he would get the manager.

He walked into the kitchen, took off his jacket and came out and said “Hello, I’m the manager.” We were both confused because we were 100% sure it was the same guy. Nothing really related to magic in this experience, but it was really hilarious and it made the tiring day much more enjoyable.

Learn more about Darren and Jerryl here.

Copyright 2021 Tribune Content Agency.

South African Magic Council (SAMCO) President Gary Weedon takes us back in time while sharing some of his fondest memories as a magician since appearing in the City Times in 1998.

The former president of the East Rand Magic Society of the Benoni branch said that since appearing in the papers he has continued to do magic shows and thrive in the corporate world.

“The industry has changed a lot in 23 years. At one point, I was doing close-quarters magic at seven different Alberton restaurants in Pretoria in a week, doing shows on the weekends, ”Gary said.

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Benoni’s magician takes us back in time

“Even with the evolution of the industry, I have played for well-known TV celebrities. I turned an old army bus into a children’s entertainment area called Big Bertha.

When Gary was featured in the newspaper, he was going to perform at Nelson Mandela’s Birthday Party for Underprivileged Children and the Magical Society’s 10th Anniversary Celebration in 1998.

He has been practicing and performing magic since 1973 at the age of 15.

The 62-year-old still works as a magician, however, due to the pandemic it has been difficult, but he does some of his shows thanks to the zoom.

“I love being a magician because you can make those who are sad happy and seeing the wonder on their faces when something goes away gives me satisfaction.

“I also like meeting interesting people and showing my talent to less privileged people. I do shows for some of the origins of the homeless and Mr. and Miss Benoni as my way of giving back to the community, ”he said.

Gary, who has resided in Benoni for 23 years, added that he loved The City Times because it supports the locals and makes them proud of what residents are able to do so that they can support each other.

The Northmead resident encouraged young people to become magicians as it improves their self-esteem, you have become disciplined and practice before showing your tricks to anyone.

He wished the City Times a happy 100th birthday and hopes to appear in the newspaper again in 23 years.

READ ALSO:

Eddy House honors BCT for 100 years of keeping communities informed

Book review

You don’t have to be a Thomas Mann fan to be gripped by the story of his life that author Colm Tóibín (“The Master”, “Brooklyn”) delivers in his new novel, “The magician. “

The German Nobel Prize winner’s prose (“The Magic Mountain”, “Death in Venice”) may be intimidatingly dense and highly erudite, but Tóibín’s own writing is quite the opposite. His unexpected turns are always lucid, even when they ask you to read between the lines in a playful way.

In short, “The Magician,” which focuses on the everyday flavor of Mann’s hectic private and public life for six decades, is intended to interest many readers, whether or not they are Mann devotees.

Mann was born in Lübeck in 1875 to a prominent trading family, just a few years after the unification of the various independent German states into one nation. He lived until 1955, long enough to see his country succumb to Nazism, invade its neighbors, attempt to wipe out the entire Jewish population of Europe, and crumble into unconditional surrender to the enemies he so held. unnecessarily done.

In “The Magician” (the title comes from the sardonic nickname of the Mann family), Tóibín portrays a figure whose notions of himself and his country are completely unraveled during his life. Blending national dramas and global convulsions, the novel creates a deep sense of instability that would possibly dismantle even the most unfazed character.

Mann was more unfazed than most. Formally and cautiously in his actions, he was ill-equipped to record the mad turn his country took under Adolf Hitler. One more twist: Mann, despite having six children, was quietly homosexual (as were, oddly enough, three of his descendants).

Tóibín – whose fictional version of Henry James’ life, “The Master,” was a finalist for the Booker Prize in 2004 – is comfortable with Mann’s contradictions, capturing the eerie moods, conflicts and trials of the whole Mann family. While its timeline is straightforward as it moves from Mann’s childhood to his last illness, the way the ground continues to move under his characters’ feet is not.

The sober young Thomas was initially seen as the child most likely to carry the family’s import-export business in the 20^e century, but it did not work. Mann couldn’t keep his love of poetry and music a secret, and his father’s will, ordering the family business to be sold rather than passed on to his sons, made the decision out of Thomas’ hands.

While his older brother Heinrich was initially the recognized family writer (he wrote the novel on which Josef von Sternberg’s “The Blue Angel” was based), 25-year-old Thomas surpassed him with the success of his extraordinary family saga, “Buddenbrooks”, in 1901. A few years later, Thomas married a wealthy family of assimilated Jews. Between his literary success and the abundant resources of his wife Katia, he never had to worry again. worry about money.

At this point, if we didn’t know what was going to happen historically, we might be preparing for an upper-class sex farce in which our stuck hero is distracted by the beauty of his wife’s brothers, his eldest son and an endless one. range of friendly hotel staff. Katia takes everything in hand.

“Written in their set of unspoken agreements,” Tóibín explains, “was a clause stating that just as Thomas would do nothing to endanger their domestic happiness, Katia would recognize the nature of his desires without any complaint.”

Despite this amiable status quo, a family catastrophe and a national catastrophe await us. In the Mann family, the first of several suicides occurred. In Germany as a whole, World War I, hyperinflation that rendered German currency worthless, the short-lived democracy of the Weimar Republic and the rise of the Nazis took place over less than 20 years.

The ethnicity of Katia’s family, initially a non-issue, has become a concern. “How strange,” she comments in the novel, “that we are now Jews. My parents have never been near a synagogue.

Mann, who had come to see himself as the voice and embodiment of a noble Germany, was shocked when the Nazis won 6.5 million votes in 1930, the year after winning the Nobel Prize. When Hitler took power in 1933, he caught the whole family off guard.

His brother Heinrich and his two eldest children knew full well that as anti-Nazi vocal leftists they were targets. Thomas was slower to realize that his honors and attributes as a famous writer (“cosmopolitan, balanced, dispassionate”) would also attract the wrath of the Nazis.

The culture Mann had long represented “was the very one they were most determined to destroy,” writes Tóibín. “The tone he used in his prose – heavy, formal, civilized – was the exact opposite of the tone they used. ”

This question of how a public intellectual reacts to the eruption of barbarism in a country he no longer recognizes is the central source of tension in Tóibín’s novel. Fleeing Germany to the United States with his family, Mann shamefully acknowledges his own shyness. His humility is complete when, encouraged “to write a novel set in the present,” he admits, “I can’t make sense of the present.”

Several chapters of “The Magician” have an intensity worthy of a thriller. There’s ironic humor too – for example, when anti-Communist fervor grips the United States after WWII and FBI agents have terrible trouble figuring out which Aberrant Mann is which.

Tóibín also discusses the evolution of half a dozen of Mann’s landmark works. But his greatest triumph is to get to the heart of Mann’s dilemma: “He could imagine decency, but it was hardly a virtue in a time that had become grim. He could imagine humanism, but it made no difference in a time that exalted the will of the crowd. He could imagine a fragile intelligence, but that meant little in an age that honored brute strength.

These words have struck in our time when democracy seems so threatened.