Asian American Magicians Have the Magic Touch
September 27, 2007
It was a night of illusion and mysticism, with psychological games, ventriloquists, acrobats and audience participation. Asian American magicians Andrew Ngo and Carlos da Silva II, along with members of multiethnic magic group Prophecies of the Element, took the top three spots at San Francisco’s 10th annual Stage Magic Competition on Sept. 21.
Ngo, the youngest performer there at age 18, won not only the title of 2007’s “Best Stage Magician of San Francisco,” but also the People’s Choice Award, voted on by the 500 members of the audience. For the past four years, no one has won both simultaneously.Ngo’s confident persona and sharp, quick moves wowed the audience at Noe Valley’s James Lick Middle School when he made two 15-inch umbrellas appear out of one. Clutching his trophy, Ngo stepped off the stage grinning from ear to ear. “It’s a dream come true,” said Ngo, a San Francisco native of Chinese and Vietnamese descent. “I’ve worked so hard for this. Everything’s fuzzy right now.”
After last week’s competition, Ngo approached and humbly thanked his inspiration, the Chinese magician Magic Jade, who was also one of the judges. When Ngo was 7 years old, he was selected from the audience to aide Magic Jade at a Chinatown performance on Chinese New Year’s. “That’s when I fell in love with magic,” he said.
Ngo said the biggest challenge in magic is to be original. “There are a lot of things that magicians do that are all the same,” he said. “I can walk into a magic shop and buy any trick off the shelf and perform it as it says in the instructions, or I can take that and put an entirely new twist on it.”
Ngo said he feels much more at home in San Francisco since there are numerous Asian conjurors here. While doing a show in Las Vegas, he found very few Asian illusionists. “It sets me apart,” he said. “It works to my advantage.”
Second place winner da Silva dazzled the audience with a rabbit appearing after flames shot out of a plate. Starting his show off with crackling pops, he also threw flames that extinguished before they hit the audience. Da Silva has practiced wizardry for 30 years, after his love for math and science propelled him toward illusionism. “I was more interested in it as a science than an art,” said the Texas-born magician of Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, British, Irish, Filipino and Chinese descent.
Today, he calls magic a “beautiful art form” that he would like to see improve “in the general layman’s view, where they can appreciate how much work is involved and what’s behind performances.”
Competing together for the first time and taking third place was the quartet Prophecies of the Element. Both Gerrick Wong and Martin Lee (also known as Tin the Magician), as well as newest member Olivia Lam, were born in San Francisco and are Chinese. The group’s fourth member, Petros Leake, first met Wong at a break-dancing competition. During the performance, the three men danced in unison to hip-hop and then made Lam appear when they pulled away a sheet.
When asked about all three places being held by Asians, Lee exclaimed, “Asians comin’ out and doin’ it strong is good — power to the Asians!”
Wong said his parents were initially opposed to his profession. “You know how Asian parents are,” Wong said. “They said, ‘Why are you doing magic for? You’re not gonna get anything in life. Why are you wasting your time in magic? With that time you put into practice, you could look for a better job.’” Fortunately, they got a trophy, and his parents have now embraced his career.
Other Asian Americans who competed were Ceasar Ocampo, who poured fluid into a glass and made it float, and Ray Hoey, who pierced swords through a canvas container that held his assistant. Glitzy three-time stage champion Chin-Chin made a special appearance, producing a pink dove from a crumbled pair of gloves. In the pitch dark auditorium, black lights illuminated his white tuxedo coat and shocking pinkish orange hair, which glowed in the dark.
The event was organized by Joe Pon of Misdirections Magic Shop in the Sunset. Among the panel of 10 judges were award-winning balloon artists, acrobats, authors and magicians, as well as Doug McConnell from TV’s Bay Area Backroads, wearing his signature green shirt and jeans, and KTVU Channel 2 reporter Bob MacKenzie.
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That was a night to remember. Thank you, Grace, for writing this article!
Andrew
http://www.MagicbyAndrew.com