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Extracted from Meeting Notes- May 10, 2009. We had a rather low turnout today due to the long weekend due to the Wesak Holiday and also the meeting day coinciding with Mother's day celebrations. But, to our pleasant surprise, we were told we had a guest today, and it was none other than Shaun Yee. Yes, The Shaun Yee ! One of the pioneers of the Malaysian magic scene and also President of the International Brotherhood of Magicians Ring 223 (Milan, Italy) was in the country and dropped by The Magic Annexe for a visit. click on picture to enlarge
Shaun and Roy chatted about the Malaysian magic scene in the 60s and 70s, while the rest of us just listened to the fascinating stories of times gone by. Among the many topics Shaun spoke on were :
i) About the differences in the magic scene then and now
ii) Comparisons on how the business of magic was conducted here in Asia versus in Europe
iii) How he decided to leave Malaysia to go perform and eventually end up living in Europe.
iv) He also briefly touched on the Malaysian magic associations of the past. One recurring theme during his chat was cruise ships in distress !! Among the hilarious stories told was one of how the cruise ship he was performing on caught fire and all had to abandon ship and how his props magically escaped damage. Another of the one where he almost ended up performing on a cruise ship to Alaska which also ended up at the ocean’s bottom. And oh not forgetting, the stories concerning John Calvert. You just had to be there for these. Extremely informative and fascinating! How wonderfully interesting the life of a professional magician such as him! He then pulled out a deck of cards and proceeded to teach us some card handling techniques. We all later took turns in performing some card magic. Personally, I thought we'd have a pretty slow meeting with the low turnout and all, but surprisingly, it turned out to be an amazing session. |
