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It's funny how we have interviewed so many magicians for our column but somehow failed to realise the amazing resource that has always been available to us right here within The Magic Annexe. So for this edition of In The Spolight, we put the founder of The Magic Annexe and one of Asia most renowned Illusionist Anslem Roy in the hot seat. Read about his thoughts on the creation of The Magic Annexe, his background, his pet peeves, working behind the scenes for other artistes and magicians and his involvement in the highly successful "Puteri Gunung Ledang - The Musical" theater production.
TMA : What got you into magic? Anslem: I distinctly remember it as wanting to do something different from everyone else, and I was in Standard 6 at that time. Then again, it was not just to do something different, but to excel at it. I kinda whittled it down to 3 things – it was music, magic or medicine – strangely all starting with the letter M, I know. I figured that there was too much competition in music, so that got dropped off the list in a hurry. I kept at both magic and my quest to do medicine until I completed my Form 6 studies. To cut a long story short, push came to shove and I chose magic and the rest is all history as they say. 
TMA : Do you remember the 1st trick you ever learned?
Anslem : Gosh yes! And it is something that I still do today. It is the humble coin vanish. I spent 3 hours a day for 3 months getting it done right. The effort put in is still paying off today as it a trick that I can do “off-the-cuff” anywhere anytime at the drop of a hat. Of course, over the years I have embellished this basic effect into a routine but that is a whole different story.
TMA : You formed The Magic Annexe as a platform for magic enthusiasts to learn the art of performing magic. Has it been smooth sailing? Any hiccups?
Anslem : To be honest, the journey has not been smooth.
I set up The Magic Annexe in 2004 as a magic club primarily to help up-and-coming magicians who are serious about the art of Magic and are committed to performing Magic (as opposed to just “showing tricks”). With the onset of several establishments that sprung up to exploit the magic craze at that time, with bootleg products and pirated magic DVDs, The Magic Shoppe was set up shortly after that to help magicians get good advice in their magic direction when purchasing original props at good prices. Although there is no payment or monies involved in become a member of The Magic Annexe (something which many find hard to believe), yet you find that the membership is relatively low. Maybe it is because of the rather strict entry procedures that we set in place to weed out the “undesirables” that have permeated into our industry. Members are told to check in their pride and ego at the door when they come in for our meetings. This, which while necessary, is something really quite difficult for most Malaysian wannabe performers. Then once you are in, reality will hit home hard and fast as you begin to realize just how good (or bad!) you really are. The group is quite brutal with criticisms but it is never personal. It is all constructive and done in the spirit of helping each other grow and better oneself. This is usually the acid test for those newcomers who managed to slip in through our entrance filters. They come in with bloated egos thinking they are really good (because their friends and family thumped them on their backs and told them so, or have an award or two that was given to them in some competition or other for political reasons) but the reality is that they cannot go out and effectively perform for lay audiences. I find that there is also this prevalent selfish Malaysian attitude of “I, me and mine” resulting in some members wanting to join the club for reasons that do not fall in line with the principles and philosophies of the club. And of course, when these few are not accepted in, there is the usual bad mouthing of the club that goes on. We have even had our website hacked into and totally destroyed by one such disgruntled character. Ah, but such is life!
We also consistently lose good members as they go abroad for their studies or oddly, when they get married. I suppose the priorities change once these crossroads in the life’s journey are reached. Having said all of this, in spite and despite this, I will say that the core group that we have now is a real solid group which is truly dedicated and committed to the artform. Most of these magicians are above average performers, but there is still the yearning of wanting to better themselves further, which is what The Magic Annexe all about. It is watching these members grow in their magic and presentation skills and partaking and contributing to really mature discussions about the qualitative issues of our artform that gives me an immense amount of satisfaction of having left some sort of a legacy behind.
TMA : How did you evolve from being a close up magician to an illusionist?
Anslem : I consider myself a rank-and-file magician. I started off doing children’s birthday parties in private homes, moved up to mall and social club shows, then to hotel coffee lounges and coffee houses and then did the switch over to illusions. I also played the role as the clown ambassador for a major fast food chain for 14 years. The transition period to my first full illusion show took about seven years. I still continued to do all the other shows but stopped doing children’s birthday parties in private homes once I realized that it was affecting my marketing positioning as Malaysia’s leading illusionist.
TMA : You are not only an illusionist, but you have also worked all around the world as a consultant for concerts and other events.
Anslem : I started getting work overseas in 1994. I joined a touring illusion show as a illusion technician to learn the ropes about working in such shows. By the end of the decade, I was working as Franz Harary’s production manager on his shows and projects in Europe, Asia and the Middle-East. It was a natural progression of things as I also started taking on projects on my own. I have worked on gigs with major superstars like Ayumi Hamasaki (Japan), TVXQ (Korea), N-Sync & Missy Elliot (US), Tiesto (Europe). I have also been involved in Special Effects Design and Installation work in Theme Parks (China & Korea). I was also involved in the premiere launch of the Transformers movie in Japan. As an added extension of the work that I do, I also create, design and build illusions for other magicians. TMA : Care to share some memorable moments? Anslem : Memorable moments are too numerous to recall and I think would fill up a book, but I will say that the ones where you have a close shave with danger (read that as life threatening) are the ones that come to mind first. Getting my shins whacked consistently in the early days by a certain illusion base, busting my ankle in Bangkok, spraining my wrist badly in India, the time when Franz was really spiked in Abu Dhabi, 2 of our crew members getting whacked on their heads badly due to a careless slip-up by a technician in Korea, the Houdini illusion breaking apart when it was 100 ft in the air during a show in Korea with the stunt double still in the prop (due to shoddy poor quality bolt replacement job by the illusion builder).…and the list goes on.
And oh yes! It takes 9 Japanese production crew, 12 minutes to replace one PAR can bulb in close to freezing temperatures at 3.30 am in the morning on an overnight TV shoot! Why? Because things just do not get spoilt in Japan.
TMA : What are your peeves in magic?
Anslem: I spent some time re-thinking this and I discovered that it all boils down to this – the magician’s disregard of the audience…and there are varying levels of this for different magicians.
1) Lack of practice perfecting the technical skills – the trick itself, the presentation, the routining, the scripting and so on. All this takes time, effort and countless hours of practice and prep. Hence, one needs to be disciplined as well.
2) Then taking that to the next level of entertaining your audience and not just performing tricks.
I have always maintained that if you are a good magician, you will be an entertainer. The audience will not be focused on your magic per se but will have a great time during your presentation and only at the conclusion (when you leave them) come to the realization that it was a “magic show”. Somehow, the majority of the magicians do no want to take the trouble to work their way up to that point. They are content with “showing tricks” and “fooling the audience”. I classify this as a magician’s “self indulgence”. The audience’s take away is not at all considered in this equation. Just watch performances against this bench mark and you will see what I mean. Most take the easy way out and then destroy the magical experience that the audience should have gotten.
Yes, it is tough work! What isn’t? But think about what it is that you are doing. You are presenting effects that are breaking down barriers of logic, physics and other laws of nature. If it was easy, then no big shakes eh!
TMA : Being involved in magic all these years, does watching magic performed still thrill you? Do you still get blown away by an effect you have seen? Care to give us a few examples?
Anslem : Absolutely yes! I try very hard not to try to figure out how the effect is done when I first watch a magic presentation. I force myself to think like a member of the audience. Which is why at times I too get blown away by performances during our magic meetings  . TMA : You were recently featured as representing Malaysia in the Great Magicians of The World DVD together with other notable greats like Juliana Chen, Ayala & Shimada. How does it feel to be in such great company? Anslem : It is always good to be recognized by your peers for the work that one has done. I, however, am quite disappointed by the level of politicking that has over the crept into our industry over the recent past, where the accolades and recognition are awarded not based on merit, skill or level of achievement, but rather on lobbying tactics. TMA : You recently also worked as a consultant on the 3rd season of the immensely successful Puteri Gunung Ledang - The Musical . The local news media gave kudos on the introduction of illusion elements into the musical. What were your thoughts going into the project? Anslem : The way I was contacted is a story in itself and it always brings a smile to my face.
As this was the 3rd time the musical was being presented, the production company (Enfiniti Productions) was looking for a new, and “never done before” slant to the musical. In reviewing the previous 2 seasons’ productions, the creative team came to a decision that other than tightening up the storyline even further, the addition of magic and illusions and special effects was the way to go to give the musical new life and enhance the production value of the show. Enfiniti really did their homework and for over a year researched extensively this aspect of staging the musical – to even going to UK to view ‘Lord Of The Rings – The Musical’ & ‘Wicked’ so that they could see first-hand for themselves,, the way magic and illusions and special effects were incorporated into stage productions. The qualitative bar was set.
Then came the exercise of finding and commissioning someone qualified to add to their creative team to get this done properly. My name popped up somewhere along the line and someone called someone who call someone who called me to see if I would be interested. I was! My immediate thoughts was that to get PGL on my portfolio would be a good thing as having done something significant in the Malaysian theatre industry.
At the first meeting with the Production Manager, Director and the Designer was more of a ‘Let’s go meet this illusionist fella’ type-of-thing to see if I was the real deal. It was only at this meeting that they found out about the scope of the work that I had done (on stage, from a production stand point for live shows – both for magic shows & theatre productions) and the special effects and the variety of skills that I had in my arsenal which I had applied to a host of other projects. I got the call a few days later and was commissioned to work on the musical.
As always, with me, it is the overall show that takes precedence over the magic, illusions and special effects. I have several meetings with the Director and the Designer, fleshing out the motivation for and the angles for the magic moments. At times, we had to tweak the storyline to make it more credible. The magic had to make sense! It was not a magic show. Magical effects and the special effects created had to add to the overall storyline.
The relationship with the creative and production teams was great. Everyone was focused on making it the best musical production ever staged in Malaysia…and I think that in the end we achieved that goal! As you mentioned, the media reviews attest to this and I am thrilled over the outcome. What an incredible buzz it was!
TMA : Care to share with us on your upcoming projects? Anslrm : I am reworking my Malaysian show offerings and repackaging my marketing materials right now for the 2010 season. I am also in the midst of creating a new show which I hope I will be able to stage by this year-end. I can’t reveal too much about time at this time so keep your eyes and ears peeled out for the opening of this and come see the show. Links : www.anslemroy.com
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