Angels…

I’ve always being a huge Sarah McLachlan fan, so much so that you can betcha I’d be getting front row tickets for her concert if/ when she ever plays here in Singapore. This wonderful song of hers, Angel, suddenly came to mind after our last illusion show for the evening & I thought I’d share it.

The lyrics are meaningful and everything is just simply beautiful. Pretty much like the very important people in our lives.

It was actually a stressful day at work, with ‘fires’ to fight, last minute dire emergencies to handle & ridiculous project issues to settle besides the fun performing stuff. That’s show business for you. People assume that we just merely perform our shows and that’s all there is…  but there’s seriously so much more to it!

Sometimes I wish I could just be a performer where you’re so sheltered in only having to focus on the rehearsals & showtime, but that’s not going to happen in this reality *chuckle* Show biz is show biz… show & business. So it’s really the marriage of the two to achieve ultimate success.

Through the years, I’ve learnt so much from J C, who’s a fantastic mentor and friend. He’s a true genius when it comes to magic producing and illusion design & I certainly admire his brains and talent. You don’t meet so many driven professionals like him around! Just see Backstage Business, where he blogs about his projects and ideas.

Tonight, in quiet reflection, I realized that I’m so blessed because I’m surrounded by truly wonderful people who have been so tremendously supportive & encouraging. I am certainly thankful and grateful for their unselfish love and warm kindness. It definitely helped in every step I took to get to where I currently stand.

Thank you, thank you, thank you You may not know it, but you’re an angel.

PS: Okay, good things are meant to be shared and not kept to oneself… so here goes!

A smart cookie friend of mine just shared this remarkable site that’s all about ideas worth sharing. See TED.com for talks by inspiring thinkers from a wide variety of fields who have extremely interesting gems to share, which may benefit others. Trust me, it’s seriously worth a check out!

I especially enjoyed the fabulous talk by the very amazing, Jill Bolte Taylor, a brain scientist like no other.

Magic Babe: Vanilla’s final cover girl

Grab the final issue of Vanilla now! October’s issue just came out today and the magazine is now on sale at news stands and good bookstores nationwide. This issue features yours truly as their cover girl and there’s a sweet 12 page interview with a whole lot of funky photos thrown in.

Flipping through the glossy pages, fond memories come to me. I’ve done many photoshoots and even more media interviews but to be totally honest… this was truly my favorite experience ever. I had a really wonderful time working with the Vanilla team and I’m very sad to know that MediaCorp Publishing has decided to close it down, as well as 3 other magazine titles.

Vanilla’s deputy editor, Pamela Ho, is one helluva terrific woman whose gift is truly in giving a voice to amazing women. She will not be continuing her career in publication but she’ll forever be an inspiration to me.

Oh yes… just this afternoon saw me and J C at SPH’s Media Centre because we were specially invited down to the Razor TV studio for an interview. Watch out for it coming up next Thursday on their web portal. We certainly had fun with Razor TV’s friendly programme hosts, E-Von & Helmy! *grin*

Righty… it’s off to The Arena now. We have shows tonight! See you @ Ultimate Magic!

The Day After…

The Impossible Journey was just incredible. I think in my old age, I’d be still reminiscing how wickedly smooth everything went & yes, it’s something Singapore can be proud of! I’m still reeling from it. Gosh. What a privilege to present a part of magic history!

The Concept:Magic team has worked so hard to achieve the mega illusion’s success & it’s amazing how many emails have come flooding in just hours after we were broadcast on the news! Not only were there well-wishes from fans, there was also a whole stream of project inquiries from event producers and direct clients. Whoa.

Just check out the list of publicity J C & I got for this particular project alone:

• Lianhe Wanbao, 25 Sep 2008
• “新加坡河大型幻术表演 三人在数千人眼皮下消失” Lianhe Zaobao, 25 Sep 2008
• “幻术师瞬间传送真人 穿新加坡河畔” xin.sg, 24 Sep 2008
• Channel 8 News, 24 Sep 2008 (VIDEO)
• Channel 5 News, 24 Sep 2008
• “Singapore Tonight, Channel NewsAsia, 24 Sep 2008
• “3 people to be teleported across the S’pore river in magic act”,Channel NewsAsia, 23 Sep 2008
• Lianhe Zao Bao’s “ZB Now” (Cover Story), 23 Sep 2008
• “Celebrity spotting”, AsiaOne, 22 Sep 2008
• “60 seconds with J C Sum”, IS Magazine, 19 Sept 2008
• “The Sum of All Illusions” (Cover Story), Current Events Issue 7.1, Sept 2008
• “Stuff I Love” The Sunday Times, 14 Sep 2008
• “Trick with Treats”, The Straits Times LIFE!, 12 Sept 2008
• “The Bag Page”, The Straits Times Urban, 12 Sept 2008
• “Magicians to make 3 spectators teleport across the Singapore River in 2.5 seconds”, Lianhe Wan Bao, 9 Sept 2008
• “Magic Babe can’t make her favourite gadgets magcally appear”, My Paper, 8 Sep 2008
• Hot Stuff Magazine Singapore, Cover Sep 2008 issue
• “Magic Babe will make you disappear in 2.5 seconds”, My Paper, 8 Aug 2008
• “3 weeks of events during F1 race”, The NewPaper, 24 Jun 2008
• “S’pore GP Season festivities will add to Formula 1 buzz”,  My Paper, 24 Jun 2008
• “Two illusionists for F1 event in September; wil teleport across Singapore River in 2/5 seconds”, Lianhe Zaobao, 24 Jun 2008
• “Formula for fun”, TODAY, 24 Jun 2008
• “Lifestyle activities planned for Singapore’s first F1 race”, ChannelNewsAsia, 23 Jun 2008

Yep, besides being in Channel 5, Channel 8 & Channel News Asia ….we were also in today’s Chinese newspapers too:

Singapore Press Holding’s Lian He Zao Bao & Lian He Wan Bao!

See J C’s blog for more info about it, as well as, the tons of photos that the man’s just uploaded.

Speaking about J C… I swear, he’s the BEST boss ever. Because my mobile phone turned screwy, he offered to get me the new Apple iPhone I wanted because it costs a mere $49 bucks if he just continues his mobile phone contract with Singtel, the telco which exclusively carries it. At the store however, the staff informed us that the iPhone had 4 major flaws… no MMS, no bluetooh, no WiFi and it also cannot forward SMSes.

OH MY GOD LOR!!!

Okay, I so didn’t see that coming because I simply assumed that these would be really basic and practical things you’d need in a phone. Yikes!!!

So as lovely as it is, I just had to pass on the iPhone. BUT I still needed a swift replacement and I wasn’t going to leave the store after waiting for almost half an hour to be served! I decided on the new Samsung Omnia instead because I remember reading positive reviews about it during the recent tech launch & it does have that sexy sleek design that I totally dig.

Samsung’s Omnia obviously cost a lot more than the Apple iPod and I was going to make my purchase at the cashier when J C whipped out his credit card and BAM! The man beat me to it and shrugged it off by saying it was my reward for the kick@ss performance last evening. That was certainly nice and totally unexpected. Wow! The man is such a teddy bear!!!

I’m happy like a clam now. *grin* I’m meeting my beloved Queenies later this evening for drinks and desserts… it’s time to celebrate!!! I really miss the girls, it feels like so long since we last met though it was just some weeks ago. Heh.

PS: Check out our Facebook page, we’ve got some pretty cool things happening there