A three-figured red packet surprise…

This evening saw us rushing to the very swanky Club Chinois at Orchard Parade hotel in town, right after we were done with our 1 hour non-stop illusion show at Clarke Quay. This of course, is for Ultimate Magic, Singapore’s first permanent illusion show, which is now in its second season *grin*

Club Chinois, owned by the Tung Lok group, is amongst the world’s top restaurants and has won many international awards. Tonight, the venue was exclusively booked by a very generous Chinese-Indoneasian businessman for a private function with an intimate crowd of family and friends to celebrate the Year of the Ox.

Yours truly was specifically requested to entertain them, as they wanted Singapore’s only professional female magician for the night. Cyril (the absolute BEST in the industry… who lots of people unfortunately copy) was the emcee and they had other A-list stars too for music entertainment. Larry shared that apparently they also got their event producers to hire a celebrity chef specially for their dinner!

It was a challenging acute u-shaped banquet style seating arrangement but the seated audience was captivated by my brand of Deadly Sexy Magic because I suppose, at such close intimate quarters… seeing is really believing 😉 My finale was a strong one, with the audience gasping when I performed fire eating in the midst of them. The crowd was a very warm and generous one & I definitely enjoyed performing for them.

Logistics was a tad tricky so Larry was in-charge of the lights while J C handled my audio cues, so everything could run seamlessly. Just before we left the venue, the event producers stopped me to thank me for a job well done & shared that the client was very pleased and had something for me. I was then personally given a sealed red packet with my name on it. Talk about a sweet surprise!

As you know, I had to fly off to the UK on the eve of the Chinese Lunar New Year and because of work commitments (you read my blog, so you have a idea how crazy my schedule is!) I haven’t had the chance to do any visits so the only red packet I was personally handed before this, was from J C earlier this week. Bossman gave everyone at work $150 but I only received $10… go figure!!!

Anyway, Larry & J C were playing guessing games with me after we loaded up the magic equipment (on the way we met a group of really nice people who recognised us in the elevator because they caught us in action at Ultimate Magic @ The Arena), and when I finally opened the sealed red packet, we were pleasantly surprised to find it very generously stuffed with a 3 figure $$$. Like, whoa!!! *gasp* They’re so kind!

Heh. I truly appreciated that gesture. A moment ago, I mentioned to my best friend Pam that I still kept the money I was given as tips at my very first lounge close-up gig for a Japanese MNC many years ago. There was another magician with me and he’d been in magic for 5 years and he dryily informed me that this was practically unheard of *wry grn*

Now, I had politely declined many times but the group of Japanese I’d performed my arsenal of close-up magic to, simply thrusted it in my hands and applauded me for great entertainment. One of them had initially tried to be a heckler at first, as I was (on hindsight) but a rookie then, but I’d used my smattering of Japanese to distract and make them laugh. The crisp note I was given that night is folded and kept carefully in my coin pounch because it’s more meaningful there than just being spent like regular cash.

Call me sentimental but I’m gonna keep this as well, as a good memory 🙂 It simply humbles me and reminds me that at the end of the day, it’s all about your audience – not your ego or pride, not other magicians’ verbosity, but like in the wise words of Paul Harris… the art of astonishment.