MICE Events from 1st October 2020 - How to ensure a safe event

Since the government’s announcement of the reopening of MICE events from 1st October, the team at Meta Illusions have worked out a safety protocol to ensure that all performances at a physical venue is handled with caution and safety.

We have devised a safety protocol with measures taken, Pre, During and Post event.

Take a look to find out how we are handling this COVID-19 crisis and getting performance ready as soon as possible.

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Alexander Y. is Asia’s Top iPad Magician, who has been invited performing in several countries such as Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia, India. However due to COVID19, he has been working from home, reading and practising his magic. Now that MICE Events have reopened, take this chance to book his magic, it is definitely COVID-19 Safe!

My Magic, My Gift

For some, magic is a tool to break the ice or pick up girls. For me, my magic is a gift. It is a gift that allows me to connect with people of all ages and demographics. 

Last Friday, Hari Raya, I was asked to do a show for the less fortune at the Istana. I instantly agreed. While the usual corporate international shows are great (together with the fancy hotel suites and cocktails), its always a privilege to offer my magic to those who might not had the chance to experience it. 

When I performed my magic for the audiences, it bridged an instant connection between myself and them, we are on the same page and we know that we are both going to experience something wonderful and amazing. 

I am really glad I was able to rope in The Strangers and Joel to be a part of their experience. They performed wonderful close up magic for them and brought joy to them.

At the end of our performance, we were also had a chat with Mdm President Halimah and First Gentleman, Mr Mohammad.

Here is a short footage of my iPad Magic at the Istana. Have a glimpse of how the West Drawing Room looks like:

It was truly truly a special thing to give our time and talents for those who have lack moments of wonder, or those who no longer believe in magic. As magicians, we must never forget that.

Signing off,

Alexander Yuen (iPad Magician)

Egypt: iPad Magician in the Middle East

A land of mystic and magic, Egypt. The place where fallen kings are mummified and kept in tombs where they believe in the afterlife. Filled with 3000 years of culture and richness, Egypt houses one of the 7 Wonders of the world. 

That sounds like something you'd see on a travel catalog, doesn't it? But in March, the iPad Magic Team and I were flown all the way from Singapore to Egypt to witness the magic of Egypt. Actually we were flown to perform at a Technology Conference called Connect HYPE 2018. There were partners from the Middle East at the event including Cisco (Which you might remember that I was performing there 2 years ago for their event in Saudi Arabia. Read more about it here!)

We were housed in the lovely Kempinski Soma Bay hotel in Hurghada, It was a wonderful place next to the Red Sea. We had the time to swim inside the Red Sea and did other tourist things. But it was not all play as we had a show to deliver, and deliver we did!
 

On top of my regular iPad Stage Illusions, I crafted a customized performance for Connect to showcase their digital and online technology. The whole coding process of a customized performance took about 15 hours, and you can see it below:

Though the effort was immense, it was well worth it. The performance was well received, the client loved how we showcased their technical know-hows and their services. 

After the performance, we went to tour Egypt, seeing the Great Pyramids of Giza. the Sphinx and even the Valley of the Kings. 

Check out a short video here on the various sights and sounds of Egypt:

I hope you enjoyed the video because we certainly enjoyed showcasing our magic to the middle east and in Egypt!

Can't wait to be back!

Signing Off 

Alexander Y 

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Alexander Y. is Asia’s Top iPad Magician, who has been invited performing in several countries such as Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia, Egypt. He is often sought after by clients who wants their brand stories to be told in a fun, engaging and memorable way. He love the Sphinx and how it the word rolls off his tongue. SPHINX

Want to book Alexander at your international event? Contact him at alexander@ipadmagician.org

A MAGIC PLATEAU: TAKING A DIFFERENT STEP IN THE SAME DIRECTION

At some point in time, we all face burnouts in our career. It would feel like we have hit a point where things start to get stagnant; you come in to work, reply emails, send emails, wait for emails, craft proposals and then send more emails. This happens in all jobs, including mine. 

While the cycle for me to feel burnout is substantially longer, the last time I felt a burn out was in 2014, every time that it does hit me, I would take a step back to think, "What can I do differently, that will push me towards the end goal?". This question is important for me as an artist and a self employed entrepreneur. I cannot allow myself to detract too far from my artistic goals. The most common solution to a burnout is to take a long vacation, and that, I do not have the luxury of. 

In order to take a step back from the daily grind, (my routine largely consist of overdosing myself with coffee, replying a ton of emails, crafting a ton of proposals (in which most would be ignored or stolen by competition), coding my iPad Magic Apps (most of the time I am just pulling my hair trying to figure out that ONE thing) and the occasional meetings where I do enjoy), I had to make myself fall in love with the craft of magic again. 

I took on small directorial roles in creating magic shows. Last year, I designed a show consisting of 3 Magicians who performs together like a boyband: The Strangers. This show took over 8 months in terms of conceptualization, casting, rehearsing and troubleshooting. We had been very lucky to get the support of a large number of past clients and events partners for our show. 

While it is easier to coach and design a show for a team who sees you as their mentor, there were challenges to be faced. Overcoming these challenges prepared me for a project that I undertook in late 2017 [Cue Suspenseful Music]:

I took on a project to design and direct a magic show that cast the BOARD OF DIRECTORS of a company. 

I knew this was not going to be an easy feat since it would be different coaching a cast who were used to telling others what to do. Also, their interest in magic might not be as strong as the students under my wing. Another thing that hinted me that this was not going to be an easy task, was the fact that the main client (one of the director of the company), lamented that many other magicians had turned down this challenge (or opportunity).

The whole process began in November and the performance was to be in February. One of the challenges we faced was to find a suitable timing for rehearsal, since all of them have to allocate time outside of work for this, coming to a common time was tedious. Thankful, we were able to settle on a common regular timing. 

We utilized our studio space for our weekly rehearsals. With the help of my fellow trainers, the learning of the magic was one of the easiest part of the process. 

One of the biggest challenge we faced was to impart theatre techniques to them. Given that they were not in the performing arts, they were not well versed with movement, space and vocal effects. As a director, I had to balance between the drilling of these techniques while bearing in mind the limited time span and their capacity. At the end, everyone did exceptionally well and the show was very well received by their colleagues (If you don't believe me, see the video towards the end).

It was a tremendous joy to see the cast grow from shy individuals to charismatic performers on stage. Such skills are transferable to their careers when they are to do presentations or to meet clients. 

Here is one of the pieces performed that day which incorporates elements of their company's core values and magic:

Taking on this project also taught me the patience and given me the learning experience in crafting meaningful magic. Imparting performance skills to them, sharpened my own. They say that the best way to learn, is to teach; and that is definitely true.

Here is one of my favorite pieces of the show as it serves to inspire the audiences, motivate them to overcome adversity:

So to all that are feeling a little bit unmotivated at work, try something new, try something different. It might be harder at first, but at the end of the day, you will enjoy it!

After the event, we had a strong commendation letter from our client:

Hi, Alexander and Kim,

Sincerely, and on behalf of my colleagues, I thank Metaillusions team for the relentless coaching throughout the months of preparation.

It was a journey travelled with much challenges & frustrations at times from conceptualising to learning to the final moments, as we have members dropping out, we neglect and only to catch up with the practices at the 11th hour etc, and I witnessed how you and your team bore with us during this period and never stopped giving reminders again and again, only to make sure we succeed.

Thank you, Alexander, for the efforts in studying our personalities and customising the roles for us, I am impressed by this segment of the entire process.

There were a couple of genuine miscommunication and misunderstandings which I so appreciate our resolving them together.

Thank you, Kim, for patient guidance despite our constant forgetting of the lines and theatrical techniques.

There were just so many of us with different gaps during the training sessions, I really don’t know how you did it, but you did it.

Thank you, Anderson, Yuqi & Douglas for accommodating our rehearsal, and seeing to stage preparation.

Not easy, but you all made it work.

I am not sure if you still remember I once shared with you that another company actually gave us up after understanding our performing needs and diversified profiles.  Metaillusions took up this mission (which I thought was almost impossible) and made it a success.  Besides the concrete leadership, Metaillusions has a great team.  The young men are disciplined, humble and embrace accountability; as a HR practitioner it has been a long time since I last encountered such professional young generation from this new era.

Honestly, there were some slips during the actual performance, and I personally wished it could be better.  But well that was the best we ever could be at that very moment and I am 100% sure my team gave it all.

So once again, thank you, gentlemen.  On a personal capacity, you helped me see the other side and real side of magic, just like how the sun rises in the morning which is one magical moment that we all take for granted.  Indeed I appreciate magic is all around us so long we can see it.

Metaillusions, you create magic!

Here's wishing Metaillusions a fabulous 2018 & beyond!

Regards

Director, Corporate Services

Woohoo, and very touched!

Watch how the pieces are seamlessly and beautifully crafted into a performance, here!

Keen to learn magic? Want to have a show designed for your company's special night? Or even incorporating magic into your presentations? Look for the professionals, drop us a line!

HERE!

Signing Off 

Alexander Y 

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Alexander Y. is Asia’s Top iPad Magician, who has been invited performing in several countries such as Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia, India. He is often sought after by clients who wants their brand stories to be told in a fun, engaging and memorable way. He enjoys watching artsy movies, his favorite directors include, Christopher Nolan, Spike Jonze, Michael Gondry.

For any enquiries, do contact him at alexander@ipadmagician.org

EVOLUTION OF AN ARTIST: IPAD DIGITAL MAGIC

One of the most unique services my team and I offer is our iPad Magic, in both roving format and theatrical format. Below is a teaser of our most recent customized commissioned project for DHL Asia Pacific Innovation Center:

It all began in 2012 when Jonathan (co-founder of Meta Illusions) came back from his stint in a tech start up at Silicon Valley and was invited to be featured in a Singapore Magic production called "M for Magic". Wanting to be different and to push the edge of magic, Jonathan designed routines and wrote specific codes for the iPad to make coins appear and disappear. Combined with strong magic and visual elements, we were proud to proclaim that we were doing magic that no one else in Singapore does. 

Watch the video below:

The magic was so sensational it got picked up by various media including Yahoo! News, Straits' Times RazorTV andNUS Post.

Because of the video, we found ourselves booked and commissioned by a Fortune 500 company to create a special iPad sequence to describe their production processes to the international dealers. Unfortunately, due to the sensitive content, we were unable to share our act publicly.

In December of 2012, we had a call from RazorTv wanting to do an exclusive interview with Jonathan and myself and our thoughts on iPad Magic. Once again, Jonathan and myself went back to the drawing board in a bid to create magic that is different and impactful.

You can see how we grew in terms of our magic as well as programming sophistication. The effects we did were more emotionally captivating and the apps we created were more complex than before.

From 2013 - 2014, we learned newer coding techniques and created apps for our professional usage, especially in the area of roving magic. Jonathan then took a hiatus on iOS magic programming as he took on a new role as the co-founder of another successful technological start up. The last video we created was a Christmas video in December 2014.

It was also during the same time I contemplated releasing some of the existing routines that we do professionally. But I took the leap of faith and released these videos.

The reception was overwhelming, both on YouTube and Facebook. Because of this video, I was chosen as a finalist for HP's YouTube Academy contest, in which I created other digital magic with a HP Laptop. I created a sequence in tribute to Singapore's Golden Jubilee Year in which we celebrated our 50th year of independence.

Also at the same time in June 2015, I was working closely with Esplanade to produce a show for Flipside Festival 2015 which involved digital elements to it. Because of its novel impact, the show was commissioned as the first digital magic illusion show in Esplanade. Read more about this show here!

Subsequently, the novelty and wow factor of these digital illusions caught on and I was commissioned to create more content for my clientele.

In December of 2015, I was consulted to design a digital illusion sequence for DHL's Innovation Center in Singapore. This is the first innovation center in Asia. They specifically wanted an illusion sequence that showcased innovation and technological progress.

And I was specifically told that the big illusion boxes, cutting and squeezing a girl in a box is out of the question.

I had to innovate.

Picture from: http://business.asiaone.com/news/dhl-launches-multi-million-dollar-innovation-centre-singapore

With a short timeline, I not only created an illusion sequence that hit their key messages with a punch but also presented it in a visually alluring manner. See teaser below:

It is very well received and I am in the midst of collaborating with other artist and agencies on this platform.

You can see how an artist grows in his/her art form. Innovation does not happen overnight, it is all built on and upon previous innovations. No different from magic.

It is coming to the close of 2015 as I am writing this, and when I reflect upon how our Digital Illusions have evolved, I am extremely thankful for the various opportunities and the (paid-off) leaps of faith agencies have with us. I dare say, thanks to our expertise, experience and amazing track record, we've earn their trust. That much, I am very thankful.

2016 is an exciting year ahead with more cutting edge innovations to come. 

Have a great Christmas, and see you in 2016!

Signing off,

Alexander Yuenrt form. Innovation does not happen overnight, it is all built on and upon previous innovations. No different from magic.

It is coming to the close of 2015 as I am writing this, and when I reflect upon how our Digital Illusions have evolved, I am extremely thankful for the various opportunities and the (paid-off) leaps of faith agencies have with us. I dare say, thanks to our expertise, experience and amazing track record, we've earn their trust. That much, I am very thankful.

2016 is an exciting year ahead with more cutting edge innovations to come. 

Have a great Christmas, and see you in 2016!

Signing off,

Alexander Yuen