asked that question once in our life or
even heard when watching a movie reading
a book or listening to a song do you
reaction you just had was the same
reaction I had at the age of 11 that
moment of astonishment that feeling of
magic and wonder the same feeling we all
eventually lose as we move on from our
childhood now the thing is we enter the
education segment of our life which I’ll
get to in a very short moment but
there’s an author and magician Paul
Harris is an idol of mine he talks about
the moment of astonishment so
beautifully when we’re babies toddlers
we begin to experience the world through
the five senses and were amazed by the
most simplest things such as a ball
rolling or bouncing along the floor as
you throw it or a paper aeroplane that
just floats gracefully through the air
when you also throw it and one thing
that still amazed me today is how a
jumbo jet high in the air with all that
weight machinery and hundreds of
passengers flies country to country
that’s amazing
that’s magic now we enter the education
chapter of our lives and we learn about
the world as we go to school and college
and university and all of a sudden our
belief of magic begins to fade away now
there are moments that do reoccur in
life which reignite those magical
feelings the belief of magic and that
for me was when my father showed me my
first card trick I remember my dad
saying to me go son got a pack of cards
I want you to think of a playing card so
I thought of a card it goes just watch
the pack so I’m thinking of the
of Hearts I still remember that I’m
watching the pack and slowly one card
starts to rise and it was the Queen of
Hearts I was freaked out
genuinely freaked out and thinking gosh
all the knowledge and understanding I’ve
learned from school so far suddenly
crumbled form a card trick his madness I
believed in magic again a few months
later I saw David Blaine the American
street magician on the TV screen in the
UK for the very first time I thought wow
this is amazing he’s just changed the
perception of magic he’s made it cool
again is walking around in jeans and
t-shirts pair of trainers doing amazing
magic in the streets of New York that
was the moment I said to myself you know
what one day I want to be a professional
magician and I want to travel around the
world bringing smiles and delight into
people’s lives I go just slightly beyond
a magic trick so the next day I was in
my local library and the school library
finding books on magic on how to do
certain tricks I even tried to use the
Internet which was still in its infancy
at the time I even took up drama and
theater studies as part of my subject at
secondary school so I’m reading through
all these books and I’m learning about
harming the cards and manipulating the
cards making them disappear
taking coins and making them vanish and
a pair it was amazing and then
mind-reading Wow
to create the perception of reading
someone’s mind is absolutely amazing so
I started talking with my friends and
family at school at home wherever had
the opportunity and I was just blowing
them away the reaction I got was amazing
that’s what was driving me to just
continue to learn more magic and
understand even more so how it all works
and why it works the way it does
but then the inevitable did happen and
that’s when the tricks went wrong so
I’ll either drop a prop someone would
catch me saying oh I just saw what you
did of course I was upset I wasn’t happy
about that so I ran back home I was back
in my bedroom practicing all the tricks
making sure it was perfect showing my
family showing my friends how does this
look does this look a bit better
eventually got better it got streamlined
but there was still one thing missing
and that was the showmanship how I
delivered the trick itself
my drama teachers very kind enough to
see well firstly to see my progress of
my magic skills that get better and
better but that they also wanted to
teach me how to become a better
performer so they would teach me about
moving on stage you know there’s a
certain way you go to present yourself
and hold yourself and how to project
your voice so that the person in the far
back in the cheap seats can also hear me
it’s important so I would practice and
they would teach me and I’ve just became
a much much better performer my
confidence got far far stronger and
turned this is something I didn’t expect
because I was such a shy kid now I do
want to share a magic trick with you all
and this is something I learnt when I
was very very young and I want to now
share this with you so I need someone to
help me out so if you’re interested in
helping I just raise your hand your hand
wetting up first the gentleman the young
boy standing can you make your way to
the stage very very quickly give him a
excellent as quick as you can as quick
as you can
without tripping over excellent come on
join me in my office please give him a
round of applause all the time thank you
so much and your name is Sammy salut
this is the first time we’ve met you’ve
got the best view in the house right now
so we’re gonna use the silk and I’m
gonna slowly begin to put this into my
hand like so remember this is my first
with the silk there she is
this is the moment of astonishment the
moment of magic you’re feeling right now
what I felt as a kid I’m now going to
teach you how to do this trick I’m not
supposed to but I am so this is the part
of the education where you learn how the
trick is done I’ll give this to you the
egg unfortunately it’s not real it’s
actually a plastic egg it’s not real and
that’s exactly where the silk goes
clever right so you’re now going to do
this trick and we’re going to do it
together so place your left hand up to
me nice and flat and I’m going to place
the egg they curl your hand around I’m
going to turn the hole so it’s facing
upwards like this and you’re gonna hand
there we go perfect this is called
Parman you’re doing well so far
I’ll leave the silk just here and I need
an egg as well I’ll be a ghost here just
give me a moment here we go so I’ve got
my fake egg as well so we’ve got our
eggs palms we’ve got our silks so if you
hold the silk like this show to the
audience nice you’re going to do this
with me now so we’re going to slowly
take the silk and put it into the hole
or ba that’s it keep going until it’s
all tucked in nice and neatly he’s doing
well
[Applause]
beautiful then you’re gonna show them
very good he did the little hand thing
as well today even need me here take
your hair depended on the pocket read
some magical dust and sprinkle it on the
egg click your fingers and then show the
egg and take your clothes and take your
bow amazing the thing is you all know
how the trick is done the belief of
magic is now gone so how do i re-ignite
the magic for you all and you too let me
show you watch the egg so I did a bad
job there let me just tuck that back
there watch carefully look just like a
so we have no more hole that’s because
ladies and gents this is a real egg
thank you so much I’ll take that please
go back to seat safely give a round of
applause one more time now when I was
obviously learning the performance art I
had a bit of an issue when it came to
performance style
I had a really bad habit of replicating
other magicians that are out there
especially David Blaine being India and
living in London having a British accent
and trying to do the whole thing of a
man let me show you a trick it just did
not work so I started doing my
professional events I was doing the
whole circuit around the weddings the
corporate events private parties and I
was just being me people like me for who
I am and I just simply implemented that
into my performance art and that was the
formula to a successful magician now I
get that question asked a lot a few
questions in fact Oh magic sing can you
turn paper into money or can you make my
bald head full of hair again or make my
wife discipler please just make a
disappear can you do it yes I can I’m
going to do one of those for you right
now so I need a gentleman who’s fed up
with their wife right now I’m joking I’m
joking I’m not gonna do that no instead
we’re gonna do something else I need to
borrow a hundred rupee note so if you
have one just take it out you don’t need
to come up on stage hopefully one of the
ushers can bring one of those thank you
very much ready to go a round of
applause to quit the gutter thank you
very much
so we have 100 rupees I’ll tried it as
slow as I can we fold it once twice
three times we have a square four more
fold and then it was stretch it becomes
a little bit pink a little bit purple we
open this up now we have 2000
rupees he certainly believes in magic
now you can collect that later I don’t
have a real job just do that all the
time now I’ve been performing from magic
for about 21 years and 11 of those years
have been of my professional career
where I’ve had the chance to travel the
world and as that happened my belief of
magic has got stronger why on my travels
I’ve got to connect with people on a
deeper level that has allowed them to
excel in their lives
magic is such a visual art form it has
no language barrier it’s transferable to
different cultures and traditions
now one story I was doing a wedding in
London one of those fancy hotels few
years back so there’s a group of people
I approached them and I asked this lady
to pick a card so she picks a card she
writes her name on the card she puts it
back in the deck I shuffled him
we lost the card it was gone I then took
out a blank playing card and I placed it
into the palm of her hand I asked this
random guy that was amongst this group
to place his hand on top of hers I
waited and as he lifted his hand I kid
you not the playing card had reappeared
back in her hand with her signature on
it the crowd went wild
I felt great obviously and then I just
took my applause and I left what I
didn’t realize is that magic trick
lasted for over a year what does that
mean I’ve got a phone call about a year
later from that lady she goes hey magic
thing you probably don’t remember me but
you did this amazing card trick so and
so his wedding okay and there was just
one guy that you got to place his hand
on top of mine okay she goes oh just to
okay we exchanged numbers nice and we
started dating Wow we’ve been dating for
a year now really and we’re gonna get
married oh my god and I just want to
take this opportunity say thank you and
invite you as a guest to our wedding
boom it was that moment on I thought I
really do believe in magic
thank you and to finish off I have one
more special thing I would like to share
with all of you and when you do leave
tonight I really do hope you all believe
in magic – thank you
[Applause]
whoo thank you very much ladies and
gents I’m magic saying thank you
[Music] you