it’s just you… and me…

Hi friends and all!

Hmm… how should i put this? well… i need help here. Let me first tell u what’s happening. Me and 2 other magician friends of mine got together recently. our objective was to come up with a long term plan to form some sort of an entertainment team providing magic services. we’ve got all the things needed to be done written down n planned in detail. but what we need now is a catchy, easily remembered name for the team. we sat down and gave it alot of thought but we just can’t come up with something solid enough. so, i would really appreciate it if u guys can contribute and help me with this.

really looking forward to get some suggestions from u! dun hesitate! there is no suggestion that is bad.

Hmm… i don’t have anything interesting to write for the past few days. No work. No school. This kind of life is really making me sick. hmm.. by the way, i’ve been working on this effect lately where I can change a blank piece of paper into a Singapore two dollar note in a blink. Been working real hard on it. I got a video clip of it after one day of practice on it. Looks quite nice arh i must say for the fact that i only practiced it for a day. Feel free to find me via MSN at ahlishufi@hotmail.com… yeah, just request for the file and i’ll send it to u immediately. satisfaction guaranteed! =P

Many people have asked me this very qns before. so, i’ve decided to write abt this today since i’ve got nothing better to do now anw.

well… since young, i’ve always loved the art. from music to drawings to paintings n many more. my very first performance i remember was back in K2. i did this malay dance with another ger… haha. will nv forget that. in primary school, i was in the Recorder’s club. haha… do nothing but played the recorder. yarh.. it sounds dumb but that is where i got very much interested in music making. i knew that’s what i wanted to do and so, i joined the school’s concert band in secondary school. i played the drums most of the time as i was a percussionist back then. i continued this passion of mine later on in college where eventually, i was made the president of the band.

well… as much as i love to be entertained, i also enjoy entertaining others. i started magic just as a casual hobby with nothing big in mind. kicked off with books from library and sources from the internet which are all free. i was soon hungry for more n i got myself a beginner’s card magic combo package from penguinmagic.com. i just wanted to give it a try. i soon fell in love with the art of magic. everyday, i would spent time learning new skills n showing them to my family. Nothing beats the feeling when u see the faces of amazement from your audience. u gotta try it to understand what i am trying to say.

Not long later, i got injured quite badly due to soccer. i tore my MCL and ACL (knee ligaments). i couldn’t play soccer for many many months… about 7-8months to be exact. you wouldn’t know how devastated i was when i suffered this injury. since young, there’s always 3 loves in my life ie. God(religion), family and soccer. during this period, i really felt useless. had problems doing lots of my daily activities. that’s when i had not much choice but to channel my energy to something more useful rather than just eat n sleep. i chose to do magic. during this period, i bought myself lots of learning aids so as to pick up new skills on magic from books to videos to DVDs… soon, i became very much crazy about this thing that i took it very very seriously n that’s how i became what i am today…

I continue to do magic till today because i really love to entertain ppl. i am not the sort who wants to boast or anything of that sort. i got feedback from some my friends that some magicians nowadays tends to be very cocky. i’m glad they don’t see me that way. my aim in magic is just to entertain n nothing else.

remember this >> AhLiShuFi = Magician + Entertainer !

After one whole day with the kids, I not only get to entertain the kids but the adults too. The kids are very fun to play with, really. i really love to entertain them even though i might make myself look like a fool sometimes. The kids are easily amazed. I can do for them the simplest of tricks and yet, their jaws will still drop.

And I came to realise that there is really no point in performing complicated tricks to the kids. i did the linking rings routine where a magician will link and unlink 4 solid metal rings of 4inches in diameter each. Being very curious, they wanted to know badly how i performed the trick but i realised that there is not much entertainment value in it. I then proceeded with my chinese coin routine. In this effect, i pull a ribbon through the holes of the coins and slowly pull the coin out one at a time. it is a very visual trick and this kind of magic even amazes the adults. This is when u’ll get to see adults behaving like little children. they will like keep asking u to reveal how u go about doing it. haha.. very very cute. This trick is certainly visual n amazes. but still… i dun see much entertainment in it.

It is only when i did my full rubber band routines that my performance really get a good laugh n smiles from the kids n also adults. i realise that performing magic is like acting in a play. having the skills alone is never enough. u need to consider many other factors to make a performance a real entertaining one. Firstly, the magic effect has got to be very clear. is it going to dissapear, appear or wat? Secondly, there needs to be participation from the audience. it is always gd to have the magic happening in the hands of the audience themselves. and last but not least, the comedy. it can either come from the facial xpressions and also the words that come out from ur mouth. yarh… i really learnt quite alot from this experience. certainly hope to have more of such chances so that i can get more performing exposure although this is not a formal one.

hmm… so… anyone needs my service? hehe.

sigh~~… that’s what i discovered about myself today. i realised that i really am a soft-hearted person. i simply hate to see ppl around me feeling unhappy. i just can’t take it.

The very first thing that happened was after a short walk around the zoo, we were heading for the animal show. and there stood the stupid ice-cream shop… the kids had their eyes glued on it so much so that i can’t pretend that i didn’t see it. worst, i walked there only to find that the cheapest ice-cream cost $1.70!!!! i did a quick calculation and realised that if i give each of the kids $2. that’s enough to make me bankrupt! but anyway, i just couldn’t make myself say no. so, all of them had their fair share of free ice-cream each. well… at least they are happy. =)

then, comes another incident when the kids were at the playground. they were taking turns on the swing and of cos, they were having so much fun trying to swing as high as they could… until Raihan who was on the swing accidentally kicked poor little Casendra. she went up to me trying very hard to tell me what happened, "tea..cher.. Raihan k..kicked me..". i knew she is going to burst into tears real soon if i don’t act fast. i quickly got myself close to her, hoping that she can feel my sincerity and concern. I can’t exactly remember what i said at that instance but trust me… lots of words came out. from chinese "kuai kuai, bu yao gu" (hope i got the hanyu pinyin correct)… to other things like "it’s just an accident ok? don’t cry, don’t cry. if not you won’t look pretty". I knew i had to make Raihan swallow his pride and apologise and so i called for him immediately. Fortunately, Raihan did his part this time and even shook hands with her. real cool! guess Raihan is also soft-hearted like me after all. mayb.. it’s a guy-ger thingy. i dunno…

Also the whole time in the zoo, Casendra was non-stop pestering me to bring her for the Pony ride. She sounded like she won’t want to miss it for the world. The thing is, the ride is not free… and you can’t expect me to fork out my own money for all the kids rite? anw, Casendra was the only one who had money. so, i find it unfair if she goes for the ride while the others just watched. I came to this conclusion that we will all go complete all the stations that is required of us as we were participating in this game thingy called "ZOOLYMPICS". That way, the kids will be able to redeem a prize. plus, if we do it fast enough, we will have time for other things which i did mention the pony ride that Casendra is dying for. Time is almost up and we still have one more station to go. hmm… i realised that there is certainly no time for pony ride or watsoever. i knew i had to break the bad news and at that instance, Casendra can’t wait anymore cos she knew that we alreadi reached the last station. the thing that she didn’t know was… that time is almost up and we had a bus to catch. darn…. i had to tell her n xplain to her the scenario and she made me feel freaking guilty when she said "teacher… but u said i can go for the pony ride after finish all the games…". i didn’t know what to say really. i was lost for words…

Good thing.. Casendra is a strong ger. Although i can see the sadness in her eyes, she tried her best to smile infront of the rest as we made our way back to the exit. One thing for sure, she refused to talk to me for a while. At the exit, she saw the gift store and she asked me if i can bring her there. i was hoping that i can find ways to make it up to her. so, i granted her wish n walked her into the store. wow… everything there was very costly…. nothing cost less than $10! xcept the postcards… I knew she had about $6 or so which she put aside for the pony ride that she wanted to go for earlier on. and so, i decided to find out if there’s anything in particular that she want. and obviously, she asked for a pony. haha. well… the pony cost $10. I see this as a gd chance to make it up to her and so, i topped up $5 as she paid for the the half…

and everyone lived happily ever after!

A TRIP TO THE ZOO!?!?! haha.. you guys must think that I must be kidding right? believe it or not, that is where i spent practically the whole of today (or should i say yesterday since it’s now past midnight?). Anw, I was there for a reason actually. well… it’s certainly not because that one of the zookeepers is my crush or anything like that. The fact is, I volunteered myself to help a friend of mine who is doing his attachment job as a social worker at FSC Woodlands (btw, FSC stands for Family Service Center). He was being "arrowed" to organised this event of bringing close to 60 kids to the zoo.

so, there i was being one of 10 facilitators to help run the show. Each of us were assigned to be in-charge of 6 to 7 kids. So, there I was standing there ever so blur looking thru the names of kids that are assigned to me. It read as follows.. "Sankare, Giroshini, Muguthan, Muhd Raihan, Siti Raidah, Cesandra". They sounded like a good bunch until I got to know who these kids really are. Well, kids being kids… haha.

When we reached the entrance of the zoo, we had to wait for some admin stuffs to be settled by the organisers… and the kids were getting impatient, of cos. they keep going, "teacher, teacher! when can we go in?!" don’t ask me why they address me as teacher though. i think my group got sooo used to it that they ended up calling everyone and anyone "teacher". so confusing, really!

we had to wait for quite some time and my kids just couldn’ keep quiet any longer especially Raihan. He is, i must say the most mischievous of the lot. He makes so much noise all the time but he is still nice in his own ways. So, I thought hard for a way to keep them occupied. guess what i did? haha… i entertained them with my magic skills of cos. i took out my rubberbands and started showing them some basic stuffs. They were not exactly impressed until i did my coin trick. I made the coin dissapear into thin air and their jaws dropped on the spot. haha… i can’t help but to laugh looking at their facial expressions. so, i made a deal with them that i will show them more magic if they learn to behave. and there u go! my magical skills into gd use… hehe.

wow.. this entry is getting a little bit too long. i think i’ll continue on another post.

Let me be honest, I used to think that this blog thingy is dumb. Just not my kind of thing u know. I definitely got better things to do like… hmm… sleeping? haha… guess what? it is now 3.19am! yeah… i couldn’t get to sleep and that’s why I got myself into this.

Why I couldn’t get to sleep? well.. that’s certainly a good qns. So many things happened today that’s why. It was a very meaningful experience to be exact. Anw, you’ll find more about it on my next post. well.. yarh… that’s just what i think the purpose of my blog is… simply to record down those meaningful moments for me so that I can share it with the world! =P