The magician who built a performance space in his attic to help budding performers
Seasoned magician Sng Ming Da remembers how he had to perform for an audience more interested in the buffet meal than his sleight of hand. He is determined to give budding magicians a safe space to get used to performing live.
by Renald Loh · CNA · JoinAs far as home offices go, the top floor of magician Sng Ming Da’s four-storey semi-detached apartment in Kembangan takes the cake.
But there are no standing desks or ergonomic chairs in the space he calls The Magic Attic.
When Mr Sng works from home, he gathers his tools atop a timber display and moves through a stylish lounge adorned with bespoke carpentry.
Then he leads his guests through a hidden doorway into a quiet theatre no larger than a cosy chapel. There, about 25 chairs of maroon and bronze accents face a small stage, where the magician's goal is to leave audience members' jaws on the swanky carpet with tricks he’s mastered over a decade.
It’s a task that doesn’t faze Mr Sng in the slightest.
After all, he’s appeared on British television, headlined at The Magic Castle in Hollywood where the world's best magicians ply their craft, and even performed for a virtual audience watching from the North Korean capital of Pyongyang.
The 33-year-old seasoned magician knows, however, that it can be a tall order for younger, greener performers who have yet to clock in the hours on stage, those for whom a single mistake can often crush all confidence.
In essence, that is why The Magic Attic exists.
One afternoon in September, an ever-smiling Mr Sng invited me over to his posh, air-conditioned abode along Lorong Salleh to chat about his labour of love — the only dedicated venue for magic housed in a residential area here.
He offered me a drink and a seat on the velvet settee in the lounge after four flights of gruelling stairs. I accepted and glanced at the elaborate decor around me.
For all its pizzazz and lavishness, Mr Sng said the attic’s raison d’etre is a humble one.
He aims to provide a safe haven for magicians to try out new material in front of a live audience — much like standup comedians in a random bar on a Wednesday night — to see what sticks, what doesn’t, and to mess up without fear of disgruntled looks.
These performances are part of regular house shows that The Magic Attic hosts about once a month, priced anywhere from S$35 to S$70, where greener performers can be paired with seasoned ones to ensure the show maintains a high standard.
In addition to family and friends, Mr Sng said the audience comprises people from all walks of life looking for a novel night out.
“For many (new) magicians here, their first chance to practise in front of an audience is the show itself. If you bomb, you bomb — and it can be hard to get the next gig,” he said.
“I don’t want them to have that fear when performing. And as the show's host, I always urge our audience members to be encouraging to our less experienced magicians too.”
It sounded like there might have been a back story behind this, so I probed about the worst show he’d ever done.
He adjusted his blazer sheepishly: “It was a stage show at a corporate dinner and dance.”
“The emcee introduced me: ‘Ladies and gentlemen, up next, please welcome magician Ming Da! Also, the buffet is ready at the back of the room.’ I went up on stage, and everyone else went to the buffet line.”
"Oh dear,'' I blurted out. He continued: “There were probably three people left at the VIP table… Every minute felt like an hour to me.
“That was when I was still a relatively young magician, and if I did not have a strong enough heart, I might not have had the guts to perform again.”
This “nightmare” only goes to show that anything can happen when you’re performing: That’s why it’s important for any magician to accumulate those stage miles, he emphasised.
SAFE YET SOPHISTICATED
It may only have been 10 months since The Magic Attic came to life in January this year but already he has seen the impact the space can have on others.
For instance, when Mr Sng invited a young magician to perform there earlier this year, his nervousness and inexperience were evident.
That’s okay, he said, after all, that’s the point.
Mr Sng brought him back for another gig a few months later and the improvement was palpable in both skill and confidence.
“He must have been working hard on his own, but only when you perform in front of an audience can you see the results of the work you put in.
“You could see the transformation.”
But skill isn’t the only thing Mr Sng wants to transform with The Magic Attic, and his brush with an audience more enamoured with mussels than sleight of hand isn’t his only motivation for tearing down his family home and building it back up.
His goals are much bigger.
Like many magicians here in Singapore, he shares the view that locals tend to have a somewhat goofy impression of the craft of magic — a form that’s perhaps “lower” than singing, dancing, acting, and other forms of theatre.
This can be limiting for those who hope to make a living performing. Confined to corporate engagements and kids’ birthday parties, magic tends to take a backseat — coming in the form of a supporting act, never quite the star of its own show.
Events like these rarely give magicians a chance to interact with each other too.
While Mr Sng said these aspects of the magic scene in Singapore have improved over the years, it is still often lonely and underappreciated work, and lies in stark contrast to what he has observed while performing abroad.
“Here, magicians are often an afterthought in the context of a larger event. But overseas, people often get to know the person behind the performer — especially in a parlour show.”
Parlour shows are ones that often involve about 10 to 50 people in a setting that is more intimate and interactive than ones performed on an elevated platform.
The snug theatre at The Magic Attic can fit 25 guests and is meant to replicate that same sense of personability.
In the larger picture, Mr Sng said he wants the venue to serve two more purposes.
First, to change the perception of magic from a “circus act” for kids to something that a “sophisticated audience” seeks out, and two, to give magicians in the community an opportunity to collaborate and give each other valuable feedback.
I paused him: Isn’t there a contradiction between The Magic Attic being at once a “training ground” and a place for sophistication and premier performers?
Not at all, he said, venues are meant to be versatile.
In addition to the monthly “house shows” that feature a slate of both resident and up-and-coming magicians, he also regularly puts out "headline shows" for the best in the industry.
I gave myself a brief moment to soak in the rest of the snazzy attic as the magician answered a caller enquiring about the space.
Just then, a deck of pragmatism had materialised from thin air, and I knew what my next question would be. He put the phone down.
“Are you thinking of making that money back?”
PASSION OVER PAPER
To be clear, Mr Sng did not disclose to me how much it cost to build The Magic Attic (“Not even a ballpark?”, “No”), but simple arithmetic concludes it did not come cheap.
To answer my question: “Hopefully, eventually it will,” he laughed. “It’s my place, I live here and I don’t have the pressure of paying rent every month, as opposed to renting a commercial space.”
But he did make it clear that his north star is magic, not money.
“With (rent) aside, I can really focus on the key things: How can I make the magic experience better? How can I make the performers improve?”
An hour of conversation with the self-dubbed “charming conjurer” had passed by quicker than I thought. Before I left, he happily obliged my request to observe a trick or two.
He made a specific wine bottle I requested appear out of an empty box and somehow charged a phone with a port that turned out to be a sticker.
Half amazed, half amused, I stepped out of the Magic Attic forgetting that I was ever in a house in the first place, and I thought about what it meant to dedicate part of one’s living quarters to one's craft.
Surely getting the green light for this project took a bit of charm and persuasion. After all, it’s a space shared by three generations — his parents, spouse and two young children.
When I spoke to his wife, 32-year-old civil servant Naomi Tan, she insisted The Magic Attic had been on the cards for almost a decade ever since he was inspired by the myriad dedicated spaces for magic found all across the world.
“There wasn’t much discussion. I think everyone was supportive and happy with the idea because it has always been his dream,” she said.
When there are night shows, Ms Tan said the couple would sometimes tell the guests to be quieter because their kids are asleep, but that’s as far as it goes when it comes to the attic being any sort of hindrance.
I wanted to know too what difference there was between the man and the magician. But she assured me that they’re one and the same.
To this day, even as a seasoned and internationally acclaimed performer, Ms Tan said she sees her husband head up to his unconventional workspace diligently each morning to read, study, and practise magic for “the whole day”.
“His whole life aside from family is really just magic. When he’s into something, he’s all in.”
I relayed to Mr Sng what his wife had said about his obsession with the craft and posed my final question: Don’t you ever get bored of magic?
“No,” he said, without a single beat skipped. “Thankfully not.”
“Magic is a metaphor for hope. It shows that the impossible can be possible, and we need more of that these days.”
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