Just Another Magic Monday: It's A Small Magical World After All

.:Just Another Magic Monday: It's A Small Magical World After All!:.

You know what I find amazing about being a magician in the Philippines? It's the realization that the local community is so small and so intertwined that everytime someone mentions another performer to me, it's going to be someone I personally know 95% of the time. While I'm sure the US community would know of one another for the most part, the Philippine community is so interconnected that we've probably shared the stage with each other at some point or another if either of us have been working professionally for at least three years.

I noticed this when I had a couple of shows in one go last Saturday, first for a friend of a friend's birthday party which she celebrated by doing an outreach to street children. It wasn't easy performing for street kids, but I certainly enjoyed myself while I tried my darned best to entertain them in the middle of the rain and the slightly muddy floor I was performing on.

I'll say this much: street children are easier to perform for than kids from a certain exclusive school for Chinese boys that I choose to not name.

That same night, I ended up performing with none other than Mike Unson yet again, which marks the fourth time we've performed together in the past three weeks. I must say, it has been very enjoyable, and I appreciated the fact that some of my friends, like Louanne and Achie Rochelle, showed up to catch us in Capone's.

Achie has known me for three years already, yet she has never seen me do magic until last night. Heh.

In any case, both times, people talked to me about other magicians at random, and when I was performing for street children, someone asked me about Erik Mana, whom I've not only written about in the past, but I've actually been colleagues with in WAVE 89.1 from 2004 to 2007. It's pretty funny to note that I didn't realize Erik was the Erik Mana until about 2006, despite the fact that I was also doing magic at the time.

At Capone's, Achie's friend asked me about Anthony Billan Co, which just took me by surprise. Sure, people ask me about JB dela Cruz or Rannie Raymundo or Jeffrey Tam all the time. These are guys who are pretty popular with the lay crowd. But Anthony? The man himself acknowledges that he is purely a hobbyist, and Mindbender notwithstanding, it's pretty uncanny for the averaqe person to know him as a mentalist or magician.

It's funny, really. My mentor, Mr. Bing Lim-It, has always asked me to not join any magic groups, and I never have. Despite that, I've met most of the movers and shakers of the Philippine industry, and I am constantly humbled by what those who have come before me have achieved. It feels great to be a part of their legacy, and to have the honor and privilege of seeing them time and again and picking their brain when it comes to ideas to step up one's performances.

Y'know what I wish right now? I wish a magician in another country, be it the US, UK, or wherever else, would just drop me a line and let me know how their communities come together and intertwine. I really want to see if there are any massive differences, or everything is more or less the same microcosm-wise elsewhere in the globe.

It should be an interesting prospect to look into, neh?