{"id":5478,"date":"2019-07-01T03:26:09","date_gmt":"2019-07-01T03:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev-alumn-nus.pantheonsite.io\/alumnus\/?p=5478"},"modified":"2025-07-15T16:08:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-15T08:08:12","slug":"the-master-of-illusion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/2019\/07\/01\/the-master-of-illusion\/","title":{"rendered":"The Master of Illusion"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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One might not immediately equate \u2018magician\u2019 as the preferred career for Psychology students, but that\u2019s exactly the path Mr Alexander Yuen embarked on immediately after he received his Masters in 2015. He received his bachelor\u2019s degree in 2012. \u201cI was studying emotions for my Masters, and I enjoyed it, but I realised I love magic more,\u201d says Mr Yuen, who more precisely is an iPad magician. \u201cBasically, I merge sleight-of-hand together with technology via the use of the iPad to add another layer of amazement to the audience.\u201d<\/p>

The fascination with magic began when Mr Yuen was 15, when a friend showed him a card trick. \u201cThe card I held in my hand changed to a different one \u2014 it was mind-blowing,\u201d says the now-32-year-old, who then proceeded to borrow as many books on magic as he could from the library. He became good enough to conduct shows for children, and by his final year at NUS, had teamed up with co-founder of honestbee Mr Jonathan Low (Engineering \u201913) to set up Meta Illusions, a company of magicians for hire. \u201cWe were then already dabbling with iPads as tools in our performances,\u201d Mr Yuen lets on. \u201cWhen Jonathan departed to focus on honestbee, I had to learn how to programme from scratch.\u201d<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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\u201cEventually, I\u2019d like to run my own theatre space so I can do magic in a conducive environment, where people are not just there to be amazed and \u2018tricked\u2019, but to be moved by the narratives that magic can bring. I want to inspire hope and imagination.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
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Mr Alexander Yuen<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
Co-founder of Meta Illusions and iPad magician <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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His efforts paid off. Mr Yuen\u2019s iPad magic performances, which comprise on-screen animations that come alive, have taken him to Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Australia, India and more. He counts the Singapore Tourism Board, Chopard and Louis Vuitton among his clients. But the work is not all glitz and glamour. \u201cA 30-minute customised performance could take me up to two months to programme and rehearse,\u201d Mr Yuen explains.\u00a0<\/p>

These days, Mr Yuen leads a team of five other aspiring iPad magicians who he mentors. \u201cMagic is often an egotistical artform, and many magicians don\u2019t see the point of training prot\u00e9g\u00e9s,\u201d he says. \u201cBut for me, it is my way of having a say about how magic will be for the next generation.\u201d<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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To find out more about Mr Yuen\u2019s magic or to book a customised performance for your corporate events, go to ipadmagician.org<\/a>.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Combining his programming skills with theatrical finesse, Mr Alexander Yuen\u2019s (Arts and Social Sciences \u201912) iPad magic performances have taken him around the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6172,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"elementor_theme","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-leadership"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5478"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5478\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6171,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5478\/revisions\/6171"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}