Stories > People > Personalities
Tuesday June 9, 2009 Power of the mind By NASA MARIA ENTABAN

DAVID Lai is often referred to as a magician, and he does not mind. But he is a “mentalist” rather than a magician; his craft is about a sleight of the mind, rather than the sleight of hand and distraction.

This means that what David does is more of a mind game than fast hand movements and tricks up his sleeves.

For years he buried himself in books on mentalism and psychology, seeking to understand the human mind, incorporating this knowledge into his routines.

To let us in on what his performances are like, he performs a Russian Roulette-like routine – using the power of his mind to guess which styrofoam cup hides a sharp spike, before smashing the ones he suspects are empty with his hand.

Drama aplenty, complete with frantic head-scratching and beads of sweat forming on his forehead, it’s easy to see how David keeps his audience at the edge of their seats. (He says he has gotten this one wrong only once!)
David Lai tries a trick on Nasa Maria Entaban.



He attributes his success partly to people’s curiosity about his performances.

“What I do is very different from the regular magic routines, or any other entertainment shows. It’s also interactive as I get the audience involved during every show,” begins the 24-year-old engineering graduate.

Despite the apparent complexities of his routines, David says mentalism and magic are not special skills you have to be born with, and anyone who studies the science hard enough can too, do what he does.

His whole obsession with magic began when he was experimenting at the age of 15, trying out tricks and routines with random people on the street, and friends.

“Being young and naive, I didn’t realise that wasn’t the way to go about doing things. No one likes to feel like they’ve been fooled, especially alpha male-types in a group of girls,” says David, chuckling.

Three years ago, David was an engineering student struggling to make time for his studies, his girlfriend, and his magic shows.

He started a company called Magical Dating with a few friends in university, organising “magical” dates for couples, with David performing magic tricks to add excitement to the usual dinner routine.
David sometimes gets asked to perform for thousands of people.

“It was a tough time – being a scholarship holder, I had to study enough to keep my grades up. At the same time, I also had to meet my show schedules. I used to bring my study material to shows and study whenever I had free time,” he recalls. This lasted until the friends parted ways, and David continued to search for gigs where he could bring mentalism into the public eye.

It hasn’t always been a smooth run for him. He had to first get people to believe in him, before they’d commission him to perform for them.

“My worst fear is disappointing the friends who have put faith in me to see me on stage at their events. Hence, I do my shows in such a way that it appeals to the intellectual crowd,” says David.

“My purpose is to entertain, and to make my shows more interesting and to engage the audience, I speak a lot during performances, something magicians don’t do.”

David’s most well-known routines involves bending spoons, forks and coins by the sheer power of the mind.

He performs three times a week on average, to corporate crowds and at charity shows, and often goes out of the country to perform at arenas in the Middle East and other parts of the South-East Asia.

David is also a speaker for celebrity Hannah Tan’s H-Factor, which brings him around the country with some of Malaysia’s top stars to share his story on life in the entertainment world.

“You can do what you’re passionate about and make a decent living, as long as you go about it intelligently,” says David, who often speaks to students about turning their dreams into lifelong careers