2008 1st Australian Tour

23 days passed already? I am not quite able to accept the reality that right now I am in front of the computer in Hong Kong.

It's only a very short while ago that I was having breakfast with Pansy this morning, coffee with Desmond, and lunch with Rachael and Tina.

This tour has been a fabulous one, catch up with old friends in Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide: Desmond, David, Benny, Kenny & Katy, Dave, Shoot, Brad, Anton & Jing, Lucas, Joko, Pedro ...

And of course, my lovely sister Rachael!

Made some new friends too:

Jay Jay, Peter & Rita, and the very adorable Pansy

If I need to thank Cedric for a reason, then I must say it's very kind of him for allowing me to stay in his apartment after I returned to Sydney and that I can get to know Pansy.

Well, Cedric, you lucky bastard, if I were you and money is not a problem, I would rather stay in Sydney than coming back to Hong Kong too.

A real pity that I wasn't able to meet Roxy and Bray Bray because of the shortage of time, magic wise, it's also a shame that I couldn't meet up with Raymond Crowde when I was in Adelaide, but I'll definitely make that up in Oct this year.

I must say I am not having enough of Australia, especially after I returned to Sydney from Adelaide.

Paid a visit to BlueMountains, helped out Rachael to check out and moved much of her stuffs from her dorm to the house nearby. BM is lot more like Europe than Australia in my opinion, but it wasn't the best of the time when I visit BM, been foggy and raining during the time I was there, and I was too much occupied/tired to go to 3 sisters too.

Still it's not too bad in a sense that Rachael managed to take me to two of the best resturants there, and for the first time (maybe the last time too) that I tried the Chicken Liver with breads for breakfast/lunch, the taste is absolutely..hmm...unique....

Rachael, thanks a lot for taking care of me =)

The quality of life is significantly higher for most people in Australia than in Hong Kong, although the forms of enjoyment are quite different from state to state, Australians do know how to enjoy their life, and often it's not much to do with the material satisfaction.

Beautiful beaches, mountains and trees are everywhere in Australia, there are just so many breathtaking natural sceneries in Australia, the best thing is, you do and you actually can have that mentality/mode to enjoy them yet you won't be able to do the same in Hong Kong.

I reckon Stanley is probably the closest place in Hong Kong to Australia, but I still can't feel it when I am there, right, obviously, there are too many people in Hong Kong and our working hours are ridiculously long.

The tour could haven't been better if the Australian Dollar is not so strong, it's pretty much of the same exchange rate as US Dollar to Hong Kong Dollar, I need to try really hard to control my expenses, plus it also defeat the purpose for me to do fund raising for the victims of SiChuan Earthquake if I spend too much money.

Hey Presto moved to Sky Garden, the original shop at Imperial Arcade is already massive as a magic shop in my opinion, now it's at least 2-3 times bigger than the original and that it's in CBD! Garry, tell me your secret, you must be selling drugs to kids rite?

How wonderful to catch you with old friends, and how hard to say goodbye to them...

Well, I am going back to Australia again in Oct for lecture tour, and this time I'll stay longer...

Maybe I should just visit Australia once a year even if I don't get any works to do there..............

Brisbane - Dave and Brad

During my stay in Brisbane, I spent the most of my time with Dave Lord and Brad Manuel, in fact, I stayed for two nights at Brad's place. 

Brad has a very lovely wife and 3 amazingly cute children, I was already impressed with his works as a magician when I was touring Australia in 2006, after spending 2 days with him, now I hold an even higher opinion of him not only as a magician but also as a human being. 

He was invited to do many lecture tours in various countries, but he didn't go, not that he can't do or doesn't know how to do a lecture, but he would rather spend more time with his family and do things what he really wants to do.

We spent sometime together to talk about magic, not really a jam session, but rather it's Brad who shared his stories, ups and downs in his career path with me. Brad keep saying the magic that he does is not very clever, yes, maybe, but they certainly are very different... You can tell from the items that he is currently marketing: Room 2 Move, Credit Card Fraud and The Heat is On...etc...

hmm....be different....

Dave Lord is a very intelligent and entertaining magician, when we go to rainbow beach and mountain climbing, he is capable to tell me the name of nearly all the trees on the mountain, where did you learn all these things from?

After we left Brad's place, Dave took me to a gig where he did a 45 mins stand up show and some close up. Like many others, I used to think a 45 mins stand up show is too long, but the fact is, if the show is solid and entertaining, you will only be amazed by how fast time goes... 

Dave did some really funny stuffs in his show, to me, and I certainly had a lesson on doing professional magic! There are so many good gags and lines that are just perfect for some of the card stuffs that I am doing now. Sorry, Dave, but I have decided to steal some of your lines...=P

Synchronicity

Rosanna left her brother in law's place to Diana hotel to join Shoot's Ninja Ring Workshop, after greeting each other, I and Dave went to a mountain that is about 30 mins driving away, where we met Kevin, who I asked for help to take a photo for me and Dave.

Kevin happen to be Rosanna's brother in law, and I have never met him before, he was eating ice cream when I was asking him for a help, even at this moment, I am still wondering why I would ask someone who's hands are occupied to take photo for us.

We then went back to Diana hotel and Rosanna is just there.

So basically, Rosanna left the place where she was to the place where we were, and then we went to the place where the person that she was with also went, and then we went back to the place where we were to meet Rosanna.

You have gotta believe in coincidence!

Meeting Shoot in Brisbane

It's a nice coincidence to meet Shoot in this tour here in Australia, it has been already 3 years since I last met him in Hong Kong.


Shoot is currently doing his lecture tour in Australia, I met him on 8th, an hour later after I arrived Brisbane. It's always nice to meet old friends, in fact, I stayed in his hotel room for two nights and therefore learned many of his latest secrets, obviously, nothing of them is magic related, I think I can actually blackmail him with them.

Attended his lecture, it was fantastic, strong visual magic as always, some really good gags and lines. Shoot speaks very fluent english now, and he certainly thinks like an American a lot more than he used to be, which is a good thing for him, more international in terms of showmanship but preserving the essence of Japanese style magic in blood at the meantime, an ideal combination for him.

We took some really intertesting photos at Pancakes, along with David Lord and Jay Jay, we had a great session of the highlights in our shows, lectures and professional repertoire, click into the following link if you want to see some photos:

http://picasaweb.google.com/zennethkok/2008BrisbaneMagic

Aside from Shoot, it's nice to meet Brad Manuel, my favourite Australian Blonde - Rosanna and some other familiar faces in Brisbane.

Will be going to Brad's place tonight and watch the state of origin, and go surfing tmr!

A helping hand from Rannie Raymundo to SiChuan earthquake victims

Hi everyone,

I have a good and warming news to share with all of you. A very good friend of mine -- Rannie Raymundo, who is one of the best coin magiciains in the world, also a celebrity, singer and actor in Philipine, is offering his efford to help the earthquake victims.

I and my coworker Steven Leung will be selling a ebook/manuscript from Rannie, and all sales will go to the organizations that are helping the victims now.

Here are his videos on youtube:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=hdAoaIvVnxg


The performance:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=sOwExcbYL74&feature=related


If you are interested in getting this manuscript/ebook, please paypal any amount of money to Steven Leung at mksteven@netvigator.com

Either Steven or myself will send you the ebook as soon as we receive the payment from you.

Please also pay a visit to Rannie's website http://www.rannieraymundo.com/
and leave a message there if you could.

Thanks,
Zenneth

Zenneth 2008 Australian Tour Itinerary

2nd June - 7th June Sydney
8th June -13th June Brisbane
14th June -18th June Adelaide
19th June - 22nd Sydney