Sunday, 26 May 2002

Magic that healed stormy family ties
- Borneo Post

TAWAU: The music fades in. Lawrence swaggers onto stage with open arms and bows. He sets a strip of paper on fire. A gold coin emerges from the flickering flame. Another strip of paper is set ablaze; again, a gold coin appears. As he tosses the coin to the audience, a cockatoo suddenly materialises and perches on his right index finger. Before the applause fades out, another cockatoo appears on his left index finger in an equally mysterious way, just five metres away from slack-jawed reporters.

Lawrence places the cockatoos into a cage, shrouds it with a black cloth, casts a spell, hey, presto! Out pops Priscilla in a red silk Chinese gown, smiling broadly.


Welcome to the magical world of Lawrence and his daughter, Priscilla.

The father-daughter team stars in 'Magic of Love', a production of Touch Entertainment, Singapore, the largest travelling musical magic show in Asia that premiered at St Patrick’s Church here from May 24 - 27.

It's not your run-of-the-mill magic show. This one's the major leagues. Their props arrived in a 40-foot container. With them was a 28-member crew and cast.

Since his days in the army, Lawrence has performed publicly as an illusionist. In 2000, Lawrence and Priscilla thrilled Singapore with a live illusion show 'From Illusion to Reality'. The feat was repeated before television cameras in Taiwan.

From Illusion's success, Lawrence realised that magic can be a powerful tool for communication. "I have always wanted to share a message not just doing magic," admits Lawrence who is also the Senior Pastor of Faith Community Baptist Church (FCBC), one of the largest churches in Singapore with a membership of over 10,000.

"I wanted to tell of a story of a parent and a child. Children get more distant from their parents as they get older. I would like to get people thinking about communication in the family."

Thus was conceived The Magic of Love, the narration of a father-daughter story through a musical magic show.

"Why a father-daughter story?" I ask.

"Because I am not a son," Priscilla quips. We laugh.

"We want a real-life story of a father and daughter, how their relationship is strained because their shortcomings and how they manage to reconcile in the end thanks to the magic of love", explains Lawrence.

With the story line in place and the vision to produce the top musical magic show in the region, Lawrence and Priscilla enlisted the services of top illusionist, Andre Kole and Jeff McBride.

Magic consultant to David Copperfield, Andre Kole is a master illusionist himself, known for his incredible act of pushing a human through a turbo engine.

Mcbride who has been performing at Cesar Palace for 15 years, is touted as the best illusionist in Las Vegas. Besides performing, he teaches groups like the Disney Institute and his own "McBride's Master Class".

Lawrence and Priscilla have also tapped into the creativity of Betty Reilley, whose celebrity clients include N'Sync and Celine Dion. Reilley, who designs the costumes for Magic of Love, has since become a family friend.

Marvels Lawrence, "Any time I need a costume replaced, I would just call Betty and she would do it for me."

Providing the pulse and heartbeat to the Magic of Love is Iskandar Ismail's original music composition. Iskandar, who has worked with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, is a renowned conductor, composer and arranger.

The props are nothing to sniff at either. Custom-made in Las Vegas, these cost between S$250,000 and S$500,000.

Explains Lawrence, "We have to go for top quality props because the cheaper ones can break at the wrong time and hurt you." He should know. A freak accident while performing in Taiwan nearly killed Priscilla. In an act where Priscilla tried to balance on the tip of a sword while Lawrence spun her, a prop broke and sent her spinning to the ground 12 feet in the air. Fortunately, she wasn't seriously hurt.

Meticulous planing is part of the game. It takes a year of shuttling between Singapore and Las Vegas, for planning and revising, locating the right materials and equipment and practising with consultants before the first rehearsal can be held.

After getting all the services and props needed, it's show time. Sometimes, reality kicks in. Priscilla once had to postpone her entry into university. The rehearsal was so exhausting that Lawrence lost 10 kg in three months.

For three months, from June to September 2001, Lawrence and Priscilla rehearsed twelve hours a day for the premiere in Singapore's Indoor Stadium.

"I thought illusion acts were easier. Just get the props, press some buttons and you can appear and disappear out of boxes."

"Actually it's a lot harder than hand magic tricks because for pulling an act you need a crew and the timing and coordination must be perfect," says Lawrence.

Lawrence insists he is not overdoing it. "David Copperfield will not introduce a new illusion act unless he had practised the same act everyday for six months. Considering his standards, we still have room to improve."

The hard work also took a toll on Lawrence's relationship with his daughter. Confides Lawrence, "It was only when we worked together I realised how different we are."

As Senior Pastor and a sought-after international speaker, Lawrence is home for dinner at least twice a week.

Says Priscilla, "Dad would come home from a trip and ask how was school etc. So we'd just have a normal chat. But he didn't know who I really am."

"And I thought everything was OK with my children," Lawrence adds.

Says Priscilla, "To me, parents were just providers, from whom we get money or what we need. In my world before the show, my friends were more important than my family. It was perfectly normal that children were distant from their parents. Just one of those things that happens when you grow up."

"Because of the show, all the sudden I see my father everyday. We work, eat, travel and rehearse together. This is too close for comfort. This is an invasion. This is abnormal. Parents and children should not be this close together."

It became stressful. The rehearsals brought out the worst in Priscilla and her unsuspecting father.

Admits Priscilla, a self confessed rebel, "When we started, we quarrelled almost everyday, on the set in front of the entire crew, at home, everywhere."

For the former military man who mobilises his church as he would an army, working with his equally strong-willed daughter was a nightmare.

"Here I was trying to do a show on family relationships when my own relationship with my daughter was falling apart. The loopholes in my life were magnified before my eyes. I had to work through this before I could tell people about the magic of love."

Lawrence admits that he was condescending, disrespectful and pre-sumptous towards his daughter. "I need to treat her as a fellow artist, a peer. It was a humbling process. But nothing is impossible when you humble yourself and pray."

And the most unthinkable happened. Priscilla, who had many run-ins with her school principal, one day told her father, "I want you to be my mentor, not just for the magic but my life."

"I also came to see my own loopholes. I am not as smart as I think. There is so much I didn't know and there is much I can learn from my father in life, in magic."

With father and daughter coming together putting their hearts and minds into the production, the premier of Magic of Love mesmerised Singapore last September.

The first ten shows at the Singapore Indoor Stadium were sold out, with a total crowd of 40,000 packing the stadium. The country's leading English daily waxed lyrical on their performance.

But they're not taking it easy. Discloses Lawrence, "We are looking into the marketing, branding and development of the show to be a top production in the region." The Magic of Love has already been booked for Kota Kinabalu from June 12 to 14, Kuching (August 23 to 25), Hong Kong and Shanghai.

Remarkably, the show has developed into a family project. Mrs Khong and the other three children, Anthony, Daniel and Michelle, also take time off work and school to travel with the crew.

They tutor in Project SMILE (short for Sharing Magic in Love Everywhere), a magic class taught by Lawrence and Priscilla, that promotes volunteerism by getting youths to entertain the less fortunate with magic tricks.

Lawrence and Priscilla, together with 30 Project SMILE students have already performed in the old folk's home here.

Fascinating as the Magic of Love is, the greatest magic in the show is the one that humbled a proud father and softened a stubborn daughter