Can Singapore’s only professional female magician, ‘Magic Babe’ Ning, actually make things levitate? Alexis Ong finds out

Okay, let’s be honest – did you make Mas Selamat disappear?
Oh, I wish I could take credit for that, but I only use my powers for good!

Any plans to take your act to the streets, à la David Blaine?
It’s a different medium and in Blaine’s case, it’s magic made for a TV audience. That’s the beauty of magic, really – it’s so flexible when you’ve got the chops! While most of my work is in the area of grand illusions and stage, I also do close-up (now known as ‘street’) magic, but to do a TV series…now that would be really cool. If the right people approach me, I’m game!

How have you been preparing for your mega-escape?
Training and rehearsals take up at least four to six hours every day. Besides eating well and exercising right, there’s also that all-important mental preparedness. This is so that I’m completely focused during the crucial seconds I have to escape, before the spikes fall down at the automated 90-second mark in The Impalement Cage.

What’s your take on films like The Illusionist and The Prestige?
I personally liked it! I also watched Death Defying Acts, a movie about the legendary Houdini, and enjoyed that too! As a film-school graduate, I also think it’s awesome that filmmakers are giving today’s more discerning audience movies about illusionists, because that’s what people want right now. There’s a global demand for the art and that’s the pure nature of magic…it’s universally appealing! I’d love to see more in future, hopefully one about a kickass female magician!

What would your ultimate trick be?
I would like to do a mega-illusion involving something really special and iconic to Singapore. It would also involve random people in the audience and everything would be performed live and surrounded in the outdoors, where it is the most difficult – no cushy theatre setting. It’s as legit and gritty as it can get. In fact, I think this ultimate ‘trick’ may just become an electrifying reality very soon, later this year!

If you could make one thing disappear permanently, what would it be?
Parsley. Because it doesn’t do anything else but crawl over your food. Period.

Have you ever been mistaken for a magician’s assistant?
At the very beginning, yes, I had to prove myself because people weren’t ready yet for this impenitent tradition-breaker! The media and events industries are now completely aware, though, that Magic Babe is a professional who entirely holds her own on-stage, with two X chromosomes she’s not afraid to flaunt.

I heard you adopted a Mongolian boy via World Vision. Does he know what you do, and do you plan to introduce him to magic via correspondence?
Gunbileg, or Mr Batsaikhan as I love to call him, totally knows what I do. The kiddo thinks I have the coolest job in the world and his friends were all envious when he showed them pictures of his sponsor, yours truly. I intend to fly up to Mongolia and personally introduce him to magic, which completely fascinates him. The boy’s already bugging me to send him pictures of our upcoming show ‘Ultimate Magic’ at The Arena in Clarke Quay.

Do you like to play tricks on people when you’re out and about? No, I’m a nice girl. Honestly! I was in Thailand some time ago with a friend and was feeling bored as she was taking ages to leave a temple we were at. So I picked up a dried leaf near a tree on the temple grounds, and started to levitate it just for kicks. I was having a good time with the floating leaf spinning around me, until I heard a shriek. A local woman who’d seen me in action appeared, completely petrified, and that was when my Thai friend popped out. She had to explain to the terrified woman that I wasn’t a black-magic practitioner, even though it seemed like I had the dead leaf entirely under my control! So that’s when I learnt my lesson…to always behave myself around ‘muggles’! [Laughs]

You’re a headline act at the South England Magic Convention next year. Are you planning any new magic acts?
Yep, I’m the first Singaporean to headline a magic convention in the UK, so yes, I will have something very special for them. JC Sum, my on-stage partner, will be designing the act with me and will also be on the same trip as he’s a featured lecturer at the convention. We are working on some new stage acts, as well as refining some of my signature pieces like the Magic Linking Coat Hangers and Straitjacket Striptease. Whatever it is, you can be 100 per cent sure I will make our country proud!

‘Magic Babe’ Ning will perform Singapore’s first mega-escape from The Impalement Cage on 5 Jul. She will also co-star in Singapore’s first permanent magic show, ‘Ultimate Illusion’, at The Arena (Clarke Quay) through Aug.