There He Stands, One of UofT’s Favorite Magicians

Before before introducing this person, watch this!

Translation:

Hi everyone, as you can see here are two jokers.
I am going to tell you a story about jokers.
First of all, pick any card.
Now, I do not need to know what your card is.
The jokers will find your card for you.
See the bikes? That make them faster than the rest of the cards.
By just placing them in the middle of the deck, with one snap.
The jokers will ride their bikes to find a card.
And this card, ladies and gentlemen!

Before introducing this person, first of all, you need to know who Jay Chou is.

Almost all Chinese speakers know Jay Chou. Especially for Chinese in this generation, we grew up with Jay Chow’s songs. Jay Chou has recently released his 12^th music album. In 2011, he had acted as Kato in The Green Hornet. In the same year as he portrayed Kato, TIME magazine nominated Jay Chou as one of the top 100 influential people in the world. He had acted and directed in movies. He had hosted a television show. Furthermore, his contribution in Chinese popular music is indescribable. Jay Chou had been a superstar to many young Chinese. In Jay Chou’s world tour 2010 to 2011, he came to Air Canada Centre, Toronto. The entire atrium was full. Everyone was crazy for him. During Jay Chou’s stay in Toronto, there was a piece of side news spreading around the Chinese students in University of Toronto.

“A friend of my friend’s friends has gone shopping with Jay Chou! Look, here is the picture!”

That lucky fellow sits in front of me in McDonald during the interview. His hands continuously cut a deck of cards with fancy methods. Sometimes, he vanishes a card and produces an entire deck. His voice is gentle and confident. His appearance is clean and neat. In some ways, he is unpredictable. The name is Chad, Chad Zhou.

“I was very nervous and my hands were shaking like crazy.”

Chad reflects the experience he had with Jay Chou.

“Jay Chou was friendlier than I expected. He was very considerate while we were discussing about magic on the bus to dinner.”

Chad is lucky to be so close to his star, but without magic as the common ground between Chad and Jay Chou, this experience may never occur.

Magic inspired Chad when Chad was a kid. He went to an amusement park with his family. A clown was showing magic to children. As a little boy, Chad was amazed by the wonder of the sponge balls in the clown’s hands. However, it was until middle school (grade seven to grade nine) when Chad met a magician friend whom had impacted Chad for life, Jay Guo (郭汛杰).

Jay Guo has very unique style in magic. In 2009, Guo won the first place in The China Magic Show. Liu Chien commented Guo as the most perceptive magician in the competition. Guo’s acts are funny and out of the ordinary.

As people might expect Chad to learn from Guo, interestingly, Guo did not teach Chad any trick. Instead, Guo introduced Chad a local magic store in Guangzhou. That was where Chad picked up his first book in magic.
“My first magic trick was a coin routine. I love it. I still perform it from time to time.”

As Chad plays his cards, he replies about his memory on his first trick.

“However, because I have a scar in my hand, I cannot perform coins well. So, I changed to cards.”

Coins and cards are the foundation in magic performances. Each category is almost entirely different from one another. For a lot of magicians, though, they practice each field to know more about magic. In case if there are no cards or coins when the performing chances occur, they can be prepared for most circumstances.

For many years, Chad studied the art of magic. He cherishes every audience’s expression of amazement. It is because of those moments, Chad continues his passion in magic. In one of the Christmas parties in Chad’s high school, he decided to do his first stage act in front of 2000 people.

“It was the most awkward moment in my life.”

Performers have one very important aspect to learn while standing on the stage – knowing how to handle pressure and tension while performing.

Liu Chien once said, “If 1.3 billion people watching you eating your food, can you not be nervous?” As for Chad, 2000 audiences stretched his nerves already. From this precious experience, Chad was exposed to an entirely different field in magic, stage performance.

Even after coming to University of Toronto to study, Chad has performed stage acts in many large Chinese events, such as Chinese New Year Eve, or Chinese Volunteer Association Charity Night. Chad’s presence has always brought the events to another climax.

Behind those fantastic astonishing moments, Chad, for a period of time, considered taking a break in magic.

“Magic, as a performing art, is funny. The secrets behind tricks connect audiences and magicians to interact. At the same time, magicians must not reveal the secrets to the audiences for their own good.”

For there was almost no one to share secrets and passion to, Chad felt very lonely in high school. At the same time, Chad also encountered a plateau in his skills. His thought on taking a break became stronger each day.

“My fans supported me going through that period.” Chad laughed.

Although such statement may seem funny, as Chad explains in-depth, as realistic the statement becomes.

There were not many people learning magic in Chad’s high school. Chad could only learn magic from books and DVD. His improvement started to slow down. He wanted to learn more, but he did not have any guidance or friends to discuss. Back then, Chad lost his passion. He performed less than he used to. In contrast, at Chad’s low point in his passion, Chad’s friends continuously asked Chad to perform more tricks. The audiences’ reaction and amazement motivated Chad the most.

“There are still some people who enjoy my performance.” Chad said.

With that thought in mind, Chad came to University of Toronto for further education. Throughout his entire university life, he continued to bring wonders and surprises to everyone around him. He regained his passion in magic back. Every laughter and wonder from the audiences became Chad’s motivation to dive in deeper to the realm of magic.

Especially for Chinese events, he had been invited over and over again, such as the Chinese New Year Eve event hosted by CUAUT annually. The more joy he brought to people the more he performs magic.

In spite of his opportunities to perform, Chad met a lot of great young magicians in Toronto, such as Ben Train, James Alan, Jeff Hinchliffe, Mahdi Gilbert and so many more. From interacting with other magicians, Chad’s learned to pay more attention on how to present a magic instead of technical skills.

“One of the greatest magicians once said, ‘do not limit yourself in magic only for it will get you so far. But, step out and experience life, feel the art works and be inspired at all times.’” Chad said.

Unfortunately, for Chad currently puts most of his energy on job hunting, he is not available to teach. Meanwhile, he is more than willing to share his experiences to those who also enjoy the art of mystery.

One of Chad’s dreams is to travel around the world while performing magic. This performing art has become a part of Chad’s life. By seeing the astonished smiles from the audiences, to Chad, every effort is worthy.

“I want to present a work that can reflect my soul to touch the audiences’ hearts.”

With passion burning in his eyes, Chad firmly states.