Are you ready to be tricked?

When do magicians feel most rewarded? It must be when they catch the look of surprise on the faces of the audience after performing their magic tricks. JOKER was created by people who take pleasure in magic, whether by playing a simple trick on their friends with a coin or by training flashy card skills. In 2016, the year it was registered as an official club, JOKER became UNIST’s first and only magic club.
“I heard that a small group of friends held a magic meeting first, and as the number of members increased, they created some bylaws and applied for club membership. There are currently around seventeen members.”
The head of the club, Lee Si-woo, said, “Although we don’t have many members, it’s a club whose members consistently gather together to continue their activities. In particular, to completely master any kind of trick, repetitive practice is vital, so consistency is the most important virtue in magic.”
“Anyone who has been to a magic show will understand what I’m saying. When we watch a magic show, we think to ourselves ‘Show me your tricks and let’s see if you can fool me!’ Basically, we are suspicious about it. To overcome such suspicions and trick people perfectly, we really have to put in a lot of effort. In order not to get caught, we need to practice, practice, practice!”
However, the process of learning a trick or technique is not as difficult as you might think. There are a lot of related books and YouTube videos. When you have a chance, the club seniors will teach you directly. We focus on simple yet accessible tricks, rather than tricks that require lengthy preparation. “We have not yet got to stage manipulation, which requires large tools and equipment. Instead, we learn techniques and demonstrate them by performing small magic tricks, typically, coin and card tricks.”
“JOKER” is trying to increase its opportunities to meet audiences, even if it’s not on a regular basis, because the purpose of magic is “performance.” We try to meet our audience more often by, for example, offering a “guerilla gig” in front of the Students’ Hall after the end of the examination period, or inviting people to our clubroom for performances. If you come to one of our magic performances, we recommend that you allow yourself to be willingly tricked, because that is the best way to enjoy magic!

Friendly and interesting magic

Like the expression “You can (only) see as much as you know!” you might vaguely think of magic as something that’s difficult to do because you don’t know its principles. However, once you understand the principles, they are often easy and simple. In particular, these days many performers demonstrate one-to-one close-up magic in the street to an unspecified audience, and this concept of magic is becoming increasingly popular among magic creators.
“At first, people ask if it’s not too difficult, but the important thing is to try doing it for yourself. If you are not dexterous or are slow in action, it will be harder for you, compared to others. But you don’t have to rush into it. Together with the club members, while you are learning it step by step, even if you are clumsy, you will eventually have nimble fingers!”
In fact, the current club members including Lee Si-woo haven’t been able to take part in any face-to-face activities for the last two years due to the COVID-19 social distancing policy. Thus, the selection of new members and the club activities have been carried out using a contactless method such as zoom video meetings. Nevertheless, we have strived to communicate frequently with each other and to support each other in order to prevent our club from stagnating. In addition, in order to increase public interest in JOKER and revitalize the club’s activities, we are focusing on learning not only new magic performances but also tarot card readings.
“It‘s great fun to gather together to study and learn magic, but we thought that it would be much better to promote our club further. Although it’s nice for us to go out into the streets and do magic performances, we really wanted people to come to see our magic tricks. As we were thinking about it, the idea of learning tarot reading emerged.”
We started learning tarot out of curiosity, but now we are quite serious about it. As our friends who come for tarot card readings have many worries and concerns, we have studied hard so as to be able to read the cards as precisely as possible.
“Our tarot card readings are basically just for fun, but if a person is encouraged or relieved a bit by them, both sides can be satisfied. Of course, besides that, the tarot cards themselves are fun to learn, so we are more enthusiastic about it. I think that both magic and tarot are similar in that they can give people a lot of pleasure.”
“JOKER has only one goal, namely to entertain people. We don’t do amazing magic tricks, but when we see people look surprised by or smile at our little tricks, we feel rewarded for our efforts. It also has the advantage of helping you to get along easily with strangers. Magic gets rid of awkward moments with mirrors. Therefore, you shouldn’t hesitate to knock on JOKER’s door. If you visit us with a light heart, saying, ‘I’m a bit bored. Shall we go to see a magic trick?” or “Shall we go for a tarot card reading?’ you will some unexpected fun awaiting you! It is for that very moment that our members are honing their skills.”

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