The Singapore magician has spent more than 20 years working out what a room will accept. In North Korea, that began with a newspaper he chose not to tear.
One of Wee Kien Meng’s regular acts uses a torn newspaper. In April 2018, getting ready to perform in Pyongyang, he looked at that trick and thought again. “I think that may be sensitive,” he says. He took a poster of himself instead.
Wee is better known as Mr Bottle. He has been doing magic since he was five, and in 2007 he registered Mr Bottle’s Kids Party, the Singapore company that runs birthday parties, family days and Kids@Work days with its own team of entertainers. He went to Pyongyang to perform at the April Spring Friendship Art Festival. By his company’s account he was the first Singapore magician to be invited, and the BBC later ran his story under the headline “Why I performed magic in North Korea”.
01 — AbroadHomework before the first trick
The poster was not a lucky guess. It is how he gets ready for every new country. “I research on the culture, people, language,” he says. The trick can stay the same. What changes is the thing in his hands.
He has had plenty of rooms to practise on. His stages have included the Happy Valley theme parks in Shenzhen, Beijing and Shanghai, an International Children’s Day show in Hohhot, in Inner Mongolia, an arts festival in Korea and a theatre in Philadelphia. His GigDay profile counts eight countries.
A newspaper is an ordinary prop in Singapore. In Pyongyang he could not be sure how the people watching would read it. A poster of his own face carried no such risk.
02 — The roomBuilt like a Disney movie
The audience he works hardest to read is closer to home. A family crowd is several audiences sitting in one room, and he has to hold all of them at once. “I always build my show like a Disney movie,” he says. “It should cater to the young, and yet still be interesting for the adults.”
The parents at the back are part of the plan. The harder split, he says, is among the children. A four-year-old and a twelve-year-old can sit side by side and want completely different shows.
“The mindset of a 4-year-old is very different from a 12-year-old.”
Wee studied psychology, and his company sorts its birthday packages by age: a choosing ceremony for a first birthday, a jungle party for ages two to four, his own magic show for four to eight, a science party for eight to twelve.
None of it came quickly. “It takes a lot of experience and experimenting, to build something that works,” he says. He once assumed that magic for children would be the easy kind. “But I was wrong!” he told The Linking Ring, the magazine of the International Brotherhood of Magicians, which put him on its cover in 2015.
The early years. Performing at a charity show for the International Brotherhood of Magicians in 2000, seven years before the company existed.Photo: courtesy of Mr Bottle’s Kids PartyPyongyang, 2018. On stage at the April Spring Friendship Art Festival, where the newspaper stayed out of the act.Photo: courtesy of Mr Bottle’s Kids PartyUp close. Close-up magic, the kind he performs at corporate gigs.Photo: courtesy of Mr Bottle’s Kids Party
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The early years. Performing at a charity show for the International Brotherhood of Magicians in 2000, seven years before the company existed.Photo: courtesy of Mr Bottle’s Kids Party
03 — The businessClients with more choices
Wee met members of Ring 115, the Singapore branch of the International Brotherhood of Magicians, in a joke shop when he was 17, and joined. Charity shows led to his first paid one. Parents kept asking for balloons, face painting and games as well, so he found people to do them. By 2007 that had become a company.
The people who book him have changed since then. “The expectations are higher, vetting of performers are more vigorous,” he says, “and the competition online has made the client spoilt for choices.”
His answer has been to keep the work in-house. The entertainers are his own team, so he controls the quality of the show a client is checking. Past corporate clients include PayPal, Facebook and Temasek Holdings.
He does not say any of this as a complaint. A client with more choices checks more carefully. A performer who has already done his own checking, on the country, the language and the ages in the room, is ready for that.
04 — In his wordsThree questions
When you perform in a new country, how do you decide which tricks will land with that audience?
I research on the culture, people, language etc. E.g. I usually do an act using torn newspaper. When performing in DPRK, I think that may be sensitive, so I replaced with a poster of myself.
How has the way clients see and treat performers changed since you started in 2007?
The expectations are higher, vetting of performers are more vigorous, and the competition online has made the client spoilt for choices.
What does it take to build a show that works for both a room full of kids and the parents watching from the back?
I always build my show like a Disney movie, it should cater to the young, and yet still be interesting for the adults. I need to think from the audience POV. As [I] perform for family crowd a lot, the tricky part is children as the mindset of a 4-year-old is very different from a 12-year-old. It takes a lot of experience and experimenting, to build something that works.
Mr Bottle’s Kids Party is on GigDay as a magic production from Singapore. The method is the same for a stage in Pyongyang and for a living room with a four-year-old and a twelve-year-old in it. Find out who is watching. Then change the trick.
On GigDay
Meet Mr Bottle's Kids Party
Magic shows, themed parties, family days and Kids@Work days from a Singapore team with more than 20 years of practice. Booked, briefed and paid through GigDay.
