SINGAPORE — From Harry Houdini of Hungary to David Blaine of New York, magicians have always exuded an air of flamboyance and mystery. 

Their freakish, ethereal feats give the impression that the men behind the wizardry are different from us regular people. 

So I didn’t quite know what to expect when I made my way to a crowded cafe in the eastern part of Singapore on a sunny Saturday morning in July to have a chat with Singaporean magician Aman Alhamid.

As it turns out, Aman Alhamid of Tampines is very much an ordinary man. 

You could not picture Criss Angel or David Copperfield typing away at their laptops late into the night, promoting their upcoming magic show to every journalist in every publication.

In two weeks, the 40-year-old corporate trainer and father of three will perform for two nights later this month in front of a total crowd of around 500 people at the Esplanade's Recital Studio. 

FROM FATHER TO FATHER

As a student in junior college, Mr Alhamid saw a video of David Copperfield performing a stunning card trick. The American brandished a series of aces at will from a deck of cards, made them disappear, and brought them back once more.

The then teenager looked up a tutorial online and proceeded to spend a whole year practising and mastering the same card trick.

From the moment he finally nailed it, he said, there was never any doubt he would continue to make magic a part of his life. 

“I think every magician wants to learn magic because there's a small part of us that wishes it was real,” Mr Alhamid said. 

“It's kind of like making dreams come true, right? We wish we could fly, so magicians devise ways to levitate and defy reality.”

In Mr Alhamid's case, the dream that had eluded him for over three decades was a healthy and loving relationship with his late father.