It’s not every day you get the chance to meet a magician (or, Ma-sul-sa (마술사) in Korean), so I was delighted to be invited to speak with Theatre Maker and Illusionist Yollin Lee where he performs in residence at Bermondsey’s The Last Talisman. Actually, not only did I have the pleasure of speaking with him but also the privilege of watching him perform. Lee is charismatic and engaging, both on stage and off. His performances are fun and surprising – it was clear his audience was thoroughly entertained.
Lee traces back his first interest in magic (마술/Masul in Korean) to when he was ten years old and watching magic on yahoo (pre YouTube). At that time, he said, magic was more famous in Korea than it is today. As part of the national holidays there were a lot of magicians on television and “I really loved it. I thought maybe I could do magic one day.”
His professional tagline records the extent of Lee’s magical talent as boiling down to three words: Magician. Manipulator. Illusionist. Of course in reality he is much more than all of these. Lee is the first Korean professional magician to be based in London, UK. Lee has also joined the cast of the West End show ‘Wonderville’, within which, his 20-minute performance includes parlour magic and sleight of hand tricks. He has also previously performed as an illusionist as part of the Europe Tour for the magic show “C’est La Magie”. Lee modestly did not mention that he performed in front of 12,000 on this tour, which is the biggest in Europe.
For those who may not know the distinction between the three phrases, Lee kindly explained to me the technical differences in the latter two terms. “Manipulation,” he explained, “is a genre of magic, that places more focus on sleight of hand. By comparison, normally an ‘Illusionist’ does not just perform magic, but rather combines magic with storytelling. Like CGI in movies. Magic in this sense has a role which shows the visual aspects to tell the story.”
I was eager to know more about the training that goes into reaching the standard of performance Lee has attained. He has progressed from someone who can perform small tricks (meaning his first magic) to someone performing professionally all over the continent in front of large audiences. The answer starts with his having studied at a magic academy. Through this Lee learned magic and set up his own magic company in Korea where Lee worked alongside his mentor. Lee said that he learned a lot about performance during this period of time. “Unfortunately,” Lee shared, “there is no standout course anymore in Korea so magicians like me have to learn and study ourselves. It can be really difficult to learn tricks. I experiment a lot. There has been a lot of trial and error. The perfection of my craft has been challenging.”
When I asked Lee what his favourite trick to perform is, his face lit up, and he cheerfully replied: “Oh! It involves card manipulation. Card manipulation is my favourite.” We talked a little bit about what this kind of trick entails, and he was happy to give a quick demonstration of how he is able to make objects disappear using sleight of hand and bring it back again, something which he confessed he is really good at.
Faye: How long does it take to learn and perfect a new trick?
Yollin: I wouldn’t say I’ve perfected any trick as yet! (Again, modest) but I suppose it takes me about a month to get really good at a trick, although that also depends…Some are easier than others. A simple trick doesn’t take that long, but those involving interaction and other party involvement take a bit longer. There has to be interaction between me and the other person and that can be challenging to get right. You don’t have that long to create a rapport.
Lee moved to London in 2022. He shared with me the moment he decided to commit to a life here in the UK, as one that occurred after a profound experience in the West End in 2019. “After I shut down my magic company,” Lee said, “I felt unsure as to whether I should continue to be a magician or not. I visited Paris and there I met some fellow magicians. They recommended that I visit the West End so I travelled to London and stayed for three days. I just felt like I was supposed to be here. There was an illusion at a magic show I attended and when I saw the poster for the performance on the wall of the theatre, somehow they had a layer of the poster (like a mirror) that reflected myself. I thought wow I really want to be here. I wanted to support myself. It was in that moment I decided to come here.”
It did not happen immediately however, because of the pandemic but Lee used this time as a chance to save money (and practice) and moved here last year. He described this as being an event of great excitement. Since then Lee has won lots of awards and prizes including 3 trophies.
You might be wondering how English magic differs from Korean Magic. Lee happily talked with me about the differences between the two. “British magicians,” he said, “are really good at interaction, so they incorporate a sense of comedy into their performances. They do a great job at sleight of hand. In Korea,” he continued, “it is a different type of entertainment. Most of the audiences are children. There is also more of a sense that people don’t want to get involved in the performance itself, they prefer to watch it. Here in the UK, however, people want to have that interaction so I had to adapt my style. I allow for the magic to take place in their hands.”
“The second main distinction between the two”, Lee continued, “is that in Korea, the perception is that magic is something for children to enjoy.” We talked a little bit about the differences in performing for adults and children. Lee shared with me that he finds performing for children difficult. “They are,” he said, “more impressed and believe it’s magic which is amazing, and I love that but my style is less energetic, and chilled out. Normally my magic takes more time than others as I want to create a storyline for each trick. Children naturally just want tricks, not just the story.”
As I mentioned at the start, Lee is a resident magician at the Last Talisman. This came about as a result of Lee meeting his predecessor as part of the magic circle. One day, said magician asked Lee if he would cover for him as he had another schedule and Lee happily agreed. Then smoke appeared out of nowhere and the guy vanished. I’m just kidding about the last part. Lee’s appointment just came about naturally as successor but is a really great milestone for him to have achieved. These types of residencies are hard to come by, he said, and he has been performing stage magic here (his speciality) since February, which he describes as going great so far.
F: Do you have any magic role models?
Y: Lots! Almost every time I see someone else perform!
Lee recently performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival (“Fringe”). Talking of this a little, Lee shared with me that Fringe was more about a theatrical show with some magic incorporated into it. A good word to use here is ‘collage’’ and the meaning is the sense of lots of people and things together to make something beautiful. “I wanted”, he said, “to take the concept of collage and make it meaningful. I incorporated more of Illusionist work into the show. It was my first fringe and that made it a little difficult, being that I had no previous reviews to rely on, but I had to promote on the street, and encourage people to attend our show.” His efforts paid off and lots of his performances [six in total] were completely sold out.
F: How does performing on the street differ from your audience magic shows?
Y: The language is completely different. On the stage, there is stuff to disappear and then bring back. I can encourage applause but I have to encourage people in a different way. People move on if they aren’t interested. I can take a different amount of time on stage and incorporate acting. On the street it has to be simple and quick fire otherwise people aren’t interested. Timing is important.
Lee shared with me what has been his most memorable performance to date. “It is”, he said, “a nice story, but it wasn’t actually just about the performance itself. In April, I visited Paris and was performing. After my show finished, I felt exhausted. The organiser asked me to perform for someone else, but as I was so tired I was hesitant. I enquired as to who mu audience would be and was told they were sick children who were in hospital but having a special day out. Upon learning about their circumstances I agreed to perform and the energy came from nowhere. I gave them the best performance I could and enjoyed every minute.”
F: For the last question I thought it might be fun (because: card tricks) if you pick a card which has questions on the back and answer that.
Y: *picks card*. Can I show you?
F: Of course. (see image on right)
Y: So, next week [this week just gone] I’m going to Nottingham and Newcastle. Then beyond that I am going to Germany for two months from November. There is a pre-Christmas show. Oh, actually can I tell you a little bit about my future plans? There are so many magic effects incorporated into ongoing musicals and shows so I am hoping to be a part of that – my dream is to be an illusion director for the West End. For example, as part of back to the future, there is a part where the car appears on stage and like turns around and “goes back to the future” – this is a kind of magic trick. So I’m looking to study this at university and learn more about the structure of theatre. I know about magic, but there’s lots of this to learn to help me with that, and I’m really excited about that.
