Be ready Port Moresby because Lae has found its magician!
Dressed in black, Oswald Philemon stepped in front of the judges in the pre-audition rounds, captivating the audience and leaving everyone in the room speechless!
Philemon goes by the stage name “Jack Spade” and has been performing since 2013.
He started practicing as an illusionist 10 years ago when he saw a priest from the Philippines perform a trick in Goroko, Eastern Highlands.
He is loved in his hometown in Northern Province and has proven just as great in the Lae Yu Em Khax pre-auditions. He flew all the way from Popondetta to Lae just for the tryouts.
Nadean Nui described him as the real deal. Nui was chosen from the audience to participate in one of his tricks, where a card he placed in her hand switched with the card in another participant’s hand – a metre away from each other – at the flick of his finger.
“He didn’t even touch the card, he asked me to put my hand over the other and the card just disappeared,” she said, still shocked.
Making cushion balls disappear and reappear and switching cards held by two different people did get the judges in the pre-auditions impressed.
“Now this is a real illusionist,” Ailyn Sokot, the show’s producer, said.
“He talked us through his act while performing and we knew what he was doing. He delivered exactly what he said would happen and we were like ‘wow’,” Ailyn added.
Jack Spade has already blown away judges in the main-auditions.
You can catch his act on TVWAN Life, Saturday, November 19, when Yu Em Khax Lae auditions air.