Hong Kong

‘What do I do?’. Two plane journeys and 2,340 miles from India, and I’m looking over to Hong Kong City at the tallest buildings I’ve ever seen. Hong Kong is made up of a number of islands; Kowloon, which I’m on, looks over to Hong Kong City’s skyline, captivated. I look at it for the first time and say to myself, out loud, ‘what do I do?’ – I can’t take a picture that’ll capture the panorama fairly, and the buildings are too exclusive to go and explore or play in just yet, so I just watch for now, mouth open.

I slept for most of the first day, owing to little rest on the journey (an hours lightning storm out of the window - terrifying and amazing - didn’t help). The next day I spent doing what I’d dreamt of for the past two weeks in India – swimming. I’m a rubbish swimmer, I’m not even particularly fond of water, but to be floating around freely, surrounded by beautiful skyscrapers reflecting the sky silver-blue, was a dream after the repressive heat of Delhi, tramping on hot stone and cracked earth all month.

Hong Kong is manic. Everything moves at triple speed here; walking, talking, even food preparation all moves super fast, and with precision. After a month of adjusting from Britain to India, arriving in the centre of Hong Kong is a huge rush - exciting, confusing, and overwhelming. I feel like I’m travelling to different worlds, not just countries. The landscape, architecture, language, people, history and culture all have a completely different and unique being, a world apart from what I’ve seen so far. I like the initial rush of excitement of seeing new parts of the world, the fear that I’m lost and have no idea what I’m doing here – but I’ll never get used to it.

Step 1 – find my feet again…

Tom DeVoe World Trip - India Video (HD)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USchySWm7xA

Here it is - the HD, full-screen video of my time in India. Featuring scenic footage across New Delhi, an impromtu after-show at Fever 104FM, performing for the Hindustan Times and shooting footage for CNN-IBN.

CNN-IBN

So I made it to television. The boss at the radio show had called CNN while I was in his office, and a few days later I got the invitation. They sent a car to pick me up and I had a long journey to prepare my nerves. The plan was to perform at their news room, a little something at each desk – spoonbending at the sports desk, mindreading at the politics desk and so on…and then something for the whole newsroom, all of it filmed for their news programme as well as their entertainment show.

After half an hour of performing tricks, I then had to do some links and other material to the camera. I was pretty exhausted and I’d just been blindfolded, with sticky tape over my eyes, for the past five minutes, so I wasn’t feeling my strongest, but I think it all came across pretty well. I was quite clueless as to what they wanted from me, I wasn’t sure whether to play it cool (as I do so well) or be a little more full of life – we’ll have to see how the show comes out. The sound technician managed to recorded some footage with my camera too, so that’s completed the video, which I’m uploading now, very nicely. The reporter said that he’d also send me the finished piece so hopefully that’ll get onto youtube soon too.

What a great way to finish things here in India. I only have my next destination to think about now - Hong Kong - got my Lonely Planet here already, and we’re ready to go.

Hindustan Times

He Can Read Your Mind

Rajesh Ahuja

Twenty one isn’t an age to indulge in mind reading. Tom DeVoe feels the same. But the British lad still can’t help being a mind illusionist. In the Capital recently to put some of his choicest tricks on display – like splitting a spoon into two pieces by channelling positive energy towards it – the artist gave us a peek into his own grey space. “I have been studying mind reading for seven years. My talent may be unusual, but I am not a freak”, he said with a chuckle.

The sociology graduate from Leeds University derives pleasure out of surprising people with his talent and loves to wax lyrical about his escapades across the world. “I left home on my 21st birthday and plan to return when I turn 22. I think mind reading is still an untapped field which the world is finally waking up to”, he said.

DeVoe, who hails from Wales, started out by performing for friends and charity. “I’ve followed illusionists like David Blaine and Derren Brown through books and videos. But unlike magicians, human psychology intrigues me. I’ve always been good at guessing what others are thinking. This is an extension of that”, he added.

For someone who’s dead set against looking for ‘cheap publicity’ through talent hunts like Britain’s Got Talent, Tom would rather have his work do the talking. “Artists don’t need TV shows to display their talent”, he said. Are his parents cool with his trampling this unexplored territory? “Oh yes, they are. They don’t think I’m a jerk”, he said with a laugh. Good for you, brother.

A Long, Lucky Day

Two big events yesterday; a radio show in the morning, and then an interview for one of India’s biggest newspapers in the afternoon. Fever 104 FM is a young, modern station owned by Virgin on a floor high up in the huge Hindustan Times building in New Delhi. The guy who works in the elevator, taking it up and down all day, took me up to the studios. The show went incredibly well – did a few mind reading things with the DJ, working out words he was thinking of. His reaction – ‘we’ll have to bleep this out…F**K!’. They challenged me to try it with a caller. I showed the DJ that I’d influence her think of the number 69, and after a quick chat with her I asked her to name two numbers – ‘six’, then ‘nine’. They couldn’t believe it. She said later that she’d also had the image of blue boxer shorts in her head for some reason. I gave the DJ a peek of mine. It was my lucky day – blue.

In my closing routine, I got people to blindfold me up, with coins taped over my eyelids and a borrowed scarf to wrap around it all, and I was to work out and describe in as much detail as possible what objects people in the room were holding in their hands. I even had someone get out a bank note and I called off its’ serial number. This played so great and I was in darkness for quite a while. The boss came in and asked me to name the make of his watch – ‘TAG heur’. When I was unbandaged, the studio and mixing room outside was full of people all wanting to get a look at what was going on.

I was well taken care of. The boss pulled me into his office afterwards, got me lots of food and chai, and we talked for a long while about what I do. He made phone calls, and grilled me about the possibility of taking to the sweepstakes and even sitting me down opposite his main rival to see what I could get out of him. I told him it wasn’t quite like that. On the subject of spoon bending, he got excited and rallied the whole office together for an impromptu show with some of the canteen’s silverware. People kept coming to me and giving such amazing compliments, compliments I’m too modest to list, but too proud to not mention. One woman asked if I meditated, if that was where I got my ‘powers’ from. I told her it wasn’t quite like that either. All in all, it was an amazing morning, with the paper interview still to go.

The Hidustan Times is an Indian institution. With a readership of 6.6 million, it is the second most-widely read English newspaper in India. The reporter who met me got me straight up in front of his colleagues to perform. I was pretty exhausted from the morning, but gave it a good shot. More mind reading and metal bending, we had the interview and they took some photos. A long and tiring day, but a really memorable one with lots of footage, and hopefully a good article in one of India’s most popular papers.

India will have one single video that captures my time here, some scenic footage, some performance. It’s already in the making and will be awesome. Two weeks left today.

Where's the Beef?

The difference between an Air Conditioned room and a non-Air Conditioned room at this hostel is about a pound. I’ve stayed in both. But ‘AC’ or ‘non-AC’ is a kind of code for something else. They’re pretty much the same temperature, with non-AC blasted by seven huge fans on the ceiling that make anything lighter than a rock flap and wave in their breeze. AC means bigger beds, better kept, and bigger lockers. AC means a balcony and four to a dorm. Non-AC means twenty stuffed into a room. While AC dorms have a toilet and toilet paper, non-AC guests have a hole and some kind of bucket system that I still haven’t worked out or plucked up the courage to ask about. I’m in an AC. Though I’m here to absorb the culture, I still need something to absorb my ‘culture’.

A meal here is about 70p and tastes pretty good. The water is apparently cleaned through ‘reverse osmosis’, but I’m not taking any chances, and so far no Delhi Belly. Despite the tasty Indian food on offer, I couldn’t help fancying a big ol’ burger and hopped in a rickshaw to a McDonalds in the rich centre of Delhi. I walked in and their menu seemed a little strange – no classic burgers as we know them, but lots with the word ‘tikka’ in them. And I twigged – no beef. Bloody deities spoiling my feast. All was not lost, however, as Pizza Hut did a nice Pepperoni pizza in their ‘foreign and exotic pizzas’ section of the menu.

The days are uncomfortably hot. It’s supposed to be monsoon season, but it isn’t raining. Sweat is your day companion, and mosquitoes your night. Magic has taken a back seat until I’m more comfortable and confident in the culture and its locations. I’ve been to a few places I’d like to perform on the street, I’ll go back prepared soon.

New Delhi, India

I am in India. The plane journey was fine – plus now there isn’t much point me being afraid of flying anymore after the taxi ride from the airport. The tiny cars, motorbikes and canvas-roofed three wheelers weave and dart into each others paths, horns beeping incessantly, with terrifying accuracy. The lanes aren’t noticed, and oncoming traffic is ignored. A rush, more like pins and needles, shot through my arms and legs when I saw my first gang of monkeys lurking on the roadside. But then came rows of blue tarpaulins, held up with a stick or two, home to whole families. At a junction, a young girl twisted her arms behind her head, and through a small wooden hoop she contorted her even smaller body, picking it up from her feet. Her sister played a drum on the floor, her brother begged in the dirt. Another young girl holding a baby slaps it in the face to make it cry. This is culture shock. Not the rush of new smells and tastes, but seeing how people are forced to live, while I just pass on through.

Some of the roads are wide and long, the buildings in the Centre are huge – Reebok, Nike, McDonalds are all here. The grand Victorian architecture exists a taxi ride away, but this isn’t the real Delhi. The roads are thin and caked in mud, the drains overflow with waste. At night, kids sleep on their backs on the pavement and in the road. Some, on their hands and knees, search through the rubbish for food. Slow, skinny dogs wander all over.

I’m in a big hostel in the diplomatic area, and have met lots of people, including Indians who’ve shown me around the city. There’s a lot to see and to learn. The three-wheeler taxis are called ‘tuk tuks’. Men here hold hands. Young women call old men ‘Uncle’. Indians often speak to each other in English; 'the Englishers left, but their language stayed', my new friend told me. It’s a very strange place, not quite like anywhere else and completely different to home. I’m still just finding my feet.

Here We Go!

After 12 months of planning, plenty of teeth grinding and eventually a few tears - we're off. This day last year, on holiday in Canada, I decided I wanted to travel for a year performing and now here we are. I'm now operating under new rules, borrowed from the worlds of drama students and the homeless - constant self-publicity and never turning down a free meal.

It's been a bloody long day; just got to my oldest friend's near Gatwick where I'll be staying until Saturday when I fly out to Delhi.

I can't thank my family enough for all their support and help, without which I wouldn't have got even this far. And I really want to thank my friends who gave me the most amazing surprise birthday I could imagine - it made my year to say the least - really unforgettable.

Next stop - New Delhi, where I'll gain a day - leaving at night on the 15th and arriving in India on the same morning. Great inspiration for a magic routine...

THE GEM Newspaper Thursday, April 30th, 2009

Life’s an illusion for student Tom

A Vale student, who dreams of becoming a professional ‘mind illusionist’, begins a journey across the globe in August – which he hopes will launch his career

Tom DeVoe (20) from Aberthin will begin his globe-trotting trip on August 13, his 21st birthday, and plans to return exactly a year later.
He said: “It is called the ‘Without Borders World Trip’ and officially it starts in London.
“I’ll travel to India, Hong Kong, China, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, the Cook Islands and the USA, performing every step of the way.
“The idea is for everything to be spontaneous, so once in a city I’ll be in touch with newspapers to publicise what I’m doing, and hotels and other venues where I can perform.
“Among many seldom-seen feats, I will work out the PIN number of an American policeman, predict the headline of an Australian newspaper one week in advance, and describe in detail objects from an audience when I’ve got coins on my eyelids and I’m blindfolded.
“To travel the world doing what I love, performing for people across the globe, is the most challenging, exciting venture I could ever have imagined.
“It will be a huge test of my abilities, but I love an adventure and can’t wait to begin the trip of a lifetime.”
Tom, a former pupil at Cowbridge Comprehensive School, is coming to the end of a course in sociology and social policy at Leeds University.
Despite his youth and the audacity of his act, Tom is sure he can make a success of the trip.
“The things I’m attempting are ambitious, but that’s what makes it more impressive. I’m confident because I’ve been developing my skills for seven years”.
Tom uses psychology, suggestion and what he describes mischievously as “more devious methods” to read minds and baffle his audience.
He started performing in the Vale at charity events and has honed his act while in Leeds.
Following a guest appearance on the LSRfm Breakfast Show in Yorkshire, Tom was given a regular slot on the programme, and began his popular weekly feature, Midweek Mindgames, where each week he read the minds of the people in and out of the studio.
Tom hopes that during the year away he will have accumulated lots of material which can be used in the future.
“By the time I return, a year later, at the age of 22, I hope I’ll have lots of videos and stories for my website which will enable me to market myself professionally.”
Like any good illusionist, Tom has one final surprise, and that’s where his unusual name springs from.
“My real name is Tom Evans, but for performing I wanted to think up something new and fresh.
“It was only when I googled it that I found out that the surname actually exists”

Tom’s adventure can be followed on tomdevoeworldtrip.blogspot.com

Here is a copy of a full-page interview in LS2 magazine in Leeds Student written before the trip was booked, and complete with a great out-of-context comments about girls.

Unmasking Magicians
Mystery and intrigue are the cornerstones of a successful magician. In an irreverent attempt to uncover the illusion, Leeds Student tracked down Tom DeVoe, an up-and-coming star, and Paul Daniels, a superstar from the 80s and 90s, to grill them about the art of showmanship…

Third year sociology student and part time mind illusionist Tom DeVoe is about to embark on a year long world tour. Before he goes, Leeds Student jumped at the opportunity to meet a real life Derren Brown-alike for a quick brain boggling…
It’s not as hard as you may think to convene with a world-travelling stage performer, and a few days after signing up to do the interview I was meeting Tom himself. It wasn’t in a darkened corner of an olde worlde public house as I had first imagined, but amidst milling students on a Friday afternoon in the Terrace. As excited as I was to question someone who I thought would be able to answer everything I had ever wondered about magic, I was also slightly scared that I might wake up in the middle of the night humping the washing machine (thankfully there have been no signs of this yet).

Tom has been intrigued by mind illusion since he was young and has been performing on stage and at parties for 6 years now, but surprisingly he only ‘came out’ to his friends about a year ago. He said that from an early age he’d “always be thinking about what others are thinking, and not necessarily in a caring way but that I simply couldn’t help it”.
He decided he could either try and suppress these feelings, which would drive him mad, or he could use them as a form of entertainment for others. This in no way means that Tom thinks he has a gift, or any special psychic ability which makes him different from anyone else. Instead, he describes his talent by saying, “anyone can learn to play the piano but not everyone is going to be Mozart”.

This characterises the witty, charismatic and slightly quirky responses Tom gave throughout my two hours with him and thankfully his strong sense of morals also shone through, especially by his emphatic “no” when asked if he used his powers to get girls – or on second thoughts, was that just part of his game?!

When I asked him why he’d kept his passion such a secret for so long he replied, “there is too much of a stigma attached to being ‘magic boy’ and I don’t like being the centre of attention”.
This seemed slightly strange to me considering he’s planning a world tour, but who was I to argue? Now that his friends do know about his hobby they think it’s really exciting, and a much more assuring explanation for why he’d been sneaking out the house late at night than what they’d come up with. Although, there is a down side to Tom’s unveiling as rather annoyingly for him they now refuse to play him at poker!

His stage show and close-up tricks are similar to the type of illusions Derren Brown does, which involves a mixture of suggestion, showmanship and psychology. He has consciously stayed away from ‘magic tricks’ as he finds creating a connection between people “more entertaining and exciting”.

Tom spends his spare time writing new material and comes up with ideas by either reading through obscure books which reveal the secrets of illusions or working out how the old masters did the tricks and modernising them. Sadly for me, Tom wouldn’t reveal the mystery behind any of his tricks but he did say that most of them involve real concentration, practice and the ability to read people, rather than underhand trickery.

There are also certain perks which come with the territory: “After shows I often have overly friendly girls approach me with their phone numbers”, he says. However, he’s never 100% certain about how the act is going to go and things do go wrong. His first experience of this was when he was in Prague aged 16 and was trying to impress a couple of girls. He got one to close her eyes and be aware of any sensations she felt and then tapped her friend twice on her right shoulder. When he asked the first girl if she could feel anything she described the exact motion he’d performed on her friend and was so scared when Tom told her that he hadn’t actually touched her at all she burst into tears.

This reaction has put him off performing the trick again but usually when things go wrong it doesn’t phase him. Once when he was telling members of the audience what object they were holding whilst wearing a blindfold with coins taped over his eyes he guessed it was a false leg when in fact it was a big Goth’s boot! He says that members of the audience reacted well and found it funny and that they forgot about the small difference as it made the illusion all the more real and believable.

Taking these tricks around the world may be a whole different challenge though as although he hasn’t yet finalised any stops on his year long trip the culture difference and possible language barrier will make his performance all the more tough to execute. He leaves on 13th August 2009, his 21st birthday, and will start performing street shows and using the press from this to attract bigger audiences and secure venues. It’s not all about the illusions though, as like most students he sees it as an opportunity to travel, broaden his horizons and discover more about himself.

You can follow his travels at tomdevoeworldtrip.blogspot.com or join the Facebook group ‘Without Borders World Trip’ as he will update each of these with videos and stories from his performances as he goes. When he returns he hopes to pursue illusion as a full time job, although he claims modestly that he’s “not interesting enough to be famous”.

He finishes the interview by astounding me with a few tricks, the best being when he wrote down the exact time of day I was thinking of whilst getting our photographer to change the time on his watch to the exact time in my mind as well – all be simply looking deep into my eyes. That finished off a pretty spectacular meeting with a very intriguing guy, and I can’t wait to see how his world tour goes.

Words/ Sarah Blower

BOOKED

So now it's real. The tickets are booked and the countries on the route that I'll be working through are finally set in stone. After weeks of consideration and planning, leaving from London, the main destinations on the 12 month journey are -

UK - INDIA - HONG KONG - CHINA - SINGAPORE - AUSTRALIA - NEW ZEALAND -COOK ISLANDS - USA - UK

Each country and their specific cities have been chosen with consideration to language, venue and work possibilities, as well as general 'lushness'. Specifically, the cities that I should spend most of the time in will be Delhi, Hong Kong, Singapore, Sydney, Wellingon, Auckland, Rarotonga and Los Angeles. I had a quick look at Rarotonga, in the Cook Islands, on Google Earth, and all that's visible other than green is their wee airstrip with a single plane parked on it, so I knew I had to go. Apparently the airport is only open for one day a week, so let's hope I don't have to leave in a hurry. It's an exciting and exhausting list to look at, but there's so much to do before my 21st and I actually head off. Publicity is a priority before the trip begins, and I know about as much about the media as they know about me, so I've definitely got my work cut out.

This is the first big step in about 26,000 miles, and I've got so many ideas so I hope you're excited too.

Midweek Mindgames '08

Following a guest appearance on the LSRfm Breakfast Show last year, I was given a feature, Midweek Mindgames, in which to perform a little something with the other presenters each week. Far from the most amazing, but still my favourite to listen back on was an effect based on suggestion that went out during the run up to Christmas last year. I wanted the effect to have a prize element to it, but to leave those who don't win with something nice, with it being Xmas and all. So here it is for you, thanks to the Producer Jenny Clarke, and to Olly Bradley-Barnard and Nick Wright, the other presenters on the show.

Radio, Surfing, and Aussie Agents

Firstly, thanks to all who have joined the facebook group, Without Borders World Trip - this will be the easiest way to keep up to date with all the best videos during the trip. Also, thanks to Joe Ellis and the rest of the team for plugging the Trip on CSRfm last week.

Something I'll be hoping to use a lot, and something you might want to look into if you're considering travelling at some point is couchsurfing.com - it's a free internet-based hospitality service with over 974,000 members. A volunteer based network, couchsurfing connects travellers with people who live in the counties and cities they plan to visit who offer free accommodation or just to show you around town. Members offer their couch, spare bed, or floor to people for a few nights and in return, when they are travelling, they can take advantage of the same hospitality from other members. The site was started by a guy who bought a cheap ticket from Boston to Iceland, and rather than stay in a hotel or hostel, emailed 1500 students at the University of Iceland asking if he could stay, and received more than fifty offers. Definitely a useful service to have in mind!

I'm currently emailing a number of enthusiastic entertainment agents in Sydney. The plan initially was to be very romantic - turn up in a city with nothing and get publicity and shows from scratch. But I think it would be smarter to have a few contacts in a number of cities, and maybe a few gigs planned ahead to be sure.

I had a great interview with Leeds Student Newspaper last week, I performed one thing with them and ended up being there for over two hours! Should be published in next week's edition - I'll post details when I get a copy.

Facebook Group - join up!

There's now a facebook group for the Without Borders World Trip, so join up by searching 'Without Borders'! This way you'll be able to keep right up to date with all the latest before, and especially during, the trip in August.

In other news, compiling the definitive list of destinations for the trip has brought up the issue of language barriers. Since so much of what I do depends on language, I'll have to limit the number of non-English speaking countries I visit as performing could prove tricky if no one has a clue what I'm saying. Metal bending I think is a great universal spectacle, especially with people's own things like their coins and I can really see people loving this in somewhere like Tokyo where you hear so much about some of the eccentric, often punk, culture within the city. Hong Kong is a strong contender too, but I've heard from some people that the authorities can have a swift disapproval of street performing which I hope to do a lot of and I want to spend as little money on bail as possible on the trip.

Publicity

This month saw the start of my pursuit for publicity for the Without Borders World Trip, and the offers are already coming in. After just a couple of emails to the local media I know off the top of my head, interviews with the Sanctuary and Leeds Student newspapers were lined up. ITV local have also said that they’d like me to write a guest blog on their site with a video to ‘kick off’ the trip in August.

I met with the Arts Editor of the Sanctuary, Abigail Ledger-Lomas, yesterday and performed one of my favourite effects with her after the interview. I gave her an envelope the day before and told her to keep it safe and not to open it, a prediction of tomorrow’s events. On the day, I asked her to choose a page of her copy of The Spectator magazine, then she was to hold the magazine without looking at it and draw a small circle onto her page. Out of the eight or so words she circled, she chose one single word - admirer. This word, chosen from a random page of her magazine, from a circle she drew, from a number of words within was admirer, and she didn't want to change her mind. She opened the envelope that hadn't left her possession for a moment - 'ADMIRER', signed Tom DeVoe x
I'll post the interview as soon as it's published.

The Very Modern Mindreader

Here is a wee video that's used by an entertainment agency in Leeds, Xi Entertainments. We decided on the title, 'The Very Modern Mindreader', which I thought sounded pretty cool. The sound quality is shocking as it was a windy, windy day but I think you get the point. It was filmed a good while ago now, outside our old house in Hyde Park, Leeds. 'That's weird - you're weird' is fair enough I suppose, I've definitely had worse. Listen out for a delightful voice-break at 11 secs, all part of the act :)

Get Involved!

Do you want to see me work out the PIN number of a New York cop, or predict the headline of an Australian newspaper a week in advance?

On August 13th 2009, my 21st birthday, I’ll be setting off on a twelve month world trip, performing mind reading, hypnosis and all kinds of illusions along the way. And the best part is – you can follow every step of this amazing journey.

As well as posting regular videos of some of my best performances from around the world, you can comment on the videos and posts, suggesting what you want to see next and where. If you’ve been somewhere particularly special or beautiful in an area I’m passing through, or you’ve always wanted to go somewhere yourself, let me know and I’ll try to go there and perform. If you have any really great ideas, I’ll try and do it – the more adventurous the better!

To get involved, follow and keep up to date with the blog for more posts and videos to come! You can also visit my website tomdevoe.t35.com to read more about me and what I do.