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'Mind Magic Mistress' Ning Cai wants to be Singapore's Jean Grey

Ning: Mind Magic Mistress will be performing mentalism acts like her favourite X-men character, Jean Grey
Like Jean Grey, the magician will be performing feats of mentalism. (Ning: Mind Magic Mistress)

While it’s common to grow up wanting to be just like our favourite comic book superheroes, almost none of us can make it a reality – except for maybe local magician Ning Cai.

Previously known as Magic Babe Ning, the 35-year-old is back with a new persona and a bag of mind tricks. She now calls herself the Mind Magic Mistress and will be debuting her new persona at the international South Tyneside International Magic Festival that’s happening from 17 to 19 March.

But why has she chosen mind tricks over her previous escape acts? That’s because it has been a life-long dream for the celebrity magician to become, not a Jedi, but the powerful female mutant Jean Grey, a popular character from the X-Men series.

“Jean Grey from (the) X-Men is my favourite character and I felt like she’s this very cool, independent and strong modern woman. She’s able to manipulate things using psychokinesis, levitate things and make things combust,” Cai told Yahoo Lifestyle Singapore in a recent interview.

Inspired by the character’s ability to set objects ablaze, Cai impressed a panel of judges during a competition some years ago when she set newspapers on fire.

She retired her Magic Babe Ning persona and will be debuting the Mind Magic Mistress persona with mentalism and psychological manipulation abilities.
The veteran magician will be performing a whole new repertoire, including mentalism and psychological manipulation. (Ning: Mind Magic Mistress)

The veteran magician with over 15 years of experience retired from her Magic Babe Ning persona in 2014, citing bad injuries. She now hopes to return to the magic world and showcase what few people know to be her first love – mind tricks, or what many magicians would call, mentalism.

“Mentalism (consists of) psychological manipulation, mind reading, reading (a person’s) body language and subtly influencing people to do things (related to the magic trick),” Cai said.

“It’s (done) very (stealthily) and people might not realise that you are manipulating them,” she added.

The magician chatted with this reporter at the Yahoo Singapore office, where she took the opportunity to show off one of her mind tricks.

After handing over a sealed envelope that contained a deck of cards, she asked this reporter to touch her “third eye” – located on her forehead – before asking the reporter to envision a card in her mind (which was the Three of Hearts).

Guess which card emerged from the deck?

Watch the magic trick below:

Related stories:

Singaporean to be first female Asian magician to headline international magic festival

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