Bill Cheung: A Magical Theater and a Secret Session

By Jörg Alexander

The inauguration of a new close-up magic theater and a small but exquisite convention featuring world-class Magicians—excellent reasons to accept Bill Cheung’s invitation to Wiener Neustadt for a three-day event at the end of August.

Bill is a slender, delicate man whose boundless energy and immense passion for magic may not be immediately apparent at first glance. He was born in Nanjing, China, and initially studied computer science at the Technical University there. After earning his bachelor’s degree, he moved to Vienna in 2004 to continue his studies at the Technical University of Vienna. However, his love for magic led him to abandon his planned career path and transition to professional magic in 2017.

Since winning the World Championship in Card Magic with his innovative performance in South Korea in 2018, Bill has become a well-known figure in the magic community and is evidently very well connected. Otherwise, how could he have managed to bring together five top-tier international performers for a small weekend convention near the Austrian capital? The lineup included Miguel Angel Gea, Pere Rafart, and Luis Olmedo from Spain, Jonio from Japan, and Bernardo Sedlacek from Brazil. I had just seen all these artists at the World Championship in Québec, three of whom had won awards in the competitions, while the other two were presenters at seminars.

In March 2019, during the height of the pandemic, Bill and his charming wife Yanyan Hao began searching for a location to create their own close-up theater—a bold endeavor made even more challenging by numerous regulatory hurdles. They eventually found a suitable space in an industrial area of Wiener Neustadt: an industrial hall with 450 square meters of space, nearly 7 meters of ceiling height, and ample parking right outside.

Over more than half a year, Bill and Yanyan tirelessly transformed the barren hall into a true gem. Visitors are first welcomed into the spacious bar area, which takes up nearly half of the space. The ceiling draped with golden fabric, a chandelier, and various seating areas invite guests to relax, chat, and purchase a drink at the bar that spans the entire front wall.

The theater itself features tiered seating, creating perfect conditions for close-up magic for an audience of 120. The venue was officially inaugurated at the end of August with the first edition of the Secret Session—a planned series of close-up conventions.

The weekend was packed with events: three one-man shows, five lectures, a spectacular gala—once for convention attendees and again the next day as a public show—a small dealer’s market, and an optional workshop. It was too much to recount in detail, so here are a few personal highlights:

• Bernardo Sedlacek’s double “Any Card at Any Number” effect and his explanation of the best version of “Out of This World” I have ever seen during his workshop.

• Miguel Angel Gea’s fantastic “Coins and Wand” routine.

• Pere Rafart’s chaotic, magical, and humorous FISM card act, which he thoroughly explained in his lecture, along with his brilliant idea for Jose Carroll’s “Card in Notepad.”

• Jonio from Japan, who made increasingly larger coins appear from his beard (“My beard is weird”).

• Luis Olmedo’s wonderful matrix sequence, “The Fountain,” which had already amazed me in Québec.

 And, of course, the gala show presented by the booked artists and Bill Cheung. We saw several effects that Bill will include in his future regular Shows, such as a multi-phase Rubik’s Cube routine and a signed card appearing under the glass of a picture frame.

Bill plans to perform this show, titled “Hundred Minutes of Wonder,” regularly once a week. It is a double challenge—filling a theater with 120 seats and performing in German, which is still a foreign language for him. As usual, he confronts this challenge head-on: “I spend a lot of time writing the script,” he tells me.

The convention also provided Bill with the opportunity to gather feedback and suggestions for improvement from attendees. Stephan Kirschbaum, operator of the “Nürnberger Wundermanufaktur,” and Stefan Schmitt and his wife Yvonne, who run the “Verschmittst” theater in Weilheim, offered particularly helpful advice on lighting, microphone settings, and countless other topics.

I wish Bill and his family all the best and much success with their ambitious and wonderful project. I look forward to seeing Bill’s complete show, witnessing the changes and improvements in the theater, and attending another Secret Session in the future—with great enthusiasm. I believe all the delighted attendees feel the same way.

Jörg Alexander