The answer to how Thai magician Amorn Nueangkanya got the stage name Stoneman is a simple one; it was given to him by Batman; his trainer at Batman Magic school in Bangkok.

This was not because he had aspirations of being perhaps the slowest and hardest superhero since Fantastic Four’s Thing, but because his birth name of Teerayuth means ‘strong’ in Thai.

He certainly comes across as the strong silent type when he starts his show, “For the first 15 minutes when I get on stage I do my magic show without a greeting or saying a single word. This makes the audience wonder and concentrate on my magic show more.”

This is not just because he can’t speak English (although he has started taking lessons) but is the very deliberate and convenient first step of his magic show. Stoneman uses a
variety of magic tricks and illusions during his hourlong show, his favourite bring the classic flying card trick; “it is the most challenging and most difficult. I took two years to practice and perfect it, while the other magic tricks took from a few days to a
month.”

Stoneman throws the cards in the air and somehow has them fly back to his hand just like a boomerang. This among his many other tricks was learned when after his year-long ‘magical apprenticeship’ with Batman in Bangkok he returned to Pattaya to join another superhero of the illusion world; DrMan. They performed for the Open Eyes magic show company in Pattaya and this was where he had his first show, alebit as one where his character’s name was Bozo.

“I dressed up as a clown and performed balloon tricks, this I eventually developed into a stage show where I used cards and bunches of flowers. I also made birds appear and disappear in front of people but for me I used a chicken, which is much bigger than a bird.” Indeed.

He continues, “then I moved on to a close-up show, where I participated with the audiences. For example; the audience picks a card (any card!) and I correctly guessed. This was quite difficult, because I had to control the cards as well as the audience to pick the card that I wanted. For this I have to use a lot of mental power.”

Stoneman is currently practicing body cutting magic and will soon be ready to perform the ‘saw a woman in half trick.’ “One thing I want to try is putting a mask on, turning around for a second and then turning back with another mask on.”

Come see Stoneman, the man with many names, many masks and many tricks.