You could use any number of clichés to describe Vinh Giang’s last few years: “success story”, for example, “overachiever”, and even “a man with many irons in the fire”. But it’s perhaps best summed up by the famous John Lennon song lyric about life being what happens to you when you’re busy making other plans.
The young Adelaide entrepreneur set out to run a business teaching magic on line and four years later finds himself an in-demand public speaker making three presentations a week and travelling to Asia and New York for lucrative speaking spots. The focus is still magic, but used in a very different way.
The story began in 2011 when Vinh and two friends from Adelaide’s northern suburbs decided to give up careers in accountancy and pharmacy to establish an online platform for teaching magic. Needless to say their parents were less than impressed, but the site Encyclopedia of Magic has been a huge success, with 42,000 students currently enrolled.
South Australian magician Vinh Giang.
The initiative also won Vinh the title of South Australian Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 2013. And then things went a little crazy. So impressed were people by his inspirational acceptance speech that he was asked to come and talk at events and meetings. Other offers followed as word spread, and Vinh honed his “act”, which uses magic and psychology as the basis for motivational presentations for a range of audiences. His engaging style helps too, as does the fact that he keeps changing the magic component to keep things fresh, and him on his toes. “There is always that element or risk with magic, and that keeps people engaged,” he said.
Vinh soon found himself on the books of national and then international agencies, and the bookings keep coming. He admits to being slightly overwhelmed by the response, but realises he has found a niche. “Agents have said to me they can find plenty of people who entertain with magic and plenty who are good motivational speakers, but none that do both,” he said. “I’ve found I love talking as much as I love magic.”
Vinh still works as a magician (he has run the most popular show at each of the past three Adelaide Fringe festivals), he mentors young magicians, he has side projects involving video and he’s involved with any number of other entrepreneurial projects around Adelaide. It’s an emerging story.
Vinh’s website includes videos of him doing his thing on stage, and an intriguing one he calls “the psychological illusion”. That one really sums him up.