khmer sources

David Blaine might think he invented street magic, and that he is the master. David Blaine can think again, says Neang Mak. This magician believes he takes illusionism to a new level—reality.

At 51, Cambodia's most famous "street magic performer" shows no signs of slowing down. In a single performance, he slits his throat, pierces his skin with needles, burns himself with naked flames, walks over broken glass (and then eats it) and sticks a skewer through his tongue. And, he claims, it is all very, very real.

"I didn't believe in this magic myself right away," the unassuming and rather fatherly performer confides offstage without a trace of irony. "It is only because I have made a living from it since I was young that I know it is real. None of the miracles I perform are 'techniques' or tricks. I use only magic. If I slice my tongue on stage, I really do slice it. I do not feel pain when I perform. If it hurt, I would not keep going out there. I am a person who is very afraid of pain. Even when I get sick and go to the doctor, I am afraid to have the injection. But when I perform, I do not know why I am so daring."

So harrowing is his performance for some viewers that after a brief appearance on Apsara TV’s 11 House Show two years ago when he appeared to decapitate himself on stage in a particularly bloody show, viewers could not believe that he could reattach his head after such a convincing live performance and rumors of his death reached hysteria level in the capital—a rumor he only found out about when he returned from a tour of the provinces to his home in Phnom Penh's Sangkat Beng Sralang. The slicing of his throat was the last straw for viewers, it seems, after he had first skewered his cheeks and chopped his tongue into a pulp.

Neang Mak says his success is all prayer related, and the feeling he gets after praying and before a successful performance is so distinctive that he would not perform at all if it failed to materialize.

"I use prayers that I repeat five, seven—up to ten times before an appearance. After I say prayers, I feel a shaking inside, and then I can perform. Sometimes, I say prayers only three times then I feel this cold shaking that means I can start performance. I say prayers until I feel this shaking which means the spirit has come to be me. This means that the performance can start. This is my habit. I do not play if I do not feel the shaking inside," he says.

Neang Mak's greatest support base is in the provinces, and he has toured the entire country with his daring, if not rather traumatizing, act. It's all in a day's work, he says, and if there was another way for him to make a living, he would.

"I have to earn money for my family. This is what I do," he says modestly. "The prayers are the key. If I put a needle through both cheeks, I say prayers to open and close the flesh. I says prayers so that I don't lose a drop of blood, and the injury will be healed in the next two or three days. Before I perform, I carry an offering of rice and walk around the stage. Doing this seals the sacred boundaries against bad people and spirits.

Magicians in the provinces want to challenge me and they are not very good. They are just the beginner magicians. If they were experienced magicians, they would draw close to us and even support us to protect this intangible belief from disappearance with time."

Neang Mak learned his trade from a monk when he was a 12-year-old boy in Kampot province. His teacher finally allowed him to perform on the stage when he was 18. At that time, he played in the drama group called Kun Krou Preah Otei Khmer Leu. The group was made up of up to eight performers, led by Mr. Pov Sakhoeun.

"I have performed ever since the Lon Nol regime. I have never faced barriers or discrimination because of my strange act. I finally established my own drama group in 1979 called Apsara Amatak, which featured about ten performers and the price was cheap. In 1990, I came to live in Phnom Penh and my group grew to include 50 people, including 19 women. The performers range from 13 to 30 years of age. We charge between 2 to 2.5 million riel per night (up to $625) according to distance traveled. The group is under the auspices of the Ministry of Interior at present."

He says his art is a Khmer tradition, and requires to support of a range of spirits for performers to survive it. Diet is important, too — no star fruit, beef, dog meat or other wild meat. Gourd, too, is forbidden.

"If I wanted to, I could use my powers for violence and change lives. I can make sacred prayers that can make people rich, or kill them by making their stomachs swell, but I have never tried. I just studied the knowledge needed to do it. But if business men ask me to make their business go well, I can. Other things, my teacher advised me not to do at all," he says. Neang Mak has four children—two sons and two daughters. Three of his children help with the performance. He is proud that his second child, 19, can perform some scenes. Neang Mak hopes that in the future, this child can replace him.