THEIR act lasted only five minutes but that was enough for popular local magician duo J C Sum and "Magic Babe" Ning to set a new world record.

Hundreds were thrilled at Central shopping mall on Saturday to witness a magical moment when the two set a world record by performing 15 illusions in five minutes. The previous record, held by a Dutch magician, was 10 tricks in five minutes.

The pair joked that they had actually offered two feats to the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) to close this year's Singapore River Festival, thinking that the STB would choose the easier one.

No such luck.

Adjudicators from the Singapore Book of Records and the International Brotherhood of Magicians presided over the feat, which also featured a trick where Sum, after sawing Ning in half, rotated her upper torso a full 360 degrees around her lower torso.

"The international magic community has acknowledged that this is a world record," said a visibly pleased but perspiring Sum. "It's really mentally and physically exhausting though. It's like having a great cardio workout, but doing mental sums at the same time."

"Every illusion is different so you have to focus on the moment," added Ning. "And if you just space out for even one second, that's very risky."

She should know. Ning was injured during rehearsals for the 360-degree sawing trick and had to be rushed to the accident and emergency ward just a week prior to the show. She was still sporting the bruises.

"It's very physical," said Sum. "It's not like street magicians and their card tricks. You can't get injured from card tricks."

"Well, maybe paper cuts," quipped Ning.

They won't be trying to outdo this feat just yet ("I think 15 is the limit," laughed Sum), but the duo aren't going to rest on their laurels. They're already prepping up for their next mega event in August: To teleport "a large inanimate object", was all they would say.

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