Magician shows sick children hope is no illusion

He can wow you with a $2 coin, but Harry Wong Cher-hong says his greatest magic tricks occur off stage when he is teaching disabled patients as part of 'magic therapy'.

Harry has been involved in a variety of media, from hosting television and radio shows to authoring a series of music textbooks. But he is most famous for Harry's Magic Street, which is shown on screens on city buses.

Harry thought of bringing magic therapy to Hong Kong two years ago. American illusionist David Copperfield pioneered the concept a decade ago with his 'Magic Project' - a programme to make occupational and physical therapy easier for patients to get through.

'Rather than just showing magic tricks to patients, he made it a hands-on experience, and he would teach the patients how to do tricks,' Harry said.

The tricks were designed to exercise specific muscles during the performance. Pulling off that neat rubber band trick, for example, was only possible by bringing your arm up to your shoulders.

Easy perhaps for the able-bodied, but for Harry's first 'subjects', it was a difficult challenge.

'I had just wanted to try the programme out a little, and was going to follow some manuals by David Copperfield and another magician,' he said. 'But the first batch of patients I encountered were SMA patients.'