HE was a three-time Asian card champion.

He was Chow Yun-fat's stand-in in the Hong Kong movie "God of Gamblers". He was a gambling consultant in a casino in Las Vegas.

And now Thomas Chan is a successful "close-up" magician.

Chan's love of magic started when he was a teenager, and has guided his career development ever since.

The Malaysia native said magic is his hobby as well as his profession, and he will never get tired of it.

After years in retirement from magic, Chan rejoined the industry recently and now works as a corporate magician for the Shangri-La hotel group.

Since his teens, when his interest in magic began, Chan has taught himself magic skills from books.

After two years as a gambling consultant, Chan decided to give up the well-paid position to be a magician on stage.

"As a gambling consultant, I helped look out for cheaters. I didn't like being a gambling consultant because I had no freedom. I was always with bodyguards," he said.

Under the dazzling lights of Las Vegas, Chan found that being a stage magician, where the performance depends on various kinds of stage props, was not his real interest. He changed jobs again because he hoped to have more opportunity to communicate with his audience. So began his life as a close-up magician at Las Vegas casinos.

"A stage magician requires 70 per cent presentation and 30 per cent skill, while a close-up one needs 70 per cent skill and 30 per cent presentation," he said.

This job also allowed Chan to get closer to his audience and interact with them.

The foundation of skills he accumulated through the years assisted him in becoming a successful close-up magician.

According to Chan, close-up magic should give people a surprise, and can be done with anything available at hand.

Chan could make the coins on a Vegas table disappear in a split second or change the time on a watch with only a quick touch.

Chan explained that he does not have especially "quick hands", but that his audience's eyes are simply "slower".

For Chan, close-up magic also makes use of misdirection, for which the magician should know the audience's psychology well.

Chan's colleagues did not understand why he chose to leave Las Vegas after he had established his reputation and had been accepted as a close-up magician at the "worldwide entertaining centre".

Chan went on to become a magic consultant, staging impressive magic shows at various ceremonies and events, such as the launch of the Boeing 767 plane and at Michael Jackson's world tour concert, where the pop singer seemed to magically appear from a cloud of smog.

In his career, Chan has had opportunities to exchange skills with other renowned magicians, never keeping his knowledge only to himself.

"If you want to keep everything a secret, you can never be successful in your career," he said.

Chan has also opened a magic learning school in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to teach those with a similar interests.

And years after he resigned from close-up magic, Chan returned to the field, his lifelong favourite, performing in Shangri-La hotels throughout China.

"I am lucky that my work is what I'm interested in," Chan said.