C’mon baby, light my fire!
From magic show to lap dance, 10 hunks go all out to raise money for charity
By Tan Kee Yun
December 05, 2009
 
 

IF LESLIE Kwok should one day wake up with a desire to make a drastic career change, he could very well be a magician.

THAT’S HOT! Ex-national swimmer Leslie Kwok wows with magic. TNP PICTURES: JONATHAN CHOO

Going by his debut performance on Wednesday night at Park Hotel Group’s inaugural Charity Bachelor Auction, the 35-year-old former national swimmer and current spa owner certainly made an impression with his deft magic skills.

Wowing the 200-strong audience with tricks that included suspending a napkin in mid-air, lighting it up and making a rose blossom out of the flames, this suave, 1.84m-tall dude pulled off his act with ease.

Not bad for someone who had professed to this reporter prior to the event that he picked magic as his performing segment because he ‘didn’t have any talent like the other bachelors, who can sing and dance’.

Ten dashing men were up for ’sale’ at the event, held at the Grand Ballroom of Grand Park City Hall in aid of the Breast Cancer Foundation.

Sponsored prizes, including jewellery, watches and air tickets, were tagged to each of them.

ON BENDED KNEE: Market researcher Szetho Wei Shen serenades a guest.

Audiences could bid for the prizes and, along with winning those, also win a lunch date with the handsome bachelors.

Besides Leslie, there was actor Hansen Lee of TVdrama Polo Boys fame and ESPN Football Crazy host Henry Golding in the line-up.

Some went all out to bring in the bucks.

Business development manager Joshua Hong, 28, gamely took off his shirt, and market researcher Szetho Wei Shen, 27, went on bended knee to serenade a female guest as he crooned Jason Mraz’s I’m Yours on his guitar.

Golding almost stole the limelight with a sexy, gyrating ball-juggling set.

CROWD PLEASER: ESPN Football Crazy host Henry Golding gives a lap dance.

The energetic 22-year-old even leapt from the stage to give one of the female guests a lap dance – much to the delight of her female friends.

But it was Leslie’s rock-steady act that was the most visually stunning.

‘This is my first contact with magic; I’ve been practising at night over the past week,’ Leslie told The New Paper.

He learnt most of his tricks on YouTube.

But sorry ladies, you may not find him performing on stage often because entertainment is not his cup of tea.

‘Once in a blue moon, I’m game to try things like these, plus it’s for a worthy cause,’ he said.

‘But I don’t have the passion and talent to be in entertainment. I love doing my own business. It gives me my private space, which I enjoy.’

Leslie, who’s been dating a property agent for two years, swims and participates in water sports occasionally.

Competition

Even with different prizes tagged to each of the personalities, there was nary a tinge of competition among the bachelors.

Hansen raked in the highest amount of the night ($2,700), but the prize tagged to him was attractive – a pair of air tickets from Qatar Airways to any destination in the world.

No wonder the boyish 28-year-old joked during his auction: ‘I feel (the audience is) not bidding for me anymore.’

Golding’s spontaneous lap dance proved successful – he came in second with $1,300.

Leslie’s magic show attracted the third-highest bid of the night at $1,000 – via the night’s only phone bid from a mysterious woman who placed it through her friend, Mr Allen Law, the director of Park Hotel Group.

Described by Mr Law as ‘a very eligible Hong Kong lady in her early 30s’, she had apparently looked through all 10 bachelor profiles ‘carefully’ and ‘decided to put her money on Leslie’.
 

The NewPaper