Project Salamangka - Rannie Raymundo

At the age of 3, I started playing drums. At the age of 4, I started playing the piano. Martial Arts was also my thing at that age and I broke my first hollow block with my bare fist then. Of course I had to wear a cast but that didn’t stop me from going on. At the age of 5, I was already playing the guitar. And the singing? Must have been a little after I started talking… Incidentally, I was well versed with the Chinese, Spanish, and English languages by then (our next door neighbor was Chinese, my grandmother spoke Spanish and I went to a pre school that was a mix of international students). At the age of 7, magic was my next conquest.

After watching the magic show of the great Sorcar, I fell in love… not with Sorcar but with the magic. For some reason, I was singled out from the audience and I was brought backstage by one of his assistants after the show. The great Sorcar taught me my first trick (which I still practice to this day). And my love affair never stopped since then. Fortunately for me, I was given the opportunity to see the world at an early age. Any country we would go to the first stop was always a magic store and to see a magic show was never left out of the itinerary.

All these “interests” moved on to become passions. The strong foundation I had from my childhood prepared me for the next phase of my life.

When I was in 2nd year high school in La Salle Greenhills, I was watching the drummer of Kundirana (a high school band) and said to myself, “next year, that will be me.”

That summer I auditioned and true enough, I got the spot. One night while I was playing drums, I thought to myself, “hey, those singers in front of me are getting more of the spotlight. I’ll be singing in front next year.” Sure enough, I became one of the soloists. One night, while I was singing, I said to myself, “what a beautiful song. I ought to be singing my own songs.” And as promised, during the break of one of our rehearsals, I stayed behind, went to the piano in the auditorium and wrote my first song. Since then, I have written over 500 songs (I stopped counting at 500!).

After all these, it was inevitable that I pursue a career as a professional musician. I wrote my first jingle for an appliance store advertisement at the age of 16. I wrote my first commercial hit at the age of 17 (“Tatlong Beinte Singko”) which incidentally catapulted my friend’s singing career. Once again, I found myself saying to myself, “I want people to hear the voice of the songwriter. I want them to hear how my songs should be sung.” Just for kicks, I gave a copy of one of my songs to Vince St. Price, DJ of 99.5 RT. After a week, the song “Hanggang Kailan” was in the RT Top 40. In less than a month, it was in the top 3. It wasn’t long before a record company signed me up and I went on to do major concerts here and abroad. Film director Laurice Guillen tapped me to be part of the film “Bakit Ngayon Ka Lang?”. Acting and singing became my life since then. My schedule was horrendous and I practically lived in a suitcase. To keep my sanity, I had my magic and continued to harness this craft by creating and improving my skills. I had the world as my stage from those long plane trips, hanging out in hotel lobbies, meeting my audiences after each show. I was the only magician who can sing and act. Or it could be the other way around.

In the mid-nineties, a group of magicians and I formed a club in order to further enhance this craft. Since then, I have moved on to joining other clubs and am now actively part of MAGFI (Magicians Foundation, Inc.) being the Vice President of Internal Affairs. Internationally, I have formed alliances with magical greats such as Vinny “The Godfather” Marini and I am now a part of his La Famiglia, a group of select magicians from around the globe. With this bigger picture, my goal is to put the Philippines in the map of the magic world.
I believe in the talent of the Filipino magician and once again, I have said to myself, “I want to fortify the art of magic in the Philippines and to uplift the Filipino magician as well.” Together with the efforts of fellow magicians, I have created the first magic convention in the country called The Gathering and with the help of Mayor Lito Atienza, have the month of May be declared as the official Magic month in the City of Manila.

This was kicked off by a month-long festivity highlighting magic in the said city called “May Magic sa Maynila”. To unite the different magic clubs in the country, I formed The Alliance of Philippine Magicians to be its umbrella organization. In my advocacy to create and help new magicians, I have taken in a select group to train in what we call The Tavern. I have also formed the Manila Famiglia (patterned after La Famiglia) comprising of my best students and members. To date, aside from all that, I have ventured into sculpting, photography, writing a book, directing, producing, sound engineering and running my own recording studio, managing my importation business, and being a father. People always ask me how I could juggle all these things and manage to keep sane? Did I forget to mention that I also juggle? Or did you miss out on the part that I am a magician?.....

They say life begins at 40. I have lived mine before I reached that age. Can you imagine what 40 onwards would be like?

As an old saying goes, a magician never reveals his secrets. But this time, I will break that and tell you how I do it…..

It’s simple. I love what I do. I enjoy life. I value whatever time God has lent me. I value whatever gifts God has given me. And whatever hurdle I face, I never let that broken right foot get in the way. I never did. And I never will.

And that’s all of me… FOR NOW…