TL;DR – Call it magic, cut me into two.
Even if you don’t follow the America’s Got Talent television series which is currently in its 13th season, surely you’d have heard a thing or two about this show which features performers – singers, dancers, magicians, comics, musicians, ventriloquists etc – of all ages.
The finals is happening over these two days 18 and 19 September and amongst the finalists, is Singapore-raised illusionist Shin Lim who’s been compared to ‘Harry Potter without the glasses‘ and is currently leading predictions to win.
Just who is Shin?
According to Wikipedia, he was born in Canada where his Singapore-born father was completing his post graduate studies. At age two, he returned to Singapore with his family and at 11, they moved to Massachusetts, USA.
He had wanted to be a pianist until he was diagnosed with carpal tunnel. He then decided to give up music to pursue a career in magic.
The self-taught magician’s chance came when he participated in 2012 Fédération Internationale des Sociétés Magiques (International Federation of Magic Societies) when he caught the eye of an agent who brought him on a performance tour across China. Lim entered the competition again in 2015 and win the International Federation of Magic Societies World Championship for Close-up Card Magic.
Lim achieved viral fame when his performance in Penn & Teller: Fool Us was viewed over 50 million times on YouTube. Lim secured a place in the finals of America’s Got Talent when Heidi Klum proclaimed that he would be the next big name in magic.
Lim is the only magician to perform in this season’s finale of America’s Got Talent and here’s one of his previous performances,
Good luck and Godspeed.
(All images via YouTube)