How Magician Shin Lim Comes Up With New Ideas For Tricks

Okay, Shin, this has to be the nicest, biggest dressing room I've ever seen in Vegas.

It it is very big. Yeah. Yeah. It's it was made for Danny Gans. This is really the nicest dressing room I've ever seen and I'm just very glad I get to stay here.

And the decorations I have to say are are amazing and very you. So, can you walk me through what's going on behind us and actually on the wall?

Yeah, everything is gifted by fans or a present. And then some of them we we did purchase just so that we wanted to fill it up fully, especially these uh little toys here and then but everything everything was all given by like even that that card over there, those that card display was just like all handmade by fans and so we just decided to keep it all here within the dressing room.

It's beautiful. Walk me through like the pre-show ritual.

Uh, nothing too much crazy. I know a lot of performers like to get amped up, or they like to like kind of jump up and down. I've seen people do like jumping jacks sometimes. It's kind of funny. Uh, to get, you know, the adrenaline running. Uh, for my stuff, I actually have to do the opposite of that. So, I have to be really relaxed. Almost like almost in like a meditative state because I don't want too much adrenaline especially into my hands. That's that's the main concern. When there's too much adrenaline, your hands start to shake. And that is not good for, you know, very like my new, sleight of hand moves, like you have to be super like relaxed when you're performing. And so, you know, every day before show, I'm sitting like right here. This is actually my seat. This is where I this is where I sit and I relax. Uh, I drink a lot of water. Usually I drink two bottles of water because I I need to always be hydrated. And the meal is very simple, nothing too crazy.

What's the meal?

Uh, I try to eat healthy. I try to at least. But I love I love pasta. Uh, I love uh soups, I love uh any sort of Asian food, Japanese, Chinese, uh Vietnamese, yeah, all all those type of Asian foods. I I love I love a lot.

We're breaking down the Shin hair now. We're we're we're going in.

Sure. I uh you want the routine? 'Cause there's no routine. I just I wake up. I This is how I wake up. I I wake up looking a different way. So my hair will look a different way every single day. This is just how it happened to look today. And that's how I came to work today. And that's how people will see it in the show. Is is like this.

Is there product in the hair?

Yes, yes. Yeah. I use like a dry texturizer powder. So no wax. I I use no wax at all 'cause I don't like it to be sticky. So if you feel it, it's very dry. My hair is very dry.

Okay, I mean, you want to feel your hair.

Sure, sure. Yeah, yeah. It's it's very it's a very dry.

Oh, it is dry.

Yeah, it's not you have to try. Very dry. And so that's and so that's how it it it it kind of works. Um, because it's so dry and Vegas actually happens to also be a good climate for this hair.

So here you are, bringing Singapore to the strip. And not many before you have really done that. I mean, a Singaporean headlining

Yeah.

in Vegas, you might be the only one?

I never even noticed that actually until my billboard got set up. I didn't even it didn't even faze me. Like I didn't even like recognize it until I saw my face on the strip and I was like, wait a second. I think I'm the only not only Singaporean, but I think I'm the only Asian on the strip. Like headliner. It's so weird.

And as generic as this question is, how does that make you feel? What what what does that hold in your heart to be in that position?

I just feel really, um, really grateful and really lucky that I have this opportunity to represent and to do what I love as well. So, yeah, no, I I feel honored, really. That's that's how I feel.

Oh. And in the dressing room we have other guests. Hi, boys. Hi, babies. Who are these friends?

This is Natsu. Say hi, Natsu.

Hi, Natsu. Who's this?

This one's Mamoru. Go on, Mamoru. Yeah.

So this must be part of the calming.

Yes. Yes. They always hang out backstage before the show, after the show. They're little magic dogs.

Can you walk me through for a second, how long it takes you to actually think of a new trick? Ah, creating a new trick. Or are you taking old ones and just like revamping them?

I always tell people I I never actually really create anything truly original. For me, I always take the classics. Things that have already been done before and I put my own little twist to it. You know, I put like a Shin Lim twist to it or whatever you want to call it. And, you know, that's what makes it original. That's what then people all of a sudden say, oh my God, this is so new. This I've never seen anything like this before. But I'm like, no, no, no. You have seen this before. You've seen this a long time ago. I just changed it. I put music to it. I made it emotional. I did different things that, you know, other people haven't done before. And so that is my creative process. That's that's pretty much how I create is I get inspired from things that have, you know, from the greats and the giants that came before us.

And how long does it take you to perfect an act?

Um, to perfect an act takes like about a month. Yeah, after it's been created, yeah. About a month. But to create an an act in general, yeah, that one has no timeline.

Wow.

Yeah, that one you can't rush that that type of creativity. Like finding the one thing that makes uh an act unique or or like stylized to the point where people are like, oh, that's Shin's act, you know? That one you can never predict how long it's gonna take 'cause it just has to come to you.

So, this is a good support system and your wife is here who's part of the show. So, this is just it's family, it's what you do, it's love. You can't go wrong.

No, you can't. This is it's perfect every day. I get to do this.