Magician Shin Lim Teaches Us a Sleight of Hand Card Trick

Hey everybody, Shin Lim is in the Young Hollywood studio. I'm Leslie Robbins. You know him, you know his hair, you know his magic. The man, the myth, the magician.

Thank you, Leslie. Thanks for having me.

Wait, I'm touching the magic hands.

No, these are just regular they're regular hands. Absolutely ordinary. Nothing special about them.

There's everything special about your hands, about you.

Oh, thank you very much.

Two-time America's Got Talent winner.

Yep.

Vegas headliner now.

Yep.

Millionaire now, I can say that, right?

No, I spent all of it.

On cards, right?

Yeah, no no no, hair product. No, I'm just kidding. Of course. Of course. I have it saved, I have it saved. I think.

Okay. I hope you. I hope, I hope, I hope so. I hope so. It's a pleasure to finally meet you. I actually have watched you perform from afar and now that you're here, you have the cards in your hands. Yes. Tell me everything. Tell me all your secrets.

How I do it?

Everything, tell me right now.

Okay. All right. Well, a lot of alone time, no girlfriend and No, no, I'm just kidding. There's a lot of dedication, a lot of practice. That's that's how it works.

Well, you're married. So does your wife know that?

Yeah. Well, she she helps me actually. She helps me a lot now. Uh with the production of the shows and everything. So it's been really cool working together and stuff.

Well, tell me how it all began. I know you were a pianist and something happened along the way that you kind of changed course.

Yeah. I got a I got carpal tunnel in both of my wrists, uh like midway while I was in in university for piano. And so I I I went to the doctor and and and he was like, you got to you got to just give up one because you're you're kind of using your hands too much at the moment because I was practicing 20 hours a week for for music school. And on top of that, I was doing magic on the side. So he was like, you got to give up one, man. You can't you can't you can't do both. So I I was like, you know what? I'm going to withdraw from piano just for a little bit. I'll pick up magic. I'll just keep doing that, see where that goes. I was I was living in my my parents' basement for like a year, two years. I wasn't doing anything when I dropped out. And then uh somehow I managed to get some gigs with magic, like a little bit of gigs here and there. And all of a sudden it just took off and I I was like, wow, I can actually do this thing. So I just I kept rolling with it.

So, of course, I want you to teach me a little bit. But how does one out there in the world actually learn magic? Do you go to magic school? Obviously, you don't. Not Hogwarts, Hogwarts don't exist. There are none.

No, no, no, no. Well, I I learned everything on YouTube.

Wow.

Yeah, yeah, as a cuz I I couldn't, you know, afford a mentor. I couldn't afford like books or anything like that. So like YouTube was like the free, I mean it's it's really bad tricks that are taught on there. Like they're really poorly done. Like if you go on YouTube right now and you search it up, like you'll probably get a lot of incorrect tutorials. But nonetheless, it's still like a kind of a gateway to all this amazing uh magical uh new tricks that you can learn. So it was good for me and and uh and I owe a lot to to to those tutorials out there.

How do you feel about secrets being out there on YouTube? I think it's fine. Does it ruin your show at all? You think?

No, I mean because like even I mean everyone can figure out how I do all of my tricks.

I can't.

Well, you you can if you look hard enough. You could. And and and but the thing is once even though you figure it out, it's you're not going to be able to to do it immediately. It's going to take like the piano, the years of practice in order to accomplish that. Like if you saw like for example, maybe you've seen a a Lena illusion where a girl's getting cut in half.

Sure.

Maybe you've seen something like that on on stage or something like a magician perform that.

Sure.

It's So so stuff like that you can do, you know, once you learn the secret you're like, oh, of course. But with sleight of hand, it's totally different. When you're learning it, it's it's a whole other art form. It's almost like juggling actually.

Wow.

Yeah, it's just it's just done differently to the point where you're kind of hiding the skills. Whereas juggling, you know how it's like in um an outside experience. So when you're watching them juggle, you're actually seeing the sleight of hand as it happens. So with magic and sleight of hand with cards especially, it's all hidden. So you can't actually see it. We're doing it like either in the disguise of cover or in the disguise of misdirection. That's kind of how it's all done.

Do you love what you do? Do you dream about this? Do you prefer saying that?

I don't know if I dream about it, but yeah, I I do love it. I do love it.

You love it.

Yeah, I absolutely love it. Uh I don't know what else I'd be doing. Well, I mean, I I love film but if if I if I were to pick one magic would definitely be the the main thing.

Well, that's why you're here. Show me something.

Sure. Maybe I could do. Okay. I'll I'll show you something really difficult, but but really impressive. So this is something called cardistry. It's almost like juggling with cards. Okay. So. Like that.

Beautiful.

Yeah. And then like you're going to do a simple cut like this or you can do something complicated like a pharaoh fan. See if I can do that here.

Gorgeous.

Yeah. So this is all stuff that's kind of like juggling and it's very similar to close-up card magic, but it's just like you're using it on the you're not hiding any of the skills. You're just kind of showing it off.

Okay. You're here. I want the close-up card magic.

Oh, you want the close-up card magic? Okay, okay. Well, here you can examine the deck. First of all, I always use a normal deck, so you can shuffle it up if you want. Give it a mix.

Exactly. I'm wanting you to. I want a new deck. I want a new deck. Let's open a new deck.

Okay, you you don't want to use those ones, you sure? Okay, here we go. Here you open it up.

I don't know how to open it up. Just cuz. That's fine. Shake it up a bit. Yeah. Okay. Oh, these are actually for me. Oh, that's the wrong side. You're opening the wrong side.

That's so you open it from this side. Doesn't matter. Okay. It's just it's so that you can close it up and open because if you do this side, there's no uh

Now you want me to shuffle them?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I'm actually nervous, I'm like shaking.

Oh, that's fine. You're ready? Yeah, don't need to. Anyone have a Sharpie?

Sharpie! I'm happy. You're happy? I'm very happy. Well, you're next to me, I'm happy. Okay.

Okay, cool. All right. So I'm going to run through the deck. Every single card is different. Do you have a favorite card or anything or no?

Uh, I can pick one. Sure.

Yeah, we'll do random one. So take any card you want. It doesn't matter. Any card. Okay. Yeah, show it to the to the camera. Make sure I don't see it. Okay, great. Now, you're going to make it unique. You're going to write your name all across the face of it. Yeah, go ahead.

Write my name?

Yeah. Show it to the camera once once you're done.

My name. Yeah, show it to whatever. Whatever can you. Good one. Okay.

All right. So it doesn't matter if I see it because there's only one card in the entire world with with with that. And that was this your favorite card, Leslie?

Yeah.

Oh, it is?

Yeah.

Oh, good. Okay, I knew that. No, I'm just kidding. I didn't know that. Okay.

You're a mentalist, too, right?

No, I'm not. That's that's my other partner. All right. Watch the eight of clubs. Uh we're going to do something interesting. I'm going to fold it up. Could you open up your mouth?

Yes. You know what? It is my lucky number, so.

No, that's fine. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I know it's a very strange request, but I I promise I won't do anything. Close up your mouth. Okay. And make sure I don't go anywhere near it. Okay. We'll grab a random card. Uh, so I have the Joker. Completely random card. Okay. I'll do the exact same thing. Hand out like this. Not like that. Okay, you ready? This is how it'll happen.

I don't know. You're making love to the card.

I am. But uh this is why I had to do that. See, now I have your card.

What did you do? What did you do?

Check out the card. Is that is that still the eight or is that that it changed?

Oh, yeah, look like it changed. Show it to the camera. Wait, which one? What did you do?

I don't know, it changed. It got some of your lipstick on there, but that's fine. Added some color to it.

Wow. Okay. Yeah.

Cool. So, yeah, it's just it's stuff like that that just kind of takes a lot of uh a lot of time to practice and uh a lot of sleight of hand that needs to be hidden, so you don't see anything. This one's a really simple trick. It's something really easy that you can learn.

Really?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I think the card appreciated being in your mouth.

It was all like chilling and Yeah. Sure. That was presentation. Yeah. So is that part of it just to kind of kind of distract you?

Misdirect, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. You need to do that in order to.

So you were doing something else while you were doing that? Yeah. What were you doing?

Yeah, I can't tell you that. You got to find that for yourself.

Now, do you come up with these tricks yourself or that one know.

That one that one's not mine. That one I I kind of made a slight variation to it. Um but majority of the tricks like you saw in AGT or the stuff that I perform in Vegas, it's all all my creations.

Wow. Yeah. Now, of course, David Blaine, a huge inspiration in your life. What did he teach you, pass on to you?

Uh I mean, I just watched it on YouTube, to be honest. I mean, all of his videos were viral on there. So I I got to watch it and I kind of see like for the first time ever. I was like, wow, magic's kind of cool. You know, like and I can perform it because it's just a deck of cards. It's it's nothing else but just that. And so I uh he was a massive inspiration because it was possible, you know. You didn't need to have tons of money or you didn't need to be like David Copperfield where you have like uh many show girls or like massive boxes or anything like that. You can just perform with the deck of cards or even just, you know, your hands and something like as simple as a coin and do something amazing with it. So that was that was the main inspiration.

Could I do something amazing? Could you actually quickly show me something?

Totally. Yeah. Do you want to learn a trick?

Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Absolutely.

This is this is easy. I'll teach you I'll teach you an easy one. Okay. I'll show you. Okay. All right. Cool. I'll first I'll show it to you. And then and then you'll you'll do it. Okay. Got it. All right. Sounds good. All right. So first have them shuffle the cards. So you just mix up the cards. I trust you. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is called the key card principle.

Key card.

Yeah, yeah. Key card. It's a very This is something like a lot of people when they first pick up magic, they they learn it. So take any card out. It doesn't matter if I see it. Just any card, all right? And for this purpose, I don't care if I see it. I can see it too. All right. So it's the Ace of Spades. Yeah. So I take a look at the bottom card, which is the Seven of Clubs. Right. And so while I'm shuffling it, I just make sure not to touch the seven. See, it's still over there as I shuffle the cards. That's you have to learn how to do that. Yeah, yeah. That one that one's like a slight, but it it's

But then how do you know what I have? I don't know that yet.

Yeah, yeah. Check it out. So it's cool. It's like math, right? You just say stop anytime. You don't know yet.

Stop.

Doesn't matter. Okay. So I kept control of the seven, right? So you placed the card over there. And you still don't know. Yeah. And I and I pretend to shuffle. I'm not shuffling actually. I'm I'm I'm still having keeping track of the card. And so now when I spread it, it's always going to be to the right of the seven of clubs. Which is the Oh. Yeah. That's a trick.

Okay. I mean, you want me to try?

Sure. You can try it. Yeah, give it a shot. I mean, it's it's going to be a little bit but try try performing for me. Okay.

Okay. Well. Okay, okay. Pick one card. Okay. Don't show it to me. Show it to the camera. Okay. Got it. Now put it back in. Put it back. What what happens now?

So take a look at the peek at the bottom card. Okay. Great. Okay. Now try when you're shuffling it. Try grabbing the cards out from the top. Okay. And tell me ask me to stop say stop.

Okay. Sure that works. Yeah. Stop right there. Yep. What's what that is again. Okay. Okay. And so you now you're going to cut the cards. And then now you're going to have me place it right here. And then I guess Yep, there we go. And now square it up. Square it up. Okay, great. And then now you spread the deck onto the table. Now, do you remember the card that you peeked at? It was the King of Diamonds. So then the card next to it. Okay, it was King of Diamonds. So you have Eight of Clubs. Yep. That's it. Eight of Clubs. That's the trick.

Now, here's a question. What happens when you mess up in front of a live audience or when someone's next to you?

Hopefully, you don't. But uh but that's happened plenty of times. But uh no, I mean, it's it's it's how you recover and, you know, just hopefully hopefully it doesn't look too obvious. But it does happen. It happens all the time.

Well, you've impressed me and we have more magic coming up. So I I'm over the moon excited. You did. Hopefully it impresses you. We'll see. Oh, I'm impressed. Yeah, yeah. Oh, great. Okay.