Shin Lim

**Shin Lim** was a Magician act from FantasyAGT: Battle of the Champions. He was eliminated in the Semifinals.

## Background

Suffering from carpal tunnel syndrome and a career-ending injury to his thumb tendons, Shin Lim had a tough start in his journey through sleight of hand magic. Despite all of this, through painstakingly hard work and perseverance, Shin Lim is now the reigning world FISM champion for close-up magic. A self-proclaimed "sleight of hand artist," Shin Lim admits he is not actually a magician or a wizard, and has no intention of lying to the audience. He performs carefully choreographed routines rather than pretending to defy the laws of physics. Combining dexterity, precision and grace, he has distilled a lifetime of training into a devious display of dancing digits. His mind-blowing finger moves are so masterful that the audience is left to wonder if what their eyes have seen is truly possible. According to both Simon and Howie, Shin Lim is "the BEST close-up magician they have ever seen." [1]

Shin previously appeared on Penn & Teller: Fool Us in seasons 2 and 4, fooling Penn and Teller both times.  His first appearance in the show's second season went viral, with over 50 million views on YouTube.

## Preliminary

Shin Lim's Preliminary performance in Episode BC03 consisted of performing a cards routine with host Mikey, in which he had him sign a randomly selected card. He then created the illusion of the card appearing on top of a deck of cards, the imprint of a card rubbing onto Shin’s skin as a tattoo, the card vanishing and reappearing in the deck, as well as inside of a sealed envelope, the deck of cards transforming into a deck of clear plastic sheets, then into a glass case with Mikey's card sealed inside, and finally appearing to insert the glass case into the deck’s box and tearing the box, revealing the case had disappeared. Mike, Saf, Pennies and Fresh all gave him standing ovations, impressed by his skill and technique. His performance was strong enough for the judges to send him to the Judge Cuts instead of Justin Flom and Barry and Stuart.

## Judge Cuts

Shin Lim's Judge Cuts performance in Episode BC010 consisted of performing a trick with "Queens" and "Aces" (known as 52 Shades of Red). Shin made the "Aces" vanish, then reappear under guest judge Mikey's hand. Shin then progressed to vanish the remaining queens in various ways. Mike, Saf, Mikey, Pennies and Fresh all gave him standing ovations. His performance was strong enough for the judges to send him to the Quarterfinals.

## Quarterfinals

Shin Lim's Quarterfinal performance in Episode BC013 consisted of a routine involving fast-moving cards that disappeared and reappeared and even started smoking, changing into a different deck which spelled out "Vote For Shin Lim America’s Got Talent" Mike, Saf, Pennies and Fresh all gave him standing ovations. He received enough votes to advance to the Semifinals instead of The Texas Tenors.

## Semifinals

Shin Lim's Semifinal performance in Episode BC015 consisted of doing a close-up routine (known as the Dream Act) with assistance from Pennies and Mikey. He had Pennies pick and sign one card, and makes the marker in his hand disappear. He laid it face down and erased the face, then extracted it from his mouth. Mikey also chose and signed a card, making it appear from several different places including his pants, pocket and mouth. Pennies' card in a plastic bag flipped into Mikey's card and back before making it disappear along with the deck box. Mike, Saf, Pennies and Fresh all gave him standing ovations. He did not receive enough votes to advance to the Finals, eliminating him from the competition instead of Mat Franco.