All of Shin Lim’s ‘Got Talent’ Performances
Photo by Gregg DeGuire/Getty Images Reading Time: 4 minutes
Shin Lim is arguably the best America’s Got Talent winner of all time. The Canadian-America magician wowed on AGT Season 13 and AGT: The Champions with his sleight of hand magic. Here’s why fans of the long running series think he’s the world’s best close-up magician.
All of Shin Lim’s Got Talent Performances
His AGT Audition
During his audition, Lim asked Tyra Banks to randomly select a card, serving as the main card of his routine. From there, Lim began to create various forms of illusion through the card. The illusions included making the card appear on top of a deck of cards and imprinting the design of the card onto his skin as a tattoo. Lim also managed to make the card vanish and reappear in the deck and transform the deck of cards into a deck of clear plastic sheets.
Judge Cuts
For his Judge Cuts routine, Lim focused on performing tricks using Queens and Aces. During the first part, he made the Queens vanish, replacing them with Aces. He then made the Aces reappear under guest judge Olivia Munn’s hand. Adding Kings into the routine, Lim then made the cards vanish and reappear in various ways.
Quarterfinals
During the Quarterfinals, Lim’s performance consisted of changing a normal deck of cards into a different deck spelling out “Vote For Shin Lim America’s Got Talent“. He then transformed the deck into its original design, finally making it vanish again.
Semi-Finals
Lim’s Semi-Finals routine consisted of a close-up routine, with the help of Heidi Klum and Tyra Banks. He let Heidi pick and sign one card, made the marker in his hand disappear, erased the face of the card. And surprised everyone when he then extracted the card from his mouth. Afterwards, he made Banks select and sign another card, then making it appear in different places — his pocket, pants, and mouth.
Finals
During the Finale, Lim performed a close-up routine with host Tyra Banks. In the beginning, he asked Banks to roll two dice and made the four cards of the same number—9—appear. He then made Banks choose a suit, then making multiple cards of that chosen suit appear. In the end, he made the number and suit of the card appear among floating cards.
Finale
In episode 1322 of season 13, Lim performed a trick with the assistance of Tyra Banks and American Ninja Warrior hosts Matt Iseman and Akbar Gbaja-Biamila. First, he had Gbaja-Biamila pick a random card—Jack of Clubs. All four then played along the deck, shuffling the sames, until Lim revealed that despite all the shuffling, Gbaja-Biamila’s card is on top of his remaining cards.
The Champions Preliminary
Coming back to defend his title, Lim’s preliminary act consisted of performing a card routine with the assistance of Terry Crews. Performing his usual and foolproof, he’s made cards appear, vanish, and reappear. Through the cards, Lim even spelled out the word “Champions.”
The Champions Finals
During his Finals performance, he asked Terry Crews and Howie Mandel to help him in his close-up act. Both Crews and Mandel chose their random cards, which Lim made appear and vanish. At one point in the performance, he made one card appear on his chest.
The Champions Finale
For the Finale, Lim performed a card trick with the assistance of Brooklyn Nine-Nine star Melissa Fumero. He had Fumero pick Queen of Diamonds and ask her to shuffle and mix the deck of cards. Subsequently, Dumero tried to stack the cards on Lim’s palm, revealing that on top of it was her card. As the performance went on, Lim made the card appear from his mouth and magically inserted a selfie of Fumero with her card on her phone.
The Champions Season 2, Marc Spelmann’s Return
During The Champions season two, Marc Spelmann returned as himself, X, someone else mysterious. Spelmann started off by wearing his mask and getting into his character X. He then proceeded to play a random choice game with the judges, with Howie Mandel revealing that his favorite magician is Shin Lim. Magically, when Spelmann removed his mask, Lim was revealed to be the person behind it.
The Champions Guest Performance with Colin Cloud
Lim also appeared as guest performer with Colin Cloud during The Champions season two Finale. The two joined forces to form “The Avengers of Magic,” performing amazing card tricks and more.
AGT 2022 Guest Performance
Back in AGT season 17 finals, Lim came back to perform alongside magicians Yu Hojin and Nicolas Ribs. Lim appeared during the last part of the act, turning a whole deck of cards into a deck of Ace of Spades.
AGT 2023 Guest Performance
Shin Lim also appeared as a guest on AGT 2023. During this performance, he executed a trick inspired by magician Shawn Farquhar.
