Prepare to be Mind Blown by The Amazing Shoji, ‘AGT’s Newest Child Magician
Trae Patton/ NBC Reading Time: 3 minutes
Fans have seen a vast variety of magic acts on AGT this season from Klek Entos making spiders disappear to Dustin Tavella’s mind sorcery. But we haven’t seen anyone like the adorable kid magician, The Amazing Shoji. The 9-year-old from New York has been mastering magic tricks to blow the judges away for his Season 16 audition airing next week.
The Amazing Shoji is the Adorable Kid Magician ‘AGT’ Has Been Waiting For
Shoji has been posting his magic tricks on Instagram since the summer of 2020. The student loves performing the coin matrix, a close-up magic trick that does not involve any gimmicks. He is a pro at making coins vanish in the blink of an eye and move from place to place inspired by late magician David Roth.
In one video, Shoji bites a coin in half and then magically puts it back together like it never even happened. He calls this trick “Bitcoin” a play on the popular digital currency. His little sister often makes adorable appearances in his videos and has even taken a shot at learning magic tricks. Though Shoji only has 119 Instagram followers right now, he is bound to become a social media sensation once his AGT audition airs.
He Recently Appeared on ‘Kids Say The Darndest Things’
Shoji appeared on an episode of Kids Say The Darndest Things in May. Not only is he a magician, but a huge jokester as well. When host Tiffany Haddish walked out onto the stage, Shoji asked “Where’s Kevin Hart?” Hart and Haddish are great friends and starred in the film Night School together.
Immediately Shoji made a bunch of coins fall out of his nose on the show. His father came to the show with him and laughed in the audience. Shoji joked that when he grows up he wants to be a “grown-up” magician. To make money, he’ll just use the coins that fall out of his nose, a trick he calls “coingestion.”
Shoji demonstrated that he is a wizard at making coins appear out of thin air. Haddish asked Shoji to teach her the coin trick so she can use it on Hart. Shoji being the great magician he is never reveals his secrets. He later busted out the card tricks and made one card from the middle of the deck transport all the way to the top of the deck. Haddish asked Shoji where he hopes performing magic tricks will take him in life.
“Maybe I could do like shows and birthday parties,” he said.
Haddish went on to ask if he would perform at her birthday party and he hilariously responded “how much?” Shoji’s final trick was to make Haddish vanish. He snapped his fingers and she disappeared. It would be pretty cool if he made one of the AGT judges vanish during his audition.
He Takes Inspiration From Other Huge ‘AGT’ Magicians
Shoji gets inspiration for a lot of his tricks from other magicians that have been on AGT. Eric Jones who competed on Season 12 of AGT, also used sleight of hand magic and coin tricks in his act. In the Semi-Finals, he was able to transform his lucky $2 bill into four coins. One of Shoji’s most recent tricks involves making coins appear out of his shirt, emulating Eric’s style.
Another AGT magician that Shoji draws inspiration from is Season 13 and AGT Champions winner Shin Lim. Shin mesmerized viewers with his bold tricks on two different seasons of the show. There’s a reason why he is the only two-time winner of AGT. With a little help from his dad, Shoji performed a card trick inspired by Shin and magician Chris Ramsay.
Shoji is looking to follow in Shin’s footsteps and be crowned the winner of AGT. We have a good feeling about this pint-sized magician whose audition will be airing next Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET on NBC.
