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Digital Social Hour

Shin Lim: You WON’T Believe Shin Lim’s Magic Tricks | DSH #1548

30 Sep 2025

Transcription

Chapter 1: What is the difference between FISM and AGT?

0.031 - 22.528 Shin Lim

I bet. FISM's actually more scary than AGC. Really? I haven't heard of that one. FISM's almost like the Olympics of magic. You have all these judges sitting like six or seven feet away from you. They have little notepads. And these are all famous guys, like famous magicians. And then behind them is about 4,000 professional magicians. Whoa. Yeah, just like judging you.

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30.406 - 35.87 Sean Kelly

Okay, guys, got Shin Lim here. He's taking a break from social media, but got him back on the show today. So thanks for joining us.

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35.89 - 37.296 Shin Lim

Of course. No worries. Thanks for having me.

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37.316 - 39.927 Sean Kelly

Yeah, I got to know what happened with the whole break thing. Was that planned?

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40.447 - 61.72 Shin Lim

No, not really. No, it just kind of happened. Really? Yeah. Yeah. It happened during, uh, it started with a pandemic and then I, uh, I played call duty, you know, had fun just like relaxing. I didn't have the show either because everything closed down. And so I, I was like, you know, I'm just going to have a break off of everything. And so I stopped social media.

61.74 - 80.754 Shin Lim

Um, and then, and then in 2021, uh, MGM was like, Hey, I think we're going to open up again. Like, you should, you're going to do the show, right? And I was like, yeah, sure. I'm going to do the show. And this was three months before we were actually like supposed to open. And so within those three months, I started, stopped playing Call of Duty.

81.856 - 90.787 Shin Lim

I had to like really like focus on like creating the new show. It was a completely different show when we reopened after, I think it was like July, 2021.

Chapter 2: How did Shin Lim redefine magic during the pandemic?

90.867 - 92.99 Shin Lim

That's when we actually officially opened.

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Chapter 3: What role does storytelling play in Shin Lim's performances?

93.711 - 103.962 Shin Lim

And yeah, That's when everything started happening. I started performing every night at the Mirage. And then slowly, I was like, I should get back on to some music as well.

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104.222 - 107.065 Sean Kelly

Were you rusty when you took some time off? Like, do you lose the skill?

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107.125 - 123.542 Shin Lim

No, I don't think so. I think it really helped, actually. It really helped taking a break because I was able to kind of take a step back from the show. Before Pandemic, the show was very much like almost like a variety show. So I would perform and then my opener would perform. And it would kind of go back and forth like this.

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123.522 - 151.791 Shin Lim

no storyline nothing just straight up like here's a magic trick and uh my wife casey she was like she was like you know the one thing you always needed to make the show like different is to add some sort of a story to give people emotion and i i really thought about that and so when we opened i uh the show's kind of like completely different and so it doesn't really feel like a variety show even though actually in its essence it still is even the one at the venetian it's still a variety show

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151.771 - 153.995 Shin Lim

But it doesn't feel like it.

Chapter 4: How has social media changed the landscape of magic?

154.016 - 158.304 Shin Lim

It feels like a very cohesive, linear thing.

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158.765 - 164.717 Sean Kelly

I'm learning about the power of storytelling right now and how it activates different parts of the brain so people resonate with it.

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164.765 - 182.875 Shin Lim

Yeah, connect with it. That's the main thing. You want people to connect with it and feel something rather than just being surprised or being puzzled by something or laughing. Those are just other emotions that are...

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182.855 - 212.592 Shin Lim

not easy to to grab out of people or to make it make them feel that um but you know you can do that through like comedy so many different ways of doing that yeah but the hard thing is to make someone connect to the actual show like really feel like they know what you were going through because they went through the same thing as well yeah and so that that's what story can do yeah has social media impacted how you uh arrange your shows because now people are performing their tricks online right it's

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212.673 - 234.183 Shin Lim

Um, maybe. I think if I see a trick that is super common on social media or let's say someone already taught it and it got a lot of views or something like that, then I'm like, okay, the normal people have seen this trick before. I'll take it out. Yeah. Unless I really like it. That makes sense. There are tricks that I really like and I'll just never remove.

234.323 - 237.668 Sean Kelly

Yeah. Does that anger you when you see people exposing how the tricks are?

237.648 - 260.452 Shin Lim

No, no, no. Because I think that's how I learned. I learned all my magic on YouTube. YouTube University. I mean, they teach the tricks like really badly, actually. Oh, really? Yeah. They're not like the best, but it still gives you a foundation of like the basics of magic. Yeah. How the method is done. You don't necessarily learn how to perform.

260.612 - 265.576 Shin Lim

It's hard to learn how to perform based off of YouTube. You've got to practice in front of real people.

Chapter 5: What challenges do magicians face with exposure of tricks?

266.477 - 289.117 Shin Lim

But I learned all of my basics, all the beginner tricks. I learned it all on YouTube when I was 16. And if it wasn't for that, if it wasn't for just the online presence of YouTube tutorials, I wouldn't be a magician because my parents weren't wealthy at all. I couldn't get a mentor or I couldn't buy tricks or anything online. So I just learned everything for free. Wow. Self-taught.

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289.137 - 293.201 Sean Kelly

That's impressive. Yeah, I feel like the older school magicians, they like to keep it hidden, right?

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293.521 - 318.296 Shin Lim

Yeah, yeah. It's actually funny. It's almost like a civil war for magicians. There's one whole group that is very much against it, very much against teaching tricks online specifically, and more specifically YouTube. And then there's the other half that are like, no, it's fine. And I guess I'm kind of in that group because I feel like that's... Magic is an art form.

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318.757 - 346.201 Shin Lim

It is a similar art form to music, acting, anything that is art-based. And so I really feel like that is the way to take magic to that same level of appreciation is to treat it like an art form. This is all learnable. It's not like you have to be part of some sort of secret society or to have some sort of God-given gift or something to be able to perform miracles.

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348.625 - 351.81 Shin Lim

Magic is a puzzle that you're performing in front of people.

351.79 - 375.165 Shin Lim

and the person watching it can either try to figure out this puzzle in real time or not they can choose to enjoy it and then if you mix psychology a little bit of math science sleight of hand misdirection when you add all those things up together then it feels like magic when they're watching it right yeah yeah you've probably seen so many tricks at this point is there still a trick that you haven't figured out someone do

375.145 - 395.683 Shin Lim

Yeah. Okay. So there's this one trick. Have you heard of Asiwin? No. Okay. So there's this... He's a mentalist. His name is Asiwin. And I was 17. I'll always remember this. It was crazy. It was at a magic convention. And I was with my mom. And because she would... When I was younger, she would bring me to all the competitions and conventions.

395.704 - 420.033 Shin Lim

There's these like... I don't know if you've heard of Magic Live. It's one of the big conventions here that happens here in Vegas. And I think this was an IBM convention. And he... I went up to Asi. I was like, hey, Asi, I'm a big fan. You're so good. He's like, stand right there. He stopped a lady that was walking out of a magic shop. They have these dealers booths where they sell magic.

420.053 - 420.874 Shin Lim

And she was just walking out.

Chapter 6: How does discipline contribute to success in magic?

420.914 - 443.954 Shin Lim

She had a bag. Nothing was planned, by the way, because I went up to him. It wasn't like he stopped me. I went up to him. So nothing was prearranged at all. And he's like, hey, lady, stop. Think of any card. He asked me, and I said, King of Spades. That's my favorite card. He's like, you just bought a jumbo card. A jumbo card is a big card. You just bought a jumbo card.

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444.155 - 452.202 Shin Lim

Take that card out of your bag. She takes it out, and it's the King of Spades. No way. Yeah. And I still don't have no idea how he does it. Wow. I have no idea.

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452.563 - 459.169 Sean Kelly

Yeah, the lentilist stuff always blows my mind. Yeah, it's cool. It's nuts. That is some psychology or something, right?

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459.149 - 474.169 Shin Lim

Yeah, it's psychology. Sometimes it's technology. It's body language, misdirection as well. Sometimes they use sleight of hand, sometimes very, very rarely. But I love mentalism.

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Chapter 7: What unique experiences does Shin Lim have performing in China?

474.249 - 477.233 Shin Lim

That's why I have them as openers in my show all the time.

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477.293 - 481.478 Sean Kelly

I always have mentalists. Is that a route you want to pursue yourself to?

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481.458 - 507.853 Shin Lim

uh no that's way different from what you do right yeah the mentalism is like it takes a special type of person to be able to do it right yeah you have to be like really good at analyzing any situation at all times you kind of have to be able to read somebody tell if they're lying or if they're um hesitant about something and then they use all that to their advantage

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507.833 - 532.693 Shin Lim

yeah it's really fascinating it is you carved your own lane in magic right like your own style it's a yeah yeah um it started at close-up just regular close-up magic he's like hey pick a card and think of a card so that's like a very traditional style of close-up magic uh something that i found to be really fascinating and mainly i only did that because it was the cheapest form of magic just a deck of cards uh

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532.673 - 556.538 Shin Lim

But I've always loved film ever since I was nine. I watched Lord of the Rings, and that blew my mind. And I was like, I want to do that. That's what I want to do in the future. I want to do something cool and epic. And so then eventually I started learning magic when I was 16. I thought it would get me a girlfriend, so that's why I did it. And then I...

556.518 - 577.969 Shin Lim

decided to like kind of create a routine that would be like that like kind of that same feeling like after watching lord of the rings you watch something really epic and so i was like okay you need music and then you need to be able to perform but like instead of to the people what if you perform to the camera and only to the camera and then you treat the camera as if it's a person

577.949 - 602.686 Shin Lim

I don't know if I did it purposefully. I didn't really think that in my head. I just kind of did it. And all of a sudden, it became this new thing that people were like, whoa, I never thought of it. You could perform it as if you're treating it like a person and you're looking at the camera like, yes, you are the spectator. And... The Trilight from Therasage is no joke.

602.846 - 617.342 Sean Kelly

Medical grade red and near infrared light with three frequencies per light. Deep healing, real results, and totally portable. It's legit. Photo bio modulation tech in a flexible on body panel. This is the Trilight from Therasage and it's next level red light therapy.

617.362 - 629.356 Sean Kelly

It's got 118 high powered polychromatic lights, each delivering three healing frequencies, red and near infrared from 580 to 980 nanometers. It's sleek, portable, and honestly, I don't go anywhere without it.

Chapter 8: What are the most memorable magic shows to witness live?

752.936 - 754.498 Sean Kelly

I don't know if you believe in that type of stuff, but.

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754.478 - 779.922 Shin Lim

No, it's really powerful because it makes you... Because you're almost psyching yourself to do well. Right. Because sometimes a competition like AGT or FISM, it's very nerve-wracking, you know? I bet. FISM is actually more scary than AGT. Really? I haven't heard of that one. FISM is almost like the Olympics of magic. So it takes place not every year, just like the Olympics.

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779.942 - 801.495 Shin Lim

Oh, it's just every four years. Yeah, it doesn't take place every year. And you have all these judges sitting like, not this close, but maybe like a little bit farther away, like six or seven feet away from you. They have little notepads. And these are all famous guys, like famous magicians. And it's just terrifying. And then behind them is about 4,000 professional magicians. Whoa.

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801.555 - 803.638 Shin Lim

Yeah, just like judging you.

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803.618 - 826.521 Sean Kelly

it's like a very targeted audience like people you respect and what's up too yes it's it's terrifying i was shaking the whole time yeah because agt is just a bunch of casual northern fans yeah yeah it's just like uh what we call like lay people yeah you're gonna impress them no matter what you do right yeah yeah wow less less pressure that's intense so you won that one too holy crap yeah you have to come out with brand new uh tricks and everything

826.585 - 850.416 Shin Lim

uh for fizzm yeah yes it has to be like original like they like it has to be methods and even the style of performing something has to be like unique to them yeah if they don't think it is then they'll mark that down wow yeah that's interesting because there's probably been a lot of people doing the same things over the years so to completely create a new concept must be kind of difficult right

850.649 - 876.437 Shin Lim

yeah yeah it's uh it it's different for everybody um i i don't i think mine just came out of chance almost like it's almost like what i wanted magic to be like i want it to be cinematic i want it to be cool i wanted it to be epic and so that all just kind of ended up making it what it is now uh it took time to to be able to create that but uh no i'm glad i did

876.805 - 882.798 Sean Kelly

Yeah, there's a lot of really big magic shows now. It seems like the trajectory of magic is keep on rising, right?

882.819 - 884.843 Shin Lim

Yeah, it's so cool. It's insane. It's cool to see that.

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