Shin Lim

Liang-Shun Lim (born September 25, 1991), known professionally as Shin Lim, is a Canadian-American magician, recognized for his use of card manipulation and sleight of hand.

He is known for elaborate close-up card magic routines, during which he remains silent with the tricks set to music.

He is self-taught, having learned most of his skills from watching YouTube, and has in turn shared some of his own techniques in videos on the site.

Originally educated to be a pianist, Lim took up magic as his career after being diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome.

In 2011, at the age of 20, Lim was diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome.

As the Lee School of Music required him to spend up to 20 hours a week on piano practice, he was forced to choose between his music and his magic career.

He opted to stick with his passion in magic, first taking a planned year-long sabbatical from the school.

Lim continued to develop tricks and produce YouTube videos of his magic, as well as developing tricks to be sold to interested fans.

Lim was discovered around 2012, began to tour internationally, and subsequently won the 2015 Fédération Internationale des Sociétés Magiques in Close-up Card Magic.

During the sabbatical, he participated in the 2012 Fédération Internationale des Sociétés Magiques (International Federation of Magic Societies) World Championship, where he finished in sixth place.

At this point, Lim was unsure of his career and was still considering music, but he was contacted in 2013 by an agent who had seen his performance at the World Championship, and who offered him the opportunity to tour across China.

Lim agreed, and he implemented some changes to his routine as a result.

In addition to extending his show to now include 20 minutes' worth of tricks, he dropped any narration from his routine, as he did not speak Chinese; this would become a defining feature of his future acts.

By the end of the tour, Lim was featured as the final artist during the show.

Because of this tour, he decided to drop out of the Lee School of Music to pursue magic, but with the intent to eventually return to music.

In 2015, he won the Fédération Internationale des Sociétés Magiques World Championship for Close-up Card Magic.

Contrary to speculation, there was no million dollar prize, but there was potential to be seen by producers looking for talent.

Shortly after his World Championship win in 2015, Lim was contacted by the producers of Penn & Teller: Fool Us, a show where magicians attempt to fool hosts and magicians Penn & Teller with their tricks.

They had seen his YouTube videos and offered him a spot on the show to try to fool the hosts.

His routine successfully fooled the hosts.

Penn Jillette described Lim's routine: "The idea of doing card tricks —which are silly at their very core — really seriously and really, really importantly is wonderful."

Jillette later described Lim as part of a third wave of magicians, bridging the gap between spectacle performances such as David Copperfield and Doug Henning and the reactivity aspects of magicians like David Blaine.

Lim's 2015 appearance on Fool Us, uploaded to YouTube, went viral and achieved over 50 million views, leading to his second appearance on the show in 2017 by invitation.

Lim considered the 2015 Fool Us appearance as the moment that he realized his "magic's pretty special", and he decided then to stay on his career choice of magic over music.

His performance in 2015 led to a number of other invitations to perform, including at the House of Magic in Macau, China, which Lim considered "the best gig in magic".

His special YouTube video "Pray for Paris" performance of his "52 Shades of Red" in tribute to the victims of the November 2015 Paris attacks drew further attention to his skills.

His appearances on Penn & Teller: Fool Us and his wins on America's Got Talent during its 13th season in 2018 and on America's Got Talent: The Champions led to even greater international fame.

Lim is the second of three children of Singapore-born parents.

He is of Han Chinese descent.

Lim was born in Vancouver, where his father was completing postgraduate studies.

Lim's family returned to Singapore when he was 2 and moved to Acton, Massachusetts, when he was 11.

Lim attended the Acton-Boxborough Regional High School.

As early as 9 years old, Lim showed an interest in music.

His grandmother had originally given him a violin, but he became frustrated with that and smashed it after a practice session and switched over to piano.

After graduating from high school, Lim attended the School of Music at Lee University in Tennessee, where he double majored in piano and telecommunications and was a member of the Choral Union ensemble.

Alongside music, Lim was interested in magic during his younger years.

His older brother, Yi, had shown him a simple card trick, and when Lim asked him how it was done, his brother told him to look it up on YouTube.

Lim delved into the videos available there and taught himself several tricks.

As he started to improve his skills, he developed his own tricks, and used YouTube as a platform to show his performances and technique.

Lim credited David Blaine's early television specials as part of his inspiration for magic, which moved away from large stage performances to simple but effective tricks such as card magic.