This performance by Eric Chien was enough to win him the FISM Grand Prix at an event held in Hong Kong recently. I assume that this trick was done on a stage in front of judges without camera trickery and CGI. But I am not sure if this video is taken from that stage performance or was created independently in a studio. Anyway, it is fun to watch.
Mano Singham
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A couple of times when he dealt blue cards from the pack, you can see him deal from the bottom. I thought that meant I was going to see through the trick from then on, but I was at a loss.
You can see in the top right of the screen the bottom corner of a monitor, for the benefit of the audience. This suggests the video is taken straight from the stage performance.
Yes. The audience sounds fake, but the camera angles seem live, and the on-stage monitor is plausibly how it would be done in performance.
Even though there are moments where you can see, in principle, the sleight of hand and the dropping of cards off the edge, the skill involved to execute those moves so quickly and smoothly whilst looking elsewhere and misdirecting is still very impressive. Nice to see that close-up TV hasn’t quite killed off this sort of performance. The only thing that doesn’t seem right to me is that he feigns wonder and surprise himself: surely the whole point is to come and see a skilled magician at work, not to pretend along with him that it’s somehow supernatural.
I think the feigning surprise was part of the story he was telling with/about the magic. From the beginning, he seemed to be playing a man who had either found or inherited a mysterious old box, so everything from that point was experimentation and discovery for that character. It’s just a different approach from magicians who perform magic like a concert pianist or something.
The surprise is indeed part of the style. Not being surprised can come across as supercilious. That can work if it’s congruent with your character.
Also I can say with some certainty that there is absolutely no camera trickery here. Turning up to FISM with a trick that depends on the camera would be like turning up to the Tour de France on a Kawasaki 250.