Browsed by
Tag: magic

Taiwanese card magician wins world championship..

Taiwanese card magician wins world championship..

With a flawless card trick, a 26-year-old magician from Taipei has become the first Taiwanese to win a top prize at the World Championship of Magic.

Horret Wu (吳何) was the winner of the close-up card magic category, performed in close proximity to the judges and audience.

“Card magic is commonly a European area of expertise,” the Chinese-language United Daily News quoted Wu as saying. “There aren’t many that can take the championship from them without remarkable innovation and skill.”

Wu said he was advised to change categories to increase his chances of winning, but for Wu the competition was not just about winning, it was a way to challenge himself, he said.

Wu is the first Asian to win that category, giving a performance that was considered a flawless display of card trickery at the highest level of technical skill.

Following his performance, Wu received a five-minute standing ovation for his first performance in a global competition held by the International Federation of Magic Societies (FISM).

He has won multiple awards from the Taiwan Magic Association and he placed second last year in a different category at a FISM competition in South Korea.

A self-described “underground master of sleight,” Wu specializes in card magic and sleight-of-hand. Well known on the Taiwanese magic scene, he has crafted original acts.

The FISM is one of the top organizations in the international magic community, founded in 1948. The triennial World Championship of Magic is the most prominent FISM event, which is attended by thousands of magicians from around the world.

This year’s competition was held in the Italian town of Rimini from July 6-Saturday last week.

For Wu, the next step is Japan and France, with the aim putting Taiwan into the international magic spotlight.       Our Source…. Taipei iTimes 

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2015/07/14/2003623007

So Many Questions: Magician Grandinetti wants us all to be amazed..

So Many Questions: Magician Grandinetti wants us all to be amazed..

By Kate Benz.. Who would have thought that the little kid perusing the aisles of The Cuckoo’s Nest on the South Side would one day be performing magic tricks for a national TV audience?

Having scored corporate gigs by the ripe old age of 12, West Mifflin native Michael Grandinetti was road tripping out west to appear in television specials on NBC by the time he was a senior at Duquesne University. When he graduated in 1999, it was Los Angeles or bust, where the tantalizing combination of magic and TV proved too much to resist.

“It was a great opportunity to watch the best of the best in entertainment work,” he says.

These days, that includes Grandinetti. With two shows already on the air — “Don’t Blink,” (11 p.m. Thursdays on PopTV) and Season 2 of “Masters of Illusion” (8 p.m. Fridays on the CW) — he’s working on death-defying illusions he promises will become the stuff of legend.

Curious? Savor it. There’s little left in this world to amaze people, he says. And that wonderment is the one rabbit he always pulls out of his hat. Read the interview … http://triblive.com/aande/somanyquestions/8585775-74/magic-grandinetti-spikes

“Don’t Blink”

“Don’t Blink”

DON’T BLINK takes viewers inside the world of underground street magicians as they perform for and mesmerize onlookers, including stars from favorite films and television shows. This docu-series features some of the greatest masters of magic in the world who have expertly crafted the nuanced sleight of hand and understand what it takes to wow their fans. For the first time, these renowned magicians will stun and amaze without the veil of secrecy—uncut and unfiltered. The series premieres Thursday July 9 at 11pm on Pop TV!

Watch the trailer.. https://youtu.be/Gj4XTa1ctac