What Ever Happened To The Teen Magicians Profiled In The Documentary ‘Make Believe’?
( From /FILM ) As a magic fanatic, I consider the Seth Gordon-produced Make Believe to be one of my favorite documentaries of the last decade. The film followed six of the world’s best young magicians own their road to the Teen World Championship in Las Vegas. If you haven’t seen the film, you should (here is the trailer).
One of the many things that is interesting about documentaries is that the stories continue even after the credits end. And I often wonder what happened to the subjects of some of my favorite documentaries. In the case of Make Believe, did these teen magicians ever make it to the big time? Last night I saw the star of Make Believe on national network television and thought it was worth sharing, alongside some brief details about where the other subjects of the documentary have ended up.
For me the main story of Make Believe followed Hiroki Hara, a self-learned magician who lived in the far away village of Kitayama, Japan and went on to win the 2009 Teen Magic Championship at the center of this competition doc. His story was definitely the most compelling of the bunch. I’ve often wondered if he made anything of his talents. I watch a lot of magic television shows, including Penn & Teller: Fool Us, Syfy’s Wizard Wars and the horribly cheesy Masters of Illusion, and I have at times seen other subjects from this movie show up.
But it wasn’t until last night’s season premiere of America’s Got Talent that I saw what Hara has been up to. Read more…