Look, there’s probably some scientific explanation for how Shin Lim is able to pull off this escalating series of card tricks from Friday’s episode of “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.” That doesn’t matter. He pulled cards out of his hair. Out of his hair.
Lim, the master illusionist, has made his way through a number of TV shows in recent years. He wowed the notoriously diligent and savvy hosts of “Penn and Teller Fool Us” (turning physical items into a column of smoke emanating from your mouth tends to do that to people) and was recently crowned champion of the All-Star season of the NBC reality competition show “America’s Got Talent.”
This time around, rather than vaporizing cards, he’s making them appear out of thin air. (It cannot be stressed enough how ridiculous it is that he just makes these “cards” “appear” in his own voluminous “hair.”) Fallon, no stranger to being impressed by the slightest show of talent on the part of any “Tonight Show” guest, is understandably struck incredulous by this whole thing (even before it starts, really).
Without giving away the ending, let’s just say that The Roots, especially keyboard player James Poyser and drummer Questlove, have the only reaction any reasonable person could expect under those circumstances.
For those willing to go down a YouTube rabbit hole of late night show magic, there’s a treasure trove out there, waiting to be discovered. (Harry Connick, Jr.’s reaction to the culmination of mentalist Lior Suchard’s 2016 appearance is still a career highlight for everyone involved.) There’s also a number of examples from a pair of recent Netflix offerings: “Magic for Humans” and “Death by Magic.”
For more of Lim’s exploits, watch the full “Tonight Show” clip below: