America has chosen magician Shin Lim as the winner of America’s Got Talent season 13. Shin won the show’s $1 million grand prize and will headline “America’s Got Talent Live” at the Paris Theater at Paris Las Vegas on Nov. 2-4.
Each week Shin’s close-up magic performances became more nuanced and dazzling. Originally training as a concert pianist, Shin had a tough start to his journey through sleight-of-hand magic when he was diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome. He was faced with a choice between piano and magic but through painstaking hard work and perseverance, he is now the reigning world champion for close-up magic.
In November, Shin will make his Broadway debut as part of the “The Illusionists” holiday-themed show. “The Illusionists” is a touring magic show with a rotating line-up, featuring a mixture of illusions, close-up magic, mentalism, escape acts, and technological spectacle. “The Illusionists — Magic of the Holidays,” will have a run at New York City’s Marquis Theatre from Friday, Nov. 23 through Sunday, Dec. 30. The line-up also includes Darcy Oake; “The Futurist” Adam Trent; “The Deductionist” Colin Cloud; “The Sorceress” Chloé Crawford; and Light Balance.
Advice from AGT judge and creator help Shin win the show. “After the quarterfinals, he told me I needed to get away from the (card) table, to move away from being small and get bigger,” Lim told USA TODAY. “That kind of stayed in my brain. And I’m thinking, ‘I’ve got to try something bigger if I’m going to do well on this show.'”
“He got what I was saying, which was if you want to go to that next level, you’ve got to make it bigger. You’ve got to show your personality, you’ve got to be a showman,” Simon told USA Today after Wednesday’s finale. “He took it all on board, and when he came out last night, I did say to him afterward, ‘I think you could win after that.'”
More post-Finale interviews with Shin Lim:
“I thought Courtney [Hadwin] was going to win just based on hype,” Shin told Entertainment Tonight. “But, all of a sudden, when she didn’t make it to the top five, I was like, what? That’s insane. And then my second pick was Michael Ketterer, I thought he was also a front-runner or winner, and then he got fifth place. That just kind of did it for me because it took two left turns.”
He added, “If they got eliminated, anyone [can] get it.”
Shin is dazed during his interview with Access Hollywood. He said it felt “really good” to be on stage with runner-up act Zurcaroh. He became very close to their director.
