The winners list for “America’s Got Talent” already includes two magicians — Mat Franco (Season 9) and Shin Lim (Season 13) — but will the current 15th season add another to this elite group? During the upcoming Tuesday, June 23 episode of “AGT,” the judges meet a young card magician named Winston who wows them with his eye-popping tricks. As the 21-year-old from Venezuela explains, “This is a huge opportunity to show America my love to magic and I hope they will love it.” Watch the sneak peek video above.
Part interpretive dance, part horror show, Winston’s act consists of him calmly sitting in his chair as he’s bombarded with dozens of white playing cards. The more he throws the cards away or spits them out, the more they seem to take over his entire body — even his hair! It’s a slick routine that has the audience gasping in shock, particular when he burns a card and it transforms into confetti.
Find out what the “AGT” judges — Simon Cowell, Sofia Vergara, Howie Mandel and guest panelist Eric Stonestreet — have to say about Winston when the episode airs Tuesday night on NBC. One judge who won’t be getting a vote on whether the magician makes it to the next round is Heidi Klum, as she’s out sick with a fever.
Perhaps the most popular magician to ever grace the “America’s Got Talent” stage is Shin Lim, who not only won Season 13 but also claimed victory in “The Champions” Season 1. Shin rose to fame by doing card tricks, but in a wholly different way than Winston. Shin’s routines include the traditional magician’s “patter” in which he tells stories along with his act, while Winston melds his magic with artistic, physical movements.
Mat Franco holds the record as the show’s first-ever magician to claim victory. He beat out singer Emily West in Season 9 and has since gone on to have a successful show in Las Vegas. In Season 14 a magician duo, mentalists The Clairvoyants, came close to victory but they were beaten by Grace VanderWaal in the final vote. Can Winston join this esteemed list of “AGT” all-star magic acts?
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