Liang-Shun Lim (born September 25, 1991), better known by his stage name Shin Lim, is a Canadian-American magician who is noted for his card tricks and sleight of hand. He’s noted for his intricate close-up card magic performances, in which he stays completely silent while performing the feats to music. He is self-taught, having mastered the majority of his talents through viewing YouTube videos, which he has subsequently shared.
Lim was originally trained as a pianist, but after suffering from carpal tunnel disease, he decided to pursue magic as a vocation. Lim rose to prominence after being founded in 2012, embarking on a worldwide tour, and winning the 2015 Fédération Internationale des Sociétés Magiques in Close-up Card Magic.
His appearances on Penn & Teller: Fool Us and his victories on America’s Got Talent during its 13th season in 2018 and America’s Got Talent: The Champions helped him gain international recognition.
Shin Lim Bio/Wiki
Real Name | Liang-Shun Lim |
Nickname | Shin Lim |
Age | 32 years |
Date Of Birth | September 25, 1991 |
Birth Place | Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada |
Height | 1.70 m |
Weight | 76 kg |
Eye Colour | Dark Brown |
Hair Colour | Brown |
Marital Status | Married |
Wife | Casey Thomas |
Nationality | Canadian-American |
Profession | Canadian-American magician |
Estimated Net Worth in 2023 (Approx) | $7 million |
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Early Life
Liang-Shun Lim was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, on September 25, 1991. His parents were both born in the city-state of Singapore. Yi, his older brother, and a younger sibling make up his family. He relocated to Singapore with his family when he was two years old, attending a ‘PAP’ kindergarten in Bukit Panjang and later the ‘Naval Base Primary School.’ Lim’s mother opted to educate her children due to the difficult educational system in Singapore.
Lim was 11 years old when his family relocated to Acton, Massachusetts, where he attended the ‘Acton-Boxborough Regional High School.’ He subsequently went to ‘Lee University in Tennessee’s ‘School of Music,’ where he earned a double major in piano and telecommunications. He was also a part of the ensemble ‘Choral Union.’
Lim became interested in music when he was nine years old. He began to pursue his passion by learning to play the violin, which his grandmother had given him. He felt irritated and shattered the guitar as a result. Lim subsequently shifted his attention to the piano.
He subsequently developed a strong desire to play the piano and chose to pursue it as a career. He would practise for hours on end and finally acquired a piano degree from a university.
Lim acquired an interest in magic in addition to music. Yi introduced him to card tricks and suggested that he study them by watching ‘YouTube’ videos. Following his elder brother’s advice, Lim began watching ‘YouTube’ videos on card magic feats and eventually learnt them. He eventually developed into a brilliant magician, even inventing his own tricks and techniques.
David Blaine, an American illusionist, endurance artist, and extreme performer, and his early TV specials, Lim believes, influenced him greatly. Blaine’s stage presence enthralled him, and he carefully analysed his body language, which helped him develop as an overall performer.
Lim suffered from carpal tunnel syndrome, which he was diagnosed with in 2011. His singing career was finally put on hold as a result of the issue, as physicians advised him to rest his wrist for a period. Lim picked the latter since his undergraduate curriculum required him to play the piano for 20 hours a week while also practising card tricks. He took a year off from school before starting his career in magic.
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Personal Life
Casey Thomas, a professional dancer, is Lim’s wife. They met in 2015 while he was on tour in China, at ‘Studio City,’ a hotel and casino complex in Macau. She was an assistant to another magician at the time. They performed together in the ‘House of Magic’ event. On August 19, 2019, they married at the ‘Hyatt Regency Maui Resort and Spa.’ ‘Star Wars’ is a favourite of both Lim and Casey. The two are currently residing in Boston, Massachusetts. Lim is a dual citizen of Canada and the United States.
Lim is a supporter of the charity ‘Charity Water,’ which helps Africans get clean water. As a token of his gratitude for the organisation, he once starred in a video for it. He also purchased their trademark deck of cards, which he utilises in his acts on occasion. In addition, he is a supporter of ‘Product Red,’ a non-profit organisation dedicated to the fight against AIDS. Fun Fact: Shin Lim Day is celebrated on April 28th.
Shin Lim Education
Lim was 11 years old when his family relocated to Acton, Massachusetts, where he attended the ‘Acton-Boxborough Regional High School.’ He subsequently went to ‘Lee University’ in Tennessee’s ‘School of Music,’ where he earned a double major in piano and telecommunications. He was also a part of the ensemble ‘Choral Union.’
Shin Lim Net Worth
Shin Lim’s net worth is expected to be approximately $7 million in 2023. His massive net worth is a result of his international tours and the numerous events he participates in each year. Shin Lim has been on the television shows Penn & Teller: Fool Us in 2015 and 2017, as well as America’s Got Talent: The Champions in 2019.
For winning America’s Got Talent, he also received a headline slot at the Paris Theater in Paris Las Vegas.
Estimated Net Worth in 2022 (Approx) | $6 million |
Estimated Net Worth in 2021 (Approx) | $5 million |
Estimated Net Worth in 2020 (Approx) | $3 million |
Estimated Net Worth in 2019 (Approx) | $2 million |
Annual Salary | $500K-$700K |
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Professional Career
Early days of his career
Lim was fascinated with magic as well as music when he was small. Yi, his elder brother, had shown a basic card trick to Lim, and when Lim inquired about how it was done, Yi suggested he seek it up on YouTube. Lim watched the videos on the site and taught himself a few techniques. He invented his own stunts as he improved his talents, and he utilised YouTube to showcase his performances and expertise. Lim attributed much of his motivation for the magic to David Blaine’s early television specials, which moved away from massive stage performances and toward basic yet effective feats like card magic.
Lim was diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome at the age of 20 in 2011. He was forced to choose between his music and his magic career since the Lee School of Music asked him to spend up to 20 hours a week on piano. He chose to pursue his lifelong interest in magic, taking a year off from school to do so. Lim continues to develop tricks and create YouTube videos of his magic, as well as sell tricks to interested admirers.
During his sabbatical, he competed in the 2012 World Championship of the Fédération Internationale des Sociétés Magiques (International Federation of Magic Societies), placing sixth.
Lim was undecided about his career path at the time and was still contemplating music, but in 2013, he was called by an agent who had watched his performance at the World Championship and offered him the chance to tour across China. Lim agreed, and as a consequence, he made some adjustments to his daily routine.
He expanded his performance to 20 minutes of stunts and removed any narrative from his routine because he did not understand Chinese; this would become a distinguishing characteristic of his future acts. Lim was featured as the show’s last act towards the end of the tour. Because of this trip, he decided to leave the Lee School of Music and pursue a career in music.
Lim was undecided about his career path at the time and was still contemplating music, but in 2013, he was called by an agent who had watched his performance at the World Championship and offered him the chance to tour across China. Lim agreed, and as a consequence, he made some adjustments to his daily routine.
He expanded his performance to 20 minutes of stunts and removed any narrative from his routine because he did not understand Chinese; this would become a distinguishing characteristic of his future acts. Lim was featured as the show’s last act towards the end of the tour. Because of this trip, he decided to leave the Lee School of Music and pursue a career in magic but he eventually intended to return to music.
In 2015, he won the World Championship of Close-up Card Magic at the Fédération Internationale des Sociétés Magiques. There was no million-dollar reward, contrary to popular belief, but there was the chance to get seen by producers seeking new talent.
Penn &Teller’s Fool Us role in his career
Lim was called by the producers of Penn & Teller: Deceive Us shortly after his World Championship triumph in 2015, a show in which up-and-coming magicians seek to fool hosts and magicians Penn & Teller with their illusions. They’d watched his YouTube videos and gave him a slot on the show in the hopes of deceiving the hosts. The hosts were duped by his routine. “The concept of doing card tricks — which are stupid at their foundation — very seriously and really, really significant is great,” Penn Jillette said of Lim’s routine.
Lim, according to Jillette, is part of the third wave of magicians, spanning the gap between spectacle acts like David Copperfield and Doug Henning and reactive acts like David Blaine. Lim’s debut on Fool Us in 2015, which was posted to YouTube and became viral, garnered him a second invitation to participate in the show in 2017. Lim cites his 2015 Fool Us appearance as the turning point in his career when he discovered his “magic is very amazing,” and he opted to pursue magic over music.
Following his performance in 2015, Lim was invited to perform at the House of Magic in Macau, China, which he described as “the finest gig in magic.” His “Pray for Paris” YouTube video performance of his “52 Shades of Red” in honour of the victims of the November 2015 Paris attacks garnered even more notice to his abilities.
Lim hurt two tendons in his left thumb while rehearsing a new card trick in March 2016. Lim underwent surgery to repair the tendons, and after intensive treatment, he was able to resume his magic career. His career was saved, he said, thanks to his surgeon and physical therapist. Following that, he tricked Penn & Teller once more in his 2017 appearance on Fool Us.
America’s Got Talent days
After his participation on Fool Us in 2015, the producers of America’s Got Talent contacted Lim to inquire about his interest in appearing, but he originally declined because he only had one major act he could do. After his second performance on Fool Us in 2017, Lim believed he was ready to compete on America’s Got Talent, and his fiancée Casey Thomas, a dancer and assistant to another magician when he met her, encouraged him to try out. Thomas bolstered Lim’s confidence and offered to advise based on her own experiences to help him better his routines.
Lim was chosen for the show’s 13th season, and he was named the champion on September 19, 2018. Lim will be a main performer at the Paris Theater at Paris Las Vegas, in addition to winning a $1 million award. While he used variants of his feats during the competition, he also incorporated extra speech and other elements, such as displaying a little of his pianist background for his final act.
Lim said that after his quarterfinal act, one of the program’s judges, Simon Cowell, told him that if he had a chance to win, he needed to reveal more of his personality, walk away from the card table, and add greater aspects to his show. He was then asked back to compete in America’s Got Talent: The Champions, which began filming immediately following his 2018 13th-season triumph, where he beat out American ventriloquist and season 12 champion Darci Lynne.
Rise to stardom
Lim began a long–term Las Vegas engagement in the Terry Fator Theatre at the Mirage Casino-Hotel in October 2019 as a result of his triumph on America’s Got Talent. In 2020, Lim will embark on a tour with The Illusionists, a theatrical magician ensemble, as well as his own United States tour. Since winning America’s Got Talent, Lim has made multiple guest appearances on talk shows, including The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, and The Today Show.
Lim made two cameo cameos on America’s Got Talent: The Champions in 2020, the first as part of a magic performance done by Britain’s Got Talent competitor Marc Spelmann, alias “Magician X,” and the second as part of a trick performed by AGT semi-finalist Colin Cloud.
Shin Lim Awards
Year | Title | Role |
2010 | World Teen Close-Up Magic | 1st Place |
2011 | Adult Card Magic I.B.M. | 1st Place |
2011 | North American Adult Card Magic (Joint S.A.M. and I.B.M.) | Champion |
2012 | FISM- North American Card Magic (Magic Olympics) | Finalist (In Top 6, represented North America) |
2014 | North American Joint S.A.M. and I.B.M. | People’s Choice |
2015 | I.B.M North America | 1st Place and People’s Choice |
2015 | FISM | World Champion in Close-Up Card Magic |
2018 | Merlin Award | Best Close-Up Magician |
2018 | America’s Got Talent | Winner |
2019 | America’s Got Talent: The Champions | Winner |
Shin Lim Television
Year | Title |
2015 | Penn & Teller: Fool Us |
2017 | Penn & Teller: Fool Us |
2017 | Die Ehrlich Brothers präsentieren: Showdown der weltbesten Magier |
2018 | America’s Got Talent |
2019 | America’s Got Talent: The Champions |
Shin Lim Wives
He married Casey Thomas, whom he met on his 2015 trip to Macau. They met during after-show celebrations when the two theatrical companies mingled together as a family, and she was playing at the theatre next door to where he was. On August 19, 2019, the couple tied the knot. Casey is a 24-year-old dancer from Australia. Shin attributes his success on AGT to her, since she is a strong supporter of his enthusiasm for magic. Shin expressed his reservations about auditioning for a Valentine’s Day tribute on Instagram, but Casey “pushed me to go for it.”
Height, Weight & Age
He stands 1.70 m (5 feet 7 inches) tall. As of 2022, his weight is at 76 kg, and he is 32 years old. He is a handsome and good-looking person.
FAQs
32 years
Casey Thomas
1.70 m
$7 million