‘AGT’ magician who wasn’t taken seriously by Simon Cowell turned the tables in the best way possible
Yu Hojin made his debut on 'AGT' auditions in season 22, where his act stunned the judges Heidi Klum, Sofia Vergara, and Howie Mandel, who gave him their yesses, but did not impress Simon Cowell. Cowell told Hojin, "I don't mind being stupid but I'm gonna go with what I saw, and I'm gonna say 'No'," instantly followed by a boo from the audience. However, during the Live Shows, Hojin came determined to win over Cowell. He started the act with nothing in his hands; however, he soon pulled out a picture of his childhood. Hojin put the picture on the board on the stage and said, "I like to play with imagination, because with imagination, anything is possible." Then he pulled out the card 'imagination' from the same board, magically turning it into a watch, a paint brush, a ball, and even a car, all in a few seconds.
The jaw-dropping moment came when he started erasing all the pictures from the board without pulling them out of the pin, leaving the judges awestruck. "When you believe in your imagination, your imagination becomes reality," Hojin concluded the act, garnering a standing ovation from the audience and the judges. Klum excitedly told Hojin, "Wow, there is such a calm but confident presence about you, everything you do is so elegant, I kind of feel like you hypnotized me."
Vergara also added, "It was very good, you did so much magic in just two minutes that I don't even know what I was seeing." She added, "And I really wanna know what Simon thinks." Cowell, who also looked at Hojin in disbelief, said, "I think I helped you by saying no in the auditions, pushed you to do better magic." He then added, I'm very happy to say on live television that I am officially an idiot!" Leaving Hojin in tears. Mandel also said, "It was a beautiful and beautiful story."
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Fans also couldn't stop raving about Hojin's performance, one commented on YouTube, "As a professional magician for 15 years, this is the best magic I've ever seen in this show. His sleight of hand is incredible." Another added, "Not only did I enjoy his magic performance, but I love this guy's composure, softness, and appearance of a Korean star, and the personality that most probably admire of having. He didn't say anything when the judges were speaking, and smiled and nodded when they were speaking highly of him." The third chimed in, "I've been doing magic for 10 years, and I have to say this is easily one of the best magic acts I've ever seen."
NBC reported that Hojin finished in 11th place at 'AGT'. In a recent interview with FISM, Hojin revealed, "At the beginning, my dad didn't want me to do magic because in Korea in 2001, magic shows weren't common, and it was something that people of my dad's generation didn't want to do or see. So, my dad thought I couldn't make a career out of it." Fortunately, he persisted and practiced magic seriously as a career from 2001-2003. Speaking of his experience on 'AGT', Hojin shared, "I have seen many excellent magicians performing close-up magic, and I wanted to do close-up magic on AGT because it was a challenge. Doing stage magic there would have been easier than doing close-up, but I knew I could do it. What's my next step? I am creating my show. My next goal is to showcase my show around the world."