Jason Weisberger is Boing Boing's publisher. He often does what he ought, instead of what he should. On instagram and twitter he is @jlw

  • rattypilgrim

    It’s all hidden in the table cloth. But Google Alfred Jari. Yann Frisch is Jari who fell into a time tunnel. His act is Jari philosophically, he looks like Jari. He’s got he 19th/early 20th century pain=humor thing going. Wow. Fascinating on many levels.

    • Grey Devil

       Well it’s fairly apparent that most of the schtick involves items behind the table, but he’s pretty good at moving things in and out of view seemlessly and in rapid succession. Pretty good act, i like the novel approach of the “crazy guy” illusion. It’s fairly cliche to see comedian or vegas magician… i like this guy [:

    • Boundegar

      Shutup shutup shutup!  It’s MAGIC!!!

  • http://profiles.google.com/joshuabardwell Joshua Bardwell

    If you watch the video in slow-mo, you can see a lot of the moves, but I don’t care, because of the number of times during my first watching that I was simply awestruck.

  • swankgd

    Better juggler than magician.  Not that I could possibly do any of what he does, he’s clearly got top notch dexterity.  Just needs to work on the misdirection.  On first watch, you know exactly WHEN he drops or grabs just about every object (“ditch” or “load” if you’ve seen enough Penn and Teller specials).  On second watch, you know roughly HOW he does it (minus, of course, knowing how to use your hands that precisely).

    • EH

      Mmm, yes. Sawing a lady in half definitely has something to do with the boxes.

  • heligo

    Much more impressive than that Dynamo guy (who seems to be the big thing in the UK at the moment). Dynamo’s whole act rely’s on editing and reaction shots. This guy makes multiple things disappear and reappear before your eyes in one continuous shot. Loved it!

  • David Perriman

    Agree. There’s an awful lot going on under the table and a frame-by frame step does give some of it away but still clever, just the same. That’s the trouble with “magic” being videoed – it gives the game away quite often.

  • http://www.tastythailand.com Reeves

    What’s amazing about this is not only the magic act itself, which yes you can figure out if you keep watching frame by frame, it’s also the compelling personality he’s created. Very well done. Haven’t seen his work before but will be looking for more of it. Thanks for posting this :)

  • daneyul

    Nicely done. It felt like a glimpse into the mind of a mad man.

  • rhodian

    Seriously, people are pointing out that there’s stuff going on below the table??  This is AMAZING!!  It’s amazing partly BECAUSE he gives us a sense of how it’s probably happening.  All the best magic gives you the feeling that you have the trick more-or-less sussed, except for just that wee hmm, not quite sure how he did THAT bit…, oh, I didn’t expect THAT!

  • http://vincenzoravina.tumblr.com/ Vincenzo Ravina

    OK guys, you know you can just enjoy it, right? When BoingBoing linked to the Star Trek trailer, did you point out every instance of CG? No, because that would be missing the point.

    • chumpmeat

       You’re a point-getter

  • Tony_Moore

    These magical abilities are clearly very distressing.

  • MollyMaguire

    Yikes! What’s with being so twitchy? All the hand flapping and nodding and blinking. The magic is cool but the presentation is annoying.

    • http://www.ikaink.net Itsumishi

      The presentation is the character he’s developed. Disagree about it being annoying, I think its what makes it so wonderful.

      • http://disqus.com/Kimmoth/ Kimmo

        Ditto. For me, at least half the act is this bizarre OCD-wracked oddball character; the weirdness is off the scale – yet somehow plausible, like I can almost picture this guy sitting in an asylum somewhere, carrying on in a similar fashion…

        I think the purely technical criticisms are slightly beside the point; I for one am prepared to allow a performer to define their own genre.

        • http://www.ikaink.net Itsumishi

          Imagine him in asylum? I’m pretty sure I saw him on the subway home!

  • http://twitter.com/TimmoWarner Timmo Warner

    Astounding!

  • kbmcg

    Reminds me of Slavoj Zizek…in more than one way.

  • Data1001

    He’s clearly dextrous and skilled, but I find myself increasingly bored with ball tricks. (That’s what she said.)

  • bobcorrigan

    This video should be titled, “The Worrisome Evolution of French Mimes”.

  • http://disqus.com/Kimmoth/ Kimmo

    Well, colour me utterly fucking gobsmacked.