Young-Min Kim, an award-winning magician and illusionist from South Korea, performs for the second time at this year’s Fringe in the show SNAP! Here he talks about coming to Edinburgh and the history of magic in South Korea.
Young-Min Kim by Ted Kim
Magic and illusion shows have been gaining in popularity in South Korea over the last 20 years and I have loved them since I was a child. Although it’s a relatively new art, the number of performers have grown enormously and in 2018, we’re very proud that the World Championships of Magic are scheduled to take place in Busan, South Korea for the first time. This is a huge international event at which thousands of magicians from 50 countries will be competing against each other in various categories.
I’ve been training as an illusionist since I was 16 – I did card tricks as a kid, moved on to magic and in our show Snap!, I incorporate some really tricky items of illusion. I hope the audience will like it as much as they did last year. Our first visit to Edinburgh last year was fantastic and we all enjoyed performing our show for new audiences. We are very excited about coming back to Edinburgh this year and we have some exciting new tricks to surprise the audience!
There are eight performers in our show and we each take on a character; my character is The Alchemist who uses his talents to create incredible and magical changes to everyday objects – I can’t tell you any more though because it would give it away! The art of alchemy, of course, stretches back over a thousand years and I have enjoyed researching its history.
We also have a Time Traveller, Dreamer, Trickster and Florist – each character has his own special brand of magic and illusion.
In our show we also refer to the silent movie geniuses of yesteryear like Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin; we all love those timeless comedy movies and we like to combine some classic comedy moments and physical theatre which will really get the audience laughing!
SNAP! is on at the Assembly George Square Theatre from 3rd-28th August (not 14th or 21st). Tickets available at www.edfringe.com.
Tagged in Edinburgh Festival Fringe