334/365: Follow-up on Shin Lim’s Splice
Swear to God, I’ve tried being positive about the Magic Cafe for the last little while. I understand that it’s a difficult job maintaining a forum of that size and keeping things civil, and it seems like for a long time they’ve been pretty good at letting controversies stand as is. That said, what’s going on with Vanishing Inc and Shin Lim’s “Splice” has been a debacle.
Important: Before I continue, please make sure to read through to the end, as there are some important updates to this story including a correction on my part.
A few days ago we here at the olde blogge talked about what was going on with the demo video for Shin Lim’s “Splice”, a product release from Vanishing Inc. A thread on the Cafe basically exposed the fraudulence of the demo video, which made use of signed duplicate cards in order to simulate what you were going to learn on the download. To recap: Shin Lim showed up, accused dendrake (who pointed out the signed dupes) of using Photoshop to falsely accuse him. This was laughable for anybody who had seen the demo. Later, Joshua Jay showed up and made a statement, where he basically tried to get straight to remedying the situation and offering a full refund (or credit on two additional products). A lot of scorn went Lim’s way, and a lot of praise went Jay’s way, both for how they handled the situation.
Well, it’s gotten worse. To begin with, the thread on the Cafe that revealed Lim’s deception was deleted, as was a follow-up thread that asked where the original thread went. Most of the key parts are still available in the previous blog entry linked to earlier, but now there’s no corroborating evidence on the Cafe aside from the word of those who participated in it (or who took screenshots, or did a “Save As…” on the page). Unfortunately, that evidence can be doctored as well, and while I don’t imagine anybody would have the gall to accuse somebody of doctoring screenshots or “Save As…” pages in this issue, I also never would assume somebody would have the gall to mess with a demo video in the first place. Anyways, we’re now in a situation where the Magic Cafe is essentially in the process of whitewashing the whole scenario. Here’s hoping that anybody who purchased the Shin Lim product has been individually notified somehow that a rebate is being offered, because otherwise, public notice of that retraction and the offer of a refund or exchange has disappeared from the Cafe.
What’s further worrisome to me is that the Cafe has Vanishing Inc as an advertiser on the Cafe. If you scroll down the main page you’ll currently see this…
On the right is an ad for a Vanishing Inc product. What’s more, if you check out this cached copy of the June 2011 Magic Cafe main page, or this one from July 2011, you’ll see different Vanishing Inc ads on each. So yeah. The Magic Cafe has an ongoing advertising relationship with Vanishing Inc, and when a major controversy comes up involving a Vanishing Inc product, the relevant thread gets deleted. Convenient.
But it doesn’t stop there. Lim’s been trying to do damage control on this whole thing, and this was his next attempt to deal with it, posted in a couple of places around teh intertubez…
Hey guys, Shin Lim here. First and foremost, I want to sincerely apologize to those who were offended or hurt, or felt cheated by the “Splice” Trailer. I never meant for any of this to happen, and definitely never meant for this to be an “embarrassment to the magic community.” All I aimed to do was to share a move which was very close and dear to my heart. A move which I’ve been honing for the past year, and have been fooling countless magicians including David Williamson, Paul Wilson, and many others. I felt that sharing this would allow others to play around with this concept and create their own variations of it, and thus further the art of magic. Yes, I know I’m young, immature, stupid, and downright and idiot when it comes to crediting magicians who were before me; and I’ve learned my lesson from previous releases. The point is, yes I’m a “noob”, but I’m still learning, and still getting familiar with the magic community. And my hope is that in time I will mature and grow as both a creator and performer with the help of other magicians, who can help when it comes to crediting. I am grateful that this experience is happening early in my career so that I can make positive changes for the future.
Now, I understand this debate about me using a dupe has been an ongoing discussion, and expressing my opinions about the accusations would only annoy people even more. All I have to say is that those who have seen me perform this live would know that there is absolutely no reason why I would go through the time to intricately get both signatures to match, when I could’ve easily done the move in front of a single lens.
However I’ve decided to forget the whole debate, and RELEASE MY TRICK FOR FREE: My hope is to showcase this move to the community, and to show that, no, you don’t need to use any dupes, because this move is clean and workable. I really hope everyone gets usage out from this move, for it is one of my favorites. Those of you who don’t really know me, I’m a HUGE, let me say it again, HUGE move monkey, and this is my favorite. I really hope you enjoy this freebie, and again, I really want to sincerely apologize to those I’ve hurt from the bottom of my heart, and I promise I will try to improve and mature as much as possible with the help of you guys and the magic community. Thank you for your input and I hope I can gain back your trust over the next few years.
Here is the link to the full tutorial: http://vimeo.com/32734520 the password is: shin
Thanks, Shin Lim
Before continuing, I want to point out that again, in the face of criticism, Lim denied the use of duplicate cards. Quote: “All I have to say is that those who have seen me perform this live would know that there is absolutely no reason why I would go through the time to intricately get both signatures to match, when I could’ve easily done the move in front of a single lens.”
But here we have something new to examine, the quality of the product itself. I’ve got no doubt that this video, like every other bit of damning evidence related to the fiasco, will eventually get wiped from the internet. Most of the keepvid-type systems that I know of don’t have a provision for password-protected videos, and only work on openly-available ones (like what’s on Youtube if you’ve got the URL), so if you’re reading this right now and it’s still November 30th, rush to the URL straight away and watch before it too disappears. If it’s already gone, you have my apologies for having to take my word on the quality of the content, which I’ll state here.
This product is bad. It should never have gone to market.
The move itself is the control used in the Cardini Change/Ego Control in order to effect a colour change, except that instead of a colour-change, we’ve got it going straight into palm. Shin Lim’s execution of the move itself is uneven and inconsistent, and presumably it’s quite knacky as he sometimes ends up with the card leaking out the top or on the bottom. He does get it right from time to time, and when the angles are hit correctly you can get a nice effect on the steal and concealment, but again, it’s not consistent, and there aren’t enough performances that show you how to maintain the correct angles for a broad audience for the entirety of an effect. This is webcam magic.
The tells on the technique are bad as well. He’s doing the move with bordered cards, and if your angles are not perfect (meaning, you’ve not rotated your body to the required awkward angle) then the passage of the card is readily apparent. One of the reasons why the Cardini Change or Ego Slip (or whatever it’s called these days) works is because, in the context of a colour change, the sudden appearance of the new card is jarring enough to mask a lot of the surrounding tells, similar to what happens when you use a pass as a colour change — that new visual data grabs the eye and makes the other stuff difficult to keep track of. With an invisible move, on the other hand, you don’t have the built-in distraction of a revelation, and that means that the surrounding tells are much easier to pick up. Like I said earlier, every now and then, when he hits the angle correctly, the steal and concealment aren’t bad.
But unfortunately, there’s another problem, because the palming concealment leads to a noticeably warped card, so when it gets replaced atop the deck it’s obvious something is amiss, either because of the card itself or due to the fidgeting necessary to take out the bend. This is a problematic series of moves for an invisible control. It’s not impossible to overcome them, as magicians have been palming off and replacing cards forever, but these things take away from the cleanliness of handling, and cleanliness of handling was a major feature of the product demo.
Finally, he doesn’t really teach the move all that well. His explanation of the basic mechanics is competent enough, but once we move into the surrounding details, very little is given. He doesn’t even have all his terminology down. He says he’s going to teach a colour change, and instead teaches a switch of an indifferent card to a selected card, something that achieves essentially the same effect as a double-lift turndown, only without the burnability. And this brings us to another important point — the advantages conferred by this move in this context (specifically, always handling a single card) do not necessarily outweigh the disadvantages (specifically, angle problems and the potential for tells on the sleight).
If you consider the above, it’s obvious to see why he’d want to cheat in the demo video. No card actually being palmed means no tells of the movement of the card, nor on warping of the card upon replacement.
But now we’re in a bit of a pickle, because at this point we can’t just talk about Shin Lim’s product, but also the judgement on the part of Vanishing Inc in releasing the product in the first place. When I wrote four days ago that I believed Josh Jay when it seemed that he was saying that they saw the explanation, liked it, saw the demo and didn’t feel anything was amiss, and went ahead and published it, this was when I was assuming that the product was good. Now I don’t know what to think. I honestly have no idea how Josh Jay could have looked at the product honestly, and then looked at the demo, and not seen the massive discrepancies between the two.
Frankly, I’m shocked. I was already a bit wary of his statement where, on the topic of Photoshop accusations, he said “I don’t even pretend to understand computer stuff of this nature, so I have no idea.” Now I have no clue how to reconcile this: “We saw the trailer and tutorial and liked what we saw.” This calls into question the quality-control judgement of the entire Vanishing Inc brand, which is a real shame because many of the other products put out by them are of really good quality for what you’re spending, and neither those other products nor the magicians who created them deserve to be tainted by this whole scandal.
This is another reason why the deletion of the thread is troublesome to me, because not only did it eliminate Shin Lim’s continued lying, it also eliminated Josh Jay’s statement about the vetting process for the product. People will likely fondly remember the quick offer for a refund or exchange, but they’ll likely forget the fact that they thought it was ok for this product to go to market when clearly it shouldn’t have.
Anyways, the latest bit in this saga is the following statement on a different thread which hasn’t been deleted yet. Here’s Shin Lim again, copied and pasted…
Hey guys,
Sorry I haven’t been so quick as to respond to your concerns and questions. I’ve been really busy and have been working on my competition routine for a performance I’m about to do in Vegas, and could only recently see the amount of questions and concerns piling up about Splice. So to get to the point, yes, I did use a dupe, and yes, I forged a signature, but replicated the movements necessary to execute the move in order to make sure no one could reverse engineer the effect; in other words, I was scared, and didn’t want anyone else figuring out how to do the move.
Another question to answer is yes, I can do the move as you see it on the trailer LIVE, however, the only reason why I cheated was again, to make sure no one could reverse engineer the move. But as you should be able to see in the tutorial, it is very much possible to perform this move as it is seen on the trailer. Again, I apologize for this measure I have taken, and the only reason that I did so was to make sure the effect could not be figured out. Again, I am young and immature. In my few years of magic I had seen major magic companies, some which I will not name, have cut and spliced up footage to make the trailer look almost impossible. So I thought to myself, companies do this all the time, why can’t I? Little did I know that such a mistake would lead to such a massive uproar. I’m sorry, and I hope that the magic community can forgive me for being young and immature. I am human, and have flaws, and apologize for that.
I am sorry for those that I denied any accusations that you had. As a new “artist” in the magic community, there is a constant risk of criticism, and I felt that I was in a Catch 22. I had the option of either admitting I used a duplicate card and receive the massive criticism from the magic community, or denying that it ever happened and avoid getting a bad reputation. I honestly thought that the fact I used a dupe was the main issue, and that it would blow over quickly. Recently, the issue changed from the “card” and is now about the fact that I denied it. I now know that while using duplicate cards in promo videos is frowned upon, It’s a lot worse and unacceptable to lie to my peers. This whole fiasco has caused a lot of stress, and I feel horrible. In my attempts to protect my rep, I ended up making it all worse.
I also want to make a sincere apology to Vanishing Inc, and all of the trouble that I had put them through. Josh Jay and Andi Gladwin are one of the finest magicians around, and also one of the nicest people I will ever meet. Giving them a bad name was not at all my intention. My intention was to make it look as flawless as possible on their website.
Lastly, all I want to say is that this whole debate was a good lesson for me. I’ve made plenty of mistakes in the past, and this is one big one. But I also know that I will learn from these mistakes, and become a better magician and a better human being as I mature. I’m not perfect, and never will be. But I know I can improve, and this whole experience has been a real eye opener. The magic community can be hostile, but I hope that, while this will not be forgotten, we can blow this over our shoulders and give me a chance to redeem myself.
From now on, I am going to do more extensive crediting research and get all permission necessary to put out an effect. I’ve only been in the product market for a short amount of time, and I hope that you will soon see that I have made changes for the better.
Again, I am sorry for making a misleading trailer but I was young and scared, and worried that others were going to find out the secret; so I cheated. I am sorry I denied it too; that was the big mistake. My constant fear of ridicule put me at a standstill, and it took me a while to realize that the best thing to do was to fact the consequences of my actions and man up. Everyone concluded I used a dupe, I just needed to accept that, if I want to continue being a part of the community and have a chance to gain back your respect, I couldn’t keep denying it. Sorry I haven’t answered everyone’s questions and concerns, but I have to go now and practice my act A LOT for the next couple of days and get my routine down perfect before I’m off to Vegas. If any of you have any questions about anything to me personally feel free to either hit me up on facebook or email me at shinlimmagic@yahoo.com and I’ll answer any of your questions that you have.
Thank you for teaching me a valuable lesson, and I promise I will make the necessary changes to gain back your trust.
Shin Lim
Emphasis mine on the important part of the statement. And there you have it, admission of the use of signed dupes, in case you needed it.
The way I see it, though, the controversy has already spread way beyond that, both to the Vanishing Inc folks for their letting this product and demo go to market in the first place, and the Magic Cafe for its collusion in covering up the entire controversy. This is a very ugly situation, and if Josh Jay and Steve Brooks don’t address this, then we’re going to be in a hilarious situation where the one person in this mess showing the most class and accountability is going to be Shin Lim himself.
UPDATE! In the original first draft of this, and in the previous blog entry that talked about the scandal, a huge mistake was made on my part when I said that a different company other than Vanishing Inc had released this product. My confusion was based on the fact that this other company has a Joshua Jay item in its product line, and me mistakenly seeing familiarity in their trailers and Vanishing Inc’s. I won’t bother naming them as I’d really like to separate them from this whole thing, as any confusion there is totally my error. A huge thank you goes out to Garrett Holthaus for pointing this out so quickly, although I regret that the original mistake was up for the few hours that it was, as it was long enough to get picked up by the WMF. The story is still ugly, of course, but that ugliness shouldn’t have dragged in another company other than the ones properly involved. So, once again, thanks Garrett, apologies to everybody else and my readership for the error.
Tags: 365, ethics, joshua jay, magic cafe, shin lim, splice, vanishing inc
Dear Shin. Good luck in Vegas, break a leg! Do not be to eager to sell magic, there is apparently way to much of that going on and you are awfully young to have magic to sell. I watched a little of the video (core move) and do not like the move, palm, action, etc. I am old school. I hope to show you my Classic Palm someday. Invisible palm actually. Have you looked at Andrew Galloway books/videos on Ramsey? That appeals to me. And Vernon said, to me, “magic is not confusion”, and he said, “be natural”. Magic is fun and I wish you great enjoyment for your lifetime. Skilldini
I didn’t pick it up, because of you. I got moles all over the place. In this case it came from a pretty unexpected source.
You might want to get that checked out, Roland.
I burst out laughing when I saw the explanation video he offered. I had half a mind to do a parody video of the whole thing.
Thank you all (WMF Blog and yourself) for doing what it is that you do, i.e calling out the clowns in our community. Its one of the things that’s preventing the whole magic thing from becoming a total farce.
I was in the basement at Ken Klosterman’s last night. Basement! I touched Hermann’s table, Kellars too. I played with Germain’s water jars and we set up a newly restored lamp production. Possibly Abbott. Very cool. We demonstrated an unlisted size (5×7), Thayer sprit cabinet and made FDR appear. In that trove is real magic. I said to Ken, looking at an old litho while he checked his database for an instruction sheet for me, “these are real magicians”. They didn’t play magic, they were magicians. I endorse your efforts to check people in magic who are to eager to advertise their little feats. It’s way to much for me to keep up with and I hate the fray, but know I am in the background working to preserve the art. Actions speak louder than words, practice the craft and show me perfect execution.