For Part 1 of this countdown, click here.
For Part 2 of this countdown, click here.
It's now time for the conclusion of this countdown, as I reveal who I think are the best magicians to have appeared on Americas Got Talent in the past nine years.
Part 3 (The Top 10)
10. Smoothini (Series 9)
There have been several mentions on this countdown of the shift from illusions to close-up and mentalism in more recent series of AGT, with several more to come as magicians representing the latter two styles appear in the Top 10. However, the magician that most epitomises this major change is Smoothini. Named because of his aspiration to be the "Ghetto Houdini", Smoothini performed basic close-up magic at the judges' table during his audition, using sponge balls, cards and a saltshaker. It was mostly beginners magic, but performed like a true pro. The performance went viral, and the official video of it on the Americas Got Talent YouTube channel has almost 26 million views, compared to the 3 million views for the official video of Mat Franco's first audition. Therefore, it was no surprise that Smoothini was put through to the Live Shows automatically. If he was able to blend his "Old-School" style and fast-paced close-up approach with more unique and creative tricks, then Smoothini could have easily won. However, in the Live Shows, he lost focus on what made his act stand out by performing close-up tricks (generally involving dollar bills) on stage. This reduced the connection with the judges and audience that Smoothini had demonstrated in his audition, and made his performance less impressive. However, he still got through due to the fanbase he had accumulated as a result of his audition. In the Semifinal, Smoothini returned to the judges table, and performed some tricks with a ring and shoelace that were pretty strong, and emphasised his speed and energy. Unfortunately, Smoothini was in the same Semifinal as Mat Franco, and was overshadowed by a rival who could provide routines that were far more spectacular and original. Therefore, Smoothini became the only magician in the Live Shows of Series 9 not to make the Final 12, although he was only eliminated after losing the Judge's Choice. This level of success demonstrates how amazing all the magicians from Series 9 were, and even though Smoothini was probably the weakest magician in the Live Shows that year, he has still earnt the tenth spot on this countdown.
9. David & Leeman (Series 9)
In their audition, David & Leeman provided a trick that was funny, clever and completely unique to AGT. They got judge Howie Mandel to join them on stage, and appeared to take away his ability to read cue cards by using "Pressure Phrenology". The performance was so good that they got to bypass Judgement Week and go through to the Live Shows automatically. However, David & Leeman's subsequent performances did not quite live up to the standard of their audition. Their Live Show performance was a selfie-themed book trick in a style similar to that of Collins Key, and it was marred by mistakes, including one where David & Leeman appeared to be a bit too blatant in guiding Howie towards selecting the chosen word they wanted. Their Semifinal performance did not suffer from any of these problems, but their Spike Under Cup routine lasted too long, and did not provide enough twists on a frequently-performed trick. David & Leeman advanced to the Top 12 as a Judge's Choice, where they performed a lottery-themed mentalism trick. It was their best routine since their audition, but they were up against BOTH Mat Franco and Mike Super, and were unable to surpass two magicians who had been consistently impressive throughout the competition. Apart from their magic, David & Leeman were also defined by their energetic personalities, and they were easily the funniest magicians ever seen on AGT; In fact, they were probably funnier than most of the comedians who appear on the show. This ensured that they were always fun to watch and encouraged viewers to vote for them even when their performances were below-par. Though their tricks weren't always the strongest, David & Leeman were consistently entertaining and enjoyable to watch.
8. Murray Sawchuck (Series 5)
It takes more than a grand illusion for a magician to make their audience notice them, as Scott Alexander and Taylor Reed found out the hard way, and showmanship and energy are needed to excite the viewer as well. Murray Sawchuck provided some of the most impressive illusions AGT had seen at this point, and did so with a unique look, involving messy blond hair and Armani sunglasses, and a charismatic personality. His audition, an amusing spin on the Bo-Staff illusion, was only shown briefly on TV, but he broke through in Vegas Week by making a sports car appear. From this point, Murray provided a number of memorable Grand Illusions. In the Live Shows, he made an assistant vanish from a box, with a tiger appearing in her place. However, the assistant, wearing judge Piers Morgan's jacket as a means of identification, reappeared behind the judges. In the Semifinals, Murray came up against fellow illusionist Michael Grasso in a highly competitive Semifinal. He chose to perform a routine paying tribute to his family, but unlike Drew Thomas, did not compromise on the quality of his magic, instead making an old-fashioned steel train vanish in midair. The trick was great, but unfortunately, so was Michael's, and the judges and viewers believed that Murray's performance was a little too slow in comparison to Michael's more energetic routine. Therefore, Murray missed out on a place in the Top 10, but he still stands out as one of AGT's most memorable illusionists.
7. Eric Dittelman (Series 7)
(Note: Eric Dittelman was simply credited as "Dittelman" during the Semifinals, so he shall be referred to as "Dittelman" throughout this entry.)
In the first six Series of Americas Got Talent, almost all the magicians who competed were stage illusionists, relying on big boxes and impressive appearances or disappearances. This began to change in Series 7, as the best and most successful magician of the series represented a type of magic not seen on AGT before. Eric Dittelman was a mentalist, and began his time on the show with a routine where he correctly guessed the items that the judges had drawn whilst blindfolded. He then performed a routine at Vegas Week where he correctly guessed a significant name chosen by judge Sharon Osbourne. In the Live Shows, Dittelman shifted from the small-scale, intimate approach of his first two performances to a style of mentalism that was suited for large audiences, as he did a lavish mentalism trick themed around Howie Mandel's show Deal or No Deal. He made it through as a Judges Choice (the three acts above him would all make the Grand Final that year) and returned to his audition routine with his Semifinal performance, as he told judge Howard Stern to colour in the self-portrait he had drawn as part of that audition, and correctly predicted which colours he would use on each part of the portrait. Though Dittelman's mind-reading tricks seem a little simplistic compared to those done by the likes of Collins Key, Mike Super and David & Leeman, they were performed cleanly and with enough showmanship to stand out. Dittelman's success demonstrated that it was not the illusions that made the previous magicians on AGT great, but their performance skills and originality. This cleared the way for smaller-scale magicians to take over AGT by providing levels of skill and showmanship that the grand illusionists couldn't match.
6. Nathan Burton (Series 1 and 4)
Nathan Burton was the first ever magician to appear at the audition stage of Americas Got Talent, and it is a real indication of his talent that he is so high up on this countdown almost a decade afterwards. In his audition, Nathan performed his signature routine, the Microwave of Death, in which he got into the titular device and was replaced by a dark-skinned assistant, creating the illusion that he had been badly burnt by the microwave, The assistant did some dancing and a magical costume change, then got back into the microwave and vanished from the box as Nathan reappeared in his place. Although Piers dismissed the audition as "a one-gag act" centred around a basic box trick, fellow judges Brandy and David Hasselhoff were far more impressed, and Nathan made the Live Shows. There, he won over Piers with a routine featuring tricks where he made four women appear in a glass box, was turned into a life-sized sticker of himself before reappearing behind the judges. It retained a great deal of the creativity and energy of Nathan's audition whilst providing more impressive tricks, and he didn't waste a single second of the routine on the comedic dancing that had featured too much in his audition. Although Nathan didn't get through, he qualified for the Wild Card round, and provided a winter-themed routine which featured both the famously beautiful Snowstorm trick, and a final illusion in which he made a snowmobile appear. The fact that Nathan missed out on a place in the finals to David & Dania is still one of the great travesties in AGT history. Between a magic act who kept performing the same routine over and over and one who provided creative and spectacular illusions every time, I know which of them would have been the better finalist. Nathan returned to audition in Series 4, but did not make the Live Shows. Nonetheless, he had already secured his status as the best magician of AGT's early seasons.
5. Mike Super (Series 9)
Calling himself a "Mystifier" rather than a magician, Mike Super aimed to bring the paranormal to the AGT stage. In his audition, he brought along his "Spirit Energy", named Desmond, and performed a trick in which he used Desmond to make a glass pitcher shatter. This performance demonstrated both the strengths and weaknesses of Mike's approach. On one hand, the presence of a "Spirit Energy" is a creative gimmick, and could generate quite an impact if used well. However, if overused or not applied to an appropriate trick, the imaginary friends stop being convincing, and the tricks done with them are less impressive. Unfortunately, Mike used Desmond again at Judgement Week for a slightly convoluted trick involving a magic square that was too far removed from the simple, striking approach of the auditions. His Live Show performance, in which Desmond was used in a Voodoo-Doll themed routine, was better, but by that point, Desmond was a liability that was damaging Mike's act. Mike lost the Judges Choice in his heat, but returned to the Semifinals as a Wild Card. At that point, he changed his act, dropping Desmond whilst providing a spectacular routine blending both illusion and mentalism. The performance was impressive enough for him to make it to the Top 12. However, Mike changed his act again, generally dropping the paranormal aspect (save for a mention of how playing cards were related to Tarot cards) in favour of a routine that could have easily been performed by any other AGT mentalist. Whilst his trick, which involved using playing cards to predict the serial number of a randomly-chosen dollar bill, was impressive and performed well, Mike lost the approach that made his act unique. Therefore, it wasn't much of a surprise when viewers decided that Mat Franco would be the only magician in the Grand Final. In spite of this, Mike was still an excellent performer, and managed to stand out in a season full of brilliant magic acts.
4. Collins Key (Series 8)
16 years old at the time of his audition, Collins Key is the youngest magician ever to appear on AGT, but also proved to be one of the most successful. His decision to style himself as "The Justin Bieber of Magic" (around the time the former teen idol was starting to go off the rails) seemed risky on paper, given that the adolescent males who hate Bieber most of all also have a very cynical opinion of magic acts and are a key viewing demographic for AGT. However, the tricks Collins performed were creative and impressive enough for him to not only impress teenage girls, but win the support of the general American public. At the auditions, Collins provided a piece of close-up magic in which he made a dollar bill vanish and reappear inside a sealed bag of popcorn, then wowed at Vegas Week with a trick where a chosen page from Howie Mandel's book vanished from it and reappeared inside a sealed envelope. However, his best routine was in the Live Shows, where he correctly predicted random Twitter Hashtags chosen by the judges using a scroll held in a sealed box above the stage. It was a routine with a wonderfully modern theme, and proved that Collins could switch from the street magic-type tricks he had performed earlier to stage magic without losing sight of what made him stand out. After these successful performances, Collins seemed like a real contender, but underwhelmed in the Semifinals. His routine, in which he correctly predicted the items of clothing randomly chosen by the judges by choosing an audience member whose clothes matched those selected, was a little too elaborate, with a lot of time being wasted on crowd control. However, with half the acts in the Semifinals making it through, the quality of Collins' first three performances carried him through to the Top 12. There, he tried to provide a simpler performance, doing a spin on the Spike Under Cup trick involving putting host Nick Cannon's watch inside one of three bags, and smashing two of them with a sledgehammer. However, in contrast to other versions of the Spike Under Cup (such as the one performed by David & Leeman, and a version performed in AGT during Series 6 by Frank Miles, who, as a daredevil rather than a magician, is excluded from this countdown), there was no risk to Collins health and safety, and the unusually small number of options was probably intended to reduce the length of the routine. However, this did not work because the judges, rarely the most co-operative volunteers, caused the routine to overrun by spending too long attempting to read the time on Howie's watch (the climax of Collins' routine involved setting Nick's watch to match the chosen time). In spite of the fact he provided another disappointing performance, Collins made the Grand Final, where he performed twice in an attempt to win. His two performances were a Close-up routine, in which he merged two playing cards held between the mouths of judges Heidi Klum and Mel B,and a mentalism routine in which he used a YouTube video to correctly predict photos of volunteers randomly chosen by the judges. These were his best performances since the Live Show Heats, but not quite polished enough for him to earn AGT's million-dollar prize. In the final results show, he came fifth, but not before performing one last trick for Today Show hosts Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb, in which he combined elements of his first two performances to create a new trick. A particularly revealing moment came at the beginning of this routine, as Collins stated that he chose to use his Audition and Vegas Week tricks because they were the most popular with his fans on Twitter. Although I think it is misleading to say that those two were his best performances, Collins owes his success on AGT, and his high placement on this countdown, to the skill he showed in the earlier stages of the competition.
3. Michael Grasso (Series 5)
When Michael Grasso auditioned with a version of the Suspended Animation trick, it was certainly impressive, but cynical viewers believed he would continue the tradition of illusionists disappointing on AGT. He initially proved these doubts correct when he was eliminated in Vegas Week after doing a sleight-of-hand routine. Like Shimshi's card trick in Series 3, it wasn't a bad performance, but it was not right for AGT at the time. However, when Sharon Osbourne chose Michael to return to the competition in the Wild Card round, he began one of the most impressive comebacks in Americas Got Talent history. For his Wild Card performance, he did a version of the Spiker illusion and established his trademark style, which was old-fashioned yet energetic and exciting to watch. Once he got to the Semifinals, Michael went up against Murray Sawchuck for the chance to make the Top 10. He did a trick in which he made an assistant vanish from a cage and take his place beneath it, before finishing his performance by appearing behind the judges. In contrast to Murray's performance, he proved that a magic act could have a retro style whilst retaining a fast pace. Therefore, Michael earned a place in the Top 10, where he performed his third transposition trick of the competition. This time, he appeared to trap an assistant in a glass box full of swords to restrict her movement. He then appeared to switch places with the assistant as she escaped from the box, but the person inside was not Michael, but another assistant. Ultimately, Michael was revealed in the costume of one of his masked helpers. It was an incredible illusion, and, like many involving a lot of transpositions in a very short time, is far more impressive to watch than it is to describe. However, only four acts could make the Grand Final, and Michael narrowly missed out. That doesn't take away from the fact that he was the first magic act on AGT to really inspire and impress viewers throughout his period competing on the Live Shows, and he deserves his status as an AGT icon.
2. Landon Swank (Series 6)
Landon Swank auditioned with a rather interesting spin on a conventional Shadowbox trick by appearing to fold up the shadow of his assistant when he made her vanish.He then impressed in Vegas Week with a trick involving making an assistant appear from a levitating cardboard box. After these performances, Landon seemed like a favourite to go far in the competition. However, his Live Show performance was only mediocre, as he did a trick where he walked through an autographed mirror with no real twists or unique touches, and lost the judges choice as a result. In spite of this, Piers Morgan, Landon's most vocal supporter, brought him back for the Wild Card round, where he faced off against Seth Grabel. In the Wild Card round, he performed the Aquarian Illusion, previously performed by Anthony Reed in Series 2. Whilst Landon's version took a little longer, it was definitely more exciting to watch, due to his decision to focus on the escape aspects rather than the climactic transposition. Landon's performance was easily better than Seth's, because the trick was more impressive, and the long set-up was more relevant and exciting to watch. Landon performed another dangerous, showmanship-heavy trick in the Semifinals, where he did a Russian Roulette-type effect where he hid inside one of four giant boxes, and the judges were told to blow up three of them with dynamite. Again, Landon made this trick stand out by providing a sense of danger, and he earned a place in the Top 10. There, he chose to do something different, and did a routine which began with some fish-themed sleight-of-hand and finished with him passing his hand through a fish-tank. Though this climactic trick was not performed flawlessly (some of the water leaked out towards the end), it was a creative spin on the mirror trick that Landon had already performed earlier in the competition. Like Michael Grasso before him, Landon only missed out on the Grand Final due to the quality of his opposition, coming within 1% of making it through in the viewer's vote. Landon's creative illusions and strong showmanship marked him out as everything an AGT magician should be. However, even he cannot compare to the act above him.
1. Mat Franco (Series 9)
The number one spot on this countdown could not have gone to anyone else. As the first magician ever to win Americas Got Talent, and the third to win a Got Talent series anywhere in the world, (After Charlie Caper from Sweden and Christian Gog from Romania) Mat Franco has become the hero of magic fans not just in America, but all over the globe. In his audition, Mat did a storytelling trick with cards, in the vein of Steve the Bellhop or 673 King Street, but with a unique story tailored to his appearance on AGT. After doing another unusual but creative card trick in Judgement Week, in which he used a picture of Howie Mandel to correctly predict a chosen card , he was under pressure to make ensure his act remained impressive when performing for a far larger audience at the Live Shows. Mat's first performance in the Live Shows was not as technically impressive as his previous two, but it proved that he could make his act suitable for a giant stage. However, it was not until the Semifinals that Mat emerged as a potential winner. Instead of focusing on card tricks, he made cards into a secondary element of his performance. Mat did a routine with Mel B's phone, as he made it vanish and reappear inside a randomly-chosen seat. Whilst this trick is associated with Penn & Teller, Mat's version stood out, and his use of his signature cards allowed him to make his performance unique. In the Top 12, Mat performed the Ambitious Card routine. He did it well, but it was one of his weaker performances because of its relatively conventional nature. However, he still beat David & Leeman and Mike Super to become the only magician in the Grand Final, where, like Collins Key the previous year, he provided three performances, two during the main show and one during the last results show of the season. For the first, he applied his storytelling skills to a Cups and Balls routine, and for the second, he did a version of the classic card trick Out of This World. In both cases, he updated both popular tricks with a slick and energetic presentation. After doing a version of Cards Across in the final results show (with comedienne Rosie O'Donnell as his celebrity guest), Mat was crowned the winner of Series 9 of Americas Got Talent. Mat deserved his victory, and there is no doubting the fact that magicians competing on AGT in the future will have their work cut out emulating his success.
This concludes our countdown of AGT magicians. Come back soon for an overview of this year's magic acts, and a look at the return of Penn and Teller: Fool Us.
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