Magician’s tryst with psychology

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He learnt his first “magic trick” in 2002 and taking it from there, the young lad will complete 10 years as a “psychological illusionist” on June 23, which is when he’ll do his first commercial show.

DU student Karan Singh smiles when asked what he means by psychological illusionist. “This is one question I am asked more than any other. When I started magic tricks, I learnt the obvious — cutting girls in half, taking rabbits out of hats, then I moved on to card tricks because of my fascination with David Blaine. I then moved on to a more psychological aspect of magic — reading minds, influencing people to think of certain things. Now it’s not exactly magic, there’s a bit of psychology involved with the age-old illusion, so ‘psychological illusionist’ it is,” says Karan, who is more popularly known as Karan Singh ‘magic’.
Thanks to the social media, Karan got his new name ‘Karan Singh Magic’. “A friend of mine created a FB page for me, and then I used it to get performances, which is why I’m called Karan Singh Magic,” he quips.
For someone who gave his first performance on stage while in Class 11, he says his best compliment till date has been from Derren Brown. “He’s my idol and the best psychological illusionist in the world. I’d gone to London for his show and got the chance to meet and perform for him, I asked him to think of a playing card and figured out what he was thinking to which he said, ‘I have absolutely no idea how you did that’,” he shares.
About his upcoming show, he says, “It’s sort of like a thriller movie, because in the end, every trick is related or connected in a way and they all lead up to this epic finale.”