Pure magic: Stage magician and hypnotist Pip recently competed on Channel Seven's popular show, Australia's Got Talent. Picture: Lisa McMahon
HE GAVE judge Kyle Sandilands a fright on Channel Seven's Australia's Got Talent when he disappeared from inside a locked box then reappeared on the other side of the stage.
He bamboozled a teenager in his Sylvania shop recently with non-stop card tricks while leaving this writer amazed at the speed with which his fingers danced around various decks of cards.
He is the magician known as "Pip who," and when you politely ask for his full name, replies, "Pip, comic illusionist."
It's a name which perfectly describes what this young man — he's 25 — does for a living, and what he does is much more than simple card tricks because, right there in front of my eyes, the tricks are not so simple.
A seemingly empty hand to his mouth produces a fistful of cards fanning out from between his lips.
Another card seems to bounce in and out of one of the many packs of cards for sale in his shop.
He taps another "normal" pack and suddenly they are all jacks of spades. Another tap and they are all fours of diamonds!
Billed as Australia's only comic magician and hypnotist, Pip has won international recognition for performances in New Zealand and the US, and at one time was based in Las Vegas where he entertained at Playboy parties and became one of the youngest entertainers ever to work on five-star cruise liners.
Back in Australia he has focused on managing his magic shop while performing at special events for charity including childhood cancer research.
Pip is a magician who doesn't only make playing cards disappear. He confesses to having been considerably overweight as 2012 began but 12 weeks of dieting and exercise made 36 kilograms disappear!
The new, svelte Pip can be seen on-stage at the Sydney Opera House later this month in a new production of his one-man show.
Details: Hypnolarious starring Pip the Comic Illusionist; Sydney Opera House Studio; 7pm, Monday, July 31; all tickets $42.90 from the Sydney Opera House box office;