While surfing around bookmarking site del.icio.us, I came across this pretty good YouTube clip of a Japanese magician doing street magic – in this case, pulling out a real hamburger from a picture menu:
Apart from the always-entertaining looks of surprised and petrified Japanese passers-by, one thing also caught me off-guard: his American accent. After doing some good old-fashioned internet surfing I discovered that his name is Cyril Takayama, a half Okinawan, half French-Moraccan magician who was born in Los Angeles, then moved to Japan at the age of 15 after being expelled from school.
He’s pretty famous in Japan from the looks of his YouTube clips – a lot of Japanese variety shows, a lot of David Blaine-esque trips to Nepal and Thailand (visiting orphans with HIV, no less) and sold-out Tokyo Arena shows. With some exposure on MTV’s prank/magic show Room 401, not to mention the popularity of his clips on YouTube, he looks to be getting big in the Western World as well, although I’m not sure how I’m feeling about that recent John Waters mustache of his. Hey, if it’s big in Japan, right?
