Episode Recap: San Francisco

The east coast magicians head to the west coast for a trip to the city of innovation - San Francisco. Here, the Close Up Kings plan to take inspiration from the past to improve their magic of today (their words, not ours). Fans of gimmicks - naturally- the Kings kick things off in San Fran’s largest spy shop. Magick takes a girl’s phone and places it inside a piece of newspaper. He snaps his fingers and asks her if she can still feel the phone inside the paper - she can - but when she opens up the paper it’s not her phone, but instead a stun-gun that looks like as a cell phone. Get it? We spy a corny trick but the girl and her friends are tickled. When the girl tries to locate her phone the group finds it behind a nearby glass spy case. But how will she get it out without a key?!?!?! [insert damsel in distress voice here] Magick then uses the newspaper to poke a whole in the glass and push his hand through - without cutting himself or the glass - to retrieve her phone.

Getting into the spirit of the tech community, Johnny Blaze encourages a woman at a restaurant to go wireless by cutting her headphones. She’s pissed at first but when Johnny’s able to get the music to still play through the headphones she’s happy again. Next up, the guys venture through San Francisco’s Chinatown, which is the oldest in North America, and enlist the help of a friendly tour guide, Helice Jiahui Wen. After a trip to the fortune cookie factory Magick uses some extra sensory perception (his words, not ours) to figure out what the fortune is before a cookie is opened. Magick takes it one step further by writing down the lucky numbers on the fortune cookie by reading Helice’s mind as she looks at each number.

We’ve seen Johnny play card tricks all across the US in ‘hoods in New Orleans, Miami and now as he attempts to play poker with an elder at the park Johnny ALMOST gets his money taken - first time for everything, right? Then the magicians trek over to Hippy Hills to talk to - hippies, duh. Johnny decides to create his own smoke out - Close Up King style by drawing imaginary rolling paper and weed and then producing actual rings of smoke. And the hippies are intrigued.

Later on, Loki who’s been quiet for most of the episode gets in on the action. He shows a group of teens a stack of cards with shapes drawn on them and then makes the shapes magically appear on his t-shirt. He then continues the trick with another group. Fun!

But enough funning around, for the final trick of the trip the guys take a tour of the famous Alcatrez prison. Loki and Johnny put their lock picking skills to the test by attempt a jail break while Magick plays prison guard. Magick chains each of the other magicians in nearly 35 pounds of materials securing their heads, necks and legs. The last magician to break free has to spend the night in prison! Care to take a guess who broke free first?…

Johnny Blaze!

Magick and Johnny leave Loki to rot in his cell as they head out to enjoy the rest of their trip!