Keith Joszef's Unspeakable Acts

We did four shows at the St. Louis Fringe Festival yesterday. All fascinating, making it hard to pick just one for the blog today. Or What You Will, Part Deux has to make into these pages. It was like Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream on acid and speed. But today's feature is magician Keith Joszef. We've seen other magic acts in the previous four seasons of The Fringe but nothing like this. 

Joszef appears to swallow eleven sewing needles from a wine glass. Then he puts a length of thread in his mouth. A moment later, he pulls them out one by one, the eyes perfectly threaded. These were real needles. There was no question when I zoomed on them during editing. How? How?

Of course, there were unfathomable card tricks. In the bottom photo a dollar bill vanishes from his hand while an audience member grasps his wrist, insuring that nothing went in or out of his sleeve.

Before the performance I asked Joszef if there was any part of the act he might not want me to photograph. Nothing, he said. He can manipulate the camera as well as the eye. I tried to figure some of these out by zooming way in. No way.