A 15-year-old magician blew away America’s Got Talent’s judges with his incredible card tricks on Tuesday night’s episode.
Henry Richardson, a native of Brooklyn in New York City, first got into magic while watching America’s Got Talent with his dad as a child. Now, he performs his own mind-blowing tricks—and wowed the audience during the fourth round of judges cuts.
While he didn’t advance to the live shows, Henry showed off his amazing skills by turning an entire deck of cards transparent and apparently baking one inside a cookie, even though a judge had just signed it seconds before.
Amazing: A 15-year-old magician blew away America’s Got Talent’s judges with his incredible card tricks on Tuesday night’s episode
Talented: Henry Richardson, a native of Brooklyn in New York City, first got into magic while watching America’s Got Talent with his dad as a child. Now, he performs his own tricks
The teen began by pulling out a deck of cards and a wrapped object, which he said was a snack, from a brown paper bag.
Henry slid the snack down the judges’ tables ‘for later’ and asked Heidi Klum to pick a card and sign it.
He then took the card back and asked Seal—who acted as a guest judge for the evening and sat next to his ex-wife Heidi for the occasion—to hold out his hand.
At that point, Henry placed the deck of cards into Seal’s palm and had the singer place his other hand on top.
‘Would it be impressive if I could pull Heidi’s card from the deck with just one hand?’ he asked.
Mel B agreed it would—but Henry seemingly failed and pulled the king of diamonds.
It begins: Henry asked Seal—who acted as a guest judge for the evening and sat next to his ex-wife Heidi Klum for the occasion—to hold out his hand and placed a deck of cards on his palm
Tada! After clicking his finger, Henry asked Seal to open his hands to reveal the deck of cards, which appeared normal just moments before, was entirely see-through
Amazed: Mel B looked appropriately stunned throughout Henry’s performance, yet the teen was eliminated and didn’t progress to the live shows
Luckily, the apparent blunder turned out to be the setup to an even better trick, and after clicking his finger, Henry asked Seal to open his hands to reveal the deck of cards, which appeared normal just moments before, was entirely see-through.
‘What?!’ a bewildered Mel exclaimed while the audience clapped.
As impressive as it was, Henry still had to find Heidi’s signed card—and he took care of that with the same talent for the unexpected.
He pointed out that the king on the card he had originally pulled out instead of Heidi’s seemed to be holding the very same snack he had placed at the other end of the table at the beginning of his routine.
Henry then asked Howie Mandel to grab the snack, which was tightly wrapped in a seal plastic packaging.
‘Make sure there’s not cuts, slits or tears anywhere on that,’ the teen told Howie.
The judge confirmed the wrapper was intact, and as instructed by the magician, proceeded to open it.
Theres’ more: At the beginning of his act, Henry asked Heidi Klum to pick a card and sign it
Buildup: Later on, Henry asked Howie Mandel to grab a snack the teen had previously slid down the table. The snack was tightly wrapped in a seal plastic packaging
Snap: Inside, Howie found a Pop-Tart-like cookie, which Henry asked him to break in half
There it is! Sure enough, Henry pulled Heidi’s signed card, with spots of grease and bits of cookie still attached to it, from the pastry
Stunned: Heidi was left with her mouth wide open in bewilderment when Henry revealed the card, while Mel let out an ‘Oh my God’ and Howie deemed the performance ‘amazing’
Inside, he found a Pop-Tart-like cookie, which Henry asked him to break in half.
‘Oh my gosh, there’s a card,’ Howie said.
Sure enough, Henry pulled Heidi’s signed card, with spots of grease and bits of cookie still attached to it, from the pastry.
Heidi was left with her mouth wide open in bewilderment, while Mel let out an ‘Oh my God’ and Howie deemed the performance ‘amazing’.
Despite his impressive card tricks, the judges opted not to retain Henry for the live shows, and the teen was eliminated from the program.
Some viewers took to social media to express their surprise and urge one of the judges to use their ‘wild card’ to bring him back into the running.
‘A huge thanks to all the judges and hard working AGT crew for helping to make one of my dreams come true. Even though this chapter of my life is over the book is just beginning. This isn’t the last you’ve seen of me, promise,’ the teen wrote on Instagram.
Henry’s supporters have left comments to say how shocked they were to see him booted from the show, and to encourage him to keep following his dreams.