A magician wants to leave the audience spellbound, not become a victim of dirty tricks.
But that’s what happening to a magician in China named A Gan.
Try as he might to impress the internet with his magic know-how, he is thwarted at every turn by his friend ― nicknamed “Pokerface Man.” The expressionless friend stares at the camera waiting for the right moment to ruin things by showing just how the tricks are done.
In the process, they’ve both conjured up a following on YouTube, getting thousands of views for each video.
The video above shows some of their best ― or worst ― attempts at magic.
Also on HuffPost
Giambattista della Porta wrote this 1558 book, which attempted to use careful observation and experimentation to understand witchcraft. According to the Academy, the book "explained that some women accused of witchcraft may have used herbal lotions that contained hallucinogenic properties, prompting them to imagine they could fly."
In this plate from Jean-Jacques Manget's 1702 text Bibliotheca Curiosa, an illustration gives would-be alchemists instruction on how to turn baser metals into gold. The final instructions read, "Pray, read, read, read, reread, work and discover."
The Utriusque Cosmi (1619-1621) was written by an English astrologer named Robert Fludd. This illustration shows the seven forms of divination, including palm-reading.
Gaspar Schott's Physica curiosa (1662) compiled all sorts of curious events, both real and imaginary. Among them, this centaur, which looks a bit different from the handsome Firenze.
Frenchman Pierre Pomet included this illustration of a bezoar -- cross-sectioned to reveal its core -- and the goat from which it came in his 17th century guide to medicinal drugs.
In Pomet's compendium of drugs, he lists no fewer than five types of unicorn horn. Narwhal horns were often sold as unicorn horn for medicinal purposes.
Aldrovandi's Monstrorum historia included mythical birds like griffins, harpies and this phoenix.
Ulisse Aldrovandi, a 16th-century naturalist, included this basilisk in his book Serpentum, et draconum historiae libri duo. The Academy exhibition notes that in the books, "Rowling preserves many details of the accounts from sixteenth- and seventeenth-century sources about this terrifying snake, including his birth from a chicken's egg hatched under a toad, and a gaze that could kill."
Aldrovandi's Monstrorum historia also contained accounts of merpeople, like this fish-tailed couple.
Aldrovandi's compendium of reptiles contained woodcuts and descriptions of both real serpents and what we now know to be mythical beasts, like these dragons.
"Early modern naturalists frequently relied on seafarers' tales of ocean voyages to augment their knowledge of sea life," notes the Academy. Sixteenth-century French surgeon Ambroise Paré probably used these secondhand accounts to draw the mermen.
Paré anatomizes a number of dragons in his collected works. According to the Academy, he cites the Roman historian Pliny as a source, writing: "Pliny saith, that there are Dragons found in Aethiopia of ten Cubits long, but that in India there are Dragons of an hundred foot long, that fly so high, that they fetch Birds, and take their prey even from the midst of the clouds."
Swiss naturalist Conrad Gessner composed a massive encyclopedia, the Historia Animalium, which cataloged real creatures like birds and cats alongside fantasy beasts like the unicorn. Like Pomet, he touts the healing properties of unicorn horn.
The 15th century German herbalist guide Hortus Sanitatis explains how to remove mandrakes from the ground without being knocked out by the screams of the plant's roots. According to the Academy, the real plant's bifurcated roots bear a resemblance to the human form, which explains the old myth that they're actually little people.
Dan Wetzel, Ross Dellenger & SI’s Pat Forde react to the huge performance this weekend by Texas QB Arch Manning, Michigan and Notre Dame's spring games, Jaden Rashada entering the transfer portal, and more
Trump is entitled to an additional 36 million shares if the company's share price trades above $17.50 "for twenty out of any thirty trading days" over the next three years.
