(opening track)
- [Justin Sight] If I were to look straight at something,
it's almost as if my brain kind of fills in the background
of what's around me.
It's just kind of like this choppy, fuzz nothingness.
I have these kind of habits I've developed
over my life where I might look at
something and not see it, but in some way
get some kind of gestures if I did see what it was.
Sometimes I would look at people
in a way that they would expect someone to look at them.
So that they and I would feel more comfortable,
even though that's not they way I can see.
(sucks in breath)
Keep thinking of it,
you're doing it?
Okay, I don't know if this will work.
(exhales heavily)
Keep thinking of it.
- Whoa (laughing)
- [Justin] I would say that I was always different
in general as a kid.
I basically kept to myself and
a lot of that probably had to do with losing
my eyesight, that kind of isolated me a little more
from the rest of the kids.
You know, I knew that they saw me as this
disheveled, weird blind kid.
If I didn't have the magic, I may
have been even more isolated.
I mean, when I first remember seeing magicians
I was around 10 years old.
I saw them doing things that I had always wanted to do.
Things that were thought to be impossible.
The idea of being able to just shatter
someone's way of seeing the world for a few minutes
has always appealed to me.
(train screeching past)
Let's hope this works.
Can you guys see this 'X' I've made?
- Yes.
- Look.
Anything that happens here, happened there.
Open your hand.
- (gasps) Ahhh!
What?
(clapping)
- [Man] That's awesome.
- [Woman] That's so crazy, what?
(laughing in disbelief)
That was so cool.
- (whistling)
[Justin] I grew up in Poland and then moved
to the states in '96.
(laughing)
My mom took us to America for the opportunity.
Uh, she didn't see that we would be able to have
the kind of opportunities in Poland that we
would have here, in terms of occupation,
school and ... it was really just kind of living
pay-check to pay-check, bare bones kind of situation.
Got a couple dollars here.
What a lot of people don't know is it you take these
and you line them up just right ...
Okay.
If you squeeze them, are able to produce
one of these.
(flicks bill)
These are rare, you don't really see these that often,
right?
So at 10 years old I was diagnosed with
Stargardt macular degeneration.
And I was proclaimed legally blind.
Son of a bitch.
And so macular degeneration is when the central
part of your vision becomes worse,
so you see better peripherally.
I use the fact that I'm legally blind
as something to make me stand out,
or be unique in the world of magic in my profession.
Take a card, see some magic, see a trick.
All these things that I do,
it's very much how I feel.
I hold the cards in my hand, I kind of
feel what needs to be done.
Now I'm legally blind but other senses
become stronger when you lose a sense.
That means I could feel the warmth of your life
with your fingers.
Over and over, keep thinking of the name of your card.
You got it in your head?
Keep thinking of what it's called.
(tapping)
Perfect.
Do these look like anything?
- No.
- Not really?
So over and over, think of the name of that card, okay?
Cause sometimes when you think of something all day,
you might even hear someone talking about it,
your attention goes there.
It's kind of like when you hear
your name in a crowded room.
But if you focus on the dots,
see how your brain tries to kind of,
find the meaning in them?
(laughing)
- That's good.
- This looks like something to you, right?
- Yep.
- It looks like your card?
- Very good. - Thank you.
- You're very welcome. - Thank you very much.
- Thank you, you're welcome.
(gentle drum beating)
When I wanted to give work a shot,
I would go through certain programs from the state,
I think the first real job I had was a ...
Was just cleaning, being the janitor at a warehouse.
Everyone that worked there was disabled,
and uh ... I didn't feel I was really integrated
with the regular society but,
kind of put away in a box, hidden from society.
I knew that I wanted to do something more.
Trying all these different jobs,
I decided to be a professional magician.
I started street performing,
which was a fearful thing in itself.
Took me 3 weeks to finally put the hat down.
All of a sudden I just felt like this new space
had opened up in my life and I felt so alive.
Doors started opening,
epiphanies came and uh ...
Eventually all the doubt left.
(gentle drum music)
In life, doing what you're expected to do
is not necessarily what's best for you.
Once I started doing magic full-time,
I finally felt I was doing something meaningful.
I also felt that I was doing something
where I really was social with people,
and that's something I really wanted to do
instead of being kind of, a few steps removed,
I was basically right face-to-face with people,
seeing the best sides of them,
them seeing the best sides of me.
Magic then became kind of this bridge,
almost a crutch to an extent,
because it was, for awhile, kind of the only way I could
connect with people.
Magic expanded my imagination to what I can do,
to how I can be in the world,
I wanted to show people the impossible.
(dramatic music)
There is probably more magic and enchantment
in the world than we realize.
Since deeply investigating within myself,
I have experienced many shifts of perspective
where things are magical, where you're just
in the moment and you're really perceiving life
as it is or a state where you're really
enchanted by life.
And the only thing I found I could do was
the most practical thing,
and that's ... follow who and what I am.
(dramatic music)
It's been about two years now since I moved here
and started basically street performing for a living
and a kind of grind, energy a lot of the times.
So I could feel it taking a toll on my body.
I always feel like I have to have all my things on me
to be ready at any time so I walk around with
a pretty heavy backpack all day long,
but I don't see an alternative right now for me.
In terms of career.
I've really put up everything I have into
breaking through as a magician in a big way.
And I am still making a living on the streets,
I'm definitely making substantially less than
probably anyone with a normal job,
but even if I knew that I wasn't going to go
to bigger places with this,
the past years have been the most satisfying years
in terms of feeling like I'm doing something that matters,
and is meaningful.
So I just can't imagine now going off
and doing something else in a totally different direction.
Put your hand out.
(chuckles) that's a 4 diamonds, okay?
We're gonna' rip it up, okay.
That's the four, now what do you have?
- Ahh.
- Now, it's a 9.
- Hell, how the hell?
- Keep your hand out, look, look,
squeeze them as tight as you can like this,
and go like this.
Might start to feel like it's coming alive.
Like there's a heartbeat in your hand.
Open them.
- What the fuck, how, like how ...
Wait ...
This was just ripped in 4 pieces.
- [Justin] Certainly when I perform it can
be received as a gift.
It's kind of all about challenging common
paradigms of perception and of the way things work.
Name a card out-loud, you wanna say one?
- Yeah.
- Say one out-loud, doesn't matter what it is,
make it a random.
- King of spades.
- Are you sure?
You can change it if you want.
No?
Lift up your hand.
You've been holding this the whole time, yes?
- I don't ...
- You said king of spades, right?
- Yeah, king of spades.
- Can you see these cards?
- Yeah.
- That's the king of diamonds.
There's one face down though.
Look at it.
(laughing)
- What the fuck!
(laughing)
- No!
- You need a doctor, man.
- [Justin] I sometimes sense love from people that
are watching me perform.
Even though I can't see too well,
I feel like their eyes are glistening.
And there's a warmth that I feel emanating from it.
- [Girl] Yo!
I saw you like 2 years ago and I still have the card
that you gave me.
- [Justin] It's just been the greatest 2 years of my life.
My name is Adam Jaslikowski,
and I call myself Justin Sight.
And they call me Magic Man.
(chuckling)
Fuck.
(enchanting music)