Heritage Florida Jewish News - Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice

Orlando magician, Kostya Kimlat, will appear on the Monday, Aug. 17 episode of "Penn & Teller: Fool Us" on the CW at 8 p.m.

"Penn & Teller: Fool Us" is a one-hour competition series celebrating magic and featuring the legendary duo Penn & Teller. On each episode, aspiring magicians are invited to perform their best trick to try and fool one of magic's most famous pairs.  

A resident of Orlando, Kimlat founded See Magic Live, which trains and books magicians for events across the country. His company's local team serves as the magicians for the NBA's Orlando Magic and teaches magic classes for kids and adults at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts and summer camps for The Roth Family JCC of Greater Orlando and the Rosen JCC.  

His local ties run deep-he attended the Hebrew Day School (now Jewish Academy of Orlando), went to and worked at summer camp at The Roth Family JCC, and graduated from Winter Park High School and the University of Central Florida. He's been a weekly fixture at Christner's Prime Steak & Lobster, performing an intimate dinner and magic show at the Lee Road steakhouse for the last seven years.

In addition, Kimlat is a motivational speaker, using magic to train employees at organizations around the world, like NASA and GE. When he presents his keynotes and workshops, he unravels magic's centuries-old principles of perception and secrets of communication, empowering people to be more effective in their business and everyday lives. Often referred to as "the business magician," Kimlat has presented his sophisticated brand of magic to thinking audiences in over 200 cities on five continents.

On the Monday night episode, Kimlat will perform an original card trick he developed when he was 19, a few years before he became the youngest magician to be featured on the cover of Magic Magazine in 2006.

Kimlat didn't go on the show with a focus on fooling the magic duo. "It was an honor to be invited to perform for Penn and Teller. I've been watching them since I started in magic 20 years ago, and I never would have imagined this opportunity."

Viewers will have to tune in to see how Penn & Teller reacted to his performance, which he was only able to perform for them once. None of the competing magicians get to perform the trick more than once, and there are no camera tricks, secret edits or helpful camera cuts. Anyone who succeeds wins the right to perform with Penn & Teller in their celebrated show at the Rio Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.