This summer has been great for magic and magicians in general. Several are still in the running on "America's Got Talent" for the top prize, having auditioned with some mind-blowing magical effects ranging from the smallest close-up effects to the largest stage illusions, along with at least one "unique" magic act. Four of these acts broke into the top 48 talent acts on the show.

The first magician or magical duo to perform was David and Leeman. The magical partners did an effect in which they correctly predicted a word selected at random from among four books written by the four judges.The trick began with the magicians providing copies of the four books to their authors. They asked them to open the book to a random page and to tear that page out. These pages were then torn in quarters and collected by one of the judges. She shuffled the scraps together. David then dealt the page quarters singly onto the judges' table until Mel B. told him to stop.She then gave the quarter page on which she stopped to Judge Howie Mandel, who was asked to select the largest word on the page. When he named the word, they showed they knew it all along by drawing attention to their name tags.One magician was wearing the tag reading "Camera" and the other bore a tag that read "Ready." The tags matched Mandel's word, which was camera-ready. It was an excellent trick, and was more than enough to move them forward into the next round.The second round of acts featured close-up magician Mat Franco. His act was a close-up card act in which he performed an effect with Judge Heidi Klum. Franco managed to predict the name of a card randomly selected by Klum.To top the effect, he also made a card named by Mandel vanish from his deck and appear in Mandel's pocket. There was no way during the effect that Franco ever came close to Mandel, let alone be able to slip the card in his pocket. This seemed to stun the judges and guaranteed him a shot at the following round as he passed through as well.The third round also featured a magician who billed himself as Mike Super, "The Mystifier." Super entered the competition with an invisible assistant, a "spirit guide" he dubbed Desmond. While Desmond had already successfully helped Super into the top 48, his powers were not enough to keep Mike from losing his round.He performed an interesting routine of effects on Mel B. The act started with him inviting her to the stage and having her sit on a chair. He asked her to close her eyes and then produced a doll. He touched the doll's right shoulder and asked Mel if she could feel anything. She acknowledged that she felt him touch her on the shoulder as well.Next, he took her hands and asked her to hold them out in front of her and close her eyes again. She did so, and he took a flame and touched the doll's hands. He asked her if she felt any warmth in her hands and she did.When she opened her hands, there were soot marks on them. Finally he took a stun gun to the doll, and when he did, she felt what she claimed was a massive jolt causing her to fly from the chair. She was obviously not happy, but the judges seemed stunned and impressed even though Mel seemed a little put out by the whole routine.Unfortunately for Super, the effect did not prove strong enough to advance him into the next round, and he fell during the results show. Judge Howard Stern had told the magi during the critique portion of his act that he felt the "Desmond" hook was unnecessary for his skill and that he really should have just stuck to the magic and less on the shtick. Mandel's vote was not enough to pass Super on to the next round, and he was eliminated on a 3-1 vote.At press time, the fourth and final magician in the top 48, Smoothini, who is also a Marine veteran, will compete to advance to the next round.While I have not seen his act before writing this column, I can review his qualification act. He demonstrated his brand of magic which he specializes in called bar magic. Bar magic is close-up magic performed in a bar or tavern setting and is designed for small groups.His set began with some card manipulation in which he produced several cards from his mouth followed by producing single cards from the air. When he got done producing cards, he took a saltshaker and produced two large red sponge balls from it.He then did a sponge ball routine with Mel B. in which he made a sponge ball disappear from his hand and appear with another in hers. This was followed with vanishing and producing salt and liquids barehanded.While he passed through to this week's round and the magic was solid and good, I am not sure it rises to the level of the other acts. Most of this act is learned by students going through their study of magic and was not unique or novel by any stretch, which makes me wonder how many magicians the judges have actually seen.The other three acts had unique or rarely seen effects in their routines, but Smoothini's act was not at that level of novelty. It will be interesting to see what is performed this week.If you enjoy magic, keep watching "America's Got Talent" and keep voting for the magicians. Maybe this season one will finally win.Till next time …