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Long time readers of Genii Online are likely well-aware of my distaste for Rubik’s Cube tricks. Spoiler: They always look gaffed, even when they aren’t. You should also be aware that I am a certified fat man, fully licensed in both greed and advanced gluttony. As you can imagine I went through my entire emotional range during the course of the video above, in which my favorite smug magician, Patrick Kun, pulled a cube from his phone before transforming it into chocolate. 

That was, as the kids might say, relevant to my interests. 

Kun makes his living performing live, hawking goods in slick ads for the likes of Coca Cola, and selling his own magic tools and accessories, including a really swank cardistry/performance deck called Mirage. You can follow him on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. 

John Michael Hinton’s friendly persona might not be for everyone, but he did impress notorious P&T on last night’s episode of Fool Us. His impressive Rubik’s cube tricks weren’t quite enough to fool the pair, but did earn an enthusiastic ovation. And a handshake. So there’s that. 

Hinton also made it onto small screens earlier in the week to promote his appearance on Fool Us. He was on WCCB’s News Edge:

And then News Rising. 

Hinton may have not have fooled Penn & Teller, but he mostly likely made a few friends during his busy week. 

Did you know that Gerard Butler is the author of three books on classic European history and holds a doctorate in Aeronautical engineering? 

Of course not. Because I just made that up. But for a moment there you really were convinced that the guy who played an ambulatory slab of bronzed beef in 300 was a certified genius. I accomplished that in much in the same way that mentalist, Lior Suchard, convinced the people in the video above that Butler could solve a Rubik’s cube behind his back. Namely, with lies.

Okay, maybe I’m being a bit too harsh on Butler. Yes, the man is known for his grimacing, tough guy roles, but he’s also done Shakespeare. 

Admittedly Shakespeare with more explosions than one is used to. 

Lior Suchard is a mentalist who was once described as, “quite good,” by my mum.

Here’s more proof that the 80’s will never die, as both Rubik’s Cubes and Super Mario are back and bigger than ever, and Norwegian Rubik’s Cube magician Rune Carlsen combines the two of them to great effect in the final round of Norway’s Got Talent this year. He passes 24 cubes out to random audience members, who then shuffle up the cubes and hand them back. The entire time the cubes are being rearranged, the audience is treated to a romantic piano cover of the Super Mario Bros. theme song – hinting at where exactly this entire trick is headed. Check out the video above to see the full performance.

I admit, whenever I see a magician whip out a Rubik’s cube, my first response is invariably a weary sigh. Solving a Rubik’s cube is not impressive. Solving one fast is only impressive to nerds. Using one in a routine just screams “hey, check out my gimmicked cube!” Fortunately, Britain’s Got Talent contestant, Maddox Dixon, had a couple of interesting cube tricks that forced me to retract my world-weary sigh and replace it with a begrudging nod of approval. 

The 31-year-old magician actually has the music industry to thank for his booming magic career. An instrumentalist for a number of major bands, Dixon picked up magic as a way to entertain the pop stars he found himself sharing changing rooms with. One of those pop stars turned out to be Chris Martin of Coldplay fame, who liked Dixon’s work enough that he had the part-time magician become a full-time magician and open for the band on their Head Full of Dreams US tour. If Dixon wasn’t on a path to magic stardom before he met Martin, opening for the third largest grossing music tour in human history probably helped.  

At this point, you’re probably expecting me to say something mean about Coldplay, as is the fashion of the day. I will not. A Rush of Blood to the Head is a good album and I will fight anyone who says otherwise. They also have pretty good taste in magicians it seems.  

The Rubik’s Cube is a lot like magic, now I stop to think about it. It’s kind of become a visual shorthand for intelligence. How many times have you seen some Hollywood genius showing off by effortlessly solving one? In reality, solving the cube is quite simple once you’ve learned the routines for moving a given square. It’s a trick. And people are slowly catching on. Solving a Rubik’s cube just isn’t that impressive anymore. 

Solving a cube, having an audience member mark it, and then making it appear inside a tiny jar it couldn’t possibly fit into will still turn a few heads though. Such is the effect of Kieron Johnson’s Isolated, now available on Ellusionist. 

The trick is easy to do, requires no duplicate signatures, and resets in less than half a minute. The tools you need to perform the trick as well as a two hour instructional DVD that covers Isolation and other Cube tricks cost $175. The tools are handmade and stock is limited to just 500 units. 

Paul Vu has been making a name for himself as a Rubik’s Cube wizard, and he recently went on Ellen to show off just what he can do. Vu takes us on a mind-bending journey over the course of the above seven-minute video, first perfectly matching Ellen’s mixed-up cube with the one he holds in his hand, to solving one by lighting it on fire, to even assembling an image of the world’s most popular video game character out of a stack of randomly mixed and chosen cubes. Oh, and he actually solves one in seconds like it’s no big deal. I honestly don’t know what feels more magical.