Helge Thun – Vanishing Inc Masterclass – Week 1 – 3 (New 2025)

Masterclass 1: Stand-Up Magic with a Twist: November 2, 2025 (4pm ET | NYC Time)

Instant Camera Card
A standout from Helge’s 1991 FISM act, co-created with Thomas Fraps. Instead of finding a signed card the usual way, you snap a Polaroid of the spectator’s thoughts. Three seconds later, their signed selection appears in the photo, complete with their signature. Helge also shares his handling of Paul Harris’ overlooked Flip Plop Flop control.

Flip Flap Flourish Production
Another FISM act highlight. Inspired by a Roberto Giobbi production, this sequence is a stylish four-card production, ending with a card appearing on the table, even though your hands seemingly never touch it. Helge also describes his “Flip Flash Flourish” from The Flicking Fingers Book.

The Snowshoe Switching Sandwiches A multi-phase sandwich routine that is designed to be performed on stage. Based on work by Michael Ammar and Daryl, Helge builds this into a parlor routine that gives you the chance to include tricks you already perform in a memorable ten-minute card act.

Better Safe Than Sorry 3 A full twelve-minute closer with escalating impossibilities. Two cards are found using a version of Hiro Sakai’s “Band on the Run,” one penetrates a handkerchief, and the finale ends with a signed card folded into quarters inside a sealed, transparent plastic box, secured with rubber bands. This is a masterpiece in construction as Helge demonstrates how to set up an incredibly fooling ending as the routine progresses.

Masterclass 2: Duplicate Signatures & Impossible Locations November 9, 2025 (4pm ET | NYC Time)

Helge finally reveals the secret behind his most guarded idea: a practical method for duplicating spectators’ actual signatures, without forging anything. It’s simple, fooling, and can be done anywhere. After teaching the core concept, he teaches a deceptive torn and restored card and then a full fifteen-minute act that ends in the most impossible way we can imagine:

Torn & Restored Card A signed card is torn, piece by piece, and instantly restored, visibly and cleanly. The routine is structured, direct, and uses the duplicate signature method to maximum effect.

Duplicate Travellers Helge’s award-winning closer. Four signed Kings vanish and reappear in increasingly impossible ways: One does a slow-motion replay, another is “forgotten,” causing the entire deck to travel to your pocket, a third appears inside a matchbox in your pocket and for the finale: the last signed King travels to a second deck sealed in a box, held by a participant since the beginning. It’s structured like theater and ends with a showstopper that will become one of the most memorable parts of your show.

Q&A: November 23, 2025 (4pm ET | NYC Time)

As always, we’ll be presenting Helge as he answers all of your questions. Whether it’s about improv comedy, magic, the routines you have learned, or how to squeeze the most out of the Duplicate Signature principle, Helge will be on hand to answer all your questions.