TVs 50 Greatest Magic Tricks

[Music] welcome to the weird and wonderful world of a magic completely impossible where nothing is as it seems three then our hearts we all have this need to believe in real magic I thought that message was brilliant the Israel budget are your most amazing budget you should have hopes to say really [Music] over the next three hours we'll be counting down the most spectacular and amazing magic tricks ever seen on television make you as impossible as possible it was me thank you POW from gravity defying feats God knows where you come from to truly great escapes he's not just good he's a great magician from the strange he really wasn't happy to wear that outfit i Kim stop to the stupendous justify now open the whole time the extraordinary they clapping they're normally clapping by this point to the mind-blowing he's a really stunningly good magician and sometimes even it downright dangerous I have to warn you this can go wrong I cannot explain how scary it is so be prepared for your minds to be mystified bring to be boggling this and your eyes to be deceived call us easy these are the 50 greatest magic tricks you will ever see and I'll tell you how it's done really well it's done naturally of course [Music] [Applause] you cost me the guitar kicking off a magician who's a little bit rock and roll dynamo showing Stone Roses frontman Ian Brown that there's more to a guitar than just playing it I'm in a studio Ian Bohen yeah absolute legend he's seen everything he's lived you know the life sex drugs and rock and roll I saw the guitar and the drum stick in the plectrum sort of combine all those things together I just for a minute sense it my head anyway I want to try some things he came to my boyfriend's birthday party this year and did some amazing tricks there's something quite sexy about him I think I am from the estate he's pretty cool you can you stand up and just put your chair like opposite mine not too close I'm the milk is a very good performer in a completely different style to everyone else you know should be gay if you just stand back here I love it he's got the cheek of the the street urchin and he's doing very well I was worried a little bit about the Medina's guitar but I saw the law because I think I can afford to buy a new [Music] can I bother collection as well normally really famous people are so controlled in like interviews and stuff but if you can just get them to like have a good reaction you just seen them in a different line nobody move people just thought that him balance think the drumstick was the trick can cost up further then he moves the chair away POW right in the kisser Enochs you for sick it's a stunning illusion to see someone really famous good that is amazing yeah and clearly he does it right in front of their eyes at first I thought it was maybe magnetics there's some kind of electrical current that's something I can't work out how he does it infuriates is a little bit and I'll tell you how it's done really well [Music] conversation evolves around them asking me how I did what did I mean me not telling him we've been pals of cool few years but he's scaring me today hopefully one day he will be all the secrets to us together Penn & Teller have been performing their distinctive brand of magic and comedy for over 35 years misers dream is a solo performance from the last vocal member of the pair talk to you teller is probably one of the most important magic brands in the world he'd probably been doing the misers dream at that point for 30 years right what makes it good is the decades of bad misers dreams he did that that that give the pacing and the timing and the confidence he's not just good he's a great magician he has a quality of Harpo Marx about his performance the kind of impishness and curiosity that's very appealing I think a lot about the routine is it's just so brave he just stands there for a few minutes doesn't say a single word never speaks there's no music there's not even any background music diffusion his body language his facial expressions his critias moments of absolute astonishment and wonder all just with his bare hands and some silver coins it's it's amazing [Applause] the way he produces the point it's not just the fact he produces the coins there's there's a poetry in his movement [Applause] [Music] [Applause] it's just a really beautiful perfectly executed piece of magic he makes her feel completely comfortable there's the comedy elements of him taking the glasses off and produces coins from the glasses and he does all of that without ting wood my favorite part of the trick is where he picks up the coins and it dumps them in the water tank and nothing happens because he looks so sort of full on that he's not good at right and it goes in for a second attempt and you get that absolutely amazing shower of goldfish I mean it's just it's just such a magical moment the fish is just one of those staged moments that's just a gasp I'm so proud when we've done TV stuff for the introduced and now Penn & Teller & Teller comes out and does that alone it was that great moment when Ed Sullivan over the stage said the Beatles and Paul McCartney came out alone and I loved that Paul McCartney alone was the Beatles and I love that it's a Penn & Teller trick it's Penn & Teller performing and I'm not there which was I think the best panatela trick u.s. illusionist France Rory is known for performing magic on a grand scale rock and roll for this trick he was in London attempting to make one of our famous landmarks disappear when you think of her England you're either gonna think of Big Ben or Tower Bridge what about the London Eye maybe the London Eye Buckingham Palace you know maybe of the guy with the bee hat you know no one's called him it's probably big banner tower bridge one of those double bridge then Tower Bridge is it symmetrical so that opens up a lot of potential to me because I can use that symmetry to create my illusions I can use mirror refraction that can use any number of effects and the fact that it's on water means you've actually got it going in four directions let's say we said everything up right over here right and let great illusions that the scale that I do requires a team of people sometimes into the hundreds yeah it looks pretty good from over here right all of these people need to work together with split-second accuracy that all comes down to a single moment it's really pretty fantastic and the only thing we're missing [Music] we decided to do the illusion for a very select group of people we thought well maybe we should call the Queen maybe we should call Elton John or anybody with any kind of authority although I don't think of Elton John well he's a knight right so he's got the sword unfortunately the Queen and Sir Elton John weren't available but luckily some members of the general public were hey guys come on over I want to show you something you're about to see something amazing I hope the count of three one two three [Applause] yeah the the stunned reaction not just from kid but also from adults it kind of enforced that theory that I have that that in our hearts we all have this need to believe in real magic we got it guys that sense of real magic that that we all had when we were kids what he's created here is an illusion because we know he can't do that you can't make tower bridge disappear because if you did I mean for example all the buses and all the taxes would be falling into the Thames we don't see that happening we at home would watch that and we might think that it's some sort of camera trick but there are people there members of the public who have seen that with their own eyes and that's what makes him a great illusionist coming up it's double trouble for magics bad boys a fishing lesson with a magic twist he's one of those guys who you go and see him you'll be amazed and you're laughing and a comedy conjurer loved for his magic mistakes [Music] welcome back as we continue on magical mystery tour through the world of TV trickery [Music] he was a brilliant comedian he was brilliant at being a rubbish magician he's just a genius yes it's the funny man beneath the Fez whose chaotic conjuring transformed Tommy Cooper into a comedy legend ask someone to do the Tommy Cooper impression and they will do bottle glass bowl gospel glass is the bottle Hey oops sorry too many balls not everybody takes magic seriously I think that was it with Tommy was he was a brilliant addition you know he's a fantastic magician but he realized that the laughs were more important than the magic [Laughter] they have now trade spaces the genius of Tommy Cooper is that he used the art form of comedy as misdirection to get away with his magic tricks before you say this has no place on TVs 50 greatest magic tricks this happens I know perfectly what he was doing so every trick that you saw him do he would nail it he would get it right and then he'll go ok now I'll perform it but I'll perform it in such a manner that everyone assume that I've got it wrong and to do that it's like playing an instrument out of tune but being a perfect pianist it's harder to get it outta tuned and it is to get it in key a comedy a magic go well together it's just the idea of this bumbling persona trying to sort of pull stuff off as a medical you know revealing that he was brilliant to magic as well you know it's just it's great no one else has really done so if you can't do both of them as well as Tommy Cooper did your home and dry he was just fantastic [Applause] now an Australian magic man with a very unusual card trick I realize how strong it was gonna be until I started performing it for people and when I did and they were more amazed by that by anything else I did there was we upon's together so your thumbs are still face down for me just like this palms together James learnt his magic from a professional con man who cheated in high-stakes poker games 41 2 3 so your thumbs are face up for you please while others were learning how to make hankies disappear he learned how to deal a system the bottom of the deck always asked me to I cheat when I play cards and the answer is it depends on your mum playing close up magic just has that something extra because you can see it about saying you ma'am I wouldn't cheat at all looks like you made I definitely would I think there's nothing more amazing than that single first thing I want you to see is that all the cards are in fact different a capo so you can see all the cards are different no two cards are like it's a normal deck of cards you can buy them in any magic shop there's a long tradition in magic of people telling stories with a deck of cards very good now I'm gonna tell you a little story it's a little bit of fun about what happened to me the other night I was actually out I met up with a couple of girls there were two redheads I was chatting some front and all better one two three minutes I meet up with difference over two brunettes they said what's you name it it's James with a J don't forget that some people think that it's a fake deck it's not it's a 100% brand-new deck of cards there's a rodeo James where're you headed tonight I'm not too sure they said come with us to 673 King Street I said sounds like a plan they said there's a cover charge though 25 bucks I said 25 bucks they said yeah 25 bucks you would be server the cards are constantly being mixed up yet he still manages to spin out this yarn it's amazing to see it at this point my phone rang right so I cut in my pocket to fire my phone when I did you know what I said I said hello James speaking my friend said James we're headed tonight so I'm not too sure I bet these girls they don't know some place called 700 and something King Street the girls do that was wrong they said no no no it's 673 King I said I'm sorry I might have actually got that wrong it's 673 King he said I'll be there soon is there a cover charge never there how much was folks that's right he said all girl Mia's ten I said don't lie guys I go but forty but that's all I'm talking lend me some money I said no problem said James it is one of these tricks where it can stuff up at any moment if one card goes out of place then the trick goes horribly wrong you can't live with that fear knowing that it can go wrong otherwise it will so you just go out you know with that confidence knowing that you're gonna be okay and you said let's play poker I said sure what would you like it's in a full house two fours and three eights I said I'll see what I can do I came over there and Jenny wanted four knives which is a pretty good hand as well I wanted you to win maybe so I gave you the four aces with an eight that's one that's two that's three that's four you went to go take all the money for the table you thought you'd want I said what the hell are you doing you couldn't possibly beat that I said the only thing that's made it's a straight flush that's what I've got I've only got at what wrong once I remember and I said I would out the other battle with a couple of girls that were to read it heads and a-six and a-seven came out and but in my head I didn't know was always just already in the rhythm of it in others I look back about why are they clapping they're not only clapping by this point I was like oh oh oh and I there was no way out I got a letter from the BBC could I vanish a million pounds ladies and gentlemen you're about to see a safe enter under security guard which has in it 1 million pounds in cash they do Paul Daniels vanishing a million pound I mean how many people have seen a million pounds in cash we have got now in here in packets a strongbox with 1 million pounds inside it you can vanish a small ball under cup and you can vanish a large object in a box but it doesn't hit the imagination inside yeah no kidding exactly [Music] the important thing about it was it was real money standing in for Debbie McGee and making sure nothing untoward happened to all the money was none other than the late media tycoon Robert Maxwell and that's why you're here you are men of integrity what's impressive about that is that he couldn't know what was gonna happen but he did it with Robert Maxwell and Maxwell made much more than millions disappear Denis maybe he looked at that thought well making money disappear I could plunder this pension fund and make millions disappear hey put it back can I gave him an idea he vanished a lot of money did that lad I'll tell you there is one more surprise for anything that ever tried to steal it the surprise will be this I actually worked out a way to get the million pounds out of the studio because I the letter that said can i vanish a million pound I did not have a letter that said can you bring it back even if you at home come people were watching all around the million pounds I vanished I did bring it back this back inside I made it reappear in the big safe that he had come out over a sad moment in my life [Applause] [Music] at 44 a classic car trip with a twist to measure because I was quite a shy introverted teenager I think a lot of magicians are like that mark-paul got over his shyness and went on to perform a memorable trick on Parkinson in front of millions he even baffled Tom Jones for diamonds jack o diamonds yeah I actually had a childhood dream to work in a magic shop and I worked in a magic shop for Dave Berg lost his son Marvin Burgas we've worked together for many years and I think he'd be the first to admit that my dad David is a big hero of his and someone who's he's influenced him a great deal I saw one just behind you what car is David Burgas inspired me I had seen him perform similar routines in fact the the routine has sort of become known as the Berglas effect mark gave the trick also known as any card at any number is own unique twist playing card what I want you to do is to hold the cards in your hand okay the perfect version of any card in numbers is a holy grail of card magic because that is the ultimate idea is that you don't touch the cards Martine I want you to think of a card get a card in your mind and people have the free choice of card number Michael I want you to think of a number between 1 and 52 and the card appears that the number that they wanted what's your car Queen of Hearts give me a number 252 8 8 if you don't touch the pack of cards there is no explanation if the eighth card in that pack is the Queen of Hearts that will be unbelievable it will be it becomes impossible sleight of hand cannot be performed you see what I have done is influenced you save the eight of hearts that influenced you to say the number eight and what I've always tried to do in my magic is make it as impossible as possible Alastair if you count down eight cards one at a time onto my queen Queen of Hearts I use it ace heart so a queen of hearts you ain't weaned of Hearts Queen dates down it super make it happen quick I know a lot of people might think it was Stu's do you know if I'd asked them to name that card and name that number but believe me that is not the case one one two three four five six seven this is the eighth card we're looking for the queen of ha we not the ACE the Queen show it all look at their faces they are as impressed as hopefully the reaction that you hear from the audience if not more impressed because they know they could have named any car they know they could have named any moment he forced me he falls me big-time I used to run this magic nightclub and he said pick up the top card it's for diamonds and I picked up this it was for diamonds I mean is this this is miracle type stuff this was my deck this is me shuffling there's just no way he could have done this and then I was booking the next season in my magic club and I called up mark and said look I booked everybody but I haven't booked you because you haven't told me how that trick down he says okay John I'll tell you what every other magician in London knows I said what's that he says it was just a guess dear mr. Copperfield I made some bad mistakes from I was a boy ever the showman David Copperfield played on his audience's emotions when he magically reunited a son with his father just in case you're unmoved he added some suitably sentimental music for good effect Michael Brown is here in our audience tonight please help me welcome it David Copperfield is like a camembert of magicians this because he's kind of smooth and silky and unbelievably cheesy let's see how they're doing in Hawaii right now this ambitious illusion involved Copperfield transporting himself and the son from the studio to an idyllic scene of sand sea and palm trees in Hawaii Oakley Illustrated on a huge screen for the benefit of the studio audience it's like the Mesilla block of him of America in a way you know like the surprise surprise with with magic and very clever there's no getting away from however cheesy is and and all the schmaltz and the music and everything else it's an incredibly clever thing that he does pin right TS your initials right there mor using a classic magicians device Copperfield rank top the illusion surely there was no way he could appear thousands of miles away in an instant could he nicely done you at art school come with me our part of this trick was building the the arm and the platform unit that goes out over the audience that that he vanishes from all what makes the portal illusion as effective as it is is that it happens out over audience members I mean right above their heads with people below people to the left people to the right and only when they vanished like that it's it's just an amazing moment yeah cleverly Copperfield positioned himself and his volunteer in full view of the audience with no obvious trapdoor in sight they disappear in a theatrical puff of smoke I would never do it my reasoning is something drummed into me by Ali Bongo who was one of the great television magic advisors of all time and he said you should never make a trick so impossible that they will just assume it's technology doing it I think part of the thing about magic is you have to just try not to work out and just accept that it's really clever we know it's not real you know we know that you haven't been transported from Las Vegas to Hawaii through a cone-like that's not gonna have happened real or not real Copperfield again demonstrated his mastery of the magic art form the swelling strings they'll run into the surf all designed to reinforce our amazement pure magic guy ends up a lil Hawaii supposedly how pretends that if we could just do that how pretty ins that coming up would you let this man loose on your cutlery and there's no heat at all a magic trick that's so amazing it even makes the trains run on time and Taylor has an argument with a truck [Music] welcome back if you want to see more mind-boggling magic then you're in the right place [Music] remember David Blaine when he did this in America they loved it boys have broken boxes in my kitchen over was about the books you know I've done that last weekend well back in the day he used to do magic and he was pretty good at it as well David Blaine single-handedly did a great service to magic at a time where people weren't really talking about magic he'd gone out on the street Nate he did something and he transferred that to tell you that people had never seen before David Blaine first appeared on us TV screens in 1997 his unique brand of showmanship saw him performing magic in just his jeans and a t-shirt to an audience standing right next to him on the street that first special Street magic really was you know a game changer Blaine helped pioneer the device of turning the camera away from the perform acts and onto the watching audience [Music] David Blaine's card on window or cold on other side of the window I mean it's a great trick it's just no denying it their brain is trying to somehow explain that there is some possibility that that card squeezed through that window it's great it's great watching people go up to the glass and go but it's but it's behind it and it's sort of like look around you've seen it behind David Blaine's magician is brilliant his persona is slightly weird I think he's cultivated that are you an illusionist are you a trickster what is it are you stunt man what are you how would you describe yourself in just a show this unusual persona was never more evident than on a 2001 appearance on a GM TV sofa with our very own Eamonn Holmes as this part of the show let's stare and the eyes and all that sort of thing the eye and the hand and what is that what is the eye ahead let's see that again protection protection what is all of that you know eye of the tiger what mental mental mental if you have sports hold them very gently like this if you have clocks and watches hold them in your hands now just don't rush me because it takes time next a bit of mind-bending magic this everyone could join in with at home apparently all you needed was a bit of cutlery and the ability to believe believe that they're gonna start ticking meanwhile I will start stroking the spoon you people at home or Shore sports also to melt or Bend we sat there with a spoon willing willing it back in the 1970s many of us were sucked into the weird world of Uri Geller a man who amazed audiences by bending spoons coming during he first appeared on our television screens in 1973 and he bends metal with the power of his mind and there's no heat at all to touch it there's absolutely no heat is that solid silver laughs yeah oh cool made by gerard van london we'd never seen that before that was new that was incredibly new and it absolutely captured the imagination of the public well the 70s when saw a gala started you know coming to prominence on TV it was a time when everybody its kind of sort of New Age thing had really kicked in after the hippy movement you know so everybody was into UFOs and crop circles all that kind of stuff and Geller just kind of rode on the back of that it wasn't my powers that went into the mic and into this Kino I triggered the power in you URI didn't claim to be a magician no he claimed his bending skills were all down to his psychic powers no aura gala hits the scene and goes this is not magic this is the power of the mind because if you had those powers you wouldn't do anything more useful would you I can bend a spoon I can bend a fork I'm not some amazing man there are people who kind of go no don't believe a word of it there are people going Wow you know but let's not forget what business he's in he's in the entertainment business okay and he is entertaining whatever you think of him so many negative people who don't believe in what I do they say that I take the spoon before and I bend it many many times and I prepare it or I have chemicals on me but you people if you experience something that what can you what can you say I've remember meeting a gala in a toilet it was in a hotel toilet and I just stood next to him I'm in a way and just giggling I just think it was just thinking that hope he doesn't start rubbing and bending things while we're in here you know [Music] next the TV show Penn & Teller flawless and the method magician pip perform you in front of Penn & Teller that wasn't really a problem because dragons don't have televisions good evening it was basically like watching Jack D dress to the dragons outfit doing a magic act my name's pip the magic dragon you might have heard of my older brother Steve the most difficult volunteers are the women because they're just all over me a son named princess Stacy really all right my wife's called Stacy we're not really married in fact I've only just met when you come up with a magic trick it can take a long time to perfect it maybe like 20 minutes stop just there you saw maybe one chance to change your mind that's a shame nice and neatly in the little white space in the top of the car to stay your name nice and neatly I did a little magic for the audience in a magic trick fine it's very tempting to say that the piff idea is so funny that the magic doesn't matter and it's just not true he's he's a really stunningly good magician could we please reveal my prediction so basically Stacey was wrong I like the trick because it's one of those tricks where the audience suspect that it's gone wrong but then he's the magician who can get himself out of this sticky situation the trick itself is incredible the first four minutes of it I was laughing my head off and then a thought was going old on that's amazing [Music] you could do the best tricks in the world you can be the best singer in the world be the best magician best comedian whatever it is if they don't like you doesn't mean Ally was pay facility comes on you like him even though you're in a stupid dragon suit really really good trick would tell and I were done talking he had fooled us and then when I started talking I changed a little bit we were saying and happened to stumble upon it I'm gonna go talk to a magic dragon but teller had her from the beginning but it still it's a very very very good trick you didn't fool them did you piss and I don't think so you didn't fold them back you came pretty close and we all like didn't we [Applause] we used to do a show called monkey magic in each week there's a thing called magicians at war where we challenge ourselves to do unusual tricks so finger magic man Ali cook with his novel take on the card trick I'm in a competition with one of the other magicians to come with the best trick which doesn't use our hands at all and then I thought it'd be even more impressive that instead of someone taking card they'd just think of a card would you just pick up those cards for me and what I'd like to do is just put them in the card flinging machine yeah like that the best bit for me was it was his audience why did he choose this kitchen wherever it was and with randomly two girls called vegan or Fatima and Fatima never doesn't he just kind of stares for the whole thing I pictured a bit of a soft spot for him would you put the cards down here have you seen the kitchen floor it's disgusting it's horrendous God knows why but our producer Anton he decided for us to film it in some greasy spoon CAF in their greasy kitchen and as I was walking around the kitchen in my bare feet it was so much grease and grime on the floor I was just like slipping and sliding it was really gross I just wanted to think of any car okay all right you have a card in mind yeah okay I didn't ask you to take one or anything had a completely free choice of any card yeah good I'm now gonna try and find your card with my card flinging device there's no way Holly could manipulate those cards because the card has merely thought of it's not like he had when taking out the deck and put back in and done any sneaky moves for the very first time I like to name your card three diamonds here we go watch sleight of hand anyone can do that this is slight afoot that's why it's so good that man's got nimbletoes basically I've got a ninja vision so when cars are flinging up I can just see it and catch with my Terrace it's just one of those things I can do in the world of magic there are there are thousands of tricks there are hundreds of tricks that are really sensational but there are very few miracles and the floating light bulb is a miracle when you see what you're about to see you will also think it's something you'll remember the longest day you live watch please American Harry Blackstone jr. was always destined to be an illusionist the son of veteran stage magician the great Blackstone he was involved in his father's magic routines from an early age Harry died in 1997 but he lives on in the memory of magicians everywhere thanks to his performance of tricks like this one I think when you ask magicians what is their favorite moment in magic they would say Harry black stones floating thy body [Music] [Applause] and you gotta rise this was before like electro small electronics as well and I do have a light bulb glowing without it being plugged in was a magic trick what Harry Blackstone does is a pretty standard floating trick and then he totally moves the goal posts he completely changes what he's doing as anyone if I let you look at it promise just to look don't touch all right then you may see it as well the light bar lurches out into the audience and suddenly he breaks the wall between you and the trick suddenly they're under your nose it's not an easy thing to mess with and I wouldn't recommend any young magicians to start on this tray I'm always being asked in the floating lightbulb is it a real light bulb yes it's a light bulb how it's done why it's done magically of course Siegfried and Roy make Liberace look dowdy when they're on stage they're like bam bam you'll never ever get anyone that's a good ISM I honestly believe that these are perfectionist [Music] I'm adrenal this allusion entitled interlude was typical of the lavish spectacle audiences came to expect from Siegfried and Roy it's staging promised a dark and dramatic conclusion the very first time Paul took me to Las Vegas Paul was working there and I went to see the Siegfried and Roy's show on my own and I can remember I just had my mouth open the whole time combining high-camp with high drama the boys threw in a bit of spooky music to help the subliminal suggestion that something unworldly was about to happen the assistant will stand inside the sport looks like an a-frame and the magician will push their hand through the stomach of the assistant and then they'll climb through their body that's it however Siegfried and Roy rebranded the trick in their own inimitable style Siegfried and Roy presented magic in the most fantastic way possible on this giant stage with every Bell and whistle they could come up with you have the Spider Woman riving through the man's belly a bit like you know that scene from aliens that's cool but she is a gymnast you iton not only did somebody you know human being crawl through the center of that cabinet through Roy's body but after that blink of an eye this unique twist took Siegfried and Roy's version of the trick to a whole new level the stunned audience reaction said it all that is the jaw-dropping moment this is live on stage in Vegas and to see that must be just awesome they were the best and I would always be number one coming up a neat trick to outsmart traffic wardens a magician who has an amazing way with the birds could not see how he did it and if only all of us could get changed this quick it is the most magical moment I think I've ever seen but before that had enough of Christmas would you like to get away from all the tinsel wrapping paper and Christmas songs as part of our end-of-year list Show specials we're giving you the chance to win your choice of holiday from our list of top 3 destinations a great to Venice a trip to bustle in New York or a few days in the Maldives all you have to do is answer the following question what song is traditionally sang on New Year's Eve is it a Merry Christmas be auld lang syne or see happy birthday to enter just call oh nine oh four one six one double nine double five or text win plus a B or C - 6 treble 5 0 4 post your answer name and phone number to win P o box 7 double 5 7 Dhabi d e 1 0 n P calls cost one pound 53 from a BT landline other networks vary and mobiles will cost considerably more text costs one pound fifty plus standard network rate blinds closed midday 12th of January 2012 and three days later for postal entries entries received after competition closes will not be counted but may be charged for rules and winners go to channel 5 comm / win welcome back to the greatest magic tricks that have ever appeared on your telly if some of the magic you've already witnessed made your jaw hit the floor you ain't seen nothing yet he is Lance Burton somebody took me off that there was a very young man working in a strip club on Sunset turns on there was this tall saturnine looking guy in a purplish kind of evening suit with big frilly cuffs and all that and Vivaldi playing and you just went like that with his hand and the ball of fire appeared here in a bird flew out a bit stunned audience I just been booking rescued from the hell of working with attractive naked women every night Lance Burton became one of Las Vegas most bankable magicians with an act that featured a very different type of bird and there's something about making a live animal fresh one that flies just come out of a handkerchief there's just great oh no not already don't pay [Music] those ones in the wings for Lance Burton's dove act so I saw it from the wrong angle from the side about six foot away and I couldn't see a thing I could not see how he did it he specializes in what you'd call manipulation and manipulative magic which is dexterity of the fingers he does manipulative magic too it's very very best and for me the ten minutes that he does with the with the doves and the cards is the epitome of magic and how magic should be done [Applause] doves are very trainable they've been domesticated for centuries they use a particular type of Dove for this which is the jarvan Dove which is a bird that's naturally small but has quite a lot of feathers so it appears to be quite a large bird just elegant and magic you can watch it and you'll never see it once is one of the best ones has ever been I spent a few years doing the street magic specials and it got to a stage where you just kind of look around you and just think of things that could be used that you haven't already used thirty-five Britain's answer to street magician David Blaine the main difference between Paul Zanon and David Blaine is budget if you just move that way slightly I'll show you something really strange just just over here Blaine's got all these of MTV star camera shots and then Paul Zen is doing a trick outside wall widths give it winter screener back make sure it's real no one has ever done magic with a taxes and why would you do you know pick attach this any taxes he just wouldn't do it right Trevor tax this is out the insides nicely part of it you're resting on some really big assumptions that all people have which is that glass is solid so you don't have to do all of that look and my box is solid and tapping it around all the all the box tapping has been done for you by just having a windscreen watch this this is magic which is done in the real world it's not just the sparkling jacket both sighing and audience clapping it's very much people there and then their expressions and reactions don't lie doing Street magic is interesting because you kind of never quite know what the reactions going to be you know sometimes positives are quite often negative because you are just a bloke wandering up to the ministry and so we're quite often people think it's just a subtle form of mugging rather than entertainment you know there's a magic you watch it about five hours later you still trying to work out how he's done it because it is magic you know there's no way of explaining it I'm sure it there is some trick to it but it can't be done in retrospect after say you know I should have really left the tax disc and take the cars to be honest we first met about 15 years old a magic club for magicians I tried to speak hello young people in the love Aberdeenshire doing magic but because of that we instantly hated each other because he was like my only rival was Stuart main I hated that equally em and we decided to join forces together they perfected a unique act combining magic with storytelling this one starts with a Rubik's Cube the 80s toy that everyone had but no one could do mixed up I have a Rubik's Cube and the fact that I'm blonde and mathematically challenged works against me I can't do it so I decided to throw the cube into the air and when I caught it it was somehow so I [Music] had a Rubik's Cube when I was a kid and I would have given anything anything for the power to throw it in the air and how it got back into my hands and for it to be completely solved as opposed to what I did do which is running throw it in it I throw at a wall and it's smashed into a million pieces but that's not technically magic the cube just vanish values to create these little performance pieces they're almost like little plays and they do characters with it take a seat they interact wonderfully and they create these very surreal moments I'm pleased to meet you I said I'm pleased to meet you I lied I explained to her in this box there are 52 cards and what I'm about to do is just swell I decided to speak like an American barriers is the voice inside Stewart's head and the the tricks are telling the story they're not just tricks for trick sake I leaned in close so that I could hear her she'd said the three of spades the Queen of Hearts it is there it's theater it's comedy it's magic there was only one card inside the case and when I showed it to the audience they began to make this noise with their hands for it was the card she'd freely name it's so simple and it's just so utterly utterly baffling the girl was so impressed that she wanted to give me a kiss on the lips [Music] she didn't my favorite bit actually is a simple piece of magic it always there so check out my thoughts ago I said Stewart suddenly realizes that he needs his pills but Barry has got his pills are you looking for me last time if you're just somebody ed you can't be holding those pills hi I'm Stuart starts to regain control he's got rid of that voice in his head we called routine a monk ulis because it's not a Greek word which means a little man facing the idea that there's a little man inside Oliver heads controlling our actions don't do this they're so difficult to define and that's why they're you know one of my favorite magic hats in the world [Applause] magician Simon Drake's decision to perform a sleight-of-hand routine entirely and silhouette came about purely by chance I work with the great legendary Patrick Page who sadly lost us now in my studio in Chizik he sat on the couch and I stood up at the other in the room and the Sun used to set at the end of the day behind me and there was a big framed picture of the other end of the room and I could see my reflection in the picture just as a silhouette and I just said would it be great to do a routine all in silhouette it's a beautiful piece of magic as theater it's effectively if you analyze what he's doing during that performance its standard stage manipulation routines but just by changing the set in its added entirely new dimension to the truck this would touch is like when he produces a cane and then he just drops it on the floor and it sticks here it's just artistic and it's a very nice presentation there's so much that goes into it I mean that is not an easy routine it's a really technical really difficult routine but just done seamlessly the idea of the routine was actually an aging thing so this have you become old and died so I started as me and there's matches and you see my face and then next time you see me out I'm late middle-aged like I don't now and then the last image is the skull with the flames that come out but behind every great magician there's an equally great assistant literally in this case and she's nearly naked I really wonderful people naked but the female producer wouldn't have it and had her in a g-string but the fact that things flop out a bit more when you haven't got any support on it wasn't really perverse reasons that I want to make it was a feeling that you'd be able to tell in silhouette if she was totally starkers and you can tell she isn't [Applause] 90% of that work is in the relentless rehearsal of it to make it look effortless and natural and also to give it time so you're not rushing you're not shaking about you're not fidgeting it one thing follows the other in a smooth hypnotic man next door away from Vegas the bad boy of magic Criss Angel Criss Angel has become a very very famous guy because of Las Vegas he has a show every night sells out every night and he's become a Las Vegas celebrity in the sequence from his TV show Mindfreak he looks less Vegas shiny superstar more grungy slouchy rock singer I like went on a date with this girl and I figured I'd take a Sunset Park I brought my favorite angels hearts of many looks and I think in this particular video is probably in his homeless man era he looks like if Jesus Christ were dragged through Topshop you might look just like that that you see that fish here a beautiful fish with the big tail over there it kind of reminds me right there that looks like that reminds me a little bit honestly of dory very slightly dirty demeanor doesn't detract from the audacity of his magic with no obvious camera trickery and an audience tantalizingly close he pulled off this trick to the obvious amazement of the on lockers [Music] what was he talking about a fish looking like his girlfriend reminded him of his girlfriend I think it was genuinely it was it was mental but as far as the trick goes it was gobsmacking because if there was trapped her in the back then the water would come out so as the trapdoor underneath but no she was a trap door was underneath the water would go down I don't know where she's come from somebody using it really is amazing magicians have been soaring people in half for years next a trick is old as magic itself but with a unique 21st century twist his Kevin James on America's Got Talent trying to impress the Hoff the thing about Kevin James is he is one of the most creative magicians I think in the world the saurian half is a prime example he's obviously gone I'm gonna take it to the ultimate level and I am literally gonna soar someone in half I've had friends in the audience who brought their kids for the first time to see it and like the kid jumped out of their seat and into the father's lap first of all you think oh well it can't be real that he disproves every thought you are having because he puts the body upright and it Israel and the legs are real because they move there's one moment that's really shocking is when the man without any bottom half goes up on his hands hold on hold on this isn't possible maybe maybe it's a genuine half man I think he had no legs is that do you think the guy had no legs I can't get over that I think I hang on [Music] so then Kevin puts them on a table again puts the legs up to the body stay pause them [Music] the guy stands up and jumps around in his hole again this is impossible the guy is a genius I think he's brilliant I don't think the trick is amazing no one actually gets injured in this trick because it's it's all an illusion coming up new kid on the block dynamo makes magic up a mountain a literally heart-stopping magic trick those two nurses just stood there when as far as they were concerned they had a dead man stood between them and Paul Daniels up sex the nation on Halloween on standby they have been trained they know what to do should it go wrong there is it gone wrong yeah what this isn't normal we're counting down TVs 50 greatest magic tricks and here's one that won't baffle your brain [Music] you only ever seen him on television and then I saw him live and I just had to kind of turn to my magician friend who was with me it kind of felt the same way and I just went I think he might be the best magician I've ever seen I was an only child lived in these apartments where there weren't any this is David Copperfield at his schmaltzy is best preface in a trick with a sincere snippet of his life story you know my best dream my best dream is to fly not in a balloon airplane all accompanied by sentimental music and a captivated audience his squeeze at the time supermodel Claudia Schiffer even today when I feel lonely or insecure I go back to that dream his flying thing was Claudia Schiffer I mean the most amazing thing about in the most sort of jaw-dropping is the mullets I mean that that haircut is not very magical equipped with just a pair of stonewashed jeans a batwing jumper and that hair Copperfield attempted a seemingly impossible stage levitation and astounded audiences the world over [Applause] [Music] with lots of dry ice billowing blouse and then he he ups the ante of the trick at every level just when you think you've worked out what he's doing Copperfield displays his consummate showmanship producing some commonly designed props and a team of assistants to make his levitation appear more impossible [Music] they put them in a perspex box but which have a lid and obviously if people say it must be wild which they all will say or threads you can't do that that you've got a perspex box with a lid on it to pull those solid he has Sunday walking across the top of the box and their feet synchronized as they walk it's just a beautiful presentation but nothing too is magical no tricks it's helium inside there if you look closely at the clip you see quite bold you under the armpit right so that gives him a little bit lift it does it use helium and that's about all I could say a lot some people have good theories but that's all they are I believe I could eat to power the tricks finale is suitably gobsmacking David swoops across the dramatically lit stage to be joined mid-flight by a live bird though sadly not claudia schiffer to the accompaniment of rapturous audience applause even up to show day we didn't know if we had a good trait or not but first show we knew we had a winner first show I first got into magic as a way to go out for bull of school it wasn't the typical route that people take you know I didn't get like a magic set I didn't really watch any other magicians other than a sport my grandpa who wasn't as magician himself but he could do some really cool piety I was getting picked on by two guys at school they'd fool me in a bin and pushed me down the hill I'm a gumpa showed me a way of taking away that jump so where they couldn't pick me up I didn't get put in the bin no more I didn't have to get phone down my Hill which is kind of good because you know it weren't that nice thanks to dynamos granddad we can see him on the piste astounding some skiers with this seasonal trick in front of a bunch of skiers that has to be the most middle-class magic trick you could possibly imagine Jonah do we ever build me a snowball it's not too big just just a smaller yeah I've never really been up to the slopes before you know people go skiing every year some families you know I wasn't one of those people and all I thought of snowfall this is gonna be freezing you know I'm a northerner if I was gonna be freezing that saying somewhat because you know we're never cold there's some element of mystery to him and he's always seems quite understated and and quite modest which I think people really like you can have your big Las Vegas shows with billions of pounds chucked into them but a guy standing directly in front of a couple of other guys producing something out of nothing is in some way almost more powerful see this right yeah like disappeared you bought a second best bit is the actual genuine shock you say on their faces this is my ring this is the snowball I was holding how on earth did he manage to move that ring into there how he does that I don't know because he made the snowball before he took the ring dinner yeah yeah that's amazing I like to believe I can do much of anything anywhere anytime maybe next I need to make someone disappear and then they appear inside a snowman I think that's the evolution of living in snowball [Music] it's tough to describe duck helling but I suppose Paul Daniels on acid in a jumpsuit yes Doug Henning a Canadian magic man who made a name for himself in the 70s by changing the image of the traditional magician and wowing crowds in the States with his motorbike his mullet and of course is magic oh and some dancing well a lot of dancing so what we'd want to do a dare Doug well I've got a motorcycle I've got some kids in jumpsuits I thought we'd have a dance routine need something more a rainbow we're gonna dance on a rainbow and it doesn't get better than that [Music] Doug Henning was really sort of a fun person and the first person I ever saw to incorporate dancing and magic together and they do motorcycle dancing if you notice she flies up on the shoulders and she's gone Doug took his magical show to Broadway combining big storylines with even bigger illusions in this trick all the choreography serves as a handy distraction to let Doug get on with the real magic but at the time it worked the running across the streets the changing the crazy hand actions I thought it was fun to make that magic trick work you needed to be distracted and it just felt part of the whole performance [Music] just cage on one side and a box on the other and it's here one second and then all of a sudden it's gone and then he appears over here and it's a great trick that motorcycles trick is from a Broadway show called the magic show and it was unbridle four and a half years no one had seen magic done that way I think he's fantastic early day [Music] now a trick that astonished the medical profession David Berg last stopping his own pulse what magicians always want of course is an absolutely brilliant show-stopping piece of magic with no props and that's what he's done I want you to take my house right and with the other hand indicate to everyone what you can feel and only what you can feel all right so you indicate when you feel the pulse dude nice and open so we can see your hand moving there we go fun all right good but ask you do the same standing there okay he's he's got two nurses who are obviously experts it taking poses you can hear that pulse as the Kush inist is banging out his pulse and there's suddenly it starts to slow down and then it stops and there's that wonderful moment where he turns to the nurse she can't explain it she's sort of looking missus look of bewilderment on effect passing your blood supply off to your limp you can cause damage to the fingers or the toes you can lose the power of your limb as well which can actually be permanent if if it's prolonged loss of blood supply as well some people the particular magicians dismisses saying oh it's a schoolboys trick where you put a hard ball under your arm and by squeezing that you can't slow down your path straight but you can't stop it but I stand with my arms right apart like that I've done it stripped to the waist and I'll give you slow B's on that one you can control your pulses and very few people can do it by muscular control and therefore that's why I can separate the two arms and of course the most entertaining part of that effect is having accessible their faces looking really surprised if I truly believe this guy's pulse has stopped they were incredibly negligent weren't they they really should have called it'll do clear all that nonsense right those two nurses just stood there when as far as they were concerned they had a dead man stood between them really want to know how that was done but you know he never told her we we really wanted to know but that was one that was never revealed [Music] career magician and Harlem's stylized and highly polished stage performances have proved him to be a master of the art known as card flushing this guy and hound him I mean well these are contemporary flourishes and music showing both hands empty and yet making cards appear it was just so graceful and the pace of it was just going moron I think it's brilliant limbs at the cutting edge of stage manipulation which relies heavily on sleight of hand and finger dexterity stage manipulation is easily one of the most technically difficult things you can perform as a magician there's the color changes and the strength that you have to have in your fingers is ridiculous all of which live achieves effortlessly even managing to accompany his amazing manual dexterity with a winning smile I mean you're holding out masses of cards Lil's routines are master class in choreography and slick showmanship but no one gets this good without practice to do what he does you've got to be sat in a room on your own for long ploy decides to do like I said here with no friends no misses nothing but it does attract ladies that isn't that not in my experience is it real maybe it's real let me try to stay right there don't move let me just try to stay right there [Music] for his second appearance on our chart David Blaine is back on the sidewalks of New York with his uber cool laid-back brand of street magic once again provoking audiences to react like this David Blaine is a genius Blaine comes along and tells you look it's not about me it's not about the it's not even about the magic it's about you the audience and about and it's about what happens in your mind what Blaine did that was very very clever is he made everything about the spectators reaction typically the American spectators don't disappoint with their reactions they scream they shriek and they even run away from this gravity defying display of freaky magic you wouldn't catch are shy and reserved Brits acting like this in America audiences are really excited so that when David Blaine does something they'll go wow wow there is a huge difference between American audiences and British audiences and it's because of the way we brought up us Brits I brought a very polite and don't shout you know get your elbows off the table and we're all good manners we're Americans no offense are a little bit Wilder and they react definitely Blaine's magic does not play the same to every audience in the world I think his performance is uniquely American in many ways and therefore you know he's been amazingly successful over there levitating on the street appears all the more impressive as Blaine apparently has no wires to hold him up and witnesses stand just meters away so how does he do it is long wires is it an optical illusion perhaps it's a bit simpler than that it's kind of a playground trick that you can do without hardly any preparation just by a little muscular manipulation and it's incredibly effective for that reason coming up a card trick that fooled the big boys mad magic in the Nevada desert it's just that twist just left me with my mouth on the floor and a family favorite makes headlines but before that had enough of Christmas would you like to get away from all the tinsel wrapping paper and Christmas songs as part of our end-of-year list show specials we give you the chance to win your choice of holiday from our list of top three destinations a great to Venice a trip to bustling New York or a few days in the Maldives all you have to do is answer the following question what song is traditionally sang on New Year's Eve is it a Merry Christmas be auld lang syne or see happy birthday to enter just call oh nine oh four one six one double nine double five or text win plus a B or C - 6 treble five zero four post your answer name and phone number to win P o box seven double five seven Diaby de 1 0 NP calls cost one pound 53 from a BT landline are the networks vary and mobiles will cost considerably more text costs one pound fifty plus padded network rate blinds closed midday 12th of January 2012 and three days later for postal entries entries received after competition closes will not be counted but may be charged for rules and winners go to channel 5 comm slash win welcome back to our countdown of marvelous magic moments and here's another one perhaps the big rigs at 24:00 dynamic duo Penn & Teller take to the streets of New York to perform a trick with a truck which as it turns out isn't half as dangerous as it looks [Music] New York City head of NBC called us up and said what does it cost me to get you to do the truck trick we kind of laughed and said I don't know gave a number and he gave us a TV special with the idea that we're gonna run a truck over town I'm gonna run a truck over my partner tell his chest when you're 18 19 20 the moments that are could be dangerous are exciting in the event of an accident a ghastly mishap cirtl involved crushed bones and severed limbs please no flash photography one should cross look 30 and you're no longer immortal those are the worst moments take a look at the set up take a look at talent take a look at the truck what do you think that the sound of the engine with the with the with the wheel going over the chest looks fabulous really good [Applause] pennant headed watch the world magic is that they actually that the audience in as well so it's not all about keeping the audience away from the secrets they let people have a peek inside which I think it's really nice yes this is the only time on our list that someone's going to reveal their secrets we got six thousand pounds of stage weights eight thousand pounds of wheel weights and we got three thousand pounds of concrete all over this side to counterbalance the foam rubber tires I was watching it with a friend and we had theories about when there's a close-up on him being run over that wasn't really the truck in just a big wheel that was going over him but then when you see how they did it and they cantilever it and weigh it down on one side you're like oh you know call us easy revealing it makes it ten times better makes it more entertaining it's magic at the end of the day is about entertainment I would never have given me the way I thought that the method was brilliant [Music] nice work Victoria I hope you made some money and whenever you have a trick that how it's done is more interesting than the trick itself you've got a very bad trick very very bad trick because you shouldn't be getting more pleasure than the audience [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] magic isn't all about flashy performances and glamorous settings as novice escapologist Ali cook definitely proved I am NOT an escapologist and I don't even like baths let alone getting in a tank of freezing water I was really nervous it was freezing cold I hated it and I cannot explain how scary it is Ali was mourning because the water was too cold you know not that he might drown but that the water was too cold I slightly suffer from claustrophobia i dawn by his best mate and fellow magician Pete Bowman Ali was persuaded to strip to his trunks in a disused warehouse to recreate Houdini's famous water tank escape for their TV show monkey magic weaker are made to build this water tank in his garden shed and the water tank was built out of a garden shed and a bit of glass it was useless when we first attempted it the water swells up the woods and the lid got jammed with me trapped inside it for the authoress larious and then the producers like do it again I had to hold the screen in front of the the tank whilst the magic was happening you know my mates in there under water who locked in I've just pad locked I'm sort of responsible I'm just staring out for and hoping for the best after just 12 seconds it looked like Ali had successfully escaped but that wasn't the end of the trick what's great about that routine why I like it so much is is that wrinkled at the end where he's holding the camera I just thought it was a really nice touch there's something better about being a bit not for escapology so if you do get out it's just as amazing for yourself as it is the audience next Criss Angel according to this title sequence the grungy edgy rock and roll bad boy of magic [Music] the coin in the the arm trek pretty much tells you everything you need to know about Criss Angel he looks like the stuff nightmares are made of you can expect the guy that you meet in a club that's gonna kill you before you get home white magic is traditionally quite twee you know it's some little kind of bits of whimsy like for coins travel from hands to hands you know Percy Percy coin you can sign it with your initials put whatever you whatever you'd like on there at first this seems like a perfectly ordinary coin trade be able to identify that quarter when you see it again right but as befits angels persona it soon becomes apparent that this illusion is going to have a more sinister tone okay but if you've got any idea how many germs there are on the average coin but if you knew that you would not put it anywhere near your mouth trust me the disappearing act then takes on a stomach-churning quality as the coin seems to slide under his skin I keep stop the second you see a blade you know where this is going the watching audience says it all [Music] is that your signature yes it's disgusting but then probably if you stop and think about it you just think well that can't be real I mean there's no way he can make a coin go down his arm underneath his skin and pop house at his wrist and it's ridiculous next one French magician attempting to fool to America magicians Penn & Teller I love this trick I think it's fantastic because it's completely different which one you want right red cards okay can use frozen balloon somewhere else all it is really is just a card trick someone thinks of a card and he tells them that he knew all along what the carbs are going to be that's the plot of every card trick that ever was we have arts in diamonds which one do you want diamonds sort of all what's difficult is to make a standard card trick into something theatrical and interesting and completely impossible which one do you want for the most genuinely free choice spectators can call out any card any suit any value which one you want knowing that is a diamond red and it's a 9 of diamond that trick I think is the quintessential fullest trick because if you saw that in another show it would be good but on our show it was great because you knew there was no job and you were seeing everything in you were seeing everything in his books I have a very special deck of card it's special because only three printed cards in that deck cards come out of the box it's a blank pack of cards which is weird he's laying some cards down it's very elegant it's very clean there's no superfluous moves he doesn't speak it's just him doing his thing like a beautiful little performance [Music] magic is all about giving your audiences places to go by leading them down the garden path and then just hidden them with an effect and they kind of go up what happen [Music] [Applause] [Music] it's not just one card it was like the prediction is spread across the whole deck oh boy that's a good trick that's an astonishing trick when he takes the deck out he does a sort of a kind of a weird move not a magician smooth but he sort of it's a sort of as if there's something else in there as well then Penn & Teller called them on it and said you know what else is in the box we think the box does matter and we think the box has more than one decadent let's put it that way there's there's other stuff in the box besides the one but I can tell you the kind show there's that wonderful moment where he opens the box they applaud him because he even guessed that that's what they would think was the solution he knew we would go there we would be wrong which was just just a little added twist a little added view to us that was just wonderful and terrific you see it's a wonderful skill and practice in handling and it is physical intellectual and conceptual it's just great at 20 another chart appearance for American illusionist of France Harare this man has made space shuttle skyscrapers in our very own Tower Bridge disappear whatever next well I got this Hummer I got I got me and my buddies in Vegas and I have this Japanese megastar what can we do well head out to the Nevada desert obviously [Applause] we have the Hummer we had a couple of bed sheets from the hotel and a carpet and in some of my you know some of my friends from Vegas and some of takis friends from Japan so we're all kind of out there having basically of a picnic in the desert playing around kicking up a lot of dirt and we played with a lot of different things but one of the things that we experimented with was was this illusion on the day Franz was able assisted by Japan's answer to Justin Timberlake popstar tacky Sawa I wonder if he knew what he's letting himself in for Muhammad would go straight at taki at about 60 miles an hour and in the desert with the with all the sand we knew that we were taking a serious risk because there would be no way to stop the Hummer if if something was to go horribly awry [Music] and in the camera follows that hum around to a stop and you're thinking no don't do this to me and then when he steps out the car it's just that twist that is just left me with my mouth on the floor [Music] I couldn't do that obviously imagine saying to your mates we wrecked we're just hanging out what should we do we you stand there I've got a blanket get in my Honda Civic and drive it in as fast as you can let's just see where this goes I'm sure something magic is gonna happen this is an Iron Maiden this next trick was performed live on the Paul Daniels magic show on Halloween in 1987 I have to warn you this can go wrong that is not a joke producer came to me and he asked me first of all if I could do something that would be about the same level as War of the Worlds the awesome Welles radio show that people panicked all over New York and started leaving the city and I said well you can only do something like that if it's live the spikes themselves there's a hundred and ten of them and they're all metal a lot of people when they see things like this on TV they go oh yeah it's all fake it's all a scam now up there's lead shot that rolls down this chute goes into this metal canister here he's not quite sure how long the ball bearings are gonna take once the pin is out nothing can stop that door slamming into the cabinet even though there's a trick involved they can go wrong there's always a possibility that you could get spotted I need a little extra room then the jacket will allow me Thank You Debbie part of the tension was that before he actually got in it was to send me out of the room and I want you to leave the room completely that was quite difficult for me because I really had to act because I knew the reason was to build tension he doesn't waste any time could some Spacely chained up monocle to this weird sort of medieval torture thing the BBC staff here are all on standby they have been trained they know what to do should it go wrong I really enjoyed the building of attention like when he said there's no blame attached to any of them no one's to blame he really wound you into that what I got to try to do is escape from this before the weight drops he always has backup plans and but when it actually came to it there's always that thing in your head there could be something we haven't thought of no don't move forward anyone suddenly the door slams closed Port Angeles turnaround there's no climax there's no resolution and then you hear this lovely clipped BBC voice please leave in an orderly fashion the titles roll and there's no music what's happened what what what what's going on here is it gone wrong yeah what this isn't normal this was a prime-time show on BBC one where mistakes never happen Paul's brief had been to cause a stir that would have the nation really wondering and but I don't think they were quite prepared for what did happen within minutes the BBC switchboard was jammed with thousands of phone calls fearing the worst that Paul had actually perished live on telly later that evening the magician was forced to make an unscheduled appearance on BBC one to reassure the viewers well you were warned before the program started nothing is as it seems I'm fine thank you very much for all your phone calls and I'll see you next time on the Paul Daniels magic show trick or treat [Laughter] when they were told no she's fine oh he's fooled us again and that's great that's my job still to come trouble on the tube with a mind manipulator you'd have to be a little bit wary around there in brown if he was your friend kind of butter him up and treating nicely a game of pool that left this blokes nukid you're gonna tell me how you do that I don't know he does even look like a magic trick it just looks like someone who's slightly insane you know welcome back to the show whether magic so mind-blowing it would baffle Harry Potter [Music] Darren brown is an incredible performer he revolutionized British magic everyone watches his shows you go into work the next day and everybody's talking about it most people don't even think of him as a magician traveling on the London Underground is hard enough without Jerry Brown messing with your head [Music] so once stop thinking about it now I won't stop that what stuff where you're getting up front what you're actually seeing there is a waking state of hypnosis which makes it really intriguing we've never seen that before has no idea where it's going he has literally got amnesia remember why are you going there to visit friends and where is it what stuff here's a guy on TV who's making a member of the public just a guy who he meets on a to train forget something that is as easy as his name spooky remember that you can member your friend yeah your creatures house what does he look she goes up waves his fingers they forget here's someone ahead they remember nobody does Heidi I don't understand how they do that and I would like to know whenever I meet people like Darrin Bradley who asked them they're always very it's not magic is it you'd have to be a little bit wary around there in brown if he was your friend kind of butter him up and treated nicely and you never really know whether you'd forgotten something or he hadn't so and he's a scary man definitely Willie Willie wait here if you capture it supposed to meet him at Porter twelve and I'm layin Aziz I cannot like doing magic with everyday objects and particularly things that are easy to carry you know so you know pack of cards is ideal you got 52 props and it fits in your pocket you know pack of cards here now what we're to do is get to choose one of these obviously I don't need to see them just face down have want to make sure it is a free choice and I'm not fortunately particular one I know you're not forcing any of me I know that Paul Zanon is the quintessential pub magician I mean he looks like the kind of guy who would show you a trick and then try and sell you a used car he's got possibly the worst leather jacket in history on TV all right I have a quick show the camera I love ugh but is the jury's out on his fashion sense there's no doubting his skills with a pack of cards a willing stooge and a pool cue it's imported is know if I know where the TARDIS but it's important you don't know where your card a store I feel if you could just take all those two balls a second we're gonna spread these out all over the table okay now in a second I'm gonna get you to hit the cue ball against the black ball and just ricochet a few times that until however many times you like that doesn't go in all right okay look at that it's heavy there's any doubt as to what car that's closest to the treat with the pool ball landing on the card is just incredible because if you look you've got 52 cards and he spreads them out on the table it's really got no way of knowing where that black ball is gonna land you chose what's the card you can name the card it's the Queen of Hearts turn that one over that's amazing that's incredible yeah you gonna tell me how you do that or not the only thing that was disappointing about that trick was the Pope's reaction I mean II went oh that's amazing if I was pulls in on but I said miracle it's not amazing it's a miracle for the next trick on our magic list [Music] we're taking a trip to the dark side we haven't seen anything like it it was just macabre and and and dangerous magician Simon Drake was certainly not afraid of shocking the audience Simon Drake's brilliance was to marry the kinds of pleasure of of a really schlocky Hammer horror movie with a genuine mad magic trick it's a sort of traditional magic trick which we souped up and turn into a little story and the story was that the assistants have inexplicably turned against Simon and decided to give him a taste of his own medicine he took the guillotine trick performed it on himself which gave an added sense of danger everything we've seen as an audience before suggested that perhaps the little carrots either side would get chopped but he would remain safe that's the guillotine trick that people know that have this sudden twist brilliant delicious we had people faint and things but people have always been fascinated by horror I think it's really a brain chemistry thing that they're you get a shot of their own adrenaline that's kind of I think why people like it subconsciously they like to be thrilled people do ask me to do it quite a lot it's the one that they mostly remember of mine while I used to be on a program called cracker Jastrow every Friday known as a kid you couldn't wait for two people Ali Bongo and the Great's aprender he's fantastic and he's got the character spot-on so with that character he could do anything Geoffrey Durham the comedy magician and entertainer and former husband of Victoria Wood is probably best known for playing the part of a magical Spaniard so remember something in this copy of the newspaper as the great soprano Jeffrey has been performing this classic trick for over 30 years for most of us a newspaper is something to read and throw away or recycle but this trick involves something much more entertaining because I never there the newspaper the idea of the trick is to make you think you know people have been tearing up and restoring newspapers about 200 years it's a really old trick the method that I used I got out of a book I said the magic words rocky rocky and then I started to realize that I changed it hugely a newspaper is completely the version that he does it's his own verse Jeffrey Dorian's own version and it is brilliant and again the presentation is so slick comes up at the end it's just done like that it has to be a broadsheet newspaper because at the end when you bring it back it has to be with your arms outstretched if the Daily Telegraph's goes tabloid I lost a trip and when it goes to iPads 400 completely stuffed [Music] simply Deloitte prime example they are the kings of magic and illusion they just bring a story to life using amazing and big productions they would incorporate some standard illusions into the show but by putting a big tiger into Wow it lifts it again this illusion entitled dream combined a number of the teutonic pairs trademarks a big cat Hollywood production values some camp that graceful stage moves and a dramatic ending designed to leave audiences gasping in awe Siegfried and Roy particularly likes white animals so they had white tigers but they grow bigger than a normal tiger and in my opinion are more dangerous than a normal tiger as the music built and Siegfried demonstrated his flawless showmanship [Music] the trick reached its dramatic conclusion and the audience went wild in amazement not surprising really as ROI appears to be struggling with a wild animal inside a very confined space spying a bogus vanish and appear in another box that's at the front of the safe - it's been on view throughout the whole of the Act it's so quick it's polished it's just superb Siegfried and Roy used animals that are quite difficult to control but Roy really had an amazing affinity with them despite Roy's trust in his animals it all nearly ended in tragedy during a live show in 2003 things went horribly wrong Roy Horn of the Siegfried and Roy team remains in critical condition tonight after being mauled by a tiger during a show in Las Vegas both Siegfried and Roy said they didn't blame the animal they they felt sorry for the animal that it was something else must have happened to trigger this behavior but Roy nearly died grabs him like just locks on him picks him up and just drags him he looks like a ragdoll in his mouth I mean that thing just had him I kind of like the shoulder in the face maanteeeca a one tiger Roy had red since birth appeared to be disturbed by a member of the audience and reacted violently that developed into into a full-blown attack he dropped him grabbed him by the the neck and dragged him off the stage which is a natural thing for a tiger to do since the attack Roy has made some steps towards recovery but the animal loving pair will never again return to the Vegas stage I don't think I'll ever be any act as good a scene free Roy but tell obviously the other acts it used hogs and stuff but it won't be mine Ronald Reagan made me a professional magician because I went on holiday and Ronald Reagan started a recession on purpose when I came back my job was gone so I just had to do tricks just to make a little money first and cuts the high score gets to do it it wasn't the only time John found himself out on his ear he was the first person to be expelled from the Magic Circle in 85 years after revealing the secret of a three-card trick but he didn't reveal the secret of this one it's a classic plot something disappears it ends up somewhere else but let's take it to a massive scale let's choose a platform and so on any one of the 19 platforms name one pick a platform any platform that one we had to time a trick to British Rail being on time I mean cut me a break that's the biggest magic trick of all I will give you the chip if you give me your shoe okay hey let's wrap this trains coming in they on a platform you've chosen it's not random the train is coming so place it over top just like that okay now here's interesting watch clothes making a shoes vanish it can't go up your sleeve it's it's it's a it's not a coin it's not a card you know [Music] my guilty pleasure was seeing my good Merc Danny buckler dressed as a sort of a Cinderella footman he really wasn't happy to wear that outfit Mary I'm guessing that's you by the look of things beautiful hold still she was upset because she hadn't painted her toenails Danielle yes yeah I still think about Danielle from time to time I was on the train I've got the shoe and I'm not thinking how I got the shoe but I've got the shoe and a man standing in between me and the door on his way to work so I'm like I'm sorry chief but I don't know if you've noticed but we're doing a little bit of filming on the on the stations every chance that I'm late for work is not best pleased that is morning commute was being interrupted by what appeared to be a French prince from the 19th century people would try to guess how things were done and there was this website and then this one guy it was like he was there it was step for step exactly what we did all the way through at the very bottom you wrote but of course that's ridiculous nobody would do it like that and nobody paid any attention so that the secret is held I don't fool people very often I mean I do magic but I'm a comedian and that trick really fools people and that's what I like about it still to come plenty of magic moments to delight there Thailand and that is beautiful to look at you're watching TVs 50 greatest magic tricks and before you can say abracadabra is another one this next performance of the famous metamorphoses trick has been enjoyed by millions now really city is he with you let's get busy how about no not city's version this more showy performance by the pen dragons I became involved in magic when I was a student and I met Jonathan Pendragon I was a dance major and he was a theater major and together we mixed those arts and combined him with the magic which was his love you could just say look at them you know they're just the way they're so toned and they're just beautiful to look at you can't say that Charlotte's outfit is a big stage outfit but it's a reason why our outfits are skimpy it she's got a fantastic body I'm not a great fan of super high cut on the hips but I think that was a eighties thing I wanted to accomplish her metamorphosis is just this instantaneous piece of magic you know so less than a second you see someone they're gone and another person is right there [Music] don't they do that just mind-boggling Wow Wow if you're going to do a trick like metamorphosis you do have to do a lot of rehearsal particularly to get to the speed that Charlotte Pendragon could do that I'm Jonathan of course and they were both extremely fit the pen dragons lived and performed together for over 25 years but things weren't always harmonious for Magic's golden couple because you're always together you know you always have to make it work you know in some way and sometimes it doesn't work but in 2009 it seems the stresses of their relationship got too much for Charlotte and Jonathan police were called to their own often reports that Jonathan had fired a gun that Charlotte said he shot it at the floor the whole thing sounded crazy later on Jonathan was sectioned for psychiatric issues all I want to say is I would not want to run into a crazy gun wielding magician any day of the week the magic may be over for the pen dragons relationship but their routines live on they've taken a classic of magic and illusion and perfected it in such a way that I I don't believe that it could be bettered ever I can't this rest assured that no mice were harmed in the filming of this next trick although telly presenter Josie Darby's never been the same since Furman is one of the best comedy magicians in the country and I Scott this this angelic face and he's doing something supremely evil I also got there Betsy one of those things you know that mice and gerbils go round and round and you know yeah we know a blender let's I'm Betsy blitz I'm the mouse in the blender routine is is is basically upping the ante on the old can I borrow your watch sir I'm gonna smash it up and now it's okay I mean that's that's what it is we just sort of you know took it to the max we go number one two or three m33 [Music] right we discovered quite a long time ago that if you just kill animals in the name of magic it's hilarious either that or they're very very offended it just looks incredible and it just looks like you killed a mouse we were trying to push the envelope of test as well as magic but I think I think it's just you know I think originality is key really at number 10 magic married couple David and Dania their performance on America's Got Talent made the audience do this and the judges do this all thanks to an astonishing quick change routine [Music] the original AG we were probably not comfortable with until up to a five-year period of time you know what I mean with dance teachers emotion and every movement to where you're like a clock and you can do it your sleep a staggering did they the impact is fantastic we seen it live and it is it's unbelievable David and Danny have shown me their costumes I have stood at the side of the stage I cannot see how they do it even though I've seen their costumes and I'm standing five feet from them it's that quick and that good never underestimate the power of the assistant she really is Daniel Daniel is very very good I think she comes from a European circus family it's very physical for me it's pretty physical so you have to be very strong girl to the sister we're here today hide all of the dresses when you say David wrap entirely around in that light chiffon big cloth too dressed on a fall on the floor and she changes twice this is fantastic then comes to confetti [Music] it is the most magical moment I think I've ever seen it's like something out of a Disney sort of movie and I love the judges faces when they see [Applause] next a magic trick that should definitely come with a government health warning I have to say my favorite trick out of all these is Tom Lucas cigarette eating thing there it is striking to see somebody take a lit cigarette and just go WOW and not only one you know just my favorite bit in the whole thing as me looks at the girl as smiles you can see that many cigarettes in your mouth he's open his mouth up are any trick that involves cheering or eating tobacco we would definitely not advise to the disappointment of tobacconists everywhere Tom eventually decided to change his act and give up smoking apparently it wasn't as painless as you made it look I said to him you can't stop doing it it's great and he said you know you just it hurts and I mean it really is it's of course it hurts I throw lit cigarettes in my mouth it hurts okay you can stop he's crazy what a Mentalist just and that's crazy crazy he most definitely is in 1996 escapologist Robert Gallup decided to perform the ultimate escape for an American TV special Houdini I mean he escaped from handcuffs and manacles and mailbags and jail cells and in fact was was it was one of the first aviators in the world I think I've got if he was alive today what would he do Robert decided that what he might do is escape from handcuffs inside a chained mail sack inside a locked cage all whilst free-falling from an airplane when he came up with that idea I just thought it was crazy there was some test cages that we needed to make and we've built a couple to see how they would fall and how they would fly and you know you have to test these things to find out how much time you've got before this thing hits the ground training for the death dive took about nine months now firstly I had to learn how to skydive but not just normal skydive I actually had to learn how to pick locks and freefall that in itself was a challenge yeah I was nervous just before we got in the plane but once we got in the plane everything was like regimented and and and we had to work to clockwork so once I was in the plane I was cool but leading up to it I was pretty scared how can you control yourself and when you're plummeting to the ground you know and just to have enough sense left in you to actually open something extricate Keys locks picks like anything there's no getting around the fact that that she was in mortal peril for a lot of that was of his shoelace just got snagged on the prison cell that they've also thrown out of the plane it really will go down in like the history of magic is probably the best escape there ever is really still to come a magic trick of biblical proportions someone shout out to me do a rule walk on the water brilliant welcome back we've seen some amazing feats of magic but the best is yet to come [Music] just told that that the goldfish trick came from a collaborative discussion really I remember being in the room and we all sort of brainstormed it fish fishing I'm gonna send the line down a little bit at a time maggots jack swallowing the thread and pulling out of the stomach we thought what's the the gross as possible stuff we could do with all these things they came up with was a trick to retrieve a goldfish from inside Pete's stomach his glamorous assistant is an idea the transsexual winner of Big Brother 5 we used to be flatmates and he eats maggots he collects toads he'll just try and do anything he can with dodgy objects he's one of those guys who you go and see him you'll be amazed on your life too that's Mike saw me do it again you actually look closely when he's pulling the thread out of his stomach you can see a line of bloods the biggest like gross out moment was the when I pull down my eyelid and that maggot just popped out [Applause] and then that was like a gas in the studio he just found the grossest thing possible so he eats them like oh there's no secret to that he just practiced eating maggots oh that's gross for any animal lovers out there a bit worried about the mugger unfortunately my goat gets it we did have someone who had to okay the welfare of the goldfish well now isn't that bother they're only acquit I think I once regurgitate a frog I don't know if that's magic or just bulimia sorry good either pizza yeah but that was not intentional it was not magic in this movie I can say that the goldfish retired from show business after that performance and they lived long and fruitful fishy lives in North London our next trick is definitely not new it was done before many years ago by a bloke called Jesus but here's a skinny lad from Bradford with his own take on a biblical miracle so I woke up at like what 6:00 in the morning and I thought yeah what kind of today call my boy done eat up the camera and we just mosey on down there you know and yeah it was a nice sunny there attempt to put River Thames back on the map and that's how dynamo came to the decision to attempt to the feat of walking on water although unlike Jesus he had his boy Dan to capture the event for posterity dynamos walking on water looked superb outside one of the world's most monumental buildings you know just outside Big Ben and the houses of parliament great I took that first step and there was nearly 20 people looking I'm about Tomica to the middle of the river and just kind of turned around there's like 2,000 people on that bridge at first I think we just walked on something but then they have this strategically placed canoes a call right knees weak canoes couldn't go over there's something there easygoing there was a ferry going past ten Michael Jackson playing on his father and someone shouted out to me do a moonwalk on the water I was thinking I'm not gonna push my luck right now I'm not the best swimmer he's got his messianic pose messiahs landed he's on the Thames he's standing on water and then you hear this I don't move some police guy on a river boats who think come to sort of drag him onto the boat and then if he has he been arrested or live the charge they may even for jaywalking on the river got using a proper crossing like a bridge [Music] everyone seen a magician put a girl in a box then shove swords through but normally is some cheesy looking box and then they have these enough swords and they stick them through and you don't believe it's real in the slightest at number five something for flat path fangs husband and wife team Shaheed and Lisa Malik have been performing this death-defying but relatively cheap illusion for more than 30 years it is an ordinary cardboard carton and it's folded flat to start with so I open it up assemble it into a box in full view of the audience and we can put it down anywhere the fact that we do on stage is not important so it doesn't require a trapdoor honest I think it's amazing because there is no trick to that other then he is sticking you know wooden skewers through Kabul box with his Michigan again she's there she does not go anywhere and if you saw it in a live situation you'd realize that the sticks are not been dia they are real wooden dowels which are extremely sharp people want to see something a little bit edgy something a little bit dangerous close to impossible there's also a good chance that Lisa could get seriously injured if she doesn't keep her wits about her there's a high probability I'm gonna get caught and and I do get cold and I'm scarred quite badly around my body I nearly lost an eye once she must be like a little ninja in that box ducking and diving is the sort of thing in karate kids you could imagine incur I could swim dodging these sticks at lightning speed and that's how you become a master of something sometimes when you're on stage you tend to get a little bit carried away and forget what you're doing especially when you do thousands and thousands of times which we have so your mind get mine tends to one relate and you forget Ashley I should be doing this and this one should have gone there and so on he must have some way of knowing exactly where he's gonna put the sticks well either that or he just doesn't care that much is one of the other despite Shahid's attempts to main his wife every night he has managed to maintain a happy and loving relationship this old classic question what do you do if you have around before we do this the simple precise impossible to explain totally impossible to explain and how she didn't get killed every night I don't know but then he happened once from there [Applause] with his third appearance on our chart master magician Paul Daniels and a trick that requires speed of hand and tongue it took me all I don't know 18 months of doing it just about every night in working men's clubs and every night coming home and thinking about it I walk on a mind-reader I know what you're thinking what's that many people wonder what is that that is in truth the world's oldest recorded trick very simple game to follow you know it's the is the ball in the cup under the cup or is it in my pocket all has been performing the chop cup routine for decades and has perfected it to such a point that it's mind-boggling to watch it just goes to show that practice really can make perfect is if I sneak it into me like thanks if the balls and we'll a chance him but I tell you it's not a Meehan little bit so the couple done behind the talk if you didn't have haven't come in that if you see nothing coming up there if you look they can be done they put in the probably the same time you come to that same the cup it's gonna ball together they come but you said the company got a job play at the same time now a couple of balls couple and the cup is empty can of the ball and got the ball in the cup we come in the poverty the poverty can be the crown same time to cook if on the other hand the ball on the couple together in the cook up you are not following this the frameworks ten times faster than anybody else's I know you still got how did you do that and you're looking I know it's all done a lot magicians Knights all done and you're looking at his hands you go well I know how that that move works but you can't see him do it still it's pretty where is it now for fifty pounds it's in your pocket in the pocket in other words he can't build on the cup right wrong now this he controls the stage whether he's doing it in your living room or in an arena the wonderful thing about Paul Daniels is his personality he does the chop cut brilliantly technically it's flawless but that's not what it's all about Paul Daniels understands no matter what he's doing at any place or any time it's about the entertainment now you've got to put the cook down to catch the ball that goes up your sleeve across your shoulder down the side under the cup but be very careful you don't put the ball into the wrong pocket because when you go flick everybody claps why do they clap because when you flick you got a lemon the speed of it is amazing his patter is incredible and his misdirection with his jacket is impeccable brilliant if you've got that you'll go mad over the orange I don't know where I still put lines in I still think I still dissect every trick I do and so the chopped Cup is there but it's still developed after the break we discover which masterful magicians have made it into our top three I would stick my neck out I think and say that I think this is the greatest magic trick of all time [Music] it's nearly time to reveal the greatest TV magic trick of all but before that this your task will be to load a single bullet into a revolver my task will be not to die the pure showmanship of the man sells everything he does I think he's a genius this here is bulletproof glass you're gonna be sat behind this for some of the time back in 2003 Darren brown shocked UK audiences by announcing that he would perform one of the most dangerous magic tricks of all time the Russian Roulette stunts live on TV have a seat for me thank you if the trick went well China four would have had an amazing TV program you know wonderful and TV moments but obviously on the flip side of that if the trick had gone wrong would have been watching someone kill themselves out live on national TV I could Donatelli that's an incredible statement of whatever reason you believe it Darren's fate lay in the hands of James who had been hand-picked from 15,000 willing volunteers all James had to do was load one of the guns six empty chambers with a bullet all Darren had to do was fire all but the loaded chamber at his own head and also James I've signed a disclaimer I've signed a form that absolves you from any legal responsibility for this all right pick up the gun I've never known a live TV show where the entire team are deadly silent a mix of total terror and just total amazement at what we were watching him fold before our eyes just take a moment just to take a breath and relax and then count from 1 to 6 loudly clearly and slowly I take a breath first go what Darren was looking for was somebody who was suggestible somebody who Darren felt he was able to read very easily 1 2 3 4 5 6 it's very tense isn't it watching something like that I don't I don't feel like that's magic I don't feel like watching Darren brown do I think I'm constantly on the edge of me J I'm gonna set the gun to a chamber that I feel is safe that's number three number three I feel sorry for the little people you get out the audience to sit with him put that ya protectors on and come one six me so me forget all the stuff that you think is someone really gonna shoot themselves in the head on live TV it doesn't matter he's got gun who's pointing at his head number four I feel his safe and then he makes a mistake number five and then he takes one minute and ten seconds of nothing there is dramatic pause it's the tightrope walkers wobble if a tightrope walker just gaily skips along it doesn't really matter but if there's a sense of jeopardy or danger or the orful ability that's crucial you have to make the audience believe that it might go wrong and then that finale where is brilliant Darren brown I think you're freaking Iraq number two the master of stage illusions of dry ice David Copperfield accompanied by a huge buzz saw on his own attempt at electrical work there's some dangerous magic ahead the staging I think the dry I saw the smoke machine is what sells david style but why'd he try to do it in the style bit like a rock show David took one of the oldest tricks in the book the sawing the lady in half illusion did away with the glamorous assistant and turned the danger on himself in his version he is the one pad locked up that is a wonderful twist on the very classic magician's illusion the twist of doing it so himself and the manner in which it was done it was just absolutely awesome wasn't it it becomes a treat about time actually because what he's doing is apparently doing some kind of an escapology apparently it going wrong but it does have this extraordinary moment where the saw actually comes right down with no cover at all the blade weighs hundreds of pounds and it's real metal and it's sharp there's definitely a potential for danger there is always the fear when you got mechanical things that something might go wrong and of course they have done over the years people have been sawn in half it's only happened once or twice but it has happened it's just sick in it I'm not really a big fan of feet you know his head his body over here he's like do over here miss Bea area kicking out like you know like by swimming in the sea and it's kind of disgusting what makes that trick better than all the other scientists is that his presentation his concept of turning back time to resolve the situation you know he kind of like looks up and the clock starts to go backwards and the blade turns reverse and pulls out it so he's really turning back time to stay alive and to put himself back together and make the situation okay [Music] just like my McFly all over again yeah and then you know when you sit on the pins just to Mike cause you know like it's nothing i rated as one of the great tricks of all time so who has out magic all of this lot to take the number one spot it seems truly magical with just about everything they do just when you think you know how it's done they take it a whole different direction it's better than good it's great magic who are they talking about we will leave you in suspense no longer the magicians who performed TVs greatest magic trick or the legendary double act Penn & Teller with their death-defying magic bullet illusion I need someone to take a bullet from the audience I think as a magic trick is probably the best thing we've done I think what they've done with this trick is is is really pretty extraordinary just pick any one of those bullets here please sir the bullet catch has been performed for centuries and involves a magician catching a bullet that's been fired from a gun but Penn & Teller decided to make an old trick a little bit more complicated Rhett now Mike you've been examined that boy little bit exam a little bit more would you plays to seem okay to you teller alone came up with the idea of doing the double bullet catch which may that's the first to do that and yours was a smiley face and that's right there to do the double bullet catch-22 make it look doubly difficult is were things that Penn & Teller do so brilliantly this trick is definitely not without its dangers and over the years some magicians have died performing it most famously magician Chung Ling soo who was killed on stage in London during a performance of the trick in 1918 things can always go wrong it's not a trick to mess about with I want to brag about the fact that everybody else doing this it was dangerous and with us it's really safe and you know I hope these words don't echo with tremendous irony when you show this video after I've been shot in the face and killed but I believe it's as safe as anything in any one show I want you to draw a picture on the shell of it we have a moment contact and we're doing checklists I am prepared is that as a feel right to say we're not doing this trick tonight there are levels and levels and levels of safety although it is real guns and a real bullet and all of that is true watch these bullets we will not cross the line now you could imagine they could be doing all sorts of tricks with the bullets and so on but the bottom line comes down to this at no point do they ever cross that line they start off by saying they're going to move a bullet from one side of the stage to the other and we're gonna do it using these magic wands these are 357 Magnum Colt Python magic wands scary it's really scary you know the way they do it their style of presentation and you do really start thinking they're just gonna kill each other never point a gun at anything unless you intend to destroy it and then you start to realize that they're aiming for each other's mouths and that's when it starts getting scary and I remember the first time firing the guns was was horrible horrible horrible we'd thought about everything we'd worked for months but now we were gonna do this oh man everything about that routine convinces you that a bullet has gone from one side of the stage to the other side are those you three initials yes are you three initials on there yeah they swapped the bullets and the casing remained in the same pistols tell me what you see on that shell as it comes out stick figure what do you see on there happy thing oh yeah we never said we would change the shells as this just seems to be no other way that they could have done that trick other than actually fire those guns into each other's minds it's just an amazing mystery [Applause] number one good thanks now that is Matich berry from EastEnders can do all the pleading he wants it's not good to get him in the Big Brother house negotiations with his agent might help who is going in don't miss the Celebrity Big Brother live launch Thursday at 9:00 on Channel five next tonight see in 2012 with a comedy classic starring Frankie Howard at the front after the break [Music]

Channel: Lauris Kasiakas

Views: 3,952,769

Rating: 4.429883 out of 5

Keywords: Magic (illusion), Trick, Card, Tricks, David, Best, Ever, Coin, Cards, Illusion, Magic Trick, Blaine, Magician, TV, TVs, 50, Top, Amazing

Id: mcLsS_idliY

Length: 133min 27sec (8007 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 03 2013

Reddit Comments

[u/yonkfu]

All great to watch. Piff the magic dragon is one my favourite acts. I laughed and I cried when I first seen that act.

[u/Wilogana]

Some of these irk me, because some are not actually single tricks being broadcasted. The secret to these is that they're actually two tricks in one: The trick the live audience reacts to, and the one the folks out in TV land are shown.

What do you guys think of that? If I taped some people's reaction to, say, an ambitious card routine but spliced that footage with a trick that could not work live, am I still doing "genuine magic"? Does it matter that the footage is manipulated in such a way since the wider audience (viewer's at home) still gets fooled in the end?

[u/Magicnick13]

Im American, so for me it was really cool to be able to watch a foreign TV show on Magic.

Cant agree with everything on there, but I thought this was 2 hours well spent.

[u/grolik]

These are all great and I love trying to figure some of them out. My favourite part of magic though is knowing the method and still being amazed at the effect. Marc Paul says around 9:37 that even though you know for a fact that the bridge cannot disappear, it's still fantastic to watch and ponder.