Killer Magic -Episode 4

After the impressive tricks we saw in the last show, the competing magicians had to keep up the good work with a set of routines themed around "Time". Ben, Christopher, Damien, Dee and Jasz (who managed to survive last week's "Killer Trick" with barely a scratch on her neck) performed once each, and as usual, they needed to provide an impressive performance in order to avoid the "Killer Trick". This time, it would be a twisted variation on Russian Roulette.

(If You Haven't Watched This On BBC iPlayer Yet, the Following Will Contain Spoilers)

The Tricks

• Ben was first to perform, doing a routine in front of a couple of Science students. He began by putting his watch in his pocket, then appeared to transform a piece of ice into glass and blew on it, inflating it into a test tube. Next, he filled it with salt, then changed it into a sand timer. He then reversed the process, turning the timer back into an ice cube, making the salt return to the saltshaker, and making his watch reappear on his hand. The routine was not perfect (You can see the watch back on Ben's hand throughout the second half of the trick before he reveals it), but the presentation was engaging and the flaws are only apparent if you rewatch the performance closely. Ben received a score of 29.
• Before his performance, Damien confessed that he was not used to the style of magic he was going to provide. If he hadn't said this, I wouldn't have noticed, for he was as slick as usual. He asked two volunteers at a champagne bar to sign a coin with a significant year (In this case, 2000). Damien then made the coin pass through the bottom of an empty champagne bottle and appear inside it. He followed this by chilling and sealing the bottle with his bare hands, then making it fill with champagne. He finished by changing the date on the bottle into the chosen year. Although the first half of the routine wasn't that exciting, the transformation of the bottle was very impressive. Damien's competitors gave him a score of 31. 
• Chris themed his routine around journalism, promising to "Hack the Future". He hired a group of media and journalism students to serve as his staff and create a front page for his own newspaper, but not before receiving a private message from his future self revealing what the front page would be. Chris wrote this information on an envelope and stuck it on a banner in clear sight but out of reach; He got the students to choose a headline, strap-line, byline, picture and inside feature, before taking down the future message to reveal that it accurately predicted the front page created by the students. Because the mentalism he specializes in relies heavily on predicting the future, Chris probably found it easier to come up with a routine than his competitors, and I personally loved the presentation. However, his fellow magicians did not find the trick stunning enough, so he got a score of 27.
• Jasz went next, with a performance involving a rose bush and a theme of going back in time. She told a volunteer to sign a leaf, then removed it from the bush. She did some close-up tricks with it as she appeared to pull the signature off the leaf, then put it into a small box and turned it into a brown autumn leaf before making it vanish. She followed this by making the bush vanish as well, then finished the routine by restoring time to the present, making it reappear with the signed leaf attached and the signature intact. This was a very creative trick with a solid story line, but the magicians found the presentation flat and she only gained a score of 27.
• The final routine came from Dee, who added 76 years to someone's life using only his coat. He performed in a graveyard, telling two volunteers stories about the lives of the dead. He revealed a gravestone belonging to a boy who had died decades before. After transforming a withered rose into a fresh red one to put on the grave, he discussed how it was possible to prevent people from dying before their time. He then put his coat over the gravestone, and when he removed it, the date of the boy's death and the inscription had changed - it now told the story of a man who had lived a full and healthy life and died only recently at the ripe old age of 88. Whilst the concept behind the trick was fascinating, the conclusion was a bit of an anticlimax. Dee's competitors believed that it wasn't visual enough, and I agree- maybe he could have done something a bit more spectacular, such as making the boy (or at least an old man representing him) appear.  As a result of the weak conclusion, Dee received a low score of 24. 

The Forfeit

Damien was the winner and Dee the loser, so Dee had to do the "Killer Trick". Most Russian Roulette-themed tricks involve only one or two dangerous options, but here Dee was guaranteed to suffer several injuries. He was tethered to a chair with five ropes attached to different items: one was holding a bottle of Dee's favorite Whiskey, one was attached to his beard, one would drop hot candle wax onto his left hand, one would release a rat trap onto his right hand, and deadliest of all a fifth was attacked to Dee's ...erm..."highly masculine area". Damien told a doctor to pick four of the ropes at random, and these would be cut, releasing the deadly devices. Although Dee had some of his facial hair yanked off, his bottle of whiskey spilled, and his two hands injured, he managed to avoid castration. Killer Magic has always been a very edgy show, but this probably pushed the limits of what could be shown on TV, and was all the better for it. This was another "Killer Trick" that will get viewers talking.

The Verdict

As was the case in the last episode, the "Killer Trick" was the highlight, but the other tricks were good too. The theme was very unusual, as it was based on a concept rather than a fixed item (e.g toys or movies), but it inspired several strong performances. Killer Magic has been great fun to watch so far, and I hope that the remaining two episodes are just as good as this one.