50 greatest magic tricks

As part of their New Years Eve programming, Channel Five gave us a countdown of their 50 greatest magic tricks. This was completely different from the countdown Channel 4 did almost 10 years ago, There were 22 tricks from the previous countdown, but they were accompanied by new and amazing tricks from the likes of Dynamo and Pete Firman. The lineup was slick and contemporary, featuring magic tricks from Americas Got Talent (Britain's got Talent hasn't had enough good magicians), Penn and Teller: Fool us and Dynamo:Magician Impossible. Unlike Channel 4's version, which featured too much emphasis on annoying comedians talking about the clips, this time (Joe Pasquale notwithstanding) it was mostly the magicians themselves talking about what made the tricks so great. The longer length ( 2 hours 40 to the 2 hours of the Channel 4 special) also meant more time and greater focus on each clip.

The top 50 were (a * denotes a trick that wasn't on Channel 4's 2002 countdown)

50. Dynamo- Floating Guitar * (Beats my impossible straw trick any day!)
49. Penn and Teller- Misers Dream *
48. Franz Harary - Vanishing Tower Bridge *
47: Tommy Cooper- Multiplying Bottles
46. James Galea - 673 King Street * (An inventive piece of storytelling with sleights)
45. Paul Daniels- Million Pound Vanish*  (An excellent and original trick)
44. Marc Paul- Any Card, Any Number*
43. David Copperfield- Portal* (A spectacular trick with a family reunion theme)
42. David Blaine- Card in window
41. Uri Geller- Spoon Bending
40. Piff the Magic Dragon- Card changing by quarters *
39. Ali Cook- Card caught by Toe *
38. Harry Blackstone Jr.- Floating Lightbulb
37. Siegfried and Roy- Interlude
36. Lance Burton- Doves
35. Paul Zenon- Tax Disc trick (If only he'd done this at the palladium)
34. Barry and Stuart- Hommunculus * (A medley of tricks involving a self-solving Rubix cube and a person vanishing from a chair)
33. Simon Drake- Silhouette * (A set of scary sleights done in Silhouette)
32. Criss Angel- Goldfish into Lady *
31. Kevin James - Sawing a man in half * (With no boxes, the man upright, and both halves having a life of their own)
30. David Copperfield- Flying
29. Dynamo- Ring into Snowball *
28. Doug Henning- Motorbike Vanish *
27. David Berglas- Pulse Stopping
26. An Ha Lin- Card Manipulation * (Amazing magic from a virtual unknown)
25. David Blaine- Balducci Levitation
24. Penn and Teller- Truck Trick
23. Ali Cook- Water Torture Escape *
22. Criss Angel- Coin into Arm * (Sick but memorable- Didn't Homer Simpson once do that by squeezing too hard?)
21. Mathieu Bich- Spreadwave *
20. Franz Harary- Hummer * (Franz Harary stands in front of a speeding car, and vanishes at the last physical moment. He is then revealed to be inside! I saw this trick on Youtube in March and I'm really pleased it's on the countdown)
19. Paul Daniels- Iron Maiden* (The trick that shocked all of Britain)
18. Derren Brown- Tube Hypnosis ( Derren induces amnesia in a passenger and restores his memory with a snap of his fingers)
17. Paul Zenon- Billiard Ball on Chosen Card
16. Simon Drake- Guillotine
15. Geoffrey Durham- Torn and Restored Newspaper
14. Siegfried and Roy- Dream* (Tiger Teleportation)
13. John Lenahan - Vanishing shoe in Random Train* (This trick was aired and exposed in 2003's failed TV pilot "Secrets of Magic". However, enough people have remembered the trick and forgotten the secret for it to make the countdown)
12. The Pendragons- Metamorphosis
11. Pete Firman- Blended Mouse* (Don't worry, no mice were actually harmed)
10. David And Dania- Quick Change* (A performance that went viral)
9.  Tom Mullica- Cigarette Eating
8.  Robert Gallup- Death Dive
7.  Pete Firman- Goldfish regurgitaion* (Pete can be seen on The Magicians when it returns next week)
6.  Dynamo- Walk on Water*
5.  Shadid Malik- Cardboard Box
4.  Paul Daniels- Chop Cup
3.  Derren Brown- Russian Roulette *
2. David Copperfield- Death Saw (Number 1 in Channel 4's countdown)
1. Penn and Teller- Double bullet catch