Magicians Love a Watermelon Now You See It

In the world of magic anything can happen.

Why can't he just use the lift like everyone else?

You'll see things you can't explain.

Don't lose the plot.

Welcome to Now You See It.

Now with added human slot machine. Cannot wait.

This is fruit swapping.

Wow. Wow.

Whoa.

Obviously, when you think of tricks, you immediately think watermelons.

Yaseen continues this with his cute pig. Where's the melon?

Here's the melon. Go on. Take a bite.

Seriously, a quick bite.

OK. That'll be a no then.

And just to prove that the watermelon is the go-to

fruit for today's magic,

see how the old sawing a lady in half trick is given

a fresh fruit makeover by self-styled magic poet Yif.

There is more to this though, luckily.

Take this small invisible piece of pure magic,

pop it in the watermelon and...

..after a bit of faffing, and a little bit more faffing...

Behold, half watermelon, half banana.

It's a water-nana.

And here's a banana-lon.

And, let's be honest, if we had magic powers,

that's the first thing we'd try, isn't it?

She looks surprised and perhaps a little bit annoyed

that he's messed up the fruit she's just paid for.

Great for those times when you buy a watermelon and then you think,

"Oh, I wish this was a banana."

We've all done it.

Mmm. Looks like she's really enjoying that.

It's a bit like those hard-boiled eggs and pork pies.

Don't know how they do that either.

Now, take one watermelon, a lot of rubber bands

and two Swedish guys with absolutely nothing better to do.

Place a rubber band over the melon like so, and another...

and another...

and another, and so on.

I wonder if they squeeze it hard enough, will a banana come out?

Agh!

I know it's mean, but I quite enjoyed that bit.

Notice that they're grown-ups,

and even THEY told their parents what they were doing.

Why do you think Bjorn and Sven here have borrowed

tiny Tinie Tempah's glasses?

Ah, that's why.

If they wanted to split their melon in two,

why didn't they use a knife like normal people?

Look at the mess.

Didn't their mums tell them they should never play with their food?

Hang on. There's a tiny bit of melon they haven't destroyed.

Job done.

In magic, everybody has to start somewhere

and, inevitably, some early tricks will go wrong.

Of course, it's best to keep calm and maybe nobody will notice.

Oh, my God. Every single stupid time it does that.

Isn't it annoying when you've just peeled an orange

and then you don't fancy eating it till later?

Sorted.

Here's Professor Wiseman, head of the Royal Institute

of Surprisingly Large But Sparsely Furnished Living Rooms.

Aha. A piece of black cloth. Interesting.

But what do magicians do before anything happens?

Spin awkwardly round on the spot.

Now that's done. Let the magic begin.

A small red ball. I've been looking for that.

Anything else under there?

Oh, a large orange ball. Impressive.

And a quick chance for the professor to show off his basketball skills.

Well, the professor can't stand around here all day.

Time for him to abruptly leave the room.

But how do they do that?

Have a look at this alternative angle.

Professor Wiseman has cleverly employed a ninja warrior

as his secret ball wrangler smartly concealed by the prof

himself so we don't see.

Looks pretty straightforward,

but it's actually a fine art, as these outtakes show.

Yep, seen you.

Oh, seen you again.

Oops.

Yep, definitely seen you by the radiator.

Oh, yeah, and again.

Which brings us neatly to It Worked In Rehearsal.

A woman floats in mid air, held up only by the power of magic

and some fairly obvious supports.

But watch as the supports are removed,

and, now relying on magic alone, just let go and...

CRASH Oh, darn it.

And now for a human dynamo, as we enjoy the magic of...Dynamo.

Some people will go to extreme lengths just to avoid

the social embarrassment of farting in a lift.

Now, clearly, this is a trick for trained magicians

and Spider-Man but not you at home, OK?

At least if the current job goes wrong,

Dynamo can fall back on cleaning windows.

OK, as somebody clever once said, "Three is the magic number."

And here are three handy magic hints for your finances.

First of all, get Cash for Windows 3.0.

Tap, copy, collect, spend.

Lovely.

Secondly, if you want your money to stretch further,

do what Magic Singh does.

-Just stretch it further.

-Still a bit warm.

-We got a 10p coin. Have a look at that.

-Can I touch it?

-Yeah.

Go for it. Go. Check it.

What?

And number three - they say,

"Look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves."

So human slot machine Mickey Silver must be the best guy

ever for financial advice.

MUSIC: Never Gonna Give You Up by Rick Astley

I don't know what's stranger.

What he does with his face,

or the dead body vending machine behind him.

Now, for the first in an occasional series -

What Magicians Do When They Are Out And About.

You see, illusionists don't spend all their time in their bedrooms

practising things - and here's proof.

Sometimes when you need a drink, you want exactly what's on the poster.

In fact, literally what's on the poster.

Woohoo! If I had that power, I wouldn't use it to produce drinks,

I'd be using my Ryan Gosling poster.

-Very good, man.

-Fresh.

No possible.

Oh, nice.

He doesn't want applause. He wants four dollars.

So fresh it came straight out of the poster.

Time now for our big finish.

And who says you can't pair leather trousers with a moustache?

Shahid Malik here, showing us a regular cardboard box

and trying to make it look

as interesting and dramatic as possible.

See how he purposefully handles those cardboard flaps.

And if you thought that was amazing,

there are cardboard flaps on the other end as well.

Now, even if you've just received a cardboard box of your own

from a popular online retailer,

this is a one trick you definitely shouldn't try at home.

His trained assistant and wife, Lisa,

climbs inside their special box

while he pushes these giant magic knitting needles through it.

NARRATOR GASPS Magic!

Oh, let's hope they haven't had an argument beforehand.

She's actually his 28th wife.

Not really.

Lisa has practised for years to do this without getting hurt.

When she grows up she wants to be a marble in KerPlunk.

You'd have thought the audience would be asking

him to stop the horror.

But, no. Listen to them.

AUDIENCE CHEER

AUDIENCE APPLAUD

Why are they clapping?

We don't know if she has survived yet.

Astonishingly, Lisa comes out totally unscathed.

A truly incredible stunt.

But it does make you think, "Did she marry the right man?"

Surely, there's a more reliable magician on the market.

Aha.

Mickey Silver - handsome, good with his hands

and not short of a bob or two.

You could do worse, couldn't you?

That's it. Join us next time for more reveals, squeals,

and exploding meals on Now You See It.