Perform the best magic trick

Task stats

Points

15

Disquals

0

• Einar enters the study in a very showman-like fashion, accompanied by a drum roll, and wearing a top hat, a coat, and one white glove. He says he could do with a soft drink before beginning, which happens to be ginger beer. He then requires a bottle opener, which he reveals with an “Aha” from within his gloved hand. It is then revealed that he does not need the bottle opener because the bottle has a screw-cap, so he makes the bottle opener ‘vanish’ by simply throwing it onto the floor. He ends his performance with a tip of his hat and walks, slumped, out of the door. To Solveig’s annoyance, he earns second place.
• Steinar brainstorms various ideas before his attempt, such as eating glass and passing through a wall. He then performs as ‘Steinardino’, a very hammy magician character with a deep voice who uses dark forces to make objects move. He causes a hat on the table to slowly move towards his hands, as he performs a vague pulling gesture. As the hat moves, his voice goes from a deep sinister chuckle to just a regular jolly laugh, as he is apparently happy with the evil forces. These forces proceed to then cause a small elephant figurine on the table to move, much to Steinardino’s apparent surprise. He earns first place for his performance.
• Before the task, Amir claims he is very good at conjuring things away, which Olli argues is just ‘losing things’. For his attempt, Amir, wearing his normal hat on top of the magician’s hat, makes a painting of a lake ‘come alive’, by causing water to drip from its bottom edge. The video starts with him awkwardly holding the painting on the floor, and then hanging it up on the wall with water dripping from it. The painting ends up very lop-sided. Atle points out that the magic had apparently started before Amir was ready, but Amir says that he wasn’t far behind in saying “hepp!”. He earns fourth place for his performance.
• Solveig says she is going to do something that she promised her kids that she would never do on TV again. She then puts the magician’s hat on, while wearing the white gloves, and says “Ladies and gentlemen…”. Then, slowly and silently, and while performing very over-the-top deliberate gestures, she removes her gloves, makes one hand into a fist, and crams the entire fist in her mouth. She is immediately ashamed, and leaves the room very quickly. Atle awards her last place.
• Before she had even opened the task, Ida dreaded the idea of whatever it was going to be since, as she states repeatedly, she hates magic and magicians. Her attempt is therefore saved for last, to maximise her annoyance and embarrassment. She decides that she is going to saw Olli in half, on the desk. She tries to gather her composure before giving her performance, welcoming the guest of honour: Atle Antonsen. There are two large pieces of cardboard stuck to the front of the desk, obscuring what is happening behind, but presumably meant to play the role of the box often seen in such magic tricks. Olli, playing her assistant (‘Olivèr’), claps and then hands her the saw, before lying down across the desk, and showing his arms and legs to confirm it’s real. Ida then begins sawing down the gap between the two pieces of cardboard, making her own sound effects while Olli can be heard shouting in mild pain. Olli’s head then pokes out from behind the right-hand edge of the cardboard, and Ida tears away the left-hand piece to reveal that there is nothing behind it. To her delight and surprise, she earns third place for her performance.