If the first rule of magic is that the illusionist must never tell an audience how a trick is done, the second rule must be that you never interrupt a magician live on air to yell, “I’ve seen this one before! I’ll tell you how he’s doing it…”

Obviously, no one told studio guest Airi Taira that, because that’s exactly what she did during a live TV broadcast featuring Japanese-American magician Sero (セロ) on Tuesday night. Join us after the jump for one flying hoverboard, one defensive peeved magician and more awkward smiling than you can shake a stick at.

Sero (full name Cyril Takayama) was the star of a primetime special broadcast July 29 on Fuji TV, entitled Magic New Century: Cyril. Seeing as he was coming hot off the heels of a world tour, and this was his first appearance in Japan for three years, the live broadcast, which ranged from tricks incorporating projection mapping, to street magic with members of the public, had attracted quite a bit of buzz.

In a clip from the show uploaded to YouTube, we can see that things start off well, with Sero making a dramatic entrance on a hoverboard. “Sugoi!” (“WOW!”) cries everyone in the studio, as they momentarily forget that it’s not 1985 anymore.

As is usual on Japanese TV shows of this ilk, the on-location presenter (in this case, at Tokyo Tower) is reporting back to a studio full of media “tarento” personalities, who provide commentary from a little inset square in the top-left hand corner of the screen. Their input mainly consists of squealing “WOW!” a lot, although in this case they’ll also be inadvertently annoying the star of the show by ruining the magic for everyone.

Then, the presenter throws back to studio, asking the assembled guests what they think of Sero’s trick. That’s when things start to get a bit cringey. After everyone has collectively made noises about how WOW his grand entrance is, the studio presenter asks 29-year-old actress Airi Taira what she thinks. “I’ve seen this trick before on another TV show!” she says, grinning. “His hand is stuck to the car, and it’s a fake hand, and there’s a bar from the car that’s attached to him!”

To his credit, Sero deals with the unexpected comment fairly well, looking appropriately perplexed at the suggestion that his trick might be a trick, and allowing the presenter to touch his arm (“so long as you just touch it, ok?”) and prove that it’s real. He even takes off his jacket for the interviewer, who concludes that Sero does indeed possess “an adult male’s normal arm”.

When the presenter asks to check inside the car, though, Sero decides it’s time to wrap up the segment, stepping in front of him and explaining that hoverboard magic is the secret of the trick. “You’ve all seen Back to the Future, right? I’ve made it a reality!”

You can watch the full video here – it’s in Japanese, but Sero peppers his speech with cheery English phrases, and we reckon cringing is the same in most languages, anyway. Listen out at 1:52 for a rather epic awkward HA-HA-HA laugh from Sero:

And if you’d like to see him in action when he’s not being interrupted by a cute 19-year-old saying she knows how it’s done, check out this mind-reading trick, too (you can click the captions button for English subtitles).

Hopefully, next time Fuji TV attempts a special with an illusionist, they’ll remember the memo to guests about how not to ruin the magic on live TV.

Source: Itai News