Magic trick went horribly wrong - did it?

You might have read this story in the Herald-Sun today.

Here is the text of the story, along with my notations:

A MAGIC trick went "horribly wrong" at a weekend Melbourne Comedy Festival show, but audience members had to sign a confidentiality agreement to stop them revealing details.

(No, nobody signed anything).

The  trick went awry during the Something About Razorblades and Nails show at the Northcote Town Hall on Sunday night.

(The show is called Something About Needles & Razorblades. There are no nails in it).

An audience member, who wished to remain anonymous, told Confidential that "something went horribly wrong".

She said all members of the audience had to sign a "secrecy agreement" before they left the venue preventing them from telling anyone what happened.

The audience member said the trick that went wrong involved a broken beer bottle, but she would not elaborate.

(There is a trick that involves a broken beer bottle. Magicians know that, thanks to Mr Nielsen, it cannot ever go wrong. We do show clips of the trick going wrong, but it doesn't go wrong live on stage).

In the show, magician Tim Ellis "swallows razorblades, pushes needles through his skin and does whatever the evil Sudoku tells him to".

Ellis confirmed a trick did not go to plan but said he could not reveal any more details "out of respect for the others involved".

(Yes. To be precise. I messed up 'Flesh Wound'. but I was trying to keep that quiet as you do when you mess up a trick - but the only "others" were Tim You, Tristan and John Cairns. Fellow magicians who I didn't want to know I messed it up).

"It has never happened before and it is not something we would expect to happen again," he said.

(But it did, last night).

"No one was seriously hurt.

(I came very close as I had to slice into my arm with the sharp edge of the blade rather than the blunt edge. And it is very, very sharp).

"A lot of magicians have secrecy agreements on stand-by in case something goes wrong."

(The reporter kept asking me about secrecy agreements, so I humoured her with this statement. Though, I think Copperfield probably has some legal documents handy backstage...)

The Northcote Town Hall said it did not know of any incidents occurring, and the festival declined to comment.

(Northcote didn't know, because nothing like what the reporter was told ever happened. The Comedy Festival declined to comment because they had no idea. Of the six audience members present on Sunday night, four were magicians, and the two laymen participated in INSANITY (the beer bottle trick) but it went fine and no-one was hurt)

I do have a feeling that the reporter was given some false information. However, if it leads to an increase in ticket sales... I guess we'll see how far the story has spread when I ask for six volunteers tomorrow night!