This Magic Trick Killed 5 Magicians (in 5 DIFFERENT ways!!)

[@auron1987]

Man I hate it when a spectator wants to screw up a trick by killing me. Really puts a dampener on the whole performance.

[@badbovine7427]

Lol.... stole my comment.

[@Beunibster]

Luckily, my clone takes over seamlessly for the prestige

[@elsonlam]

I don't get that part. I mean, I get being mischievous and mess up card shuffling or other non fatal stuff. But if someone hands you something that looks like a real gun, you have to realize the consequences are deadly.

[@TomGibson.]

Even if you get shot by a real bullet... you still caught the bullet

[@MyRegardsToTheDodo]

@@TomGibson. Just like Fernando Tejada, who performed the trick in 1988 in Columbia, when one member of the audience got up, pulled out his own pistol, shoutet "Here, catch this!" and fired a real bullet at him, killing him. Other magicians might actually have committed suicide on stage by not switching out the real bullet for a blanc, Harry Franklin Sartelle for example.

[@imusingwindowsbtw1469]

A lot of these "accidents" sound an awfully lot like murder to me.

[@milkman5180]

nope

[@jgjg5182]

Only 2 of them were

[@olivinator]

@@jgjg5182 2 out of 5 deaths being murders seems like a lot to me...

[@criauxe]

Yep 2 are action with inteded malice resulting to murded

[@sreechandprasad3544]

@@jgjg5182 3 of them right, the guy who put the nail in counts too

[@coltoncoleslaw7108]

Story time with wes is the best!! Not only is it entertaining its also very educating!!

[@Deadleh_Waters]

Why don’t you write him a rhyme 😜😂🤩🍻 ha ha love it !

[@charlieharper3778]

ColeSlaw

[@karupsvivek992]

Yes I understand I need to be a good husband if I am married

[@wasd6287]

Ok kid just stfu

[@im3vantually732]

Your litteraly just his alt account lol

[@connortremblay1259]

I feel like "be a better husband" shouldn't be the take away of "his wife killed him in cold blood"

[@siddeequejubair3691]

What's most ironic is you pfp which has a gun. 😶

[@nicholasc3694]

@@siddeequejubair3691 That’s not really ironic. I wouldn’t even call it a coincidence lmao

[@epicgaming7813]

@@siddeequejubair3691 that’s not ironic

[@sebhol2571]

@@siddeequejubair3691 What because he likes fallout? Yeah what a violent and hypocritical person.

[@jamesjohnXII]

or be a not murderer

[@jjmailman]

Interesting that someone else brought up the movie “The Prestige”. Chung Ling Soo was the name of the “China Man” who did the fishbowl trick in the movie, right after they talked about the dangers of a bullet catch.

[@RealGarfield]

Not only that but Bale's character was convinced that in order for Chung to perform the fishbowl trick he was faking being a frail old man! Just like the real Chung faked his persona, genius!

[@AESVIII]

That soldier must have been like: “uh oh i loaded a real bullet into the gun, i wonder whats gonna happen next! oh no! It was a real bullet ahhhh!”

[@10CentWenty]

Ur pfp so hot

[@AESVIII]

@@10CentWenty thaaanks :)

[@Emilio1985]

Hm. Be a better husband? Great, now I have to get married to put that advice into practice so I can avoid getting shot in front of a crowd by my spouse who hates me.

[@spencerhalse]

Thought the same thing...

[@GreyHulk2156]

This is also how Brandon Lee died. They fired blanks at him, but part of a dummy bullet from a previous firing (done for effects), was lodged in the barrel and was accidentally fired at him.

[@floo1465]

I’ve heard that there was no bullet, it was just the pure concussive force and gunpowder that blasted a hole in his head.

[@GreyHulk2156]

@@floo1465 It has been stated by the people involved that it was part of a dummy bullet lodged in the barrel that was accidentally fired at him. They thought the gun barrel was clear and it wasn't.

[@floo1465]

@@GreyHulk2156 yep, just looked at that on wikipedia. dad always told me it was the blank itself that did it.

[@aristotlefromebay]

Pardon me if I am wrong, but I thought that the wad of the blank had enough force to kill lee

[@renaminginprogress6903]

That was on purpose someone sabbotaged it

[@lunahercine9137]

Magician: *Plays with guns and gets killed* Firearm experts: "What we learn?"

[@amateureditinglearner.]

I like it when Wes keeps smiling while talking about death, not just one, but five deaths.

[@zeuxlaught2797]

me through out whole video "why there was a real bullet on setup in first place"

[@olivinator]

first death: no real bullet, audience member brought a nail. second death: no real bullet, piece of the wand broke off in the barrel. third death: real bullet was brought in by the wife because she wanted to kill her husband. fourth death: soldiers carry real bullets. fifth death: to make the act look more convincing.

[@LucyTheBox]

@@olivinator that still leaves 2 situations where they shouldn't have involved real bullets. Those soldiers were in on it, so why the hell did they take real bullets to the show? And the last one also didn't need a real bullet loaded in, like, who in the audience has good enough vision to see from a distance whether a bullet is real or fake?

[@thegooseshow2691]

WHERE TF ARE THESE REAL BULLETS COMING FROM??!?! WHY WOULD U HAVE ANY REAL BULLETS NEAR YOUR GUN MAGIC TRICKS.

[@user-df4zw7yb4v]

did you even watch the video

[@thegooseshow2691]

@@user-df4zw7yb4v yes

[@thegooseshow2691]

@TheDoge 777 yes

[@zephcraig3692]

Cause he’s a real sodier

[@criauxe]

It was inteded for the magician to show real bullet to convince the audience that it is real

[@jyesucevitz]

found you through chris ramsey. when his channel was mostly magic. you are clearly the most likeable people I've discovered from magic. not that the others aren't pleasant people. you just come across as a genuinely likeable person. and not a half bad magician either. ; ]

[@fx4d]

Canadians, eh?

[@fikanera838]

Jim Steinmeyer's biography of Chung Ling Soo is fascinating, & has a great description of how this trick failed. Love the magic history!

[@gutzi_muc8396]

Oh I love when you tell these crazy magic stories! Definitely do more of them.

[@brysonalden5414]

As a student and semi-skilled practitioner of magic I've known about this trick for a long time, including that several magicians had died performing the trick, but didn't know the details. Thanks for broadening my knowledge! For me, this is one of those tricks where knowing how it's done detracts from my enjoyment, but so it goes.

[@latergator9622]

How have I never heard that story? That’s incredible. Glad I watched til the end.

[@lgnir]

So you're saying Wes Barker's next big trick is going to be a bullet catch? :) Save it for Big Trick Energy! Absolutely love "Story Time with Wes"!

[@sueparras6028]

Love your story telling! Very cool. Stay safe and stay away from the bullet catch! LoL!

[@mattmorgan5032]

Wes plz design your own playing cards. They would do great id love to see the design you would come up with.. and do a kickstarter. I'm sure Chris would spotlight them. Plz upvote so he sees this. If you agree that is..

[@jyack275]

That would be a cool idea.

[@mattmorgan5032]

@@jyack275 yeah with his pink flamingo theme or even his 2nd to none merch as a deck id back it day one. To support wes. Hope he sees this.

[@agigeorge6300]

do more of these stories... love them, still waiting for bob in the new channel or here

[@mikescharfstein9110]

What’s going on with BOB? The new channel says January 1...

[@KaossTG]

#bringontheBOB

[@agigeorge6300]

and they uploaded

[@ejgoldlust]

I want to know what the consequences were for the mischievous audience member and the peeved wife

[@EC-dz4bq]

$2 fine, their current economic value.

[@mcgremi5769]

Loving these magic history videos, no one else on KZbin is doing it so keep going

[@WesBarker]

Thanks, will do!

[@Cardistian]

Oh wow this is awesome😁 I really love learning about magicians from wait back in the day. Never knew about "Chung Ling Soo" though! That's a helluva commit that guy kept up just to keep his act he created. Gnarly ending man, thanks so much for these videos about the history of Magicians, we gotta keep their memories alive 🙏I always look forward to your new videos Wes! Be safe out there✌️😜👍

[@JCMagic]

This is why I clicked the buttons and look forward to seeing your face in my feed. Your awesomity is an inspiration to us all.

[@mr16325]

This has to have traumatized the spectator who didn’t mean to

[@Reptonious]

I liked your Penn and Teller stuff but it is very cool to see you've got an active channel you're committed to as its own medium. Definitely worth a sub!

[@derekbroekhoven5498]

You're such a fun story teller. Can you narrate my life?

[@JohannesLabusch]

I grew up in Germany, and I remember a magician who did the bullet trick over there. If memory serves, he also died performing this one. It must have been in the mid- to late 70s. His name was Ralf Bialla.

[@MyRegardsToTheDodo]

The story of Madame DeLinsky is even more tragic than described here. She and her husband were touring Europe as a well-known magic duo, performing that bullet catch and other magic tricks together. In November of 1820 they performed their show in Germany for the royal family of Schwarzburg-Sonderhausen. Madame DeLinsky was pregnant with their child. Her husband fell into shock after losing his wife and unborn child, never performed again and later went mad.

[@dckoppen]

Awesome story again! I liked how the movie The Prestige had Chung Ling Soo in it! My favourite version of the bullet catch is Penn & Teller's version. David Blaine did one as well but he made it all about the danger/lethality. Penn Jillette stated that over selling how dangerous something is, or saying that something is life threatening is stupid. Hence they won't allow these kinds of acts on Fool Us. Thanks again WES!

[@YvonneWilson312]

I love it when you tell us these magic stories! So interesting - please do more of them.

[@bnnuy]

love all ur vids !!! especially these story times nd anything educational bcs you make it super fun !!

[@MikaHarris_]

Commenting before watching 😍😍😍

[@cebb09]

Another quality content

[@MarvinTheMusicMan]

Chung Ling Soo.....The word 業力 springs to mind 🤣🤣

[@johnmullen1889]

Love the crazy stories! Keep them up!

[@tatokrasno10]

This is amazing!! You should tell more stories! I loved it!

[@joshuadaniel9379]

Love these story times Wes!

[@AlexReynard]

I wanna believe that Ching Ling Foo was in the audience, eatin' popcorn, and then he just started *_laughing his absolute ass off._*

[@dancriv4063]

I hope you stocked up on these stories to post while filming... at least we know Wes cares about us, Ramsay just abandoned us..... thanks for posting wes

[@MyRegardsToTheDodo]

There are atleast 22 magicians who have been killed in connection with the Bullet Catch trick, some even crazier than the ones told here. One guy in Africa seemingly actually believed he could catch real bullets and knowingly handed an audience member a loaded rifle, which didn't end well. One man fatally shot his own son on stage. Another man performed that trick over 3000 times for real, by catching the bullet with steel gloves and teeth and got injured multiple times, which lead to him blacking out constantly, he died while going for a walk recovering from one of those injuries, when he blacked out while enjoying the scenery from a cliff he fell to his death. Other magicians are suspected to have committed suicide on stage by deliberately not switching out the real bullet shown to the audience with a fake one. Audience members have shot at magicians because they thought this trick was real, atleast once fatally (1988 in Columbia). There are enogh crazy stories connected to this trick allone to make multiple videos.

[@YayapLives]

"something's happened!" he should have stuck with the bit. sad to see so little integrity amongst yellowface wearing plagiarists.

[@R.L.K953]

I found an earlier installment to add to your five. His name was Giovanni Torrini, he played the part of Walter, the son of a swiss hero. His own father (the great torrini, which he changed his name after this event.) was the one who loaded the bullet and gave it to the spectator who's aim was true. Catching his son in the forehead.

[@federicolehmann5455]

I will keep commenting "We need BoB Podcast back" until you guys deliver. Good video btw

[@goodmaro]

It's been 8 by Ben Robinson's count. I first saw Damon Lindelof do a magic trick when he was about 15, at his father's place with his father's friends. Damon grew up to make the TV serial "Lost", which depicted the Bullet Catch in season 1 installment 21, as one of the many clues that characters were engaged in a scam (fake plane crash, fake pregnancy & delivery...the works). It helps to slow playback of the DVD down. Then you can see Shannon fires the gun into the ground to show it was loaded with real bullets. Then Said (who isn't in on it -- all the other characters around were) hits Shannon, but she's started to turn her gun away from Locke *before* she shoots. Locke then goes down, clapping his hand to his head on the *wrong side* from the direction she missed in, and cuts himself with a sharp object he had concealed in that hand. So it was all to convince Said. Earlier in that episode they did a version of the Coffin Escape (with fakely-dead Boone, and Locke and Jack pretending to fight to divert the audience of those who weren't in on it). But the Bullet Catch was also an allusion to "Watchmen" as a predecessor story to "Lost".

[@patco258]

Wow crazy stuff! You’re a good storyteller too. Tell Chris Ramsay I’m addicted to vids. Saw you on his and it brought me here!! Dude love watching your vids Wes. Hahaha. All you peeps are awesome.

[@jasonlovi8745]

2:28 and 4:26 were the only fatality stories I knew of, I had no idea this happened to so many magicians.

[@CestoMan]

David Blaines version is pure evil :D :D

[@ramboracing702]

Legend!! #bigtrickenergy 🤙✌️

[@brandthenderson9787]

Awesome video bro!! So creative and entertaing! Cant wait for the prank show!

[@alexiscolin1830]

Man! You sound like freaking STEWIE GRIFFIN hahaha, when you imitate the english accent 🤩

[@garthrapp8143]

The stories were great, and I love the 1st playing cards in the background

[@acidstrummer]

Hey! It's the phonebook guy! This video is great, thank you

[@mattcausey9253]

I heard a story, I haven't researched it myself, but it definitely sounds interesting. Apparently there was a magician who performed the bullet catch and a member of the audience was so impressed, that he wanted to see him do it again and pulled out his own gun, yelled "Catch this" and shot him.

[@Ganvy]

Catch this

[@crazejen727]

I just discovered your channel and I love it!

[@hobbybugs1286]

Haha the real magic is how it killed five people in five different ways

[@brianszopinski98]

Yeah I just wanted to say the last story you told was really good of her another stories about this Bethink you explain it the best I really enjoyed it thanks happy New Year buddy

[@jack0king824]

Amazing as always

[@efenty6235]

5 magicians who basically just got murdered

[@javidproductions9353]

no the last one or the second one.

[@Del-Lebo]

Brilliant video! Thank Chris for sharing your link and puzzle!!!! (Puzzles)

[@ShashMasuta]

There's tons of magicians/sleightists/deceptive artists on YT- Daniel Madison, the guy behind some of greatest card tricks performed by David Blaine. There's Shin Lim- need I say more. Alex Pandrea, and Chris Ramsay (who we all know and love), and mentalist Spidey- But Wes... Wes is my FAVORITE. He just makes me smile and he keeps me entertained. Anyone of these guys can review stuff and teach magic- but none of them entertain like Wes does. He coukd give me a tutorial on how to clip my toenails and I bet I would be entertained!

I love these stories!

[@maxrebo2208]

Love the pro tip lol 😂 he really should've been a better husband r.i.p.

[@ruboidgaming967]

These vids are great love these type of videos keep it up ❤️

[@Kammereer]

3:10 Victim blaming a murder victim was a pretty weird choice.

[@RayAtchley]

It was a joke, and it happened almost 100 years ago.

[@beardybutler1594]

Loving these videos, cant wait to see big trick energy

[@high62609]

Love it. Thank you for the stories.

[@BlanketIsComfy]

I like that he’s using the Reaper shotgun nerf gun

[@trychydts]

You are a very good storyteller. I guess it comes handy when you are performing.

[@pknuttarlott4934]

Hey Wes did the wife or the nail guy go to prison for murder?

[@codemonkey2k5]

Law was handled much differently back when these events took place. So probably no.

[@CG-ej8nu]

@@codemonkey2k5 wdym no, Lol. They just announced it as suicide?

[@samik_pal]

I love these magic stories!!

[@matthewlui1004]

'Oh my God! Something's happened! Lower the curtains!' -Famous last words

[@shirleyscott821]

Oh My God! Wow I watched your whole clip beginning to end. You’re a great story teller!! I got hooked on your comedy when you did the FA wfh sketch- while I was on forced leave from my airline 😂 and it brought comic relief! Speaking of, an airline co-worker is a fab magician also! Check out Ali Shelley! Keep up the awesome work!

[@Mardigrasman23]

Great stories, Actual history that doesn't put me to sleep

[@shreyashbhardwaj468]

Enjoying these story type videos 😊

[@jakeofallspades]

Love your videos! The greatish magic show was great! 😅 big fan bud! 🍻

[@Nuberax]

Getting big Ladmo vibes at 2:09. Also, great video!

[@jamalater]

Love the stories bro keep em comin!

[@kungpochopedtuna]

Hope your keeping sane wes. Hope you and yours had a wonderfull christmas and all that x

[@micahjohnson8530]

Intro, FIRE AND FUNNY!

[@noisysyphn3039]

This video was a blast 😂

[@ObeyCamp]

When you were talking about Chung Ling Soo's death I was really (at least halfway) hoping you were going to say that somehow, by some stroke of luck or insanity, Ching Ling Foo ended up holding the gun, and that Foo ended up killing "Soo" out of anger for stealing his likeness, act, etc. Honestly, the actual story isn't that much less crazy. What incredible bad luck...or perhaps bad karma. Hmm.

[@shirleyscott821]

Definitely bad karma, right? Feel a little guilty for thinking “hmmm, maybe he deserved this” and then “drop the curtain” in perfect english nailed his legacy coffin closed 🪦

[@tiggert4002]

I am really loving the magic history lessons. But I am wondering, are you and your wife going to do anymore advice for parenting videos. I don't have any kids but I love those videos.

[@makinalyatumba2923]

please continue with these stories

[@KingSeal717]

Tiktok magician:LeT dO SOmE tiKToK tHeN MaJic

[@tkayube]

I had the Jay Alexander "Learn the Art of Magic" CD-ROM as a kid and one of the few things I remember about it was that he talked about Chung Ling Soo.

[@dudepersonvids]

I'd heard of some of these before, but it just dawned on me this is basically how Brandon Lee died (son of Bruce Lee). While filming The Crow, his character gets shot at by a ton of guys, all firing blanks - except one gun barrel contained a piece of a modified bullet from previous use. It was a death scene so it wasn't immediately clear Brandon had really been shot, and he later died at the hospital.

[@clarenceadrianferrerchadit4009]

Big fan wes

[@DanOnTheGo1]

great video and super interesting 😊

[@frederic_viennot]

Thank you :)))) great stories !!!!!

[@jonathanwood2122]

When can the UK see your TV show?

[@pacman52280]

I once heard of a story about the bullet catch where a magician performed it successfully, but then some idiot from the audience pulled a real gun loaded with real bullets, yelled out, "Catch this!", and without any other warning, shot him and he died. There's also a book about the bullet catch called, "Twelve Have Died." I haven't read it, but I would like to.

[@JacobRestituto]

this is wild lol

[@Alex_agamer]

“Blows my mind” I see what you did there 6:31

[@dragonmaid1360]

Yep. Love hearing about people that screw up.

[@daz41262010]

some awesome information here Wes :)

[@mvpeter]

great video wes

[@MASSOFTHEFERMENTlNGDREGS]

thanks for the tutorial! definitely gonna try this out next time when they me up at the show

[@dartfield4655]

linking rings, bullet catch,sawing someone in half, etc... magicians exploit their powers in such weird ways sometimes...

[@jessepowell8267]

Best trick here was not noticing the poster until Wes pointed out haha. I feel like a layman again.