Prince SIL does his bullet-catching trick on the premises of the milanee. Picture by Uma Shankar Dubey

Jamshedpur, Sept. 16: The bullet zipped past those gathered, shattered a glass panel and lodged itself right between the teeth of the man in flamboyant attire who was definitely not Jackie Chan ? in case you are already drawing conclusions.

Catching a bullet fired from a gun between his teeth is Prince Sil?s pi?ce de r?sistance. A section of this Calcutta-based magician?s audience remained sceptical whether the bullet in Sil?s mouth was the same one fired from the rifle but only till Manohar Rao, a police inspector from Hyderabad, confirmed that the bullet was the one he inspected before it was put into the rifle.

?This is the act that makes Prince Sil one of the top magicians of the country. This feat requires a lot of practice. Jamshedpur?s magic lovers are lucky to have come across this dare-devil act,? an organising committee member of the All-India Magic Festival said.

If this act was too hot to handle, steel city residents will witness a scorcher tomorrow at the same venue, The Milanee premises, at 4 pm.

Uday Bhaskar, a 30-year-old magician from Hyderabad, will perform the fire escape act. Bhaskar was a study in confidence today as children chased him for autographs. The show, which was earlier planned at the Gopal Maidan, will be staged at The Milanee, the venue for the ongoing magic festival being organised by the Jamshedpur Magicians? Club (JMC).

?We had to change the earlier venue due to some logistical problems,? an organising committee member said, adding it would have been difficult to perform the fire escape show at Gopal Maidan.

?We could not arrange for a the crane which would be needed to put the magician into the burning thatched hut. At The Milanee, we have made arrangements to put Bhaskar into the burning enclosure manually,? said Kinkshuk Kumar, a local magician and a member of the organising panel.

Kumar said the magician would be handcuffed before being put in a sack that would be tied up and then placed inside the burning enclosure. ?Thirty litres of kerosene would be used to start the fire,? he added.

Bhaskar said he had performed the act in the US and in Muscat. ?This is my third attempt. I am confident about succeeding,? he said.

The all India magic festival, meanwhile, continued to cast spell on the penultimate day today. Magicians from across the country performed different tricks mush to the amusement of the audience who enjoyed every bit of the action.

From bringing out colourful umbrellas from a ribbon to making a walking stick dance in thin air, well the magicians managed to catch the imagination of the audience who came in large numbers to watch the show. Several tricks were performed. A close-up competition was also staged in the afternoon where audience watched the tricks from close quarters.

The magicians were also kind enough to inform the audience about some of the tricks of their trade. The gala show later in the evening also managed to hold the audience spell-bound. Tomorrow, on the concluding day, apart from competition for the senior magicians, a lecture-cum-demonstration would also be staged. The festival would conclude with the prize distribution ceremony. eom