BRITAIN’S Got Talent fans are convinced they’ve worked out how a magician left the judges speechless with a card trick.
Jack Rhodes, 27, made a surprise comeback to the show tonight, having competed two years ago as The Phantom.
He’d reached the 2022 semi-final with his invisible ghost act, but this time auditioned as himself.
But while he was sent through with four yeses, ITV viewers were left scratching their heads over his performance.
Claiming to possess the ability to move undetected like a “gangly ninja”, Jack demonstrated his stealth with a card trick.
He first asked head judge Simon Cowell to write down the first word that came to mind upon seeing him.
Simon wrote “cucumber”, a choice that puzzled the audience.
Jack then wrote “minted” as his first impression of Simon and exchanged the cards between Simon and Bruno Tonioli, maintaining that they were different.
Staying motionless, Jack claimed he would switch the cards undetected.
The judges were initially confused when they discovered their cards had indeed swapped.
To clarify the trick, a second performer dressed in a scuba suit joined Jack on stage for a comedic skit, playfully exchanging the cards in plain sight while Jack remained stationary.
Jack then playfully confessed to his deception, instructing the cards to reveal the message, “I’m lying.”
He admitted to the ruse, disclosing that he had previously posted a video titled, What Simon will think of… which predicted Simon’s word “cucumber” six months earlier.
The judges were stunned by the layers of Jack’s trickery, but there was more to come.
Amidst the unfolding drama, the second performer abruptly entered a box on stage without explanation, and Jack seemingly ignored this.
Confused, Simon asked if that was the end of the act, praising Jack’s intellect but criticising the anticlimactic finish.
In a surprise twist, Jack revealed that the scuba diver had vanished from the previously occupied box, adding a dramatic end to the act that Simon playfully commended for its unexpected “big” conclusion.
Following the spectacle, social media users rushed to their keyboard to slam his act.
Taking to X, formerly Twitter, one wrote, “#BGT when he shuffles cards like that there’s an easy opportunity to slip something in.”
Someone else fumed, “All this just for a simple slight of hand trick.”
Another added: “Okay a bit of sight of hand… and then a read your mind trick. Nothing new #BGT #BritainsGotTalent.”
A fourth person vented: “That was 3 basic magic tricks but together… we’ve seen loads of this before #BGT #BritainsGotTalent.”
One more concluded, “When he puts the card on top and turns it over, he turns 2 cards over and gives you the other one. It’s in every children’s book of card tricks.”
Jack’s identity was closely-guarded secret when he competed as The Phantom, with him not even performing the full act during rehearsals to avoid witnesses finding out.
At the time, BGT alum Marc Spelmann was forced to deny he was behind the character amid much speculation.
He told The Sun at the time: “I’ve no idea as to the actual identity of the Phantom at all.
“There was someone who did a joke saying, ‘Is Marc Spelmann one of the Teletubbies?’ That would have been more my style. Let’s go completely left of centre.”
