Magician impaled hand on six-inch nail as live show went somewhat awry

A magician impaled his hand on a six-inch nail in front of his audience after a Russian roulette-style trick backfired. Kyle Wallace was at the Arch 1 theatre in West Ham, east London when he attempted an act in which he puts an upright nail, poking through a block of wood, in a bag. He jumbles it with three bags containing items of a similar size.



The audience choose which bags he slams his hand on until the one with the nail is left. However, when Mr Wallace tried the trick last week, he hit the wrong bag, leaving the nail embedded in his palm. “There was no drop of blood at all because the nail had sealed the wound,” he said. “As I raised my hand I brought the bag up with it. It was a nightmare.

“I wanted to take away as much of the negative experience for the audience that I could, so I told them it had gone wrong. Everyone looked in horror at that one point and one guy at the front even burst into tears.” The magician, 55, posed with members of the audience before he was taken to Newham Hospital. The nail remained embedded in his right hand for about 30 hours before surgeons removed it.



“I was getting requests for selfies which continued when I was being treated at the hospital,” he said. Mr Wallace added: “I’m already recovering very quickly. I can move my hand and make a fist but a fraction either side and it could have been very different. If my tendons had ripped it could have been a much longer recovery. I’ve done the trick hundreds of times before, it was just this new method I was using to up the comedy value.” Mr Wallace has promised to attempt the act again, using his old method, next month.