A Lee magician is risking his safety as he goes head-to-head with a handful of talented conjurors on a new TV show.

Damien O’Brien, 29, is appearing on Killer Magic on BBC Three at 10pm on Tuesdays where he competes against four other young magicians to perform their most shocking, exciting and audacious tricks in the hope of avoiding the notoriously dangerous and difficult Killer Trick.

The cohort of magic men and women that Damien finds himself amongst are all wildly different but the atmosphere of the show is one of competitive companionship rather than out-an-out competition.

They’re kind of like the Avengers of magic.

There is the tall, handsome and well-mannered Ben Hart, computer-loving Chris Cox, burlesque dancing fire-eater Jasz Vegas, rock and roller Dee Christopher all joining street magician Damien.

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The former Thomas Tallis pupil, who has wowed the likes of Dr Dre and David Beckham, said: “We have had the whole lone ranger magician for a long time so it is something different.

“We shot the pilot and it went amazingly from that point. When the pilot broadcast, it was the highest viewed show on that time slot and we’d done no promotion behind it. It was people who tuned in and watched it.

“On paper, it is a competition because we all want to win. No one wants to do a trick where you put your life in danger.

“On the other hand, if you do that trick and it comes off, you can come off and say I have just done one of the world’s most dangerous tricks.

“We all got on. Me and Ben shared an apartment while we filmed. We got on really well and Ben became a close friend.

“But it was competitive, I really wanted to win.”

In order to come up with the most impressive tricks, Damien spent a lot of time brainstorming.

He said: “A lot of magicians, not only me, we kind of have one of those brains that don’t switch off.

“I’m just constantly thinking of new tricks.

“I can go out for meals and I’ll just constantly be looking at the glass or sachets of sugar thinking ‘what can I do with that?’

“My mind’s usually racing and the worst thing is when I’m lying in bed and at about 2am a thought will come into my head and I have to write it down, otherwise I’ll forget it.”

He added: “A lot of tricks we do have never been done before so we wrote new tricks and made them the best we could.

“It was a bit challenging at times because you are getting closer and closer to you deadline of when you’re going to film. If there were things that weren’t ready, you were getting nervous.”

And when it came to filming – with celebs and willing volunteers observing as well as getting tricked – the pressure didn’t let up.

Damien said: “We had days where it was really long shoots and we were finishing at 2am on a couple of occasions.

“The filming process was great and having the budget behind us was nice. Some of the ideas that I have had in the past, I really wanted to try out.”

With the cameras rolling and the stakes high, Damien said it was an amazing feeling when the tricks came off.

He said: “It’s so hard because I can’t reveal the secret but there is one where you see me jumping around in absolute joy and excitement.

“That’s because the trick went right for the first time and I had so much trouble in rehearsals. My reaction is really genuine.

“The trick is so good, it’s basically an old trick reinvented. I love doing that. It is absolutely incredible, I love it. It’s one of my favourite.”

Killer Magic is on BBC Three at 10pm on Tuesdays.