If you’ve ever got the impression that talent shows like Britain’s Got Talent tend to cycle through those early acts way too quickly, you’re not alone. We’ve heard many a tale of good acts getting waylaid by the format’s notoriously aggressive editing. It takes a lot of trimming to keep talent shows watchable. 

One victim of that brutal trimming is magician, Martin Rees, who set an actual Guinness World Record during his audition for Britain’s Got Talent back in January, and ended up on the show for a whopping three seconds. It wasn’t even three seconds of magic. It was him talking about magic. Painful. 

During his audition, Rees broke the record for the most magic tricks performed in one minute while blindfolded, pulling off a smooth 20 tricks at breakneck speed. I’m sure the judges were thrilled, if they were in the room, but the show’s editors apparently didn’t think it was worth the viewing audience’s time. 

The footage now belongs to BGT, but fortunately for us, Rees was asked to shoot some test footage before his audition, and he held onto that. 

Then again, maybe the world record isn’t even that impressive for Rees himself. It is his third after all.