Eight people have died performing the infamous bullet catch trick, said warm-up act Lee Warren, “the world’s most popular purple magician”.

This was the draw, the reason for us all being there, and, as Steve “danger” Dela told us, this would be the first time it had been done on a stage in Britain for more than 100 years.

Spoilsports that we British are, it’s illegal to use firearms on stage, so Dela came armed with the next best thing – a Victoria Spider 3000 paintball gun capable of firing at over 200mph.

After two hours of build-up, numerous safety checks and one sheepish looking volunteer to pull the trigger, the finale trick was never going to live up to the hype. Catch it he did, but blink and you’d have missed it.

Dela told the audience from the start, as he produced a white dove from thin air, this wasn’t going to be all silk handkerchiefs. I rather wished it was.

Support act Romany, with her coquettish can-can ensemble and oodles of pink scarves, stole the show with her gloriously camp escapist act. Worth it just to see her shake her tail feathers.

*Dela returns to Komedia with Fantasmagoria on Monday, January 11.