"Abracadaver", Way to Die #401, is the third death to be featured in "The Lighter Side of Death", which aired on March 1, 2009.
Plot[]
Second-rate magician Dolph Scott, under the stage name "The Great Dolphino" (Alexander Cukor), who does magic shows for less-than-enthusiastic audiences, is ready to enact the final magic trick of the show: the bullet catch, a deadly and dangerous stunt.
Mandalite, his ex-girlfriend’s assistant who grows tired of him, has a blank-filled gun in her hand. Dolph, with a real bullet already secretly hidden in his mouth, says some magic words that are actually gibberish and waves his wand at the gun, tapping it. When the trick is performed, a death does actually happen.
Dolph's jugular vein is severed by the chunked tip of his wand, which was dropped into the gun barrel when he tapped it, and he falls down dead as his act, with the neck in hand, and the bullet falls out of his mouth, sending the great Dolphino to heaven.
Mandalite doesn't get away with murder--just wishful consideration, and with Dolph dead, she can finally do solo shows in Vegas (if the police don't charge her with accidental homicide). The now-awakened audience is amazed, applauding the late Great Dolphino.
Transcript[]
(Magician Suspense is playing)
Dolphino: I'm ready.
Narrator: Would you stand on a stage, ready to catch a bullet in your teeth, fired by your angry ex-girlfriend?
([] is playing, the girl shoots)
Narrator: Meet the great Dolphino.
(Back to the beginning, the magic fanfare is played, few people clap boringly, Magician Suspense is resuming)
Narrator: Dolph Scott was a no-talent hack, who put audiences to sleep...
Dolphino: Thank you.
Narrator: in backwater towns all across the country.
Dolphino: The lives!
Narrator: He had a fling with his "Tada" girl,
(Behind the curtain, they absolutely hate each other)
Narrator: Mandalite.
Dolphino: Would you gimme the bullet?
(Mandalite passes Dolphino the real bullet, eats it to pretend to success the final trick)
Narrator: But she grew tired of this bumbling trickster. After this performance, Mandalite had a one-way ticket back to Vegas.
(The magic fanfare plays again)
Dolphino: Thank you. Thank you.
(The audiences clap slowly again, [] is playing)
Narrator: That's why he's about to perform the infamous bullet-catch trick. The stage was set with hidden drama.
Dolphino: Thank you. And now, ladies and gentlemen, for my final trick, I give you... the bullet catch. (To Mandalite) The gun.
(Magician Suspense is playing again)
Joe Skilton: The bullet catch is probably one of the most...deadly effects in magic. And I would never perform it.
Narrator: The bullet catch was a dangerous stunt. A lot could go wrong. Hidden from the audience, Dolphino places a real bullet in his mouth. Mandelite takes a pistol loaded with blanks and puts it on display.
Dolphino: Rukuruku...
-Narrator: Dolphino mumbles some gibberish,
-Dolphino: Rukuruku!
Narrator: taps his wand,
Dolphino: Apouah...!
Narrator: Mandalite fires and Dolphino produces a fake bullet.
Dolphino: Mandalite, I'm ready.
([] is playing, Dolphino opens his mouth wider, Mandalite aims at him even though she wants to kill her due to his boring job)
Narrator: Mandalite took dead aim, pointing a gun at the one person she detested over all others.
(Mandalite shoots, but she really did shot his neck)
Dolphino: Ah! Ah...!!
(Few seconds, Dolphino drops and dies, Mandalite does the tada, not knowing she actually killed him)
Narrator: Dolphino dropped to the floor, as dead as his act.
(Ancient Tribe Dead (Reconstructed) is playing)
Narrator: But Mandalite wasn't guilty of murder, just wishful thinking.
(Flashback of cause of death)
Narrator: When Dolphino tapped the gun, the tip of his wand dropped unseen down into the barrel.
(Cages of Death is playing, CGI gun with the wand's tip is shown)
Narrator: Mandalite pulled the trigger and the explosive force produced by the blank, was enough to send the tip hurtling into his neck, severing the jugular vein.
Dolphino: Ah! Ah...!!
(Mysterious Death is playing)
Narrator: It all went horribly wrong,
(Even though the audience loves it, they clap)
Narrator: but his final trick produced some real magic. The entire audience was awake, and applauding the late... great... Dolphino!
(The real bullet comes out of Dolph's mouth)
Cast & Interviewees[]
- Alexander Cukor - Dolph (Lead; Intended victim)
- Dianne Muego - Mandalite (Lead)
- Joe Skilton - Himself (Magician)
Trivia[]
- The bullet catch has been performed by magicians over the years. Many magicians, like Dorothy Dietrich, have survived with or without injury, but more than twelve magicians, like Dr. Epstein in 1869, and William Robinson (who performed as the Chinese magician "Chung Ling Soo") in 1918, died while performing it. This death is based on one of these kinds of magic fatalities.
- Abracadaver is also the name of a villain and episode from the animated Cartoon Network series The PowerPuff Girls , appearing in the episode of the same name.
- It is one of the four deaths that was shown in the intro of "Dead and Deader" that were later added in newer episodes. The other three are Re-Coiled, Gas-Hole, and Jake N' Baked.
- Dolph Scott is actually the name of one of the crew members behind each episode of 1,000 Ways to Die.
- A similar situation plays out in Way to Die #277, where the victim is named after another one of the members of the show.
- The CGI was reused for Law and OrDead.
Goofs[]
- Wrong number in foreign languages: In the European Spanish dub version, the death number is mistaken as #622 instead of #401.
- Errors in geography: In the Mexican Spanish dub version, the location of this death is in Missouri when it is actually in Michigan.
Segment Nicknames[]
- Magic Bullet
- One Last Trick
Foreign Names[]
- Abracadáver (Abracadaver) - Latin American Spanish, Mexican Spanish and European Spanish dubs
- Zauberhaftes Ende (Magical Ending) - German dub
- Czarodziejska kula (Magic Bullet) - Polish voice-over
- Kunaklato Mahisyano (Unexpected Magician) - Lazoran dub
Gallery[]
