Britain’s Got Talent A magician who used to film parody videos of auditioning for Britain’s Got Talent is now in the show’s final.
Jack Rhodes, from Ulverston, earned a spot in the ITV programme’s grand final by impressing the audience and the judges with his crate of death stunt.
He was described as “now the favourite to win the entire competition” by Simon Cowell, one of the judges.
Rhodes said the atmosphere at Tuesday’s live semi-final was “electric”, but being named favourite to win was surprising.
“That’s a big statement. Like the whole thing, it’s been completely unexpected,” he said.
The former nuclear engineer had been making parody videos online of auditioning for the show, but then decided to actually give it a go.
“I thought ‘you know what, I should probably put my money where my mouth is’,” he said.
“I had a couple of years of green screening myself in my garage, pretending to be on the show, why not give it a go for real?”
He said meeting Ant and Dec, as well as seeing the judges up close, was “surreal”.
‘Absolutely buzzing’
Rhodes said he grew up with magic, practicing card tricks in his room as a child.
“Magic was always a bit of a rite of passage in our family, in terms of everyone’s quite good with a pack of cards, we can shuffle cards,” he said.
“My grandad was always sort of the driving force behind it, he was really into his Tommy Cooper and Paul Daniels.”
Speaking to BBC Radio Cumbria after making it to the final, he said he was still processing his success.
“My head is absolutely buzzing. Honestly, I’ve still not processed it.”
Looking ahead to his magic act in the final on Sunday, he added: “All I can say is, if it goes to plan, it ought to be something again that’s never been done before.”
Britain’s Got Talent: The Final is on ITV1 on Sunday at 19:30 BST.