Saturday, August 22, 2009 Nothing Up His Sleeve

The story's popping up all over this weekend, but everyone seems to be sourcing Ananova:

Magician provokes riot

An Indian conjuror needed an armed guard out of town after his 'magic' provoked a riot.

Rajeev Patel had been performing on the street in Berhampur, eastern India, when he asked a young boy to join him for a special magic trick.

Witnesses said he then pulled down the boy's pants and asked him to hold a piece of clay before saying he would change it into a sweet.

One man in the crowd said: "We were all shocked when he just pulled the boy's pants down but if that wasn't enough he didn't even manage to do the spell and a lot of people though he was just putting it on so he could look at the boy's backside.

"They got furious and started shouting at him and then when he said he would try it again they just went mad."

"He failed and the crowd turned violent," added a police spokesman, after officers took two hours to quell a riot and give the hapless magician an armed guard out of town.

There's so much wrong with this story that even Evil Fozzie wouldn't comment. He just muttered something about pulling stuff out of your ass, then shook his head and went back to working on "stoned" jokes for next year's Gotmar festival.