Darcy Oake is aĀ CanadianĀ magician who reached the Final ofĀ Series 8Ā of Britain’s Got Talent. He is the son of Scott Oake, a sportscaster for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation otherwise known as the CBC.
Oake’s audition was televised after a montage of unsuccessful ‘bad magicians’. In his audition, Oake set fire to a feather and produced a live bird. He then duplicated the bird, making two birds. Then he pulled out a tissue and turned it into a third bird, before making a fourth bird by lighting a feather. He then produced an egg from the bird and hatched it to create a smaller bird. He then lit another feather to produce a cage, and then duplicated the bird and the cage. Finally, he put all the birds in a cage, covered the cage with cloth before pulling off the cloth to reveal a woman. David described him as ‘The best magician [he’d] ever seen on [the show]’, with Amanda adding ‘I think the most important thing about magic is making us believe the impossible is possible, and you did that’.
Oake was the seventh act to perform in the first Semi-Final. In his performance, he sat on a chair and covered himself with a cloth. The cloth was then pulled away, revealing that he had disappeared. He then appeared as one of the crew members. A screen was placed above him, showing 360 degrees of the stage. Simon remarked ‘Its really difficult to guess how you did that and you’ve got an incredible stage presence and it’s believable’, with Alesha adding ‘I think your brilliant and if you get through, I cannot wait to see what you do next’. He advanced through to the Final after finishing second in his Semi-Final (the Judges’ vote was tied between him and impressionistĀ Jon CleggĀ therefore the decision reverted to the Public vote).
In the Final, Oake was suspended by his ankles 20 feet in the air in-between a human bear trap while the rope holding it open was set on fire leaving him 52 seconds to make his escape while wearing a strait jacket, as footage of his time on the show and his family played on the electronic screen behind him, ultimately escaping in the final second. David remarked ‘It was really really difficult to watch because it was so dramatic [but] you could win [the show] on that performance’, with Alesha adding ‘You have true star quality and I thought from start to finish that presentation was absolutely perfect’. He ultimately placed 5th overall.
After BGT
In December 2014, he hosted his own show, āDarcy Oake: Edge of Realityā, where he performed stunts in various Victorian playhouses.
Since 2015, Oake has toured alongside “The Illusionists”.
In 2016, Oake was asked to by the Royal Family to perform amidst the Queen’s 90th birthday celebrations, which he described as ‘one of the most surreal moments of my life’.
Additionally In 2016, Oake auditioned for the 3rd season of Italian competition series āTu Si Que Valesā, where he failed to reach the following round.
Later in 2016, Oake was a guest performer on an episode of āAmerica’s Got Talentā.
In June 2017, Oake performed two shows in Winnipeg, the proceeds of which would go towards the construction of an addiction treatment centre in his hometown, after his brother died of a drug overdose in 2011.
In 2018, Oake appeared on the first and only reboot season of āShowtime at the Apolloā. He was shown in the eleventh episode and got a good reception from the audience, however he lost his episode to Lucine Fyelon.
In August 2018, Oake appeared on an episode of the 5th season of āPenn & Teller: Fool Us,ā yet failed to fool the duo.
In 2019, Darcy returned to AGT by competing on āAmericaās Got Talent: The Championsā however, he was eliminated in the preliminaries.
In the spring of 2019, Oake competed on BGTĀ The Champions (Series 1). He later recited the story of watching a magician escape a box as a child, and truly enjoying it. His father could see this as he created him his own box to escape from. He then stated he would never do this version of the trick again. He brought his own yet extremely more dangerous version of this trick to BGT The Champions with him, placing a camera in the box so this way his progress could be kept track of no matter what. He later brought Ant & Dec onto the stage to examine everything that he would use, and show every judge and the live studio audience of super fans that everything was real. Ant later held onto the key to the handcuffs, as Ant stood to the box’s left with Dec to its right. The pair did opposite sides of ten handcuffs, as he later asked Ant for his lockpick. He informed Ant & Dec that at some points however they would have to leave the stage for ‘their own safety’. The pair later left the stage as he was secured into the box. The box then saw itself get raised into the air, with the fuses beneath being set fire to. Oake had but fifty six seconds to escape the box before the flames hit every fuse. Later a fuse blew up, as Oake undid his handcuffs in about 34 seconds. The timer later reached 0 seconds remaining, as the box blew up, and at this point Oake was nowhere to be seen, yet seconds later he was seen in the studio, thus surviving his dangerous trick by somehow teleporting. Simon commented ‘I don’t know what quite happened here’, with Alesha adding that it wasn’t good for her nerves, but she ‘Loved [his performance]’. He reached the final overĀ DJ Arch Jnr., andĀ Richard Jones.
In the Final of BGTC, Oake told the story of his older brother, and him being a charming, charismatic, man of the party, and hero of his named Bruce. He informed the judges that the judges would have loved him as he was quite a funny man, until they were twenty they walked down town holding hands saying they did it as a joke yet they believed it meant so much more. He then showed the judges a photograph of him and his brother Bruce, before stating his mum called him on March 28th 2011 at 7 in the morning and that once he answered the phone he knew that Bruce had died. He then showed the judges the picture again yet with Bruce gone. He then continued if he could go back to when he and Bruce were kids he would before standing behind a white sheet, and seeming to reclaim his youth as a young boy who embodied Darcy appeared on the stage. He then stood behind another white curtain as another young boy who embodied his brother Bruce appeared, as the pair looked identical to a younger version of the image of him and Bruce. It was then revealed that Darcy was seated the opposite end of the stage, as he went and thanked the two young boys for their part in the act. Amanda remarked she found Oake’s performance to be ‘Completely different to anything that [the judges] had ever seen before’, with David adding that he believed the act was Darcy doing something quite brave and showing ‘Vulnerability’. He was in an undisclosed placement in the bottom 7.
In 2023, Oake competed on the 10th season of Italian competition series āTu Si Que Vales.
