A Kind of Magic was a Saturday evening TV magic show which ran from 1990 to 1992 on British TV. It starred magician Wayne Dobson, who was the primary performer, and former glamour model Linda Lusardi. However, for the third and final season, Lusardi was replaced by a selection of guest stars. Each week, Dobson would perform a number of close-up tricks and comedy sketches, before closing the show with a large-scale illusion featuring either Lusardi or that week's guest star.
Season 1
Season 1 of the show ran from May 12, 1990 to June 9, 1990.
Episode 1
Wayne Dobson - A Kind Of Magic S01E01 1990 - Linda Lusardi Bobby Davro Richard Coombs
- Date: May 12, 1990.
- Guest star: Linda Lusardi.
- Opening Illusion: Wayne introduces his new show from an airfield and makes a helicopter appear.
- Illusion: Linda puts Wayne in the Stretcher, and pulls his arms and legs out from his body.
- Sam Shovel Sketch: Gangster's moll Linda tricks Sam (Wayne) into being captured by gangsters. He's stuffed into a sack, which is suspended in the air, and dropped to the ground. When it hits, it's empty, and Sam makes his escape.
- Ringo Rabbit sketch.
- Spooky magic
- Audience participation: Guest Max Headroom, and Linda, dressed as a Playboy bunny, help Wayne with a trick.
- Closing Illusion: Back at the airfield, Wayne makes a helicopter disappear.
Episode 2
Wayne Dobson - A Kind Of Magic S01E02 1990 - Linda Lusardi Richard Coombs
- Date: May 19, 1990.
- Guest star: Linda Lusardi.
- Opening Illusion: Wayne appears on a video feed from the Acropolis in Greece, while Linda, dressed in a brief slave girl's costume, is in the studio. Linda steps onto a raised platform, briefly holds a cloth in front of her, and magically swaps places with Wayne.
- Sam Shovel Sketch: Sam investigates a magician's assistant (Linda) who is pulling off jewel heists. After she tries to knock him out with a sandbag, Sam locks her in a cabinet and slices her into four pieces.
- Closing Illusion: Wayne joins Linda at the Acropolis to demonstrate an illusion called 'Pandora's Box' (Kub Zag) in which Linda is locked in a small box, sliced in half, and has tubes pushed through her body.
Episode 3
Wayne Dobson - A Kind Of Magic S01E03 1990 - Steve Nallon Linda Lusardi Richard Coombs
- Date: May 26, 1990.
- Guest star: Linda Lusardi.
- Synopsis: Wayne's female assistants put him a glass box, briefly cover it, then uncover it to reveal a snake.
- Sam Shovel Sketch: The famous film star, Vicky Verky (Linda), is kidnapped by a mad scientist. He decapitates her and keeps her disembodied head in a box on a table. Sam must reunite her with her body.
- Ringo Rabbit sketch
- Audience participation.
- Closing Illusion: Wayne's female assistants show the audience an origami box, which opens up into a large enclosure. Wayne climbs up into the unfolded box, and the girls fold it down to just a foot square, before driving swords through it. When the swords are removed, and the box unfolded, Wayne emerges unharmed.
Episode 4
Wayne Dobson - A Kind Of Magic S01E04 1990 - Linda Lusardi Richard Coombs
- Date: June 2, 1990.
- Guest star: Linda Lusardi.
- Opening Illusion: Wayne appears from a projection screen.
- Striptease Assistant's Revenge: Wayne uses leather straps to secure Linda to an upright panel, then closes curtain in front of her, hiding her from view. Almost immediately, Linda's dress flies over the top of the curtain! A shocked Wayne opens the curtain, to reveal Linda in a sexy black leather leotard. Flustered, Wayne closes the curtain again, only to have Linda's leotard fly out from behind it. Wayne moves around the back to open the curtain - but it's Linda that emerges, wearing Waynes jacket to protect her modesty, and holding his belt. Grinning, she opens the curtain to reveal Wayne trapped in her place, his trousers around his ankles.
- Sam Shovel Sketch: Sam is hired by a local gangster to find his missing moll (Linda). He tracks her to a deserted funfair, only to find that her torso has disappeared. When he restores her, his only thanks is a sock in the jaw, and she impales him on a sword.
- Ringo Rabbit sketch.
- Sinister magic.
- Bohemian Rhapsody cremation: Wayne vanishes from a paper sided box that is set on fire.
- Audience participation.
Episode 5
Wayne Dobson - A Kind Of Magic S01E05 1990 - Alex Higgins Linda Lusardi Richard Coombs
- Date: June 9, 1990.
- Guest star: Linda Lusardi.
- Opening Illusion: Wayne does a series of sword tricks. He starts with a simple sword card routine, impaling an audience member's card on a sword. Next, Ringo Rabbit gets in on the act, introducing his lovely assistant: Linda, dressed in a black Playboy bunny costume. With a little help from Wayne, Linda finds herself taking part in the Sword through the Neck routine, as the real sword Wayne just used for his card trick is pushed right through her neck!
- Film Sketch: Wayne plays "Indiana Dobbo", who is exploring the jungle. He's captured by a group of female warriors, led by a fur bikini clad Linda, but manages to trick her into climbing into a cage. He covers the cage briefly, and when the cover is removed she has been transformed into a tiger.
- Closing Illusion: Still dressed in her Playboy bunny costume, Linda takes part in the sword box. Wayne's three female assistants put her in handcuffs, then lock her into a small box mounted on a table, and drive dozens of swords into the box. Through out, Linda's hands can be seen through a hole at the top of the box. Suddenly, the swords begin to be pushed out of the box, which then magically unlocks itself - to reveal Linda, perfectly unharmed.
Episode 6
Wayne Dobson - A Kind Of Magic S01E06 1990 - Linda Lusardi Richard Coombs
- Date: June 16th, 1990.
- Guest star: Linda Lusardi
- Opening Illusion: Back at the airfield where the series began, Wayne makes a toy helicopter appear.
- Audience participation.
- Ringo Rabbit Sketch
- Sam Shovel Sketch: Sam is contacted by a gangsters moll (Linda) who wants to escape from the mob. They end up being vanished in Dizzy Limit, and then capture the gangsters in a net.
- Wayne uses the Dekolta Chair to make it appear Linda has become invisible, then makes her reappear from inside a trunk suspended over the stage.
- Sinister magic
- Audience participation.
- Closing Illusion: Wayne makes a helicopter appear.
Season 2
Season 2 ran from April 27, 1991 to June 8, 1991.
Episode 1
- Date: April 27, 1991.
- Guest star: Linda Lusardi.
- Opening illusion: Poster Production - Wayne displays a life-size pin-up poster of Linda, posing in a red string bikini. He fixes it in a frame on stage, there's a flash of light, and the real Linda is posing on stage in her bikini.
- Closing illusion: Lightbulb Penetration - Wayne welcomes Linda back to the stage, still in her red string bikini. She's going to try Wayne's new "tanning machine". He locks Linda into a frame in a standing position, feet apart and arms at her sides, then drives a few dozen illuminated neon bulbs through the frame. When the front is opened, Linda is revealed to have been throughly penetrated from back to front.
Episode 2
- Date: May 4, 1991.
- Guest star: Linda Lusardi.
- Opening illusion: The Stretcher - Wearing her black lycra catsuit, Linda is ready to stretch! Wayne locks her inside an upright cabinet, from which her head, hands, and feet emerge, then stretches them to an impossible extent.
- Closing illusion: Head Mover - Wayne cuts off Linda's head and moves it over onto a table on the far side of the stage from her body.
Episode 3
- Date: May 11, 1991.
- Guest star: Linda Lusardi.
- Opening illusion: Shadow Production. Wayne makes Linda's shadow appear in a box, then opens it to reveal Linda dressed in a gauzy bodystocking.
- Circus sketch: Linda and Wayne perform a sketch at a circus. Linda dons a skin-tight yellow catsuit to become a human cannon-ball, being shot into the air, and into a sealed trunk suspended in the air.
- Closing illusion: The Slicer. Back at the circus, Linda is posing for the audience in her catsuit, and attracts the attention of Wayne's assistants. The girls lead Linda to the Slicer - a tall cabinet that Linda is locked inside, her hands and feet visible, so her body can be divided into nine slices. Restored, Linda is revived, to applause from the audience.
Episode 4
- Date: May 18, 1991.
- Guest star: Linda Lusardi.
- Opening illusion: Wakeling sawing - Wayne introduces a classic version of the sawing in two. Linda lies on a long wooden bench, and leather cuffs are buckled around her neck and ankles. These are attached to long straps, held by audience members. Wooden boxes are placed on top, and then Wayne drives two metal blades between them, dividing Linda in two! When the blades and boxes are removed, Linda is revealed, still strapped down but back in one piece.
- Closing illusion: The Disembodied Princess - Wayne cuts Linda into three pieces, which blades through her neck and legs, and then makes her body between the blades disappear.
Episode 5
- Date: June 1, 1991.
- Guest star: Linda Lusardi.
- Opening illusion: Fire Production.
- Closing illusion: Burning Alive. Wayne explains that Linda has volunteered to be burned alive in his new illusion. Linda enters in a one piece swimsuit decorated with a flame motif, and protests that when he said she would be "grilled", she thought he meant an interview. Linda is placed in handcuffs, and Wayne demonstrates the flames. Linda then lies on a long metal bench, metal cuffs secure her neck, ankles, and waist, and she is covered with a box. Then she is burned alive.
Episode 6
- Date: June 8, 1991.
- Guest star: Linda Lusardi.
- Closing illusion: The Buzz Saw - Linda comes onto stage in a silver cloak. Wayne exaplains that she is going to be sawn in half with a buzzsaw. Linda opens and removes the cloak to reveal a tiny sequinned string bikini. Wayne locks Linda down on a table, face up, and then cuts her in half by running a huge circular saw through her bared waist without any box covering her.
Season 3
Season 3 ran from April 25, 1992 to May 30, 1992.
Episode 1
- Date: April 25, 1992.
- Guest star: Marti Caine, Richard & Judy.
- Closing illusion: The Guillotine on Marti Caine.
Episode 2
- Date: May 2, 1992.
- Guest star:
- Closing illusion:
Episode 3
- Date: May 9, 1992.
- Guest star: Annabel Croft
- Closing illusion: Sawing A Woman In Half (Modern Art version) - Wayne cuts Annabel in half while she's standing up.
Episode 4
- Date: May 16, 1992.
- Guest star:
- Closing illusion:
Episode 5
- Date: May 23, 1992.
- Guest star:
- Closing illusion: Clearly Impossible sawing in half.
Episode 6
- Date: May 30, 1992.
- Guest star: Liza Goddard.
- Closing illusion: Mismade Girl - Wayne cuts Liza into four pieces, and then mixes them up.