Magic is just smoke and mirrors, they say. But sometimes it's also smoke and mirrors and fire and blood and sheer embarrassment. And maybe some dead rabbits in a top hat.

Because not every magic trick turns out as planned. Even so, the mucked up stunts can entertain and amaze just as much -- if not more so -- than the successful ones.

To wit: keep reading to watch magicians make their careers disappear with some of these hilarious trick fails.

In all fairness, we don't speak Spanish, so this magician could very well be saying, "For my next trick, I'm going to smash my hand into a knife and bleed all over the place."



"Duck to the future" pun = A+; "Duck to the future" trick = F



The fact that this fail happened in 1973 and is still around to make us giggle? That is magic.



It's kind of hard to make out what's going on in this video, but when you see the magician's face catch fire, it's pretty clear that the trick went poorly.




As with fire, playing with gravity can hurt you, as well.




There are worse things than losing your head in the guillotine trick. And that's getting stuck in the guillotine, unable to escape from the magician's terrible jokes. (Fail starts at 3:35.)