In spite of a dramatic performance on one of the world's most demanding stages, Winnipeg magician Darcy Oake did not win the top prize in Britain's Got Talent. 

The judges were all very effusive about Oake's performance, with the notoriously tough Simon Cowell saying "We are "witnessing the birth of a star." 

For his performance, Oake wiggled out of a straitjacket — while hanging upside down — before narrowly escaping a bear trap

He was suspended six metres in the air, while the rope that held the bear trap open burned. He missed the closing teeth of the bear trap, but just narrowly.

Oake dropped to the floor just as the rope gave way to the flames and the trap clamped shut.

Oake had vowed that if he won, he would use the winnings, about half a million dollars, to fund a rehab centre for recovering addicts.

His older brother, Bruce, died from an accidental drug overdose in Calgary.