What better way to celebrate Cinco de Mayo than to check out the winner in the latest round of Britain’s Got Talent, Sebastian Walton?

(By the way, it is pronounced “MAY-oh.”  We were corrected on the bus this morning and what the day commemorates has nothing to do with salad dressing, which explains the pronunciation).

To say we are a super fan of Sebastian Walton would be an understatement but certainly a valid defense to criminal charges of stalking in most jurisdictions. (Not that we stalk him but if we did, we would know he has a Facebook page with his upcoming shows listed here: facebook.com/sebastian.j.walton). He wowed us at The Magic Castle last year with a routine that was deserving of our vote for Parlor Magician of the Year.

Mr. Walton is a young man with big boy magic skills.  His Any Card Named effect was killer and had those in the know talking around the bar late into the evening.  None of us were sure how he did it.  As the evening wore on, none of us were sure if he did it and finally, at the end of the evening, two members of our group were not sure where they lived or how to form coherent sentences.  Astounding.

In last night’s qualifying round, Mr. Walton received positive votes from the four judges and moves on to the next level of competition.

We received a link to the authoritative British television website, Telly Mix and read of his awesome performance before some very tough judges.

[Telly means “television” in British.  They have different ways of doing things and saying things there.  We point that out for our US readers who may have confused the website’s name with the under-appreciated cowboy actress, Telly Mix who performed just feet away from where we now write this enthralling article.  Telly’s uncle (by marriage) was Tom Mix, the cowboy star and on whose ranch they later built Fox Studios and later Century City.  She was a delightful gal who made the transition from vaudeville to movies easier than most – thanks to her winning smile and uncle’s connections.  Her career ended tragically when she was arrested in an after-hours cowboy club in Santa Monica with a frozen bullwhip and $623.00 in cash allegedly taken in a fake piñata scheme.  According to police records, she would sell defective piñatas that could not be broken open to unsuspecting consumers.  Although charges were later dropped – thanks to her connections – she never made a return to the movies and ended her days working at a Hot Dog on a Stick stand in Bakersfield, California; never rising above the position of assistant manager.]

Simon Cowell even praised the young performer.  He does not praise anyone, ever.

Mr. Walton performed a great effect with Amanda Holden’s ring.  We do not know Amanda Holden but she seems like a much more likable person than Mr. Cowell and, we think, prettier.  Apparently, the scene was cut from the show wherein Mr. Walton borrowed Ms. Holden’s platinum wedding ring (so that means she is married), made it vanish in a flash of flame and found it later in a walnut somehow hidden inside an orange.

We have seen Mr. Walton perform this effect before – twice.  We can vouch that it is a different ring each time.  For a while, we thought he had just done the old genetically mutated walnut in an orange  trick with a fake ring planted with the hybrid fruit.  But no.  The fact that it is a different ring each time means that he could not have raised the walnut/orange from seed with a ring inside.  To quote one of the victims in Telly Mix’ case, “we cannot crack it.”

Ms. Holden confided in Mr. Walton, “How you did it, I actually want to believe in magic.”

At this point, we would have immediately started a cult and enlisted Ms. Holden to be a high priestess or something but Mr. Walton has far more class and plus he was surrounded by cameras and an audience – or as we like to call the scene, a witness-rich environment.

Mr. Cowell  told  the young miracle worker, “You’re very talented and I don’t know how you did which is the whole point of magic.”

Mr. Walton has a bright future ahead of him.  We saw that he has a new website at sebastianwalton.com and were very impressed by its content and substance.  He is a star – you read it here first.