New Unconventional Brits: Lightsaber combat and record-breaking magic tricks

In the Unconventional Brits series on Shots! TV, we follow the real lives of some of the most extraordinary people, hobbies and places in the country. In this episode, we go to war at a lightsaber school, we learn some tricks with a young magician and we take a guided tour of Newcastle's underground tunnels.

Ludosport lightsaber combat is a fencing based sport that uses lightsabers. The sport was created in Italy in 2006 by three friends who were experienced in martial arts and wanted to incorporate lightsabers in combat.

We went to Ludorsport Hampshire Lightsaber Academy to learn more about the sport and its players. We spoke to Bruce Valler, Rector of Ludosport Hampshire, who has been playing the sport for 9 years and represented the UK in the 2019 World Championships in Spain.

He said that the sport is great exercise and far more engaging than going to the gym. Bruce said with a chuckle: “I’ve met some of my closest friends through this sport, because we have a common language which is getting to (in a controlled fashion) beat each other up with lightsabers.”

Cillian O’Connor is a 14-year-old magician who currently holds the record for the most magic tricks performed in one minute. He broke the record with 29 tricks on an episode of Blue Peter and then broke the record again with 35 tricks, which he still holds.

We spoke to the young magician to learn more about his tricks and how he has become so successful at such a young age. He explained his experience performing on Britain’s Got Talent in 2023 and how magic has helped him overcome his struggles with Autism.

Cillian said: “ The magic has helped me sort of overcome the Autism. Before I had magic, I would have been very bad with public speaking, but also with my fine motor skills. But being able to mess around with decks of cards and with Rubik's cubes, and being able to practice tricks where I can memorise the scripts really helped.”

Watch the full episode to learn more about unique people, hobbies and places around the UK, including the underground tunnels in Newcastle. You can also tune into Freeview channel 262 and Freely channel 565 for more true crime, football, and quirky UK content . Keep up with our latest videos by signing up to Shots TV! Newsletter here.