Magician David Copperfield has fallen foul of the bird-flu crisis, having to cancel a trick in which he was to make a duck appear at his show's Hong Kong premiere tonight.
Organisers said the month-long ban on live poultry imports, which ended a fortnight ago, made it impossible to stage the stunt, which has been a regular on the Asian tour of his Portal show.
Dale Rennie, managing director of promoters AEC, revealed the hitch yesterday. Copperfield's show runs until Friday at the Hong Kong Coliseum in Hunghom. 'The process with using live animals involves getting two licences from the Agricultural and Fisheries Department, one to allow a duck in a public place, the second for it to perform on stage,' he said.
'The bird has to be weighed and medically certified that it is in good health. But the ban on live fowl during the bird-flu crisis meant we simply couldn't get it done in time.'
Mr Rennie said the Government had been 'sympathetic and very helpful' and even said it could issue a special licence for ducks to be flown in from Singapore and then re-exported, but Singapore authorities said they would refuse to take them back.
'The duck trick is one of the humorous moments. We've never had a problem before. It's taken more effort trying to get the duck on stage than bringing Copperfield and his entire entourage over from the United States,' Mr Rennie said.