Video: Is this the fastest magician in the world?

British magician Ben Hanlin recently visited the Guinness World Records headquarters in London, UK to prove he’s the best in the business.

The 31-year-old decided to attempt the Most magic tricks performed in one minute – a title that requires quick thinking and agile fingers.

Although Ben has been practicing magic routines since he was just five years old, he says that finding tricks that can be done fast enough is where the challenge lies in this attempt.

The Guinness World Records guidelines state that each trick must be visibly different or require a different skill.

Adjudicator Rebecca Buchanan Smith was on hand to officiate the attempt, equipped with a slow-motion camera so that she could verify that each routine was performed correctly.

He failed his first attempt, perhaps due to his visible nerves.

However, Ben then went on to break the record twice in the next two attempts, ending with a final record of 27 tricks – that’s almost a trick every two seconds!

"The hardest thing about this attempt is you’re doing two things at once," Ben said afterwards. "Whilst one hand is doing one trick, the other hand is setting up or starting to do another trick."

The professional entertainer wants to raise the total to 30 tricks, so he’s going to work on the Rubik’s cube routine that he stumbled on during this attempt.

You might recognise Ben from television shows such as ITV2’s Tricked (UK), on which he was a presenter for three series.

Explaining how he got into magic, he said: "I saw David Blaine on the TV and thought it was the coolest thing I’d ever seen and decided to start learning magic… and then turned it into a job!"

Other magic-related records include the Most costume change illusions in one minute, Most magic tricks performed in a single skydive and Most magic tricks performed in a wind tunnel.