Good Omens is a supernatural tale centered around an angel and a demon, but the second season of the series based on the story by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett also has several references to magical arts performed by mere mortals.
As someone married to a professional magician, I delighted in Aziraphale’s love of prestidigitation. And as someone who watched the show with said professional magician, we found several magical references, especially in the minisode “Nazi Zombie Flesheaters,” which is found in the fourth episode, less interestingly called “The Hitchhiker.”
Here is my spoiler-filled roundup of the magic-based Easter eggs found in season two of Good Omens. Read on and be amazed!
The Writers
While Neil Gaiman and John Finnemore are credited for writing all the episodes in Good Omens season 2, the zombie minisode that contained most of the season’s magical references was written by Andy Nyman and Jeremy Dyson. In addition to being a writer and actor, Nyman is also a well-known magician, making him more than capable of slipping in more than a few magical Easter eggs.
Will Goldston
The magic store on that London street the zombies visit is named after Will Goldston, a magician from the early twentieth century who became a magic dealer, author, and publisher. Goldston even merchandized magical props at a store in London in 1914, so there’s a chance this store is the Good Omens version of his retail endeavors.
The Shell Game
Inside the magic shop, there are almost too many references to mention, including the “Linking Rings,” and the “Cups and Balls” routine, tricks that even those who are less magically inclined are familiar with. Another one includes Aziraphale mentioning he fooled Nefertiti with the shell game, a confidence game that is a precursor to Three-Card Monte that dates back to at least Ancient Greece, where walnut shells and a pea were used instead of a marked card.
Professor Hoffman’s Modern Magic
Aziraphale mentions that he was trained in the art of prestidigitation by none other than Professor Hoffman. Hoffman was an actual magician from the mid-nineteenth century who is best known for his book titled Modern Magic, which is a comprehensive tome that instructs how magicians should prepare their acts for a stage performance. Aziraphale has a signed copy of Modern Magic, though Professor Hoffman signing it as “The Hoff” is likely a reference to a more recent person who goes by that name.
Aziraphale’s Coin Trick
At one point in the minisode, the walking dead Nazis try to read Aziraphale’s lips through the bookshop window. Aziraphale is performing a coin trick here that is a version of “Dime and Penny”, a variant of which is also known today as “Scotch and Soda.” The former trick appears to have its origins from a trick Professor Hoffman had in his book, More Magic, which makes sense given he was the angel’s teacher.
The Professor’s Nightmare
The rope trick that Pat, the guy in the 1940s magic shop (who is played by real-life magician Pete Firman), tries to steer Aziraphale is a classic routine that was given its best-known title, “The Professor’s Nightmare”, in 1958. In it, the magician has three pieces of rope that change from being unequal in length to equal. Sadly, Pat’s rendition of the trick is his last performance before the Nazi zombies eat his brains.
The Bullet Catch
Azirphale ultimately lands on “The Bullet Catch,” a trick where the magician appears to catch a bullet fired from a gun in his teeth or another improbable object like a glass bottle. Many consider the act to be one of the most dangerous to perform in magic, which may be why it’s well-known to even the magically disinclined. It’s also true that magicians have died from it. Aziraphale mentions one of them—“that Chinese fellow”—which is a reference to Chung Ling Soo, a magician who was, in fact, not Chinese at all but born William Ellsworth Robinson in Westchester County, New York. Robinson died in London in 1918 while performing the trick as Chung Ling Soo. (It should also be noted, that the method that Aziraphale and Crowley use would in no way be safe and, perhaps more importantly, would not likely work.)
Aziraphale’s Magic Poster
For his performance as Fell The Marvelous, Aziraphale has a magic poster made up in the style of the time. Arguably the two performers with the most famous magic posters are Thurston’s, which you can also see hanging in the physical kids’ cottage in The Magicians, and Ionia’s, with Fell The Marvelous sadly falling more in the Thurston camp.
S.W. Erdnase
While the Nazi zombie minisode has the most magical references by far, there is at least one other one elsewhere in the season. In the fifth episode, we’re back in contemporary times and Aziraphale is looking to host a shopkeeper’s meeting to help Nina and Maggie get together. In order to convince the current magic shop owner to attend, the angel entices him with a signed and annotated copy of The Expert at the Card Table by S.W. Erdnase. This signed copy—signed with the author’s real name no less!—is something that sadly doesn’t exist but that any magic scholar would be eager to get their hands on. Erdnase’s 1902 book on sleight-of-hand and card cheating moves remains one of the best books on the subject out there. The author wrote under a pseudonym, and their identity remains a mystery, although a September 2023 feature in Genii Magazine (behind a paywall) puts forth a case for a certain individual.
Envelope Switch
Perhaps the most crucial magic reference in season two of Good Omens, however, occurs at the end of the Nazi zombie minisode, where Aziraphale switches the photo the demon Furfur has of him and Crowley together with an innocuous pamphlet. This move, where it looks like the magician is putting a piece of paper in one envelope but, in fact, is not, is a skill used by prestidigitators and also, it seems, by angels looking to keep their ineffable relationship with a demon intact.
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These Easter eggs give a show centered on two supernatural beings an extra bit of magical flair. It makes sense that Aziraphale is into the more mundane magical arts, and it makes sense that Crowley humors his angel and his hobbies. These references also show that the writers on the series have a passion for Earthly forms of magic as well, and have done their due diligence to make that part of this fantastical tale as realistic as possible.
This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the series being covered here wouldn’t exist.
The first two seasons of Good Omens are streaming on Prime Video. While there’s no news yet on whether there will be a third season, Gaiman has said he would write a novel of that story if Amazon doesn’t pick it up.
Vanessa Armstrong is a writer with bylines at The LA Times, SYFY WIRE, StarTrek.com and other publications. She lives in Los Angeles with her dog Penny and her husband Jon, and she loves books more than most things. You can find more of her work on her website or follow her on Twitter @vfarmstrong.
