Four metres away from me on the stage, things were happening in front of my very eyes that I literally blinked and missed.

A magician was switching the location of two cards without touching one of them, and making chosen cards appear from his mouth in a breath of smoke, while I saw neither hand move.

A ventriloquist sang an entire monkey version of Send in the Clowns without me seeing so much as a lip twitch. 

Then a glamorously dressed woman changed her costume, concealed by nothing more than a shower of silver confetti, and I did not see it happen.

Hosted by the energetic, dapper comedian Harrison Greenbaum, the matinee performance I attended was such a smorgasbord of acts and talent that I can barely remember them all at once, let alone choose a standout.

Shin Lim, a sleight-of-hand artist you may have seen on Penn & Teller: Fool Us, brought two audience members to sit with him on stage as he performed his stunning tricks with his trademark graceful, measured and dramatic style. Did they see how he did it? I sure didn’t.

Juggler Roberto Carlos didn’t miss a beat – with his hands, his feet or any other body parts – as he nailed a routine that included bowling pins, straw hats and even ping pong balls ... the latter with his mouth.

Sword-swallower Brett Loudermilk downed increasingly unusually shaped and dangerous objects – I have a strong stomach but this was quite the visceral experience – ending with a deliciously dark story and final ‘trick’.

Quick-change duo Sos and Victoria Petrosyan left me, for one, with no idea how they achieved such dramatic outfit changes in split seconds.

Knife-throwing couple Alfredo and Anna Silva had great chemistry along with their blessedly great accuracy. My cynical side would have liked an audience member to be invited to verify that the hood he donned really did leave him reliant on his wife’s voice cues and his own muscle memory as he threw large star-shaped knives at her.

There was the impressive strength and control of strongman Artem Lyubane … and did I really see him fall then grip onto a pole metres in the air with just his thigh muscles, and with pants on?

The duo who closed Act 1 – Alan Pagnota and Rafael Ferreira as Dupla Mão na Roda – were, as promised by the executive producer Simon Painter in my interview with him yesterday, inspirational. Being close enough to see their unspoken communication and trust was magic.

A pleasant surprise for me was the inclusion of sand artist Julia Kurkina, as I hadn’t known she was on the bill. Her hands and fingers danced across her canvas, finishing with an image that brought a bit of a lump to the throat.

Ventriloquist Jay Johnson was fun and sometimes frantic; one of many, many acts that made me think that the most unbelievable part of this show was, in fact, the dedication to and honing of craft that has gone into it, unseen, over years.

As if this wasn’t enough, all this was interspersed with a great swing band, two wonderful vocalists, and six snappy ballroom dancers.

I sometimes find Tamworth audiences are a bit reserved, but if this crowd wasn’t as loudly appreciative as these performers deserved, I think it was only because they were stunned.

Don’t make the mistake of missing this show tonight – The Unbelievables at TRECC is like Las Vegas come to visit your loungeroom: an incredibly rare opportunity to see every artist’s every breath and every nod.

Unless you blink and miss it.