(WAVY) – The magic continues for Virginia Beach resident Dustin Tavella on Season 16 of NBC’s America’s Got Talent.

The storytelling magician appeared on Tuesday’s first live episode, followed by the elimination show on Wednesday. Tavella was among eight performers to advance.

After hearing that he was safe, Tavella said in an interview that it was not easy coming up with a routine for his latest performance.

“I had like a million ideas in my mind. I watched a bunch of America’s Got Talent episodes. Narrowed it down to five, because like everything had already been done. I got to five, presented it and they were like ‘ah, we don’t like those’ or ‘it feels like stuff we’ve seen.’ Stuff that I didn’t realize had been on. So, it’s been a crazy process. I mean, 16 years of an incredible show, incredible magicians, and so yeah, it’s wild trying to think of, I want to do something I love that feels like me, but something that’s not been done in the past 16 years on this show.”

He made it through even though everything didn’t go according to plan.

“I thought I’d be more nervous. I definitely had some butterflies. There are points, like at one point I had to count ten cards and I got to nine and didn’t realize that two of them had stuck together. And so in my mind I’m going through all these things, and I’m like wait this is live so they are not going to cut any of this out!”

He recounted and found that 10th card!

If you missed Tuesday’s unbelievable act, you can watch it below:

You can watch Season 16 of “America’s Got Talent” on WAVY TV 10 on Tuesday and Wednesday nights at 8 p.m.

This season also welcomes back several incredible alums during each week’s results show. Next week (Aug. 18) you’ll be treated to performances by Season 14 winner singer Kodi Lee and season 11 mentalist duo The Clairvoyants.

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