It chills the blood to see the guy who has to come out and follow them that first night—a Dutch magician named Fred Kaps, in white tie and tails, doing a card trick that drags on for long minutes of silence. You have never seen flop sweat like this. To the 93 million viewers, it looked like he was bombing live, but he taped his bit before the show, which just makes his awkward pauses more agonizing. “I
