MidnightZingaro

I had a plan, but it backfired. I like magic and illusion a least as much as the next person, perhaps more, but I'm not one of those crazies that will volunteer their bodies to be subjected to whatever the magician plans to do with them. When I got invited to a costume party which would feature a magician that would be doing costume-appropriate illusions with guests, I formed a plan which I hoped would get me an up-close view of some of the magic without being directly involved. The plan was to go dressed as a nurse and have word with the magician between illusions, reminding him that having a 'nurse' on stage or near by was a traditional way to enhance the appearance of danger in the illusions he presented. Before I put my plan into action I watched the magician, who called himself Luke, perform three illusions which I had no explanation for, especially as I was acquainted with the participants. The first was Thomas, who came as the invisible man. He wore a Victorian style of suit

“Hi, Harold,” came the female voice, when he answered the phone. “Um. Hello? Who is this?” He had not been expecting a phone call and was ready to hang up if it proved to be a telemarketer or some other scam. “I'm Vanessa, you may not remember me, but I was at a magic show which you helped out at.” “Who gave you my number?” “Your brother Marvin. I hope that was alright.” “I guess. So, what do you want?” There was a pause, then Harold added, “I hope I don't sound too rude, but people rarely call me unless they want something.” “Um, well. I was volunteered for Marvin's knife throwing act, but I remember it was you that magically repaired the knife holes in my clothes before I got them back. At the time he said that you were as magical as him, but shier. And that if you had an assistant you might come out of your shell, or we could at least have some fun rehearsing.” “That sounds like something my brother would say.” “Well, I thought about it and came to the conclusion

Me and my big mouth; I'd like to blame Teri and Joan for inviting me to the magic show, but I could have just said 'no', but I didn't. The magician, who went by the name Simon the Sorcerer (over the top name if you ask me), proved that he was an excellent performer, but most of the time I could spot when things changed from the expected situation to 'magical' situation. I could easily tell when the card selected by an audience participant and re-inserted into the deck was back out of the deck and secreted in his back pocket, or the moment when the top hat went from being empty to housing a white rabbit. In short, his performance skills and audience rapport were great, but unfortunately the technical aspects of the act were lacking. The larger illusions, as far as I knew, were off the shelf effects, enhanced by the acting abilities of his assistant, Bernice. It was evident to me that these effects were well rehearsed, but not much more than demonstrations of the props. Towards the

Training Brad in his new role as a 'client advisor' had taken a couple of weeks, before Aaron (one of the owners of Intimate Illusions), Emma (the office manager) and I (Candi) had a meeting to evaluate how he was doing. We agreed that he was an asset to the business, with his combination of magical knowledge, creativity and client empathy; we further agreed that we would likely keep him on, if he was willing, when Bethany returned from her maternity leave, especially as it was probable that she would only return on a part-time basis. During the training period we had grown to like each other a lot and often went to lunch together. One day Brad asked me why he had not seen me on the roster for delivering a magical experience to a client. I admitted that I had recently had a couple of bad experiences with clients and as a part-time magician I was picking the easiest assignments I could to get my confidence back. I did not mention that I had agreed to do at least one gig a month and it

Erica put up her hand, when the magician asked for a volunteer; I know she tends to be the attention hog of our group, but this seemed a bit extreme, even for her. With her bouncing about with excitement, it was difficult for the magician to ignore her, so he invited her to be his volunteer for what was to be the first grand illusion of the show. When she got there, he asked her name and had to cut her off, once she had told everyone that she was Erica, she was there with a group of friends (we dutifully cheered in support), she was a student on a marketing course at the local university, but was born halfway across the country. He asked, “Do you know what you volunteered for?” “Not exactly, but I do remember that you said that I would be the 'poster girl for audience volunteers', if I did this.” “And what does that mean to you?” “Don't really know, really, but I'm guessing that you'll put me in a box with rollers on the front. Then you'll turn the rollers and poster of me will

“Ladies and gentlemen, we come to the final section of the evening's entertainment. I hope you enjoyed Theresa's cut and restored rope routine. Usually I would not allow anyone else to perform magic in one of my shows, but in this case it was necessary, because I needed to change into my costume for this dangerous escape, which I have left to the end of the evening for reasons that will become obvious.” The woman who had been host to the magical spectacle paused to allow the audience to appreciate her changed attire. Most of the evening she had been dressed in a gown that enhanced her figure and through a high slit in the skirt permitted the occasion glimpse of a toned right leg. She now presented herself in a mid blue latex catsuit. “I have told you, this upcoming escape is dangerous, but those making bold claims should be willing to prove them.” The curtain opened to show a mannequin standing below a large contraption that consists of a pair of spiked rectangles, as you might see

“I'm Jocelyn and this is my friend, Amy.” I was introducing us to the crowd, after we had volunteered to be in a dangerous magic trick, that was to be performed by 'Phil the Phantastic'. We had answered his call for a couple of lovely ladies to take part. There was some competition for this role, but we knew we would be picked, because Phil was our half-brother, in a similar way that Amy and I were half-sisters (Mum had a complicated history so we all had different fathers, which also meant we looked different enough not to have much family resemblance). Phil, in his young magician casual (short-sleeved tuxedo t-shirt, jeans and black shoes), asked us each a couple of questions. Amy was asked if she was local and what she did for work; he always asked slightly different questions, but we had our characters so well fleshed out that we could improvise, pausing just long enough as if we had been asked the question for the first time, but not so long that it seemed we were making it up.

For the final part of his performing arts degree, Josh had to organise a performance; which given his speciality was magic and illusion meant a magic show. He was limited to maximum of four of his fellow course-mates and would be obligated to help them with their final performances. He decided that he would ask his girlfriend, Kate (who was also on the course), to help and then see if he could find some other people to pad out the cast. During rehearsals of Kate's show, Josh discovered that the five girls that made up the rest of the cast, were members of the university rowing team, who also took part in DramaSoc. It did not take long to persuade four of them to be assistants for his show; fortunately only two of the four were drama students; the other two were studying physics and joined the DramaSoc as some downtime from their studies. The fifth girl said that she could not commit to more than one show at a time. Rehearsing Josh's new assistants went well, so each of the four