WEBVTT - Who Does the Real Magic: Magicians, or Assistants? 0:00:02.040 --> 0:00:06.760 Welcome to brain stuff from how stuff Works, Hey, brain 0:00:06.800 --> 0:00:10.600 stuff luring bog obam Here. In magic industry, lingo magician's 0:00:10.640 --> 0:00:14.480 assistants are called box jumpers because to the audience, that's 0:00:14.520 --> 0:00:17.680 all the lovely assistant appears to do. She's there to 0:00:17.800 --> 0:00:20.680 distract the audience. You know, look pretty, smile big, and 0:00:20.800 --> 0:00:23.840 waiver hands around, then pop out from the padlocked box 0:00:23.920 --> 0:00:28.600 precisely when the magician says tada. But magic insiders know 0:00:28.720 --> 0:00:31.520 the real story. When the trunk lid closes, the sheet 0:00:31.560 --> 0:00:33.720 is raised, or the saw is lowered into the box, 0:00:34.000 --> 0:00:36.800 it's often the assistant who does the real magic of 0:00:36.800 --> 0:00:39.640 the illusion, releasing the latch on the false bottom and 0:00:39.760 --> 0:00:42.440 cramming herself into a two foot space while executing her 0:00:42.520 --> 0:00:45.080 third costume change of the evening, all before the guy 0:00:45.080 --> 0:00:48.960 in the top hat says tada. Although magic is undeniably 0:00:49.040 --> 0:00:51.479 a male dominated profession if you only look at the 0:00:51.560 --> 0:00:54.320 name on the marquis, those who know the most about 0:00:54.360 --> 0:00:57.880 the stagecraft behind the magician assistant relationship say that the 0:00:57.880 --> 0:01:01.440 industry isn't as sexist as it might appear. Blair Baron, 0:01:01.560 --> 0:01:04.319 who co produced the two thousand eight documentary Women in 0:01:04.400 --> 0:01:08.920 Boxes about the unsung magician's assistant, explains that onstage, both 0:01:08.920 --> 0:01:12.000 the magician and the assistant are playing roles, roles that 0:01:12.120 --> 0:01:16.360 artfully play off of the audience's gendered expectations. Baron says, 0:01:16.400 --> 0:01:19.800 the biggest misconception is that the magician's assistants are marginalized, 0:01:19.800 --> 0:01:23.320 objectified bimbos, if you will, who are deferring to some guy, 0:01:23.800 --> 0:01:27.040 when actually, in my experience, they are the brains behind 0:01:27.160 --> 0:01:30.320 a lot of the illusions. Baron would know. She married 0:01:30.360 --> 0:01:33.400 into one of the royal families of magic. Her husband, 0:01:33.480 --> 0:01:37.000 Dante Larson, is the son of Irene and Bill Larson Jr. 0:01:37.240 --> 0:01:40.080 Two of the co founders of the Magic Castle in Hollywood, 0:01:40.280 --> 0:01:43.960 the world's pre eminent magic club, and Irene, who passed 0:01:44.000 --> 0:01:47.720 away in twenty sixteen, was herself an accomplished magician's assistant 0:01:47.720 --> 0:01:51.320 in her day. Baron says that Irene and her generation 0:01:51.360 --> 0:01:54.080 of assistants doubled as the business brains of the operation, 0:01:54.520 --> 0:01:58.320 keeping track of finances and booking appearances. And although they 0:01:58.360 --> 0:02:02.320 played integral roles in both the planning and execution of illusions, 0:02:02.360 --> 0:02:05.360 these old school assistants never wanted to steal the spotlight 0:02:05.400 --> 0:02:08.639 from the magician. Often their husband by billing themselves as 0:02:08.680 --> 0:02:13.119 equal partners, Modern magicians assistants see their roles a little differently. 0:02:13.600 --> 0:02:16.360 Hanna Lynn Wagster is half of the South Carolina based 0:02:16.440 --> 0:02:20.040 duo The Wagster's Magic and Illusion, who perform a weekly 0:02:20.080 --> 0:02:23.880 show at the Carolina Opry Theater in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. 0:02:24.120 --> 0:02:26.560 Hannah is still primarily the one who gets locked in 0:02:26.600 --> 0:02:29.400 the boxes, but says that she and her husband Brandon 0:02:29.440 --> 0:02:32.600 are very much equal partners on and off the stage. 0:02:33.000 --> 0:02:36.960 Hannah considers herself a magician, not just an assistant, and 0:02:37.080 --> 0:02:39.680 does a few solo tricks in the act. She also 0:02:39.760 --> 0:02:42.919 runs the show back stage, giving technical and lighting cues 0:02:42.960 --> 0:02:45.760 to stage managers and making sure the next illusion is 0:02:45.800 --> 0:02:49.240 lined up and squared away, but Hannah admits that at 0:02:49.280 --> 0:02:51.760 the end of the day, her primary role on stage 0:02:51.800 --> 0:02:54.520 is quote to make sure the magician looks good, which 0:02:54.720 --> 0:02:57.880 often means contorting herself in two tight spaces or dangling 0:02:57.919 --> 0:03:00.919 from high wires without giving the audience a clue about 0:03:00.919 --> 0:03:04.440 how incredibly difficult it all is or how many bruises, 0:03:04.480 --> 0:03:07.800 scrapes and sprained ankles she's endured along the way, and 0:03:07.840 --> 0:03:10.640 despite her husband's efforts to give Hannah equal billing and 0:03:10.760 --> 0:03:14.280 equal credit on stage, the audience often can't see behind 0:03:14.360 --> 0:03:19.239 the traditional magician assistant divide. Hannah says, after shows, folks 0:03:19.280 --> 0:03:21.920 always want to talk to Brandon and congratulate him on 0:03:22.200 --> 0:03:26.120 his magic. They'll literally push me aside. We also spoke 0:03:26.160 --> 0:03:29.320 with Dean Carnegie, a veteran stage magician and the magic 0:03:29.400 --> 0:03:33.160 historian behind the blog The Magic Detective. He explains that 0:03:33.200 --> 0:03:35.880 the first magician's assistants were the product of a new 0:03:35.920 --> 0:03:38.520 school of magic that emerged in the mid nineteenth century 0:03:38.640 --> 0:03:43.240 called the Illusionists. In the eighteen fifties, pioneering French conjurors 0:03:43.320 --> 0:03:47.320 Jean Eugene Robert Houdin, the inspiration for Hudini's stage name, 0:03:47.480 --> 0:03:50.920 and Boutier de Culta created startling illusions that involved the 0:03:51.000 --> 0:03:55.200 levitation or disappearance of a second person and assistant. Carnegie says, 0:03:55.800 --> 0:03:58.800 Robert Houdine's first assistant was his young son, but it's 0:03:58.840 --> 0:04:03.960 more Illusionists centered the aim. The assistants were invariably female. Women. 0:04:04.040 --> 0:04:06.880 It turned out were much more effective victims in the 0:04:07.040 --> 0:04:09.560 minds of the audience. When a woman was in peril, 0:04:09.760 --> 0:04:12.800 it raised the emotional steaks and that still seems to 0:04:12.800 --> 0:04:16.360 be true, says Baron. She said, they've tried to reverse 0:04:16.400 --> 0:04:18.280 it and have the female be the magician in the 0:04:18.320 --> 0:04:20.800 alpha role and the man be the assistant, and it 0:04:20.839 --> 0:04:24.920 doesn't work. No one cares. Magic trends come and go, 0:04:25.200 --> 0:04:27.320 and for the moment, the bigger names and magic are 0:04:27.320 --> 0:04:30.200 focusing on close up card tricks and mind reading, which 0:04:30.240 --> 0:04:33.719 don't require assistance or at least not visible ones. But 0:04:33.800 --> 0:04:36.560 there are plenty of acts like the Wagsters who still 0:04:36.640 --> 0:04:41.719 wow with set piece illusions executed with precision choreography. Baron, 0:04:41.839 --> 0:04:44.640 who now runs the Los Angeles Drama Club, a Shakespeare 0:04:44.680 --> 0:04:47.679 program for kids, reminds us that what the audience sees 0:04:47.680 --> 0:04:51.320 on stage is itself a play within a play. She said, 0:04:51.720 --> 0:04:54.480 The assistants are winking at you. It's all very tongue 0:04:54.520 --> 0:05:03.080 in cheek because it's trickery and illusion. Today's episode was 0:05:03.120 --> 0:05:06.120 written by Dave Rouse and produced by Tyler Clang. 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