Speaker 1: Welcome to brain stuff from how stuff Works, Hey, brain
Speaker 1: stuff luring bog obam Here. In magic industry, lingo magician's
Speaker 1: assistants are called box jumpers because to the audience, that's
Speaker 1: all the lovely assistant appears to do. She's there to
Speaker 1: distract the audience. You know, look pretty, smile big, and
Speaker 1: waiver hands around, then pop out from the padlocked box
Speaker 1: precisely when the magician says tada. But magic insiders know
Speaker 1: the real story. When the trunk lid closes, the sheet
Speaker 1: is raised, or the saw is lowered into the box,
Speaker 1: it's often the assistant who does the real magic of
Speaker 1: the illusion, releasing the latch on the false bottom and
Speaker 1: cramming herself into a two foot space while executing her
Speaker 1: third costume change of the evening, all before the guy
Speaker 1: in the top hat says tada. Although magic is undeniably
Speaker 1: a male dominated profession if you only look at the
Speaker 1: name on the marquis, those who know the most about
Speaker 1: the stagecraft behind the magician assistant relationship say that the
Speaker 1: industry isn't as sexist as it might appear. Blair Baron,
Speaker 1: who co produced the two thousand eight documentary Women in
Speaker 1: Boxes about the unsung magician's assistant, explains that onstage, both
Speaker 1: the magician and the assistant are playing roles, roles that
Speaker 1: artfully play off of the audience's gendered expectations. Baron says,
Speaker 1: the biggest misconception is that the magician's assistants are marginalized,
Speaker 1: objectified bimbos, if you will, who are deferring to some guy,
Speaker 1: when actually, in my experience, they are the brains behind
Speaker 1: a lot of the illusions. Baron would know. She married
Speaker 1: into one of the royal families of magic. Her husband,
Speaker 1: Dante Larson, is the son of Irene and Bill Larson Jr.
Speaker 1: Two of the co founders of the Magic Castle in Hollywood,
Speaker 1: the world's pre eminent magic club, and Irene, who passed
Speaker 1: away in twenty sixteen, was herself an accomplished magician's assistant
Speaker 1: in her day. Baron says that Irene and her generation
Speaker 1: of assistants doubled as the business brains of the operation,
Speaker 1: keeping track of finances and booking appearances. And although they
Speaker 1: played integral roles in both the planning and execution of illusions,
Speaker 1: these old school assistants never wanted to steal the spotlight
Speaker 1: from the magician. Often their husband by billing themselves as
Speaker 1: equal partners, Modern magicians assistants see their roles a little differently.
Speaker 1: Hanna Lynn Wagster is half of the South Carolina based
Speaker 1: duo The Wagster's Magic and Illusion, who perform a weekly
Speaker 1: show at the Carolina Opry Theater in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
Speaker 1: Hannah is still primarily the one who gets locked in
Speaker 1: the boxes, but says that she and her husband Brandon
Speaker 1: are very much equal partners on and off the stage.
Speaker 1: Hannah considers herself a magician, not just an assistant, and
Speaker 1: does a few solo tricks in the act. She also
Speaker 1: runs the show back stage, giving technical and lighting cues
Speaker 1: to stage managers and making sure the next illusion is
Speaker 1: lined up and squared away, but Hannah admits that at
Speaker 1: the end of the day, her primary role on stage
Speaker 1: is quote to make sure the magician looks good, which
Speaker 1: often means contorting herself in two tight spaces or dangling
Speaker 1: from high wires without giving the audience a clue about
Speaker 1: how incredibly difficult it all is or how many bruises,
Speaker 1: scrapes and sprained ankles she's endured along the way, and
Speaker 1: despite her husband's efforts to give Hannah equal billing and
Speaker 1: equal credit on stage, the audience often can't see behind
Speaker 1: the traditional magician assistant divide. Hannah says, after shows, folks
Speaker 1: always want to talk to Brandon and congratulate him on
Speaker 1: his magic. They'll literally push me aside. We also spoke
Speaker 1: with Dean Carnegie, a veteran stage magician and the magic
Speaker 1: historian behind the blog The Magic Detective. He explains that
Speaker 1: the first magician's assistants were the product of a new
Speaker 1: school of magic that emerged in the mid nineteenth century
Speaker 1: called the Illusionists. In the eighteen fifties, pioneering French conjurors
Speaker 1: Jean Eugene Robert Houdin, the inspiration for Hudini's stage name,
Speaker 1: and Boutier de Culta created startling illusions that involved the
Speaker 1: levitation or disappearance of a second person and assistant. Carnegie says,
Speaker 1: Robert Houdine's first assistant was his young son, but it's
Speaker 1: more Illusionists centered the aim. The assistants were invariably female. Women.
Speaker 1: It turned out were much more effective victims in the
Speaker 1: minds of the audience. When a woman was in peril,
Speaker 1: it raised the emotional steaks and that still seems to
Speaker 1: be true, says Baron. She said, they've tried to reverse
Speaker 1: it and have the female be the magician in the
Speaker 1: alpha role and the man be the assistant, and it
Speaker 1: doesn't work. No one cares. Magic trends come and go,
Speaker 1: and for the moment, the bigger names and magic are
Speaker 1: focusing on close up card tricks and mind reading, which
Speaker 1: don't require assistance or at least not visible ones. But
Speaker 1: there are plenty of acts like the Wagsters who still
Speaker 1: wow with set piece illusions executed with precision choreography. Baron,
Speaker 1: who now runs the Los Angeles Drama Club, a Shakespeare
Speaker 1: program for kids, reminds us that what the audience sees
Speaker 1: on stage is itself a play within a play. She said,
Speaker 1: The assistants are winking at you. It's all very tongue
Speaker 1: in cheek because it's trickery and illusion. Today's episode was
Speaker 1: written by Dave Rouse and produced by Tyler Clang. Brain
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