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