The Girl Without a Middle – An Essay By Barry GibbsInside MagicMagic News Updated Daily for the Professional Magician

It was time for another IBM Ring #117 Annual Installation of Officer’s Banquet show, and ticket sales were going very well. A good show was lined up, and I was MC once again.

One of our scheduled performers, and Ring #117 members, Al Scott, was on the bill and he was scheduled to close the show with his homemade version of the “Girl Without A Middle.”

His assistant was his wife.

When it came time for Al to perform, again, everything seemed fine. Al though had a tendency to patter quite a bit, and also he spoke slowly with a lot of posturing and gestures. No doubt he looked the part of an old time stage magician, complete in tails and tuxedo, but again he tended to drag his patter along.

He performed several effects in advance of his grand show finale, which was the Girl Without A Middle. Finally time came and the illusion was rolled on stage. His wife made her appearance and stood by quietly while Al went through several minutes of explanation about the illusion.

Eventually his wife entered the cabinet and the cabinet was closed. After several more minutes of patter and explanation, the illusion was open to display that Al’s wife no longer had a middle.

Meanwhile I was standing backstage timing the illusion. By now Al’s poor wife had been in the cabinet, in an extremely uncomfortable position, for close to 5 minutes.

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It was time for another IBM Ring #117 Annual Installation of Officer’s Banquet show, and ticket sales were going very well. A good show was lined up, and I was MC once again.

One of our scheduled performers, and Ring #117 members, Al Scott, was on the bill and he was scheduled to close the show with his homemade version of the “Girl Without A Middle.”

His assistant was his wife.

Eventually his wife entered the cabinet and the cabinet was closed. After several more minutes of patter and explanation, the illusion was open to display that Al’s wife no longer had a middle.

Meanwhile I was standing backstage timing the illusion. By now Al’s poor wife had been in the cabinet, in an extremely uncomfortable position, for close to 5 minutes.

Al on the other hand was lost in his patter and explanation of what was happening. He took his time walking around the illusion, leaning through the empty middle and even more dramatic gesturing to prove his wife had no middle.

Then I began hearing a slight buzz of people in the audience whispering. Curious, I left backstage and slipped out front where I could see what was getting there attention. It was then I noticed that Al’s wife’s legs were beginning to shake uncontrollably to the extent that the cabinet had begun to shake.

Al on the other hand was totally oblivious to this occurrence and continued to patter on to bring the illusion to it’s grand finale with the complete restoration of his wife’s middle. By my watch, she had now been in the cabinet for over 8 minutes without a middle.

Al finally turned, closed center door of the cabinet, then opened the cabinet and his poor wife almost collapsed in agony as she staggered out, but a true show woman, she stood there shaking and quivering in agony as Al took his bow.

The only time she showed her anger was when Al took her hand and told her to bow. If looks could have killed, Al would have died on stage that night.

I believe that was the first and last performance ever given of “The Girl Without A Middle” by Al Scott.