Mark Panner is occasionally permitted to write on topics of interest to magicians here at Inside Magic thanks to his willingness to write for free and that his mother is Inside Magic Editor Tim Quinlan’s sister. As always, his article has not been reviewed by Inside Magic and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Inside Magic, its shareholders or employees.
Magician Russell Fitzgerald performed a classic of magic with aplomb and yet his name is held up for public ridicule. That is what America has become today.
Read the full article here. Learn about how this school board member did the Twentieth Century Bra Trick on a teacher at a public and televised meeting and got in trouble for performing it perfectly.
Henry Ford once advised, “Never Complain, Never Explain.”
Of course, Henry Ford would not have performed the classic Twentieth Century Bra Trick because it had not yet been invented. We don’t know if they even had bras back then.
But if he could have performed the trick, we know for darn sure he would not have apologized for it.
Yeah, critics might have chastised the great industrialist for humiliating a school teacher on live television. And you know what? He wouldn’t have cared one bit.
He was richer than anyone we know and didn’t need to depend on anyone liking him.
Those days are gone, gone, gone. We live in a different time and place. It is no longer fashionable or “correct” or “nice” to pretend to remove a woman’s bra in the course of performing a magic trick during the live television broadcast of an important civic event and where the magician is technically the boss of the unwilling assistant.
But to say it is no longer acceptable means there was a time in this country’s rich history where it would have acceptable and even expected.
There had to be such a time or it would not have earned the laudatory title “Classic.” Check any magic catalog, the trick is always called The Classic Twentieth Century Bra Trick.
We long for the days when magicians could perform the classics without getting a topit full of backtalk and sass. Back then the victim and the audience actually thanked the magician for getting them attention and coverage in the news.
Underwear is always funny. It is a known fact in the world of comedy that bras, panties, underwear of any style are funny. You don’t have to show them, you can just talk about them and people will laugh.
Emo Phillps’ great line fits nicely here:
“I got some new underwear the other day. Well, new to me.”
Combine natural funny qualities with the dynamic situation where an unaware audience member appears to loose said underwear and you have a mélange of mirth.
Continue reading “Classic Bra Trick Upsets Some”
