Who Does the Real Magic: Magicians, or Assistants?

The gender roles of traditional stage magicians and 'lovely assistants' can seem outdated, but behind the scenes, the work has always been pretty equal. Learn how being a magician's assistant works in this episode of BrainStuff.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to brain stuff from how stuff Works, Hey, brain
stuff luring bog obam Here. In magic industry, lingo magician's
assistants are called box jumpers because to the audience, that's
all the lovely assistant appears to do. She's there to
distract the audience. You know, look pretty, smile big, and
waiver hands around, then pop out from the padlocked box

(00:23):
precisely when the magician says tada. But magic insiders know
the real story. When the trunk lid closes, the sheet
is raised, or the saw is lowered into the box,
it's often the assistant who does the real magic of
the illusion, releasing the latch on the false bottom and
cramming herself into a two foot space while executing her
third costume change of the evening, all before the guy

(00:45):
in the top hat says tada. Although magic is undeniably
a male dominated profession if you only look at the
name on the marquis, those who know the most about
the stagecraft behind the magician assistant relationship say that the
industry isn't as sexist as it might appear. Blair Baron,
who co produced the two thousand eight documentary Women in
Boxes about the unsung magician's assistant, explains that onstage, both

(01:08):
the magician and the assistant are playing roles, roles that
artfully play off of the audience's gendered expectations. Baron says,
the biggest misconception is that the magician's assistants are marginalized,
objectified bimbos, if you will, who are deferring to some guy,
when actually, in my experience, they are the brains behind
a lot of the illusions. Baron would know. She married

(01:30):
into one of the royal families of magic. Her husband,
Dante Larson, is the son of Irene and Bill Larson Jr.
Two of the co founders of the Magic Castle in Hollywood,
the world's pre eminent magic club, and Irene, who passed
away in twenty sixteen, was herself an accomplished magician's assistant
in her day. Baron says that Irene and her generation

(01:51):
of assistants doubled as the business brains of the operation,
keeping track of finances and booking appearances. And although they
played integral roles in both the planning and execution of illusions,
these old school assistants never wanted to steal the spotlight
from the magician. Often their husband by billing themselves as
equal partners, Modern magicians assistants see their roles a little differently.

(02:13):
Hanna Lynn Wagster is half of the South Carolina based
duo The Wagster's Magic and Illusion, who perform a weekly
show at the Carolina Opry Theater in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
Hannah is still primarily the one who gets locked in
the boxes, but says that she and her husband Brandon
are very much equal partners on and off the stage.
Hannah considers herself a magician, not just an assistant, and

(02:37):
does a few solo tricks in the act. She also
runs the show back stage, giving technical and lighting cues
to stage managers and making sure the next illusion is
lined up and squared away, but Hannah admits that at
the end of the day, her primary role on stage
is quote to make sure the magician looks good, which
often means contorting herself in two tight spaces or dangling

(02:57):
from high wires without giving the audience a clue about
how incredibly difficult it all is or how many bruises,
scrapes and sprained ankles she's endured along the way, and
despite her husband's efforts to give Hannah equal billing and
equal credit on stage, the audience often can't see behind
the traditional magician assistant divide. Hannah says, after shows, folks

(03:19):
always want to talk to Brandon and congratulate him on
his magic. They'll literally push me aside. We also spoke
with Dean Carnegie, a veteran stage magician and the magic
historian behind the blog The Magic Detective. He explains that
the first magician's assistants were the product of a new
school of magic that emerged in the mid nineteenth century
called the Illusionists. In the eighteen fifties, pioneering French conjurors

(03:43):
Jean Eugene Robert Houdin, the inspiration for Hudini's stage name,
and Boutier de Culta created startling illusions that involved the
levitation or disappearance of a second person and assistant. Carnegie says,
Robert Houdine's first assistant was his young son, but it's
more Illusionists centered the aim. The assistants were invariably female. Women.

(04:04):
It turned out were much more effective victims in the
minds of the audience. When a woman was in peril,
it raised the emotional steaks and that still seems to
be true, says Baron. She said, they've tried to reverse
it and have the female be the magician in the
alpha role and the man be the assistant, and it
doesn't work. No one cares. Magic trends come and go,

(04:25):
and for the moment, the bigger names and magic are
focusing on close up card tricks and mind reading, which
don't require assistance or at least not visible ones. But
there are plenty of acts like the Wagsters who still
wow with set piece illusions executed with precision choreography. Baron,
who now runs the Los Angeles Drama Club, a Shakespeare
program for kids, reminds us that what the audience sees

(04:47):
on stage is itself a play within a play. She said,
The assistants are winking at you. It's all very tongue
in cheek because it's trickery and illusion. Today's episode was
written by Dave Rouse and produced by Tyler Clang. Brain
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