None of the kids has a last name, but pity this poor schlub; he doesn't even rate a FIRST name! He goes through all 27 episodes with just a nickname. Even Jimmy Whittaker in "City at the Edge of Midnight" dismisses him by promising to meet him in school the next day: "Then you can show me another one of your stupid card tricks, eh Presto?"

So we know that Presto was interested in magic. My impression is that most boys go through a brief period when they're interested in magic, meaning theatrical sleight-of-hand and larger stage illusions. Long before we get to be Presto's age, most of us give up believing in the possibility of true magic along with Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy. Yet Presto is thrown into a Realm where magic is as real as air, and he's stuck having to make the best of it.

Physically he's shorter than everyone except Bobby, has at times what could charitably be called an overbite, has a voice that's high, nasal and sometimes cracking, and is nearly blind without his glasses. All physical traits that would, among his peers, scream "NERD!" He's not the athletic type, confiding to Uni in "P-R-E-S-T-O Spells Disaster" that he tends to goof off in gym class.

Because magic is his specialty in the Realm, he wears flowing green robes and carpet slippers. The conical hat that tops off the ensemble is his weapon; out of it he manages to pull everything from an electric blanket ("Traitor") to a cordless razor to a six-foot rabbit (both mentioned, only the razor shown, in "Child of the Stargazer") to a trash-can lid ("Eye of the Beholder") to a 19th century cannon ("Prison Without Walls") to a live cow ("Night of No Tomorrow"). He produces a picnic lunch for Josef Mueller in "Time Lost", but apparently cannot be counted on to feed the gang three square meals a day with it, since they spend a lot of time scrounging for food.

Presto raises two questions. My first question is: how did he get it into his head that all spells had to be in rhyming couplets? This formula leads to some pretty odd spells in the series (although I have to confess that my favorite is in "The Lost Children":

Magic hat, I'm gonna be frank; What we need now is a twenty-ton tank.)

One serendipitous backfire happens in "Traitor"; unable to come up with a rhyme during an Orc attack, he declares "Blow those bums away!" The hat sneezes(!) and swells to the size of a hot-air balloon.

And the second question is: in "The Lost Children", Presto consults a WRISTWATCH! Is this a slip-up by the writer? By the animation studio? Or should we just be charitable and say that Presto pulled it out of his hat some time before, the same way he produced a razor for Kosar?

It's pretty well established that Presto can't see past his nose without his glasses. It's his deepest dread according to the Tower of the Celestial Knights. One wonders why, however, since he'd been glassless before. They're briefly lost in "The Time Lost" and, knowing young people and their glasses, it's unlikely that he got this far without breaking at least one pair.

Before Presto is dismissed as just another nerd, though, remember that there's something about him that females find consistently attractive. Sheila blames herself and the gang when Presto stays behind to study with Merlin in "Night of No Tomorrow". Diana kisses him on the cheek when one of his spells works out right in "Traitor". Amber the Fairy Dragon forms an attachment to him, as does the mother Golden Dragon (briefly at least) in "P-R-E-S-T-O Spells Disaster". Most of all, there's the potential romance with Varla, certainly the prettiest resident of the Realm that the gang encounters.

Speaking of Varla--I know that Jeffrey Scott, who penned "The Last Illusion", has written elsewhere that many of his scripts were influenced by Scientology, but in my opinion "The Last Illusion" touches on something much more elemental, tapping into a core reality as old as humankind.

Both DungeonMaster and Venger say the same thing in "The Last Illusion", and it's seldom that they agree on anything. Both, however, state that Varla, gifted as she may be already with the power to create illusions, is on the verge of having her gifts expand exponentially. (DM: "She is gifted with wondrous powers--powers that will grow as she grows." Venger: "As you grow your powers will grow, in ways you cannot yet dream.")

Does any of this sound familiar? Like, for instance, Stephen King's novel Carrie? In that book, the psychically gifted teen of the title experiences a surge in her abilities after her first menstrual period; on her transition, in other words, out of childhood. Being a member of the other gender I can't speak from experience, but I've heard enough complaints from others to know about the painful cramping that can accompany periods.

I mention this only because both Varla and Presto spend a good part of this episode in serious physical pain. Some of their dialogue consists only of moans and screams. Obviously these pains are not menstrual cramps, except perhaps symbolically.

What's interesting is that Presto and Varla both experience the same things at pretty much the same time. Varla is said to be on the verge of changing; Presto's voice seems constantly to be on the verge of changing. This also goes to Presto's use of magic. From the moment he touches Varla's image in the swamp, he uses his magic exactly once--and not even then, since it's overridden by one of Varla's illusions, although Venger orders the override. In short, they function together.

That, plus the meeting with Varla's parents, their interceding with the rest of the community on Presto's behalf, DungeonMaster's constant exhortations to follow "your heart", Presto's amazement at his own changed behavior, all the way up to the wonderfully choreographed finale (beginning with the wonderful moment that Presto makes eye contact with "Tiamat"), turn "The Last Illusion" into a stunning courtship ritual, whether or not Scott planned it that way.

As such, it places Presto in age between Hank and Eric (already older than Presto) and the younger Bobby. Presto stands literally at the end of his childhood in the Realm, at the last possible moment when magic--NOT theatrical sleight-of-hand--is still real. As such, his literary companions include the explorers in Stephen King's "The Body" (the basis for the film Stand By Me) and, most importantly, Will and Jim of Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes. But that, as they say, is another webpage.