Pulling a Bunny...


An excerpt from a series - the only bit I was happy was finished!
As always, feedback welcomed.



Matt stood alone in the centre of the empty stage.
"Now, I thought I'd like to do a classic magic trick."
The audience settled down. This sounded all too boring.
"I can't find Heather anywhere, so I guess I'm going to need some help from the audience." He gestured towards stage left. "I'd like to you to all give a really big hand to my little assistants." One of the female stagehands - Janie, the blonde with the piercing lauggh - led on three little girls, and he moved over to them. Matt took a stick microphone from Janie, and knelt down beside them. "Hello. What's your name?"
"Michelle."
"And how old are you?"
"I'm six. Gemma's five and Lucy is four." The audience laughed.
"Are you in charge, Michelle?"
"Yes." Matt grinned, laughing along with the audience, and leaned across to the smallest one.
"You must be Lucy." She nodded. "Have you enjoyed the show so far?" More nodding. He leaned closer, lowering his voice - the microphone relaying every word. "Are you a little bit shy?" More nodding, prompting a stream of ahhhs from the audience, and some laughing. A stage hand wheeled a table - a thin metal sheet, mounted waist high on a thin pole - into the centre of the stage.
"Would you girls like to help me do a magic trick?"
The two little ones nodded, and Michelle asked, "Like Harry Potter?" Matt nodded.
"Sort of. Now, what we're going to do is try and produce a bunny from that hat." He pointed towards the table.
"What hat?" asked Michelle.
Without looking away from her, Matt clicked his fingers. There was a flash and a puff of smoke, and a black top hat appeared, resting in the centre of the table.
"That hat." There was a ripple of applause. "Now to do this we're going to need some magic words."
Michelle dived in again.
"Why?" Matt shrugged.
"Why not?"
Gemma piped up.
"coswhenyoumadethehatappearyoudidntuseamagicword." She took a deep breath, but Matt had already dived in.
"Well this is different." He could see her mouth framing the inevitable "why?", but Janie was already leading them over to the table, Matt turned to the audience.
"You know that saying about working with children and animals?" Laughter. "I feel like a Blue Peter presenter." The audience laughed again, and he shrugged resignedly, crossing to where the children were.

"Okay, Michelle, do you know a magic word?"
"Abracadabra." Matt gestured toward the hat.
"Abracadabra!"
A puff of smoke billowed upwards from the hat, and slowly drifted upwards.
Crossing to the hat, Matt leaned over and peered inside. "I don't see anything." He stuck his hand inside, and waggled it around, reaching downwards. His arm slowly slid inside, disappearing up to the elbow, then all the way to the shoulder. The audience laughed and applauded the impossible sight - a man reaching three feet down into a hat just six inches deep. Matt straightened up, and shrugged.
"I don't know why you're appluading, I can't find anything in there."
He turned to the three little girls standing next to him, and crouched down again, holding out the stick mic.
"Well come on Gemma, you must know some magic words."
Gemma looked timidly out at the audience, and then offered, "HocusPocusisamagicword"
Matt looked out into the audience, and raised an eyebrow, prompting more laughter.
"Okay." Straighting up, he struck a dramatic pose and gestured to the hat, shouting, "Hocus Pocus!"
The was an expectant pause, then the hat wobbled, and settled. Then it began to rise into the air. The audience burst into applause, and the top hat slowly floated upwards, then out, over the audience, into the body of the theatre. Matt grimanced, and waved for them to stop.
"Don't encourage it."
By now the audience was roaring with laughter, which was only increased when he stuck two fingers in his mouth and whistled. The hat tilted its brim towards him, and he motioned towards the table it had vacated. The hat wobbled, and began to drift back down, hovering in front of the three girls. Lucy reached out to touch it, and it darted away, settling on the table.
"Well we know Abracadabra doesn't work, and Hocus Pocus has entirely the wrong effect." He knelt down beside Lucy. "Do you have any ideas?"
Lucy looked uncertainly at him, then leaned over to whisper in his ear.
"Izzy wizzy?" ask Matt. The audience laughed delightedly, and little Lucy nodded solemnly. "Okay, Izzy Wizzy it is." He stood up, struck his pose again, and solemnly intoned "Izzy Wizzy, let's get busy!"
There was a bright flash, and a five foot tower of flame burst out of the hat. There were appreciative gasps and the audience applauded again.
Matt shrugged nonchalantly, and wandered over to the hat. He looked in, and recieved a puff of smoke in the face for his trouble. Coughing and fanning away the smoke, he shook his head.
"I think we can safely say that Izzy Wizzy won't work." Turning to the girls, he laughed. "I'd ask if you know any more magic words, but I'm afraid of what might happen." He crossed to the hat, dug his hand inside, and pulled out a traditional teddy bear, with a big red bow around it's neck. It was far too large to come from the hat. He reached in again, and pulled out a second one. He crossed back to the girls, and handed one to Gemma and one to Michelle. He turned to Lucy.
"Would you like one too?" Lucy nodded vigrously, and Matt crossed back to the hat, and dug his hand back inside. The bear that began to emerge was big - very big. It looked like the metaphorical camel coming through the eye of the needle. He tugged, the bear emerged with a pop, and carried it over to Lucy. She hugged it to her. The audience was laughing again - the bear was almost as big as her.
"Let's have a round of applause for my three little assistants - Michelle, Gemma and Lucy!" Janie led the children off stage, and the audience applauded again.

As the applause finally died away, music started up, and Matt crossed back to the hat. Standing behind it, he ran his hand over the top, then reached in. He pulled his hand out, bringing with it a white dove He shook his head, and reached back in. He pulled his hand out, and it was followed by a puff of confetti, which, after a second or two changed into a flight of white doves. This was followed by a series of colour scarves, and then a stream of playing cards. It could have gotten quite monotonous for the audience, but Matt was looking at his watch, scratching his head, and gesturing off stage. As the stream of cards began, he swiping motion across his neck - cut it off! The cards stopped, and Matt turned to the audience in mock embarassment, and grinned apologetically. He went back to the hat, and tried again. This time he produced a length of red ribbon, and tossed it into the air. It expanded into a large red cloth, and fell to the floor behind him. Matt shook his head, stepped back, and clicked his fingers. He thought the question. Ready?

Always, said a faint female voice. Another tongue of flame burst out of the hat, then cut off. After a beat, a hand began to extend out of the hat, gently waving from side to side, fingers flexing. The arm extended up to elbow, shaking backwards and forwards, like a snake coming from a snake charmers basket. Matt reached out to take hold of the hand, and bent to plant a kiss on its back. A second hand began to rise beside the first, reaching up to run it's fingers across Matt's face. He let go, and stepped backwards. The two hands clasped, interlocking fingers, and began to slowly rise into the air, revealing a bowed red haired head between them, the hat visibly stretching to accomodate it's passage.
Heather looked up, and favoured the audience with a smile. With the audience clapping and cheering, and she slowly stretched her arms outwards, and downards, drawing herself upwards, exposing her bare shoulders. The same thought crossed the mind of much of the audience - she can't be naked in there, can she? Reading that thought, Heather laughed. Her fingers played across the bottom edge of table, emphasising the impossibility of the effect. With Heather - well bits of Heather - soaking up the adulation, Matt stepped forward to stand beside her. He placed his right arm around her back, and she hooked her left around his neck. With a jerk he lifted her out of the hat, revealing her mosdety was protected by a black and white silk Playboy bunny costume, complete with black fishnet stockings, and cotton puff tail. The white silk edging plateaued her breasts delightfully, whilst the stockings only serve to elongate her slim legs.
Laying those legs across his other arm, Heather put both arms around his neck and kissed him on the cheek, then picked up the hat, and plonked it on her head.
As Matt carried her forwards, towards the applauding audience, one of the stage hands moved the table off stage.
"Well," said Matt, "I never said what kind of Bunny I was going to produce!" He turned around, and walked towards the back of the stage. Heather twisted and waved to the audience, blowing them a kiss. Matt set her on her feet, and then picked up the red sheet he'd earlier thrown to the floor. Standind behind Heather, he held the sheet by it's upper corners, and raised it until it hid her from view. Matt winked at the audience, and almost immediately the cloth was ripped away by Heather.
The applause built yet again.
Heather had traded the bunny costume for an outfit that was the reverse of Matt's. Instead of the black shirt and jeans, she wore a white shirt - tied off above her waist, exposing her trim midriff - and white slacks. He hugged her tightly to his chest, as they grinned out at the audience. The lights faded on the applause.