The next night, Jon found himself seated again in the audience of the show. He had thought about trying to skip out and not go, but had felt unable to will himself otherwise. Besides, he rationalized, he was sure Karyn and the others would have wished him there, anyway, wouldn't they? He felt as if he sat on pins and needles all throughout the opening routines of the show.
Eventually, Max dazzled his way through to the first big magical number - the rabbit in the hat.
"And now, fair audience, the first of many tricks for which you have all so patiently waited," Max theatrically declared, as he doffed his stereotypical top hat, showing it plainly to the audience. "As you all can no doubt see, what I hold in my hands is the utterly unremarkable - nay, overwhelmingly ordinary hat which has graced my head through these paltry tricks thus far. But is it, in fact, so painfully pedantic as all that?" In this moment, Max shared a conspiratorial grin and a wink with the audience, as he reached deep into the hat, his arm seemingly engulfed to the shoulder. "Or is it in fact... MAGIC?!"
On the last word, he pulled his arm triumphantly from the hat and held it aloft... completely empty. "Strange... I expected something, uh, different, to happen, there. Well, if at first you don't succeed, as they say. Ladies and Gentlemen, bring your hands together in a rousing greeting for my lovely assistant," and at this, just as his hand thrust into the air, again completely empty, Karyn walked in from the wings of the stage, dressed in her usual bunny outfit, and shook a finger at him with mock reproach, as a trombone "wah-wah-wah" sang, seemingly from nowhere.
Max slumped his shoulders and hung his head in a dramatic and theatrical moue, "Well, it seems my lovely assistant has elected to take the night off! It is just so hard to find good help these days, is it not? Never matter! A good magician is always prepared. And so without further adieu, preamble, forethought, or prittle-prattle, I introduce to you, my lovely pack of hyenas, the newest assistant to our illustrious troupe, Jon!"
As Max's arm reached into the hat for a third time and erupted triumphantly, Jon felt the most peculiar tugging on his scalp. In the moment it took him to reach up, he found himself suddenly peering out over the rim of the upturned hat and felt the long, white rabbit ears that protruded from atop his head gripped firmly but gently in Max's hand. Max quickly continued to extricate Jon from the hat, revealing that his clothes had been replaced by a uniform more at home on the body of a Chippendale dancer, save for the very fluffy (and very real) rabbit tail perched on his derriere.
Jon grabbed the hat and instantly found himself dancing a very athletic and alluring dance across the stage, pushing the very bounds of decency in its virility. As the crowd whooped and hollered, Jon felt his face blush bright red with embarrassment. A few sharp wolf whistles even cut through the crowd as he finished.
"Alright, alright... settle down, everyone. You, too, 'Fabio.' Let's keep this at least mostly civil, here." Here another shrill wolf whistle sliced the air again, causing the crowd to rumble in moderate laughter. Even Max chuckled a bit before continuing, "Now, my dear Jon, if you could be so kind as to join me on the other side of the stage, I will need your help for this next trick..."
