For the final part of his performing arts degree, Josh had to organise a performance; which given his speciality was magic and illusion meant a magic show. He was limited to maximum of four of his fellow course-mates and would be obligated to help them with their final performances. He decided that he would ask his girlfriend, Kate (who was also on the course), to help and then see if he could find some other people to pad out the cast.

During rehearsals of Kate's show, Josh discovered that the five girls that made up the rest of the cast, were members of the university rowing team, who also took part in DramaSoc. It did not take long to persuade four of them to be assistants for his show; fortunately only two of the four were drama students; the other two were studying physics and joined the DramaSoc as some downtime from their studies. The fifth girl said that she could not commit to more than one show at a time.

Rehearsing Josh's new assistants went well, so each of the four additional assistants were trained in a standard illusion which gave each of them a chance to shine and a context to introduce them to the audience before the finale. Josh felt that the finale would have a greater impact if the woman were known to the audience rather than anonymous dancers.

Josh's biggest problem was finding somewhere to put on his show that met the show's needs. With five weeks left he managed to get access to a corner of a working quarry and spent the next three days organising the theatrical infrastructure for the performance.

With three days to go before the performance and tickets already sold out, Kate and her fellow assistants were getting jittery, because they had not been told what the finale would be. “It's best you don't know,” stated Josh. “You will find your costumes and some instructions in the dressing room (well, Portacabin), once you have done your illusion. After you are on stage all you will need to do is follow a few simple instructions and react as if whatever you see is happening is happening to you and your friends for the first time.” As part of Josh's plan he offered them some light hypnosis to help reduce the nerves that might get in the way of the performance.

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The show had gone well so far, as far as the audience could see. Behind the scenes Josh was suffering a bit of stress due to a number of back stage incidents that needed some last minute adjustments to the illusions he performed with his temporary assistants.

Denella came worryingly close to having a panic attack during her levitation; All the rehearsals had been indoors and this was her first floating about a stage with a breeze swaying her. Josh had to 'talk her down' from the brink of panic. The audience saw that this as a well rehearsed and well acted bit of drama. It did not help the situation that the battery in one of the laser pointers that were supposed to be her support died part way though,

Hayley managed to drop the costume for her illusion in a muddy puddle in the make-shift car park and stand on it. It took some persuading to get her to perform the zig-zag illusion in her coordinated lingerie and a short satin dressing gown that Kate had. They added a bit of business where when Josh was trying to insert the first blade at waist height, he was having trouble and blamed the dressing gown getting in the way, so Hayley passed it out and the illusion passed without incident, but the dressing gown was vanished before Hayley emerged in one piece from the cabinet. These changes added a flirty and seductive tone to an illusion that in rehearsal had felt bland to Josh.

Briony had not got her positions in the sword box quite right and had suffered some slashes to the dress she had been given to wear. She was disappointed that the lovely dress that she had been offered as a keepsake of the event had been damaged, but glad that Josh had been sensitive enough that she had been unharmed. Backstage, Kate offered her the number of a seamstress who could almost invisibly repair the gashes inflicted on the garment or emphasize them as a truly memorable souvenir of a unique experience.

Carlette, who was the assistant in a head mover type of illusion, failed in the adjustment of her dress as she entered the illusion, and it slipped to reveal more of her cleavage than the dress was designed to, before the headbox was put in place. Josh called a halt and had Carlette bring her dress up to the intended level to prevent of the risk exposing of  herself and the illusion.

With the fact that Kate was already Josh's assistant, in performances both busked and booked that did little to reduce the level of  student debt they would have at the end of the course, the illusions she was involved in went without a hitch, but the audience detected a nervousness that made them wonder if the illusions were even more dangerous as they seemed.

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After the grand illusions Josh performed some sleight of hand for a camera, which was projected on a screen so that the audience could see it. The reason for this magic without assistants was so that the girls could change into their outfits for the finale.

After about ten minutes, Josh could see that his assistants were standing is the area that was hidden from the audience and served as the wings for this open-air performance. He wrapped up the trick he was performing and began his introduction to the finale.

“In ancient Greece there was a village called Caryea. A village rumoured to be the birthplace of Helen of Troy, and one of the founding settlements that became Sparta. The women of this village were renowned for their beauty, grace and strength, and as such were much sort after as brides for Greek kings and as temple servants. Such was this reputation that frequently columns were carved to resemble the maidens of Caryea; the maidens and the columns became know as caryatids.

“I have assembled a group of young women of beauty, grace and strength to act as my caryatids for this final illusion. You have met them before, but please greet them again; Denella, Hayley, Briony, Carlette and last but not least Kate.”

As each name was called, Josh beckoned them onto the stage until he had a row of five identically dressed women standing behind him. The costume was as simple as it was sexy; each woman stood in a short white tunic-dress that reached about mid-thigh, each accented with hem, collar and waist sash of the same colour as their dresses from their earlier appearances in the show. They also wore rope sandals.

“Please collect the helmet, in your colour, from the display over there and go to stand behind the plinth marked in your colour.” The plinths I was referring to were coloured blocks that were set out in a rectangle on the stage with one at the centre. Kate was the first to pick up her helmet and stand behind the centre plinth, the others soon followed and stood at the corners of the rectangle. “Good, now, please mount your pedestal and then put your helmet on.”

Each of my assistants stepped onto the block that matched the colour of her waist sash and then placed the bronze helmet on her head and fitted the strap under her chin. Each helmet had a section that rose to support a flat disk, emphasized by a decoration in the assistant's colour.

“Good job, so far ladies.” This brought smiles from my assistants. “Now stand still and straight until told to move again.”

The lighting picked out a large concrete slab supported by a chain at each corner suspended from a crane. The crane swung the slab into position over the stage and I took a rope hanging from one corner to make the final fine adjustment as the slab was lowered onto the helmets of my assistants. Due to careful measurement on my part, the slab soon rested on all my assistants' heads; they seemed to be straining to hold up the weight. It took me about a minute using a step ladder to detach the chains which were promptly swung away by the crane operator.

I had a little while to wait for the next element of the illusion to arrive, so I went to each corner and asked each assistant how they were feeling; they did not seem aware that they were support a large concrete slab on their heads. The worst complaint I got was from Hayley, who said that she had got a bit of stone in her shoe and it was becoming uncomfortable. I suggested that, while still holding her still and straight pose, she lift her foot and I would remove her shoe and brush the stone from her foot. With the stone gone, I replaced the shoe and she put her foot down.

Finally, to show my confidence in the five columned structure, I went under the slab to talk to Kate. She spoke calmly in answer to my questions, but also took the chance to let me know that she was aware of the situation I had put her and her friends in, by whispering to me, “You had better have a good way of getting us out of this, unharmed.”

After taking the time to talk to each assistant I was glad to see a signal that the next stage was ready. I pressed a button on a remote in my pocket and everyone heard a car chirp that it had locked and the audience saw that this car, which had also flashed its lights was suspended about ten feet above the slab. On cue, the crane operator began to lower the car until it rested on the slab. While this was happening I had adjusted the ladder from being a step-ladder to being a straight ladder.

I climbed the ladder and stepped onto the slab. It was the work of about half a minute to release the chains from which the car had hung, so that the crane operator could swing them away. I opened the car's hatchback and dragged out a large cloth, which, once the rear of the car had been closed I used to cover the car.

I quickly climbed down the ladder and stowed it at the rear of the stage area. “Now, ladies, I shall be counting to three and saying 'Jump!'. When I say 'Jump!' you will try to jump.”

I counted to three, then shouted, “Jump!”

The next few moments were utter chaos. All of my assistants bent their knees to jump, but with their knees bent they were unable to carry the weight of the slab with the car on top. The slab descended, appearing to crush the girls on their plinths and did not stop until it landed on the blocks that they had been standing on, where it wobbled for a few seconds and stabilised. If I had not been so close the noise of the slab crashing down, I would have heard the gasp of shock from the audience.

There were a few seconds allowed for the dust to settle, before I heard what I had been expecting. The engine of the car started, then it was gunned and the clutch dropped in so the car leapt forward and down to land at the edge of the performance area. By this point the cloth that I had used to cover it had been left behind and it was obvious that the car was now occupied. The driver reversed the car back from the edge of the stage and then forward to park it in front of the collapsed concrete slab.

The doors of the car swung open and out stepped all my assistants, including Kate, who had been in the driving seat.

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Josh had the awarding of his degree delayed, while the university authorities investigated whether he had 'recklessly endangered' his fellow students. By the time the investigation was completed he and Kate had begun a promising career as a cruise ship magic show. They, later, went on to make a couple of TV specials.