I do not know why they volunteered, but I'm glad I was passed over, even though I had my hand up too. 'Who were they?' you ask. They were Sandra, my wife, and her brother, Rob. They were called up to the stage and introduced to the rest of the audience of this adult magic and hypnosis show, who were also assured that they had not been pre-trained in what was to follow; I knew this already.
While the introductions were made, a low platform was brought onto the stage; it had about a foot of space below it and, maybe, four inches thick. On the platform were a smallish box with clear panels for faces, a couple of lowish tables and a pair of chairs.
Sandra and Rob were asked to mount the platform, sit on the chairs and relax. The magician asked the audience for a minute or two's patience while the volunteers were hypnotised. To kept us entertained while this happened, one of the other assistants did a passable three ropes routine. The magician went to Sandra, while his lead assistant went to Rob. I tried to watch what was happening with my wife, but did not see more than the odd flash of a shiny object, because the magician was standing directly in front of her.
When the rope routine was done (perhaps four or five minutes), Magician and assistant stood aside to show both volunteers slumped in their chairs. Sandra and Rob seemed very relaxed by their posture and their closed eyes, but the magician and assistant demonstrated that they seemed to extremely relaxed by lifting an arm and dropping it; neither my wife or brother-in-law made any attempt to control the fall of their arm, nor did they seem to react when it flopped onto their thighs.
The next demonstration involved using a single finger on their foreheads to get them to rest back in the chairs and lifting a foot and removing the shoe; still with no reaction. I knew something more unusual was happening when the performers tickled the feet of their volunteers; especially as I do not tickle my wife for fear of getting a black-eye from her uncontrolled writhing. Neither Sandra nor Rob showed any reaction.
“As you can see, Rob and Sandra are very relaxed to be up on stage. But for the next section we will need then in a specific costume, so if you'll bare with us, it is time for a costume change.”
I suspect that many of my fellow onlookers were expecting another minor magical interlude, while the two volunteers were taken backstage and given the costumes to wear for the next bit; also thinking that they would be given instruction in what was to happen next. Instead they were lifted to standing by a finger under the chin and adjusted so that they stood straight with their feet slightly parted and their hands a couple of inches from their waists.
The magician and assistant began to undress my wife and brother-in-law down to their underwear, handing each garment to another more junior assistant, who folded them neatly and placed them in the box. They were not left in this exposed level of attire for long because the were soon being dressed in bodysuits of sorts. The baggy vertically-striped garments had large frills at the ankles, wrists and neck; Sandra's was red and white and Rob's was blue and white. This made them look like large rag dolls. Somehow during the process of getting my wife and her brother into the outfits their underwear was also removed and soon added to the pile of clothes in the clear box.
The junior assistant brought out a table, while Rob was sat back in his seat. Sandra was brought forward and lain flat on the table. The magician and his assistant spent a little time trying to fold Sandra's upper half onto her lower half, but the couple of times they tried it, she unrolled. In frustration each of the performers grabbed an ankle and seemed to run round the table a couple of times in opposite directions; I felt that this should have tied Sandra's legs into knots, but it did not seem to. It seemed that the magician had an idea, and they folded her forward again. This time instead of letting her flop back to being flat the assistant kept a hand on her back, between her shoulder blades, while the magician pulled the arm on his side forward, then lifted Sandra's foot and tucked her upper arm under her shin. The magician held onto his arm, while the assistant repeated the process with her arm.
The performers released their holds, seemingly satisfied that this ruse would prevent Sandra from spontaneously unfolding. They were right for about ten seconds, then Sandra's arms slipped from under her legs allowing her to spring back to being flat on the table. This happened with such force that the legs under the head end folded up under the strain and Sandra slid most of the way off the table.
The magician picked up Sandra while the assistant put the table back up, then between them Sandra was lain back on the table. The process of folding was repeated, but this time the additional precaution of crossing her ankles behind her neck was introduced. The performers took an arm each and lifted Sandra from the table and carried her back to her chair. Leaving her sat there with her ankles crossed behind her neck.
The magician was about to turn his attention to Rob, when he spotted the slack-jawed expression on Sandra's face and decided to change it. With the tips of two fingers, her raised the corners of Sandra's mouth into a grin, which she wore for the rest of the performance.
While the main performers were putting Sandra back on her chair and bringing Rob forward the junior assistant removed the table.
It took the performers a little while to move Rob to centre stage because he seemed very floppy. He was carried there with an arm draped over each performer's shoulder. Between them they stood him up straight, but he flopped. He did not fold at the knees as might be expected, but at the waist, with the backs of his hands touching the stage floor somewhere behind him. Magician and assistant stood him back up; to no avail; he flopped back to his previous position.
Rob was stood back up again, but this time the assistant held him up while then magician pumped his arm, as if to inflate his body to provide more support. After some pumping Rob's other arm began to rise and was horizontal before the magician seemed to notice. He stowed the arm he had been pumping at Rob's side and indicated to his assistant that she should put the raised arm into the matching position. After a brief struggle, during which she seemed to hang off the end of Rob's outstretched arm, the assistant managed to press the arm down. The result was that Rob's other arm rose suddenly, seeming to catch the magician under the chin. He stared at the assistant as if she had done this deliberately. He pushed down on the raise arm in front of him and the opposite arm rose; the assistant avoided being hit under the chin by a swift half step backwards.
The magician decided that the assistant should pump the arm in front of her until the arm in front of the magician was also horizontal. The assistant then pushed on Rob's arm causing the opposite arm to move backwards; the magician ducked under it. The assistant then released the arm and as Rob twisted back to being straight his hand connected with the back of the magician's head, sending him sprawling on the floor.
Once the magician had risen and wagged a finger at the assistant, they took an arm each and pushed, the assistant pushing forwards from her position and the magician pushing backward from his. They had soon swapped places. This left Rob facing the back of the stage while his bare feet pointed towards us in the audience. Both performers then let go of Rob who whipped back into the front-facing position. The assistant stepped outside the area covered by Rob's swinging arms, while the magician ducked under the arm he had been holding only to be smacked in the face by the arm that the assistant had been holding; sending him back to the floor.
While the magician recovered his dignity and upright position a clear plastic plinth was brought out by the junior assistant and placed in the middle of the stage and then the two assistants fetched the the clear plastic box into which Sandra and Rob's clothes had been placed. They placed the box on the stand so that it took up about half of the top at one end. They picked up a clear plastic strap and attached one end to the plinth. They threaded the loose end of the strap through a couple of slots in the box and guided the strap over the box and attached the strap to a stud on the front.
The junior assistant helped lift Rob so that he was standing on the unoccupied end of the stand. The magician gave a double click of his fingers and then said, “Rob, enter the box!”
Rob went from his rigid 'T'-pose to what seemed looked like sleepy languor. With smooth motions he put a leg into the box and sat next to it. He then shuffled his backside into the opposite corner. He followed up by bending his back and head down to squeeze the rest of his torso into the box. The magician asked him to pause there with a leg still sticking out of the box, but the rest of him inside.
Magician and assistant collected Sandra from her chair where she had spend the last few minutes grinning with her ankles crossed behind her neck. Carrying her by her arms they placed her on the plinth leaning against the box. The magician double clicked his fingers and gave the instruction, “Sandra, enter the box!”
Sandra look around to get her bearing before falling into a similar languorous state to Rob's. She reached up to uncross her ankles and disentangled herself, before doing a stretch. I did not entirely understand how she did it, but Sandra managed to enter the box, despite it being partially filled by Rob. When Sandra was in, Rob was directed to finish entering the box. With both inside, the junior assistant brought a panel which was fitted to the box, closing it completely. The performers turned the stand with the box on to show that my wife and brother-in-law were contained within. The assistant removed the strap that had held the box to the plinth, while the magician helped the junior assistant bring on a wooden chest which they showed to be empty.
Between the three of them, they lifted the clear plastic box containing Sandra and Rob and lowered it into the chest. The Magician closed the lid and secured it with a padlock.
“What you have seen so far, could easily be achieved by a couple of reasonably fit people with a couple of months intensive training. But I assure you that Rob and Sandra have had as much training in this as any of the rest of you; precisely none. I also suspect that they had no plans to participate before I asked for volunteers. So, let's compound their time on the stage with a small dose of the impossible.”
Both assistants stepped up onto the lid of the chest, while the magician collected a roll of lacy fabric which had its loose end attached to a rod. He clipped the cardboard tube onto a couple of fittings on the front of the chest and passed the rod up to the assistants. Some light from behind silhouetted the two assistants against the fabric, while the magician went round behind the chest.
The magician reached up and the assistants raised the rod over their heads and passed it back to him. He took the rod and ran towards back of the stage, pulling the fabric from the roll over his assistants. About the time he reached the backdrop, the fabric ran out. He gave it an extra tug to pull it the final distance over the assistants standing on the top of the chest. As the last of the fabric fluttered down, it became obvious that pair standing on the crate were now Sandra and Rob, dressed in their own clothes, that had also been trapped inside the box within a box. They looked confused as if the last thing they remembered was sitting on the chair on the platform. The magician came forward and helped them step down from the chest, then asked for a final bit of help, while unlocking the padlock on the chest.
Rob and the magician opened the chest and lifted the clear box from within and with Sandra closing the lid, placed it on top of the chest. There were two figures crammed inside, one clad in red and white and the other in blue and white. The panel that covered the side by which Sandra and Rob had got into the box was released and placed downwards on the stage and the rest of the box lifted off of it. With remarkable grace the two assistants uncurled from each other and stood.