From either side of the stage David and Jill walked on in front of the massive red curtain. David was wearing his classic black suit, along with a black top hat (most likely to hide the fact that he had shaved off all of his hair). Jill was wearing the same sparkling green dress that she had worn at their very first performance together, considering it much like the lucky socks she used to wear whenever she competed in a tennis match before becoming David's assistant.
When the two met in the middle, they embraced, eliciting some aww's from the audience. They then took some quick bows before David made a microphone appear from his pocket, while Jill walked back off stage in order to get ready for the first trick.
"Good Evening, Ladies and Gentlemen. We hope to have a great night with you all, but before we begin, Jill and I agreed that we should start out by thanking everyone who has helped in working towards finding a cure to the Guinness Plague, and those who helped in flattening the curve and buying time by self-isolating. Of course, while the cure for this disease has finally been found, the process of making sure that everyone gets access to it will be an uphill battle, so all proceeds that result from tonight's broadcast of the show are going to the Magician's Medical Alliance," David paused as a polite applause echoed throughout the auditorium, "Now then, let's get on to the show!"
The big red curtains raised up, revealing Jill, now standing in what looked like the room to a living room set. It wouldn't have seemed out of place for the filming of a sitcom, if it weren't for the fact that the fourth wall, usually non-existent to allow for camera-men and the audience, was replaced by a sheet of glass. At some point while she was offstage, Jill had changed out of her golden evening dress, wearing a more maneuverable green leotard and waving at the audience.
Meanwhile, David walked over to a desktop computer. The monitor was situated so that parts of his upper chest and his head were visible when he was standing upright. "Now, while Jill and I had the luxury of being able to practice together during this pandemic, we recognized that others may not have the same opportunity. So, we've decided to take a stab at designing a show around this limitation. So, let me introduce you to Poof!"
From the rafters, an LCD screen descended, on which the word Poof was written in plain, white block lettering on a plain blue background. A white ball slowly rotated underneath the logo, before the logo disappeared, being replaced by two camera feeds, one showing David from the perspective of his computer monitor, and the other showing Jill through the glass wall of the living room set. "Poof is our all-in-one, telecommunication and magic demonstration application. Designed to help magicians and assistants practice tricks while apart."
"Don't forget working on their banter," Jill said, her voice coming over the PA system, since her enclosure appeared to be sound proof.
"Thanks for reminding me Jill. So, after launching the app, you first should activate a magic field on your assistant's window," As he said this, a mouse appeared on the LCD screen, where it followed David's suggestion and right clicked on Jill's window. A dropdown window appeared with a multitude of grayed-out options. David clicked on the active option, 'Activate Magic Controls' and suddenly the border around Jill's window turned gold. Likewise, the glass making up the living room's set seemed to light up, it's border glowing a similar gold color.
"And don't worry girls, you actually have to accept the request before your magician gets to start playing with you."
"Now, all of those fun transformation options are available to us, and they do a fun variety of things. For instance, I can split Jill's feed into two separate videos..." David right-clicked on Jill's screen once again at about waist level, hovered over split image and selected horizontally. A golden border shot across Jill's video, and suddenly the video feed was separated into two separate halves that could be moved independently of the other, one containing Jill's upper half, and the other containing Jill's lower half.
In the real world, the same border appeared on the glass wall, and to the audience it seemed as if Jill was completely normal. That is, until Jill seemed to push her arms down against some invisible force, her upper body lifting up off her legs as she hand walked to one side of the room, her legs moving in the opposite direction. When she stopped, she sat back on her elbows to show to the audience that she had been cut in half just as the videos made her appear to be, the stump covered in the same green material as her leotard.
"One of the cool things about the app is that transformations are maintained from command to command," he right clicked the seam between the two video, highlighting the merge videos options, causing the magic seam to disappear, and Jill's upper half to come crashing to the floor, "This way you can practice transitions between tricks where you leave your assistant transformed."
Jill picked herself up off the floor, whining, "I thought you said you were going to make sure to put a pillow out for the real trick!"
David clicked the window again, splitting the window vertically, the left half housing her lower half while the right half housed her upper half still. "It's also a practical tool for measuring out how big to make boxes for your assistant," He selected the window housing Jill's legs, and began squashing the boundaries of the window until the legs were in a box that would not allow them to shift around any more.
In the real world, the golden border matched his moves, eventually trapping Jill's legs in a similar gold-bordered box. Right clicking on the window once again, David clicked measurements, revealing not only the dimensions of the cube, but of aspects like Jill's waist and hip measurements. Jill blushed profusely saying, "David! I thought we were turning off detailed measurements for the show!"
David grinned, saying, "Well don't worry Jill, those won't mean much in a moment," Grabbing the top edge of the window, David began pushing down, the audience getting an interesting view as it seemed that Jill's legs compressed into themselves. The window eventually reached a thickness of a centimeter, according to the window measurement, with the detailed measurements disappearing.
Quicker than he had compressed the window, he returned it to its normal size, and merged the two video screens once more, allowing Jill to hand walk her way over and observe the damage. Picking up the disc that was her former legs, she revealed that the top half was the same green material that now covered the bottom of her stomach, and on the other side were her two squished feet. She looked at the audience, commenting, "The only downside to being flattened this way is that it's just so impersonal."
"And, then when you're all done, or want to start anew, all you have to do is click the minimize button," On saying these words, the window holding Jill disappeared, and her real life counterpart disappeared also, "and restore!"
Jill reappeared, once again completely intact and whole once more. David closed the program, the class wall opening up and allowing Jill to walk out and bow to the crowd. As David approached her, the set and the computer sank into the floor, leaving the two standing in the middle of the stage. David took a few bows of his own, before announcing to the crowd, "While what we have performed for you tonight was merely just an act, I have already reached out to some trusted technicians to help make Poof a real, open-source app that will hopefully release some time this winter. I hope you've enjoyed the show, and stick around for the after-party!" David and Jill took one last bow together, before the curtains closed on them.
~~~
The applause from David and Jill's performance eventually died down, which was Drake's cue to come out up on stage and reignite the excitement. "That was absolutely wonderful David and Jill, but the big moment of the night has finally arrived! It's now time for the big announcement!"
The curtains rose up once more, and from the rafter's a large garish sign showing off the logo for America's Next Great Assistant in red, neon lettering lifted down. "It is my pleasure to confirm that America's Next Great Assistant will be renewed this year for a second season!" From the floor, an equally as large sign rose up, the words 'Season 2' meeting up with their counterpart in the air.
Once the applause had died down enough, Drake continued, "And, it is my pleasure to introduce the lucky magician who will be starting this new hunt for America's Next Great Assistant. Please put your hands together for Howard Weiss!"
A big puff of smoke appeared, and coughing could be heard as the spotlights shown on an elderly man. He had liver spots on his balding head, wrinkles that made him look more like a prune than a man, and an upper back with such a severe bend that if it wasn't for the wooden cane in his hand he would have surely fallen over. A look of horror appeared on Drake's face, as the brief applause subsided into confused murmurings from the crowd. In a raspy voice that was perfectly befitting of a man of his poor health, complete with occasional coughs breaking apart words into nonsense, the man said, "What? Not what you were expecting? Alright then. Have it your way."
Before the audience's eyes, the old man quickly began to de-age. His hump of back straightened up; his wrinkles, while not disappearing completely, began to straighten out; and his gray hair even began to grow out again. Before too long, the changes seemed to subside and while the man before them still seemed to be much older than David Angel, given his slicked-back gray hair, old-time outfit, and wrinkles that creased his forehead while he smiled, he seemed to have an energy that was practically infectious for everyone else in the room. "My apologies for the prank, but you try to make your own fun when you get to be my age."
A proper round of applause rang through the audience as Drake went up and shook hands with Harold, smiling for a picture he knew would be on the cover of all the tabloids come next morning. As the applause died down once more, David held his microphone up to Harold and asked, "Why don't you introduce yourself to everyone, Harold?"
"Gladly," Harold took the microphone from Drake and began pacing the stage, swinging the cane he was holding in his other hand wildly as he explained. "My name is Harold Weiss and if you find that name familiar, it's most likely because I'm the magician your parents may have occasionally flipped to on one of the higher number channels when they had ran out of things to watch. I've been retired for... Oh about twenty years now, and when I had heard that David Angel was going to get a Reality TV show up and running on regular cable programming I knew that I would need to watch it. You see, David's father and I used to run in the same circles back when I used to perform, and I wanted to see how his little boy matched up against his old man. Imagine my shock when it turns out that little David Angel isn't so little anymore, and that he managed to pull off some of the greatest magic television that this old soul has seen since the invention of the television.
When the series ended, the show continued to stay in my mind. I must admit I had become obsessed with it, watching any and all reruns, analyzing every frame of pure energy and commitment put into by David and these girls. In many ways, it was my white whale, haunting me with sweet whispers to step out of retirement and get back into the business. So, when David reached out to me, asking if I would be interested in taking his place as the next host for a potential second season, I knew that it was destiny, telling me it was finally time to chase my dreams once again!"
During this monologue, Drake had sneaked over to the side of the stage, grabbing a second microphone and returning just in time to be front and center when Harold had finished. "Wonderful Harold! Truly inspiring. Now, before we go, I have one more special announcement to make regarding the second season of America's Next Great Assistant. For the past year, we've been receiving audition tapes from wannabe assistants absolutely begging to be contestants for this second season. There have been so many good audition tapes sent our way, that we felt it would be a shame to let them all go to waste. So, we've created a brand new website where you can submit your audition tapes and upvote the ones you think should be included for this year's show!" A little infographic appeared with the link to the website, while Drake continued to explain, "Now, if you've already submitted an audition tape, no need to worry, as we've helped convert the over one thousand entries to videos on the site. So stay tuned America, for when we reveal the contestant's for this year season this Saturday!"
As the audience applauded Drake's announcement, he didn't bother to wait for them to calm down as he announced, "Well, that's the end of our show! We've got a lot planned for this season, like celebrity cameos, new locales, and harder challenges, so we hope you'll enjoy it and keep interacting in our online web forums when these are simulcast online. Now, back to Channel 17 for the newest episode of Life With Ruby!"