“Good morning, Ladies!” Howard yelled as he stepped out of the Golden Elevator’s doors, once again waking up the sleeping contestants, receiving a chorus of groans as a response. Howard frowned as he surveyed the lobby, “Hm… So Maya decided to force you all to suffer in the lobby?”

    “What I’m right here!” Maya complained, rubbing sleep out of her eye, “I handed a keycard out to everyone last night. You never told us which floor our rooms were on!”

    “I did?” Howard asked sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment, “Well, I’m glad I made sure to come down early to rectify that! So get up girls, and let’s begin the grand tour!” The girls began to get up, picking up their stuff and beginning the process of picking new outfits for the day, but Howard stopped them, saying, “There’s no time for that girls! Don’t worry about your stuff, the bellhops will take them to your room! Now come on! We’ve got many places to go and things to see!”

    The girls shrugged, dropping their stuff to the ground and entering the great golden elevator in their pajamas. Howard pressed the button for the fourth floor, the doors closing-

~~~

Dining Room

    -and then instantly opening once more. As they stepped out of the elevator, Howard gestured towards the room, explaining, “This is the dining room. If you’re ever hungry for food, you can come down here and sit down at a table. Service is twenty-four hours a day, seven-days a week, even on holidays. No cooking required.” The girls scanned the room, looking at the identical tables that seemed to extend outwards for infinity. The tables were an elaborate golden wood, with a simple black finished tabletop, and sat 4 to each table. The chairs seemed like they would be heavy to move, as each came with nice padded seats and intricate carvings in the woodwork, but if you were to lift one of them up, you would have found that they seemed to be almost weightless.

    Of course, the girls weren’t really examining the room all that much, instead focusing on the couple that was sitting at a nearby table. One of them appeared to be rather normal, wearing a blue tank top with brown khaki pants, her curly, dark brown hair brushed over her right shoulder once more. It was her partner who was very different looking.

    It seemed as though somebody had gone wild in messing with her body in photoshop, as very few things seemed to be in their proper place. Upon her shoulders, her left hand rested, idly clenched into a fist. Following logic, one would have expected that her head would have been taken her left hand’s place, but instead it took her right hand’s her entire left arm instead having been replaced by her right leg, which being significantly thicker than her harm, stretched the sleeve of her plain blue shirt. Of course, that wasn’t the only thing that seemed to be stretching the shirt in weird ways, as the outline of her shirt seemed to indicate that her breasts were currently situated vertically on her chest.

    “Oh my God! Penny and Jean are still here!” Elise squealed, catching the attention of the two girls at the table. When Jean spotted them, she blushed slightly giving a polite wave, while Penny had to rotate her arm to get a look at them, bringing up her leg arm and waving at the girls. She scooted her chair out, revealing that her purple pants seemed to be as equally poor fitting as her shirt, as her one normal (albeit opposite) leg seemed to have grown a couple of extra inches, while her replaced arm had shrunk a few inches, not even reaching past the sleeve of the leg.

    As she hobbled over to the table, Howard explained, “Of course their still here! They have to be here to help provide feedback on the performances this Saturday, and I’m not going to have them go through the hassle to fly all the way back to Australia to come back a few days later, so I offered them the chance to stay and let me show them all that Vegas has to offer!”

    “Good morning girls!” Penny smiled, I’m glad to see you managed to figure out Howard’s task.”

    “Penny! I just want to tell you, I absolutely loved your performance yesterday,” Elise said, “I’ve seen some rips of episodes of the Faceless Magician on Youtube, but I have to say seeing the real thing in person is completely different!”

    “Thanks,” Penny smiled.

    “Also, can I just say that you’ve always been a huge inspiration for my show! I follow your blog religiously and I think I’ve tried every transformation that you’ve featured at least twice. I’ve got to ask, where do you get your inspiration for your awesome transformations and what drives your obsession with trying to change your form as frequently as possible?

    Penny seemed taken aback by the sudden attempt for an interview, “W-well-“

    Luckily, Howard stepped in to diffuse the situation, “Elise, my dear, Penny is here to relax, not to have to worry about conducting an interview. There’ll be plenty of time to try and interview her for your web show later. As for now, we really must be going before this tour drags on for too long.”

    Elise looked peeved, before Penny said, “Before you all leave though, let me get a picture with you all for my blog!” She handed her phone to Howard, who seemed perplexed with the device until penny explained to him to wait for the camera app to focus and then press the red button. She stood in front of the girls (who all seemed slightly embarrassed, now wishing the that Howard had allowed them the time to change out of their pajamas), and posed for a photograph.

    As Howard made to return Penny’s phone, she waved towards Jean with her foot-arm, saying, “Jean! C’mon and take a picture with us. I want to have one with you too!” Jean acquiesced, still blushing slightly as she came over and stood in the middle with Penny, who’s arm-head impossibly snaked around Jean’s shoulders twice, before resting her head closer to Jean’s.

    “Alright Ladies, let’s let Penny and Jean enjoy their breakfast so I can show you the rest of the hotel!” The girls boarded the golden elevator once more, as Penny and Jean made their way back to their table, Penny doing her best to edit the photos with her the foot at the end of her arm. Howard pressed a button and the doors closed-

~~~

Practice Studio

    -And reopened to a large, plain white room. Along the walls and floors, about every meter there seemed to be a thin line of some sort, giving the appearance that the room was constructed out of several tile. “This girls, is my state of the art practice room,” Howard gestured around the room, “It is one of the most versatile of its kind, able to provide anything one could ever need to perform incredible feats of magic.”

    Annette walked up to one of the walls, touching one of the wall tiles and asking, “So how does it work- Eep!” The tile seemed to react to her touch, the surface bubbling outwards, as the white, flat wall turned into a padded, white wall.

    “It’s quite simple my dear, you touch a panel, focus on what you want the panel to turn into,” He reached out, touching two vertically adjacent panels on the wall, “and voilà!” He pulled his hands away, the wall segments transforming into a rather short and wide wooden door. He opened the door gesturing for the girls to follow him inside.

    The room was decorated in the same general golden aesthetic that the rest of the hotel seemed to follow, with the floor having been replaced by meter wide swatches of oriental carpets. Standing in the center of the room was the all time classic of magician props, composed of two horizontal cabinets with a clear indicator where the magician was supposed to saw his assistant in half. “It’s very adaptive to your desires, and the best part is, when you’re done, clean-up is a breeze!” Howard touched the carpets underneath the prop, and it began to slowly sink through the floor as though it were made of quicksand, the pattern slowly being mutated by the intrusion of the prop. After only a couple of seconds, all signs of the prop had disappeared, and the carpet looked completely normal.

    Howard stepped out onto the rug, announcing, “Well girls! I hoped you enjoyed the tour! But I’m afraid I’ve got to go. Don’t want to keep Penny and Jean waiting too long for their tour of the Vegas Strip!” He walked over to the wall, and from the doors of the golden elevator emerged. He pressed the button, opening the doors as he reached into his coat pocket, impossibly pulling out a top hat and cane.

    “Wait!” Sable asked, “That’s it?”

    “My dears, you’re free to explore the amenities at your own leisure. I thought it most important to only show you the things to help you get started on your challenge for this week.”

    Howard was just about to press a button before Maya shouted out, “Wait! What about how to find our rooms?”

   “My dear, it’s a magic hotel. Just press any button and focus on getting to your destination,” Howard grinned, pressing a button and leaving the girls on their own once again.

    “You know, I’m getting the sneaking suspicion that he doesn’t want to hang out with us,” Elise snarked, walking up to golden elevator and pressing one of the buttons, the elevator doors instantly opening. “Annette, be ready to rehearse in two hours. I desperately need to take a shower.”

~~~

Elise’s Bedroom

    True to her word, as soon as she had gotten up to her room, Elise rushed to the bathroom to take one of the longest showers she had ever taken. She stepped out of the bathroom nearly an hour later, her hair wrapped up in a pink towel, while a baby blue towel was wrapped around her body. She reflected on her bedroom, impressed with what Howard had done for her.

    Her bedroom reminded her heavily of a greek palace, with a white marble floor that felt amazing against her still wet feet, she made her way past the small kitchenette provided for her, the marble counter top held up with greek columns, and into the living room. In stark contrast to the overall aesthetic of the room, a flat screen television was built into the wall of the living room, the remote for it on the marble coffee table, right next to a cheese board loaded with different types of cheeses, chips, and two varieties of grapes.

    Elise picked up the remote, flopping down on the red, satin chaise lounge. She flipped the TV on to an entertainment channel, some entertainment reporter commenting on the developments that had been made in the series thus far. She tossed the remote onto the table, and grabbed the purple grapes plucking one into her mouth and commenting, “A girl could get used to this.”

~~~

Annette’s Bedroom

    Annette opened the door to her bedroom, having checked with the front desk to make sure that they had taken Rocky up to her bedroom. As she entered, she said “Hey Rocky! I’m ba- Oh my Lord!”

    Annette’s room was absolutely massive, with high ceilings and long walls, and a seemingly artificial sun lighting up the whole room. By her estimate, the room must have been at least three acres big. Running around, frolicking in the grass that took up the majority of the room, was Rocky, who was currently in the form of a deer. Of course, when he spotted Annette, his body bubbled, transforming more into the look of a border collie as he bounded over barking at Annette with joy. Annette squatted down as he approached, Rocky licking her face with his black tongue as thanks for letting him play around in the room.

    After some more exploring, Annette found that on the opposite end of the three acres of field was a single white door, a little do not disturb sign with a black shape crossed out indicating that this part of the room was clearly for her and not Rocky. When she opened, she was relieved to see a rather standard hotel bedroom room, her suitcase laid out on top of the bed. “Well, bud. It seems that Howard made good on my request to make sure you got to have an awesome space to live,” She patted Rocky’s head as she slowly undressed, making her way towards the shower.

~~~

Patricia’s Bedroom

    Patricia knew she had to shower now, because otherwise her bedroom would distract her from meeting up with Sinopia later to start planning their trick.

    Well, it would really be more accurate to say that Patricia’s laboratory would distract her from meeting up with Sinopia, as her bedroom shared more similarities with her practical magic laboratory in college than with a bedroom. Rather than a bed, the closest piece of furniture that one could conceivable get rest on (other than the floor) was a plain gray bean in the corner of the room.

    The rest of the room was devoted to practical magic implements of all shapes and sizes. Against two walls, library shelves of books on various branches of magics, some common, others so obscure that even Patricia would have trouble deciphering the texts. Against the other two, were shelves upon shelves of various ingredients and runes, each labeled and sorted into their own little compartment depending upon the branch and purpose of magic. Scattered about the room were various instruments that Patricia had learned to call her friends over the years, a classic cauldron, a magisciloscope (a device used to detect the wave like pattern of the magical energy imbued within an object), a spell circle, some grounding shears (used to cut the connection between an object and its enchantment) and other various bits and bobs to help analyze the magic around her in various different ways.

    If she could just finish this shower quick enough, maybe she would have enough time to read one of those books for some future tests later tonight…

~~~

Maya’s Bedroom

    “Oh wow!” Maya said, examining the note left to her by Howard in her bedroom. It read, ‘Maya, for your bedroom, I wanted you to be able to enjoy experiencing magic as simply as many humans do, without having to constantly strain to return yourself to normal or focus on changing the affect of a prop clearly designed for humans. As such, I partnered with an old Monoeye friend of mine in order to help design these props with a monoeye performer in mind. The effects should be rather obvious from the shape of the box, but if you require instructions, feel free to ask the front desk. I hope you enjoy it. -Howard’

    Maya stared at the box on her kitchen counter nervously. The box was clearly designed to accept a human’s head, but painted on the wooden panel of every side of the box was a single large eye, and on the top, the words ‘Designed by Howard Weiss, Produced by Mono-I’ were printed in small black lettering. Maya took a deep breath, putting the box up onto her head, she repeated the steps she had seen most humans do when they performed this trick, rotating the box three full rotations to the left, and lifting up.

    To her shock, the box came up and off her head with amazing ease, and now the true gravity of what Howard had given her began to sink in. She fumbled with her headless body, eventually finding the latch to the door and pulling her head out, basking in the success of her trick. She proceeded to spend the next fifteen minutes just watching her body walk around the room from her head’s position on the counter top, before deciding it was time for the ultimate test. She placed her head back on her shoulders, and focused on it reconnecting.

    Maya felt the jolt of magic activate instantly, and now she could not wait for her practice with Sable to end so that she could come back to her bedroom and finally experience magic the way she had been missing it her entire life.

~~~

Sable’s Bedroom

    Sable was beyond impressed with her hotel bedroom. For starters, she had a large, king size bed, all to herself, for the first time in her whole life! And, she had a bathroom that was all hers also! And a small kitchenette! Really, it was just a standard hotel bedroom, but it was hers!

    No more screaming. No more fighting. No more worrying about having one of your body parts stolen from you in the middle of the night! No more having to help cook dinner because Dad was staying late at work again and forgot to call the pizza place for delivery.

    And the more she thought about it, the more incredibly lonely she felt. “Maybe I’ll head over to Sin’s room and see if she needs any help unpacking,” Sable thought aloud, pacing back and forth in her room before deciding to head towards the door.

    Just as she was about to step out of it, she heard a knocking on the door against the far wall of her room. She looked at it confused, before walking over, undoing the latch and revealing Sinopia on the other side, in a room identical to her own! “Sin!” Sable said, hugging her much taller sister.

    “Hey Sable,” Sinopia said, smiling sheepishly, “I’ve been thinking about what you said yesterday.”

    “Oh… Yeah?” Sable asked, looking away from her nervously.

    “You were right. I have to stop letting my fears of what Dad will do to us control how I behave. From now on, I’m gonna give this competition my all! How else am I going to show the world what a superstar I am!” Sinopia struck a pose.

    Sable couldn’t help but crack a smile, saying, “Yeah, but not if I beat you to it,” She struck her own pose, and the two laughed, their moods recovered from yesterday.

    “Also, I was wondering…” Sinopia asked as their laughter subsided, “Is it okay if I come sleep with you tonight? I like having my own bedroom… but I think it’s way too quiet for me to get any real sleep.”

    “Just as long as you don’t keep me up with your snoring,” Sable retorted, .

~~~

Annette & Elise’s Rehearsal

    “So, how about we do a dance act similar to what Penny and Jean for their trick yesterday?” Annette asked, she had left Rocky to enjoy his new playground a little bit longer, while she and Elise brainstormed in their own individual practice room.

    “I’m not sure… Can you dance?”

    “Well, you’re looking at one half of the number two square dancing team back home, only behind my mom and pop!” Annette said with pride.

    “Well… We can definitely put it on the list of possible tricks then,” Elise said, pressing her hand against the wall, the idea forming underneath the other four ideas they had come up with thus far. While the ideas were very different from each other, it was quite clear that all of the items on the list were imitations of other acts that they had seen before. “The way I see it, the hard part would be getting Howard to agree to any of these, since he seems to really want us to come up with ideas of our own.”

    “Well, when Rocky and I struggle to think of something to spice up our act, we generally go around and play in the field back home until something pops into our mind.”

    “Alright… And?”

    “Well… Why don’t we just goof around in this room a little bit until something sticks."

    Elise seemed to contemplate that for a moment, before getting up and saying, “Nah. I think what we have will be plenty fine enough for Howard to let us do one of them. We can workshop it more on Wednesday.”

    “Wait, why Wednesday?”

    “Because, tomorrow’s Tuesday. Meaning the midweek challenge is gonna happen and eat up a day of our rehearsal,” Elise pressed her hand against the wall, the black board turning into a sheet of paper, which she proceeded to fold and stick in her pocket. “Plus, stopping now means we’ll be extra prepared for tomorrow!” Elise pressed the button for the golden elevator disappearing back to her bedroom.

    Annette sighed. At least this meant she got to spend more time with Rocky.

~~~

Maya & Sable Rehearsal

    “So, I don’t think we’ve been properly introduced since you’ve seemed to be busy helping your sister with her crisis,” Maya said, sticking out her hand, “My name’s Mayaki, but you can call me Maya?”

   “M-Maya?” Sable asked with a look of relief on her face, looking down at Maya’s hand and shaking it. “Alright. I’ll try to remember that, but you’ll have to forgive me if I forget. I’m absolutely lousy with names.”

    “Don’t worry about it. You’re name’s Sable right?”

    “Yeah,” Sable continued looking away from Maya as she let go of her hand.

    “Hey,” Maya said, causing Sable to look into her one eye, before looking away. “It’s okay to stare if you want to,” Maya said, remaining amicable, and making Sable look her in the eye once more. “I get stared at all the time. Most people I know have never met a Monoeye before, so don’t feel like you have to look away for my sake.”

    “I-It’s not that-” Sable said, uncertain if she should reveal this to someone she just met or not. Deciding to take the lesson that Howard had taught her, and she had helped Sinopia see, she finally admitted, “I… I have a problem looking at people’s faces.”

    Maya stayed silent for a while, digesting Sable’s problem before saying, “Well, then there’s only one way to start fixing that.”

    “How-“ Maya reached up grabbing both side of Sable’s face, and looking directly at her with her one eye. She kept Sable’s face still, her hands blocking her from trying to look elsewhere.

    The pair kept at this for nearly fifteen minutes, until eventually, it seemed as though the distress on Sable’s face was down to an acceptable level. Sable hadn’t even noticed that Maya had dropped her hands away when she said, “Is that any better?”

    “Yeah.” Sable said, happy that she could finally look at least one other person that Sinopia in the face.

    “Great, because we got a lot of work to do to get us ready for Saturday!”

~~~

Patricia & Sinopia Rehearsal

    “So! Are you pumped up enough to start rehearsing Patricia?!” Sinopia asked, bouncing around slightly and punching her fists into the air.

    Patricia said, “Look, it’s great to see you’re excited and all, but if we’re going to have any chance of being able to pull off even the most basic of tricks, we’re going to need to train you up to at least a usable level.”

    “W-what!?” Sinopia asked dumbstruck, her hands falling to her sides.

    “Seriously, I didn’t want to say this in front of everyone else, but you’re magic reserves are even lower than Maya’s, and she has the excuse that she’s genetically handicapped to being able to perform magic.”

    “Okay… Well that hurts. But I’ll do whatever it takes! I’m in it win it!” Sinopia said, punching the air, trying her best to not break out in tears.

    “Here,” Patricia reached into her pocket, pulling out two vials of a brown liquid, “These potions will help you supercharge your magic reserves while allowing you to not have to transform your body at all for eight hours.”

    “Really? How?” Sinopia said, eyeing the vial suspiciously.

    “It works in much the same way that a lot of drugs trick the dopamine centers of your brain. In this case, they simply tell the parts of your body that are responsible for magic production that you’re performing a complex trick, while telling your magic reserves to keep on storing.”

    “So like magic steroids?”

    “Basically.”

    Sinopia said, “Well then, why aren’t all magic users on them?”

    “Well, because for the average person who actually has decent magic reserves, it could potentially lead to a magic overdose. That’s why I carefully measured them out for you. Make sure you do not take both within a twenty four hour window. I'd recommend taking them before bed, because you'll be unable to perform magic properly when using them.”

    “Okay, but what about designing the magic trick?”

    “We can worry about that when I know what level of difficulty to aim for when you’re slightly stronger,” Patricia pulling out a notebook and jotting some notes down as she left the practice room, leaving Sinopia holding her ticket to bettering herself.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

& Question Corner &

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    To Maya: “Do you have much experience with riddles and puzzles? Because that kind of solution requires a decent amount of lateral thinking: not only does it help one think creatively, but it's an extremely useful life skill to have, especially as a magic trick designer. (you also did better than me: I would have tried to steal his hands, or tricked Weiss into giving me them somehow, thinking the box was keyed to him. But that's what I get for playing so many tabletop RPGs. )” -@WanderTones

    My mom and I used to do puzzles all the time as a little kid, especially logic puzzles. She always stressed how it was important to work your brain out a little every day, or else it turns to mush. Really, what keyed me in to the fact that I had to get Howard to help open the box somehow was that he kept insisting on watching us attempt to open the box. If he thought we could have done it on our own, he would have just left us to our own devices.

    Although, hearing your solution now makes me wonder if that would have worked, and what Howard would have done if somebody actually managed to pull it off…

    To Sinopia: “I don't want to pressure you into spilling your guts, especially not when there's a chance the crew could put it up on live TV, but if you need someone to talk to, I'm sure someone in the cast or crew will take the time to listen. It's hard, very hard, way harder than asking for help like Maya did, but if you're going to try and become a world-class assistant, you're going to need to learn how to express your vulnerabilities to those you're working with.” -@WanderTones

    Yeah… You’re probably right. Thankfully, I’ve got Sable to help pull me out if I start spiraling again!

    To Maya: “Maya, Congrats and I felt that it is a very important lesson to learn in life that you do need help and failure is a thing. Wish more people learned this before it's too late.” -@quad2

    I agree. I knew a kid in high school who would only take the standard level courses because he was too afraid of lowering his GPA for colleges, not realizing that if he had taken those AP classes, he could have potentially gotten into a better college with a lower GPA.

    To Elise: “I'll gladly answer your questions if you ever visit my shop. Kind of need the attention if you don't mind. Tee hee.” -Rei

    Great. If you want, you can reach out to Cody through our contact email, and we can set this thing up for whenever I’m done competing!

    To Patricia: “Oh, I'm so sorry and I do hope things got better. I was referring to the time where I did a magic trick that ended up sending me and my assistant to another world and we lost our bodies. We had to look over the place as floating heads for who knows how long and so much had happened and it led me to owning a head shop to help the other heads in that world. What you been through must be more harsh than what I been through.” -Rei

    I don’t know, the sound of losing your body and being trapped in some other worlds head dimension sound several ranks up from having to deal with the repercussions of a flood. Of course, it’s hard to gauge how exactly trauma affects each person.

    Also, there’s no need to apologize. The flood happened many years ago, and we’ve been in our current home for ages. We managed to let that chapter of our lives closed peacefully because after all, you can replace things, but you can’t replace people.

    To Sable: “I can try during work but she's so focused on the job making friends with the customers and heads. Even out of the job, she has other opportunities that I do not want to get in the way of. Though she does miss you and your sisters.” -Rei

    Well, if you can just mention it to her, that would be great. It doesn’t have to take up too much of her attention.

    To Everyone: “Don't let yourselves feel sore or downhearted at the trick answer for that test, and don't be mad at Mr. Weiss - I'd have given you something quite similar were I in his position! That box represents some of the most valuable skills you must learn to uphold if you want to become the best of the best. To your credit, you have all proven you have determination and drive, as shown by the fact that you persisted in trying to solve the task, but even the greatest of assistants and magicians must learn when to express a lack of knowledge or a need for help - the consequences of ignoring it can be.... messy. I nearly learned that the hard way, once upon a time. Humility, honesty, a strongly developed sense of your own skills and limits, and most importantly, the ability to express them to your partners in performance is vital to your future success. Penny and I both had our start in magic as assistants, much like you all, and our bond and trust in each other is founded upon those very lessons.” -@MagicJeans

    Annette: Looking back at the task, I understand what Howard was going for because it’s a lot like how I train Rocky. When he messes up the trick for the first time, I try not to scold him. It makes no sense to try and bring someone down when they are putting themselves out there, instead it’s important to encourage them to keep trying, and when they figure out everything on their own, they’ll be able to bask in their sweet rewards.

    Elise: Aww! Thank you so much for the advice Jean! I absolutely need to get you and Penny on my show when this all over. My viewers would love to hear your thoughts about how to become better assistants!

    Maya: Wow! Thank you for the words of advice! I’ll definitely try to do my best to take those words to hard.

    Patricia: I find it difficult to be able to admit that I have a lack of knowledge on a subject, because if I feel I do, then I get the urge to want to look up the answer for myself and conquer the mountain. That being said… you do bring up some excellent points on being able to fail.

    Sable: I agree. Sometimes the hardest thing a person can do is reach out.

    Sinopia: *tearing up a little* Wow… I clearly still have a lot to learn about becoming a better assistant… And I can’t wait to learn it all!

    To Maya: “To Maya: I'm rooting for you, hun. You remind me of myself back when I was just getting started, only much more humble, and if you can hold your nerve and stay true to yourself, your empathy, and your ideals, you'll go far. If you ever have trouble with stage anxiety, think back on the performance you witnessed. What stood out, and what did you notice about my role and manner compared to Penny's? Why do you think that is?

P.S. If things don't work out on the show, hit me up ♥ I'd be glad to teach you a few of my techniques and give you some contacts to look into that might be of interest. Stay safe!” -@MagicJeans

    Thanks Jean! I thought your performance with Penny was fantastic! I wasn’t really able to tell much about how you were feeling on the inside, because of your lack of face, but I imagine that was the point? I was also impressed by how you and Penny seemed to have such distinct personalities despite not being able to say a word. Penny seemed to be more energetic and active, while you seemed to take a more passive, but equally as important leader role, helping to build up the suspense and taking control of the situation when you needed to.

   Also, be careful, I might just hit you up on that offer if I don’t win.

    To Sinopia: “This needs not be answered if you're not feeling up to it, but take heart. There's a whole lotta folk out there that believe in you, and you know what? I'm one of them! Sometimes life throws a few punches, and even though they can ache most terribly, you're not alone. Fake it till you make it may sound like a shallow piece of advice, but even just putting on a smile, no matter how forced, will help more than you might know. And hey, don't forget, you're all in this together! Don't be afraid to ask for advice from your fellow contestants.” -@MagicJeans

    Thank you so much for the words of encouragement Jean! You’re performance with Penny was absolutely amazing, and to hear that you two have faith in me makes me want to give this contest my all even more now!

    To Patricia: “How do you feel about teamwork? What are the most important aspects of making it work, in your view?” -@MagicJeans

    I’m typically rather ambivalent towards teamwork. I’ve had enough bad run-ins on team projects to know that I would prefer to work on things by myself, but I’ve also had a few group projects that almost made me change my mind on the whole thing. For instance, my Sophomore year of college, I was paired with this guy who clearly was only interested in taking the class for an easy A, while I had to take it as a requisite for my major. So, I cut him a deal, I would work on making sure the essay portion was up to snub, while he would focus on making the presentation portion. It actually turned out quite well, and I think that was the only time I’ve ever earned full marks for a magic performance.

    To me, the most important aspects of making sure a team is successful is to play to each other strengths, and make sure that everyone communicates well. If communication between any element of the team stops, then the project is basically dead in the water.

    To Mr. Howard Weiss: “Thank you for having clean pockets! Trust me, I've seen quite a few in my time, but yours? Magnifique.” -@MagicJeans

    It was my pleasure Jean. And please, call me Howard.