“Hello Everyone, and welcome back to ‘Waking Up Late with America!’ The only morning talk show that starts after noon,” A woman with bright red hair wearing a bright red pair of pajamas smiled at the camera, sitting on an extremely comfy looking couch. She took a sip of her coffee before continuing, “Before the break, we were looking at some of your favorite magic vacation destinations. But now, we have a very special treat for you all.”
“Today’s special guest needs no introduction really, being the host of one of America’s favorite on-going reality TV shows. But let’s not let that overshadow his other amazing achievements, such as finishing fourth in ‘Dancing with the Stars’, or the fact that he’s soon to become a published author with his new book, ‘Lunch with David Angel: The Untold Beginnings of America’s Next Great Assistant’ coming out in a few months. Please welcome Channel 17’s own: Drake Bordignon!”
The audience’s applauded politely as Drake walked into frame, waving at them. He was in his own pair of black pajamas, and after giving the host of the talk show a professional hug, sat down opposite her on his own overstuffed sofa.
“Hello Drake. It’s wonderful to have you on,” The anchorwoman said.
“It’s lovely to be on, Scarlet,” Drake smiled, “How’s the family?”
“Marvelous, as always,” Scarlet and continued on with her professional demeanor as she said, “And as you know Drake, you’re always welcome to come over for a visit. All of us just absolutely adore you!”
“Ha ha. Maybe some other time,” Drake said back, his response seeming a little distracted.
“So, I imagine the reason that you’re making one of your rare public appearances is because you have some big news for the ANGA fanatics out there?” Scarlet asked, sipping from the mug of coffee she had been nursing the entire show. “Everyone has been absolutely chomping at the bit for some news. Especially with that April Fools joke you played. I mean really, an all bears season of ANGA?” She sipped her coffee as the audience laughed, “An absolute stroke of genius!”
“Ha ha. Thanks, although really, that was all the producer’s idea,” Drake said, sounding a little hurt, before continuing excitedly, “But I do have some big news about ANGA!-”
“Hooray!” Scarlet said, coffee almost spilling out of her cup as she raised her arms triumphantly.
“-But I’ve been told to save that for the end of the show.” Drake said apologetically.
“Drats.” Scarlet said, her arms coming back down to rest in her lap.
“Sorry,” Drake said, scratching the back of his head, “But if there’s one thing I’ve learned from working with magician’s, it’s that you never reveal your show stopper at the very beginning.”
“Fooey.” Scarlet sulked, before perking right back up, “Speaking of working with magician’s though, why don’t you share with us a little from your new book?”
“Well, what would you like to know?” Drake smiled, sipping his own cup of coffee that a PA had gotten for him.
“I guess we can start with how you and David first met each other? Were you a big magic fan growing up?”
“Oh no,” Drake shook his head, “I originally grew up in a little podunk town in Kansas. The most ‘magical’ experience I think any of us saw back there was the one time a circus sprang up overnight. Evidently they must not have made enough money, because they never came back.” He took a sip as the audience laughed. “No. Most of my experience with magic happened after I had already graduated from college.”
“Ooh! Where did you go?” Scarlet was now lying down on her stomach on her couch, her head in her hands and her feet (wearing a pair of red slippers) up in the air.
“Kansas State,” Drake smiled nostalgically, “For Journalism, if you could believe it.”
“I can see it,” Scarlet grinned, “So you probably ended up doing some internships and freelance stuff out of college then?”
“Got it in one,” Drake tipped his head slightly towards her, “A lot of human interest stories, which typically means people of all shapes, sizes, species, and magical abilities.”
“And was David one of these people you had the honor of interviewing?” Scarlet asked, sitting up.
“Shockingly enough no, but I do remember running into him a couple of times at various magic related functions,” Drake chuckled, “I didn’t really realize at the time how big a deal he was, but in hindsight the fact that he always seemed to have a crowd of ten or twenty people around him probably should have clued me in.”
“Okay, so up to this point, you’ve never really met the guy, and all of a sudden he wants you to host one of the biggest media events the world has ever seen?” Scarlett asked, her professionalism failing to hide her eagerness.
“That’s jumping ahead quite a few years,” Drake chuckles, “No. So, After doing freelance stuff for a while, I got tired of Kansas and packed my bags for California. Surprisingly enough, about a year after I move there I get picked up by … Oh, I don’t know if I’m allowed to say their name or not.”
“If they’re in your book, it should be fine,” Scarlet pressed against her ear, nodding along with confirmation from the voice of the producer she was hearing.
“Fair enough. So I get picked up by Channel 54 as a local news anchor for a local station outside of Hollywood, and apparently David was actually big friends with our head producer at the station, Liam.”
“So, you and Liam were buddy-buddy then?” Scarlet asked, hanging on Drake’s every word as he continued to share his story.
“Really more the opposite,” Drake laughed, “But he knew I was a really good reporter, so we worked well together. I think we both had a mutual respect for each other all things considered.”
“Anyways, whenever David had a local show, Liam and him would get together, and usually they would send a guy to cover it. And-“
“And that’s when you two met?” Scarlet interrupted.
“Well yes, but not because I covered his shows,” Drake laughed again, “David always made sure that everyone at the station was invited to the after parties. And it was at one of these that Liam introduced me to David for the first time.”
“Were you two instant best friends?”
“I’m pretty sure David forgot me as soon as I left,” Drake took a sip of his drink as the audience laughed, “but evidently he checked out my other work, because soon enough I found myself invited to a private dinner party he was hosting.”
“Ooh! Spicy!” Scarlet smiled, “And that eventually leads to you hosting ANGA?”
“Yep! But to find out more of the specifics,” Drake reached into the gap of the cushions of the couch, pulling out a large hardback book with a picture of him and David eating lunch across from each other on the front cover, “I’m afraid you’ll have to read my book.”
“Boo,” Scarlet smiled, her voice filled with mock disgust, “Well, thanks for telling us that much at least, Drake.” She turned towards the camera, “and don’t you be turning that dial, when we get back from the break, we’ll be discussing ‘Where are they now?’ with the season 2 contestants of ANGA, and then, Drake will reveal his special announcement about the future of ANGA. Oooh. I’m getting goosebumps already!”
~~~
ADBREAK
~~~
“And welcome back!” Scarlet smiled, “For those of you returning from the break, we’ve got ANGA host, Drake Bordignon on today to talk about ANGA. And our next topic of discussion is one that the internet has been abuzz about ever since the season finale almost a year ago, the contestants of Season 2, and where they are now.”
Scarlet turned towards Drake, “So Drake, as the host of ANGA, do you keep in contact all that well with prior contestants of the show?”
“Of course we keep in touch,” Drake smiled, “Some more than others obviously, but one of the unspoken perks of being on the show is that when all’s said and done, you’ll get a on-site production number and personal cell phone so that we can remain in contact. You know, so that we can schedule around returning for the finales, or after parties, or publicity, or even if they just want to chat.”
“So, does that mean you’d be willing to give us the behind the scenes scoop on our updates then?”
“I’ll give as much information as I feel comfortable sharing,” Drake said aloofly, a slight grin on his face.
“Alright, going in elimination order then, we’ll start with Patricia,” On the screen of a TV behind the two couches, a picture of the ebony skinned, Patricia in a stark white lab coat was displayed. “From press statements, we know that she was hired by a private research laboratory in New Mexico, but other than that there’s very little other information online. About two months after being hired, it seems like Patricia has completely disappeared, with other people who work at the lab refusing to comment on her status or her work. Is there any light you could shed on the situation Drake?”
“I’m afraid not,” Drake sighed, “Honestly, we were shocked that Patricia had answered the call to come back for the finale of Season 2. Frankly speaking, we had been prepared to move along without her, but she seemed rather enthusiastic with the idea, so everything worked out rather nicely there. After the series ended, we tried getting in contact with her a couple of times, twice for publicity events and then a few times as just some goodwill check ups. However she very quickly stopped answering her phone calls. We think there’s even the possibility she may have destroyed her phone, as the last time we attempted to call her we got an unknown number error.”
“Oh dear. That’s a shame to hear,” Scarlet sighed, “Well Patricia. If you ever get the chance to hear this, we hope that you can come back soon and wow us all with your amazing work!”
Drake nodded his head in agreement, as Scarlet took another sip of her coffee. “In better news,” Scarlet sighed, perking up as she continued, “I’ve heard that Elise has been absolutely killing it on YouTube recently.”
“Oh yeah!” Drake agreed, as the background video shifted from the photo of Patricia to a loop of segments from some of Elise’s most popular videos. “I want to say that in the two weeks from her appearance on ANGA, her Youtube channel skyrocketed from a little over a million subscribers to nearly three million subscribers?”
“Yep!” Scarlet grinned, “And that number has only increased since her appearance on ANGA. With almost every single one of her recent videos hitting the number one spot on the Youtube trending tab. She’s at about 9.5 million subscribers currently, and she believes that if this trajectory of subscriber growth continues, she should be able to hit the 10 million mark by June.”
“Not to mention,” Drake jumped in, “the charity live stream she ran and helped raise almost five hundred thousand dollars for Magiciens Sans Frontières.”
“Yes, it truly seems that things are only getting better for Elise. And speaking about things getting better, we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention the amazing phenomenon that is the success of Maya’s collaboration with Mono-I Props.” The screen behind Scarlet shifted very quickly to a demonstration of one of Mono-I’s unique brand of props.
It looked like the standard set of boxes that one would use for cutting an assistant in half, modified in such a way that the front of the box opened up, allowing a centaur assistant to back into the front such that their hind legs were in one of the boxes, while their fore legs were in the front box. A magician then walked out, holding another box that slotted into place on the box, now covering the centaur’s human torso, only revealing their head. The familiar pair of Mono-I and Maya’s eye designs were situated tastefully above a horse’s tail on the box.
Four sets of blades were brought out, and soon the centaur had been divided into three pieces, much to the amazement of the crowd.
“What happened to doing them in elimination order?” Drake asked cheekily.
“Shoosh you. It’s my show,” Scarlet waved at him, before going back to addressing the audience. “Yes, Maya’s line of props designed specifically for non-humans have been all the rage in the non-human communities, being the first in an untapped market place making millions for the aspiring prop maker and her newfound mentor. In fact, there’s really no reason for us to cover it much, as I’m sure everyone’s well aware on the impact this has had, helping spread the joys of magic to even more of the world.”
“I mean, we’ve got a pretty decent amount of non-humans in the audience today. How many of you have a Mono-I prop at home to have some relaxing fun with magic?”
The camera panned over the as-so-far unseen audience. It was a pretty decent crowd for a morning news talk show, mixed with a diverse crowd of human, hemihuman, and nonhumans. Many of the nonhuman audience members raised their hands enthusiastically or cheered along.
“I’ll take that as a Yes,” Drake chuckled.
“Well, Mono-I Props have already released two lines of standard props sets for over forty nonhuman and hemihuman races, including such popular classics as ‘Sawing-in-Half’ and ‘Mismade’ boxes. Their planning on releasing a third line of these standard props, hoping to bump up the number of races to over sixty, and there have also been rumors spreading that Maya is working on a set of new, completely original props that may be shooting for a late December/early January release,” Scarlett announced, the audience cheering the exciting news.
“So Scarlett, you skipped over her earlier, but I guess now would be appropriate to ask how Sinopia and Sable are holding up?” Drake asked the host, “Or would it be better to just ask for a whole family update?”
“They’re doing fine, Drake,” Scarlet rolled her eyes, her smiling giving away how happy she actually was to move on to talking about her sisters, “As you all probably already know, Sable’s temporary ban from working with Howard will expire next month. During the summer after ANGA Season 2 aired, they quickly put together a routine and did a couple of local shows while Silvia watched after everyone. Unfortunately, when Silvia had to go back to college, they had to change their plans slightly. Sable’s been rehearsing both with a personal trainer hand selected by Howard, and getting practical stage experience thanks to a temporary contract she’s signed with the ISAG to bring in a revenue source for the family. Thankfully, that’s been easy as audiences have been absolutely loving her!”
“I know. She’s sent me tickets for every one of her shows,” Drake smiled, “I still think my favorite was when she appeared as a surprise assistant during Kyle and Holli’s big New Year’s show.”
“That is a classic,” Scarlet shook her head in agreement, “and from what I’ve heard from Holli, it was an interesting experience to be stabbed and supported by pure light.”
“Sinopia, meanwhile, has basically been holding down the fort. She’s also been taking magic lessons at night from a tutor that Howard has been gracious enough to pay for until Sable’s contract begins, and thanks to the result of that civil court trial, she’s now officially taken guardianship of our younger siblings.”
“I feel bad in many ways,” Drake sighed, “It’s an absolutely unfortunate situation your family is in.”
“No need to feel so bad,” Scarlet hand-waved, “Trust me. All things considered our family is very lucky. After all, everyone has a roof over our heads, and are with people we love and trust. Sinopia’s a very smart and resilient woman. I’ve stopped by for a couple of visits and despite basically being a de facto mother and also trying to better her magic and pursue her options as an assistant, she always seems in higher spirits than I am.” The audience aww’d at this story of personal perseverance, as both Drake and Scarlet took sips from their drinks.
“And actually, I feel a little sorry that America isn’t going to get to share a little slice of my family this year,” Scarlet laughed, “What with Silvia still being in college and having no interest in the show.”
“Ha ha,” Drake laughed along with her, “Well, there’s always next year!” The audience laughed along to this joke.
“I guess then this brings us to the big anticlimax of the evening,” Scarlet half-joked, as the TV screen behind her shifted from a picture of Scarlet’s family to one of a flier from one of Howard’s most recent tours. It featured him, Nora, Annette, and Rocky (in his normal dog-like form), situated in a line wearing matching ugly sweaters and jeans (in Rocky’s case, a quadrupedal version of the outfit) emulating an awkward family photo. Howard had the largest grin on the poster, while Nora and Annette were doing their best to appear like they were hating the experience (unfortunately for them, the laughter in their eyes were giving away how much of a good time they were having). The poster was advertising the group’s ‘We’ll Look Back on This and Laugh’ tour, and featured the prominent sticker that this would be the last chance to ‘Catch Howard Weiss, his wonderful daughter, and his lovely assistants’.
“Surprising absolutely no-one, Howard Weiss and his wonderful assistants, Nora, Annette, and Rocky have had an absolutely record breaking series of shows over the past year, smashing the records set only a year prior by David and Jill, and leaving the tabloid press with absolutely nothing to gossip over,” Scarlet explained, sounding slightly saddened by their rampant success.
“That’s not entirely true,” Drake interjected, “They’ve been running ‘Who will Nora be working with next?’ articles for weeks now that her initial temporary contract is expiring soon.”
“Oh, don’t even get me started on those,” Scarlet rolled her eyes in exasperation, “I read one the other week that said that Nora was entertaining offers from Sojo the Clown Magician. As if she would even consider signing with that hack of a performinance artist-“ Scarlet interrupted herself as she placed a finger to her ear, before sighing and saying, “For legal reasons, I have to remind everyone that my opinions do not represent the views of Channel 17, nor are they a commentary on Sojo’s magical aptitude,” she then muttered something under her breath which the microphone thankfully did not catch.
“Well, wherever Nora ends up, I’m certain that she’s going to absolutely kill it,” Drake smiled nervously, trying to get the discussion back on track a little bit. “She has an amazing sense of chemistry with both Howard and Annette, and you can’t fake how comfortable she appears on stage.”
“Oh yeah,” Scarlet nodded her head in agreement, “And I’m sure that Howard’s show is only going to grow more popular when Sable’s contract finally kicks in.”
Scarlet took a sip of her coffee, before announcing, “And that concludes our ‘Where are they now?’ recap! Stay tuned! Because after the break is the final segment of our show, where Drake will finally share his exciting ANGA-related news!” The audience applauded as the camera panned out.
~~~
ADBREAK
~~~
“Well, it’s the final segment of the show, so you know what that means, Drake,” Scarlet grinned at her guest, “It’s time to pay the piper.”
“Alright,” Drake grinned, his excitement matching Scarlet’s own, “but rather than try and explain it all, the folks at Channel 17 have actually prepared a little video presentation to explain everything.”
“Great! Let’s all watch it together!” Scarlet and drake turned towards the TV screen at the back of the set. As the camera zoomed into it, the screen switched to a more clear direct feed of the video.
~~~
The video started in a black void, with the opening trumpets of ‘Also Sprach Zarathustra’ began to play, as a voice over began to explain ‘The road to becoming a world-class magician is long and severe. Each year, the World Magic Organization publishes the official classification database, and in its history less than 500 people have ever achieved such a rating.”
The camera began to cut to close ups of various famous World Class magicians. While only one facial feature was typically in view at a time, the names they represented were still immediately recognizable “In order to achieve this honor, certain feats of greatness must be met. ‘A minimum of five years being classified as an International Magician’. ‘Proficiency in a minimum of one hundred different fields of magic’. ‘Participation in at least five Magician’s Duels deemed to be ‘satisfactorily equal’ and one of which must be with a World-Class magician’. ‘A minimum of twelve ‘exemplary’ or higher rated full-house performances with the last twelve months’. The list goes on, and on, and on.” Each achievement was punctuated with a change to a different magician, eventually ending up on a full headshot of a young looking magician.
He was wearing a navy blazer, had short cut dark brown hair, and a bushy dark reddish-brown beard that framed a smile with porcelain white teeth. His features seemed settled in, but it was quite clear that he was younger than many of the previously shared photos of World Class magicians.
As the second set of timpani hits died down, the picture of the young looking magician began to slowly fade back to the black void, “International Class Magician, Martin Horn, is set to become the youngest World Class Magician since the introduction of the official Magician Ranking system in 1902. He only has a single feat left to accomplish…” The trumpet petered out, allowing the announcers word the emphasis of silence.
“‘A tour, comprising of a minimum of five shows, and expanding across a minimum of three continents, with a minimum viewership of one million people globally watching.’”
The final exciting crescendo of the song blared out, as a blue, spherical object moved into view. The model of the Earth took center frame as the music continued to blare, the ANGA logo slowly appearing over it. Once the logo had completely materialized, the subtitle ‘World Tour’ appeared underneath.
With the cymbal hit, the ANGA logo changed to a list of locations displaying in the ANGA font. More specifically, the screen read:
With shows scheduled for:
Sydney, Australia
Vienna, Austria
London, England
Washington D.C, USA
Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
With the next trumpet blast, the words changed again:
Featuring over ten famous
magical celebrities that covers:
Magicians,
Assistants,
Designers,
And Others
Another trumpet blast, another title card change:
With the financial backing
and participation of
over 80 different magical
agencies, including:
Followed by around 20 different logos for these various agencies, including the ‘World Magic Organization’, ‘International Shared Assistants Guild’, ‘Magiciens Sans Frontières’, ‘The David Angel Foundation’, ‘Magician’s For a Better Tomorrow’, ‘European Magician’s Union’
On the penultimate trumpet blast, the title card changed again, this time displaying just the word ‘And:’ along with the remaining 60 odd logos for various other magic based agencies and companies. With the size greatly diminished for each logo, it was difficult to make them all out, but the names were still readable.
On the final cymbal crash, the title card changed again, this time displaying just a single date:
6/5/2021*
~~~
The camera cut back to the studio audience, the sound of cacophonous applause drowning out everything except for Scarlet’s high pitch scream. Even as the applause was dying down, Scarlet was still practically jumping up and down on the couch.
“Oh my God! Oh my God!” Scarlet was practically hyperventilating, “This is amazing news!”
“Yep!” Drake smiled, happy with the reaction the group seemed to be having, “And just like last year, we’ll once again be accepting audition tapes from the public and hosting them right here on channel 17’s dedicated ANGA page,” A little infographic appeared at the bottom of the screen with the link to the website. “If you submitted an audition last year and didn’t get accepted, now’s your chance to dazzle us and potentially have a shot at being a contestant for this landmark season!”
A little disclaimer appeared stating that in order to be eligible to be a contestant required proof of legal residency in the United States, and other such restrictions such as not currently or having previously been a contestant or performer on ANGA that were frankly too uninteresting to list.
“I’m still in shock,” Scarlet was waving her hands frantically, “I’m going to have to go home and do sooooo much research on Martin Horn’s career now.”
“Well, I wouldn’t worry about that too much,” Drake grinned, “Because on May 22nd, Martin Horn will be hosting an AMA, where he will be answering any questions sent in by viewers on any of our applicable broadcasts!”
“Eee! Oh I can hardly wait!”
“And!” Drake had a cheeky look on his face that clearly showed that he knew the audience was already hooked, but that he was bout to go above an beyond, “Over the next coming weeks, our production team is planning a few special, one-off broadcasts to explain some of the revolutionary magic filming techniques we’ll be using this season!” Applause erupted in the studio once more, and when it had finally returned to a controllable level, Drake explained, “We’re hoping to get these one-offs out once a week, but make no promises, as we’re still in the process of filming them.”
The audience booed slightly at that announcement, but Scarlet waved her hand at them, explaining, “Don’t worry, Drake. Trust me, I can understand the difficulties of trying to pull these large media events together.”
“Well, that’s all I had planned to announce,” Drake took another sip of his drink, “Any questions before we finish?”
“I actually do,” Scarlet grinned, “Any particular reason for having the show premiere in June this year?”
“Well…” Drake rolled his eyes, looking pensive as he said, “I didn’t really want to share this with everyone yet… But, I guess it’ll be a pretty exciting exclusive for those who stuck around this long.”
Drake took a sip of his drink and continued, “The reason we had to push production back a little bit is because it’s been taking me a little longer to learn magic than we initially planned for.”
Scarlet, who had been taking her own drink, did a spit take. “No way! You’re actually learning magic?!”
Drake laughed, “Yep. We’re planning some scenes involving some famous Wellsprings, and to enter some of them requires a certain level of magical aptitude that I'm still working on.”
“Well, could you show us a little something?” Scarlet grinned, “I’d be willing to act as your assistant, if you’d like,” she raised her eyebrows up and down in a playful manner.
“Oh… I’m still not that good yet,” Drake smiled sheepishly, “but I can do this!” Drake held out his hands in a flourish, before grabbing a hold of his thumb and pulling it off, turning his hands to show that he had indeed actually removed the digit, as opposed to it being an optical illusion. The audience gave him a polite round of applause at his display of his meager talents, as he reattached his removed finger.
“Ha ha! Well, maybe one day we’ll get a show from Drake the Great,” the audience laughed with Scarlet’s joke, as she closed out the show.
“Well! I’m afraid that’s all we have time for today. That was some rather exciting news for ANGA Season 3, huh? In any case, we hope that you’ll tune in tomorrow afternoon at 1:00 for some more ‘Waking Up Late with America!’ , and remember to get those questions in for Martin’s AMA! This is Scarlet for Channel 17, signing off!”