The stage was well lit, the multi-coloured lights rippling along the background curtain with a garish contrast of light and shadow. It was hideous, to put it bluntly, and the calliope music, the horrid pipe organ noise that was associated with fairgrounds and carousels the world over was playing from the speakers that hung from the four posts that cornered the stage.

Onto the stage, stepping through the curtain, came a clown. The large floppy shoes, a ludicrously side waistband on their blue pants - held up by suspenders - a white shirt that was stripped vertically with alternating greens and reds, a blue wig and plenty of face paint all proved beyond a doubt the horror that was now before them. A clown.

"Guess who has the Magician's hat!" the Clow held a very stylish felt top hat out for all to see. "Now, with this, Booozooo the Clown will never run out of things to juggle!" He giggled, his red-ball nose threatening to fall off save for the string that held it in place. "Now, on with my act!"

He reached into the hat and pulled out the first object.

A white Rabbit. The Clown looked into the hat, then back at the animal in his hand, who looked back at him, distinctly unimpressed. The rabbit wiggled its nose at the Clown, who shoved the wrong thing pulled from the hat back in. "Oh, a wise guy, huh?" he faked the accent of a Chicago Mobster. "Let's do this properly this time!" he reached back into the hat and pulled out a bowling pin, which he nodded at and started flipping into the air with one hand, catching and throwing in a motion so smooth it had to have been practiced for a very long time.

"Let's see here..." the Clown said as he tossed the hat into the air as well, joining the pin in flipping over and over in the air. "Ah-ha!" he called out as the hat reached the apex of the flip it was in, and with its open side facing down, another bowling pin fell out, joining the other one and the hat in being thrown through the air with the greatest of ease.

The Clown started to slide back and forth, adding a degree of tension to his act by suggesting that he could miss more easily as he did this, but such was not to be as the Clown held onto his skills perfectly. "Time for four!" he called out and flipped the hat into the air with a bit of extra force to give it the height needed to drop out the next prop. He flipped the two pins with his off hand as he readied to catch the next thing to come out of the hat.

"Allez-oup!" a woman's voice was heard as the hat reached its apex one more time, and a head fell out! " 'Allo!" the head said as it - she - tumbled into the waiting hand of the clown, who still kept the other three objects juggling. "Ah, there you are!"

"What." The clown was incredulous at the new arrival.

"Ah, so ze Magician," the woman replied, her hair tied into a tight bun to avoid spillage, "he waz wondering where hiz hat went!"

The clown slowly blinked, then shrugged, and tossed the woman's head into the air, joining the two pins and hat as they flew about the air over his head. "Ah! What?!!" the woman called out in shock as her voice dopplered back and forth. "What are you doing?"

"My act!" the Clown replied. "You are part of it!" he stated as fact as he flipped her head back into the air.

"Eeee! Stop zat!" the woman demanded.

"No! This is my act!" The clown tossed the hat into the air again, and this time added a flourish of turning around and not looking as he caught the next thing that fell from the hat.

It was another woman's head. "There you are!" she called out to the first woman.

"What?" The Clown turned around again, now juggling five items at once. "What is going on?"

"Oh, hey," the second woman's head said - somehow still wearing a cowgirl hat tied around her chin, and speaking with a western accent. Never mind that the hat she wore definitely couldn't fit through the top hat either.

"He iz stealing the hat!" the French assistant called out as she and the cowgirl passed each other.

"You sure?" The cowgirl returned.

"Mais Ouis!"

"You two be quiet, or I'll light something on fire!" the Clown threatened.

"Go ahead!" cowgirl taunted him as she passed by the hat.

"Fine! I will!" The annoyed Clown replied and caught the Hat with one hand, keeping the two women in the air with the other hand. With the hat, he caught the two pins, and then tossed it back into the air. One pin fell out, now on fire!"

"You meanie!" the french-accented woman said. "What did that pin ever do to you?"

"HAHAHAH!" The clown laughed. Evilly. Or tried to. It was hard with the getup he was in. It was more like a maniacal giggle. "Again!" As he said this, the second pin returned, just as on fire as the first! The Clown juggled the hat, the two pins and the two heads in the air, making close passes between the two women and the pins.

"Eeep!" the french woman shrieked as the flames whipped past her. "Ahhh!" the Cowgirl yelled out as another pin went past her, the two of them caught in opposite hands along with their respective flaming perils. "You'll pay for this!" they called out in unison.

"Nope! No never, not ever!" The Clown called back. "It's my show! Booozooo the Clown will be the new star of the circus!"

The hat was flung into the air, alternating between hands. The juggling skill of the clown was not to be denied, but this was when it ended. A single arm, clad in a black sleeve with a white under-shirt, reached out from the hat and grabbed the clown by his head.

"uh oh"

The arm coming out of the hat let go and snapped his fingers, causing the two flaming pins and the heads to stop moving in the air and just float serenely. From inside the hat, a deep and sonorous baritone expressed his displeasure. "You've done a bad thing, clown. Stealing my hat? And my lovely assistants? Oh, that's going right to the Ringleader."

The clown tried to fight off the hand, but it, and the had, pursued him across the stage with implacable determination, finally cornering him before the clown could try to jump off the stage and flee across the audience. "There you are!" the man reaching through the hat stated firmly as he grabbed the clown by the collar. With a 'slurp' of suction, he pulled the struggling clown through the hat, leaving behind nothing but a "Nooooooooo~!" that was far too long in being drawn out.

The hand reached back through the hat and quickly pointed at the four hovering objects. "Hey boss!" the Cowgirl said. "Sir," the french-accented woman identified herself when she was pointed to. The hand of the magician waved back at both of them, then drew that hat over to under one flaming pin. The hand retracted, and the pin fell through the hat. Then the other pin was recovered in much the same manner before the hat was moved to under the Cowgirl. "Well," it's been fun," she said to the audience. "Not."

Then she fell through the hat, her own hat folding up neatly to pass through the brim with no troubles. The hat moved over to under the last woman, the first through the hat in the first place. "Au Revoir!" she said with a wink before she too fell through the hat, leaving just that on the stage, and silence.

The Magician's hand reached through the had, and quickly tossed a sign into the air before grabbing the rim of the hat, and pulling his arm - and the hat - back through the hat to wherever he was. The sign landed on the stage, set up perfectly under the lights. "Show's over. FOR GOOD." it read.