“A Prince Rupert’s drop is a fascinating and beautiful little thing,” Phian explained as he held up a little glass bead with a long tail. “Cooled quickly, so the outside solidifies in shape while the inside is still hot.”

The magician wore a gold-colored vest over a silver shirt with big, loose sleeves, and silver pants, an allusion to the royalty of centuries past. Deep mist rolled around his feet, its source hidden by a huge screen behind him. The screen displayed a close-up of his hands and, of course, the drop. Stage left and only a few feet away was a smaller camera, also focused on his hands, its purpose not clear at the moment. All that was visible in the darkness further back on the stage was the looming shape of a crane.

“Of course, most things shrink when they cool, so as the inside tries to contract, it creates a large amount of tension, making the drop remarkably solid.” He set the bulb end of the drop on the tiny table in front of him, and drew from under it a hammer, giving the bulb a quick whack. Nothing happened.

“But the real beauty and wonder, and for centuries, mystery of a Prince Rupert’s drop is that as tough as this end is, the slightest disruption of the tail…” he tapped the other end lightly with a finger, and the drop exploded, leaving nothing between the magician’s fingers. The camera zoomed in further to the sparkling glass dust which now coated the tabletop.

The view on the screen then cut to the perspective of the on-stage camera, showing just as Phian was touching the drop. The eruption began a fraction of an inch below his finger, sparkling glass dust flying out in all directions. Though the explosion had appeared instantaneous, in slow motion, it progressed up the tail and through the bulb in a wave.

Phian turned to look at the screen himself, as the shot repeated a second time. Men dressed in black came quickly from either side of the stage to retrieve the camera and table. “No matter how many times I see that, it never gets old.”

He looked back to the audience with an impish smirk. “But what if we went bigger?” The music began to play, a high electronic piece assembled of beeps, jingling, and thunderously warping metal. The screen raised, sparse blue lights shining through to show a large, clear ball toward the back of the stage, about eight feet wide with an open top. The mist was pouring from a similarly wide circular pool.

At the same time, Phian raised an arm toward stage right to greet and direct the audience’s eyes to his assistant, Penny. She’d already appeared in several tricks throughout the show, and now she re-entered in a long, elegant, silver dress which trailed behind her. She wore a big, excited grin and waved to the audience, trying hard to contain herself and not bounce too much from the energy she was feeling.

When she reached Phian, he took her hand, looked deeply into her eyes and said “Penny? Would you like to become a human Prince Rupert’s drop?” Chatter rippled through the audience. Penny, not miked, nodded vigorously. “All right, then.”

As the pair turned to head deeper onto the stage, Phian raised an arm toward the tip of the crane, and made a big beckoning gesture. A rope began to feed down from it. One of the men dressed in black returned pushing a long, silver table, centering it under the rope.

Phian placed his hands around Penny’s waist, helping her as she hopped up onto the table, then slipped off her silvery shoes, tossing them aside where they vanished into the mist. He then took the rope, and quickly wove it several times back and forth around her lower legs, pinning the bottom of the dress to her while letting the trailing end hang past the rope.

The other man returned with the camera, placing it facing the big ball, then both male assistants departed.

The magician swung his arm up, and the crane lifted, raising Penny’s legs first, then lifting her up off the table entirely. He gave the table a good, hard push, sending it off-stage.

Hanging upside-down, swinging lightly, Penny hugged her arms tight around her chest.

Slowly, dramatically, the crane turned until the assistant was suspended directly over the misty pool.

The shriek made the audience jump more than her sudden drop.

Phian stepped up to beside the pool. The rope stayed near the edge, end moving in a slow circle as the liquid whirled around. His amused smirk disguised his nervousness. About right now, he reckoned, the audience thinks she’s making a switch; hiding herself and replacing herself with a mannequin.

One trick per show with real magic. That was his rule. He was an entertainer, after all. While this didn’t directly violate the rule, it was usually in some small way, not the focus of the grand finale.

Still, as cool as the effect was, it would have been a waste if they’d kept it to themselves!

Phian made a raising gesture again, and the crane lifted.

Penny re-emerged, pale and glistening. White spotlights snapped on, focused on her, causing her to sparkle. Gracefully posed as she was, she looked almost angelic. Her dress clung to her, showing the shape of her stomach and hips. Her expression, meanwhile, was clenched tight, eyes and teeth. The expression of a woman excited to be dunked into liquid nitrogen.

Phian walked toward the back of the pool, and the crane brought Penny to follow him. Once she was within reach, he looked to the audience, and pounded on her stomach with the side of his fist. “Seems pretty solid.” He then stepped back, and looked to the trailing end of her dress, now looking like a tail to her droplet, or perhaps the fuse to a bomb.

A second to give everyone time to register what he was looking at, what he was thinking, and he turned that devious smirk on the audience again. He raised his arm high, and waved the crane further back.

The crane lifted Penny as it retreated, this time. The spotlights, staying on the frozen assistant, highlighted the clear plastic ball as she was raised over it, then lowered into the hole in the top.

Penny descended to near the middle of the ball. After her feet passed the opening, the end of her dress caught the edge of it. As the music rose to its climax, Phian turned away, and plugged his ears.

BANG!

For a fraction of a second, the sphere was filled with a silvery-white cloud. Then, it all settled into a snowlike pile in the bottom. The knot in the rope was left empty.

For a second, all was quiet, the explosion having cut off the music. The wave of cheers and applause began, but faded off as the music gradually returned.

Laughing, Phian walked back around the pool toward the front of the stage. “Don’t worry, ladies and gentlemen, she’ll be fine. We’ll melt her back down and... “ he looked around thoughtfully. “I’m pretty sure we’ve got a Penny-shaped mold around here somewhere.” There was a ripple of laughter. They didn’t need to know that was really the plan.

“But first!” He pointed dramatically upward, and the screen descended again from above the stage.

As it descended, it showed a still image of Penny, frozen, upside-down, suspended in the middle of the sphere.

Contact between the dress and the sphere had already been made. The audience watched the high-speed camera’s point of view as the explosion began from that tail, ripping second by second down Penny’s legs. By the time it reached the liquid-swept tips of her hair, her legs were gone, transformed into the sparkling cloud that filled the width of the upper half of the sphere.

At this point, the magician swept his bow, to theater-filling applause, screams, and whistles.