The Glamour of it All!

[Bryan Bishop]

Bryan Bishop strode into Central Park wearing a light grey three-piece suit and blue tie. Because, well magicians of course must be well dressed. It was part of the show. Which, of course was why he was in this marvelous city. He had two shows there over the next week. Both of which were taking place at the Neil Simon Theatre on 52nd street. He hoped to draw quite the crowd with his magic skills. He was supposedly quite the illusionist. Although, he came to the park today with the hopes of captivating a small audience using what magicians call "street magic" or "close up magic". With any luck, it would draw several more people to his show. He had a nice smile on his face, and a fancy leather atache case in his hand containing several small objects that he could use in his impromptu magic show. Things like closeup mats, steel rings, strings and ropes, large quantities of rubber bands and other assorted objects.

He took in a deep breath and shot a smile at the small crowds of people in the area. Joggers and bikers and the sort. He sat down at a table and began to set up. Placing down his close-up mat and taking a few of the objects out of the bag. He decided to open up his act by playing with some fire. Which, is by the way not something you should try at home. Bryan decided to start off with a relatively simple trick called the human chimney. He took out a match, struck it in front of his face and then shook it out. He then waited a moment for a couple of people to be watching and proceeded to slowly breathe out, exhaling large quantities of smoke from seemingly no where. Since he wasn't a novice, his face didn't show any of the intense pain that this trick causes. He hit his fist against his chest a couple of times to get the remainder of the smoke out and then smiled and yawned as if this was nothing out of the ordinary.

The audience laughed and applauded at his trick and he smiled. Gleefully, he turned to the audience and made a great show of bowing. "Thank you very much." he said. The inside of his mouth tasted like smoke so he quick grabbed a mint out of his bag and ate it very quickly. "The smoke always leaves a bit of an aftertaste, he said jokingly.

 

[Katheryn Kingsley]

Katheryn Kingsley was enjoying her show's off day. It was a beautiful day outside for springtime in New York. It was the time of year that she most loved living across from Central Park. The vegetation was thriving with the fresh air and rain that springtime brought. Katheryn had always enjoyed drawing and painting, but with her career, she rarely had time to do so anymore. Today was different. She had all the time in the world with no plans. It only took her a moment to decide what she wanted to do with her day. Kat got dressed before packing a shoulder bag with her drawing pencils and sketchpad. The red-headed girl headed downstairs and out the front door, saying goodbye to the doorman as she passed him. Her blue eyes scanned the street before she darted across it and into the park. She was heading for the zoo unless something else caught her eye along the way.

Not too far into her walk, Kat spotted what appeared to be a "magician" putting on a show for a small crowd. She always found these people amusing as they imitated the sort of magic that Katheryn really could do. The young woman preferred to live as a muggle, but she almost always carried her wand with her. Especially now that her brother-in-law was missing. It was hard to believe that it had been four months since James disappeared. Kiera was holding it together, but just barely. Kat often spent days apparating back and forth to check on her older sister. How horrible it must be to lose your husband with two children and a third on the way. As an unconscious gesture, she put her hand on her bag to feel for her wand, feeling relief when her hand touched it.

The audience really seemed to be enjoying the show that this man was putting on for them. It appeared to be some sort of publicity stunt to get an audience to come to his show. Kat remembered those days of wanting to perform in front of a crowd, something that she no longer had to worry about. All of her shows sold out, and she suspected her new movie deal would be a hit as well. Her blue eyes watched carefully, looking to see if this man was a wizard or just pretending. Sometimes, wizards did chose to do this for their living though they had to be extremely careful about it. Katheryn did not see any signs of real magic as she watched his skills. The young woman had to admit that she was impressed that a muggle could do all of the feats he accomplished. She found herself wandering over to a nearby bench to sketch instead of heading to the zoo. She watched the show, clapping right along with the audience when he was finished.

 

[Bryan Bishop]

Bryan smiled and bowed at the crowd once more. A noticeable crowd was starting to build up around him. Since this was improvised, he more or less had only accommodated for a couple solo act tricks. He kind of wish he had planned a little more ahead. It was hard to trust strangers as assistants sometimes. He decided to pull off one or two more fire stunts. He struck a match, let it burn for a second and stuck the entire match into his mouth. He looked like a human jack o' lantern, which was hopefully entertaining. He then proceeded to pull the match out of his mouth, still lit. He wished he had his actual fire eating equipment, but he had left it with the rest of his supplies. This wasn't exactly the most impressive of tricks, but Bryan still got a decent amount of applause, which was nice.

He took another bow and smiled at the crowd. There was a pretty redhead sketching a bench not to far away. She seemed to be enjoying the show. He shot her a nice white smile and slipped a deck of playing cards out of his sleeve. Bryan smiled and pulled the cards out of their box, fanned them in his hand, and displayed them to the audience. "These, as you can see." he said with a confident smile, "Are a regular deck of playing cards." He closed his fan, "There are 52 of them in a deck, ace through king in each suit. You can inspect them if you wish." When no one in the audience came forward, he continued with his trick. Smiling, he looked out across the audience, and back at the red headed girl. "For this trick, I do believe I'll need some assistance." He looked over the audience one more, thinking. His eyes went back to the redheaded girl and he pointed at her. "Yes, I think you'll do!"

 

[Katheryn Kingsley]

Katheryn just happened to glance up from her sketchpad where she had been drawing the outline of the magician's face, for what purpose she didn't know. Her icy blue eyes met those of the magician who was asking for an assistant. She recognized the look in his eyes that picked her as easy prey. Katheryn was much too kind to ever disagree to help anyone. She wouldn't want to disappoint the crowd that had been gathering over the last twenty minutes. It was actually a sizable amount of people. "Who? Me?" she said as he pointed at her. The audience applauded her, cheering for her to agree. Katheryn sighed, resigned. She didn't like to participate in these kinds of things. Not when magic was a real concept to her. "Oh okay." Kat said as she stood up and made her way through the crowd. A soft smile was on her face. By the way a few people stared, they recognized her. It wasn't surprised considering she had made quite a name for herself since she left Hogwarts New Zealand. At least in the muggle world she had. Kat was not quite an unknown in the wizarding world, but it was by no doing of her own. She had a famous sister and brother-in-law. Kiera and James Potter were both Quidditch stars, but they would have been famous anyways because of James' family history.

The slender red-headed young woman stood up, bringing her bag with her. She would never leave it unattended as long as it held her wand. Katheryn made her way to the magician, wondering which trick this would be. A less kind witch might play a trick on the magician. Kat could do nonverbal magic after all. Of course, she would never do such a thing. It would be foolish and reckless, two traits that did not describe her. "So, how can I assist you?" she asked, slightly curious.

 

[Bryan Bishop]

Bryan smiled at the crowd. They all seemed to know the redhead that he called up to be his assistant for the trick. He thought about it for a moment, but couldn't seem to remember where he'd seen her before. He was normally pretty good with faces. Speaking of faces, she had quite an attractive one. And nice hair too. But Bryan didn't really do relationships. They weren't his thing. Still, he shot her a little wink as she walked up. Although, it was fast. So she might not have noticed. It could have also easily looked like he had just winked at a crowd member. He ran a hand through his neatly groomed hair and glanced at the amassing crowd. He was actually quite happy with the turnout. This could easily generate quite the turnout for both of his upcoming shows. And even better, the people seemed to be genuinely enjoying what was going on.

Once she had gotten through the crowd to him she asked how she could assist him, "All in due time." he said to both her and the crowd. That's when he had to make the quick decision as to which trick he would actually perform. He settled on the ambitious card and turned to the audience, "Who here knows how to shuffle a deck of cards?" A couple of hands shot up and Bryan looked across the audience and handed it off to a spectator, who began to thoroughly shuffle the cards. He turned back to his assistant and smiled, "What's your name?" he asked charismatic. Once the audience member was done, he would give the deck a couple of shuffles, working the bottom cards of the deck (a seven of hearts) to the middle of the deck and catching a invisible pinky break where the card settled. He held the deck in his left hand and he fanned it out, turning towards the redhead. "Pick a card, any card." he said with a smile while attempting to force the seven of hearts on her.

Out of Character:

Sorry for the late (and somewhat short. >.>) reply, and just in case you didn't know. Forcing a card is where the magician makes you pick the card of his choosing. In this case, a seven of hearts. Also, I've settled on the small Verdana font for my posts. Q.Q But now I feel like I've stolen your formatting. *runs away to alone corner and begins to cry*

 

[Katheryn Kingsley]

Katheryn blushed slightly at the wink she received. She wasn't really sure what to make of the flirty gesture, so she just let it pass. The young witch smiled at the crowd that was responding well to the magician. Kat waited patiently, as she had been instructed to do, as the magician set up his trick. She looked around for a sign that would say his name before her icy blue eyes landed on one. It said a name, but she couldn't quite read it though the crowd. She ran her fingers nervously though her red locks. Feeling uncomfortable even though she really had no reason to feel that way. These people knew that this was just a trick. It wasn't real. If only the muggle world knew how very real magic could be. Katheryn preferred the muggle world personally, but she would never completely give up magic or the magically world. She couldn't. It was a part of her, and honestly, magic did make her life easier when she was in a rush and no muggles were around.

The actress smiled, putting on her best show face as the magician asked for her name. "Katheryn Kingsley." she said, seeing a flicker of recognition run through the crowd. Recently, she had been out promoting the movie in which she starred. The premiere was scheduled for just six weeks from now. They would be promoting the movie heavily for the next six weeks. Kat was incredibly proud of her work and couldn't wait for her family and friends to see it. Her mind briefly flickered to Sebastian as she wondered if he would keep his promise and come to the premiere as her date. He had promised, but that had been before she kissed him. Kat hadn't spoken with him since. In the time since, Kat had come to the realization that she really did like Bas. But that ship had sailed. She needed to get over it. Clearly, he was not into her. Kat turned her attention back to the magician as he asked her to pick a car. "Okay." The redhead saw that he wanted her to pick a card, so she did as he wished. She pulled out the card and looked at the seven of hearts. "What should I do with it now?" she asked. "Show the crowd?" she said with a smile. That was typically what the magician wanted, right?

Out of Character:

It's fine! No worries! Sorry my reply is a little on the short side. I didn't know where to go from there.

 

[Bryan Bishop]

"Sure, go for it." said Bryan with a smile as he reached down into his attache case of magic supplies. He had always preferred attache cases as opposed to brief cases because he thought they were much more spiffy. He grabbed a normal black Sharpie marker and handed offered it to Kathryn. "And when you're done showing your card to the crowd go ahead and sign it." he said charimatically. As he did this he buckled the top two cards of the deck very, very slightly in preparation for the rest of the trick. "Make sure your signature is very pretty, like yourself." he added with a smile. Once she was done he took the card from her and showed it to the audience. "Now, you're sure that you'll remember this signature, right?" after she responded he would nod and push the card into the middle of the deck.

"Now, when you think about it carefully. You signed that card, the one I just put in the deck. Now whatever card it is, I can feel that it clearly has a very special connection to you." he said, pretending to concentrate really card using his "psychic" powers on the deck. As he said all of this he was sure to face both the audience and Katheryn. Seeing as this trick is really more of performance then anything. It really didn't require all that much skill, but he couldn't unveil the secret to anyone. The magicians code says so. "Because there's no other card like it in the world like it. Now, because of that it really wants to be close to you. And if you snap your fingers, the card will come back to the top of the deck to meet you." He smiled at the audience. A lot of performing was smiling, which he was luckily very good at. His smile was very nice, or so he had been told. He hoped Katheryn was enjoying herself. He still couldn't remember where he'd seen her from. Maybe it'd come to him eventually.

"Does that make sense? Go ahead and try it."

 

[Katheryn Kingsley]

Katheryn showed the card to the crowd, just as she had been asked to do. Her icy blue eyes flitted away from the crowd back to the magician as he handed a Sharpie to her. She took it with ease. Katheryn had signed autographs nightly for the last six or seven years. She signed her name almost artistically. It was easily read and recognized as her own. The young woman grinned at the man. "I will remember." she told him. Kat looked back at the audience, noticing several of them looking at her signature. The redhead wondered if any of them would ask for her autograph when this was over. Her face was plastered all over New York City in the form of promotional posters. She had a feeling they were gradually figuring out who she was, not that she was famous yet. The movie wasn't due out for another month, but it was highly anticipated. Katheryn wanted to sigh. She had been instructed to keep away from crowds unless it was a promotional event for the studio. Too late to think about that now.

Katheryn placed the card back in the deck where he asked her to. She tried not to laugh as he feinted psychic powers. If her mother had been the one doing the magic trick, she would have been able to read Kat's mind and find the answer. Not that her mother used her powers of legimency against her daughter. Katheryn played along with Bryan, trying to be a good sport. The redhead grinned at the magician as he told her to snap her fingers, urging her to give it a try. If only he knew what she could do with a snap of her fingers. Just because she chose to live like a muggle did not mean that she was incapable of performing difficult spells. She had been a prefect after all. Her delicate fingers clicked together, still thinking about the card that she had signed. "Just like that?" she said, asking for confirmation. She knew that even if he had messed up the trick, that her card would be back at the top of the deck.