"You're not a magic assistant until you shed blood"
In case you didn’t know, another term for a magician’s
assistant is “Box Jumper”. We get the term from literally jumping in and out of
boxes. Now some assistants take offense to this name but it describes what we
do pretty well so I have no problem with it.
One of my biggest pet peeves is people perceive that my job
is easy. Come on people I jump in and out of boxes for a living. It’s risky and
very common to get hurt. But I've been pretty lucky thus far *knocks on wood*
Everyone says “Oh you get sawn in half, where are your
scars?” as a joke. Trust me I have some. I still get cut by blades and swords
regardless of how sharp they are.
While this cute little blood donation advertisement makes me laugh, it
really is true. And if you haven’t bled while doing magic, I don’t know how you
can call yourself an assistant. It’s about giving everything you have to make
the performance perfect. Sometimes that just means getting hurt and sometimes
it’s stupid stuff you can’t control.
For instance I have 2 long scars on my right arm from wrist
to elbow and what are they from? A button on Brandon’s sleeve. Something so
simple but during choreography they sliced all the way down my arm two nights
in a row.
How do you handle this in the middle of a show? Try not to
get blood on your next costume while you’re changing, wipe the tears off your
face, and walk back on stage with a smile. It’s all you can do.
The most common injury I’d have to say is bruises. I
honestly can’t think of a time since I started working in magic that I haven’t
had atleast one bruise on my legs. Or forehead, or arms; you name it. But hey, I welcome bruises they mean I work
hard. Or it just means I’m clumsy. The picture above is of my worst bruise to date, I did that back in 2010 and had to be on crutches for a few days. We named it MeOW. Gotta make the best of bad situations.
So no, my job isn’t easy, but it is the best job out there
and I wouldn’t change it for the world!
I was once told that magicians assistants wear fishnet tights and arm gloves as part of their costume because these are best for masking bruises that occur during rehearsals. I didn't believe it, but guess that could be true ?
ReplyDeleteYes I do think the fishnets help mask it very well. I actually don't bruise my arms as much, but I just wear the arm glove because it looks fabulous haha
ReplyDelete