描述
Tibbles Surilbit had been always very dexterous with his hands. At that very moment, he was about to saw a monkey in two pieces. This was no crime scene since the monkey in question had consented and he had a whole theater filled with an audience. The monkey was his attractive female assistant, and she was lying in a wooden box. Her head and feet protruded from both ends of the box, she smiled happily and wiggled her toes throughout his sawing. Two years ago, there had been an accident during his performance of the “Sawn Monkey” trick. He was featured on television, but immediately after his assistant was divided, the host ended the show. The watching monkeys were horrified, thinking she had been killed, but time had just run out on the broadcast. That event gave him a bad reputation for a long time. The trick was nothing special. He had not just one attractive female assistant, but two. Although he had to admit the second assistant didn’t have to be either female nor attractive, since he just needed the feet sticking out from the box. The secret was the double bottom of the box, to conceal the second monkey. This way in the center part of the box, where he was just sawing vigorously, was nobody. His next trick was called "The Mighty Cheese", in which the audience was invited to try to tip over a huge cheese wheel. They found it impossible to do because it contained a gyroscope. Tibbles ended his show with an illusion of his assistant passing through a solid wall. The audience gave thunderous applause and standing ovations.
It had not always been like this in his career. He has done a lot of activities off-road. Once he spent 21 months posing as a psychic to fool a research team. His “powers” allowed him to stop digital clocks (by putting them in a microwave), move small objects (by blowing on them) and create photographic images (by spitting on a camera lens). Another time he made it unwillingly on the front pages of the newspapers. The police arrested a goat because locals believed he had turned himself into one after robbing a jewelry store. Of course, everything was staged and in fact the jewelry store had hired him to draw public attention for advertising. But the media was so pleased with the story that it couldn't be stopped. Tibbles would rather call himself an “illusionist” than a “magician”, since magic refers to something supernatural and he admitted his performances were skillful deceptions only. His career reached a turning point at a magic championship, when he was disqualified because his performance was so astounding the judges thought he must be cheating. Out of stubbornness he performed the same act one year later and was grudgingly acknowledged. By a magician’s ethos he would never explain one of his tricks and would declare: “For those who believe, no explanation is necessary; for those who do not believe, no explanation will suffice.”
However, besides his performances being an illusionist had its own perks. One time while a horde of wild monkeys tried to rob him, he was able to employ sleight of hand to conceal his possessions. He called his spontaneous illusion “reverse pickpocketing”. On another occasion, the local authorities asked him for help. Near the city was a tribe of wild mangabeys and their leader controlled them with faux magical abilities. The local authorities sent Tibbles to demonstrate that his magic was superior. Tibbles asked the strongest tribesmonkey to pick up a wooden chest. First, the huge mangabey picked it up with no problem. Then Tibbles announced that he was going to sap his strength. He waved his wand and declared: “Behold! Now you are weaker than a newborn apeling!” The mangabey pulled again on the handle of the chest, but it would not budge. He tried and tried until he tried to rip it apart. Instead, he screamed in pain, as Tibbles had rigged the box to give the mangabey an electrical shock. The mangabey cried, let go of the handle and ran away in fear. Seeing this, the wild tribe acknowledged Tibbles as an Ape of Immeasurable Magic and promised to behave.
After that Tibbles changed his working field because being always on stage tired him out. At the moment he is managing a chain of resort islands in the Banana Archipelago. But he always thinks back to his first career, since he often wishes he could let annoying monkeys simply disappear.