Acts of Violet(30)

CAMERON FRANK: While putting herself in real danger, from the sounds of it.

ACE MORGAN: Real enough that her magic career could’ve been over in a second … She came close.

CAMERON FRANK: She got caught?

ACE MORGAN: I heard about one mishap. There’s this routine where you play clean all night until it gets late, then you say something like, “Is it really 5:00 AM?” so everyone looks at the clock. While they’re all turned around, you switch the decks. Worked like a charm until the night Violet got careless and didn’t notice one guy who didn’t turn around. Slava took the blame, told everyone he put her up to it.

CAMERON FRANK: What happened to him?

ACE MORGAN: There’s three things those card games always had on hand. Stacks of cash, a case of vodka, and a pair of those scissors gardeners use.

CAMERON FRANK: Pruning shears?

ACE MORGAN: Those are the ones. I knew a guy who worked as a coroner in New Rochelle, had to do autopsies once in a while, and he said pruning shears worked better than bone saws cutting through ribs. Anyway, Slava lost a thumb that night. Violet gave up the poker games after that. Hadn’t been at it even a full year.

CAMERON FRANK: Wow.

ACE MORGAN: Oh, Slava got it a lot worse later on. Poor guy couldn’t get his gambling under control and “fell” off a fourteenth-story balcony in Brighton Beach.

CAMERON FRANK: Some people believe you and Slava were friends long before you and Violet crossed paths.

ACE MORGAN: What are you saying, that her uncle and I concocted an elaborate scheme to embarrass myself and have his niece make her magic debut at a kid’s party? I told you, I never saw her before.

CAMERON FRANK [STUDIO]: I considered skipping the next question, taking into account Ace’s increasing annoyance with me, or asking it later on, but I went for it.

CAMERON FRANK: You know that website about Violet that made the rounds a couple of weeks before she vanished? With the anonymous essay?

ACE MORGAN: I don’t remember. There’s been so much written about her. You think I keep track of it all?

CAMERON FRANK: I’m talking about violetisafraud.com, with that particularly harsh takedown of Violet. She went to a lot of effort to get the site shut down, which only resulted in more press for it. It contained some pretty hurtful and embarrassing assertions.

ACE MORGAN: What are you asking, did I make that website? I’m not good with computers and I’d never write personal crap about her. What kind of scumbag do you think I am? Violet was my protégée; I wasn’t out to get her.

CAMERON FRANK: It’s odd that you’re so protective of her, when at the same time it could be argued that you betrayed her. Things seemed rather contentious between you two in the late nineties.

ACE MORGAN: When I did Magic Secrets Uncovered? She was pretty bitter about that one. God forbid a magician get more attention than her for once and she’d have to change up her stale routines.

CAMERON FRANK: But even before the backlash over Magic Secrets Uncovered, you were quoted in interviews saying Violet was getting lazy, that her brand of magic was relying more on style than substance, that playing up her personal drama for headlines was tacky …

ACE MORGAN:… I’m waiting for a question.

CAMERON FRANK: Were you misquoted? If not, what motivated you to say those things?

ACE MORGAN: I damn well did say those things. They were all true.

CAMERON FRANK: You sound angry.

ACE MORGAN: Talking about her always does this to me. She’s one of my … what do the oversensitive kids today call it? One of my triggers.

CAMERON FRANK: What is it about Violet that’s so triggering for you?

ACE MORGAN: She didn’t have to stoop as low as she did. All that self-help crap she did later in her career? It might’ve earned her bigger bucks and made her a bigger star, but she should’ve stuck to magic. Violet Volk was the real deal. She had everything: natural ability. Good discipline. A sense of showmanship. Agility. A strong persona. But she let her persona overshadow everything else, even before the motivational guru bullshit.

CAMERON FRANK: How so?

ACE MORGAN: Like rarely giving interviews, so she could appear more mysterious.

CAMERON FRANK: Some celebrities are press-shy.

ACE MORGAN: [laughs] Trust me, that was the last thing Violet was. The way she’d show up at these big events with a guy on one arm and a girl on the other? That ain’t shyness. And boy, did the tabloids eat that up.

CAMERON FRANK: Are you saying she played up her bisexuality for the media?

ACE MORGAN: And get the PC police on my ass? No way. I’m just saying, if she was so press-shy, she wouldn’t have made herself so … let’s say noticeable to the press. Like, what about all the assistants who kept getting injured?

CAMERON FRANK: I’m not sure what you’re implying. There are multiple witnesses who saw the accidents occur and hospital reports to back up the extent of the assistants’ injuries.

ACE MORGAN: I’m not saying the injuries were fake. But calling them accidents is a stretch.

CAMERON FRANK: You think she was hurting her assistants on purpose?

ACE MORGAN: Maybe not the first one. But when the accident got media attention and helped ticket sales …

CAMERON FRANK: That’s a pretty serious allegation.

ACE MORGAN: Good thing she’s not around to sue me.

Think about it. However smart and civilized humans may claim to be, deep down, we’re bloodthirsty animals. Let me put it to you like this. Say you have a choice of seeing two magic shows, one where the magician has never had a mishap and another where a magician’s assistant almost bled out onstage. All other things being equal, I bet you’d sooner see that second show. Because now there’s a proven element of real danger.