Most of the time, magicians (魔术师) give good shows, but every magician has given a show that was terrible or has tried to do a trick (戏法) that didn't go right. Howard Thurston, a famous (著名的) magician, made some interesting mistakes on the stage (舞台).
Thurston did a famous Indian trick with a girl. The girl climbed into a box. Then the box was pulled up above the stage. Thurston shouted, “lasia, garawallah, go!”The box opened and the girl was gone. “Wonderful!”“Wonderful!”One night, after the show, a man asked the magician, “Please tell me where you learned your magic (有魔力的) words?”
Thurston answered. “I've travelled in India and often heard ‘garawallah’ in the streets there. I thought it was a good word for an Indian trick.”The man smiled and said, “I'm from India. That word means ‘Hey, bus’!”
Another mistake stayed in Thurston's show. In one trick, he cut off the heads of two chickens and two ducks and put their bodies inside a magic box. Then he opened the box and found four living birds with heads on them. This is the way the trick was done. The birds' heads were tied under their wings (翅膀). Then false (错的,假的) heads were tied on the birds before they were brought on the stage. Thurston cut off these false heads and put the birds in the box. His helper was also in the box. He could put new false heads on the birds faster than he could untie the true heads. So after. Thurston put the birds inside the box, his helper tied on false heads.
One night, the helper made a mistake. He tied the chicken heads on the ducks and then tied the duck heads on the chickens. The birds came out of the box, and the people laughed and laughed.