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In honor of Pam: Centerold/Pornstar Magician's Assistants

Z

zaggy

Recommendation: www.myFreeOnes.com
From the Today Show spot I'd seen, it looks like that is indeed her costume for it. There are nice high-res stills here. The thing she's sitting on is the box she and the girl to her right were inside while Mr. Blond Hair pushed a rack of spikes through it, so if she wears it for that, she probably wears it for everything.
 
Z

zaggy

Recommendation: www.myFreeOnes.com
It's starting to look pretty common for UK girls ....

Glamour model Linda
 Lusardi, who by some travesty has no FreeOnes page, was apparently the regular assistant to a magician who had his own TV show in the UK.

Also, it looks pretty likely that Amanda Dawkins has been a magician's assistant since she apparently talks about it in the interview segment of a porn flick reviewed here. Now, normally I'd assume it's just dialog, but all the other things she mentions turn out to check out. So, I think she's probably done it.
 
Michelle Maren

Michelle Maren

Yes, these words change as I post more!
zaggy said:
On more of a classic bent, Miss March 1973, Bonnie Large (odd last name for a centerfold) has also been sawed in half as a magician's assistant, according to IMDb.

Continuing the blast-from-the-past, IMDb also reports 80s pornlet Michelle Maren was an assistant to a rather disturbing magician named Richiardi.
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I am Michelle Maren. Yes, I was both a porn star and a magician's assistant. If anyone has any questions about either, please contact me at My MySpace Page. I'll be happy to hear from you! God bless. :wave2:
 
Z

zaggy

Recommendation: www.myFreeOnes.com
Wow, Michelle, thanks so much for posting. Might I ask if you worked with any magicians other than Richiardi? Also, was his show as macabre back then as it apparently was later? (From what I'd seen about it after reading about you, I'd be a bit surprised if you'd have been associated with it if it was.) Finally, out of curiosity, do you remember what illusions you performed while assisting?

Thanks,
Z
 
Michelle Maren

Michelle Maren

Yes, these words change as I post more!
zaggy said:
Wow, Michelle, thanks so much for posting. Might I ask if you worked with any magicians other than Richiardi? Also, was his show as macabre back then as it apparently was later? (From what I'd seen about it after reading about you, I'd be a bit surprised if you'd have been associated with it if it was.) Finally, out of curiosity, do you remember what illusions you performed while assisting?

Thanks,
Z
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Hello Zaggy,

Thanks for the interest in my Richiardi experiences.

Richiardi was the only magician for whom I assisted. I believe it was in 1982.

Yes, his show was very dark, but I had not yet converted to Catholicism. I wasn't baptized until I was 30 years old.

Back then, there was an unwritten oath that anyone involved in magic swore to: never reveal how the tricks are done. And even after all these years, I never have. I think that the TV shows in recent years that have shown how all the tricks are done are shameful!! What about all of the older magicians out there who depend on the old tricks to make a living? They’re never going to get new, high tech tricks.

There were 3 female assistants working for Richiardi: his daughter, another assistant, and myself. And he had 2 male assistants: his son and another guy. I performed in some of the smaller illusions, like the audience participation ones. I remember one trick involved taking a wedding ring from an audience member and at first pretending that the trick didn't work and the person wasn't going to get their ring back. Then in next trick, Richiardi would make a dove appear holding in its beak a ribbon with the wedding ring attached. One show, the other assistant accidentally dropped this woman's diamond ring on the floor backstage and it rolled into a hole. Everyone was frantically was trying to figure how to get the ring. It was a small hole that no one could fit his or her hand through. So Richiardi had to stall with a couple of unplanned tricks and a lot of banter while a stagehand used an electric saw to open up the floor. I'm sure the audience could hear the saw, but maybe they thought it was all part of the act. The ring was finally retrieved but the other assistant was still quite shaken!

I think the first trick I assisted on was in the beginning of the show. It was a simple one involving making a balloon pop and a dove appear. The entire trick depended on me operating a prop (or "a gimmick" as Richiardi use to call the props). Richiardi removed a pin from his collar and stomped on the floor while he threw the pin at a tray I was holding. I did what I was supposed to do, but the prop didn't comply. I could see fire emanating from Richardi’s eyes and he repeated his stomping and pin throwing. I tried again, but it still didn't work. He said to me through extremely clenched teeth, "Do it!" I whispered back, "I'm trying!" He finally grabbed the tray from me, shook it, and the bird appeared. His daughter later said to me that something was wrong with the gimmick and it wasn't my fault.

Another trick involved levitating on the end of a broom. This same exact trick was performed by Orson Welles on an I Love Lucy episode. It was very hard on the assistant because the gimmick that the assistant wore was extremely heavy and very hard on the body.

Richiardi was quite temperamental and would often get into arguments on stage with his son. They would wind up cursing in Portuguese and throwing the gimmicks at each other. Sometimes I had to duck, so as not to be hit.

There was a poodle in the act--Richard’s daughter's dog. My job was to bring the dog on stage for one of the tricks, but the dog hated Richiardi and never wanted to go. The dog would growl at Richiardi as Richiardi leered back at him.

Fast forward to about 2001. I was in my last semester of college and took a TV production class. We did a mock-up talk show. The professor was the host and I was the guest. He asked me, "What were some of the oddest jobs you've had?" I told him that I had been a magician's assistant. He said, "Oh really, my brother's a magician." He then asked me for the name of the magician. I told him it was Richiardi. He said, "My brother worked for Richiardi." It turned out that my professor's brother was one of Richiardi's opening acts in the same show that I worked back in 1982. He did slight of hand and bird tricks. Is that a strange coincidence or what? Especially considering it was almost 20 years later!

Well, those are some of my Richiardi memories. Sadly, he passed away only a few years after I had worked with him.

Please stop by my MySpace page and say hello. http://www.myspace.com/michellemaren

I will try in the near future to post a couple of photos on my page that I dug up from Richiardi's show.

God bless.

Sincerely,
Michelle Maren :hatsoff:
 
Michelle Maren

Michelle Maren

Yes, these words change as I post more!
Recently, I was reminded that there was a saw-in-half trick with Richiardi. We did the horizontal version. The box I had to squeeze into was fairly shallow. I remember I had problems sometimes because the box door kept popping open. It seems I was a little too busty to perform that trick with ease! I had to learn how to curve my spine in such a way to fit all of me in!

Michelle:rofl:
 
Z

zaggy

Recommendation: www.myFreeOnes.com
SnakeBabe said:
:rolleyes:

And she was awesome !
Hugs and Hissessss,
Maria
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Hi, Maria,

Thanks for posting. :wave2: It's an honor to have you here. (And your second post at that ... yow.) If you have any other insight to add, feel free to jump in. (Please. :) )
 
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