Friday, Oct. 3, 2003 | 8:39 a.m.
Ditzy comic Psychic Tanya (aka Penny Wiggins) didn't see it coming.
Standing beside The Amazing Johnathan, the co-star of the outrageous magic show at Flamingo Las Vegas braced herself for a bit she and the former street magician from San Francisco had performed a thousand times.
"It was a pretty shocking thing when it happened," Wiggins recalled.
The scene from the 90-minute production, performed in late May, involved Johnathan using a staple gun to fasten a playing card over his assistant's eyes to prove she is truly psychic.
The gun was suppose to be empty.
It wasn't.
"Apparently someone had gotten some new staple guns and placed them somewhere near the empty gun," Wiggins said.
Johnathan grabbed what he thought was an empty prop and punched it against her eye. The staple penetrated her eye.
"I screamed," Wiggins said.
But she screamed in character.
And she ran offstage without breaking character, even though she thought blood was streaming down her face.
The blood turned out to be tears pouring from her eye.
After stumbling away, leaving behind an amazed Johnathan, she stopped and looked back. "I thought, I can't leave him out there,'" Wiggins said.
Even though she was in excruciating pain, Wiggins ran back onstage and completed the show. The following morning surgery was performed on the eye, and Wiggins missed 2 1/2 weeks of work.
Miraculously, she avoided serious injury, but still flinches when Johnathan shoots her with the empty staple gun.
"I have little pains in my eye," said Wiggins. "But it could be psychological."
Such are the hazards of being a magician's assistant. And almost every magician has one.
What would they be without someone to saw in half, stuff in a box, decapitate, levitate, turn into a tiger or make disappear?
"I never in my wildest dreams thought I would be a magician's assistant," said Wiggins, a native of St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. "I only wanted to act."
Her credits include a theater production of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," stand-up comedy for Carnival Cruise Lines and appearances on "The Tonight Show" with Jay Leno.
She was doing stand-up comedy at the Magic Club at Hermosa Beach, Calif., when Johnathan caught her act three years ago. He had just gotten divorced from his wife, who also was his assistant, and was looking for a replacement.
"After the show he came backstage and said 'You're it, you're the girl,' " Wiggins recalled.
The Amazing Johnathan's local run began at the Golden Nugget in 2001, where it remained until moving to the Flamingo in January. The 40-week contract at Flamingo ends in December, and the production returns to the Nugget in January.
Johnathan revamped his show to take advantage of Wiggins' comedic talent, making her an integral part of the production rather than a bit player.
"I'm his comedic sidekick," Wiggins said. "But technically it comes down to my being a magician's assistant."
Partnering
Some magicians' assistants bristle at their job title.
"I don't like being called an assistant," Sarah Scherger, a native of Calgary, Alberta, said. "It's kind of a sore point -- well, not necessarily a sore point, I accept it from the point of view of the audience.
"But it's frustrating. I consider myself to be a partner. I put so much hard work into it, I don't consider myself to be a mere assistant. We're a team."
The other team member is Nathan Burton, Scherger's husband. Nathan is not related to Lance Burton, the headlining magician at The Monte Carlo.
They are one of the acts in the revue "V" at The Venetian. And they occasionally open for Johnathan.
"To me, an assistant is someone who is more in the background," Scherger said. "But I'm an integral part of the show. For me, it's about being a good entertainer. I'm not merely a distraction. I consider myself to be an equal onstage."
Much of Scherger's performance involves dancing. Her mother owned the largest dance studio in Alberta, so Scherger has been dancing most of her life.
Scherger wanted to be a professional dancer until, at age 15, she was hired by a magician as an assistant.
In 1994 she was on a tour with a troupe of magicians that featured Nathan Burton as the headliner. They developed a relationship on tour, but when the tour ended she decided to pursue her dancing career in Vegas, and he continued touring with his comedic magician act.
She ended up in Japan. He ended up in Fort Smith, Ark.
"It's hard to do long-distance relationships," Scherger said. "We decided if we didn't join talents the relationship wouldn't work."
And so they married and she became his partner -- onstage and off.
"It's really common for a magician and assistant to be married," Scherger said. "For a lot of couples, it started as a work thing."
She says another common bond among assistants is a background in dance, explaining that magicians hire them to enhance the appearance of the show.
"A magician may not be the best mover," she said. "So they put someone with grace and style next to them."
Wiggins begs to differ, however.
"The least of my talents is dancing," Wiggins said.
High and mighty
At 5 feet 6 inches tall, Tanya Ayala is taller than most assistants.
"Most of the ones I know are like 5-foot-2 because of the illusions," Ayala, 34, said. "You have to fit into all of your spaces. I have less leg room than others, but I've figured out my own ways of fitting into everything."
She is married to magician Joaquin Ayala, a native of Mexico. They perform locally, but spend a lot of time on the road.
She once planned on being a professional dancer.
"My mom was a dance teacher in Alliance, Ohio," Tanya Ayala said. "I've danced my entire life. I had been a professional belly dancer since the age of 9."
Ayala is among those who don't consider themselves to be an assistant.
"We are like partners," she said. "I'm an intricate part of the show. It would be pretty lonely up there without me."
She says assistants are integral to magic acts. Bad ones can ruin an otherwise good performance.
"They can bring the whole level of the show down," Ayala said.
And there has to be a good working relationship.
"I have seen a lot of acts where the magician and the assistant look like they are performing on separate stages," Ayala said.
Young at heart
Most magicians' assistants are younger, in their 20s and 30s.
Pam Thompson is 65.
She assists her husband of 30 years, Johnny Thompson. They travel frequently and often open for Lance Burton.
"We do a comedy act, which is why we can be this old," Thompson said.
She describes herself as the antithesis of the magician's assistant.
"I chew gum, wear long eyelashes, have huge hooters and I appear to be totally disinterested," Thompson said. "It's acting."
The New Jersey native says before she took the role of a magician's assistant she was a professional actor, married to a magician who was working in Vegas.
In 1978 Thompson co-starred with actor Bob Crane in a dinner theater in Scottsdale, Ariz.
"He was a drummer, and after the show we used to go out to a nightclub and he would play the drums," Thompson said.
On June 29, 1978, the former star of "Hogan's Heroes" was bludgeoned to death in a motel room. Crane was involved in making private pornographic tapes with a variety of women.
Thompson recalled that after her social evenings out with Crane they would go their separate ways. She didn't learn until after his death his ways were a lot different from hers.
"I would go home and then his salacious life would kick in," she said. "It was a giant surprise to me. They (the media) made him look sleazy. But he was charming -- the Rob Lowe of his day."
She left the show in Arizona before the murder. Her husband, Johnny, needed her in Vegas as a temporary assistant for an aide who had to miss several performances.
Thompson said the assistant's costume didn't fit.
"It was too small, the shoes hurt my feet, the wig didn't fit and was off center," Thompson recalled. "That's where my character came from."
The act was a hit.
Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme were in the audience, and invited the Thompsons to open for them on tour.
Since then the couple have performed at every major venue in Vegas.
Lee way
Brandy Lee, a professional dancer since age 4, is married to magician Jason Byrne. Her show business career has been inevitable: Lee's mother, Lorelei Lee, was a ballet dancer.
Lee's grandmother, Irma Henriques, was a world-champion jitterbug dancer and a member of the original cast of the Rockettes.
Her grandfather, Bill Henriques, produced and directed shows around the world.
At 17, Lee was accepted on full scholarship into the Philadelphia University of Performing Arts, where she trained for three years in ballet.
After graduating from college, Lee became a lead dancer in many shows, including one produced by Greg Thompson ("Showgirls" at The Rio) in Atlantic City, N.J.
It was in Atlantic City that Brandy met master magician Brett Daniels and became his lead assistant in "Magic and Beyond" at the Claridge Casino.
One night backstage, she met Jason Byrne. There was magic between the couple, and in 1995, after her contract with Daniels ended, she joined Byrne.
They were married last month.
On Oct. 15 they will be the opening act for a new Dick Feeney production at the Sahara, "World's Greatest Magic." The revue will feature seven magicians.
Lee says her role is to keep the focus of the show on her husband.
"For me to assist him I try to come onstage and be this beautiful girl who is totally mesmerized by this sexy magician," she said.
Lee says assistants perform many different roles, depending upon the need of the magician.
"There is all different types of magic," she said. "There is comedy magic, like what Penny is doing."
Lee's role differs from Wiggins'.
"Jason is a classic, very classy magician with this mysterious, chiseled look," Lee said. "When we do the illusions it's very sexy. I dance to him, I perform for him. I am mesmerized by him."
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