SINCE BOYHOOD Charlie from Delph had been fascinated by stage conjurers and magicians.
He practiced long and hard then in his late teens he decided to try his luck as a performer. He was soon very popular and in demand in all the local pubs and clubs.
A talent scout passing through Saddleworth caught his act and asked Charlie if he would like to work on the cruise liners.
The thought of good money doing the job he loved was irresistible to Charlie and he soon found himself performing nightly on a cruise liner in the Caribbean.
Night after night he did his act, which seemed to go down well except for the interruption of the ship’s Parrot whose cage and perch were permanently on the side of the stage.
The trouble was that the parrot had seen the act so many times that it knew all the moves and to Charlie’s horror began shouting to the audience things like “he’s hidden that card up his sleeve” or “that’s not the same piece of rope you saw him cut”.
However it all changed in a big way for one evening the liner hit a reef and quickly filled with water and sank beneath the waves.
Charlie found himself in the sea surrounded by wreckage and there in front of him floating on a deckchair was that parrot.
“Trust you to survive,” said Charlie.
“OK. I’m sorry for my interruptions,” said the parrot, “But please answer me one question. That last trick – where did you hide the ship?”
