A third rate magician is doing magic shows on a second rate cruise ship.
The pay is good, the accommodation is comfortable, the food is excellent, and the two show a day workload is easy. All in all, it’s started out as a great gig except for one glaring issue. The captain has a talking parrot that he brings to every show. It has worked out how all the tricks are done and gives away his secrets to the audience after every trick.
It’s a fake water jug!”, “The rabbit is under his hat!”, “The girl is hiding under a trap door!”
Now the audience finds this hilarious. So instead of coming to see a magic show the crowds are coming to see him being humiliated by a parrot, 2 shows a day, 7 days a week.
Utterly depressed and desperate, the magician struggles to find a spectacular new trick to wow the crowd and that the parrot can’t work out. He eventually announces an elaborate disappearing trick involving pyrotechnics and a ring of fire, however the first night he tries it, he accidentally ignites a nearby gas line causing a catastrophic chain of explosions that causes the ship to break apart and sink almost immediately.
The next morning the sun rises on an empty ocean except for a single piece of shattered lifeboat with the magician clinging to one end and the parrot perched at the other end out of reach. The magician glares at the parrot and the parrot stares back, but not a word is said. This goes on for a day, then another day. On the third day the parrot finally breaks the silence.
“OK I give up. Where’s the ship?”