Well Cooked Hams story
In a turn-of-the-century tale, inept magician Miles Federman blames his assistant Greta on a failed show and fires her. Shortly after, Miles is met by another magician, Franz Kraygen, who invites Miles to see his own show. Miles is left astonished when Kraygen demonstrates his most famous illusion: the Box of Death. When Kraygen refuses to tell Miles how he pulls off the trick, Miles kills him and steals the prop for his own show. When Miles attempts to perform the trick himself, he is unaware that the Box of Death has been sabotaged, leading to tragic consequences. Directed by: Elliot Silverstein. Story by: Andrew Kevin Walker.
8 total · 1 choice · 4 major · 3 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| the desire for vengeance | choice | The inept stage magician Miles Federman killed Zorbin The Magnificent (or so he thought) and stole his act. A very well-disguised Zorbin avenged this treacherous act by duping Miles into performing a magic trick that would see Miles die a gruesome and humiliating death on stage. Zorbin revealed himself to Miles as he lay dying to Miles' disbelief. |
| coping with personal failure | major | Miles' ineptitude in the stage magic profession ate at him to the point that he committed murder. |
| greed for riches | major | Miles was strung along with the promise of money from supposed film revenue, as he attempted "The Box of Death" magic trick. Zorbin had concocted his scheme partially with the motivation to film the death of Miles and profit handsomely form the royalties. |
| murder | major | Miles was lousy at stage magic himself, so he tried to kill two other stage magicians, Kraygen and Zorbin who were secretly one in the same person, and steal their acts. He was upstaged and tricked into causing his own death by the two supposed victims, who had both (unbeknownst to Miles) survived their respective attacks. |
| stage magic | major | The story follows the ambitious but comically inept stage magician Miles Federman as he stoops to underhanded means to make a success of himself. The old stage magicians Zorbin and Kraygen were also featured along with their acts. |
| benefiting from someone else's work | minor | The inept stage magician Miles Federman stole the acts of two other magicians. |
| learning languages | minor | In his sketch, a stereotypical French outfit wearing Crypt Keeper took a break from his French lesson, which was playing on a reel-to-reel audio tape recorder, to introduce a tale about an ambitious stage magician. |
| living corpse | minor | The story is presented by the Crypt Keeper, a cackling, wisecracking cadaver. |