I don’t understand how, but it seems like my stint in PPW has decreased my profile. I’m getting fewer bookings and less traffic on my platforms. I can’t understand how having national exposure with them has hurt me. Maybe they’re trashing me.
With nothing much going on, I decided to head to Louisiana to visit Doug the Disco Biscuit. I hadn’t seen him in person in a while and he’s not getting any younger. Case in point, when I got there he told me that he’s planning on selling his school in the next couple months. He said that he’s getting too old to be training wrestlers.
We were never close really, neither of us is easy to get close to, but on this visit he was more open than usual. For a couple days we sat on his porch drinking and he talked a lot about life and his regrets. He did say that helping me get off the streets was the best thing he ever did. It was awkward for both of us. But we had some whiskey to help with that.
I went to the school to help out a bit. I made some half-hearted attempts at looking for a place in town that I could afford. While I was driving around, I saw an ad for a show at the Crescent City Casino – a magic show featuring Bora the Elaborate. What caught my eye is the poster said she had been trained by Royale Fantastique.
If you ask me, 75 bucks is a lot for a magic show at the Crescent City Casino. Or anywhere. I had never actually seen a magic show before. A lot of it was boring. Out of an hour, there were maybe 15 minutes that were interesting. Which is a better hit rate than a lot of wrestling shows. Even the ones on TV. Especially the ones on TV.
When a guy started heckling her, I could see Bora’s smile turn from a legitimate one to an “I’m doing this to keep from screaming” one. That’s the good thing about wrestling, I suppose. If someone’s on your ass, you can yell back at them. And maybe punch them. If you work it right, you can punch them without getting arrested.
It was pretty easy to get backstage, I just asked. The dressing room looked more like that of a showgirl (or a stripper) than I’m used to, but then again I rarely get a real dressing room. Bora was in jeans but she was still wearing her sparkly magic shirt and some kind of feather head-thing. It was pretty funny.
I told her I had known Royale a little and was just curious to speak with her about him. She admitted that her marquis was a bit of a fib, she hadn’t known Royale. She was trained by a woman who was trained by him, but Royale’s name still had a little bit of juice in the magic world, so she used it. I told her I didn’t think he would mind.
When she asked me if Royale had taught me magic, I said “No, not stage magic, he taught me real magic” figuring she would take it as a joke, but she didn’t. Instead, she nodded and said “Good, maybe you can help me with something then.”
The Shine 