Levitation
Teenager Frank (Brad Cowgill) ropes his friend Ernie (Anthony Tompkins) into accompanying him to a run-down carnival to see "The Great Kharma" (Joe Turkel), a once-famous magician who he idolizes, perform his routine. According to Frank, Kharma is primarily known for being the only person other than Houdini to accomplish wireless levitation. Expecting to see him pull off his most famous illusion, Kharma instead resorts to various simple tricks that any novice can pull off. Utterly disillusioned, Frank resorts to heckling Kharma at his next show, blurting out how he does all his tricks and demanding to be given his entertainment. When Kharma relents and finally agrees to perform the levitation trick on Frank, it soon becomes apparent that there was a very good reason why he stopped performing it.
Tropes:
- And I Must Scream: In the end, Frank finally has the levitation trick done on him, only for Kharma to have a heart attack and die onstage. Frank comes out of his trance in the process, and can only watch in horror as he slowly floats into the sky.
- Ascended Fan Boy: Literally. Frank is made Kharma's latest volunteer for the levitation trick, but as punishment for his rotten attitude, he's unable to be brought back down.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: After all his heckling, Frank finally gets Kharma to perform the levitation trick. Little does he know that he's being made the participant, and an ill-timed heart attack means that he's going to keep levitating. Forever.
- Black Best Friend: Ernie, who tries and fails to keep Frank down to Earth.
- Broken Ace: Kharma was regarded as a world-famous stage magician for his ability to master the art of wireless levitation, a feat that had only been accomplished by Houdini himself. When he accidentally killed his daughter the last time he performed the trick, he turned into a bitter drunk who sticks to simple talent show-type magic tricks. He is eventually goaded by Frank to perform the trick one more time, but the sheer amount of energy he channels triggers another heart attack and kills him.
- Crappy Carnival: The bulk of the episode is set in one, which Ernie outright calls a dump.
- Didn't Want an Adventure: The opening makes it clear that Ernie didn't want to drive 75 miles to a crappy carnival just to see some magic show, since Frank essentially dragged him there without his say so.
- Downer Ending: Frank is put in a hypnotic slumber and is made the subject of Kharma's levitation trick. Unfortunately, Kharma suffers a fatal heart attack before he can bring Frank back down, and the young man can't do anything about it as he floats out of the tent and into the sky. What's even worse is that Frank comes out of his slumber as he levitates into the atmosphere, only able to move his facial muscles as he ascends to certain death.
- Freak Show: Frank and Ernie check one out, particularly the display of a bodiless woman talking to an audience, before Kharma's show.
- The Heckler: Frank becomes one when he loses his faith in Kharma, blurting out how he does all his tricks during his next show.
- History Repeats: Just as he did to his daughter, Kharma suffers a heart attack and sends his volunteer floating uncontrollably into the skies.
- Hollywood Heart Attack: Kharma had succumbed to one the last time he performed the levitation trick, exerting himself with the massive amount of energy needed to get his volunteer to rise. Unfortunately, as Frank finds out, the heart attack usually occurs before he can get said volunteer back down.
- I'm Your Biggest Fan: Frank starts off as Kharma's number one fan, but that promptly changes when the magician yells at him to go away.
- It's All About Me: Frank drags Ernie to the carnival solely to see Kharma's levitation trick. When the magician refuses to pull off the trick and yells at him to leave him alone, Frank loses faith in him and spends his next show blabbing the secret to all his tricks and even blatantly shrugging off his warnings about not to screw with magic, as well as his assistant telling him about the man's tragic backstory, selfishly demanding what he wanted to see.
- Knife-Throwing Act: Frank and Ernie spy on one during their trek to Kharma's tent.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Pun aside, for all his petty heckling and berating of Kharma, Frank is given a cruel fate by the very trick he'd hoped to witness.
- My Greatest Failure: The last time Kharma performed the levitation trick, doing so on his daughter, he suffered a heart attack before he could reverse the process and stop her from going into the sky, turning him into the drunken washout he is today. When Frank pettily heckles him to demand the trick, he meets the same fate.
- Off with His Head!: Kharma's final trick is normally to pretend to cut his assistant's head off with a guillotine.
- Only Sane Man: Frank's friend Ernie, who calls the carnival where Kharma performs a dump and questions Frank over his obsession with magic.
- Stealth Pun: The fact that our magician's name is Kharma, and that he accidentally kills Frank for his petty heckling to give him what he wants, means that in a sense, Kharma gave Frank what he deserved.
- Uncertain Doom: Frank is last seen levitating out of the carnival tent and into the sky, unable to be brought down now that Kharma has died.
- Unexpectedly Real Magic: Kharma's levitation trick is true, as Frank finds out the hard way.
