A stripper upstages you

Max starts off the show with a few small tricks while you make some dramatic gestures in reaction, but just as Max gets to the more interesting, dramatic part of the act a big man stands up and starts to loudly talk, forcing Max to pause.

"Hey Jim, I think it's time we cut the cake for you."

"But..." Jim motions at the stage, but the man hustles him toward the large cake. Without a knife in hand you're puzzled by how they're going to cut it, but just as Jim arrives the cake splits down the middle and a woman dressed in a female version of Max's costume steps out and an upbeat song pours from the speakers.

Tall and busty, the long-legged woman starts to gyrate to the music in front of Jim, her body almost rubbing along Jim's front until she pushes him back into a chair and starts to pull off her clothes.

Max half-heartedly tries to continue, with you attempting to act even more provocatively, but short of doing your own strip-tease it's a futile effort. A man approaches the stage, making a cutting sign at his throat, and Max sighs as the curtains start to close.

"Waste of time..." Max angrily mutters, along with a few more choice words, jamming his props back into their containers. "Take it back out to the truck," he barks at you as another man comes backstage.

"Sorry about that, man, Reg jumped the gun. He's been talking stripper-this, stripper-that all week, and he hates magic, so I know the bastard did it on purpose. Here's the entire fee, though. I'm really sorry about that," he says again as you start hauling boxes and trunks back out to the truck.

Maybe the anger has motivated Max, but this time he helps, hauling out boxes himself and helping you with the biggest ones. In no time at all you find yourself the proud recipient of twenty dollars as Max pulls away in his truck, nearly side-swiping a man trying to park, giving them the finger and horn at the same time.

Shrugging, you start heading back to the laundromat to put your clothes into the dryer, pleased to have come out ahead.